"What do you mean?" she gasped.
"I mean exactly what I have said; that if it had been that strutting young philosopher from the West you would--well, you would have allowed him to say what was in his mind, no matter whether it had been his latest thought on Kantianism, the weather, or his admiration for yourself. Am I not right?"
"I wonder, I wonder"--she faltered, drawing away, the better to observe me.
"You wonder how much I know! To relieve your mind without parleying further, I will say to you that I know everything."
"Then Aunt Octavia must have told you; and that seems incredible. It was distinctly understood"--
"Your aunt told me nothing. Not by words did any one tell me."
"Not by words?" she asked, eyeing me wonderingly and clearly fearing that I might be playing some trick upon her. "Then can it be that Hezekiah--but no! Hezekiah does n"t know!"
"Trust Hezekiah for not telling secrets," I answered evasively. "Give me credit for some imagination. The air of Hopefield is stimulating, and in the few days I have spent in your aunt"s house I have learned much that I never dreamed of before. I am not at all the person you greeted with so much courtesy in the library when I arrived there, a chimney-doctor and an ignorant person, a few afternoons ago,--called, as I thought, to prescribe for flues that proved to be in admirable condition, but really summoned by higher powers to a.s.sist the fates in the proper and orderly performance of their duties to several members of the house of Hollister,--yourself among them."
"I don"t understand it; you are wholly inexplicable."
"I am the simplest and least guileful of beings, I a.s.sure you. Yet I have done some things here not in the slightest way related to chimney doctoring; and something else I expect to do for which I believe you will thank me through all the years of your life."
"Ah, if you really know, that is possible!" she sighed wearily. "I am very tired of it all. I was very foolish ever to have agreed to Aunt Octavia"s plan. You have seen those men,--any one of them might, you know"-- And she shrugged her shoulders impatiently.
"Any one of them might be the seventh man! There, you see I do know!
And I mean to help you!"
She was immensely relieved; there was no question of that. Grat.i.tude shone in her eyes; and then, as I marvelled at their beautiful dark depths, fear suddenly possessed them. The change in her was startling.
Several motors had swept by in the outer road while we talked; they were faintly visible through the trees; and just now we both heard a horse and caught a fleeting glimpse of Hartley Wiggins, riding slowly with bowed head toward the inn. Cecilia"s horse flung up his head, but she clapped her hands upon his nostrils and held them there to prevent his whinnying until that figure of despair had pa.s.sed out of hearing.
I was smitten with sorrow for Hartley Wiggins. I could put myself in his place and imagine his feelings as he rode like a defeated general back to the inn, there to face the other suitors after the humiliating experience which Cecilia Hollister had just described. In his ignorance of the cause of her eagerness to escape from him, he no doubt believed that he had all unconsciously made himself intolerable to her.
It was plain that that glimpse of him had touched Cecilia"s pity; if I had doubted the sincerity of her regard for him before, I spurned the thought now. I was anxious to requicken hope in her,--an odd office for me to a.s.sume when in my own affairs I had always yielded my sword readily to the blue devils! Yet during my short stay at Hopefield I had already found it possible to restore Miss Octavia"s confidence in her own chosen destiny, and in this delicate love-affair between Cecilia Hollister and my best friend I proffered counsel and sympathy with an a.s.surance that astonished me.
"I have told you enough, Miss Hollister, to make it clear that I am in a position to help you. Believe me, I have no other business before me but to complete the service I have undertaken."
"But there is always"--she began, then ceased abruptly, and lifted her head proudly--"there is always Mr. Wiggins"s att.i.tude toward my sister.
Not for anything in the world would I cause her the slightest unhappiness. You must see that, now that you know her."
I laughed aloud. Cecilia"s concern for Hezekiah"s happiness was so absurd that I could not restrain my mirth for a moment. Displeasure showed promptly in Cecilia"s face.
"I am sorry if you doubt my sincerity, Mr. Ames. I will put the matter directly, to make sure I have not been misunderstood heretofore, and say that if Hezekiah is interested in Hartley Wiggins and cares for him in the least,--you know she is young and susceptible,--I shall take care that he never sees me again."
"Pardon me, but maybe you don"t quite understand Hezekiah!"
"Is it possible, then, that you do?" she inquired coldly. "I imagine your opportunities for seeing her have not been numerous."
"Well, it is n"t so much a matter of seeing her, when you"ve read of her all your life and dreamed about her. She"s in every fairy story that ever was written; she dances through the mythologies of all races.
Hers is the kingdom of the pure in heart. Her mind is like a beautiful bright meadow by the sea, and her thoughts the dipping of swallow-wings on lightly swaying gra.s.ses."
Cecilia"s manner changed, and she smiled.
"You seem to have an attack of something; it looks serious. You have n"t known her long enough to find out so much!"
"Longer than you would believe. She and I sat on the sh.o.r.e together when Ulysses sailed by; we were among those present at the sack of Troy; we heard Roland"s ivory trumpet at Roncesvalles."
"Such words from you amaze me. I didn"t imagine there was so much romance in chimneys."
