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Jane’s eyes did not falter. She looked at him, “You promised, you know–––!”
“Yes, Allison––I love you––but––NO!You mustnotkiss me again. You must let me go, and listen––You promised, you know–––!”
Allison’s arms dropped away from her, but his eyes held her in a long look of joy.
“All right, darling, go to it”––he said with a joyous sound in his voice––“I can stand anything now, I know. It seems too good to be true and it’s enough for me. But hurry! A fellow can’t wait forever.”
“No, Allison, you must sit back and be serious. It isn’t reallyhappy, you know––what I have to tell you–––!”
Allison became grave at once.
“All right, Jane, only I can’t imagine anything terrible enough to stop this happiness of mine unless you’re already married––and have been concealing it from us all this time–––!”
In spite of herself Jane laughed at that, and Allison breathed more freely now the tenseness was gone out of her voice. His hands went out and grasped hers.
“At least I can do this,” he pleaded, and Jane lifted her eyes, now serious again, and smiled tenderly, letting her hands stay in his passively.
“Listen, Allison––my father!”
“I know, Jane, dear––I heard it long ago. Your father was a forger! What do you suppose I care? He probably had some overpowering temptation and yielded, never dreaming but he would be able to make it right. You can’t make me believe that any parent ofyourswas actually bad! And besides, if he was, it wouldn’t beyou–––”
“Allison! Listen!” broke in Jane gravely, stopping331the torrent of words with which he was attempting to silence her. “It isn’t what you think at all. My fatherwasn’ta forger! He was a good man!”
“He wasn’t!” exclaimed Allison joyously. “Then what in thunder? Why didn’t you tell ’em so, Jane?” He tried to draw her to him, but she still resisted.
“That’s just it, Allison, I can’t. Inevercan–––”
“Well, thenIwill! You shan’t have a thing like that hanging over you–––!”
“But that is just what youmust not do. And youcan’tdo it, either, if I don’t tell you about it, for you wouldn’t have a thing to say, nor any way to prove it. And I won’t tell you, Allison, ever, unless you will promise–––!”
Allison was sobered in an instant.
“Jane, don’t you know me well enough to be sure I would not betray any confidence you put in me?”
“I thought so–––” said Jane, smiling through her tears.
“Dear!” said Allison in a tone that was a caress, full of longing and sympathy.
Jane sat up bravely and began her story.
“When I was twelve years old my mother died. That left father and me alone, and we became very close comrades indeed. He was a wonderful father!”
Allison’s fingers answered with a warm pressure of sympathy and interest.
“He was father and mother both to me. And more and more we grew to confide in one another. I was interested in all his business, and used to amuse myself asking him about things at the office when he came home, the way mother used to do when she was with us. He used to talk over all my school friends and interests and we had beautiful times together. My332father had a friend––a man who had grown up with him, lived next door and went to school with him when he was a boy. He was younger than father, and––well, not so serious. Father didn’t always approve of what he did and used to urge him to do differently. He lived in the same suburb with us, and his wife had been a friend of mother’s. She was a sweet little child-like woman, very pretty, and an invalid. They had one daughter, a girl about my age, and when we were children we used to play together, but as we grew older mother didn’t care for us to be together much. She thought––it was better for us not to––and as the years went by we didn’t have much to do with one another. Her father was the only one who kept up the acquaintance, and sometimes I used to think he worried my father every time he came to the house. One day when I was about fourteen he came in the afternoon just after I got home from school and said he wanted to see father as soon as he came home. Couldn’t I telephone father and ask him to come home at once, that there was someone there wanting to see him on important business? He finally called him up himself and when father got there they went into a room by themselves and talked until late into the night. When at last Mr.––that is––theman, went away, father did not go to bed but walked up and down the floor in his study all night long. Toward morning I could not stand it any longer. I knew my father was in trouble. So I went down to him, and when I saw him I was terribly frightened. His face was white and drawn and his eyes burned like coals of fire. He looked at me with a look that I never shall forget. He took me in his arms and lifted up my face, a way he often had when he was in earnest, and he seemed333to be looking down into my very soul. ‘Little girl,’ he said, ‘we’re in deep trouble. I don’t know whether I’ve done right or not.’ There was something in his voice that made me tremble all over, and he saw I was frightened and tried to be calm himself. ‘Janie,’ he said––he always called me Janie when he was deeply moved––‘Janie, it may hit hardest on you, and oh, I meant your life to be so safe and happy!’
