"Rose, do you love me?"
As I have said, she had answered that question a thousand times before, but now it took away her voice. She bent her head and commenced her work again, looping up the worsted with desperate haste.
"Why don"t you speak, Rose?"
"I don"t know what to say," she replied, trembling all over.
"Don"t know what to say!" repeated Paul, sitting upright, and turning his startled eyes full upon her. "I ask if you love me, and--oh, Rose, is there a doubt?"
Rose shook her head and bent over her work.
"If I ask this now," said Paul, very earnestly, "it is because I wish to be certain that--that--oh, Rose, why can"t you answer me?"
"I have answered, Paul."
"But you turn away. You will not look at me."
"Yes--see, I do."
His face brightened all over; taking her hand, which he tangled up in the crimson thread in his impetuosity, he pressed it to his lips.
"I am going away, Rose."
"Going away--oh, Paul!"
"Yes; don"t turn so white. I shall come back again in a few months--it is not so far off."
"Where, where?"
She could not complete the sentence, her tears rose so quick and fast.
"I am going back to my old home, Rose, in St. Domingo. My father was a rich man there--one of the first and highest in the island. I can remember that without help, but Jube has told me more than this. He and his brothers, a large family, were all killed in that awful ma.s.sacre.
They had great riches in gold and jewels. I saw piles and piles of gold brought into my father"s house that last week, and heard those gentlemen, my father and his brothers, pledge themselves to defend it each for the other, so long as one of them should live. This compact was not written, but engraved on a brick of gold, that it might be permanent, and carry its own record wherever the treasures went. I was a boy, and too young for a trust of so much magnitude. Where these treasures were put I never knew. My uncles were all killed. My father, my mother--oh, Rose, you know about that. I alone was left of the family. Jube, dear old Jube yonder, is all the servant of our great household. My mother entrusted him with her jewels. They fell into the hands of Captain Thrasher."
Rose uttered a faint cry, and covered her face to hide its shame.
"Don"t, Rose, don"t," said Paul; "I am not blaming any one. Only telling you how it happened that Jube and I became so poor. There was some gold with the jewels, and that Rice made Thrasher give up. It has supported us ever since, for Rice traded with it, and kept it growing, good fellow. But that is very little, Rose. It kept us from being a burden here, but what would it amount to when--when--"
"When what, Paul?"
"When you and I are married, Rose."
The young girl drew a quick breath. The crochet hook fell from her hand--her arms, neck and face were bathed in blushes.
"Have you never thought of this, Rose?" said Paul, tenderly.
"I don"t--don"t know, Paul."
"But you will think of it?"
"Yes--yes."
"All the while I am gone?"
"Gone!" The tears that had been trembling in her eyes dropped to the roses on her cheek. He saw her grief and exulted in it.
"Jube knows where those treasures were buried. It was a safe place, deep in the vaults under my father"s house. The negroes would never search there. Jube will go with me; we shall find all this gold, and then, Rose, then--"
She looked up, piteously.
"I don"t care for gold; I hate jewels; from that day I have hated them.
Don"t go, Paul; I shall die before you come back."
"But we must live. When your father comes from the Indies, I cannot ask for his daughter without some way of earning or giving her bread. Those treasures belong to me. I am the last heir of our house. It is for your sake I shall search for them."
"No, no; I am afraid. There may be another shipwreck," cried the young girl, wringing her hands.
"Hush, hush, Rose! Jube is looking this way; the old fellow will wonder what we are talking about."
"But--but you wont go, Paul? It is too cruel."
"Not till you consent. You are my queen now, Rose, and shall keep or send me as you like."
She brightened with a sudden thought.
"Wait till father comes," she said, dashing her tears right and left with those white hands, "and then we can all go together--that is, if father has not money enough of his own."
Paul pressed her hand again gratefully, as if she had indeed reigned his queen, and once more they sunk into the old att.i.tude, save that she did not pretend to work, and Paul no longer vailed the joy in his eyes.
They did not hear the rattle of wheels, or know that a wagon had stopped at the parsonage; thus when Jube came hurriedly from his work in the garden, with intelligence in his face, Rose received him with a pretty pout, and Paul inquired rather sharply what he wanted coming upon them in that rude way.
Poor Jube was quite taken aback. Never in his whole life had he been so received by the young people; the joyful words were driven from his lips, and he stood mutely gazing at them like a Newfoundland dog rebuked for too much spirit.
"What did you want?" inquired Paul, self-rebuked and softened.
"Why, nothing, master, only Tom has just got out of the wagon and is coming this way."
"Tom! What--Tom Hutchins?"
"Yes, master; that"s him coming through the kitchen door."
Rose started up all in commotion. The idea of meeting her rustic boy lover just then filled her with dismay. But there was no escape. He was half across the meadow, making directly for the apple tree. A fine, powerful young fellow he certainly was--broad-chested and stout of limb--but there was the same frank face, the same freckles on the cheeks, the same laughing blue eyes. He came up a little awkwardly, not exactly knowing how to use his arms in walking, and halted a few yards from Rose in blank astonishment at her beauty. She went toward him at once holding out her hands.
CHAPTER LXXIII.
OUT OF A Sc.r.a.pE.