"Come in," called the kind old voice. Grannie was in bed, a candle by her, a book in her hand. She looked, in her nightcap, like a beautiful old baby. "I had to crawl in here," she said apologetically. "I get so stiff sitting about. But I don"t want to sleep. Draw up the rocking-chair."
Rose went up to the bedside, and dropped upon her knees, looking up so that the light could strike her face. It was a wretched face, but she tried to keep it calm lest it should plead for her.
"My father is going to take me away," she began. "I must pack to-night.
But I want to tell you--"
"Take you away? where?" asked grannie.
"To France."
"Why, I don"t like that!"
Rose continued,--
"I am not a good woman. My father has told me so. He has shown me. I believe it."
"I guess you"re tired," said grannie. She laid a motherly hand on the girl"s forehead. Then she smoothed her hair, and tucked a lock behind her ear. "I guess I wouldn"t say such things."
"I was never married to Tom Fulton. I thought it was right not to be.
But I came here and called myself his wife. I am an adventuress. My father says so."
The old lady sat looking at her with a puzzled glance.
"You blow out the candle," she said then. "It makes it kind of hot. Now I"ll move over, and you climb up here and lie down a spell. I guess it"ll rest you."
Rose put out the candle, and breathed her relief now that even that light was off her tortured face. Then she did stretch herself on the bed, and grannie put out a hand and held hers.
""T won"t hurt your skirt, will it?" she asked. "You"ve got such pretty clothes. I shouldn"t want to have "em tumbled."
Rose spoke again with her insistent haste,--
"I am an adventuress."
"There! there! don"t say that. It"s a miserable kind of a word. Did your father come here to take you back?"
"I don"t know why he came--not entirely. But he tells me to go with him.
I must go."
"Do you want to go, dear?"
She hesitated a moment, and they both listened to the sounds of the summer night.
"I want to be honest," Rose said at last. "It is too late--but I must do the best I can."
"It isn"t ever too late," said grannie. "But I don"t seem to want you to go. I"m fond of you, dear." Rose lifted the cherishing hand to her lips.
"Peter is fond of you, too. He told me so to-day. It is all over between him and Electra. He told you that?"
"Dear Peter! But after this"--she was quivering with impatience to put that test--"you wouldn"t be willing to have him like me--after this?"
Now grannie was silent, but only because she was thinking. The tightening clasp of her hand made that evident.
"My dear," she said at last, in her soft old voice, "you can"t imagine how stupid I am. I never know how to say things right. But if it was a transgression--I suppose you"d say it was--"
Honesty rose up in the girl, and cried to be heard.
"I thought it was right," she protested sharply. "I did think it was right. About coming here I didn"t think much, except that I was lonesome and afraid. Now I understand. I must pay my penalties. I must be honest.
It is too late,--but it"s all I can do."
"You see, about transgressions," said grannie, "why, they"re not to be thought of, my dear, not for an instant after we are sorry. We"ve just taken the wrong road, that"s all. We"ve got to clip it back into the right one. We can"t sit down to cry."
"We"ve got to take our punishment!"
"Yes, mercy, yes! I guess we have. But we"ve got to be happy, too. The punishments were given us in love. We"ve got to be thankful for "em.
Now, do you feel as if "t was right for you to go back with your father?"
"There are hard things there. I ran away from them. I must face them."
"Then you go, dear," said grannie. "But don"t you forget for one minute that there"s the love of G.o.d. Peter and I love you, too. And when all the things are done, you hurry right back here, and we shall be here--some of us, anyway--and your room"ll be ready for you just the same."
Rose lay there with the ineffable sense upon her of that readjusted balance which we call forgiveness. Life, even the narrow piece of it she was touching, greatened with possibilities.
"Grannie," she said, "there"s one thing more."
"What is it, dear?"
"I want to leave a message with you. I want you to tell Osmond something."
"Why, honey, do you know Osmond?"
"Yes, I know him." Then she rehea.r.s.ed the bare details of their meetings, and finishing, said, quite simply, "I can"t see him. I can"t say good-by. If I spoke to him, how could I bear to go? But it"s he who really sends me."
"What do you mean, dear?"
"I don"t know how to tell you. Only, he is so true he makes me want to be true, too. He wants to do the hardest thing. This is the hardest thing for me. And I want to go and be honest, not stay and have you all make it easy for me to be honest. And I want to prove myself, to use my voice. I don"t intend to be supported by my father. But when I have established myself, I shall come back."
She felt as if she were talking to Osmond himself, and as if his idea of great world s.p.a.ces and inevitable meetings made it certain for them to part without loss.
Grannie was thinking. She gave a little sigh.
"What is it?" asked Rose.
"Osmond likes you very much, doesn"t he?" asked the old lady.
"It isn"t exactly liking. We understand each other. He is different from anybody."
"Yes."
"He understands me almost before I speak. It is comfortable to be with him."