"Stop here and watch the creek," said Billy, at the mill bridge. Susan stopped, and they stood looking down at the foaming water, tumbling through barriers, and widening, in a ruffled circle, under the great wheel.
"Was there ever such a heavenly place, Billy?"
"Never," he said, after a second. Susan had time to think his voice a little deep and odd before he added, with an effort, "We"ll come back here often, won"t we? After we"re married?"
"Oh, are we going to be married?" Susan said lightly.
"Well, aren"t we?" He quietly put his arm about her, as they stood at the rail, so that in turning her innocent, surprised eyes, she found his face very near. Susan held herself away rigidly, dropped her eyes.
She could not answer.
"How about it, Sue?" he asked, very low and, looking up, she found that he was half-smiling, but with anxious eyes. Suddenly she found her eyes br.i.m.m.i.n.g, and her lip shook. Susan felt very young, a little frightened.
"Do you love me, Billy?" she faltered. It was too late to ask it, but her heart suddenly ached with a longing to hear him say it.
"Love you!" he said scarcely above his breath. "Don"t you know how I love you! I think I"ve loved you ever since you came to our house, and I gave you my cologne bottle!"
There was no laughter in his tone, but the old memory brought laughter to them both. Susan clung to him, and he tightened his arms about her.
Then they kissed each other.
Half an hour behind the others they came slowly down the home trail.
Susan had grown shy now and, although she held his hand childishly, she would not allow him to kiss her again. The rapid march of events had confused her, and she amused him by a plea for time "to think."
"Please, please don"t let them suspect anything tonight, Bill!" she begged. "Not for months! For we shall probably have to wait a long, long time!"
"I have a nerve to ask any girl to do it!" Billy said gloomily.
"You"re not asking any girl. You"re asking me, you know!"
"But, darling, you honestly aren"t afraid? We"ll have to count every cent for awhile, you know!"
"It isn"t as if I had been a rich girl," Susan reminded him.
"But you"ve been a lot with rich people. And we"ll have to live in some place in the Mission, like Georgie, Sue!"
"In the Mission perhaps, but not like Georgie! Wait until you eat my dinners, and see my darling little drawing-room! And we"ll go to dinner at Coppa"s and Sanguinetti"s, and come over to Sausalito for picnics,--we"ll have wonderful times! You"ll see!"
"I adore you," said Billy, irrevelantly.
"Well," Susan said, "I hope you do! But I"ll tell you something I"ve been thinking, Billy," she resumed dreamily, after a silence.
"And pwhats dthat, me dar-r-rlin"?"
"Why, I was thinking that I"d rather---" Susan began hesitatingly, "rather have my work cut out for me in this life! That is, I"d rather begin at the bottom of the ladder, and work up to the top, than be at the top, through no merit of my own, and live in terror of falling to the bottom! I believe, from what I"ve seen of other people, that we"ll succeed, and I think we"ll have lots of fun doing it!"
"But, Sue, you may get awfully tired of it!"
"Everybody gets awfully tired of everything!" sang Susan, and caught his hand for a last breathless run into camp.
At supper they avoided each other"s eyes, and a.s.sumed an air of innocence and gaiety. But in spite of this, or because of it, the meal moved in an unnatural atmosphere, and everyone present was conscious of a sense of suspense, of impending news.
"Betts dear, do listen!--the SALT," said Mrs. Carroll. "You"ve given me the spoons and the b.u.t.ter twice! Tell me about to-day," she added, in a desperate effort to start conversation. "What happened?"
But Jimmy choked at this, Betsey succ.u.mbed to helpless giggling, and even Philip reddened with suppressed laughter.
"Don"t, Betts!" Anna reproached her.
"You"re just as bad yourself!" sputtered Betsey, indignantly.
"I?" Anna turned virtuous, outraged eyes upon her junior, met Susan"s look for a quivering second, and buried her flushed and laughing face in her napkin.
"I think you"re all crazy!" Susan said calmly.
"She"s blushing!" announced Jimmy.
"Cut it out now, kid," Billy growled. "It"s none of your business!"
"WHAT"S none of his business?" carroled Betsey, and a moment later joyous laughter and noise broke out,--Philip was shaking William"s hand, the girls were kissing Susan, Mrs. Carroll was laughing through tears. n.o.body had been told the great news, but everybody knew it.
Presently Susan sat in Mrs. Carroll"s lap, and they all talked of the engagement; who had suspected it, who had been surprised, what Anna had noticed, what had aroused Jimmy"s suspicions. Billy was very talkative but Susan strangely quiet to-night.
It seemed to make it less sacred, somehow, this open laughter and chatter about it. Why she had promised Billy but a few hours ago, and here he was threatening never to ask Betts to "our house," unless she behaved herself, and kissing Anna with the hilarious a.s.surance that his real reason for "taking" Susan was because she, Anna, wouldn"t have him! No man who really loved a woman could speak like that to another on the very night of his engagement, thought Susan. A great coldness seized her heart, and pity for herself possessed her. She sat next to Mrs. Carroll at the camp-fire, and refused Billy even the little liberty of keeping his fingers over hers. No liberties to-night!
And later, tucked by Mrs. Carroll"s motherly hands into her little camp bed on the porch, she lay awake, sick at heart. Far from loving Billy Oliver, she almost disliked him! She did not want to be engaged this way, she wanted, at this time of all times in her life, to be treated with dignity, to be idolized, to have her every breath watched. How she had cheapened everything by letting him blurt out the news this way!
And now, how could she in dignity draw back----
Susan began to cry bitterly. She was all alone in the world, she said to herself, she had never had a chance, like other girls! She wanted a home to-night, she wanted her mother and father---!
Her handkerchief was drenched, she tried to dry her eyes on the harsh hem of the sheet. Her tears rushed on and on, there seemed to be no stopping them. Billy did not care for her, she sobbed to herself, he took the whole thing as a joke! And, beginning thus, what would he feel after a few years of poverty, dark rooms and unpaid bills?
Even if he did love her, thought Susan bursting out afresh, how was she to buy a trousseau, how were they to furnish rooms, and pay rent, "one always has to pay a month"s rent in advance!" she thought gloomily.
"I believe I am going to be one of those weepy, sensitive women, whose noses are always red," said Susan, tossing restlessly in the dark. "I shall go mad if I can"t get to sleep!" And she sat up, reached for her big, loose j.a.panese wrapper and explored with bare feet for her slippers.
Ah--that was better! She sat on the top step, her head resting against the rough pillar of the porch, and felt a grateful rush of cool air on her flushed face. Her headache lessened suddenly, her thoughts ran more quietly.
There was no moon yet. Susan stared at the dim profile of the forest, and at the arch of the sky, spattered with stars. The exquisite beauty of the summer night soothed and quieted her. After a time she went noiselessly down the dark pathway to the spring-house for a drink.
The water was deliciously cool and fresh. Susan, draining a second cup of it, jumped as a voice nearby said quietly:
"Don"t be frightened--it"s me, Billy!"
"Heaven alive--how you scared me!" gasped Susan, catching at the hand he held out to lead her back to the comparative brightness of the path.
"Billy, why aren"t you asleep?"
"Too happy, I guess," he said simply, his eyes on her.
She held his hands at arm"s length, and stared at him wistfully.
"Are you so happy, Bill?" she asked.