"Oh, I do!"
"I doubt it. Then, I should say that she seems to have grown up in a place where the interests are so material that a girl who was disposed to be thoughtful would be thrown back upon reading for her society more than in more intellectual centres--if there are such things. She has been so much with books that she does not feel odd in speaking of them as if they were the usual topics of conversation. It gives her a certain quaintness."
"And that is what const.i.tutes her charm?"
"I didn"t know that we were speaking of her charm."
"No, that is true. But I was thinking of it. She fascinates me. Are they going to get off at Boulogne?"
"No, they are going on to Rotterdam."
"To be sure! Boyne told me. And are you going on with them?"
"I thought we talked of my going to Paris." Breckon looked round at her, and she made a gesture of deprecation.
"Why, of course! How could I forget? But I"m so much interested in Miss Kenton that I can"t think of anything else."
"Not even of Miss Rasmith?"
"Not even of Miss Rasmith. I know that she has a history, and that it"s a sad one." She paused in ironical hesitation. "You"ve been so good as to caution me about her brother--and I never can be grateful enough--and that makes me almost free to suggest--"
She stopped again, and he asked, hardily, "What?"
"Oh, nothing. It isn"t for me to remind my pastor, my ghostly adviser"--she pulled down her mouth and glanced at him demurely--"and I will only offer the generalization that a girl is never so much in danger of having her heart broken as when she"s had it broken--Oh, are you leaving me?" she cried, as Breckon rose from his chair.
"Well, then, send Boyne to me." She broke into a laugh as he faltered.
"Are you going to sit down again? That is right. And I won"t talk any more about Miss Kenton."
"I don"t mind talking of her," said Breckon. "Perhaps it will even be well to do so if you are in earnest. Though it strikes me that you have rather renounced the right to criticise me."
"Now, is that logical? It seems to me that in putting myself in the att.i.tude of a final friend at the start, and refusing to be anything more, I leave established my right to criticise you on the firmest basis. I can"t possibly be suspected of interested motives. Besides, you"ve just been criticizing me, if you want a woman"s reason!"
"Well, go on."
"Why, I had finished. That"s the amusing part. I should have supposed that I could go on forever about Miss Kenton, but I have nothing to go upon. She has kept her secret very well, and so have the rest of them.
You think I might have got it out of Boyne? Perhaps I might, but you know I have my little scruples. I don"t think it would be quite fair, or quite nice."
"You are scrupulous. And I give you credit for having been more delicate than I"ve been."
"You don"t mean you"ve been trying to find it out!"
"Ah, now I"m not sure about the superior delicacy!"
"Oh, how good!" said Miss Rasmith. "What a pity you should be wasted in a calling that limits you so much."
"You call it limiting? I didn"t know but I had gone too far."
"Not at all! You know there"s nothing I like so much as those little digs."
"I had forgotten. Then you won"t mind my saying that this surveillance seems to me rather more than I have any right to from you."
"How exquisitely you put it! Who else could have told me to mind my own business so delightfully? Well, it isn"t my business. I acknowledge that, and I spoke only because I knew you would be sorry if you had gone too far. I remembered our promise to be friends."
She threw a touch of real feeling into her tone, and he responded, "Yes, and I thank you for it, though it isn"t easy."
She put out her hand to him, and, as he questioningly took it, she pressed his with animation. "Of course it isn"t! Or it wouldn"t be for any other man. But don"t you suppose I appreciate that supreme courage of yours? There is n.o.body else-n.o.body!--who could stand up to an impertinence and turn it to praise by such humility."
"Don"t go too far, or I shall be turning your praise to impertinence by my humility. You"re quite right, though, about the main matter. I needn"t suppose anything so preposterous as you suggest, to feel that people are best left alone to outlive their troubles, unless they are of the most obvious kind."
"Now, if I thought I had done anything to stop you from offering that sort of helpfulness which makes you a blessing to everybody, I should never forgive myself."
"Nothing so dire as that, I believe. But if you"ve made me question the propriety of applying the blessing in all cases, you have done a very good thing."
Miss Rasmith was silent and apparently serious. After a moment she said, "And I, for my part, promise to let poor little Boyne alone."
Breckon laughed. "Don"t burlesque it! Besides, I haven"t promised anything."
"That is very true," said Miss Rasmith, and she laughed, too.
XVI.
In one of those dramatic reveries which we all hold with ourselves when fortune has pressingly placed us, Ellen Kenton had imagined it possible for her to tell her story to the man who had so gently and truly tried to be her friend. It was mostly in the way of explaining to him how she was unworthy of his friendship that the story was told, and she fancied telling it without being scandalized at violating the conventions that should have kept her from even dreaming of such a thing. It was all exalted to a plane where there was no question of fit or unfit in doing it, but only the occasion; and he would never hear of the unworthiness which she wished to ascribe to herself. Sometimes he mournfully left her when she persisted, left her forever, and sometimes he refused, and retained with her in a sublime kindness, a n.o.ble amity, lofty and serene, which did not seek to become anything else. In this case she would break from her reveries with self-accusing cries, under her breath, of "Silly, silly! Oh, how disgusting!" and if at that moment Breckon were really coming up to sit by her, she would blush to her hair, and wish to run away, and failing the force for this, would sit cold and blank to his civilities, and have to be skilfully and gradually talked back to self-respect and self-tolerance.
