Belle Makes a Decision and Jim Evades One
It was late on Wednesday afternoon. Belle was working at the sewing machine in the back room of the Boyd home when there was a familiar knock at the front door. She was not unprepared for it and yet she dreaded this inevitable interview. Lowe had been pointedly cold for some time. He had been to the house only once in the past month and he had made it quite plain that Hartigan was the objectionable figure in the horizon. Belle realized that their relations had come to a crisis. She had not admitted frankly to herself what she would do when this talk took place, but in her heart there was not the slightest doubt.
At the sound of his step and knock she went into the parlour, closing the door into the rear room to insure some measure of privacy, and then admitted Jack. His greeting had the obvious air of a man who has been wronged. For a while, with characteristic obliquity, he talked of his school work. Belle sewed meanwhile, asking occasional questions. After a quarter of an hour of this the conversation languished. Belle was determined that he should open the subject himself, and in the awkward pause that ensued she busied herself basting up a lining for her frock.
At last, clearing his throat, Lowe began:
"Belle, I"ve got something else to say to you."
She looked at him squarely, the direct gaze of her clear, dark eyes in striking contrast with his close-lidded, shifting glance. He went on:
"I think that you and the new preacher are going too far and it had better stop now."
"Just what do you mean, Jack? What do you accuse me of, exactly?"
From the very beginning of their friendship he had always writhed under the directness of her mental processes. He was ever for evasion, indirection; she for frank, open dealing in all things. He tried to retreat.
"I"m not accusing you of anything."
"No, but of _something_," she replied with a faint smile. "What is it?"
"There"s a lot of talk about town--about you and Hartigan. It makes me a laughing stock. If we weren"t engaged----"
Belle interrupted:
"That"s just what I want to speak about. I"ve been wanting to have a frank talk with you for some time, Jack, and we may as well have it now.
"I have always liked you and you have been awfully attentive and helpful to me. I thought I was in love with you, but you know that when we had our talk a year ago, I begged you not to make an announcement and when you insisted on telling a few friends it was agreed that I was to have a year to decide finally. That was why I never wore your ring." She drew a box from her breast and held it out to him.
"We have both made a mistake, Jack. I made the worst one when I allowed you to over-persuade me a year ago; but we are not going to spoil two lives by going on with it."
Lowe"s mind was not of particularly fine calibre. For some months, whenever he faced the truth, he had realized that he would never marry Belle. He was fond of her to the extent possible in a nature such as his and he was keenly alive to the financial advantage of becoming Boyd"s son-in-law. His past history would not bear close inspection and latterly some of his youthful vices had come to light and to life. He knew only too well what a marriage into the Boyd family would do for his fortunes, financially and socially, and a dull rage of several weeks"
nursing burned in him against Hartigan. As he took his hat to depart he was foolish enough to speak what was in his mind. He uttered a silly attack on the Preacher. It moved Belle and brought the colour to her face. His bitter comments on their own relations had not called forth any response from her, but this shaft went home, as he meant it should.
She controlled herself and merely remarked:
"I would not say that; it might get to his ears."
And so he departed.
It was on that same afternoon that Hartigan had a new and, to him, terrifying experience in the dangerous world of the emotions.
He had ridden forth to make a pastoral call at the Hoomer homestead, out on the plain five miles northeast of Cedar Mountain. When first he glimpsed the house among the low log stables, there were two women in sight; when he came to the door and entered, there was but one, the mother. Half an hour later, the daughter, Lou-Jane, appeared arrayed for conquest. She was undeniably handsome, in spite of a certain coa.r.s.eness that made Hartigan subtly uneasy, though he could not have told why. She was of the rare vigorous type that is said to have appeared in Ireland after many survivors of the great Armada were washed ash.o.r.e on the rugged western coast. The mingling of the Irish and Spanish blood in her had resulted in black eyes, black eyebrows, and red, or golden-red hair, combined with a clear, brilliant Irish complexion. She was lively, energetic, rather clever, and tremendously taken with the new preacher.
Jim was naturally shy with women, as most big men seem to be, and the masterful Lou-Jane smote him with utter confusion. She prattled on about the tea, about the church, the Rev. Dr. Jebb, the local people, the farm, national politics, dry-farming, horses, cows and alfalfa, with the definite purpose of finding out his interests. Getting the best response on the topic of horses, she followed it up.
"You must come and see my pony. He"s a beauty. I got first prize on him as girl rider at the fair last year. I"m so glad you like horses."
She laid her hand on his arm a dozen times to guide him here or there; she took his hand at last and held on, to his utter embarra.s.sment, long after he had helped her over a fence, and looked disappointed when she got no flirtatious response. She led out her saddle pony and laughingly said:
"Here, give me a hand."
Grasping her raised foot, he lifted her with a sweep to the pony"s bare back.
"My, you"re strong," was her flattering comment, and she swung the hackima and loped the pony round the field and back to the stable, delighted to see in his eye a frank glow of admiration for her skill.
"Will you lift me down?" she said merrily; not that she had the least need of help, but she liked to feel those strong arms about her; and as he did so, she made herself quite unnecessarily limp and clinging.
Jim did not usually lack words, but Lou-Jane was so voluble that he was completely silenced. At the stable, where Ma Hoomer was milking, Lou-Jane delayed for a moment to whisper: "Stay here till I come for you."
Then she tripped on with Jim at her heels. As they entered the house Hartigan looked at his watch.
"Now please don"t hurry," said Lou-Jane. "Ma"ll be back in a few minutes, then we"ll have a cup of tea. Sit here; you"ll find it more comfortable," and she motioned to a sofa.
Sitting down beside him so that they were very close together and giving the archest of smiles, she said:
"I wonder if I might ask you a question."
"Why, sure," said Jim, just a little uneasy at the warmth of the tone.
He had instincts, if not experience.
"Were you ever in love?" she said softly. Her arm, resting on the back of the sofa, moved accidentally and lay across his shoulder.
"Why, no--I--no--I guess not," and Hartigan turned red and uncomfortable.
"I wish you would let me be your friend," she continued. "I do like you very much, you know. I want to be your friend and I can help you in so many ways."
She leaned toward him, and Jim, being more terrified than he had ever been, murmured something inarticulate about "not being a lady"s man."
What he would have done to effect his escape he was never afterward able to decide. A spell of helplessness was upon him, when suddenly a heavy step was heard outside and Pa Hoomer"s voice calling:
"Ma, Ma! Who"s left that corral gate open?"
Lou-Jane sprang up, shook her bright hair from her flushed face, and with a hasty apology went to meet her father. The Preacher also rose with inexpressible relief, and, after a hurried farewell, he mounted and rode away.
CHAPTER XVIII
The Second Bylow Spree
Woman to-day reverences physical prowess just as much as did her cave forebears, and she glories in the fact that her man is a strong, fighting animal, even though she recognizes the value of other gifts.
Belle was no exception to this human rule; and her eyes sparkled as she listened to Jim"s story of that unusual prayer meeting held in the Bylow cabin. It was Hartigan"s nature always to see the humorous side of things, and his racy description of the big man with the knife, down on his knees with one eye on the door and the other on the Preacher, was irresistible, much funnier than the real thing. It gave her a genuine thrill, a woman"s pleasure in his splendid physical strength.
"Sure," he said with his faint delicious brogue, "it was distasteful to have to annoy them, but there are times when one has to do what he doesn"t like."