CHAPTER VIII
LEE went neither to school nor to her meals for a week. She nursed her mother with the ardour of maternal affection and remorse. For the first two days Cecil dared not approach that door; it seemed written large with his misdoings. On the third he knocked timidly, then put his hands behind him.
Lee opened the door, threw back her head, and half closed her eyes—to conceal the delight in them.
“Well,” she said freezingly. “I am glad to see you haven’t forgotten all about me—I am sure I am!”
Cecil attempted no apology. He produced a bag of candy, and an apple nearly as big as his head.
“I thought you’d like these as you couldn’t go out to get any,” he said with tact.
Lee almost closed her eyes. She drew back. “You are so kind!” she said sarcastically.
Cecil must have had great ancestors. He replied never a word. He stood with both arms outstretched, the tempting offerings well within the door, and under Lee’s very nose.
Her eyes slowly opened. The corners of her mouth invaded her cheeks. Her hands rose slowly,fluttered a moment, then closed firmly over the tributes to her sex.
“Won’t you come in?” she asked graciously.
Cecil promptly closed the door behind him.
“I’m coming every afternoon to take care of your mother,” he announced.
“The idea of a boy being a nurse,” said Lee disdainfully; but she brought her lashes together again.
“You go and take a nap. Which medicine does she take next?”
Lee allowed herself to be overborne, and fell asleep. Mrs. Tarleton opened her eyes suddenly to meet a hypnotic stare. Cecil did nothing by halves.
Mrs. Tarleton smiled faintly, then put out her hand and patted his.
“You are a good boy, Cecil,” she said.
The good boy reddened haughtily. “I’m not trying to be thought a milksop,” he remarked.
“Oh, I know, I know! I mean most boys are selfish. I knew you would bring Lee safely back.”
“I wouldn’t mind if you said you forgave me.”
“I do. I do. Only please don’t do it again.”
He gave her the medicine. She closed her eyes, but he saw that she did not sleep. Occasionally she frowned and sighed heavily. Finally she opened her eyes again.
“I wish you were a little older,” she said abruptly.
He sat up very straight. “I’m quite old,” he said thickly. “I’m much older than Lee.”
“I mean I wish you were really grown and your own master, and as fond of Lee as you are now. Imust die soon; I had hoped to live until Lee was grown and married, but my will won’t last me much longer. It is of that I think constantly as I lie here, not of my pain.”
“I’ll marry Lee if you like,” said Cecil obligingly. “I like her very much; it would suit me jolly well to have her in England.”
Mrs. Tarleton raised herself on her arm. Her thin cheeks fairly expanded with the colour that flew to them. The boy could see the fluttering of her exhausted heart.
“Cecil,” she said solemnly, “promise me that you will marry Lee. I am a good judge of human nature. I know that you would be kind to her. I know of no one else to leave her to. Promise me.”
“I promise,” said Cecil promptly. But he had an odd sensation that the room had grown suddenly smaller.
“If I die before you go, take her with you if your father will consent. She has a little money and will not be a burden. If your father won’t take her come back for her when you are of age. Remember that you have given your solemn promise to a dying woman.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Cecil faintly. He was young and masculine and unanalytical; but instinct told him that Mrs. Tarleton was unfair, and he cooled to her, and to the sex through her, for the time being. He slipped out as Lee awoke.
The next day when he returned, the unpleasant sensations induced by Mrs. Tarleton had almost vanished. On the fourth day, as he and Lee weresitting before the fire popping corn—Mrs. Tarleton’s nerves being under the influence of morphine—Lee remarked with some asperity:
“I wish you wouldn’t stare at me so.”
“I was just thinking,” he said. “I am going to be your husband, you know.”
“What?” Lee dropped the popper into the fire. Her head went back, her nostrils out. “Who said you were, I’d like to know?Ididn’t.”
“Your mother asked me to marry you, and I said I would. So I’m going to.”
The American girl arose in her wrath, and stamped her foot.
“The very idea! Try it, will you? The idea, theideaof saying you’re going to marry a girl just ’cause you want to!—withoutaskingher! I just won’t marry you—so there!”
Young Maundrell rose to his feet, plunged his hands into his pockets and regarded her with angry perplexity. He knew what he would have done had she been a boy; he would have thrashed her. But a girl was a deeper problem than earthquakes. He descended to diplomacy.
“Of course I’ll ask you if you prefer it that way.”
“You just bet your life I do.”
“Well—” He got very red and trembled all over. He threw his weight first on one foot and then on the other. His nails clawed at his trousers pockets.
“Well?”
“Oh—ah—that is—you can marry me, if youlike— Oh, hang it, Lee! I don’t know how to propose. I feel like a rotter.”
“That isn’t the way,” said Lee icily. She hastily reviewed her glimpses of standard works.
“You must go down on your knees,” she added.
“I’d see myself dead sooner,” cried Cecil.
“You must.”
“I won’t.”
“Then I won’t marry you.”
“I don’t care whether you do or not.”
“But you promised!”
“I’m not going to be an ass if I did.”
Said Lee sweetly: “I don’t much care about the going down on the knees part. I’m afraid I’d laugh. Just say, ‘Will you marry me?’”
He sulkily repeated the formula.
“Now we’re engaged,” said Lee complacently; “and the popper’s burnt up. But we’ve got a lot popped, and I’ll make a syrup and stick some together into a nice ball for you. It’s lovely to eat when you’re in bed.” She leaned forward and adjusted his agitated necktie. “You look as if you just owned the whole world when you get mad,” she said.
And the male ate his sweets and was pacified.