The men at the bridles stood aside, Alice spoke and the team leaped swiftly ahead. She gave them leeway for a few moments, but kept them under control and her manner was so confident that Fritzie"s fears were allayed before the brake had crossed the first hill. As Alice made the turn in the road and looked laughingly back the two girls waved approval at her. They saw the brim of her broad hat rising and falling like a bird"s wings as she nodded to them; then she threw on the wheel-brake and started down the hill.
For a moment the difficulty of holding the pair in check increased and by the time the barn was in sight the struggle had stirred her blood.
It colored two little circles in her cheeks and had lighted fires of animation in her gray eyes. She saw the rising entrance to the barn and only took heed that the doors were wide open. Then she gave all her strength to guiding the rushing horses up the long incline. Just as their heads shot under the doorway the off horse shied. The front wheels of the brake bounced over the threshold and Alice saw, standing within, Robert Kimberly.
She gave an exclamation of surprise as she threw on the wheel-brake, pulled with all her strength on the reins and brought her horses to a halt. Kimberly with one hand on the cas.e.m.e.nt stood perfectly still until she looked around. Then he came forward laughing. "You certainly are a capital whip."
"You frightened me nearly to death!" exclaimed Alice with a long breath.
"Where, pray, did you come from?" she demanded, looking down from her eminence.
"From almost everywhere. And you?"
"From the woods."
He laid a hand on the foot-board. "Really, I wonder whether there is anything you can"t do."
"I am afraid there is one thing now. I don"t see how I am going to get down. Aren"t there any men around to take the horses?"
"The horses will stand. Just hook your lines and jump from the wheel."
Alice looked at the distance in dismay. "That is easy to say."
"Not hard to do," returned Kimberly. "I"ll break your flight."
"I"m a wretched jumper."
"Nonsense. You can"t tell me you"re a wretched anything after that drive."
"Step away then and I"ll jump. Only, I don"t see just how I am going to stop after I start."
"What do you want to stop for? Come ahead."
She put her foot cautiously on the wheel; it was a very pretty foot.
Then she steadied herself and with her hand swept little ringlets of hair from her eyes.
She knew he was waiting to receive her and, meaning to elude him, turned at the last instant and jumped away from where he stood. Kimberly, in spite of her precaution, caught her as her feet struck the floor, and leaned an instant over her. "Beautifully done!" he exclaimed, and drawing her suddenly into his arms he kissed her.
She pushed him back with all her strength. He met her consternation with good humor. "I couldn"t help it."
Alice, burning with angry blushes, retreated. He hoped it would end there and ignored the outraged spirit in her eyes as she took her handkerchief from her waist.
He tried to laugh again. "Don"t be angry." But Alice put both hands to her face and walked quickly away.
CHAPTER XXII
Kimberly followed her through the open door. "Where are you going?" he asked. Her answer came in her quickened step. He repeated his words without eliciting any response. Then he stepped directly in front of her in the path. "Stop for one moment. Alice, you can"t go any farther while you are as angry at me as you are now."
"I am Alice to no one but my husband," she exclaimed controlling herself as well as she could. "You shall not stop me, you have no right to."
"Where are you going?"
"I am going home."
"Listen; you are Alice to me--now, and forever; remember that."
Her knees trembled as she strove to escape him. She tried to pa.s.s through the shrubbery and could not. She felt faint and dizzy. The very world had changed with a kiss. Everything in life seemed upset, every safeguard gone.
He took her arm. "Come back to the path, Alice. We must walk it together."
She paused an instant for breath and made an effort to speak as she put his hand angrily away. "I insist," she cried, "that you do not continue to insult me."
"If you wait for me to insult you, Alice, you will wait a long time. I should be as likely to insult my own mother."
"I have done nothing to deserve this," she sobbed, frantic with confusion.
"You deserve more a thousand times than my devotion ever can bring you.
But all it can ever bring, from the moment I kissed you, is yours."
Her eyes blazed through her tears. In her helpless wrath she stamped her foot. "You are shameless. I detest your conduct. If you are going to the house I will stay here. If you are not, let me go."
He met her denunciation with steadiness. "Nothing you can say will anger me."
"You mean you have no respect for me." She spoke so fast she could scarcely frame the words. "Why don"t you say so? Are you too cowardly?"
The imputation stung him. He seemed to explode inwardly. "I have nothing _but_ respect for you, Alice," he insisted with terrifying energy, "but this thing must be fought out----"
She attempted to speak. His words drowned her. "I want to say nothing that will wound or offend you. You make it very hard for me to speak at all----"
"You have no right to speak----"
"But, Alice," he exclaimed, throwing all his force into the words, "you don"t love that man. That is why I speak. If you _did_ love him, if even he loved you, I could be silent."
"I love my husband as a wife should," she cried, struggling vainly to escape his accusation.
"You do not. You cannot!"
They spoke at white heat, she fighting vainly to control her trembling limbs and Kimberly pausing at times to deal better his sledge-hammer blows at her pitiful strength.
"You do not love that man. If I believed you did," he spoke with a bitterness she had never heard before, "I should never want to see another sun rise. I respect you above all women that breathe; but in that I am right, I can"t be wrong. I have suppressed and stifled and smothered as long as I can and it will come out!"
"I will not hear you!"
"Sometime, somewhere, you will hear me. Don"t speak!" he exclaimed vehemently. The veins knotted upon his forehead. "I forgot myself for a moment. If you knew what it costs me to remember! But, Alice, for me it is you--or nothing in this world. Remember! You or nothing!"
She searched his face for pity. "I am sinking with shame. What further, what more humiliation do you want? We are in plain view of the house. I am utterly helpless. Will you not have the decency to leave me?"