“I tried to tell him it didn’t matter about me, and for him not to be troubled, but he went on telling about it. It seems the father of this man had once done a great deal for my father when he was in a very trying situation, and father always felt an obligation to look after the son. Indeed, he had promised when the old man was dying that he would be a brother to him no matter what happened. And now the son had been speculating and got deep into debt. He had formed some kind of stock company, something to do with Western land and mines. I never fully understood it all, but there had been a lot of fraudulent dealing, although father only suspected that at the time, but anyway, everything was going to fall through and the man was going to be brought up in disgrace before the world if somebody didn’t help him out. And father felt obliged to stand by him. Of course, he did not know how bad it was, because the man had not told him all the truth, but father had taken over the obligations of the whole thing. He thought he might be able to pull the thing out of trouble by putting a good deal of his own money into it, and make it a fair and square proposition for all the stockholders without their ever finding out that everything had been on the verge of going to pieces. You see the man had put it up to father very eloquently that his wife was very334ill in the hospital and, if anything should happen to him and he were arrested it could not be kept from her and she would die. It’s true she was very critically ill, had just been through a severe operation, and was very frail indeed. Father felt it was up to him to shoulder the whole responsibility, although, of course, he felt that the man richly deserved the law to the full. Nevertheless, because of his promise he stood by him.
“That night the man was killed in an automobile accident soon after leaving our house, and when it developed that the business was built on a rotten foundation, and that father was in partnership––you see the man had been very wily and had his papers all fixed up so that it looked as if father had been a silent partner from the beginning––everything came back on father, and he found there were overwhelming debts that he had not been told about, although he supposed he had sifted the business to the foundation and understood it all before he made the agreement to help him. Perhaps if the man had lived he would have been able to carry his crooked dealings through and save the whole thing, with what help father had given him, and neither father nor the world would ever have found out––I don’t know.––But anyway, his dying just then made the whole thing fall in ruins, and right on top of father. But even that we could have stood. We didn’t care so much about money. Father was well off, and he found that if he put in everything he could satisfy the creditors, and pay off everything, and he had courage enough to be planning to start all over again. But suddenly it turned out that there had been a check forged for a large amount and it all looked as if father had done it.335I can’t go into the details now, but we were suddenly face to face with the fact that there was no evidence to prove that he had not been a hypocrite all these years except his own life. We thought for a few days that of course that would put him beyond suspicion––but do you know, the world is very hard. One of father’s best friends––one he thought was a friend––came to him and offered to go bail for him for my sake if he would just tell him the whole truth and own up. There was only one way and that was to go to the man’s wife and try to get certain papers which father knew were in existence because he had seen them, and which he had supposed were left in his own safe the night the man talked with him, but which could not be found. As the wife had just been brought back from the hospital and was still in a very critical condition, father would not do more than ask if he might go through the house and search. And that woman sent back a very indignant refusal, charging father with having been at the bottom of her husband’s failure, and even the cause of his death, and telling him he had pauperized her and her little helpless daughter. And the daughter began treating me as a stranger whenever we chanced to meet–––”
Allison’s face darkened and his eyes looked stern and hard. He said something under his breath angrily. Jane couldn’t catch the words, but he drew her close in his arms and held her tenderly:
“And were those papers never found, dear?” he asked after a moment:
“Yes,” said Jane wearily, resting her head back against his shoulder, “I found them, after father died.”
“You found them?”
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“Yes, I found them slipped down behind the chest in the hall. It was a heavy oak chest, a great carved affair that had belonged in the family a long time, and it was seldom moved. It stood below the hat-rack in the alcove in the hall, and I figured it out that the man must have meant to keep those papers himself, so there would be no incriminating evidence in father’s hands, and that he must have picked them up without father’s noticing and started to carry them home; but that when he was going away, putting on his overcoat, he had somehow dropped some of them behind that chest without knowing it. Because they were not all there––two of them were missing. Father had described them to me, and three––the most important ones with the empty envelope––were found. The other two were probably larger, and looked like the whole bundle, which explains how he came to think he had them all. But the two he had and must have had about him when he was killed would not in themselves have been any evidence against him. So, my father was arrested–––!”
