"I never dreamed of seeing you again."
"n.o.body would," chimed in Mr. Clark. "When do you go back?"
"Back?" said the visitor. "Where?"
"Australia," replied Mr. Clark, with a glance of defiance at the widow.
"You must ha" been missed a great deal all this time."
Mr. Tucker regarded him with a haughty stare. Then he bent towards Mrs.
Bowman.
"Do you wish me to go back?" he asked, impressively.
"We don"t wish either one way or the other," said Mr. Clark, before the widow could speak. "It don"t matter to us."
"We?" said Mr. Tucker, knitting his brows and gazing anxiously at Mrs.
Bowman. "We?"
"We are going to be married in six weeks" time," said Mr. Clark.
Mr. Tucker looked from one to the other in silent misery; then, shielding his eyes with his hand, he averted his head. Mrs. Bowman, with her hands folded in her lap, regarded him with anxious solicitude.
"I thought perhaps you ought to know," said Mr. Clark.
Mr. Tucker sat bolt upright and gazed at him fixedly. "I wish you joy,"
he said, in a hollow voice.
"Thankee," said Mr. Clark; "we expect to be pretty happy." He smiled at Mrs. Bowman, but she made no response. Her looks wandered from one to the other-from the good-looking, interesting companion of her youth to the short, prosaic little man who was exulting only too plainly in his discomfiture.
Mr. Tucker rose with a sigh. "Good-by," he said, extending his hand.
"You are not going-yet?" said the widow.
Mr. Tucker"s low-breathed "I must" was just audible. The widow renewed her expostulations.
"Perhaps he has got a train to catch," said the thoughtful Mr. Clark.
"No, sir," said Mr. Tucker. "As a matter of fact, I had taken a room at the George Hotel for a week, but I suppose I had better get back home again."
"No; why should you?" said Mrs. Bowman, with a rebellious glance at Mr.
Clark. "Stay, and come in and see me sometimes and talk over old times.
And Mr. Clark will be glad to see you, I"m sure. Won"t you Nath-Mr.
Clark?"
"I shall be-delighted," said Mr. Clark, staring hard at the mantelpiece.
"Delighted."
Mr. Tucker thanked them both, and after groping for some time for the hand of Mr. Clark, who was still intent upon the mantelpiece, pressed it warmly and withdrew. Mrs. Bowman saw him to the door, and a low-voiced colloquy, in which Mr. Clark caught the word "afternoon," ensued. By the time the widow returned to the room he was busy building with the draughts again.
Mr. Tucker came the next day at three o"clock, and the day after at two.
On the third morning he took Mrs. Bowman out for a walk, airily explaining to Mr. Clark, who met them on the way, that they had come out to call for him. The day after, when Mr. Clark met them returning from a walk, he was a.s.sured that his silence of the day before was understood to indicate a distaste for exercise.
"And, you see, I like a long walk," said Mrs. Bowman, "and you are not what I should call a good walker."
"You never used to complain," said Mr. Clark; "in fact, it was generally you that used to suggest turning back."
"She wants to be amused as well," remarked Mr. Tucker; "then she doesn"t feel the fatigue."
Mr. Clark glared at him, and then, shortly declining Mrs. Bowman"s invitation to accompany them home, on the ground that he required exercise, proceeded on his way. He carried himself so stiffly, and his manner was so fierce, that a well-meaning neighbor who had crossed the road to join him, and offer a little sympathy if occasion offered, talked of the weather for five minutes and inconsequently faded away at a corner.
Trimington as a whole watched the affair with amus.e.m.e.nt, although Mr.
Clark"s friends adopted an inflection of voice in speaking to him which reminded him strongly of funerals. Mr. Tucker"s week was up, but the landlord of the George was responsible for the statement that he had postponed his departure indefinitely.
Matters being in this state, Mr. Clark went round to the widow"s one evening with the air of a man who has made up his mind to decisive action. He entered the room with a bounce and, hardly deigning to notice the greeting of Mr. Tucker, planted himself in a chair and surveyed him grimly. "I thought I should find you here," he remarked.
"Well, I always am here, ain"t I?" retorted Mr. Tucker, removing his cigar and regarding him with mild surprise.
"Mr. Tucker is my friend," interposed Mrs. Bowman. "I am the only friend he has got in Trimington. It"s natural he should be here."
Mr. Clark quailed at her glance.
"People are beginning to talk," he muttered, feebly.
"Talk?" said the widow, with an air of mystification belied by her color. "What about?"
Mr. Clark quailed again. "About-about our wedding," he stammered.
Mr. Tucker and the widow exchanged glances. Then the former took his cigar from his mouth and, with a hopeless gesture threw it into the grate.
"Plenty of time to talk about that," said Mrs. Bowman, after a pause.
"Time is going," remarked Mr. Clark. "I was thinking, if it was agreeable to you, of putting up the banns to-morrow."
"There-there"s no hurry," was the reply.
""Marry in haste, repent at leisure,"" quoted Mr. Tucker, gravely.
"Don"t you want me to put "em up?" demanded Mr. Clark, turning to Mrs.
Bowman.
"There"s no hurry," said Mrs. Bowman again. "I-I want time to think."
Mr. Clark rose and stood over her, and after a vain attempt to meet his gaze she looked down at the carpet.
"I understand," he said, loftily. "I am not blind."
"It isn"t my fault," murmured the widow, drawing patterns with her toe on the carpet, "One can"t help their feelings."
Mr. Clark gave a short, hard laugh. "What about my feelings?" he said, severely. "What about the life you have spoiled? I couldn"t have believed it of you."