"Tom," he said, "Mister Dulany and I have been looking for you, to buy your farm, so you can move to Missouri where your brother is." He paused so Tom could grasp this. "You don"t have to sell, and we won"t force you against your will." He paused again. "But if you stay here, and want me to let up on you, you"ll have to stop drinking; and report to the Colonel every day for a month--"
"For six months," the Colonel corrected.
"--for six months," Brent continued, "so he can see if you"re sober.
Also, you must plow up your weeds and get the farm in shape. Either of these plans is open for twenty-four hours. Take tonight to think it over, and tell us tomorrow."
"Gawd, I"ll go to Missoury if I can sell the farm!" he cried.
"That"s better. How much is it worth, Colonel?"
"It"s good land," the old gentleman answered. "I"ll give a hundred and fifty an acre, because it adjoins me."
"How much is it mortgaged for?" Brent turned to Hewlet, who seemed surprised at the question.
"Nuthin"," he doggedly answered.
"You might as well tell the truth; we"re bound to know it!"
"Nuthin", I said," he looked shiftily down. ""N" I don"t take no hund"ed "n" fifty a acre, neither--from no railroad!"
"The same old hold-up," Brent murmured across the chess board.
But the Colonel, still obsessed by the old aching worry, was just then engrossed with another thought. Clearing his throat, he said--trying to do it casually:
"By the way, Tom, where is Tusk Potter?"
"I don"t know, Cunnel; I ain"t seen "im for a "c.o.o.n"s age."
"Oh, nothing at all, nothing at all," the old gentleman hastily added, as though Tom had asked why he wanted to know.
"Well, how about our proposition?" Brent inquired.
"It"s wu"th three hund"ed a acre," he grumbled.
"One-fifty is our price, Tom. Think it over before we change our minds!"
"Aw, h.e.l.l," he sneered, "you can"t bluff me!"
"Get off of my place, you drunken scoundrel!" the Colonel, towering with rage, sprang up reaching for his cane.
But Tom, panic stricken, had turned and fled.
Sighing, the old gentleman dropped back into his chair.
"Let me see--where are we!" he said, looking closely at the board.
"You"d moved your Queen to her Bishop"s second, hadn"t you? Ah, yes!
Then my Bishop takes your Bishop"s p.a.w.n, and checks. Now, sir, watch out! I"m coming after you in good earnest!"
As it happened no one intruded upon the drive to church. When four o"clock came around Bip had taken Mac down on the creek with Bob and Mesmie, to hunt under the stones for crawfish.
The Colonel disappeared shortly after dinner for his nap, and Brent sat alone under the trees indulging several rather curious speculations. His eyes were closed, though in no sense was he sleepy. He was thinking of a force; a new, an entirely new force; a perplexing force that each day more determinedly gripped and held him. He had at last taken his character into his hands and was contemplating its remodelling.
There comes a time to the life of every man when he shall sit in hollow solitude and gaze upon the error of his way. To some this may be at the bud, with every outlook forward; to others, not till they are well along the path of yellow leaves. For it is not man who makes this moment.
Circ.u.mstance, pure and simple, leads to his sublime communion, and circ.u.mstance is of the earth. A man may sin, and keep on sinning with never a qualm, till reality sends in the bill. Then it is as if he had stepped upon a corpse at night, and he is shocked beyond his strength to move. Whether this be the specter of public shame, of physical decay, or the ruin of a fellow, and however far along the highway of his life it may appear, there still must come that hour to each who has unworthily yielded, when he stands appalled; that hour when he raises eyes and arms in mute despair up, up--somewhere. This is G.o.d"s hour; then is where His mercy conquers. But grim realities are not required to touch all hearts.
It does not need the jail, it does not need the fiery lash of a ruined woman"s pleading, it does not need the death-bed of one beloved; because the Kingdom of Earth is such that just a pair of eyes, a damask cheek, the murmuring of a name at twilight, may grow beneath some magic dew into a power that holds one hand upon the Throne and with the other meets mankind. Love!--another son of G.o.d; sometimes welcomed, sometimes cherished, sometimes flattered, sometimes crucified!