The tears choked Jane’s voice and suddenly rained into her sweet eyes as she struggled to recall the whole sorrowful experience.
“Oh, my darling!” cried Allison, tenderly holding her close.
“Father was very brave. He said it was sure to come out all right, but he wouldn’t accept bail, though it was offered him by several loyal friends. He saw that they suspected him, and the papers all came out with big headlines, ‘Church Elder Arrested.’”
Allison’s voice was deep with loving sympathy as his lips swept her forehead softly and he murmured,337“My poor little girl!” but Jane went bravely on.
“That was a hard time,” she said with trembling lips, “but God was good; he didn’t let it last long. There came an old friend back from abroad who had known father ever since he was a boy, and who happened to have been associated with him in business long enough to give certain proofs that cleared the whole thing up. In a week the case was dismissed so far as father was concerned, and he was back at home again, and restored to the full confidence of his business associates––that is, those who knew intimately about the matter. If father had lived I have no doubt everything would have been all right, and he would have been able to live down the whole thing, but the trouble had struck him hard, he was so terribly worried for my sake, you know. Then he took a little cold which we didn’t think anything about, and suddenly, before we realized it, he was down with double pneumonia from which he never rallied. His vitality seemed to be gone. After he died, the papers said beautiful things about his bravery and courage and Christianity, and people tried to be nice, but when it was all over there were still people who looked at me curiously when I passed, and whispered noticeably together; and that man’s wife and daughter openly called me a forger’s daughter and said that my father had stolen their income, when all the time they were living on what he had given up to save them from disgrace. The daughter made it so unpleasant for me that I decided to go away where I was not known, although I had several dear beautiful homes opened to me if I had chosen to stay, where I might have been a daughter and treated as one of the other children.338But I thought it was better to go away and make my own life–––”
“But you had evidence. Did you never go and tell those two how wrong they were and how it was their father, not yours, who was the forger?”
“No, not exactly,” said Jane, lifting clear untroubled eyes to his face. “You see that was part of father’s obligation; it was a point of honor not to give that man’s shame away to his wife––he had promised––and then, the man, was dead––he could not be brought to justice; what good would it do?”
“It would have done the good that those two women wouldn’t have gone around snubbing you and telling lies about you–––”
“Oh, well, after all, that didn’t really hurt me–––”
“And that brazen girl wouldn’t have dared come here to the same college and make it hot for you–––!”
“Allison! How did youknow?” Jane sat up and looked into his eyes, startled.
“I knew from the first mention that it must have been Eugenia Frazer. No girl in her senses would have taken the trouble to do what she did to-day without some grievance–––! Oh, that girl! She is beyond words! Think of anybody ever falling in love with her! I’d like the pleasure of informing her what her father was. Of course, though, it wasn’t her fault. She couldn’t help her father being what he was, but she could help what she is herself. I should certainly like to see her get what’s coming to her–––!”
“Don’t Allison––please! It isn’t the right spirit for us to have. Perhaps I’d be just like her if I were in her place–––”
“I see you being like her––you angel!” And339Allison leaned over again to look into the eyes of his beloved.
“Well, dear, we’ll get the right spirit about it somehow, and forget her, but I mean she shall understand right where she gets off before this thing goes any farther. No, you needn’t protest. I’m not going to give away your confidence. But I’m going to settle that girl where she won’t dare to make any more trouble for you ever again. And the first thing we’re going to do is to announce our engagement. I feel like going up to the college bulletin board right this minute and writing it out in great big letters!”
“Allison!” Jane sat up with shining eyes and her cheeks very red. Then they both broke down and laughed, Jane’s merriment ending in a serious look.
“Allison, you reallywant me, now you know what people may think about my father?”
“Jane, I’ve known all that since I first saw you. Our beloved pastor kindly informed me of it the night he introduced us, so you see how little weight it had with any of us. I had no knowledge but that it was all true, although I couldn’t for the life of me see how a man who was unworthy of you could have possibly been your father; but it was you, and not your father, I fell in love with the first night I saw you. I’m mighty glad for your sake that he wasn’t that kind of man, because I know how you would feel about it, but as for what other people think about it,I should worry! And Jane, make up your mind right here and now that we’re going to be married the day we both graduate, see? I won’t wait a day longer to have the right to protect you–––”
The tall trees whispered above their heads, and the340birds looked down and dropped wonderful melodies about them, and Leslie stormily drove her car back and forth on the pike and sounded her klaxon loud and long, but it was almost an hour later that it suddenly occurred to Allison that Leslie was waiting for them, and still later before the two with blissful lingering finally wended their way out to the road and were taken up by the subdued and weary Leslie, who greeted them with relief and fell upon her new sister with eager enthusiasm and genuine delight.
