Part 51 (2/2)

”You know what Jernyngham believed of me. I could not marry you with such a stain on my name; but it will be wiped off in a few more days, and this I owe to you. It was you who insisted that I should clear myself.”

She started.

”Remember that I know nothing, except that you went away.”

Prescott told her briefly what he had learned at Navarino and of Wandle's capture; and her deep satisfaction was obvious.

”I'm so glad!” she exclaimed. ”This will make it easier for the others, though it doesn't affect me. If I had had any doubts, I couldn't have loved you. But I'm pleased you told me before you were really cleared. To have waited until everybody knew you were innocent would have looked as if you were afraid to test my faith in you.”

”No,” he said; ”that couldn't be. I was afraid of your having to make too heavy a sacrifice; and, unfortunately, there's some risk of that still.”

”Go on, Jack.”

”I'm far from a rich man, though I never regretted it much until of late.

You know how we live here; I can guess what you have enjoyed at home.

Life's strenuous on the prairie, and though I think it's good, it makes demands on one you can't have felt in England. There's so much that you must give up, many things that you will miss. I am anxious when I think of it.”

Muriel looked far across the plain which ran back; glistening in the sunlight, until it faded into cold blues and purples toward the skyline.

The gray bluffs, standing one behind the other, and the long straggling line of timber by a ravine marked its vast extent. It filled the girl with a sense of freedom; its wideness uplifted her.

”Jack,” she said, ”I wonder whether you can understand why I made you take me out? The prairie has drawn me from the beginning, and I felt it would be easier to make a great change in this wonderful open s.p.a.ce; I wanted to adopt the country, to feel it belonged to me. Now that I've made my choice, my home is where you are; I want nothing but to be loved and cared for, as you must care for me.”

Prescott drew her toward him, but there was more of respect than pa.s.sion in his caress.

”My dear,” he said gravely, ”I feel very humble as well as thankful. It's a great thing I've undertaken, to make you happy; and I think you'll try to forgive me if I sometimes fail.”

Muriel laughed and shook herself free.

”I'm not really hard to please, and even if you make mistakes now and then, good intentions count for a good deal. But you are dreadfully solemn, and there's so much that is pleasant to talk about.”

They walked on briskly, for it had been possible to stand still only in the shelter of the bluff with bright suns.h.i.+ne streaming down on them; the cold they had forgotten now made itself felt.

”I can't understand Jernyngham,” Prescott said after a while. ”One can't blame him for persecuting me, but there's something in his conduct that makes one think him off his balance.”

Muriel's eyes sparkled with indignation.

”I suppose he ought to be pitied, but I can't forgive him, and I'll tell you what I think. He has led a well-regulated life, but his virtues are narrow and petty. Indeed, I think they're partly habits. He is not a clever or a really strong man; but because of his money and position, which he never ventured out of, he found people to obey him and grew into a domineering autocrat. I believe he was fond of Cyril and felt what he thought of as his loss; but that was not all. The shock brought him a kind of horrified anger that anything of a startling nature should happen to him--he felt it wasn't what he deserved. Then his desire for justice degenerated into cruelty and when he came out here, where n.o.body gave way to him, he somehow went to pieces. His nature wasn't big enough to stand the strain.”

It was a harsh a.n.a.lysis, but Muriel was not inclined to be charitable.

Jernyngham had made things very hard for her lover.

”I dare say you're right,” responded Prescott. ”But the morning after he reached my place in the blizzard I had a talk with him and found him reasonable. I think he half believed in my innocence, but soon afterward he was more savage than before.”

”Isn't it possible that you took too much for granted? He couldn't be rude to you when you had saved him from freezing.”

”I don't think I did. He was pretty candid at first and I wasn't cordial, but he listened to me, and I feel convinced that before he left he was beginning to see that he might have been mistaken. What I don't understand is why he changed again, when nothing fresh turned up to account for it.”

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