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Virginiabade Lucas stop the horses. The old wagonette was on its way out to Denbigh Crossing, and Daniel Carter had just come in sight. Virginia thought she had never seen him look so pale.
“He looks ill, and his limp is bad, too, poor fellow!” she breathed to herself; but she smiled, leaning over the back of the seat to shake hands.
“Where have you kept yourself, Dan?” she asked kindly, with the sweetness in her tone that Daniel had come to recognize as pity. “Grandfather has been asking for you.”
“I’m afraid he wants the book he lent me,” said Daniel, looking up at her and aware of the softness of her glance. She looked lovely, that same old shade hat looped down and the knot of pink under her chin; but the muslin dress was dotted white Swiss this time, with a little opening at the neck that showed a lovely throat. “I’ll bring it back this week.”
“Fie! As if he wanted the old book! We’ve missed you, Dan.”
He flushed boyishly and let his eyes dwell uponher. And, for the first time in her life, Virginia blushed consciously under Daniel’s look.
“Have you really?” he asked eagerly.
“Really and truly!” She nodded at him, smiling. “I should have written you a note about it—invited you to dinner, in fact, if it had not been for our—our concert—” She blushed this time, remembering suddenly that there must have been an earthquake in the Carter house. “I’ve just finished settling up the accounts with Mrs. Payson,” she added hurriedly. “I’m glad it’s over!”
There was a ghost of laughter in Daniel’s eyes, but he kept a sober face.
“It was a success, then, Virginia?”
“Oh, yes! We paid in our full share; no one out of pocket except Mr. Payson. You know, he paid Caraffi. Dan, did you hear Caraffi play?”
He shook his head.
“I’d rather hear you.”
“Mercy! Don’t say that out loud.” She laughed, but her blush deepened. It seemed to-day as if there was something new in Daniel, something she did not understand. “Come and hear me play, though, and I’ll believe you.”
Daniel glanced at the very conscious but decorous back of Lucas, and smiled. No one was ever worried about what Daniel said!
“I’m coming. I’ve been wanting to come allalong,” he said gravely; “but—I’m afraid of wearing out my welcome.”
She looked surprised, then, catching his eye, realized that Daniel had been afraid that William’s brother was unwelcome. She blushed gloriously this time.
“You couldn’t—you couldn’t if you tried,” she said softly. Then to the coachman: “Go on, Lucas. I mustn’t keep you, Dan, but be sure you come soon.”
He stood bare-headed in the sunshine, watching the old wagonette disappear; then he put on his hat and walked haltingly and slowly toward the court-house. He was to address the jury in the afternoon, and in some way the sight of Virginia always helped him. He seemed to carry her smile, like sunshine, into the old dim court-room. He always spoke well afterward, so well that he was getting the name of an orator without being aware of it.
Plato had just served a light lunch for Colonel Denbigh on the lawn. The old man, sitting under his favorite horse-chestnut-tree, ate sparingly and drank one iced julep, made in the old Virginia style. He had finished, and Plato was holding the lighter for his cigar.
“Go to the concert the other night, Plato?Miss Virginia says you carried her bundles, and she thinks you heard it all.”
Plato held the lighter dexterously.
“Yessuh, I went ’long wid Miss Jinny. Didn’t pay no ’mission fee, jus’ walked righ’ in, same as Miz Payson an’ de quality. Yessuh, de music mighty fine, but I was lookin’ at young Miz Carter when she was dancin’. Dat’s what done took dis yere nigger!”
The colonel puffed at his cigar, a twinkle in his eye.
“Like it, Plato?”
“Yessuh! It was de mos’ circumspecklar dancin’ I ever see, suh, it sho was. I ain’t seen nuffin like it since de circus. But Mirandy Parsons, de collud girl dat works at Miz Carter’s, she says dere was terr’ble goings-on dere ’bout dis yere dance. She ’lowed Mist’ Carter mos’ throw a fit.”
Colonel Denbigh took off his hat and ran his fingers through his white hair.
“It was a great dance, Plato, a great dance.” He shook with silent laughter. “Some of the weaker brethren had to leave, though.”
“Dey sho did, suh! I met de Baptist minister comin’ out, an’ de ladies was wid him. Dey was sayin’ something ’bout dat dance in de Bible, an’ ’bout John de Baptist’s head on a charger.Seems like he took it hard—I don’t mean John de Baptist, but de minister. Done paid five dollahs fo’ his sittin’, an’ couldn’t set out no five dollahs’ worth. Dat’s what got him mad, suh, it sho was.”
The colonel shouted with laughter.
“He got more than five dollars’ worth out of that dance, Plato! There’s Miss Jinny now,” he added, glancing down the driveway. “You go and help her out with her packages.”
The old wagonette had entered the gateway, and Plato hurried off across the lawn; but the horses stopped short, and Virginia got out, meeting some one who had entered from the opposite direction. The colonel, well in the shade of his horse-chestnut, removed his cigar from his mouth. He was startled. The visitor was William Carter.
While Plato was taking a number of small packages from the wagonette, the pair greeted each other in the sunlit space of the old driveway. Something in their faces made the colonel rise silently and deftly beat a retreat. He passed behind the old box hedge and made his way back to the house.
“I reckon they’d like to have it out by themselves,” he thought.
Virginia, meanwhile, came across the lawn withWilliam Carter. She stopped as she came near the horse-chestnut.
“Why, I thought grandfather was here!” she exclaimed, and then to William: “Won’t you sit down? I’ll call him.”
“But I didn’t come to see him,” said William quietly. “I came to see you, Virginia. I suppose I may sit down just the same?”
She blushed.
“Of course!” She took off her hat and laid it on the rustic table, and the sunshine seemed to caress the strands of gold in her soft hair. “We like to sit out here, you know, in summer. It seems so good to be out-of-doors. Do you notice what a view we have, since they cut that new street through?”