An hour later Allison, after committing his future bride to the tender ministries of Julia Cloud, who had received her as a daughter, took his way collegeward. He sent up his card to Miss Frazer and Miss Brice and requested that he might see them both as soon as possible, and in a flutter of expectancy the two presently entered the reception-room. They were hoping he had come to take them out in his car, although each was disappointed to find that she was not the only one summoned.
Allison in that few minutes of waiting for them, seemed to have lost his care-free boyish air and have grown to man’s estate. He greeted the two young women with utmost courtesy and gravity and proceeded at once to business:
“I have come to inform you,” he said with a bow that might almost be called stately, so much had the tall, slender figure lost its boyishness, “that Miss Bristol is my fiancée, and as such it is my business to protect her. I must ask you both to publicly apologize before your sorority for what happened this morning.”
Eunice Brice grew white and frightened, but Eugenia Frazer’s face flamed angrily.
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“Indeed, Allison Cloud, I’ll do nothing of the kind. What in the world did you suppose I had to do with what happened this morning?”
“You had all to do with it. Miss Frazer, I happen to know all about the matter.”
“Well, you certainly don’t,” flamed Eugenia, “or you wouldn’t be engaged to that little Bristol hypocrite. Her father was a common–––”
Allison took a step toward her, his face stern but controlled.
“Her father wasnotaforger, Miss Frazer, and I have reason to believe that you know that the report you are spreading about college is not true. But however that may be, Miss Frazer, if I should say that your father was a forger would that changeyouany? I have asked Miss Bristol to marry me because of whatshe is herself, and not because of what her father was. But there is ample evidence that her father was a noble and an upright man and so recognized by the law and by his fellow-townsmen, and I demand that you take back your words publicly, both of you, and that you, Miss Frazer, take upon yourself publicly the responsibility for starting this whole trouble. I fancy it may be rather unpleasant for you to remain in this college longer unless this matter is adjusted satisfactorily.”
“Well, I certainly do not intend to be bullied into any such thing!” said Eugenia angrily. “I’ll leave college first!”
Eunice Brice began to cry. She was the protégée of a rich woman and could not afford to be disgraced.
“I shall tell them all that you asked me to make that motion for you and promised to give me your pink evening dress if I did,” reproached Eunice tearfully.
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“Tell what you like,” returned Eugenia grandly, “it will only prove you what you are, a little fool! I’m going up to pack. You needn’t think you can hush me up, Allison Cloud, if youarerich. Money won’t cover up the truth–––”
“No,” said Allison looking at her steadily, controlledly, with a memory of his promise to Jane. “No, butChristianitywill––sometimes.”
“Oh, yes, everybody knows you’re a fanatic!” sneered Eugenia, and swept herself out of the room with high head, knowing that the wisest thing she could do was to depart while the going was good.
When Allison reached home a few minutes later Julia Cloud put into his hand a letter which his guardian had written her soon after his first visit, in which he stated that he had made it a point to look up both the young people with whom his wards were intimate, and he found their records and their family irreproachable. He especially went into details concerning Jane’s father and the noble way in which he had acted, and the completeness with which his name had been cleared. He uncovered one or two facts which Jane apparently did not know, and which proved that time had revealed the true criminal to those most concerned and that only pity for his family, and the expressed wish of the man who had borne for a time his shame, had caused the matter to be hushed up.
Allison, after he had read it, went to find Jane and drew her into the little sun-parlor to read it with him, and together they rejoiced quietly.
Jane lifted a shining face to Allison after the reading.
“Then I’m glad we never said anything to343Eugenia! Poor Eugenia! She is greatly to be pitied!”
Allison, a little shamefacedly, agreed, and then owned up that he had “fired” Eugenia, as he expressed it, from the college.
