Conscious or unconscious of the varying opinions that were being voiced behind his back, Courtney went confidently ahead with his wooing. He congratulated himself that he was in Alix"s good graces. If at times she was perplexingly cool,--or "upstage," as he called it,--he flattered himself that he knew women too well to be discouraged by these purely feminine manifestations.
This was a game he knew how to play. The time was not yet ripe for him to abandon his well-calculated air of indifference. That he was desperately in love with her goes without saying. If at the outset of his campaign he was inspired by the unworthy motive of greed, he was now consumed by an entirely different desire,--the desire to have her for his own, even though she were penniless.
Those whirlwind tactics that had swept many another girl off her feet were not to be thought of here. Alix was different. She was not an impressionable, hair-brained flapper, such as he had come in contact with in past experiences. Despite her sprightly, thoroughly up-to-the-moment ease of manner, and an air of complete sophistication, she was singularly old-fashioned in a great many respects. While she was bright, amusing, gay, there was back of it all a certain reserve that forbade familiarity,--sufficient, indeed, to inspire unexampled caution on his part. She invited friendship but not familiarity; she demanded respect rather than admiration.
He was not slow in arriving at the conclusion that she knew men.
She knew how to fence with them. He was distinctly aware of this.
Other men, of course, had been in love with her; other men no doubt had dashed their hopes upon the barrier in their haste to seize the treasure. It was inconceivable that one so lovely, so desirable, so utterly feminine should fail to inspire in all men that which she inspired in him. The obvious, therefore, was gratifying. Granted that she had had proposals, here was the proof that the poor fools who laid their hearts at her feet had gone about it clumsily. Such would not be the case with him. Oh no! He would bide his time, he would watch for the first break in her enchanted armour,--and then the conquest!
There were times, of course, when he came near to catastrophe,--times when he was almost powerless to resist the pa.s.sion that possessed him. These were the times when he realized how easy it would have been to join that sad company of fools in the path behind her.
He had no real misgivings. He felt confident of winning. True, her moods puzzled him at times, but were they not, after all, omens of good fortune? Were they not indications of the mysterious changes that were taking place in her? And the way was clear. So far as he knew, there was no other man. Her heart was free. What more could he ask?
On her side, the situation was not so complex. He came from the great outside world, he brought the outside world to the lonely little village on the bank of the river. He was bright, amusing, cultivated,--at least he represented cultivation as it exists in open places and on the surface of a sea called civilization. He possessed that ineffable quality known as "manner." The spice of the Metropolis clung to him. He could talk of the things she loved,--not as she loved the farm and village and the home of her fathers, but of the things she loved because they stood for that which represented the beautiful in intellect, in genius, in accomplishment. The breath of far lands and wide seas came with him to the town of Windomville, grateful and soothing, and yet laden with the tang of turmoil, the spice of iniquity.
Alix was no Puritan. She had been out in the world, she had come up against the elemental in life, she had learned that G.o.d in His wisdom had peopled the earth with saints and sinners,--and she was tolerant of both! In a word, she was broad-minded. She had been an observer rather than a partic.i.p.ant in the pa.s.sing show. She had absorbed knowledge rather than experience.
The conventions remained unshaken so far as she was personally concerned. In others she excused much that she could not have excused in herself,--for the heritage of righteousness had come down to her through a long line of staunch upholders.
She loved life. She craved companionship. She could afford to gratify her desires. Week-ends found two or more guests at her home,--friends from the city up the river. Sometimes there were visitors from Chicago, Indianapolis and other places,--girls she had met at school, or in her travels, or in the canteen. Early in the war her house was headquarters for the local Red Cross workers, the knitters, the bandage rollers, and so on, but after the entry of the United States into the conflict, most of her time was spent away from Windomville in the more intense activities delegated to women.
She attended the theatre when anything worth while came to the city, frequently taking one or two of the village people with her.
Once, as she was leaving the theatre, she heard herself discussed by persons in the aisle behind.
"That"s Alix Crown. I"ll tell you all about her when we get home.
Her father and mother were murdered years ago and buried in a well or something. I wish she"d turn around so that you could get a good look at her face. She"s quite pretty and--"
And she had deliberately turned to face the speaker, who never forgot the cold, unwavering stare that caused her to lower her own eyes and her voice to trail off into a confused mumble.
Alix was a long time in recovering from the distress caused by the incident. She avoided the city for weeks. It was her first intimation that she was an object of unusual interest to people, that she was the subject of whispered comment, that she was a "character" to be pointed out to strangers. Even now, with the sting of injury and injustice eased by time and her own good sense, there still remained the disturbing consciousness that she was,--for want of a milder term,--a "marked woman."
She was thoroughly acquainted with every detail connected with the extensive farms and industries that had been handed down to her. A great deal of her time was devoted to an intelligent and comprehensive interest in the management of the farms. She was never out of touch with conditions. Her tenants respected and admired her; her foremen and superintendents consulted with her as they would not have believed it possible to consult with a woman; her bankers deferred to her.
She would have laughed at you if you had suggested to her that she had more than a grain of business-sense, or ability, or capacity, and yet she was singularly far-sighted and capable,--without being in the least aware of it. Her pleasures were not allowed to interfere with her obligations as a landlord, a citizen and a taxpayer.
A certain part of each day was set aside for the business of the farms. She repaired bright and early to the little office at the back of the house where her grandfather had worked before her, and there she struggled over accounts, reports, claims,--and her cheque-book. And like her grim, silent grandsire, she "rode" the lanes that twined through field and timber,--only she rode gaily, blithely, with sunshine in her heart. The darkness was always behind her, never ahead.
