"There!" she said, "ain"t that your"n? Vianna said "t was your engagement ring."
Letty flushed scarlet, and s.n.a.t.c.hed the ring tremblingly. She gave an involuntary look at the barn, where David was whistling a merry stave.
"Oh, my!" she breathed. "Where"d you find it?"
"Well, that"s the question!" returned Debby triumphantly. "Where"d ye lose it?"
But Letty had no mind to tell. She slipped the ring on her finger, and looked obstinate.
"Can"t I get you somethin" to put in your bag?" she asked cannily. Debby was diverted, though only for the moment.
"I should like a mite o" pork," she answered, lowering her voice and giving a glance, in her turn, at the barn. "I s"pose ye don"t want _him_ to know of it?"
"I should like to be told why!" flamed Letty, in an indignation disproportioned to its cause. Debby had unconsciously hit the raw. "Do you s"pose I"d do anything David can"t hear?"
"Law, I didn"t know," said Debby, as if the matter were of very little consequence. "Mis" Peleg Chase, she gi"n me a beef-bone, t" other day, an" she says, "Don"t ye tell _him_!" An" Mis" Squire Hill gi"n me a pail o" lard; but she hid it underneath the fence, an" made me come for "t after dark. I dunno how you"re goin" to git along with men-folks, if ye offer "em the whip-hand. They"ll take it, anyways. Well, don"t you want to know where I come on this ring?"
Letty had taken a few hasty steps toward the house. "Yes, I do," owned she, turning about. "Where was it?"
"Well, Sammy was in swimmin", an" he dove into the Old Hole, to see"f"t had any bottom to "t. Vianna made him vow he wouldn"t go in whilst he had that rash; but he come home with his shirt wrong side out, an" she made him own up. But he"d ha" told anyway, he was so possessed to show that ring. He see suthin" gleamin" on a willer root nigh the bank, an"
he dove, an" there "t was. I told Sammy mebbe you"d give him suthin"
for"t, an" he said there wa"n"t nothin" in the world he wanted but a mite o" David"s solder, out in the shed-chamber."
"He shall have it," said Letty hastily. "I"ll get it now. Don"t you say anything!" And then she knew she had used the formula she detested, and that she was no better than Mrs. Peleg Chase, or the wife of Squire Hill.
She ran frowning into the house, and down and up from kitchen to cellar.
Presently she reappeared, panting, with a great tin pan borne before her like a laden salver. She set it down at Debby"s feet, and began packing its contents into the yawning bag.
"There!" she said, working with haste. "There"s the solder, all of it.
And here"s some of our sweet corn. We planted late."
Debby took an ear from the pan, and, tearing open the husk, tried a kernel with a critical thumb.
"Tough, ain"t it?" she remarked, disparagingly. "Likely to be, this time o" year. Is that the pork?"
It was a generous cube, swathed in a fresh white cloth.
"Yes, it is," said Letty breathlessly, thrusting it in and shutting the bag. "There!"
"Streak o" fat an" streak o" lean?" inquired Debby remorselessly.
"It"s the best we"ve got; that"s all I can say. Now I"ve got to speak to David before he harnesses. Good-by!"
In a fever of impatience, she fled away to the barn.
"Well, if ever!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Debby, lifting the bag and turning slowly about, to take her homeward path. "Great doin"s, _I_ say!" And she made no reply when Letty, prompted by a tardy conscience, stopped in the barn doorway and called to her, "Tell Sammy I"m much obliged. Tell him I shall make turn-overs to-morrow." Debby was thinking of the pork, and the likelihood of its being properly diversified.
Letty swept into the barn like a hurrying wind. The horses backed, and laid their ears flat, and David, grooming one of them, gentled him and inquired of him confidentially what was the matter.
"Oh, David, come out here! please come out!" called Letty breathlessly.
"I"ve got to see you."
David appeared, with some wonderment on his face, and Letty precipitated herself upon him, mindless of curry-comb and horse-hairs and the fact that she was presently to do b.u.t.ter. "David," she cried, "I can"t stand it. I"ve got to tell you. You know this ring?"
David looked at it, interested and yet perplexed.
"Seems if I"d seen you wear it," said he.
Letty gave way, and laughed hysterically.
"Seems if you had!" she repeated. "I"ve wore it over a year. There ain"t a girl in town but knows it. I showed it to "em all. I told "em "t was my engagement ring."
David looked at it, and then at her. She seemed to him a little mad. He could quiet the horses, but not a woman, in so vague an exigency.
"What made you tell "em that?" he asked, at a venture.
"Don"t you see? There wasn"t one of "em that was engaged but had a ring--and presents, David--and they knew I never had anything, or I"d have showed "em."
David was not a dull man; he had very sound views on the tariff, and, though social questions might thrive outside his world, the town blessed him for an able citizen. But he felt troubled; he was condemned, and it was the world"s voice which had condemned him.
"I don"t know"s I ever did give you anything, Letty," he said, with a new pain stirring in his face. "I don"t b"lieve I ever thought of it. It wasn"t that I begrudged anything."
"Oh, my soul, no!" cried Letty, in an agony of her own. "I knew how "t was. It wa"n"t your way, but they didn"t know that. And I couldn"t have "em thinkin" what they did think, now could I? So I bought me--David, I bought me that high comb I used to wear, and--and a blue handkerchief--and a thimble--and--and--this ring. And I said you give "em to me. And I trusted to chance for your never findin" it out. But I always hated the things; and as soon as we were married, I broke the comb, and burnt up the handkerchief, and hammered the thimble into a little wad, and buried it. But I didn"t dare to stop wearin" the ring, for fear folks would notice. Then t" other day I felt so about it I knew the time had come, and I went down to the Old Hole and threw it in. And now that hateful Sammy"s found it and brought it back, and I"ve sent him your solder, and Debby"s promised me she wouldn"t tell you about the pork, and I--I"m no better than the rest of "em that lie and lie and don"t let their men-folks know!" Letty was sobbing bitterly, and David drew her into his arms and laid his cheek down on her hair. His heart was aching too. They had all the pa.s.sionate sorrow of children over some grief not understood.
"Why didn"t you tell me?" he asked at length.
"When?" said Letty chokingly.
"Then--when folks expected things--before we were married."
"Oh, David, I couldn"t!"
"No," said David sadly, "I s"pose you couldn"t."
Letty had been holding one hand very tightly clenched. It was a plump hand, with deep dimples and firm, short fingers. She unclasped it, and stretched out toward him a wet, pink palm.
"There!" she said despairingly. "There"s the ring."
Again David felt his inadequacy to the situation. "Don"t you want to wear it?" he hesitated. "It"s real pretty. What"s that red stone?"
"I hate it!" cried Letty viciously. "It"s a garnet. Oh, David, don"t you ever let me set eyes on it again!"
David took it slowly from her hand. He drew out his pocket-book, opened it, and dropped the ring inside. "There!" he said, "I guess"t won"t do me no hurt to come acrost it once in a while." Then they kissed each other again, like two children; Letty"s tears wet his face, and he felt them bitterer than if they had been his own.
But for Letty the air had cleared. Now, she felt, there was no trouble in her path. She had all the irresponsible joy of one who has had a secret, and feels the burden roll away. She was like Christian without his pack. She put her hands on David"s shoulders, and looked at him radiantly.
"Oh, I"m so glad!" she cried. "I"m just as wicked as I was before; but it don"t seem to make any difference, now you know it!"