"I can"t talk to you here. Come on up the hill."
"When?" The girl"s lips scarcely moved as she asked the question.
"Now. Please come."
"I"ll--I"ll have to go home first, with this," she replied, indicating the paper. "Then I"ll come."
"All right. I"ll go on ahead and wait for you. Shall I tie the red ribbon to the tree?" He spoke thoughtlessly, meaning only to be pleasant, but the girl"s eyes filled. She shook her head decisively and neither of them spoke until they reached the corner where she must turn.
[Sidenote: Waiting for Rosemary]
"Good-bye," she said.
"Auf wiedersehen," he replied, lifting his hat. "Don"t be long."
Always, before, it had been Rosemary who waited for him. Now he sat upon the log, leaning back against the tree, listening to the chatter of the squirrels and the twitter of little birds in the boughs above him. It was not yet noon, and the sunlight made little dancing gleams of silver-gilt on the ground between the faint shadows of the leaves. He waited for her in a fever of impatience, for in his pocket he had a letter for Edith, addressed in a dashing masculine hand.
Not so long ago, in this same place, he had asked Rosemary to marry him.
Now he must ask her to release him, to set him free from the bondage he had persisted in making for himself. He made a wry face at the thought, unspeakably dreading the coming interview and, in his heart, despising himself.
Rosemary did not keep him waiting long. When she came, she was flushed and breathless from the long climb--and something more. She sank down upon the seat he indicated--her old place.
[Sidenote: The Hour of Reckoning]
"It"s been a long time since we were here last," Alden observed, awkwardly.
"Has it?" The grey eyes glanced at him keenly for a moment, then swiftly turned away.
"I"ve--I"ve wanted to see you," Alden lied.
"I"ve wanted to see you," she flashed back, telling the literal truth.
Alden sighed, for there was tremulous pa.s.sion in her tone--almost resentment. He had treated her badly, considering that she was his promised wife. She had been shamefully neglected, and she knew it, and the hour of reckoning had come.
For the moment he caught at the straw the situation seemed to offer him.
If they should quarrel--if he could make her say harsh things, it might be easier. Instantly his better self revolted. "Coward!" he thought.
"Cad!"
"I"ve wanted to see you," Rosemary was saying, with forced calmness, "to tell you something. I can"t marry you, ever!"
"Why, Rosemary!" he returned, surprised beyond measure. "What do you mean?"
The girl rose and faced him. He rose, too, awkwardly stretching out his hand for hers. She swerved aside, and clasped her hands behind her back.
[Sidenote: It"s All a Mistake]
"I mean what I said; it"s plain enough, isn"t it?"
"Yes," he answered, putting his hands in his pockets, "it"s perfectly plain. If I"ve done anything to hurt or offend you in any way, I--I"m sorry." So much was true. He was sorry for Rosemary and had never been more so than at that very moment. "You"ll give me a reason, won"t you?"
he continued.
"Reason?" she repeated, with a bitter laugh. "Oh, I have plenty of reasons!" His heart sank for a moment, then went on, evenly. "It"s all a mistake--it"s never been anything but a mistake. I couldn"t leave Grandmother and Aunt Matilda, you know. They need me, and I shouldn"t have allowed myself to forget it."
"Yes," Alden agreed, quickly, "I suppose they do need you. I was selfish, perhaps."
Hot words came to her lips but she choked them back. For an instant she was tempted to tell him all she had seen and heard a few days before, to accuse him of disloyalty, and then prove it. Her face betrayed her agitation, but Alden was looking out across the valley, and did not see.
In his pocket the letter for Edith lay consciously, as though it were alive.
"It isn"t that you don"t love me, is it?" he asked, curiously. His masculine vanity had been subtly aroused.
[Sidenote: They Part]
Rosemary looked him straight in the face. She was white, now, to the lips. "Yes," she lied. "It is that more than anything else."
"Why, my dear girl! I thought----"
"So did I. We were both mistaken, that is all."
"And you really don"t love me?"
"Not in the least."
Alden laughed--a little mirthless, mocking laugh. It is astonishing, sometimes, how deeply a man may be hurt through his vanity. Rosemary had turned away, and he called her back.
"Won"t you kiss me good-bye?" he asked, with a new humility.
Then Rosemary laughed, too, but her laugh was also mirthless. "No," she answered, in a tone from which there was no appeal. "Why should I?"
Before he realised it, she was gone.
He went back to the log and sat down to think. This last tryst with Rosemary had been a surprise in more ways than one. He had been afraid that she would be angry, or hurt, and she had been neither. He had come to ask for freedom and she had given it to him without asking, because she could not leave Grandmother and Aunt Matilda, and because she did not love him. He could understand the first reason, but the latter seemed very strange. Yet Rosemary had looked him straight in the face and he had never known her to lie. He had a new emotion toward her; not exactly respect, but something more than that.
[Sidenote: A Letter for Edith]
Then, with a laugh, he straightened his shoulders. He had what he wanted, though it had not come in the way he thought it would. If he had been obliged to ask her to release him, he would have felt worse than he did now. The letter in his pocket, heavy with portent, a.s.serted itself imperiously. He hurried home, feeling very chivalrous.
Edith, cool and fresh in white linen, with one of the last of the red roses thrust into her belt, was rocking on the veranda, with a book in her lap which she had made no pretence of reading. Two or three empty chairs were near her, but Madame was nowhere to be seen. Alden handed her the letter. "I"m free!" he said, exultantly.
Edith smiled, then, with shaking hands, tore open the letter. Alden eagerly watched her as she turned the closely written pages, but her face was inscrutable. She read every word carefully, until she reached the signature. Then she looked up.
"I"m not," she said, briefly. She tossed the letter to him, and went into the house. He heard her light feet upon the stairs and the rustle of her skirts as she ascended. Perfume persisted in the place she had just left--the rose at her belt, the mysterious blending of many sweet odours, and, above all, the fragrance of Edith herself.
[Sidenote: Alden Reads the Letter]
"It"s nonsense," he murmured, looking after her. All her quixotic notions of honour would eventually yield to argument--of course they would. Yet his heart strangely misgave him as he read the letter.
"My dear Edith," it began.
"Your letter has somewhat surprised me, and yet I cannot say I feel that I don"t deserve it. Since you have been away I have been doing a good deal of thinking. Of course you and I haven"t hit it off very well together, and, as I can see no point where you have failed me, I realise that it must be my fault and that I have failed you.