Sinclair departed; the lights in parlor and hall went out; presently light appeared through the c.h.i.n.ks in some of the second-story shutters. Then followed three-quarters of an hour of increasing tension. The tension would have been even greater had he seen the young lady going leisurely about her preparations for bed. For Ruth was of the orderly, precise women who are created to foster the virtue of patience in those about them. It took her nearly as long to dress for bed as for a party. She did her hair up in curl papers with the utmost care; she washed and rinsed and greased her face and neck and gave them a thorough ma.s.sage. She shook out and carefully hung or folded or put to air each separate garment. She examined her silk stockings for holes, found one, darned it with a neatness rivaling that of a _stoppeur_. She removed from her dressing table and put away in drawers everything that was out of place.
She closed each drawer tightly, closed and locked the closets, looked under the bed, turned off the lights over the dressing table. She completed her toilet with a slow washing of her teeth, a long spraying of her throat, and a deliberate, thoroughgoing dripping of boracic acid into each eye to keep and improve its clearness and brilliancy. She sat on the bed, reflected on what she had done, to a.s.sure herself that nothing had been omitted. After a slow look around she drew off her bedroom slippers, set them carefully side by side near the head of the bed. She folded her nightgown neatly about her legs, thrust them down into the bed. Again she looked slowly, searchingly, about the room to make absolutely sure she had forgotten nothing, had put everything in perfect order. Once in bed, she hated to get out; yet if she should recall any omission, however slight, she would be unable to sleep until she had corrected it. Finally, sure as fallible humanity can be, she turned out the last light, lay down--went instantly to sleep.
It was hardly a quarter of an hour after the vanishing of that last ray when Sam, standing now with heart beating fast and a lump of expectancy, perhaps of trepidation, too, in his throat, saw a figure issue from the front door and move round to the side veranda. He made a detour on the lawn, so as to keep out of view both from house and street, came up to the veranda, called to her softly.
"Can you get over the rail?" asked she in the same low tone.
"Let"s go back to the summer house," urged he.
"No. Come up here," she insisted. "Be careful. The windows above are open."
He climbed the rail noiselessly and made an impetuous move for her hand. She drew back. "No, Sam dear," she said. "I know it"s foolish. But I"ve an instinct against it--and we mustn"t."
She spoke so gently that he persisted and pleaded. It was some time before he realized how much firmness there was under her gentleness. She was so afraid of making him cross; yet he also saw that she would withstand at any cost. He placed himself beside her on the wicker lounge, sitting close, his cheek almost against hers, that they might hear each other without speaking above a whisper. After one of those silences which are the peculiar delight of lovers, she drew a long breath and said: "I"ve got to go away, Sam. I shan"t see you again for a long time."
"They heard about this morning? They"re sending you away?"
"No--I"m going. They feel that I"m a disgrace and a drag. So I can"t stay."
"But--you"ve _got_ to stay!" protested Sam. In wild alarm he suspected she was preparing to make him elope with her--and he did not know to what length of folly his infatuation might whirl him. "You"ve no place to go," he urged.
"I"ll find a place," said she.
"You mustn"t--you mustn"t, Susie! Why, you"re only seventeen--and have no experience."
"I"ll _get_ experience," said she. "Nothing could be so bad as staying here. Can"t you see that?"
He could not. Like so many of the children of the rich, he had no trace of over-nice sense of self-respect, having been lying and toadying all his life to a father who used the power of his wealth at home no less, rather more, than abroad. But he vaguely realized what delicacy of feeling lay behind her statement of her position; and he did not dare express his real opinion. He returned to the main point. "You"ve simply got to put up with it for the present, Susie," he insisted. "But, then, of course, you"re not serious."
"Yes. I am going."
"You"ll think it over, and see I"m right, dear."
"I"m going tonight."
"Tonight!" he cried.
"Sh-h!"
Sam looked apprehensively around. Both breathed softly and listened with straining ears. His exclamation had not been loud, but the silence was profound. "I guess n.o.body heard," he finally whispered. "You mustn"t go, Susie." He caught her hand and held it. "I love you, and I forbid it."
"I _must_ go, dear," answered she. "I"ve decided to take the midnight boat for Cincinnati."
