The Hoomers had come to be prominent in the church now--at least, Ma Hoomer and Lou-Jane had. It was Lou-Jane"s doing. And Hartigan, after long delay, felt bound to pay them a pastoral visit. Lou-Jane was heartiness and propriety combined. She chatted gaily on every subject he opened; showed no forwardness; was even shy when, after dinner, he sat down near her. Her riding at the racetrack was vividly in his mind and she blushed quite prettily when he referred to it in admiration.
"You should see my pony take a fence," she said.
"Well, sure; that"s what I"d like to see," was the response.
"Some day soon, maybe."
"Why not now?" he inquired.
"I must help mother with the dishes."
And he thought: "Isn"t she fine? I like a girl to consider her mother."
But he lingered and chatted till the dishes were washed; then he suggested: "If I go out and saddle your pony, will you show me that jump?"
"Certainly," she answered, with a merry laugh.
He went to the stable, saddled and brought the bay horse. Lou-Jane put her foot in the stirrup and swung into the saddle before he could offer his help.
"Drop all the bars but the middle one." Hartigan did so, leaving only the three-foot bar of the pasture. Lou-Jane circled off and cleared it without an effort.
"Raise it one," she shouted.
He did so, and over she went.
"Again."
Now, at four feet, the pony rose and went over.
"Another," and he raised to four and a half feet. As before, she and her pony sailed over like one creature.
"Again," and he raised it to five feet. The pony rose with just a hint of effort. One front hoof touched, but he made the jump in triumph.
Lou-Jane laughed for joy and circled back, but, warned by that toe tap, jumped no more. She leaped from the saddle before Jim could come near to help and in his frank, beaming admiration she found what once she had hungered for in vain.
As he rode away that day, his unvoiced thought was: "Isn"t she fine--and me misjudging her all the time! I"m ashamed of myself."
Lou-Jane watched him out of sight, waving a hand to him as he topped the hill. The visit and Hartigan"s open delight in her riding had stirred her very much. Was it loyalty to Belle that led her to throw up a barrier between herself and the Preacher? or was it knowledge that the flowers are ever fairest in the fenced-in field? This much was sure, the interest of pa.s.sing attraction was giving place to a deeper feeling. A feeling stronger every month. Lou-Jane was in the game to win; and was playing well.
August, bright and fruit-giving, was pa.s.sing; September was near with its dryness, its payments on the springtime promises; and Belle, as she gazed at the radiant sky or the skurrying prairie dogs that tumbled, yapping, down their little craters, was tormented with the flight of the glowing months. In October the young Preacher and she must say good-bye for a long, long time, with little chance of any break till his course was completed, and he emerged a graduate of Coulter. That was a gloomy thought. But others of equal dread had come of late.
Hartigan was paying repeated pastoral calls at Hoomers" and last week Jim and Lou-Jane had ridden to Fort Ryan together. It was a sort of challenge race--on a dare--and Jim had told Belle all about it before and after; but just the same, they had ridden there and back and, evidently, had a joyful time.
Jim was a child. He always thought of himself as a coa.r.s.e, cruel, rough brute; but really he was as soft-hearted as a woman; and, outside of his fighting mood, nothing pained him more than the idea of making any one unhappy. His fighting moods were big and often; but they had existence only in the world of men. He believed himself very wise in the ways of life, but he had not really begun to see, and he was quite sublimely unconscious of all the forces he was setting in motion by his evident pleasure in the horsemanship of Lou-Jane Hoomer and in their frequent rides together.
Lou-Jane had a voice of some acceptability and she was easily persuaded to join the choir. A cla.s.s in Sunday-school was added to her activities, and those who believed the religious instinct to be followed closely by another on a lower plane, began to screw up their eyes and smile when Lou-Jane appeared with Jim.
The glorious September of the hills was waning when a landslide was started by a single sentence from Lou-Jane. She had ridden again with Jim to Fort Ryan. Her horse had cleared a jump that his had shied at.
Mrs. Waller had said to her across the table, half in fun and meaning it every word:
"See here, I won"t have you trifling with Mr. Hartigan"s affections; remember, he"s preempted."
Lou-Jane laughed with delight. And, looking very handsome all the while, she said with mock humility: "No one would consider me a rival."
Jim told Belle every word of it; he was simplicity itself in such things; he didn"t seem to have any idea of the game. He was wholly oblivious of the little cloud which his anecdote left on her. It was a little cloud, but many little clouds can make a canopy of gloom and beget a storm. Then came the words. It was at one of the church evenings in the parsonage--a regular affair, but not soaring to the glorious heights of a sociable--that the words were uttered which wrought a mighty change. Jim had alluded to the inevitable journey East in October, not half a month ahead now, when Lou-Jane Hoomer announced "I"m going East, too. My dad is giving me a trip back to Rochester to see grandma," she said.
