"You may be interested to know that the Watermans left Hamilton Hill yesterday. Dalton went with them. I haven"t seen him since the night of the Merriweathers" ball. I didn"t tell you, did I, that after I took the fan away from him, I dropped him into the fountain? I had much rather have tied him to a stake, and have built a fire under him, but that isn"t civilized, and of course, I couldn"t. But I am glad I dropped him in the fountain----"
Becky read Randy"s letter as she sat alone on the beach. It was cool and sunshiny and she was wrapped in a red cape. The winter gulls were beating strong wings above the breakers, and their sharp cries cut across the roar of the waters.
There had been a storm the night before--wind booming out of the northeast and the sea still sang the song of it.
Becky felt, suddenly, that she was very angry with Randy. It was as if he had broken a lovely thing that she had worshipped. She hated to think of that struggle in the dark---- She hated to think of Randy as--the Conqueror. She hated to think of George as dank and dripping.
She wanted to think of him as shining and splendid, and Randy had spoiled that.
But she wanted to be fair. Hadn"t George, after all, spoiled his own splendidness? He had wooed her and had run away. And he had not run back until he thought another man wanted her.
"Of course," said somebody behind her, "you won"t tell me what you are thinking about. But if you will just let me sit here and think, by your side, it will be a great privilege."
It was Mr. Cope, and she was not sure that she wanted him at this moment. Perhaps something of her thought showed in her eyes, for when she said, "Oh, yes," he stood looking down at her. "Would you rather be alone with your letters? Don"t hedge and be polite. Tell me."
"Well," she admitted, "my letters are a bit on my mind. But if you don"t care if I am stupid, you can stay----"
He sat down. He had known her for ten days, and dreaded to think that in ten days more she might be gone. "I won"t talk if you don"t wish it."
Becky"s eyes were on the sea. "I think I should like to talk. I have been thinking--about that Indian that you want commemorated in bronze up there on the bluff. Do you think he was cruel?"
"Who knows? He was, perhaps, a savage. Yet he may have been tender-hearted. I hope so, if he is going to be fixed in bronze for the ages to stare at."
"Did you," Becky asked, deliberately, "ever want to tie a man to a stake and build a fire under him?"
He turned and stared at her. "My dear child, what ever put such an idea in your head?"
"Well, did you?"
He considered it. "There was a time in France when I wanted to do worse than that."
"But that was war."
"No, it was a brute in my own company. He broke the heart of a little girl that he met in Brittany. He--he--well he murdered her--dreams.
"Perhaps he didn"t know what he was doing."
"He knew. Every man knows."
"And you wanted to make him--suffer----"
"Yes."
She shivered. "Are all men like that?"
"Like what?"
"Cruel."
"It can"t be cruelty. It"s a sense of justice."
"I hope it is." She kept thinking about George rising dank and dripping from the fountain. She hated to think about it.
So she changed the subject. "I thought you were painting."
"I was. But the moor is fickle. Yesterday she billowed towards the south, all gray and blue. And last night the storm spoiled it; she is gorgeous and gay to-day, and I don"t like her."
"Oh, why not?"
"She is too obvious. Anybody can paint a Persian carpet, but one can"t put soul into a--carpet----"
He was petulant. "I shall never paint the pictures I want to paint.
Life is too short."
"Life isn"t short. Look at Grandfather. You will have forty years yet in which to paint."
And now it was he who changed the subject, quickly, as if he were afraid of it.
"My sister is coming to-morrow. I rather think you will like her."
"Will she like me, that"s more important."
"She will love you, as I do, as everybody does, Becky."
They had reached that point in ten days that he could say such things to her and win her smile. She did not believe in the least that he loved her. He always laughed when he said it.
She liked him very much. She felt that the Admiral and Tristram and Archibald Cope were all of them the best of comrades. Except for Jane, she had had practically no feminine society since she came. And Jane was not especially inspiring, not like Tristram, who seemed to carry one"s imagination back to Viking days.
Cope was immensely enthusiastic about Tristram. "If I could paint figures as I want to," he said, "I"d do Tristram as "The Islander."
One feels that he belongs here as inevitably as the moors or the sands or the sea. Perhaps it is he who ought to be in bronze on the bluff, instead of the Indian."
"But he"d have to face the sea," said Becky.
"Yes," Cope agreed, "he would. He loves it and his ancestors lived by it. I"ll stick to my Indian and the moor."
Becky gathered up her letters. "It is time for lunch, and Jane doesn"t like to be kept waiting. Won"t you lunch with us? Grandfather will be delighted."
"I shall get to be a perpetual guest. I feel as if I were taking advantage of your hospitality."
"We shouldn"t ask you if we didn"t want you."
"Then I"ll come."
They walked up the beach together. Becky was m.u.f.fled in her red cape, Cope had a sweater under his coat. The air was sharp and clear as crystal.
"How anybody can go in bathing in this weather," Becky shivered, as a woman ran down the sands towards the sea. She east off her bathing cloak and stood revealed, slim and rather startling, in yellow.
"She goes in every day," said Cope, "even when it storms."