“O, Allison!” said Jane, half troubled, though laughing in spite of herself at the vision of Eugenia trying to be lofty in the face of the facts. “You ought not to have done it, dear. I have stood it so long, it didn’t matter! Only for your sake––and Leslie’s–––!”
“For our sakes, nothing!” said Allison. “That girl needed somebody to tell her where to get off, and only a man could do it. She’ll be more polite to people hereafter, I’m thinking. It won’t do her any harm. Now, Jane darling, forget it, and let’s be happy!”
“Be careful, Allison, some one is coming. I think it’s that Mr. Terrence.”
“Dog-gone his fool hide!” muttered Allison. “I wish he’d take himself home! I certainly would like to tellhimwhere to get off. Leslie’s as sick of him as I am, and as for Cloudy, she’s about reached the limit.”
“Why, Allison, isn’t Leslie interested in him? He told Howard that they were as good as engaged.”
“Leslie interested in that little cad? I should say not. If she was I’d disown her. You say he told Howard they were engaged! What a lie! So that’s what’s the matter with the old boy, is it? I thought something must be the matter that he got so busy all of a sudden. Well, I’ll soon fix that! Come on up to Cloudy’s porch, quick, while he’s in his room. Cloudy won’t mind. We’ll be by ourselves there till dinner is ready!”
344CHAPTER XXX
But matters came to a climax with Howard Letchworth before Allison had any opportunity to do any “fixing.”
The next afternoon was Class Day and there were big doings at the college. Howard kept out of the way, for it was a day on which he had counted much, and during the winter once or twice he and Leslie had talked of it as a matter of course that they would be around together. His Class Day had seemed then to be of so much importance to her––and now––now she was going to attend it in Clive Terrence’s company! Terrence had told him so, and there seemed no reason to doubt his word. She went everywhere with him, and he was their guest; why shouldn’t she? So Howard went glumly about his duties, keeping as much as possible out of everyone’s way. If he had not been a part of the order of exercises, and a moving spirit of the day, as it were, he would certainly have made up an excuse to absent himself. As it was, he meditated trying to get some one else to take his place, and was on his way to arrange it, just before the hour for the afternoon exercises to begin, when suddenly he saw, coming up the wide asphalt walk of the campus, young Terrence, and the girl who had come to be known among them as the “Freshman Vamp.” His eyes hastily scanned the groups about, and searched the walk as far as he could see it, but nowhere could he discover Leslie.
With a sudden impulse he dashed over to Julia345Cloud, and forgetful of his late estrangement spoke with much of his old eagerness; albeit trying his best to appear careless and matter-of-fact:
“Isn’t Leslie hereabouts somewhere, Miss Cloud? I believe I promised to show her the ivy that our class is to plant.”
It was the first excuse he could think of. But Julia Cloud was full of sympathy and understanding, and only too glad to hear the old ring of friendliness in his voice. She lowered her tone and spoke confidentially:
“She wouldn’t come, Howard: I don’t just know what has taken her. She said she would rather stay at home–––”
“Is she down there now?”
Julia Cloud nodded.
“Perhaps you–––”
“Iwill!” he said, and was off like a flash. On his way down the campus he thrust some papers into a classmate’s hands.
“If I don’t get back in time, give those to Halsted and tell him to look out for things. I’m called away.”
Never in all his running days had he run as he did that day. He made the station in four minutes where it usually took him six, and was at the Cloud Villa in two more, all out of breath but radiant. Something jubilant had been let loose in his heart by the smile in Julia Cloud’s eyes, utterly unreasonable, of course, but still it had come, and he was entertaining it royally. It was rather disheartening to find the front door locked and only Cherry to respond to his knock.
“Isn’t Miss Leslie here?” he asked, a blank look coming into his eyes as Cherry appeared.
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“Miss Leslie done jes’ skittered acrost de back yahd wid a paddle in her han’. I reckum she’s gone to de crick. Miss Jewel, she’ll be powerful upset ef she comes back an’ finds out. She don’t like Miss Leslie go down to them canoes all by her lonesome.”
“That’s all right, Cherry,” said Howard, cheering up; “I’ll go down and find her. Got an extra paddle anywhere, or did she take them both?”
