Martha remembered what Pearl had said about the English girl who had changed her mind coming over on the boat, and, making an excuse about having dinner to see to, went down stairs and sent Pearl up to Thursa. Pearl would get at the true state of affairs quicker than any one else.
"Did you have a pleasant journey?" Pearl asked, when she went upstairs.
"Oh, rather!" said Thursa. "It was simply heavenly to be away any place without an aunt. I was just telling Martha I have three of them--Aunt Honora, Aunt Constance, and Aunt Prudence. They have dangled their money over my head for years, but I don"t care now if I never get it. They"ve always done everything for me. They picked out Arthur for me because his uncle is a bishop, and they do adore bishops."
"But didn"t you like Arthur first--yourself--anyway?" Pearl exclaimed, hanging on to the chair in her excitement.
Thursa pursed her pretty lips. "Well enough--oh, yes, real well--and I liked him awfully when he decided to come to Canada--it was so splendid and dashing of him, I thought, and I was simply wild to come, too, for the adventures!"
"The what?" Pearl asked.
"The adventures. It must be perfectly jolly to chase Indians and buffaloes and bears. Wouldn"t it be a lark to send one home?"
Pearl winked hard, wondering if it was an Indian, a buffalo, or a bear she wanted to send home.
After dinner, for which Arthur stayed, Thursa said she believed she would take a rest--she had so many letters to write, too, to people she met on shipboard, and such delightful people.
Arthur begged to be let stay "a little while longer, but Thursa said very, decidedly he must go now and not come back until the next evening, for she really must get her letters done--there was one in particular that must be sent by next post. "Do you know a Mr. Smeaton in Brandon," she asked, "Mr. Jack Smeaton?"
Arthur did not know him.
"He was on the boat and was so jolly! He was teaching me Canadian words. We did have good fun over it. He told me to be sure and let him know how I liked you when I saw you."
Arthur winced.
"I said I would come and see anyway, for I said I couldn"t believe you had changed so very much in two years. He said it was always well to take thirty days to consider any serious step, and he taught me the word for it--"a thirty days" option"--that"s it, Arthur. That"s what I have on you!"
She laughed merrily, but Arthur pleaded with her not to say such things.
Then Thursa became very serious. "Now, Arthur, for heaven"s sake,"
she said, "don"t act like the aunts. That"s what I"ve listened to all my life. Calm yourself, my de-ar. That"s what I"ve run away from. I might as well have stayed with them if you"re going to do it. It"s wicked of you, Arthur, it really is, to scold me, when I came so far just to see you, and when you know how tired I am."
Pearl and Martha retired hastily to the kitchen.
Arthur apologized in due form and Thursa"s good-humour came back.
"Now, then, Arthur, run along, because I am going to have a long sleep, and then I have some very serious thinking to do. The aunts said that is what I am incapable of doing, but I"ve done some that would have surprised them if they had just heard me at it. Now I am going to do some more. It"s so horrible to be in a quandary. It is as bad as it was when I was choosing a gown for my first party; I lay awake nearly a whole night trying to decide between a reseda and a pink-violet. It was perfectly maddening, and I did have such a head the next day."
"Are you in a quandary now, Thursa?" he asked gently. "Tell me about it."
"Oh, no, Arthur, dear me, no--I haven"t got half my thinking done yet. I"ll tell you after I get it done. I am so happy to think that I got away without any of the aunts that, really, I am not very worried about anything. You" know I wasn"t perfectly sure that I was away until I was a day out, and once I got such a fright--there was something swimming behind the boat! But now, good-bye, Arthur. Kiss me, if you like. There, now, that will do. Yes, I do like you, Arthur, you"re a good sort. Good-bye till to-morrow evening."
Two days later Arthur took Thursa over to see the house. She was quite rested now from her journey, and in her scarlet coat and hat she was more bewitching than ever.
"It is very pretty here in the summer-time, Thursa," he said, as they stood together in the little porch. "I had some flowers last year, and the trees are growing nicely. It will be the dearest place on earth to me when you are here. Won"t it be glorious to be together always, dearie, you and I? I wonder if you know how beautiful you are, Thursa?"
Thursa knit her brows in deep thought. "I wonder if I do?" she said quite gravely. "I"ve heard quite a "lot about it lately, and I don"t object to hearing it as much as my aunts would wish me to, I fear. It seems pleasant, really!"
Arthur laughed joyously. Her beauty dazzled him.
Then they went into the house that he had built and furnished with much loving care. Thursa was interested in everything; the shining new pots and pans gave her great delight--she said they were "such jolly little dears," but what were they all for? Arthur tried to explain, but Thursa became impatient at the mention of cooking and washing dishes, and cried out petulantly. "Why don"t you tame a squaw and have her do all this? I simply loathe cooking or washing up. It is horrid, messy work, Arthur, and I really never can do it. I know I can"t. I never stayed in our scullery at home for one minute. Of course my aunts would not have allowed me to stay anyway, but that isn"t why. I simply detest work of that kind."