The recurrence of these reveries and their consequence in her made it difficult for him to put in effect the promise he had given himself in Miss Rasmith"s presence. If Ellen had been eager to welcome his coming, it would have been very simple to keep away from her, but as she appeared anxious to escape him, and had to be entreated, as it were, to suffer his society, something better than his curiosity was piqued, though that was piqued, too. He believed that he saw her lapsing again into that morbid state from which he had seemed once able to save her, and he could not help trying again. He was the more bound to do so by the ironical observance of Miss Rasmith, who had to be defied first, and then propitiated; certainly, when she saw him apparently breaking faith with her, she had a right to some sort of explanation, but certainly also she had no right to a blind and unreasoning submission from him.
His embarra.s.sment was heightened by her interest in Miss Kenton, whom, with an admirable show of now finding her safe from Breckon"s attractions, she was always wishing to study from his observation. What was she really like? The girl had a perfect fascination for her; she envied him his opportunities of knowing her, and his privileges of making that melancholy face light up with that heart-breaking smile, and of banishing that delicious shyness with which she always seemed to meet him. Miss Rasmith had noticed it; how could she help noticing it?
Breckon wished to himself that she had been able to help noticing it, or were more capable of minding her own business than she showed herself, and his heart closed about Ellen with a tenderness that was dangerously indignant. At the same time he felt himself withheld by Miss Rasmith"s witness from being all to the girl that he wished to be, and that he now seemed to have been in those first days of storm, while Miss Rasmith and her mother were still keeping their cabin. He foresaw that it would end in Miss Rasmith"s sympathetic nature not being able to withhold itself from Ellen"s need of cheerful companionship, and he was surprised, as little as he was pleased, one morning, when he came to take the chair beside her to find Miss Rasmith in it, talking and laughing to the girl, who perversely showed herself amused. Miss Rasmith made as if to offer him the seat, but he had to go away disappointed, after standing long enough before them to be aware that they were suspending some topic while he stayed.
He naturally supposed the topic to be himself, but it was not so, or at least not directly so. It was only himself as related to the scolding he had given Miss Rasmith for trifling with the innocence of Boyne, which she wished Miss Kenton to understand as the effect of a real affection for her brother. She loved all boys, and Boyne was simply the most delightful creature in the world. She went on to explain how delightful he was, and showed a such an appreciation of the infantile sweetness mingled with the mature severity of Boyne"s character that Ellen could not help being pleased and won. She told some little stories of Boyne that threw a light also their home life in Tuskingum, and Miss Rasmith declared herself perfectly fascinated, and wished that she could go and live in Tuskingum. She protested that she should not find it dull; Boyne alone would be entertainment enough; and she figured a circ.u.mstance so idyllic from the hints she had gathered, that Ellen"s brow darkened in silent denial, and Miss Rasmith felt herself, as the children say in the game, very hot in her proximity to the girl"s secret. She would have liked to know it, but whether she felt that she could know it when she liked enough, or whether she should not be so safe with Breckon in knowing it, she veered suddenly away, and said that she was so glad to have Boyne"s family know the peculiar nature of her devotion, which did not necessarily mean running away with him, though it might come to that. She supposed she was a little morbid about it from what Mr.
Breckon had been saying; he had a conscience that would break the peace of a whole community, though he was the greatest possible favorite, not only with his own congregation, which simply worshipped him, but with the best society, where he was in constant request.
It was not her fault if she did not overdo these history, but perhaps it was all true about the number of girls who were ready and willing to marry him. It might even be true, though she had no direct authority for saying it, that he had made up his mind never to marry, and that was the reason why he felt himself so safe in being the nicest sort of friend.
He was safe, Miss Rasmith philosophized, but whether other people were so safe was a different question. There were girls who were said to be dying for him; but of course those things were always said about a handsome young minister. She had frankly taken him on his own ground, from the beginning, and she believed that this was what he liked. At any rate, they had agreed that they were never to be anything but the best of friends, and they always had been.
Mrs. Kenton came and shyly took the chair on Miss Rasmith"s other side, and Miss Rasmith said they had been talking about Mr. Breckon, and she repeated what she had been saying to Ellen. Mrs. Kenton a.s.sented more openly than Ellen could to her praises, but when she went away, and her daughter sat pa.s.sive, without comment or apparent interest, the mother drew a long, involuntary sigh.
"Do you like her, Ellen?"
"She tries to be pleasant, I think."
"Do you think she really knows much about Mr. Breckon?"
"Oh yes. Why not? She belongs to his church."
"He doesn"t seem to me like a person who would have a parcel of girls tagging after him."