Courtney undoubtedly had overcome the prejudice his visit to Quill"s Window had inspired in her. They never spoke of that first encounter. It was as a closed book between them. He had forgotten the incident. At any rate, he had put it out of his mind. He sometimes wondered, however, if she would ever invite him to accompany her to the top of that forbidden hill. In their rambles they had pa.s.sed the closed gate on more than one occasion. The words, "No Trespa.s.s,"
still met the eye. Some day he would suggest an adventure: the descent to the cave in quest of treasure! The two of them! Rope ladder and all! It would be great fun!
He was a.s.siduous in his efforts to amuse her house guests. He laid himself out to be entertaining. If he resented the presence of young men from the city, he managed to conceal his feelings remarkably well. On one point he was firm: he would not accompany her on any of her trips to the city. Once she had invited him to motor in with her to a tea, and another time she offered to drive him about the city and out to the college on a sight-seeing tour. It was then that he said he was determined to obey "doctor"s orders." No city streets for him! Even SHE couldn"t entice him! He loved every inch of this charming, restful spot,--every tree and every stone,--and he would not leave it until the time came for him to go away forever.
He was very well satisfied with the fruits of this apparently ungracious refusal. She went to the city less frequently than before, and only when it was necessary. This, he decided, was significant.
It could have but one meaning.
Her dog, Sergeant, did not like him.
CHAPTER IX
A MID-OCTOBER DAY
One chilly, rainy afternoon in mid-October Courtney appeared at the house on the knoll half an hour earlier than was his custom. Alix was expecting friends down from the city for tea. From the hall where he was removing his raincoat he had a fair view through an open door of the north end of the long living-room. Logs were blazing merrily in the fireplace. Alix was standing before the fire, tearing a sheet of paper into small pieces. She was angry. She threw rather than dropped the bits of paper into the flames,--unmistakably she was furious. He waited a moment before entering the room. Her back was toward him. She turned in response to his discreet cough.
Even in the dim light that filtered in from the grey, leaden day outside, he could detect the heightened colour in her cheeks, and as he advanced he saw that her eyes were wet with illy-suppressed tears. She bit her lip and forced a smile.
He possessed the philanderer"s tact. There was nothing in his manner to indicate that he noticed anything unusual. He greeted her cheerfully and then, affecting a shiver, pa.s.sed on to spread his hands out over the fire.
"This is great," he exclaimed, his back to her. He was giving her a chance to compose herself. "Nothing like a big log fire to warm the c.o.c.kles of your heart,--although it isn"t my heart that needs warming. Moreover, I don"t know what c.o.c.kles are. I must look "em up in the dictionary. Come here, Sergeant,--there"s a good dog!
Come over and get warm, old fellow. Toast your c.o.c.kles. By Jove, Miss Crown, isn"t he ever going to make friends with me?"
"They are "one man" dogs, Mr. Thane," she replied. "Come, Sergeant,--if you"re going to be impolite you must leave the room. Excuse me a moment. Sergeant! Do you hear me, sir? Come!"
The big grey dog followed her slowly, reluctantly, from the room.
Courtney heard her going up the stairs.
"That nasty brute is going to take a bite out of me some day," he muttered under his breath. "Fat chance I"d have to kiss her with that beast around."
He heard the closing of an upstairs door. His thoughts were still of the police dog.
"There"s one thing sure," he said to himself. "That dog and I can"t live in the same house." Then his thoughts rose swiftly to that upstairs room,--he was sure it was a dainty, inviting room,--to picture her before the mirror erasing all visible evidence of agitation. He found himself wondering what it was that caused this exhibition of temper. A letter? Of course,--a letter. A letter that contained something she resented, something that infuriated her.
A personal matter, not a business one. She would not have treated a business matter in such a way. He knew her too well for that. The leaping flames gave no hint of what they had destroyed. Was it an anonymous letter? Had it anything to do with him?
His eye fell upon several envelopes on the library table. After a moment"s hesitation and a quick glance toward the door, he strode over to inspect them. They were all unopened. Two were postmarked Chicago, one New York; on the others the postmarks were indistinct.
The handwriting was feminine on most of them. A narrow, folded slip of paper lay a little detached from the letters. He picked it up and quickly opened it. It proved to be a check on a Philadelphia bank. A glance sufficed to show that it was for two hundred and fifty dollars, payable to the order of Alix Crown, and signed "D.
W. Strong."
The door upstairs was opened and closed. Replacing the bit of paper on the table, he resumed his position before the fire. Quite a different Alix entered the room a few seconds later. She was smiling, her eyes were soft and tranquil. All traces of the pa.s.sing tempest were gone.
"Sit down,--draw this big chair up to the fire,--do. It IS raw and nasty today, isn"t it? I think the Mallons are coming out in an open car. Isn"t it too bad?"
"Bad for the curls," he drawled. "Mind if I smoke?"
"Certainly not. Don"t you know that by this time?"
He had drawn a chair up beside hers. Her reply afforded him a very definite sense of elation.
"It seems to me that the world is getting to be a rather heavenly place to live in," he said, and there was a trace of real feeling in his voice. "You don"t mind my saying it"s entirely due to you, do you?"
"Not in the least," she said calmly. "Charlie Webster once paraphrased a time-honoured saying. He said "In the fall an old man"s fancy slightly turns to thoughts of comfort." I sha"n"t deprive my fireplace and my big armchair of their just due by believing a word of what you say."
He tossed the match into the fire, drew in a deep breath of smoke, settled himself comfortably in the chair before exhaling, and then remarked:
"But I don"t happen to be an old man. I happen to be a rather young one,--and a very truthful one to boot."
"Do you always tell the truth?"
He grinned. "More or less always," was his reply. "I never lie in October."