She touched Miss Lady"s tumbled tawny hair with her own gentle hand.
"My girl," said she, "my dear girl; and you never knew your own mother? You never knew what that was? My dear, it is very sweet to have a mother."
Miss Lady, knowing no better thing, kissed her impulsively, and the older lady drew her close, in such communion as only women may understand. Mrs. Eddring again touched lightly the red-brown hair. "I never had a daughter," said she. "I"ve only a boy. That"s my boy there."
Eddring, who had meantime taken Cherry"s bridle rein, was now walking on in advance toward the lane that led to the house. The girl caught the old lady"s hands in her own, and then threw her arms about the thin figure in a swift embrace. So, arm in arm, they also turned toward the lane; and which was then welcoming the other home neither could have said.
CHAPTER XXII
AMENDE HONORABLE
"Well, what do you want, boy?" Blount gruffly asked of Eddring on the morning after his arrival. "Are you on a still hunt for that Congressional nomination?"
"No, it"s of a heap more importance than that," said Eddring.
"Humph! Maybe. Bill, oh, _Bill_! Here, you go and get the big gla.s.s mug, and a bunch of mint. Come out here, Eddring. Sit down on the board-pile in the shade--I"ve been going to build a roof on my doghouse with these boards as long as I can remember."
They had just seated themselves upon the board-pile, and were waiting for Bill with the mint when Eddring looked up and smiled. "Who"s that coming?" he asked, pointing down the lane.
"That? Why, I reckon that"s Jim Bowles and his wife, Sar" Ann. They come up once in a while to get a little milk, when they ain"t too durn tired. Their cow--why, say, it was a good many years ago your blamed railroad killed that cow. They never did get another one since. And that reminds me, Mr. John Eddring--that reminds _me_--"
He fumbled in the wallet which he drew from his pocket, and produced an old and well-creased bit of paper. "Look here," said he, "you owe me for that filly of mine yet. That old railroad never did settle at all. Here it is. Fifty dollars."
"I thought it was fifteen," said Eddring, with twinkling eyes.
"That"s what I said," replied Blount, solemnly, as he tore the paper in bits and dropped them at his feet. "I said fifteen! Anyway I"m in no humor to be a-quarreling about a little thing like that. Why, man, I"m just beginning to enjoy life. We"re going to make a big crop of cotton this year, I"ve got the best pack of b"ah-dogs I ever did have yet, and there"s more b"ah out in the woods than you ever did see."
"I suppose your ladies leave you once in a while, to go down to New Orleans?" inquired Eddring.
"No, _sir!_ New Orleans no more," said Blount. "Why, you know, just as a business precaution, I bought that house down there that Madame Delcha.s.se used to own. It"s sort of in the family now. Shut off that running down to New Orleans."
"Well, how does Madame Delcha.s.se like that?" asked Eddring.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "MAY I DEPEND? TELL ME, GIRL. I CANNOT WAIT."]
"Man," said Blount, earnestly, "there"s some things that seem to be sort of settled by fate--couldn"t come out no other way. Do you suppose for one minute that I"m going to allow to get away from me the only woman I ever did see that could cook b"ah meat fit to eat?
Well, I reckon not! Besides, what she can do to most anything is simply enough to scare you. She can take common crawfish, like the n.i.g.g.e.rs catch all around here--and a sh.e.l.l off of a mussel, and out of them two things she makes what she calls a "kokeeyon of eckriveese," and--_say, man_! You bet your bottom dollar Madame Delcha.s.se ain"t going to get away from here. Don"t matter a d.a.m.n if she _ain"t_ got over putting hair-oil in her c.o.c.ktails, like they do at New Orleans--we won"t fall out about that, either. I don"t have to drink "em. Only thing, she calls a cussed old catfish a "poisson."
That"s when we begin to tangle some. But taking it all in all--up one side and down the other--I never did know before what _good_ cooking meant. Why she"s _got_ to cook--she"d die if she didn"t cook. Her go back to New Orleans?--well, I reckon not!
"Why, say," continued Blount, "don"t it sometimes seem that luck sort of runs in streaks in this world? All cloudy, then out comes the sun--lovely world! Now, for one while it looked like things were pretty cloudy down here. But the sun"s done come out again. Everything"s all right, here at the Big House, now, sure"s you"re born. We"ll go out and get a b"ah to-morrow. Come on, let"s go see the dogs."
"Well, you know, I must be getting back to business before long,"
began Eddring.