Arthur"s face showed his disappointment. "We will have to get some one to show you how," he said, after an unpleasant pause. "You will not dislike it so much after you learn how, Thursa. It is really pleasant work, housekeeping is, and I am sure you will learn to be a famous little housewife."
"Don"t bank too strong on it, Arthur. Isn"t that the right word? Mr.
Smeaton taught me that. This idea of having to cook has upset me dreadfully."
She sat down in the rocking-chair and rocked herself in her agitation. "Arthur, I shall go staring mad if I have to mess around and try to cook. I know I shall. I feel it beginning on me, and I shall have rough hands, and my skin will get red and blotchy, just like a cook"s, and there will always be a greasy smell on my clothes.
I am going to cry, Arthur, I am, now, really, and n.o.body can stop me, and I do cry dreadfully when I start."
"Oh, don"t cry, Thursa!" Arthur pleaded, with all the helplessness of a man in the presence of tears. "Don"t cry, dearest. You"ll break my heart if you cry the first day you come into your new home. I don"t want you to cook or work or do anything, only just stay with me and love me and let me look at you--you are too beautiful to ever have to work, darling."
Contrary to her expectations, Thursa did not cry, but looked at Arthur with a very shrewd expression on her pretty face.
"I"d rather stay here and take a chance on it--that"s a Canadian word, too--than go back to the aunts and have to work antimaca.s.sars and put up with them trailing around after me always--that was perfectly maddening--but it seems to me--" she went over to Arthur"s new sideboard and looked critically into the gla.s.s--"it seems to me a girl like me--you see I am not what you might call a fright, am I, Arthur?--and here in Canada there are abundant opportunities for good marriages--I think I really should do pretty well."
Arthur stood beside her looking at her image in the gla.s.s. When her meaning became clear he turned away hastily to hide the hurt her words had given him.
"You mean I am not good enough for you. You are quite right, I am not. You are a queen among women, Thursa."
"Queen nothing!" Thursa cried impatiently. "You make love like they do it in Scott"s novels. The aunts made me read it, and now I simply loathe anything that sounds like it. Now, Mr. Smeaton said I was a peach."
Arthur consigned Mr. Smeaton and all such cads to a hotter climate.
"Good for you, Arthur!" she said, laughing, "you can ride the high horse, too. I like you like that. Now, Mr. Smeaton said----"
"See here, Thursa," Arthur broke in, "did that cur make love to you?"
"Madly," she said.
"And you let him--and listened?"
She clapped her hands and laughed merrily.
"Listened? I didn"t have to listen hard. He was near me, you know, and he did make love so beautifully. I wish you could have heard him."
"I"d have bashed his head for him," Arthur said hotly. "Who is he, anyway?"
"He has a dry-goods store in Brandon. He"s a linen-draper really, and is only six-and-twenty, but he is awfully clever, and so charming.
When I sent you word that I was staying to see the shops I meant I was staying to see his shop. He took me to his own home, and his mother and sisters were lovely to me. He wanted me to marry him at Montreal, and asked me again at North Bay, and twice in Winnipeg, and I really forgot to count how many times he proposed to me in Brandon; but I wanted to be perfectly fair, and would not marry him until I had seen you."
Arthur said not a word, but walked over to the eastern window. It was a pleasant day in early winter. He could see the curls of smoke rising from the neighbours" houses into the frosty air, and the long gray wreath of it that the morning train had left still lay on the Tiger Hills. A mirage had lifted the old spruce bush on the a.s.siniboine into vision. Every mark on the landscape stung him with remembrances of happy days when youth and love and hope were weaving for him a glorious dream.
He turned suddenly and caught her in his arms. "Don"t go back on me, Thursa! I won"t give you up!" he cried. "He can"t love you the way I do. You haven"t been in his mind, day and night, all these years. He doesn"t love you, dear, like I do, and he can"t have you. I tell you, I won"t give you up. You are mine forever."
Suddenly his arms, dropped and he put her away from him. "Let me think a minute, Thursa," he said, in his usual tone. "This has come on me suddenly. Stay here until I come back."
Outside the cold, bracing air fanned his burning face. He stood on the bank of the Plover Creek and looked with unseeing eyes around him, and found himself thinking of the most trifling things--he couldn"t think about what he wanted to; his brain refused to act.
Suddenly there came over him a great calmness, and with it a strong resolve. He would do the square thing. He loved Thursa, but there was something stronger even than that--something that must be obeyed.