Part 35 (2/2)

”I forgot this time,” he replied.

”Mr. Lyman,” said Eva, ”I want to thank you again for the book. I have read it twice, and I hope you won't think I gush when I say it is charming. One idea was uppermost in my mind as I read it--that I had never before heard the beating of so many hearts; and the atmosphere is so sweet that, more than once, I fancied that the paper must have been scented.”

”Oh, come now,” Lyman cried, ”you are guying me.”

”It does sound like it, I admit, but really I am not. And I don't bring you my opinion alone. Last night I induced father to read a chapter. He read chapter after chapter, and when I asked him what he thought, he simply said, 'Beautiful.' Wasn't that a conquest?”

”It was a great kindness.”

”But why should you be surprised? Haven't you worked year after year and now should a just reward come as an astonishment?”

”It's all luck,” said the consumptive, looking at his thin hands lying on the counterpane. ”If a man has luck early in life, he's likely to pay for it later; and if he has bad luck till along toward middle life, the chances are that he will pick up. I had my luck early; I sang my song and finished it.” His wife looked at him beseechingly. ”I'm not complaining,” he added. ”It's no more than just. You and the young lady were speaking about a book, Mr. Lyman.

How long did it take you to write it?”

”It seems now that I had to live it,” Lyman answered. ”The actual work did not take long, but the dreams, the night-mares, were continued year after year. To be condemned to write a conscientious book is a severe trial, almost a cruel punishment, and I am not surprised that the critics, sentenced to read it, should look upon it as an additional pain thrust into their lives.”

The talk wandered into the discussion of books in general. The young woman told of the great libraries she had visited abroad. The printer had helped to set up a Bible and he gave an amusing account of the mistakes that had crept into the proof-sheets. A careless fellow had made one of the Prophets stricken with grip instead of grief, and another one had the type declare that Moses lifted up the sea serpent in the wilderness. The bar of sunlight pa.s.sed beyond the window ledge and the sick man fell into silence. Eva rose to go. Lyman said that he would walk a part of the way with her. She smiled but said nothing. They bade the invalid and his wife good-bye and pa.s.sed out into the shaded thoroughfare. A man stared at them, but a woman pa.s.sed with merely a glance.

[Ill.u.s.tration: the b.u.t.ter churn]

”Even in a village a wonder wears away after awhile,” said Lyman.

”Yes,” she laughed, ”our strange relations.h.i.+p has almost ceased to be an oddity.”

They turned into a lane. He helped her across a rivulet and felt her hand grow warm in his grasp. She looked up at him and his blood tingled. He felt a sense of gladness and then remembered that she had praised his book. It was a victory to know that it had broken through her father's hauberk of prejudice. He spoke of Sawyer. She had heard of his narrow escape from drowning; indeed, he had called at the house.

”He did not hesitate to acknowledge everything,” she said, ”and I never liked him half so well as I did today.”

”But you couldn't like him well enough to marry him,” Lyman was weak enough to say.

”Oh, no; I liked him because he acknowledged your generosity,” she frankly confessed. Lyman had weaknesses, and one of them was an under-appraisal of self. At times and in some men this is a virtue, but more often it is a crime committed against one's own chance of prosperity. The people's candidate is the man who loudest avows his fitness for the office.

”You remember last Sunday as you were driving away from the church--”

he said.

”Yes--” she answered, walking close beside him.

”I thought I saw your mother reprimand you for urging her to stay.”

”Yes. She was half inclined to yield and she was really scolding herself for her weakness.”

”You went away without congratulating the preacher.”

”That was thoughtless. We have sent him a letter of congratulation.”

”How stately your house looks from here; how cool and restful.”

”I used to take great pride in the fact that I lived there, as I looked at the humbler homes scattered about, but I haven't been so foolishly proud since I came to know you.”

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