In the half darkness he gazed in stupefaction at her--this girl of only seventeen calmly resolving upon and planning an adventure so daring, so impossible. As he had been born and bred in that western country where the very children have more independence than the carefully tamed grown people of the East, he ought to have been prepared for almost anything. But his father had undermined his courage and independence; also his year in the East had given him somewhat different ideas of women. Susan"s announcement seemed incredible. He was gathering himself for pouring out a fresh protest when it flashed through his mind--Why not? She would go to Cincinnati. He could follow in a few days or a week--and then--
Well, at least they would be free and could have many happy days together.
"Why, how could you get to Cincinnati?" he said. "You haven"t any money."
"I"ve a twenty-dollar gold piece Uncle gave me as a keepsake.
And I"ve got seventeen dollars in other money, and several dollars in change," explained she. "I"ve got two hundred and forty-three dollars and fifty cents in the bank, but I can"t get that--not now. They"ll send it to me when I find a place and am settled and let them know."
"You can"t do it, Susie! You can"t and you mustn"t."
"If you knew what they said to me! Oh, I _couldn"t_ stay, Sam.
I"ve got some of my clothes--a little bundle behind the front door. As soon as I"m settled I"ll let you know."
A silence, then he, hesitatingly, "Don"t you--do you--hadn"t I better go with you?"
She thrilled at this generosity, this new proof of love. But she said: "No, I wouldn"t let you do that. They"d blame you. And I want them to know it"s all my own doing."
"You"re right, Susie," said the young man, relieved and emphatic. "If I went with you, it"d only get both of us into deeper trouble." Again silence, with Sam feeling a kind of awe as he studied the resolute, mysterious profile of the girl, which he could now see clearly. At last he said: "And after you get there, Susie--what will you do?"
"Find a boarding house, and then look for a place."
"What kind of a place?"
"In a store--or making dresses--or any kind of sewing. Or I could do housework."
The s.e.x impulse is prolific of generous impulses. He, sitting so close to her and breathing in through his skin the emanations of her young magnetism, was moved to the depths by the picture her words conjured. This beautiful girl, a mere child, born and bred in the lady cla.s.s, wandering away penniless and alone, to be a prey to the world"s buffetings which, severe enough in reality, seem savage beyond endurance to the children of wealth.
As he pictured it his heart impulsively expanded. It was at his lips to offer to marry her. But his real self--and one"s real self is vastly different from one"s impulses--his real self forbade the words pa.s.sage. Not even the s.e.x impulse, intoxicating him as it then was, could dethrone sn.o.bbish calculation. He was young; so while he did not speak, he felt ashamed of himself for not speaking. He felt that she must be expecting him to speak, that she had the right to expect it. He drew a little away from her, and kept silent.
"The time will soon pa.s.s," said she absently.
"The time? Then you intend to come back?"
"I mean the time until you"re through college and we can be together."
She spoke as one speaks of a dream as to which one has never a doubt but that it will come true. It was so preposterous, this idea that he would marry her, especially after she had been a servant or G.o.d knows what for several years--it was so absurd that he burst into a sweat of nervous terror. And he hastily drew further away.
She felt the change, for she was of those who are born sensitive. But she was far too young and inexperienced to have learned to interpret aright the subtle warning of the nerves.
"You are displeased with me?" she asked timidly.
"No--Oh, no, Susie," he stammered. "I--I was thinking. Do put off going for a day or two. There"s no need of hurrying."
But she felt that by disobeying her aunt and coming down to see him she had forfeited the right to shelter under that roof. "I can"t go back," said she. "There"s a reason." She would not tell him the reason; it would make him feel as if he were to blame.
"When I get a place in Cincinnati," she went on, "I"ll write to you."
"Not here," he objected. "That wouldn"t do at all. No, send me a line to the Gibson House in Cincinnati, giving me your address."
"The Gibson House," she repeated. "I"ll not forget that name.
Gibson House."
"Send it as soon as you get a place. I may be in Cincinnati soon. But this is all nonsense. You"re not going. You"d be afraid."
She laughed softly. "You don"t know me. Now that I"ve got to go, I"m glad."
And he realized that she was not talking to give herself courage, that her words were literally true. This made him admire her, and fear her, too. There must be something wild and unwomanly in her nature. "I guess she inherits it from her mother--and perhaps her father, whoever he was." Probably she was simply doing a little early what she"d have been sure to do sooner or later, no matter what had happened. On the whole, it was just as well that she was going. "I can take her on East in the fall. As soon as she has a little knowledge of the world she"ll not expect me to marry her. She can get something to do.
I"ll help her." And now he felt in conceit with himself again--felt that he was going to be a good, generous friend to her.