Part 23 (1/2)
Brockway suddenly found the Denver eating-house cake very dry, but he could not take his eyes from her long enough to go and get a drink from the rill at the log-end.
”But you would never, marry a poor man,” he ventured to say.
”Wouldn't I? That would depend very much upon circ.u.mstances,” she rejoined, secure in the a.s.surance that her secret was now double-locked in a dungeon of Brockway's own building. ”If it were the right thing to do I shouldn't hesitate, though in that case I should go to him as dest.i.tute as the beggar maid did to King Cophetua.”
Brockway's heart gave a great bound and then seemed to forget its office.
”How is that? I--I don't understand,” he stammered.
Gertrude gazed across at the s.h.i.+ning mountain and took courage from its calm pa.s.sivity.
”I will tell you, because I promised to,” she said. ”I, too, have money in my own right, but it is only in trust, and it will be taken from me if I do not marry in accordance with the provisions of my granduncle's will. So you see, unless I accept my--the person named in the will, I shall be as dowerless as any proud poor man could ask.”
”But you will accept your cousin,” said Brockway, quickly putting Fleetwell's name into the hesitant little pause.
She looked steadfastly at the great peak and shook her head.
”I shall not,” she answered, and her voice was so low that Brockway saw rather than heard the denial.
”Why?” he demanded.
She turned to him with sudden reproach in her eyes. ”You press me too hardly, but I suppose I have given you the right. The reason is because I--I don't think enough of him in the right way.”
”Tell me one other thing, if you can--if you will. Do you love someone else?” His voice was steadier now, and his eyes held her so that she could not turn back to the s.h.i.+ning mountain, as she wanted to. None the less, she answered him truthfully, as she had promised.
”I do.”
”Is he a poor man?”
”He says he is.”
”How poor?”
”As poor as you said you were a moment ago.”
”And you will give up all that you have had--all that you could keep--and go out into the world with him to take up life at its beginnings?”
”If he asks me to. But he will not ask me; he is too proud.”
”How do you know?”
His gaze wavered for an instant, and she turned away quickly. ”Because he has told me so.”
Brockway rose rather unsteadily and went to the rivulet to get a drink.
The sweetly maddening truth was beginning to beat its way into his brain, and he stood dazed for a moment before he remembered that he had brought no drinking-cup. Then he knelt by the stream, and, turning his silk travelling-cap inside out, filled it to the brim with the clear, cold water. His hands trembled a little, but he made s.h.i.+ft to carry it to her without spilling much.
”It is a type of all that I have to offer you, besides myself--not even so much as a cup to drink out of,” he said, and his voice was steadier than his hands. ”Will you let me be your cup-bearer--always?”
She was moved to smile at the touch of old-world chivalry, but she fell in with his mood and put his hands away gently.