"They are full of it! Commend me to an open fire, with a flue that knows its business, and a dream or two! I "ve renounced my profession.
I shall hereafter offer myself as adviser to persons in need of illusions; we "d all be poets if we dared!"
I helped her into the saddle, and she looked down at me with amus.e.m.e.nt in her eyes. My praise of Hezekiah had pleased her, and I felt, as when we journeyed together into town, her kindly, human qualities. The perplexities and embarra.s.sments resulting from her compact with her aunt had doubtless checked the natural flow of her spirits. She talked on buoyantly, though I was eager to be off, to avert the catastrophe that only her flight had prevented and which Wiggins might at any moment precipitate. She gathered up her reins.
"You are not coming home for luncheon? Then I shall see you at four.
I hope the hiding-place of the ghost will prove interesting. Aunt Octavia has built her hopes high, and I may add that she has expressed the greatest admiration of you to me. On her ride this morning she declared that great things are in store for you. I hope so, too, Mr.
Ames."
She gave me her hand and rode away, and before I had reached the highway she was across the bridge and galloping rapidly homeward.
The inn was a mile distant, and I set off at a brisk pace, turning over in my mind various projects for controlling the characters now upon the stage in such manner that Wiggins should become the seventh man.
Cecilia could not always run away from him without violating the terms of her aunt"s stipulation; and it was unlikely that she would attempt further to guide or thwart the pointing finger of fate. I relied little upon any arrangement effected among the suitors to stand together. Hume had already found a chance to speak. Lord Arrowood had bitten the dust and turned his face homeward, and Wiggins had been near the brink only that morning. It was unlikely that any of the active candidates remaining would stumble upon the key to the situation, which Hezekiah had given into my keeping.
It was well on toward two o"clock when I approached the inn. Before long the suitors would depart for their afternoon call at the Manor, which was an established event of the day. Just as I was about to enter the gate I was arrested by an imperious voice calling, and John Stewart d.i.c.k came running toward me. He had evidently been expecting me, and I paused, thinking him about to renew his attack upon me. To my surprise he greeted me cordially, even offering his hand.
"You thought you would come after all. Well, I"m glad you did. I"ve decided that there should be peace between us."
In stature he was the shortest of the suitors, but what he lacked in height was compensated for by a tremendous dignity. A dark Napoleonic lock lay across his forehead, and his clear-cut profile otherwise suggested the Corsican, the resemblance being, I wickedly a.s.sumed, one that the philosopher encouraged.
"You have several times addressed me, Mr. Ames, in a spirit of contumely which I have hesitated to punish by the chastis.e.m.e.nt you deserve; but I am willing to let bygones be bygones."
His changed tone put me on guard, but it was impossible for me to take him seriously. In spite of the fact that he was a vigorous muscular young fellow who could have threshed me without trouble, I could not resist the impulse he always roused in me to address him in language any self-respecting man would resent.
"Chant the _dies irae_ with considerable _allegro_, Plato, for I am hungry and would fain pay for food at the adjacent inn."
"I will overlook the coa.r.s.eness of your humor," he rejoined haughtily.
"My own time is as valuable as yours. You have sneered at my attainments as a philosopher; but I will pa.s.s that for the present. I am disposed to treat you magnanimously. You have an excellent opinion of yourself; you have come here as an intruder upon the rights of those of us who followed Cecilia Hollister across Europe and home to America; but in spite of this I waive my rights in your favor. I had intended to offer myself to Miss Hollister this afternoon, with every hope of success, but I yield to you. My only request is that you inform me at once when you have learned her decision."
He clapped on his cap and folded his arms, clearly satisfied with the expressions of surprise to which my feelings betrayed me. Could it be possible that he had guessed the truth, perhaps by deductive processes of which I was ignorant? Whether he had reasoned from some remark thrown out by Miss Octavia as to the influence of seven in the affairs of life and her application of that fateful principle to the choice of a husband for Cecilia, I could not guess, but a.s.suming that he had caught that clue, he might readily enough have managed the rest.
Having crossed on the steamer with the suitor host, a man of his intelligence might readily enough have kept track of the vanquished.
In any case he had hit upon me as a likely victim, and on the plea of generously waiting till I had tried my luck he hoped to thrust me forward as the sixth suitor, and immediately thereafter project himself as the inevitable seventh man. The whole situation was rendered perilously complex by the knowledge that, unaided, he had possessed himself of so much dangerous information. I must not, however, allow him to see what I suspected.
"My dear professor, there"s an ancient warning against the Greeks bearing gifts. You must give me time to inspect the horse."
"Are you questioning my good faith?"
"Be it far from me! I"m a good deal tickled though by your genial a.s.sumption that if I offered myself to this lady I should be declined with thanks. You have fretted yourself into a state of mind that bodes ill for American philosophy."
He was again belligerent. It may have occurred to him that I might know as much as he, but at any rate he grinned; it was a saturnine grin I did not like.
"I"m starving to death at the door of an inn, and you must excuse me.
Have you seen Hartley Wiggins lately?"