The conviction was so sweet that he lingered to enjoy it, penetrating a few steps farther into the s.p.a.cious dimness of the yard. It was the first minute of inward ease he had known since he had turned his back on it. Now that he was once more on the spot, the Claude who was a devil-of-a-fellow, something of a sport, but a decent chap all the same, began again to run with red blood where there had been nothing but a whining, shriveling apostate. It was like rejuvenescence, like a re-creation.
Suddenly something moved. It moved at first in the shadow of the house, and then out in the starlit s.p.a.ces. It moved stealthily and creepily and with a grotesque swiftness. Its action seemed irregular and uncertain, like that of some night-marauding animal, till Claude perceived that it was stalking him. He waited long enough to get a view that was almost clear of a crouching att.i.tude, the crouching att.i.tude of a beast when it means to spring, whereupon he turned and fled.
That is, he turned and walked away swiftly. He would have run had it not been for his renascent self-respect. He couldn"t bring himself to run from poor old Fay even though his nerves were tingling. He tried to rea.s.sure himself by saying that it was no more than a repet.i.tion of that d.o.g.g.i.ng to which he had been subjected before, and that it would discontinue once he was off the premises.
But when he turned to glance over his shoulder it seemed to him that the sinister footsteps glided after him. That, he reasoned, might have been no more than fancy. The arc-lights were rare on this rather lonely road, and the enormous shadows they flung lent themselves to the startling of sick imaginations. Nevertheless, as he walked Claude continued to look back over his shoulder, always with renewed impressions of a creepy thing trying to track him down. Having entered the obscurity of their own driveway, he broke at last into a light, soundless trot which was not slackened till he reached the relative protection of the door.
But by morning he had regained a measure of tranquillity. Knowing what he had to do, he was resolved to do it promptly. With sunlight and summer and the sense of being home again to brace him up, the Claude who was a devil-of-a-fellow seemed in a fair way to be reborn. Waiting after breakfast only long enough to be discreet, he took his way up the hill again.
He was confident by this time, and the more so because of his being beyond the need of concealments. There would be no more shrinking into the odorous depths of the hothouse, or hesitancies, or equivocations. He would walk up and avow himself--to father and mother as well as to Rosie. The hero in him was coming to his own at last.
The gash in the hothouse roof which he could see from a distance was what he noticed first. In his two nocturnal visits this had not been apparent. Now that he saw it he stood stock-still. It was something like a gash within himself, a gash in his courage perhaps, or a gash in the dream of a reconst.i.tuted self. He knew vaguely that his father had refused the renewal of the lease and that at some time in the near future Fay would have to go; but he had not expected the immediate signs of complete demoralization. Now that they were there they disconcerted him.
He went on till he was in view of the house. It gave him the blind stare with which empty houses respond to interrogation. He continued his way to the gate and into the yard. All was neglected and fantastically overgrown. Vetch, burdock, and yarrow were in luxuriant riot with the planting and seeding of the spring. No living creature was in sight but a dappled mare, whose round body and heavy fetlocks spoke of a Canuck strain, hitched in the shade of the magnolia-tree.
The mare wore a straw hat to which was attached a bunch of artificial roses, and switched her tail to drive away the flies. Harnessed to a light form of dray, the animal suggested business, so that Claude put on a business air, going forward with the a.s.surance of one who has a right to be on the spot. He had not advanced twenty paces before the hothouse door opened to allow the pa.s.sage of a fern-tree in a giant wooden pot, behind which came the pleasant countenance of Jim Breen, red and perspiring from so much exertion under a July sun. Claude paused till the fern-tree was deposited in the dray, when the two men stared at each other across the intervening s.p.a.ce.
For the first time Lois"s mention of the young Irishman"s name returned to Claude as significant. What the young Irishman thought of him he had no means of knowing, for a sudden eclipse across the cheery face was followed by an equally sudden clearing.
"h.e.l.lo, Claude!"
Jim threw off the greeting guardedly, and yet with a certain challenge.
His very use of the Christian name was meant to be a token of man-to-man equality. Having attended the public school with Claude, and taken part with him in ball-games at an age too early for cla.s.s distinctions, he was plainly disposed to use that fact as a basis of privilege. He attempted, however, no other advance, remaining st.u.r.dily at the tail of his dray, hatless and in his shirt-sleeves, but with head erect and gray eyes set fixedly. The only conciliating feature was his smile, which had come back, not with its native spontaneity, but daringly and aggressively, as a brave man smiles at a foe.
Claude resented the att.i.tude; he resented the smile; he resented the use of his Christian name; but he was resolved to be diplomatic. He went forward a few steps farther still, but in spite of himself his voice trembled when he spoke. "Mr. Fay "round?"
Jim answered nonchalantly. "No; gone to town. Want a good fern-tree, Claude? Two or three corkers here. Look at that one, now. Get it cheap, too. Dandy in the corner of a big room."
Sickeningly aware of his feebleness in contrast with this easy, honest vigor, Claude made an effort to be manly and matter-of-fact. "Mr. Fay selling off?"
"Not exactly selling off. Fixed things up with father. Father"s taken the stock, and Mr. Fay"s going in with him. Didn"t want this old place any longer," Jim continued, loftily. "Kind o" clung to it because he"d put money into it, like. Money-eater; that"s what it was. Make more in a year with father than he would in this old rockery in ten. Hadley B.
Hobson"s bought the place. Know that, don"t you? Come to think of it, it was your old man who owned it. Well, it"s Hadley B. Hobson"s now--or will be the day after to-morrow. Have a swell residence here. Good enough for that, but too small for a plant like Mr. Fay"s."
Claude did his best to digest such details in this information as were new to him while he nerved himself to say, "Is Miss Fay a-about?"
