"All right, son," said Mr. Polk quietly, and when they separated it was with a warm hand-clasp as Mr. Polk exacted a promise that Steve would visit them his first opportunity. ""The little mother" longs to see her boy," he said affectionately; then added, "Some day we hope to be in shape to help you with your work."
When he was gone Steve left for the Follets again. A great peace had come upon him with the renewal of his resolution, and his heart leaped at the prospect of seeing Nancy again.
"How long it seems since I left her," he laughed to himself, and the thought sprang to his mind from out the ever active realm of human hope: "Perhaps I shall win her yet by some miracle!"
XV
FLICKERING HOPE
It was with keen satisfaction that Steve caught a glimpse of Nancy"s white dress out under the trees upon his return to the Follets. He hurried over to the bench where she sat.
"Is there anything more satisfying than these Kentucky mountains?" he said, with enthusiasm, as he seated himself beside her. "There is something that constantly a.s.sures me I belong to them."
"I have wondered that you were not captured by the city with all its allurements," said Nancy.
"No," returned Steve, "though perhaps I might have been at first had not my little foster-mother been loyal to Kentucky mountain need. But my experience the past three years as teacher has made it impossible for me to ever get away from the outstretched hand of Kentucky mountain children," and his voice dropped into deep earnestness.
"I can understand how you feel," said Nancy after a little silence. "I could not help being interested in the school when it was opened here.
Little children came trudging in from the most barren cabin homes, wide-eyed, and eager to "larn," and grown-up men and women tramped barefoot miles and miles every day to try to get some of the "larnin"
they"d heard about. Then they would plod away with the utmost patience trying to read and write. It was intensely pathetic. Nothing has ever touched and interested me so much as some supply work I have done for our school," she added, a light upon her face, which thrilled Steve"s heart anew. What a help she could be to him in his chosen work!
"I am so glad you have felt the appeal of mountain need," said he, struggling to keep the thrill out of his voice. And then he told her of his hopes and plans, of the dream he had of a new school within reach of Hollow Hut, a region to which new possibilities were about to come, he had learned at the county seat, through a projected railroad line. Of how he hoped to have help in the work from Mr. and Mrs. Polk and perhaps other capitalists of the north, and she was most interested, most appreciative, showing all the sweet seriousness of little Nancy of old.
But this long talk of some two hours which revealed again congenial tastes and ideals of life for the two only served to make Steve"s heart more intensely rebellious when, after supper, Raymond walked in once more with his debonair proprietorship of Nancy. As it happened she had just stepped out under the trees to get a bit of fancy work left there in the afternoon, and Raymond joining her, barricaded the way to the house, insisting that the "old folks" were glad to get rid of them, till she laughingly sat with him there. It had been purely accidental, her going out just then, and she remained with inward protest, but Steve could only see in it complete surrender to the ardent suitor.
Mrs. Follet had not yet come out and Mr. Follet turned to Steve, laughing in a pleased way.
"I don"t mind telling you, for I know you are interested," he said confidentially, "that Raymond told me this morning he was simply crazy about her, he couldn"t wait any longer, and was going to pop the question to-night. I s"pose there ain"t much question about it though, for I reckon she"s as much in love as he, though,--as I said, you never can tell."
And he little suspected that what he said seemed to Steve the death-knell to his hopes.
Mr. Follet continued loquaciously: "Raymond"s the greatest fellow I ever saw. Everybody likes him. Why, he"s in with the moonshiners about here hand and glove, and they"re powerful offish. Never saw anything under the cano_pee_ like him. He has big plans too, about some of the land round here which he says is full of coal. He"s looked a little at the Greely Ridge; he thinks that"s the finest piece, but he hasn"t been over it carefully yet--been too much in love, you know," and he laughed contentedly.
Steve made conventional reply, and admitting he was quite tired, went to the little attic for another restless, unhappy night.
If the good fairies had only visited his couch and whispered their story of what was going on under the trees, how sweet would have been his sleep! But they did not.
Next morning Steve announced at the breakfast table that he must be leaving the following morning; a few days off from work for pleasure was all he could take with good grace.
