"I didn"t do anything."
"You"re the only man in town who thinks that, then, or has since that night. He--Everard--was done for the minute you stepped on the stage, the Judge says. Only they managed it decently, the Judge and the few that kept their heads. They announced that Colonel Everard was indisposed and couldn"t speak, and the Judge took him home. He really was ill next day. There"s something wrong with his horrid heart. And that gave him a good excuse not to run for mayor, he gave that up himself. And in a few days the Judge and Luther Ward went to him and told him what else he had to do, and he did it. He had to resign from everything, everything he was in charge of or was trustee of, or had anything to do with, and get out of town. If he"d do that, they wouldn"t make any scandal or bother him afterward, but let him start new. And they gave him six months to do all that decently and save his face. Why did he have to do it decently? Why couldn"t they tar and feather him? I wish they had. I wish----"
"Wish something else, Judith. Something about us."
"What do you mean by us?"
"You and me."
"Isn"t it splendid the Judge is going to be president of the bank?" said Judith hastily.
"Splendid," said a future president of the Green River Bank, who was occupying the step beside her.
"And isn"t it nice that poor Mrs. Burr is going to marry Mr. Sebastian, even if she does have to move away from Green River? I like people to be happy, don"t you?"
"No. No, I don"t. Not other people. I don"t care whether they are happy or not, and I don"t want to talk about them, only about you and me."
"If you don"t like the way I talk, I"ll keep still," Judith said, in a severe but small voice, but a small hand groping for his softened the threat, and a soft, sudden laugh as his arm slipped round her atoned for it entirely. Then there was silence on the steps, a long, whispering, wonderful silence. Long before Judith spoke again all the work of the lonely months was undone. And the low whispers that the two exchanged conveyed no further information about Colonel Everard.
But there was no more to tell. The master of Green River was master no longer and the end of all the intricate planning and scheming that had made and kept him master was a story that Judith could tell in a few careless sentences and forget. If she had seen and guessed some things that she could not forget, in the strange little circle that had found a place for her, she would never see them again. That order was gone from the town forever, with the man who had created it, and beside her on the steps was the boy who could make her forget it, and see beyond the long, hard years between. And, as she almost could guess, in these magic minutes when she could dream and dream true, that boy was the future master of Green River.
Judith sighed, and stirred in his arms.
"Are you happier now?" she whispered.
"Yes."
"But you"re going to be great. You are, really."
"I am if you want me to. Judith, how long does your father think you and I ought to wait?"
"I don"t know. You can ask him. He likes you better than me. He always wanted me to be a boy.... Neil, I want to tell you something. Keep your arm like that, but don"t look at me."
"Why?"
"It"s about what you don"t like me to talk about."
"Everard?"
"Yes, and it"s about something dreadful, that day in his library when I was alone with him, and you came. He--frightened me."
"Never mind, dear, now."
"He frightened me but that was--all. I wasn"t hurt or anything. I just didn"t know he--anybody--could look the way he was looking, or act the way he was acting, and then I felt sick all over. I was afraid. But he was just trying to kiss me, of course, and I wasn"t going to let him, the horrid old man. So I think now it was silly to be frightened. Was it?"
"No, it wasn"t silly, dear."
"I"m glad. And Neil--I want to tell you something else. It"s about--that night--in the buggy, on the old road to Wells, you know, when you were going to elope with me and changed your mind."
"When I frightened you so. Oh, Judith."
"You didn"t--frighten me," said a very small voice indeed. "You----"
"What, dear?"
"Made me want you--want to go away with you. I never felt like that before, all waked up and different and--happy. Oh, you didn"t frighten me. I wasn"t angry because you tried to take me away. It was because you brought me back."
"Don"t you know why I brought you back?"
"No."
"Why, because I loved you. I didn"t love you till then, not really; not till that minute in the carriage. I know just what minute. When you let me kiss you, and didn"t mind any more. Then I knew about--love. I never knew before, but I"ll never forget again. It isn"t just wanting people, it"s taking care of them, and not hurting them. Waiting till you can have things--right. So I wanted to have you right and be fit for you, and after that night I went to work and I wouldn"t be stopped, not by anything in this town or the world. Oh, Judith, why don"t you speak to me? It isn"t much use to talk. You don"t understand."
"I--do."
"You"re crying!"
She was crying, and she did understand. Before this unexpected, beautiful proof of it, the boy was reverent and half ashamed, as if a woman"s tears were a sacred miracle invented for him. He held her hand timidly and pressed it. Presently she drew it away, and suddenly she was not crying, but laughing, a low, full-throated laugh as wonderful to him as her tears.
"I told you, you did it all," she said softly. "Well, you didn"t. Neil, there"s what did it all. Because, if you only go on believing in things and being sweet and true and not afraid, and--wishing, then everything will come right. It"s got to, just because you want it to. So there"s what did it all and made us so happy, you and me. I love it. Love it, Neil."
Neil looked where Judith was looking. Above the horse-chestnut tree, so filmy and faint that the stars looked brighter than ever, so pale that it was not akin to the stars, but to the dark beyond, where adventures were, so friendly and sweet that it could make the wish in your heart come true, hung a new-risen silvery crescent of light.
"But it"s only the moon," Neil said.
"It"s--the wishing moon," said Judith.