For reasons inexplicable to himself, he fell into a sudden confusion at this sally.
With a warning glance at the incorrigible Belle, whose vital elements were frolic and nonsense, Mildred began talking to Mr.
Atwood about the great hotel a few miles distant.
"Would you like to go there?" asked Roger after a little.
"No," she said; "I have not the slightest wish to go there." Indeed there was nothing that she shrank from more than the chance of meeting those who had known her in the city.
Later in the day Susan said to her mother, with much satisfaction, "She"s not stuck up at all, and we might have found it out before.
I can"t go back to the kitchen and live in our old haphazard way.
I can see now that it wasn"t nice at all."
"We"ll see," said the politic Mrs. Atwood. "We mustn"t drive father too fast."
Roger felt that at last he was getting acquainted, and he looked forward to the long summer evening with much hope. But nothing happened as he expected, for Mildred was silent and preoccupied at supper, and Mrs. Jocelyn appeared to have relapsed into her old depression.
Instead of going out in his buggy to spend the evening with one of his many favorites, as had been his custom, he took a book and sat down under a tree near the porch, so that he might join Mildred if she gave him any encouragement to do so. Belle found him taciturn and far removed from his gay mood of the morning, and so at last left him in peace.
Sue was entertaining a rural admirer in the parlor, which was rarely used except on such momentous occasions, and all was propitious for a quiet talk with the object of his kindling interest. His heart beat quickly as he saw her appear on the porch with her hat and shawl, but instead of noticing him she went rapidly by with bowed head and climbed an eminence near the house, from which there was an extended view to the southward. He felt, as well as saw, that she wished to be alone, that he was not in her thoughts, that she was still as distant from him as he had ever imagined her to be. The shadows deepened, the evening grew dusky, the stars came out, and yet she did not return. For a long time he could see her outline as she sat on the hill top, and then it faded. He knew she was in trouble, and found a vague pleasure in watching with her, in remaining within call should she be frightened, knowing, however, that there was little danger of this in quiet Forestville. Still, the illusion that he was in some sense her protector pleased him in his sentimental mood, and in after years he often recalled this first faint foreshadowing of his lot.
Could he have seen the poor girl, when at last, conscious of solitude and darkness, she gave way to the pa.s.sionate grief that, for her mother"s sake, she had so long repressed, he would have felt that she was distant indeed--far removed by experiences of which he as yet knew nothing. She had been gazing southward, toward the city in which her father was vainly seeking a foothold on the steep incline up which the unfortunate must struggle, and in fancy she saw him lonely, dejected, and deprived of the family life of which he was so fond. Her sympathy for him was as deep as her strong affection. But in spite of her will her thoughts would recur to the beautiful dream which had been shattered in that distant city.
Not a word had she heard from Arnold since leaving it, and her heart so misgave her concerning the future that she threw herself on the sod, sobbing bitterly, and almost wishing that she were beneath it and at rest. In the deep abstraction of her grief she had scarcely noted the lapse of time, nor where she was, and the moon had risen when she again glided by Roger, her step and bearing suggesting la.s.situde and dejection.
Soon after he entered the sitting-room, where he found his mother with a troubled look on her face. "Roger," she said, "I feel sorry for these people. When I went upstairs a while ago I heard Mrs.
Jocelyn crying in her room, and coming down with the lamp I met the young lady on the stairs, and her eyes were very red. It"s certain they are in deep trouble. What can it be? It"s queer Mr. Jocelyn doesn"t come to see them. I hope they are all right."
"Mother," he burst out impetuously, "they are all right--she is, anyway," and he went abruptly to his room.
"Well," remarked the bewildered woman sententiously, "there never were such goings on in the old house before."
An event momentous to her had indeed taken place--Roger"s boyish days were over.
