"I guess I can stand the expense of my own."
"I didn"t say you couldn"t, man! But _I_ want a hand in this thing.
Don"t be so turrible keen t" snap a feller up," said Hartley, turning on him. "What the thunder is the matter of you anyway? I like the girl, and she"s been good to us all round; she tended you like an angel----"
"There, there! That"s enough o" that," put in Albert hastily. "F"r G.o.d"s sake don"t whang away on that string forever, as if I didn"t know it!"
Hartley stared at him as he turned away.
"Well, by jinks! What _is_ the matter o" you?"
He was too busy to dwell upon it much, but concluded his partner was homesick.
Albert was beginning to have a vague under-consciousness of his real feeling toward the girl, but he fought off the acknowledgment of it as long as possible. His mind moved in a circle, coming back to the one point ceaselessly--a dreary prospect, in which the slender girl-figure had no place--and each time the prospect grew more intolerably blank, and the pain in his heart more acute and throbbing.
When he faced her that night, after they had returned from a final skating party down on the river, he was as far from a solution as ever.
He had avoided all reference to their separation, and now he stood as a man might at the parting of two paths, saying: "I will not choose; I can not choose. I will wait for some sign, some chance thing, to direct me."
They stood opposite each other, each feeling that there was more to be said; the girl tender, her eyes cast down, holding her hands to the fire; he shivering, but not with cold. He had a vague knowledge of the vast importance of the moment, and he hesitated to speak.
"It"s almost spring again, isn"t it? And you"ve been here--" she paused and looked up with a daring smile--"seems as if you"d been here always."
It was about half past eight. Mrs. Welsh was setting her bread in the kitchen; they could hear her moving about. Hartley was downtown finishing up his business.
Albert"s throat grew dry and his limbs trembled. His pause was ominous; the girl"s smile died away as he took a seat without looking at her.
"Well, Maud, I suppose--you know--we"re going away to-morrow."
"Oh, must you? But you"ll come back?"
"I don"t expect to--I don"t see how."
"Oh, don"t say that!" cried the girl, her face as white as silver, her clasped hands straining.
"I must--I must!" he muttered, not looking at her, not daring to see her face.
"Oh, what can I do--_we_ do, without you! I can"t bear it!"
She stopped and sank back into a chair, her breath coming heavily from her twitching lips, the unnoticed tears falling from her staring, pitiful, wild, appealing eyes, her hands nervously twisting her gloves.
There was a long silence. Each was undergoing a self-revelation; each was trying to face a future without the other.
"I must go!" he repeated aimlessly, mechanically.
The girl"s heavy breathing deepened into a wild little moaning sound, inexpressibly pitiful, her hungry eyes fixed on his face. She gave way first, and flung herself down upon her knees at his side, her hands seeking his neck.
"Albert, I can"t _live_ without you now! Take me with you! Don"t leave me!"
He stooped suddenly and took her in his arms, raised her, and kissed her hair.
"I didn"t mean it, Maud; I"ll never leave you--never! Don"t cry!"
She drew his face down to hers and kissed it, then turned her face to his breast and laughed and cried. There was a silence; then joy and confidence came back again.
"I know now what you meant," the girl cried gayly, raising herself and looking into his face; "you were trying to scare me, and make me show how much I--cared for you--first!" There was a soft smile on her lips and a tender light in her eyes. "But I don"t mind it."
"I guess I didn"t know myself what I meant," he said, with a grave smile.
When Mrs. Welsh came in, they were sitting on the sofa, talking in low voices of their future. He was grave and subdued, while she was radiant with love and hope. The future had no terrors for her. All plans were good and successful now. But the boy unconsciously felt the gravity of life somehow deepened by his love.
"Why, Maud!" Mrs. Welsh exclaimed, "what is----"
"O mother, I"m so happy--just as happy as a bird!" she cried, rushing into her mother"s arms.
"Why, why!--what is it? You"re crying, dear!"
"No, I"m not; I"m laughing--see!"
Mrs. Welsh turned her dim eyes on the girl, who shook the tears from her lashes with the action of a bird shaking water from its wings. She seemed to shake off her trouble at the same moment. Mrs. Welsh understood perfectly.
"I"m very glad, too, dearie," she said simply, looking at the young man with motherly love irradiating her worn face. Albert went to her, and she kissed him, while the happy girl put her arms about them both in an ecstatic hug.
"_Now_ you"ve got a son, mother."
"But I"ve lost a daughter--my first-born."
"Oh, wait till you hear our plans!"
"He"s going to settle down here--aren"t you, Albert?"
Then they sat down, all three, and had a sweet, intimate talk of an hour, full of plans and hopes and confidences.
At last he kissed the radiant girl good night and, going into his own room, sat down by the stove and, watching the flicker of the flames through the c.h.i.n.ks, pondered on the change that had come into his life.
Already he sighed with the stress of care, the press of thought, which came upon him. The longing uneasiness of the boy had given place to another unrest--the unrest of the man who must face the world in earnest now, planning for food and shelter; and all plans included Maud.
To go back to school was out of the question. To expect help from his father, overworked and burdened with debt, was impossible. He must go to work, and go to work to aid _her_. A living must be wrung from this town. All the home and all the property Mrs. Welsh had were here, and wherever Maud went the mother must follow; she could not live without her.
He was in the midst of the turmoil when Hartley came in, humming the "Mulligan Guards."
"In the dark, hey?"
"Completely in the dark."
"Well, light up, light up!"
"I"m trying to."
"What the deuce do you mean by that tone? What"s been going on here since my absence?"