Ben was a little irritated by this. "If I"m to settle here as a lawyer I can"t draw social distinctions of that sort."
"Certainly not--as a lawyer. Of course, you ought to know Haney; but for me to ride or drive with Mrs. Haney is quite a different matter.
However, I don"t really care. She attracts me, and, so far as I know, is just a nice little uncultivated woman. We might call on her in the morning, and see if she can go with us. It will commit us; but really, Ben, I am not going to drag Eastern conventions into this fresh big country. I"m willing to risk the Haneys."
"I"m glad you take that view of it," said Ben.
Bertha was in the yard when they rode up to the gate next morning.
Dressed in a white sweater and a short skirt, and holding biscuits for a handsome collie to s.n.a.t.c.h from her hand, she made a charming picture of young and vigorous life. Her slim body was as strong and supple as the dog"s, and her face glowed like a child"s. Haney, sitting on the porch, was watching her with a proud smile.
Alice glanced at her lover with admiration in her eyes. "What a glorious creature she really is!"
Seeing visitors at her gate, Bertha came down without confusion to say good-morning, and to ask them to dismount.
Ben, with doffed cap, replied by saying: "We"ve come to ask you to ride with us."
Bertha looked up at him composedly. "Haven"t a saddle, and I don"t know that any of our horses are broken. But come again to-morrow, and I"ll have an outfit."
"There"s no time like the present. Let me ride down to the barn and bring one up," volunteered Ben.
"Don"t need to do that, I"ll "phone. I didn"t really expect you," she explained. "Get off and come in a few minutes, and I"ll see what I can hustle together for an outfit. I haven"t rode a lick since I left Sibley."
Ben helped Alice to dismount, and Bertha led her to the house while he tethered the horses.
"What a superb place you have here!" exclaimed Alice. "It is one of the best in the city."
"We bought it for the porch," calmly replied the girl. "The Captain likes to sit where he can see the mountains. I"m not entirely done with the outfitting yet, but it beats a barn."
Haney rose as they drew near, and smilingly greeted his visitors. "I should be out gatherin" the peanuts and harvestin" the egg-plants, but the dinner last night, not mentionin" Congdon"s pink liquor, kept me awake till two."
"Moral: Stick to Irish whiskey--or Scotch," laughed Ben.
"I will. These strange liquors are not for strong men like ourselves."
Ben took a seat at his invitation, while Bertha went in to "phone for a horse and to "dig up" a riding-skirt. Alice was eager to see the interior of the house, but held her curiosity in check by walking about the beautiful garden, which ran to the very edge of a deep ravine. The trees hid the base of the mountain peaks, whose immitigable crags took on added majesty from the play of the delicate near-by branches against their distant rugged slopes.
"You have a magnificent outlook here, Captain Haney."
""Tis so, and I try to be content with it; but it"s hard for one who has roamed the air like a hawk all his life to be content with ridin" a wooden horse. I couldn"t endure it if it weren"t for me wife."
His big form rested in his chair with a ponderous inertness which was a telltale witness to his essential helplessness. His left hand still failed to partic.i.p.ate in the movements of his right, and yet, as he showed, he could, by special effort of will, use it. "I"m gaining all the time--but slowly," he went on. "I want to make a trip back up to the mines, and I think I"ll be able to do it soon." He put aside his own troubles. "And you, miss, I hope the climate is doing you good?"
"Oh, indeed, yes," she brightly responded. "I feel stronger every day."
Ben at the moment experienced a sharp pang of uneasiness and pain, for Alice was looking particularly worn and thin and yellow; and when Bertha returned, flushed with her haste, the contrast between them was quite as distressing as that between the withered, dying rose and the opening, fragrant bud. The young man"s heart rose to his throat. "We have waited too long," he thought, and resolved to again urge upon her a new treatment which they had discussed.
"Come in and see the house," said Bertha, in brusque invitation. "It isn"t ship-shape yet. I wanted to do it all myself, but I find it"s a big proposition to go up against. It sure is. But I like it. I"d like nothing better than running a big hotel--not too big, but just big enough. I tell the Captain that when our mines "pinch out" I"ll go to Denver and start a hotel."
She was quite communicative, but not at ease as she led them from room to room. Her manner was rather that of one seeking to conceal trepidation, and her fluency seemed a little out of character.
In fact, she was trying to make the best possible impression on these people, whose sincere interest she felt; but with Ben"s eyes fixed upon her so constantly, and a knowledge of Alice"s delicate wit to trouble, she was more deeply embarra.s.sed than ever before in her life. It was not her habit to blush or stammer, and she did not do so now, but she was carried out of her wonted reticence.
"As I say, we bought the place for the porch. I didn"t realize what I was being let into--if I had I might have shied. We"re practically lost in the place. Except when some of the people come down from camp, we"re alone. My mother helps out some, but she"s up at the ranch a good deal."
She opened the library door, and led the way before an easel, on which stood a huge canvas. "Here"s the picture Mr. Congdon is paintin" of the Captain. I wanted him taken with his hat on, but Mr. Congdon said no, and his word went. I don"t know whether I like this or not. It"s got me twisted."