CHAPTER IX
NEITHER BOY NOR MAN
The two following weeks pa.s.sed uneventfully at the farmhouse, but silent forces were at work that were as quiet and effective as those of Nature, who makes her vital changes without ever being observed in the act. In respect to the domestic arrangements Mrs. Atwood effected a sensible compromise. She gave the men-folk an early breakfast in the kitchen, so that they might go to their work as usual, and her boarders were thus not compelled to rise at an unaccustomed hour. She and Susan afterward sat down with them, and Mr. Atwood and Roger joined them at dinner and supper. On the Monday following the scenes described in the last chapter, Mildred and Mrs. Jocelyn were listless and unable to recover even the semblance of cheerfulness, for a letter from Mr. Jocelyn informed them that he was making very little headway, and that some agencies which he accepted yielded but a scanty income. Mildred chafed more bitterly than ever over her position of idle waiting, and even grew irritable under it. More than once Roger heard her speak to Belle and the children with a sharpness and impatience which proved her not angelic. This did not greatly disturb him, for he neither "wanted to be an angel" nor wished to have much to do with uncomfortable perfection. A human, spirited girl was quite to his taste, and he was quick-witted enough to see that unrest and anxiety were the causes of her temper. Poor Mrs. Jocelyn was too gentle for irritation, and only grew more despondent than ever at hope deferred.
"Millie," she said, "I have dreadful forebodings, and can never forgive myself that I did not think night and day how to save instead of how to spend. What should we do if we had no money at all?"
"Belle and I must go to work," said Mildred, with a resolute face, "and it"s a shame we are not at work now."
"What can you do when your father can do so little?"
"Other poor people live; so can we. I can"t stand this wretched waiting and separation much longer," and she wrote as much to her father. In the hope of obtaining a response favorable to her wishes she became more cheerful. Every day increased her resolution to put an end to their suspense, and to accept their lot with such fort.i.tude as they could command.
One morning she found Mr. and Mrs. Atwood preparing to go to the nearest market town with b.u.t.ter, eggs, and other farm produce.
She readily obtained permission to accompany them, and made some mysterious purchases. From this time onward Roger observed that she was much in her room, and that she went out more for exercise than from the motive of getting through with the weary, idle hours.
For some reason she also gained such an influence over thoughtless Belle that the latter took tolerably good care of little Fred and Minnie, as the children were familiarly called. While she maintained toward him her polite and friendly manner, he saw that he was forgotten, and that it had not entered her mind that he could ever do anything for her or be anything more to her than at the present time. But every hour she gained a stronger hold upon his sympathy, and occasionally, when she thought herself un.o.bserved, he saw a troubled and almost fearful look come into her eyes, as if something were present to her imagination that inspired the strongest dread. At such times he was mastered by impulses of self-sacrifice that would have seemed very absurd if put into plain words. He kept his thoughts, however, to himself, and with an instinctive reticence sought to disguise even from his mother the feelings that were so new, and so full of delicious pain. That he was becoming quite different from the careless, self-satisfied young fellow that he had been hitherto was apparent to all, and after his outburst on Sunday evening his mother half guessed the cause. But he misled her to some extent, and Susan altogether, by saying, "I"ve had a falling-out with Amelia Stone."
"Well, she"s the last girl in the world that I"d mope about if I were a man," was his sister"s emphatic reply.
"You"re not a man; besides I"m not moping. I"m only cutting my wisdom teeth. I want to do something in the world, and I"m thinking about it."
"He"s a-growing," said his mother with a smile, and on this theory she usually explained all of her son"s vagaries.
He still further misled his unsophisticated sister by making no special effort to seek Mildred"s society. After one or two rather futile attempts he saw that he would alienate the sad-hearted girl by obtrusive advances, and he contented himself by trying to understand her, in the hope that at some future time he might learn to approach her more acceptably. The thought that she would soon leave the farmhouse depressed him greatly. She had suggested to him a new and wholly different life from that which he had led hitherto, and he felt within himself no power or inclination to go on with his old ways. These thoughts he also brooded over in silence, and let himself drift in a current which seemed irresistible.
During this period he was under the influence of neither apathy nor dejection. On the contrary, his mind was surging with half-formed plans, crude purposes, and ambitious dreams. His horizon lifted from the farm and Forestville until there seemed s.p.a.ce for a notable career. His soul kindled at the thought of winning a position that would raise him to Mildred"s side. So far from fearing to burn his ships, and strike out unsupported, the impulse grew strong to make the attempt at any cost. He was sure that his father would not listen to the project, and that he would be wholly unaided, but riot many days pa.s.sed before the thought of such obstacles ceased to influence him. "I"ll take my way through the world, and cut my own swath," he muttered a hundred times as he swung the scythe under the July sun.