Brent clenched his teeth. In years his own outlook was across the sprouting fields of life, but to his hope of winning Jane he could gaze only back along the path of yellow leaves. He realized how truly this was of his own doing, and unsparingly laid the blame at its rightful place. With whatever sincerity he might curse his follies, with whatever fierce pleasure he would strangle them for her sake, their abandonment now could not weld that link which would have united the chains of their destinies. Too late! The utter hopelessness of this made him groan aloud, as he had the first night they met in the circle of cedars; then, from a false and poisonous pride; now, from humility and a man"s honest grief.
The sound of wheels brought him back to the time and place. He looked up, shaking off the spell; but his hands were tightly shut, as if he might be gripping the last tatters of abandoned hope. With a quick gesture he made as though to wrap them close about him, and then smiled at the realism into which his earnestness was leading.
Jane was standing on the porch, waiting; and a darky had brought around Brent"s own horse and buggy. Some time before this, loud calls from the house and faintly returned answers from the creek had apprized him of Bip"s shameless truancy; but he was fully expecting the mountaineer to go with them until this very minute when he saw what character of vehicle stood before the house. He arose and crossed to her, casually asking:
"Where"s Dale?"
Two lights crossed the lenses of her eyes, but no timer could have caught them.
"Where?" she asked. "Who knows? He"s so utterly oblivious to everything, living in an age so long before the Christian era, that it would be a paradox to take him into a latter-day church."
While speaking she had come down the steps. He helped her in and settled himself comfortably beside her.
"Did you notice how he flew from the dinner table straight back to his books?" she asked, as they turned out of the gate. "When I looked over his shoulder a while ago he was with Cicero again. He adores Cicero!"
"I"m beginning to like old Cis myself," Brent forced a grin and let the horse out a step. "Never knew he could be such a good friend till now.
Crawfish and Cicero!--henceforth my amulets!"
But he was not happy, and she knew it. To deceive her he was play-acting, and she knew this, too.
The sun lay behind them, and the afternoon was rich with every enticing charm. The chapel, in modest seclusion, stood off in the valley, and was reached from Arden by a typical country lane--as narrow as it was noiseless--rising and dipping through miles and miles of rolling fields and woods. Its sides were thickly woven vines, and younger trees and shrubs, which gave out a woody fragrance; especially in the cooler, damper places sloping down to meet and pa.s.s beneath some small, clear stream.
This valley was in its most languid mood. Bluegra.s.s stood ripe in the pastures, each stem tilting wearily beneath a burden of seed. Wheat was in the shock, and its sheaves leaned against each other as though fatigued with having brought so large a yield; while the golden fields of stubble lent a softer tone to the st.u.r.dy corn, or the less mature hemp and tobacco. It was a season when at morning the harvester"s call, or at noon the wood-dove"s melancholy note, or at evening the low of Jersey herds, were irresistible invitations to poetic drowsiness.
Brent slowly turned and looked at her. Up to this time he had been speaking only of indifferent things.
"I think it is all I can do to keep from making love to you!"
Her heart gave a bound as she recognised, not the bantering, but a very serious, Brent had spoken. Yet she managed, even if a trifle late, to answer frankly:
"You already do so many useless things;--I wouldn"t, Brent!"
"I call that a diplomatic master-stroke," he smiled. "But it"s insufficient."
"Then appropriate," she added.
"I accept your judgment," he slowly replied, "because your judgment is fair. Insufficient is the very word, and appropriate to everything I"ve ever done, or have a right to expect from you. I was thinking it out this afternoon before we started. So you"ve rebuked me, Lady Wonderful, better than you know."
She was not quite following this--rather was she hoping he would stop.
The afternoon was too enticing--too charged with a dangerous spell. She saw warning signals being waved at her from all directions. The deep, sincere tone of his voice was one; two little ground squirrels watching them from a mossy ledge of rock--two white b.u.t.terflies fanning a lace-weed bloom--two majestic birds, with moveless, outstretched wings, weaving graceful aerial figures far up in the sky--made only a part of the afternoon which spoke to her. Everything which rested in the charm of this day, waved to her sweet warnings!