Part 70 (1/2)
”She was coming,” said the one we remember, ”to New England. I didn't know where or for what, and I don't know yet; but when my house said, 'Old boy, we'd like to promote you, just say what you want!' says I, 'Let the salary stand as it is, only change my district; gimme New England!'”
”That's the college,” he continued, as they came up into Elm Street.
”Those are the students, just coming out of the chapel: 'sweet girl graduates,' as Shakespeare calls them.”
He clutched his companion's arm. Their eyes rested on one of the dispersing throng, who came last and alone, with a slow step and manifestly under some burdensome preoccupation, through the high iron gateway of the campus. She pa.s.sed them with drooping eyelashes and walked in the same tardy pace before them. Presently she turned from the sidewalk, crossed a small gra.s.splot, and stood on the doorstep with her hand on the latch while they went by.
”Her?” said the one who thought he had quoted Shakespeare, ”of course it's her; who else could it be? Ah, hmm! 'so near and yet so far!' Tom, I believe in heaven when I look at that girl--heaven and holiness! I read Taylor's 'Holy Living' when a boy!”
Presently they returned and pa.s.sed again. She was still standing at the door. A few steps away the speaker looked over his shoulder and moaned:
”Not a glimpse of me does she get! There, she's gone in; but sure's you live she didn't want to!” They walked on. In front of their hotel he clutched his companion again. A young man of commanding figure stood near, deeply immersed in a telegram. The drummer whispered an oath of surprise.
”That's him now! the young millionaire she rejected on the trip we all made together! What's he here for?--George! he looks as worried as her!”
”How do you know she rejected him?”
”How do--Now, look here! If I didn't know it do you s'pose I'd say so?
Well, then! Come, I'll introduce you to him--O he's all right! he's just as white and modest as either of us; come on!” March proved himself both modest and white, and as he walked away,
”This's a stra-a-ange world!” moralized the commercial man. ”'Tain't him I'm thinking of, it's her! She's in trouble, Tom; in trouble. And who knows but what, for some mysterious reason, _I_ may be the only one on earth who can--O Lord!--Look here; I'm not goin' to do any business to-day; I'm not goin' to be fit; you needn't be surprised if you hear to-night that I've gone off on a drunk.”
Meantime Barbara had lifted the latch and gone in. No hat was on the rack, but when she turned into the parlor a sickness came to her heart as she smiled and said good-morning to Henry Fair. He, too, smiled, but she fancied he was pale.
They mentioned the weather, which was quite pleasant enough. Fair said the factories that used water-power would be glad of rain, and Barbara seemed interested, but when he paused she asked, in the measured tone he liked so well:
”Who do you think took us all by surprise and spent last evening with us?”
Fair's reply came tardily and was disguised as a playful guess.
”Mister--”
”Yes--”
He sobered. ”March!” he softly exclaimed, and let his gaze rest long on the floor. ”I thought--really I thought Mr. March was in New York.”
”So did we all,” was the response, and both laughed, without knowing just why.
”He ought to have had a delightful time,” said Fair.
Barbara meditated pleasedly. ”Mr. March always lets one know what kind of time he's having, and I never saw him more per-fect-ly sat-is-fied,”
she said, and allowed her silence to continue so long and with such manifest significance that at length the suitor's low voice asked:
”Am I to understand that that visit alters my case?”
”No,” responded Barbara, but without even a look of surprise. ”I'm afraid, Mr. Fair, that you'll think me a rather daring girl, but I want you to be a.s.sured that I know of no one whose visit can alter--that.”
She lifted her eyes bravely to his, but they filled. ”As for Mr. March,”
she continued, and the same amus.e.m.e.nt gleamed in them which so often attended her mention of him, ”there's always been a perfect understanding between us. We're the very best of friends, but no one knows better than he does that we can never be more, though I don't see why we need ever be less.”