Part 24 (1/2)

”I can make a great noise in shallow water,” said Milford, ”but if I follow you, you'll lead me out over my head. I believe you, however; I believe you speak the truth. I don't know anything about art, but, so far as I am concerned, it is a waste of time for any scholar to pick flaws in a thing that makes me feel. He may tell me why it is bad taste to feel, but he can't convince me that I haven't felt.”

He said this looking at the girl, and their eyes warmed with the communion. ”I have studied art,” she said, ”until I do not know anything about it; and I am beginning to believe if the world listens to--to a talk about it, it is with a sneer. No one wants to know. No one is willing to listen, except like this, out in the country when there is nothing else to do.”

”I find plenty to do,” said Mrs. Stuvic, overhearing the remark and turning from Blakemore, who had been ”jos.h.i.+ng” her about an old man.

”Yes, you bet. There's always a plenty to do in the country if a body's a mind to do it. The country people ain't such fools. No, you bet. The most of 'em's got sense enough to keep a horse from kickin' 'em. Yes, walked right over in the woods and let a horse kick him. Why, old Lewson would've knowed better than that, and he didn't have sense enough to know that he couldn't come back. Now, Bill, you keep quiet. Don't you say a word.”

”If you were afraid the old fellow would come back, why didn't you marry him?” said Blakemore.

”Now, you keep still, too. I wan't so anxious about him comin' back. It wan't nothin' to me. But I do believe he robbed my hens' nests after he was dead. Now, whose team is that goin' along the road? If a man would rein up my horses that way I'd break his neck. Bill, why haven't you been over here?”

”I've been too busy.”

”You haven't been too busy to trudge off to Antioch. What did you go for?”

”Because it was n.o.body's business but mine.”

”Oh, you don't say so? What made you box with that Irishman? Oh, you can't fool me. I know more than you think I do. Went up there to practice. And then a horse kicked Dorsey over in the woods. How about that? You met him over in the grove some time ago, and he licked you.

How about that? Then you took lessons till you was able to knock his teeth out. How about that?”

”Who told you all that rubbish?” Milford demanded, uneasy under the gaze of the company.

”Never mind. There's a freckled faced woman not far from here. And she couldn't keep a secret any more than a sieve could hold water. You've got a hired man, too, you must remember.”

”Yes, and I'll----”

”You'll do nothin' of the sort. It was perfectly natural. I knowed it was comin'. I knowed that he mashed your mouth. And what was it all about? How about that?”

Milford arose to go. Mrs. Goodwin begged him to sit down. Mrs. Blakemore was in a flutter of excitement. Blakemore stood with his mouth open.

Gunhild looked straight at Milford. ”Did you hit him, Mr. Milford?” she asked.

”Yes,” he promptly answered.

”Then you must have had a good cause, and I shall wait before feeling sorry for him. But I could not feel very sorry anyway. I do not like him. He has the eye of a beast. May we ask why you struck him?”

”He made a remark about you.”

The girl jumped up from her seat, anger flaming in her eyes. Mrs.

Goodwin made some sort of cooing noise. Mrs. Blakemore cried ”Oh!” and fluttered.

”That's all I've got to say,” said Milford. ”I oughtn't to have said that much, and wouldn't if it hadn't come round as it did. And now I must ask you to let the subject drop.”

Gunhild sat down without a word. But in her quietness of manner was a turbulent spirit choked into subjection. In all things it seemed that her modesty was a conscious immodesty held in restraint. The uncouth girl, with utterance harsh in rough words of men from the far north, had been remodeled by the English school. But the blood of the Viking was strong within her, as she sat there, striving to appear submissive; but Milford fancied that she would like to dash out Dorsey's brains with a war-club. He sat down beside her, and with a cool smile she said: ”Made a remark about me. It takes me back to the potato-field. I must thank you. We are fellow workmen.” She spoke in a low voice. He looked from one to another, as if afraid that they might hear her. ”It makes no difference,” she said.

”Yes, it does. It is none of their business. I am going to set claim to all that part of the past. You may share your pleasure with them, but your trouble belongs to me. I will mix it with mine.”

”The color might be dark,” she replied.