Jim nodded toward the blank windows of the house. "Moved. Better take a fern-tree, Claude. Won"t get a bargain like this, not if every florist in the town goes bankrupt. This one"s a peach, and yet you"ll call it a scream compared to the one I"ve got inside. Bring it out so as you can get a squint at it. Can"t wait, can"t you? Well, so long! Got to finish my job. Back, Maud, back! Any time you do want a fern-tree, Claude--"
Claude was obliged to speak peremptorily in order to detain him. "I want to know where the Fays have moved to."
"To town," was the ready answer. "Well, so long! If I don"t get on with my job--"
"What part of town?"
Jim turned at the hothouse door. "Oh, a very nice part."
"But that"s not telling me."
"No," the young Irishman threw back, with his peculiar smile, "and if you take my advice you won"t ask anybody else. If old man Fay was to see you within a mile of the place--"
Claude decided to be confidential. "Old man Fay has no reason to be afraid any longer, Jim--not as far as I"m concerned."
"Oh, it isn"t as far as you"re concerned; it"s as far as he is. The boot"s on that foot now."
Claude loathed this discussion with a man so inferior to himself, but he was obliged to get his information somehow. "If he thinks--"
"It"s not what he thinks, but what he knows. That"s what"s the matter with old man Fay. If I was you I"d give him a darned wide berth--from now on."
"Yes, but Jim, you don"t understand--"
"I understand what I"m telling you, Claude. If you don"t clear out of this village for the next six months--"
Claude was beside himself with exasperation. "But, good G.o.d, man, I"ve come back to marry Rosie! Now don"t you see?"
Jim stalked forward from the hothouse door, standing over the smaller, slighter man with a tolerant kindliness which persisted in his sunny, steely smile. "No, I don"t see. You clear out. Take a friend"s advice.
Whether you"ve come back to marry Rosie or whether you haven"t won"t make a cent"s worth of difference to old man Fay. Clear out, all the same."
In his excitement Claude screamed, shrilly, "Like h.e.l.l, I will!"
"Like h.e.l.l, you"ll have to. Mind you, Claude, I"m telling you as a friend. And as for marrying Rosie--well, you can"t."
Claude became aggressive. "If that"s because you think you _can_--"
"Gee! Me! What do you know about that! It"s all I can do to get her to look at the same side of the road I"m on--so far. But if I can"t, still less can you, and for a very good reason."
"What reason?" Claude demanded, with his best attempt to be stern.
The other became solemn and dramatic. "The reason that--that she"s dead."
Claude jumped. "Dead! What in thunder are you talking about? She wasn"t dead this afternoon."
"Oh yes, she was, Claude--_that_ Rosie. She--she drowned herself. When I dived in after her it was another Rosie altogether that I brought up. Do you get me?"
Claude broke in with smothered objurgations, but Jim, feeling the value of the vein he had started, persisted in going on with it. He did so not bitterly or reproachfully, but with a playful, Celtic sadness in which a misty blinking of the eyes struggled with the smile that continued to hover on his lips.
"The Rosie you knew, Claude, was all limp and white as I held her in my arms while Robbie Willert rowed us ash.o.r.e. She was gone. The soul was out of her. She was as much in heaven as if she"d been dead a week. Her eyes were shut and her eyelashes wet, just as you might see the fringe of a flower hung with dewdrops of a morning. And her mouth! You know the kind of mouth she"s got--a little open when she looks at you, as if you"d taken her by surprise, like. Well, that"s the way it was then--a wee little bit open--as if she was going to speak--but more as if she was going to cry--and her lips that white!--and not a beat to her heart no matter how tight you held her! When Dr. Hill brought the breath into her again it was a different Rosie that came back entirely."
Claude wheeled away in order to hide the spasm that shot across his face. "Ah, shut up, d.a.m.n you!" was all he had the strength to say, but the tone moved Jim to compunction.
The Irishman in him came out as he tried to make things easier for Claude, without at the same time desisting from his object. "Sure _you_ couldn"t tell that that was the way she"d take it. You couldn"t tell that at all. If you"d known it beforehand you"d have acted quite different. We all know that. Any one else might have done the same thing that was--that was"--he sought a consolatory phrase--"that was like you." He plunged still further. "I might have done it myself if I hadn"t--hadn"t been built the other way "round. Only that won"t matter to old man Fay--nor to Matt, neither."
Claude turned so suddenly pale at the mention of the brother that Jim followed up his advantage. "The old fellow has to be out of this by to-morrow night, and Matt gets his walking-ticket from Colcord the next morning." He laid his strong, earthy hand on the neat summer black-and-white check of Claude"s shoulder with the lightest hint of turning him in the direction of the gate. "Now if you"ll make yourself scarce for a spell I"ll be able to manage them both and coax them back to their senses."
Though he felt himself irresistibly impelled toward the road, Claude made an effort to recover his dignity. "If you think I"m going to run away--"
Jim slipped his arm through his companion"s, helping him along. "Sure you"re not going to run away. Lay low for a spell, that"s all you"ll be doing. Old man Fay is crazy--stark, staring, roaring crazy. It isn"t you, and it isn"t Rosie; it"s having to get out of here. It was bluff what I said a minute ago about the place being too small for his plant.
He"s dotty on these three old hothouses. My Lord! you"d think no one ever had hothouses before and never would again. You"d think it was the end of the world, to hear him talk. You"d die laughing. The fellow he"d like to put it over on is your old man! Gives me a mouthful about him three or four times a day--and it"d be a barr"l full of buckshot in the back if he could get at _him_. Lucky he"s in Europe. But I"ll calm him down, don"t you fret; and I"ll calm down Matt, once I get at him. Let me have two months--let me have a month!--and I"ll have "em coming to you like a gray squirrel comes for nuts."