Moreover, he had a growing belief in his power to climb the heights of success. His favorite books of travel and adventure that he had devoured in boyhood made almost anything seem possible, and the various biographies that the village library furnished revealed grand careers in the face of enormous obstacles. His mind was awaking like a young giant eager for achievement. Even after the toil of long, hot days he took up his old school-books in the solitude of his room, and found that he could review them with the ease with which he would read a story. "I"ve got some brains as well as muscle," he would mutter, exultantly. "The time shall come when Mildred Jocelyn won"t mistake me for Jotham."
Poor Mr. Atwood would have been in consternation had he known what was pa.s.sing in his son"s mind; and Mildred even less pleased, for after all it was she who had inspired the thoughts which were transforming him from a simple country youth into an ambitious, venturesome man.
He knew of but one way to please her, but he made the most of that, and worked quietly but a.s.siduously whenever he could without exciting his father"s opposition. After the day"s tasks were over the time was his own. He began by cutting all the weeds and gra.s.s in the door-yard and around the house. Palings that had disappeared from the fence were replaced, and all were whitewashed.
Mrs. Atwood and Susan were greatly pleased at the changes, but thought it politic not to say much about them; one evening, however, his father began to banter him, remarking that Roger must be intending to "bring home a wife some fine morning." The young fellow reddened resentfully, and brusquely retorted that they "had lived in their old slovenly way long enough. People might well think they were going to the bad." This practical view somewhat reconciled his father to the new ideas, and suggested that Roger was not so daft as he feared. A little time after he was led to believe his son to be shrewder than himself. Needing some money, he took a note to the bank with much misgiving, but was agreeably surprised when one of the officers said affably, "I think we can accommodate you, Mr.
Atwood. I was by your place the other day, and it is so improved that I scarcely knew it. Thrift and credit go together."
But Mildred doubted whether thrift and policy were the only motives which had led to Roger"s unwonted action, and believed rather that he had awakened to a perception of the value and attractiveness of those things which hitherto he had not appreciated. This, in a sense, was already true, but had she known to what extent she was in his thoughts she would not have smiled so complacently when, on the Sat.u.r.day morning after the completion of his other labors, she noted that the weed-choked flower-borders along the walk had been cleaned and neatly rounded up, and the walk itself put in perfect order. "The flower-beds remind me of himself," she thought, as from time to time she glanced at them through her open window.
"They contain a good deal of vacant s.p.a.ce, and suggest what might be there rather than what is. Would to heaven, though, that Mr.
Arnold had more of his muscle and decision. If Vinton were only different, how different all the future might be! But I fear, I fear. We have not enough money to last all summer if we remain here, and father writes so discouragingly. Thank G.o.d, I"m no longer idle, whether anything comes of my work or not," and the delicate piece of fancy work grew rapidly in her deft hands.
Toward evening she started out for a walk, but uttered an exclamation of surprise as she saw the flower-borders were bright with verbenas, heliotrope, geraniums, and other bedding plants. Roger"s buggy stood near, containing two large empty boxes, and he was just raking the beds smooth once more in order to finish his task.
"Why, Mr. Atwood!" she cried, "it has long seemed to me that a good fairy was at work around the house, but this is a master-stroke."
"If you are pleased I am well repaid," he replied, the color deepening on his sunburned cheeks.
"If I am pleased?" she repeated in surprise, and with a faint answering color. "Why, all will be pleased, especially your mother and Susan."
"No doubt, but I thought these would look more like what you have been accustomed to."
"Really, Mr. Atwood, I hope you have not put yourself to all this trouble on my account."
"I have not put myself to any trouble. But you are in trouble, Miss Jocelyn, and perhaps these flowers may enliven you a little."
"I did not expect such kindness, such thoughtfulness. I do not see that I am ent.i.tled to so much consideration," she said hesitatingly, at the same time fixing on him a penetrating glance.
Although he was much embarra.s.sed, his clear black eyes met hers without wavering, and he asked, after a moment: "Could you not accept it if it were given freely?"
"I scarcely understand you," she replied in some perplexity.
"Nor do I understand you, Miss Jocelyn. I wish I did, for then I might do more for you."