Part 55 (1/2)
She watched his form as he walked up the slope, and her heart was filled with pity.
”Poor Ross,” she said, ”oh, I am so sorry for him! A hopeless love is a sad thing indeed, but how useless to mourn for a lost hope. There is much brightness in life for him, if he will accept it. I hope he will.”
”Well, I jest do wonder if he will come,” said Mrs. Morris, looking down the road. ”Dear me, I don't hardly know how to act if he does come. I wonder what he'll say to me first. Perhaps, after all, he don't mean nothin', but, la me, I don't believe he'd ever looked at me that way if he hadn't. I don't see how Miss Elsworth can think they hain't no use for a man about the house; why, la me, I don't look no way, but what I see where a man would come handy. Oh, as sure as the world there he comes. Oh, oh, what'll I ever say first? I wonder if he'll talk the way Reuben did when he come a-courtin' me. If he does I'll know better what to say.”
CHAPTER x.x.xV.
A SAD EVENT.
Miss Elsworth stepped out of the door one afternoon and saw Bessie climbing cautiously along the ledge of rocks across the ravine. Her dark, luxuriant hair was floating like a dusky cloud about her shoulders, and there was a burning light in her dark blue eyes, and a crimson spot on either cheek.
”Bessie, Bessie,” Miss Elsworth called, ”come down.”
”Hush,” said Bessie, raising a warning finger. ”If you make a loud noise I'll kill you; you know, don't you?”
”Yes, I know,” said Blanche, with a fear that something was wrong.
Bessie crept cautiously up the rocks, and seating herself she drew from her pocket her little pistol, and fired at what Miss Elsworth supposed to be an imaginary object.
”Ha, ha,” laughed Bessie, as a shrill cry rent the air, followed by a deep groan as of some one in great distress.
Miss Elsworth stood for a moment as one frozen with terror.
”Oh, Bessie, Bessie, what have you done?” she asked, in a voice full of pity. ”Have you killed your brother?”
”No, no,” said Bessie, stepping cautiously down, ”but I told you I meant some day to take his head off, and now I have done it. You see you don't understand all these things, but you can come with me if you want to see. He is just there behind that tree, that is where he fell.
He did not see me, but I saw him just in time. Ha, ha, ha! Yes, yes, I'm coming; don't you see me? Don't you know Bessie?”
Miss Elsworth followed Bessie, and looking down by a cl.u.s.ter of bushes, saw a man, wounded and bleeding. Miss Elsworth stooped, and, lifting the hat which had fallen over his face, she uttered a cry almost as full of agony as those uttered by the man who had been wounded.
”Oh, Bessie, what have you done?” she asked, while her face grew deathly white. ”Bessie, you have killed----”
”Yes, I know I killed him,” said Bessie, as she stooped down and smoothed back the silken hair, and pressed her lips to those of the suffering man.
”You know I told you I would.”
”You have done a very wicked act, Bessie.”
”Have I?”
”Yes, see the poor man can scarcely speak, and he wants to talk to you.”
”Well, he is my lover, and he can talk if he wants to; but I won't believe him. But don't you scold, for I told you I would take his head off. Didn't he kill me once--me and my baby? Why, yes, he just ground me down to the dust.”
The man's pale lips moved, and regaining consciousness, he said: ”I was just coming back to look at you once more; I wanted to find you again, and----”
”There, don't lie any more. You know you swore that you loved me once, but I don't believe a word you say.”