"Business, what business?" protested Colonel Blount. "Say, have you asked that girl yet?" He was fumbling at the gate latch as he spoke, or he might have seen Eddring"s face suddenly flush red.
"Whom do you mean?" he managed to stammer.
Blount whirled and looked him full in the eye. "You know mighty well who I mean."
Eddring turned away. "I told you, Cal,"--he began.
"Oh, you _told_ me! Well I could have told _you_ a long time ago that Miss Lady had this whole thing straightened out in her head. Do you reckon she"s a fool? I don"t reckon she thinks you"re a thief any more. I reckon like enough she thinks you"re just a supreme d.a.m.ned _fool._ I know _I_ do."
"Turn "em loose, Cal!" cried Eddring, suddenly. "Open the gates! Let "em out! I want to hear "em holler!" The pack poured out, motley, vociferous, eager for the chase, filling the air with their wild music, with a riot of primeval, savage life. "Get me a horse saddled, Cal, quick," cried Eddring. "I want to feel leather under me again. I want to feel the air in my ears. I"ve got to ride, to move! Man, I"m going to _live_!"
"Now," said Blount, rubbing his chin, "you"re beginning to _talk_. The man that don"t like a good b"ah chase once in a while is no earthly use to me."
But Eddring did not ride to the far forest that day. A good horseman, and now well mounted, he made a handsome figure as he galloped off across the field. As he rode, his eye searched here and there, till it caught sight of the flash of a scarlet jacket beyond a distant screen of high green brier. He put his horse over the rail fence and pulled up at her side.
"You ride well," said Miss Lady, critically. "I didn"t know that. Why didn"t you tell me?"
"There have been a good many things about me that you didn"t know,"
said Eddring, "and there"s a heap of things I haven"t told you."
Knowing in the instant now that a time of accounting had come, she looked at him miserably, her eyes downcast, her hands fiddling with the reins.
"But then, Miss Lady, you didn"t know; it wasn"t your fault," he added quickly.
"Oh," said the girl, impulsively taming toward him, her face very red, "I am so sorry, I am so _sorry_! To think of all you have done for us, for me. Why, every bit of safety and happiness in my life has come through you. I have felt that, and wanted _so_ long to tell you and to thank you. You--you didn"t come!"
"Never mind, never mind," said Eddring, wishing now nothing in the world so much as that he might have spared her this confession. "I"ve come now--oh, my girl, I"ve come now."
"All this time," said she, evading as long as she might, "you were trying, you were working, all alone. Mr. Eddring, it was not merely kind of you, it was n.o.ble!" And now poor Miss Lady flushed even more hotly than ever, though her heart was lighter for the truth thus told.
Eddring looked straight on down the road ahead of them, the road which broke the rim of the forest toward which they had now unconsciously faced. At length he turned toward her.
"Miss Lady," said he, simply, "I have loved you so much, so very much. I"ve always loved you. I didn"t dare admit it to myself for a long time; but it"s run away with me now, absolutely and for ever. I can"t look at life--I can"t turn any way--I can"t think of _anything_ in which I don"t see you. It"s been this way a long time, but now I"m gone. I can"t pull up. Miss Lady, I _couldn"t_ go back now and begin life over again alone. I couldn"t do that now. I wouldn"t want to make you unhappy, ever. Do you think, oh, _don"t_ you think that you could depend on me? Don"t you think you could love me?"
Miss Lady"s eyes were cast down, and her hands were busy at the reins which she shifted between her fingers. Cherry walked slowly and still more slowly, until at length Eddring laid his hand upon the bridle, and Cherry turned about an inquiring eye. He reached out his hand and took in it the small, gray-gloved one which had half-loosed its grasp upon the rein.
"Miss Lady," he whispered. And then slowly the girl lifted her eyes and looked full at him--her eyes now grown soft and gentle.
"Yes," said she, "I can depend," Her voice was very low. Yet the woman-whisper reached to the edge of all the universe--a universe robbed of its last secret by the woman-soul. "I can see you clearly,"
said Miss Lady, softly. "I see your heart. Yes. I am sure. I understand--I know now who I am. And I know--I know it all. All!"
"But do you love me!" he demanded; and now Cherry"s nose was drawn quite over the neck of Jerry. Miss Lady would not answer that, but turned away her face, which was now very pink. "Tell me," he demanded, frowning in his own earnestness, and catching the bridle hand in a stern clasp, "may I depend? Tell me, girl. I can not wait."
There was a gentle breeze among the tree-tops. A mocker near by trilled and gurgled. Eddring leaned forward. It seemed to him he heard a whisper which told him that he might be sure.
THE END