"It"s not anything to laugh over," his companion continued gravely. "It"s something to ponder and pray over. If I were Maude I should be on my knees about it most of the time."
"Nothing can help her now," said Jack. "Her parents have been and gone and done it, as far as she"s concerned, forever. Prayer won"t change her nose, although age may broaden it still more."
"Don"t you believe that nothing can help her now. A good-looking husband could help her lots. I"ve seen homelier girls than she go just everywhere-on account of their husbands, you know. That was where my philosophy came in."
"I"d quite forgotten your philosophy." He laughed again as he spoke. "I must apologize. Please tell me more about it."
She laughed, too.
"I"m going to. You see, I was lying there, looking out at the moon, and thinking how nice it would be for Maude to marry you."
"Did you consider me at all?" he interposed.
"How you interrupt!" she declared, in exasperation. "You never let me finish."
"I am dumb."
"Well, I thought how nice it would be for Maude to marry you. You"d have a baron for a papa-in-law, and an heiress to balance Aunt Mary with. If you went into consumption and had to retreat to Arizona for a term of years, the climate could not ruin her complexion as it would m-most people"s. And she"s so ready to have you that it"s almost pathetic. I can"t imagine anything more awful than to be as ready to marry a man who is"nt at all desirous of so doing, as Maude is of marrying you. But if you would only think about it. I thought and thought about it last night and the longer I thought the more it seemed like such a nice arrangement all around; and then-all of a sudden-do you know I began to wonder if I was philosopher enough to enjoy being matron-of-honor to Maude and really-"
"At the wedding I could have kissed you!" he exclaimed, and suddenly subsided at the look with which she withered his boldness.
"And really I wasn"t altogether sure; and then, it occurred to me that nothing on the face of the earth would ever persuade you to marry Maude.
And I saw my card castle go smashing down, and then I saw that I really am a philosopher, after all, for-for I didn"t mind a bit!"
Jack threw his head back and roared.
"Oh," he said after a minute, "you are so refreshing. You ruffle me up just to give me the joy of smoothing me down, don"t you?"
"I do what I can to amuse you," she said, demurely. "You are my father"s guest and my brother"s friend, and so I ought to-oughtn"t I?"
"Yes," he said, "I have a two-fold claim on you if you look at it that way and some day I mean to go to work and unfold still another."
They had come to a delightful little nook where the trees sighed gently, "Sit down," and there seemed to be no adequate reason for refusing the invitation.
"Let"s rest, I know you"re tired," the young man said gently, and the next minute found his companion down upon the soft gra.s.s, her back against a twisted tree-root and her hands about her knees.
He threw himself down beside her and the hush and the song of mid-summer were all about them, filling the air, and their ears, and their hearts all at once.
Presently he took her hand up out of the gra.s.s where its fingers had wandered to hide themselves, and kissed it. She looked at him reprovingly when it was too late, and shook her head.
"Such a little one!" he said.
"I call it a pretty big one," she answered.
"I mean the hand-not the kiss," he said smiling.
"You really are sophisticated," she told him. "Only fancy if you had reversed those nouns!"
"I know," he said; "but I"ve kissed hands before. You see, I"m more talented than you think."
"Don"t be silly," she said smiling. "I really am beginning to think very well of you. You don"t want me to cease to, do you?"
"Why do women always say "Don"t be silly"?" he queried. "I wish I could find one who wanted to be very original, and so said, "Do be silly", just for a change."
"Dear me, if women were to beg men to be silly what would happen?" Mrs.
Rosscott exclaimed. "The majority are so very foolish without any special egging on."
"But it is so dreadfully time-worn-that one phrase."
"Oh, if it comes to originality," she answered, "men are not original, either. Whenever they lie down in the shade, they always begin to talk nonsense. You reflect a bit and see if that isn"t invariably so."
"But nonsense is such fun to talk in the shade," he said, spreading her fingers out upon his own broad palm. "So many things are so next to heavenly in the shade."
"You ought not to hold my hand."
"I know it."
"I am astonished that you do not remember your Aunt Mary"s teaching you better."
"She never forbade my holding your hand."
"Suppose anyone should come suddenly down the path?"
"They would see us and turn and go back."
"To tell everyone-"
"What?"
"A lie."
Jack laughed, folded her hand hard in his, and drew himself into a sitting posture beside her knee.
"Now, don"t be silly," she said with earnest anxiety. "I won"t have it.
It"s putting false ideas in your head, because I"m really only playing, you know."
"The shadow of love," he suggested.
"Quite so."
"And if-" He leaned quite near.
"Not by any means," she exclaimed, springing quickly to her feet.
"Come-come! It"s quite time that we were going back to the house."
"Why must we?" he remonstrated.
"You know why," she said. "It"s time we were being sensible. When a man gets as near as you are, I prefer to be _en promenade_. And don"t let us be foolish any longer, either. Let us be cool and worldly. How much money has your aunt, anyhow?"