Part 7 (1/2)
It was a cheerless-looking house, painted a garish yellow, having staring windows, and devoid of a front porch, or slightest attempt at shade to render its uncomely front less unattractive. Hampton could scarcely refrain from forming a mental picture of the woman who would most naturally preside within so unpolished an abode--an angular, hard-featured, vinegar-tempered creature, firm settled in her prejudices and narrowed by her creed. Had the matter been left at that moment to his own decision, this glimpse of the house would have turned them both back, but the girl unhesitatingly pressed forward and turned defiantly in through the gateless opening. He followed in silence along the narrow foot-path bordered by weeds, and stood back while she stepped boldly up on the rude stone slab and rapped sharply against the warped and sagging door. A moment they stood thus waiting with no response from within. Once she glanced suspiciously around at him, only to wheel back instantly and once more apply her knuckles to the wood. Before he had conjured up something worth saying the door was partially opened, and a rounded dumpling of a woman, having rosy cheeks, her hair iron-gray, her blue eyes half smiling in uncertain welcome, looked out upon them questioningly.
”I 've come to live here,” announced the girl, sullenly. ”That is, if I like it.”
The woman continued to gaze at her, as if tempted to laugh outright; then the pleasant blue eyes hardened as their vision swept beyond toward Hampton.
”It is extremely kind of you, I 'm sure,” she said at last. ”Why is it I am to be thus honored?”
The girl backed partially off the doorstep, her hair flapping in the wind, her cheeks flushed.
”Oh, you need n't put on so much style about it,” she blurted out.
”You 're Mrs. Herndon, ain't you? Well, then, this is the place where I was sent; but I reckon you ain't no more particular about it than I am. There's others.”
”Who sent you to me?” and Mrs. Herndon came forth into the suns.h.i.+ne.
”The preacher.”
”Oh, Mr. Wynkoop; then you must be the homeless girl whom Lieutenant Brant brought in the other day. Why did you not say so at first? You may come in, my child.”
There was a sympathetic tenderness apparent now in the tones of her voice, which the girl was swift to perceive and respond to, yet she held back, her independence unshaken. With the quick intuition of a woman, Mrs. Herndon bent down, placing one hand on the defiant shoulder.
”I did not understand, at first, my dear,” she said, soothingly, ”or I should never have spoken as I did. Some very strange callers come here. But you are truly welcome. I had a daughter once; she must have been nearly your age when G.o.d took her. Won't you come in?”
While thus speaking she never once glanced toward the man standing in silence beyond, yet as the two pa.s.sed through the doorway together he followed, unasked. Once within the plainly furnished room, and with her arm about the girl's waist, the lines about her mouth hardened. ”I do not recall extending my invitation to you,” she said, coldly.
He remained standing, hat in hand, his face shadowed, his eyes picturing deep perplexity.
”For the intrusion I offer my apology,” he replied, humbly; ”but you see I--I feel responsible for this young woman. She--sort of fell to my care when none of her own people were left to look after her. I only came to show her the way, and to say that I stand ready to pay you well to see to her a bit, and show her how to get hold of the right things.”
”Indeed!” and Mrs. Herndon's voice was not altogether pleasant. ”I understood she was entirely alone and friendless. Are you that man who brought her out of the canyon?”
Hampton bowed as though half ashamed of acknowledging the act.
”Oh! then I know who you are,” she continued, unhesitatingly. ”You are a gambler and a bar-room rough. I won't touch a penny of your money.
I told Mr. Wynkoop that I shouldn't, but that I would endeavor to do my Christian duty by this poor girl. He was to bring her here himself, and keep you away.”
The man smiled slightly, not in the least disconcerted by her plain speech. The cutting words merely served to put him on his mettle.
”Probably we departed from the hotel somewhat earlier than the minister antic.i.p.ated,” he explained, quietly, his old ease of manner returning in face of such open opposition. ”I greatly regret your evident prejudice, madam, and can only say that I have more confidence in you than you appear to have in me. I shall certainly discover some means by which I may do my part in shaping this girl's future, but in the meanwhile will relieve you of my undesired presence.”
He stepped without into the glare of the sunlight, feeling utterly careless as to the woman who had affronted him, yet somewhat hurt on seeing that the girl had not once lifted her downcast eyes to his face.
Yet he had scarcely taken three steps toward the road before she was beside him, her hand upon his sleeve.
”I won't stay!” she exclaimed, fiercely, ”I won't, Bob Hampton. I 'd rather go with you than be good.”
His sensitive face flushed with delight, but he looked gravely down into her indignant eyes. ”Oh, yes, you will, Kid,” and his hand touched her roughened hair caressingly. ”She's a good, kind woman, all right, and I don't blame her for not liking my style.”
”Do--do you really want me to stick it out here, Bob?”
It was no small struggle for him to say so, for he was beginning to comprehend just what this separation meant. She was more to him than he had ever supposed, more to him than she had been even an hour before; and now he understood clearly that from this moment they must ever run farther apart--her life tending upward, his down. Yet there was but one decision possible. A life which is lonely and dissatisfied, a wasted life, never fully realizes how lonely, dissatisfied, and wasted it is until some new life, beautiful in young hope and possibility, comes into contact with it. For a single instant Hampton toyed with the temptation confronting him, this opportunity of brightening his own miserable future by means of her degradation. Then he answered, his voice grown almost harsh. ”This is your best chance, little girl, and I want you to stay and fight it out.”