Congdon had been after psychology rather than costume, that was evident at a glance, for the clothing counted for little in the portrait. Out of the shadow the face peered sadly, yet with a kind of ferocity, too--a look which made Alice Heath recoil from the man. In a certain way the artist had taken advantage of Mart"s helplessness and loneliness. He had caught the sadness, sullenness, and remorselessness of his sitter rather than his gay, good-tempered smile. The face of this man was concerned with the past, not with the future; and yet on its surface it was a good likeness, as Ben said, and had both power and distinction. "I think it a cracker-jack piece of work," he ended.
Bertha replied: "I suppose it is, and yet I can"t see it. I"d rather it looked the way the Captain used to when he came down to the Junction.
I"m sorry to have his sickness painted in that way."
"That can"t be helped. These artists are queer cattle; you can"t drive "em," Ben remarked.
Bertha smiled. "He wants to paint me now. "Not on your life" says I.
"You"d be doing double stunts with my freckles, and I won"t stand for it."" She laughed. "No sir-ree, I don"t let any artist tip my freckles edgewise just to see how flip he is at it. I like Mr. Congdon, but I don"t trust him--he"s too much of a joker."
Thereupon she led the way to the second floor, and showed them the furniture, which was mostly very costly and very bad, and at last said: "The third story is pretty empty yet. I don"t know just what I"m going to do with it." She was looking at Alice. "I wish you"d come over and help me decide some day."
"What fun!" cried Alice, speaking on the impulse. "I"d like to very much."
"You see," Bertha went on, "my folks have always been purty poor, and I"ve lived in jay towns all my life; and when I came here I didn"t know any more about life in a city than a duck does of mining. I had it all to learn, and they"s a whole lot yet that I don"t know." She smiled quaintly, then grew sober. "And what"s worse, I haven"t any one to tell me--except Mr. Congdon, and he"s such a josher I don"t trust him. He did give me a few points on the library, which ain"t so bad, we think; but all the rest of it I had to dig out myself, and it"s slow work. But I guess we better go down; my horse will be here in a few minutes." Then, with lowered voice, she added: "I can"t stay out but a little while. The Captain dreads to have me leave him even to go down-town. I hadn"t ought to go at all."
Ben began to perceive a real slavery in her life, and rea.s.sured her.
"I"m glad you"re coming. It will do you good, and it will be a pleasure to us too. We"ll only be away an hour."
As they returned to the porch, Bertha put her hand on Haney"s shoulder, in the manner of one man to another, saying: "I"m going for a little ride with these people, Captain, if you don"t mind."
"Not a whiff," he answered. "I"ll be here when you come back." Again a subtle cadence in his voice so belied his smile that Alice"s heart responded to it.
Bertha"s horse proved to be a spirited animal, but she mounted him with the ease and celerity of a boy--riding astride, in the mountain fashion.
"I haven"t a long skirt," she carelessly remarked to Alice. That was all the explanation she offered, and Ben thought he had never seen anything more alert, more graceful, than her slim figure poised alertly in the saddle, her face glowing, her hair blown across her face.
Alice, a timid rider, admired them both from her position, which was always behind, though they tried to accommodate their pace to hers. A pang of envy that was almost jealousy pierced her heart as she looked at them--so young, so vigorous, and so blithe.
"I should be sitting with Captain Haney on the porch," she thought, with bitterness. "I am out of place here."
The words which pa.s.sed between Bertha and her cavalier meant little, but their glances meant much. It was, indeed, a fateful ride. The liking, the deep interest, born of their first meeting, swept irresistibly into admiration. Their faces turned towards each other, youth to youth, as naturally as flowers swing towards the light.
They fell into argument over saddles, over the difference between his manner of riding and her own. Her speech, so direct, so full of quaint slang, enchanted him, and Alice soon found herself the third party. And when they were for pushing into a gallop she acknowledged herself a clog. Concealing her disgust of herself under a bright smile, she called out: "Why don"t you people gallop ahead, and let me jog along at my own gait?"
"Oh no," replied Ben, "we don"t want to do that. Are you tired?" He became anxious at once.
"No, no! Please go! Mrs. Haney wants to race--I can see that; and I"d really like to see her ride--she sits her horse so beautifully."
"Very well," Ben acquiesced, "we"ll take a run ahead, and come back to you."
Thereupon they set off, Bertha leading in a rushing gallop up a fine road which wound along a ravine, towards the top of a broad mesa. Alice, with slack rein in her small hand, rode slowly on in the vivid sunlight, a chill shadow rolling in upon her soul. As young as her lover in years, she nevertheless seemed at the moment twice his age. Everything interested him. Nothing interested her. He was never tired mentally or physically, and his smooth, unwrinkled face still reflected the morning sunlight of the world. "He is still the boy, while I am old and wrinkled and nerveless," she bitterly confessed.
When they returned to her at the top of the mesa, flushed and laughing, her pain had deepened into despair. Up to that moment she had checked disease with a belief that some day she was to recover her health, that some day her wrinkles would be smoothed out and her cheeks resume their youthful charm; but now she knew herself as she was--a broken thing. The divine glow and grace of youth would never again come to her, while this vigorous and joyous girl would grow in womanly charm from month to month. "She is going to be very beautiful," she admitted; and even in the midst of her own discouragement she could not but admire Bertha"s skill with the horse. She rode in the manner of a cowboy, holding her hands high and guiding her horse by pulling the reins across his neck.