Mr. and Mrs. Follet expressed their regret, while Nancy"s eyes were upon her plate. Mr. Follet was complaining of some sciatic pain, but tried to throw it off with his usual nervous energy.
"Nancy," he said, "you haven"t taken Steve over to Borden"s Cave, which has been discovered since he was here. Why don"t you go this morning?"
"Why, I should be glad to," responded Nancy, and Steve, feeling that her agreement was upon the basis of the old family relationship between them, made no excuse, though he did not doubt, with the fatality of anxious lovers, that the engagement had taken place. The two started off with Gyp and the family horse for a three mile canter, and Steve"s spirit rose with the exhilaration of it in spite of himself.
The cave proved to be a most interesting rock formation and when they had examined it, Steve pointing out some curious scientific facts, they sat down in the quiet woods upon a fallen tree trunk, while the horses grazed.
Nancy looked up at him when they were seated, and said naively:
"How much you have learned in these last busy years!"
"Have I?" said Steve, his eyes brightening. "I am especially glad you think I have used my time well, because I can never forget that it was you who taught me my letters,--even how to spell my name," and he turned kindling eyes upon her.
"Did I?" she said, laughing and flushing.
"Yes," he returned, and a bit of tenderness crept into his voice. "I will never forget how you did it, how picturesquely you characterized the various letters for me, how you thought curly S the very prettiest letter in the alphabet, and how disappointed I was when I found my poor name did not hold a single letter which belonged to yours," and there was such deep pathos in the last words, as he looked far into the distance, that she stirred uneasily and could make no answer.
After a moment he went on: "I suppose I read in it, even then, a prophecy of our future, how yours must be separate from mine. There could be nothing in common."
And still she was dumb; not a word came to her lips. But he seemed to need no reply; a sad meditativeness was stealing upon him which made him oblivious for the moment of his surroundings.
But suddenly setting his lips firmly, he turned and said with forced lightness:
"What a bear bachelorhood makes of a man! I have spent so much time alone the last few years that I am already acquiring the bad habit of thinking my thoughts aloud sometimes. Forgive me, won"t you?" And he turned to her with more in the tone than the simple words could convey.
"I have nothing to forgive," said she, but with an effort,--which he misinterpreted.
Then gathering her wits she repeated, "I have nothing to forgive, but everything for which to thank you. My starting you in the life intellectual cannot compare with your finding me hanging by a mere thread from a tall tree top and restoring me to the life physical, without which my brilliant intellectual attainments would have been as nothing," she ended gaily, breaking the tension which both had felt.
The talk continued to drift near the sacred realm of the heart, however, until the sanct.i.ty of engagement was finally touched upon.
"An engagement is to me a very sacred thing," said Nancy with sweet seriousness, in response to something from Steve. "I have never understood how it could be lightly entered into with only the basis of a brief, gay acquaintance."
Was not that just what she had done? "Oh, consistency, thy name is certainly not woman," thought Steve bitterly. He said:
"Oh, yes, that is good theory, but it is generally overwhelmed by practice when a gay cavalier comes along and takes the maiden heart by storm."
"Perhaps so, with some," returned Nancy quietly, "but so far as I am concerned I do not believe I could be deceived into thinking that a brief, gay acquaintance was sufficient a.s.surance for the binding of two in the tenderest tie of life, when their tastes and ideals might prove to be totally at variance."
Steve"s heart leaped within him. Was she trying to tell him something,--to undeceive him with regard to Raymond and herself?
Impetuous words rose and trembled on his lips, while the thought raced through his brain that it would not be dishonourable to ask if there were the least hope for him. He would not utter another word if she said the sacred tie was already entered into with Raymond.
But Nancy, in the yielding and yet withdrawing which is characteristic of woman and man never fully understands, plunged into a new topic.
Frightened at the plainness of her revelation and almost seeming to divine his purpose, with her brightest talk she led him far afield.
Steve, however, baffled though he was, found memory of that shy look coming back to him insistently, till he suddenly, firmly determined as they rode home once more that Nancy Follet should have the opportunity of accepting or refusing him before he left the place!
XVI
IN THE CRUCIBLE