“No, sir, she only took de one. Here’s t’other. I reckum she’ll be right glad to see yeh, Mas’r Howard. We-all hes missed you mighty powerful lot. That there little fish-eyed lady-man wot is visitin’ us ain’t no kind of substoote ’tall fer you–––”
Howard beamed on her silently and was off like a shot, forgetful of the chimes on the clock of the college, which were now striking the hour at which he was to have led the procession down the ivy walk to the scene of festivities.
Over two fences, across lots, down a steep, rocky hill, and he was at the little landing where the Cloud canoe usually anchored. But Leslie and her boat were gone. No glimpse of bright hair either up or down stream gave hint of which she had taken, no ripple in the water even to show where she had passed. But he knew pretty well her favorite haunts up-stream where the hemlocks bowed and bent to the water, and made dark shadows under which to slip. The silence and the beauty called her as they had always called him. He was sure he would find her there rather than down-stream where the crowds of inn people played around, and the tennis courts overflowed into canoes and dawdled about with ukeleles and cameras. He looked about for a means of transport. There was347only one canoe, well-chained to its rest. He examined the padlock for a moment, then put forth his strong young arm and jerked up the rest from its firm setting in the earth. It was the work of a second to shoot the boat into the water, fling the chains, boat-rest and all into the bow, and spring after. Long, strong, steady strokes, and he shot out into the stream and away up beyond the willows; around the turn where the chestnut grove bloomed in good promise for the autumn; beyond the railroad bridge and the rocks; past the first dipping hemlocks; around the curve; below the old camp where they had had so many delightful picnics and watched the sunset from the rocks; and on, up above the rapids. The current was swift to-day. He wondered if Leslie had been able to pass them all alone, yet somehow he felt she had and he would find her up in the quiet haven where few ever came and where she would be undisturbed. Paddling “Indian” he came around the curve silently and was almost upon her, but was unprepared for the little huddled figure down in the bottom of the boat, one hand grasping the paddle which was wedged between some stones in the shallow stream bed to anchor the frail bark, the other arm curved about as a pillow for the face which was hidden, with only the bright hair gleaming in the stray rays of sunshine that crept through the young leaves overhead.
“Leslie, little girl––my darling––what is the matter?”
He scarcely knew what he was saying, so anxiously he watched her. Was she hurt or in trouble, and if so, what was the trouble? Did the vapid little guest and the Freshman Vamp have anything to do with it? Somehow he forgot all about himself now and his own348grievance––he only wanted to comfort her whom he loved, and it never entered his head that just at that moment the anxious Halsted was inquiring of everyone: “Haven’t you seen Letchworth? Class Day’ll be a mess without him! Something must have happened to him!”
Leslie lifted a tear-stained face in startled amaze. His voice! Those precious words! Leslie heard them even ifhetook no cognizance of them himself.
“I––you––well,youought to know–––!” burst forth Leslie and then down went the bright head once more and the slender shoulders shook with long-suppressed sobs.
It certainly was a good thing that the creek was shallow at that point and the canoes quite used to all sorts of conditions. Howard Letchworth waited for no invitation. He arose and stepped into Leslie’s boat, pinioned his own with a dextrous paddle, and gave attention to comforting the princess. It somehow needed no words for awhile, until at last Leslie lifted a woebegone face that already looked half-appeased and inquired sobbily:
“What made you act so perfectly horrid all this time?”
“Why––I–––” began Howard lamely, wondering now just why hehad–––! “Why, you see, Leslie, you had company and–––”
“Company!That!Now, Howard, you weren’t jealous of that little excuse for a man, were you?”
Howard colored guiltily:
“Why, you see, Leslie, you are so far above me–––”
“Oh, I was, was I? Well, if I was aboveyou,349where did you think that other ridiculous little simp belonged, I should like to know?Notwithme, I hope?”
“But you see, Leslie–––” somehow the great question that had loomed between them these weeks dwarfed and shrivelled when he tried to explain it to Leslie–––
“Well–––?”
“Well, I’ve just found out you are very rich–––”
“Well?”
“Well,I’mpoor.”
“But I thought you just said youlovedme!” flashed Leslie indignantly. “If you do, I don’t see what rich and poor matter. It’ll all belong to us both, won’t it?”
“I shouldhopenot,” said the young man, drawing himself up as much as was consistent with life in a canoe. “I wouldneverlet my wife support me.”
