"Told you what?"
"Just what I said, and warned me that marriage could only bring pain and sorrow to those I love."
"He gave you no facts--only these vague warnings?"
"Yes, more--he told me----"
She paused and moved behind the table:
"That my father and mother were never married."
"Nothing more?" the boy asked eagerly.
"That"s enough."
"Not for me!"
"Suppose my father were a criminal?"
"No matter--your soul"s as white as snow"
"Suppose my mother----"
"I don"t care who she was--you"re an angel!"
Helen faced him with strained eagerness:
"You swear that no stain on my father or mother can ever make the least difference between us?"
"I swear it!" he cried grasping her hand. "Come, you"re mine!"
Helen drew back:
"Oh, if I could only believe it----"
"You do believe it--come!"
He opened his arms and she smiled.
"What shall I do!"
"Come!"
Slowly at first, and then with quick, pa.s.sionate tenderness she threw herself into his arms:
"I can"t help it, dearest. It"s too sweet and wonderful--G.o.d help me if I"m doing wrong!"
"Wrong!" he exclaimed indignantly. "How can it be wrong, this solemn pledge of life and love, of body and soul?"
She lifted her face to his in wonder:
"And you will dare to tell your father?"
"In good time, yes. But it"s our secret now. Keep it until I say the time has come for him to know. I"ll manage him--promise!"
"Yes! How sweet it is to hear you tell me what to do! I shall never be lonely or afraid again."
The father"s footstep on the porch warned of his approach.
"Go quickly!" the boy whispered. "I don"t want him to see us together yet--it means too much now--it means life itself!"
Helen moved toward the door, looked back, laughed, flew again into his arms and quickly ran into the hall as Norton entered from the porch.
The boy caught the look of surprise on his father"s face, realized that he must have heard the rustle of Helen"s dress, and decided instantly to accept the fact.
He boldly walked to the door and gazed after her retreating figure, his back squarely on his father.
Norton paused and looked sharply at Tom:
"Was--that--Helen?"
The boy turned, smiling, and nodded with slight embarra.s.sment in spite of his determined effort at self-control:
"Yes."
The father"s keen eyes pierced the boy"s:
"Why should she run?"
Tom"s face sobered:
"I don"t think she wished to see you just now, sir."
"Evidently!"
"She had been crying."
"And told you why?"
"Yes."
The father frowned:
"She has been in the habit of making you her confidant?"
"No. But I found her in tears and asked her the reason for them."
Norton was watching closely: