"What did happen?" he asked.
"The brake-rod broke; the pole-strap gave way; it was all in a heap in a minute. I saw it was no use; I had to jump. And then I thought of you. I"m glad you saw me, sir. You know I was sober."
"I know you were sober, and managing most skillfully. I had been saying that."
"Thank you, sir. It"s an awful job."
"Hark!" said Sylvie. "There"s the man with the trunks."
"I forgot all about him," said Rodney.
"That"s a fact," said the teamster. "Turn down here, to let him by.
Hallo!"
"Hallo! Come to grief?"
"We just have, then. Go ahead, will you, and bring back--_something to shoot with_," he added, in a lower tone, and coming close,--remembering Sylvie. "I had a crow-bar, but it"s lost in the jumble. I"ll stay here, now."
The wagon drove by, rapidly. The man led his horse down by the wall, to wait there. Sylvie and Rodney, hand in hand, walked on.
Sylvie shivered with the horrible excitement; her teeth chattered; a nervous trembling was taking hold of her.
Rodney put his arm round her again. "Don"t tremble, dear," he said.
"O, Rodney! What were we kept alive for?"
"For each other," whispered Rodney.
CHAPTER x.x.xV.
HILL-HOPE.
They were sitting together, the next day, on the rock below the cascade, in the warm sunshine.
Aunt Euphrasia knew all about it; Aunt Euphrasia had let them go down there together. She was as content as Rodney in the thing that could not now be helped.
"I"ve broken my promise," said Rodney to Sylvie. "I agreed with my father that I wouldn"t be engaged for two years."
"Why, we aren"t engaged,--yet,--are we?" asked Sylvie, with bewitching surprise.
"I don"t know," said Rodney, his old, merry, mischievous twinkle coming in the corners of his eyes, as he flashed them up at her. "I think we"ve got the refusal of each other!"
"Well. We"ll keep it so. We"ll wait. You shall not break any promise for me," said Sylvie, still sweetly obtuse.
"I"m satisfied with that way of looking at it," said Rodney, laughing out. "Unless--you mean to be as cunning about everything else, Sylvie. In that case, I don"t know; I"m afraid you"d be dangerous."
"I wonder if I"m always going to be dangerous to you," said Sylvie, gravely, taking up the word. "I always get you into an accident."
"When we take matters quietly, the way they were meant to go, we shall leave off being hustled, I suppose," said Rodney, just as gravely. "There has certainly been intent in the way we have been--thrown together!"
"I don"t believe you ought to say such things, Rodney,--yet! You are talking just as if"--
"We weren"t waiting. O, yes! I"m glad you invented that little temporary arrangement. But it"s a difficult one to carry out. I shall be gladder when my father comes. I"m tired of being Casabianca. I don"t see how we can talk at all. Mayn"t I tell you about a little house there is at Arlesbury, with a square porch and a three-windowed room over it, where anybody could sit and sew--among plants and things--and see all up and down the road, to and from the mills? A little brown house, with turf up to the door-stone, and only a hundred dollars a year? Mayn"t I tell you how much I"ve saved up, and how I like being a real working man with a salary, just as you liked being one of the Other Girls?"
"Yes; you may tell me that; that last," said Sylvie, softly. "You may tell me anything you like about yourself."
"Then I must tell you that I never should have been good for anything if it hadn"t been for you."
"O, dear!" said Sylvie. "I don"t see how we _can_ talk. It keeps coming back again. I"ve had all those plants kept safe that you sent me, Rodney," she began, briskly, upon a fresh tack.
"Those very ivies? Ah, the little three-windowed room!"
"Rodney! I didn"t think you were so unprincipled!" said Sylvie, getting up. "I wouldn"t have come down here, if I had known there was a promise! I shall certainly help you keep it. I shall go away."
She turned round, and met a gentleman coming down along the slope of the smooth, broad rock.
"Mr. Sherrett!--Rodney!"
Rodney sprang to his feet.
"My boy! How are you?"
"Father! When--how--did you come?"
"I came to Tillington by the late train last night, and have just driven over. I went to Arlesbury yesterday."
"But the steamer! She wasn"t due till Sunday. You sailed the _ninth_?"
"No. I exchanged pa.s.sages with a friend who was detained in London.
I came by the Palmyra. But you don"t let me speak to Sylvie."
He p.r.o.nounced her name with a kind emphasis; he had turned and taken her hand, after the first grasp of Rodney"s.
"Father, I"ve broken my promise; but I don"t think anybody could have helped it. You couldn"t have helped it yourself."
"I"ve seen Aunt Euphrasia. I"ve been here almost an hour. I have thanked G.o.d that nothing is broken _but_ the promise, Rodney; and I think the term of that was broken only because the intent had been so faithfully kept. I"m satisfied with _one_ year. I believe all the rest of your years will be safer and better for having this little lady to promise to, and to help you keep your word."
And he bent down his splendid gray head, with the dark eyes looking softly at her, and kissed Sylvie on the forehead.
Sylvie stood still a moment, with a very lovely, happy, shy look upon her downcast face; then she lifted it up quickly, with a clear, earnest expression.
"I hope you think, Mr. Sherrett,--I hope you feel sure,"--she said, "that I wouldn"t have been engaged to Rodney while there was a promise?"
"Not more than you could possibly help," said Mr. Sherrett, smiling.