Part 15 (2/2)

CHAPTER VIII

The Meadow

The knight was doubly dusty when, returning from his quest in the late twilight, he halted his noisy steed before Upton's Fancy Goods and Notions. He was confronted by a sign: ”Closed. Taking account of stock.”

The young man tried the door which resisted vigorous turns of its handle. Nothing daunted, he knocked peremptorily, then waited a s.p.a.ce.

Getting no response, he renewed his a.s.saults with such force that at last the lock turned, the door opened, and an irate face with a one-sided slit of a mouth was projected at him threateningly.

”Can't you read, hey?” was the exasperated question, followed by an energetic effort to close the door which was foiled by the interposition of a masculine foot.

”Yes, Mrs. Whipp, I learned last year. I'm awfully sorry, but I have to come in.” As he spoke the visitor opened the door in spite of the indignant resistance of Charlotte's whole body, and walked into the empty shop where kerosene lamps were already burning. ”I have to see Miss Upton. Awfully sorry to disturb you like this,” he added, smiling down at the angry, weazened face which gradually grew bewildered. ”Why, it's Mr. Barry,” she soliloquized aloud. ”Just the same,” she added, the sense of outrage holding over, ”we'd ruther you'd 'a' come to-morrer.”

Ben strode through the shop and out to the living-room, Mrs. Whipp following impotently, talking in a high, angry voice.

”'T ain't my fault, Miss Upton. He would come in. Some folk'll do jest what they please, whatever breaks.”

”Law, Ben Barry!” exclaimed Miss Mehitable with a start. ”You've surely caught me in my regimentals!”

Miss Upton's regimentals consisted of ample and billowy ap.r.o.n effects over a short petticoat. Her hair was brushed straight off her round face and twisted in a knot as tight as Charlotte's own; and she wore large list slippers.

”Don't you care, Mehit. I look like a blackamoor myself. I had to see you”--the young fellow grasped his friend's hands, his eyes sparkling.

”I'd kiss you if I was wearing a pint less dust. She's an angel, a star, a wonder!” he finished vehemently.

Miss Upton forgot her own appearance, her lips worked, and her eyes were eager. ”Ain't she, ain't she?” she responded in excitement equal to his own. ”Is she comin'? When?”

”Heaven knows. She's a prisoner, with that brute for a jailer.”

Miss Upton, who had been standing by the late supper-table in the act of a.s.sisting Charlotte to carry off the wreck, fell into a chair, her mouth open.

”And you left her there!” she cried at last. ”You didn't knock him down and carry her off!”

”Great Scott, how I wanted to!” replied Ben between his teeth, his fists clenched; ”but she wouldn't let me. There's something there we've got to find out. She shook her head and signaled me to do nothing. He told her to bid me go away and she obeyed him. Oh, Miss Upton, how she looked!

The most beautiful thing I ever saw in my life, but the most haunted, mournful, despairing face--”

”Ben, you're makin' me sick!” responded Miss Mehitable, her voice breaking. ”Did you give the poor lamb my letter?”

”He wouldn't let me get near enough to do that; but I gave it to a stupid-looking dwarf who was mowing the gra.s.s near by. I'm not even sure he understood me. Perhaps he was deaf and dumb. I don't know; but it was the best I could do. She showed me so plainly that I was only making it harder for her by insisting on anything, there was nothing for me to do but to come away, boiling.” Ben began striding up and down the living-room, his hands in his pockets, his restlessness causing Pearl to leap up, barely escaping his heavy shoe. Her arched back and her mistress's face both betokened an outraged bewilderment.

Mrs. Whipp's eyes and ears were stretched to the utmost. This autocratic young upstart had broken into the house and nearly stepped on her pet.

All the same, if he hadn't done so, Miss Upton would still be keeping secrets from her. She had felt sure ever since Miss Mehitable's last trip to the city that there was something unusual in the air and that she was being defrauded of her rights in being shut out from partic.i.p.ation therein. Had this young masculine hurricane not stormed in to-night, no telling how long she would have been kept in the dark; so she stopped, looked, and listened, with all her might.

”Well, what are you goin' to _do_, Ben?” asked Miss Upton, beseechingly.

”You're not goin' to leave it so, are you?”

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