She was talking hurriedly, a little nervously, not looking at him. It was their first moment alone together since his return, and Virginia was not quite sure of herself. She pointed out the view.
William turned and looked at it absently.
“You can see a long way, can’t you?”
“Yes; and there’s such a glimpse now of blooming things. The old magnolia’s full of buds.”
“Fanchon doesn’t like these things,” said William moodily. “They bore her. She says she’d rather see one of those electric signs in New York,flashing Budweiser beer in and out, than sit here and count lightning-bugs!”
Virginia laughed, blushing again.
“What would we do if we all liked the same thing?” she asked lightly, and then, very sweetly: “William, I think your wife is beautiful. At first, one can’t decide, the face is so charming, so piquant; but when she smiles and those dark eyes of hers dwell on you—she’s beautiful!”
William said nothing for a moment. He was sitting in the colonel’s chair, his hat on his knees, and Virginia could see new haggard lines in his face. He did not look at her, but away toward a distant spire that appeared above the thick foliage, like a finger pointing upward.
“Yes, she’s beautiful,” he admitted at last, almost with reluctance.
Virginia, aware that he was thinking of days long ago, when he had taken her to church and carried her books home from school, felt her breath coming short. She was trying hard, but if he would not meet her half-way, how could she patch it up?
She averted her face, toying with her grandfather’s empty glass. The ice still jingled in it a little, and William started. He remembered jingling the ice in the glasses on the inn table,and Fanchon’s eyes seemed to mock him. He drew a long sigh.
“I hope you don’t mind my sitting here, Virginia,” he said gravely. “It’s—it’s so homelike. I can’t bear to go. I suppose lost spirits hang around sometimes outside the gates of paradise.”
Virginia caught her breath this time. She dared not look at him. She had taken a ring out of her pocket and held it out in the palm of her hand; but now, looking at his set profile, she hardly dared to speak of it. Her hand trembled; he was unhappy, and he had come to her! Something like fear showed in her eyes, but she forced herself to speak.
“I wish you’d come in and see grandfather. He’d be glad, I know. We meant to come to see your wife again—some evening when you would be at home.”
William lifted his head slowly and looked at her.
“Virginia, I got the letters you sent me,” he said in a low voice. “The reason I didn’t return yours was—I burned them one night in Paris just before—”
He stopped, unable to go on, red in the face; but she was quite calm. His very embarrassment steadied her.
“That’s all right,” she said. “I’m glad youspoke, because I wanted to give you this.” She held out her hand with the ring in her palm. “I know it belonged to your grandmother. I was afraid to trust it to the mails. Here it is, William.”
He held out his hand stiffly, without looking at her, and Virginia had to put the ring into it.
“Thank you,” he said in a low voice.
Then he looked in a dazed way at the ring lying in his hand. The color slowly receded from his flushed face and left it pale. He remembered the day he had put it on her finger!
So did she; but Virginia was a brave woman. She could not help seeing his face, and, being a woman, she knew. She could shape the whole story easily now. She had heard rumors of Mr. Carter’s wrath at Fanchon’s dance, and she knew what William must have felt. The talk must have reached him. This was the recoil. She loved him, and she understood. It would have tempted another woman; it frightened Virginia. She tried to think of something to say, but she could not.
They sat silently, the shade of the horse-chestnut stretching over them. Beyond them the sun shone on the old lawns and flower-beds. They were so motionless that a robin, searching for worms, came almost up to their feet.
“Do you mind my sitting around here?” heasked again in a low voice. “It’s the most restful place I’ve found.”
She steadied her voice.
“It is a restful place. Once we thought we’d have to give it up, but some stocks paid in, and we saved it. I’m so glad!”
William straightened himself.
“I didn’t know that.”
She was startled. She had not thought that he would take it in this way. Everything led them into the shoals, it seemed. She smiled, but her lips shook.
“I don’t think any one knew it but Dan,” she replied gently. “Dan helped us save it.”
“Dan?” He turned and looked at her, plainly startled, too, by another thought. “Dan?”
She met his look steadily this time.
“Yes, Dan. He’s so good to us. I think he’s very noble.”
William stared at her, paling again. A kind of fury came into his look, and she saw it. He was jealous of Dan! She understood now. That poor girl, his wife, had been a wild fancy, an episode, no more, and he was waking up.
She rose slowly to her feet.
“Come,” she said. “I’m going in. Grandpa is there, and you must come in and see him.”
She turned as she spoke, and William got tohis feet, still white and haggard, his eyes following her. But Virginia stopped abruptly. Before them on the lawn, unheard and unseen in her approach, stood a small, white-clad figure in a daring scarlet hat, pale and piquant.
“I don’t think you heard me,” said Fanchon softly, her dark eyes flashing from one to the other. “You weren’t listening!” And she laughed shrilly.
William crimsoned, but Virginia was calm.
“No, we didn’t,” she replied simply; “but I’m glad to see you. We were just going into the house—will you come, too?”
Fanchon lifted her fawn-like eyes slowly to the other girl’s face. There was something noble in it, too noble for the retort that was on the end of her sharp tongue. She colored angrily.
“Of course! I came to call,” she said lightly. “William got ahead of me, I see.”
Virginia did not reply to this. She was already at the piazza steps.
“Please come this way,” she said lightly.
But Fanchon did not answer her. She had approached her husband, her large eyes mocking him, her lips parted. A strange look, half elfish, half fond, was on her face.
“You needn’t be in such a hurry to hide that ring,” she said below her breath. “I know aboutit. There was one letter you forgot to burn,mon ami!”
He turned from red to white. His only comfort was Virginia’s noble, unconscious look as she led the way into the house.