“Well, perhaps you might be able to make enough tosupport yourself,” twinkled Leslie with mischief in a dimple near her mouth.
“Leslie, now you’re making fun! I mean this!”
“Well, what do you want me to do about it, give away my money?”
“Of course not. I was a cad and all that, but somehow it seemed as though I hadn’t any business to be coming around you when you were so young and with plenty of chances of men worth more than I–––”
“More what? More money?”
“Leslie, this is a serious matter with me–––”
“Well, it is with me, too,” said Leslie, suddenly grave. “You certainly have made me most unhappy for about three weeks. But I’m beginning to think you don’t love me after all. What is money between350people who love each other? Only something that they can have a good time spending for others, isn’t it? And supposeIshould say I wouldn’t letyou support me? I guess after all if you think so much of money you don’t really care!”
“Leslie!” Their eyes met and his suddenly fell before her steady, beautiful gaze:
“Well, then, Howard Letchworth, if you are so awfully proud that you have to be the richest, I’ll throw away or give away all my money and be a pauper,so there! Then will you be satisfied? What’s money without the one you love, anyway?”
“I see, Leslie! I was a fool. You darling, wonderful princess. No, keep your money and I’ll try to make some more and we’ll have a wonderful time helping others with it. I suppose I knew I was a fool all the time, only I wanted to be told so, because you see that fellow told me you and he had been set apart for each other by your parents–––!”
A sudden lurch of the canoe roused him to look at Leslie’s face:
“Oh, that little––liar! Yes, he is! He is the meanest, conceitedest, most disagreeable little snob–––!”
“There, there! We’ll spare him–––” laughed Howard. “I see I was wrong again, only, Leslie, little princess, there’s one thing you must own is true, you’re very young yet and you may change–––”
“Now,I like that!” cried Leslie. “You don’t even think I have the stability to be true to you. Well, if I’m as weak-looking as that you better go and find someone else–––”
But he stopped her words with his face against her351lips, and his arms about her, and at last she nestled against his shoulder and was at peace.
Chiming out above the notes of the wood-robin and the thrush there came the faint and distant notes of the quarter hour striking on the college library. It was Leslie who heard it. Howard was still too far upon the heights to think of earthly duties yet awhile.
“Howard! Isn’t this your Class Day? And haven’t you a part in the exercises? Why aren’t you there?”
He turned with startled eyes, and rising color.
“I couldn’t stay, Leslie. I was too miserable! I had to come after you. You promised to be with me to-day, you know–––”
“But your Class Poem, Howard! Quick! It must be almost time to read it–––!”
He took out his watch.
“Great Scott! I didn’t know the time had gone like that!”
Leslie’s fingers were already at work with the other canoe, tying its chain to the seat of her own.
“Now!” she turned and picked up her paddle swiftly, handing Howard the other one. “Go! For all your worth! You mustn’t fail on this day anyway! Beat it with all your might!”
“It’s too late!” said the man reluctantly, taking the paddle and moving to his right position.
“It’s not too late. Itshan’tbe too late!Paddle, I say,now,one––and––two––and–––!”
And they settled to a rhythmic stroke.
“It was so wonderful back there, Leslie,” said Howard wistfully. “We oughtn’t to let anything interfere with this first hour together.”
“This isn’t interfering,” said Leslie practically,352“it’s just duty, and that never interferes. Here, we’ll land over there and you beat it up the hill! I’ll padlock the boats by that old tree and follow, butdon’t you darewait for me! I’ll be there to hear the first word and they’ll have waited for you, I know. A little to the right, there––now––step out andbeat it!”
He obeyed her, and presently came panting to the audience room, with a fine color, and a great light in his eyes, just as Halsted was slipping down to inquire of Allison:
“Where in thunder is Letchworth? Seen him anywhere?”
“Heavens, man! Hasn’t he showed up yet?” cried Allison startled. “Where could he be?”
Julia Cloud beside him leaned over and quietly drew their attention to the figure hastening up the aisle. Halsted hurried back to the platform, and Allison, relieved, settled once more in his seat. But Julia Cloud rested not in satisfaction until another figure breathlessly slipped in with eyes for none but the speaker.
Then into the eyes of Julia Cloud there came a vision as comes to one who watching the glorious setting of the sun sees not the regretful close of the day that is past, but the golden promise of the day that is to come.