"Why, Rochester is just a little run across the lake from Coulter College," exclaimed Jim.
"Maybe I"ll see you when I am there," said Lou-Jane. "What fun!"
Every one applauded and Jim said: "Well, that would make a pleasant change in the dreary grind."
Belle"s only comment was, "How nice!" and she gave no sign of special interest; but a close observer might have seen a tightening of her lips, a sudden tensity of look. The merry chatter of the parlour ceased not and she seemed still a factor in all its life, but the iron had entered her very soul. She played her part as leader, she gave no outward sign of the agony of fear that filled her heart, but she took the earliest reasonable time to signal Jim and steal away.
CHAPTER XLV
The Life Game
Trump cards you must have to win in the life game; and you must know how to play them, or a much poorer hand may beat you. You must know the exact time to play your highest trump, and there is no general rule that is safe, but Belle had a woman"s instinctive knowledge of the game.
In two weeks Jim was to leave Cedar Mountain. Belle had reasoned with him, coaxed him, cajoled him into seeing that that was the right trail for him. He must complete his college course, then they could marry with the sanction of the Church and be a.s.sured of a modest living. But the rules were strict; no ungraduated student might marry. The inadequacy of the stipend, the necessity for singleness of aim and thought, the imperative need of college atmosphere--these were absolute. Viewed from any standpoint, celibacy was the one wise condition for the untrained student.
It had taken all of Belle"s power to make Jim face the horror of those cla.s.srooms in the far East; and from time to time his deep repulsion broke into expression. Then she would let him rage for a while, chew the bit, froth and rail till his mood was somewhat spent. And when the inevitable reaction set in she would put her arm about him and would show him that the hard way was surely the best way, and then paint a bright picture of their future together when his rare gifts as an orator should bring him fame, and secure a position in the highest ranks of the Church. Thus she had persuaded him, holding out the promise that every vacation should be spent with her; curbing her own affections, even as she had curbed his, she walked the path of wisdom--determined, resigned--in the knowledge that this was the way to win. And Jim had come to face it calmly now, even as she had done. The minute details of the plan were being filled in. Then came those little words from Lou-Jane.
Had Jim been a worldly-wise person with many girl friends and a mouth full of flattery for them all, Belle would have paid no attention to the proposed visit of Lou-Jane to Rochester. Knowing Jim as she did, and having a very shrewd idea of Lou-Jane"s intentions, Belle realized that this was a crisis, the climax of her life and hopes, that everything that made her life worth while was staked on the very next move.
She said little as they walked home from the parsonage, but her hand, locked in his arm, clung just a little more than usual, and he was moved by the tenderness of her "Good-night."
Little she slept that night; but tossed and softly moaned, "That woman, that coa.r.s.e, common woman! How _can_ he see anything in her? She is nothing but an animal. And yet, what may happen if he is East and she is playing around, with me far away? It cannot be. I know what men are. Now he is mine; but, if I let him go far away and she follows----
"It cannot be! It must not be--at any price, I must stop it. I must hold him."
And she tossed and moaned, "At any price! At any price! I"d do anything----"
The simple, obvious plan was to put him under promise never to see or hear from Lou-Jane; but her pride and her instincts rebelled at the thought. "What? Admit that there was danger from that creature? No, no--why, that would have just the wrong effect on him; she would become doubly interesting; no, that would not do. She would ignore that--that--that snake. And then what?
"At any price, this must be stopped"; and out of the whirling maelstrom of her thoughts came this: "If I cannot keep her from going, I"ll go, too!" How? In what capacity? Belle knew enough of his mind to be sure that however the plan was carried out, it would shock his ideas of propriety and be a losing game.
Lou-Jane was playing better than she was, and it maddened her ever more as she realized that the present plans could end only in one way--the way that she, at any price, must stop. And in the hours of tumult, of reasoning every course out to its bitter end, this at length came clear: There was but one way--that was _marry him now_. It was that or wreck the happiness upon which both their lives had been built. And yet that meant ruin to his whole career. She, herself, had told him so a hundred times. "He must go back to college. He must not marry till his three years were completed." These were her very words.
It seemed that ruin of his hopes was in one scale; ruin of hers in the other. And she tried to pray for light and guidance; but there do seem to be times when the Lord is not interested in our problems; at least, no light or guidance of the kind she sought for came.
And she wrought herself up into a state of desperation. "At any price, this must stop," she kept saying over and over. Every expedient was turned in her mind and its outcome followed as far as she could; and ever it came back to this--her hopes or his were to be sacrificed.
"_I will not let him go_," she said aloud, with all the force of a strong will become reckless. "It would certainly be my grave; but it need not be his. There are other colleges and other ways. I"m not afraid of that. At any price, I must keep him. I"ll marry him now. We"ll be married at once. That will settle it."