Part 24 (1/2)

Together they walked from under the shade of the tree, and so wended their way that it brought them to a ma.s.s of shrubbery which edged the water a little distance down the lake. On the other side of this shrubbery was a pretty bank, which they had seen before.

”It always tranquillizes me,” said Margery, as they stood side by side on the bank, ”to look out over the water. Doesn't it have that effect on you?”

”No!” exclaimed Clyde. ”It does not tranquillize me a bit. Nothing could tranquillize me at a moment like this. Margery, I want you to know that I love you. I did not intend to tell you so soon, but what you have said makes it necessary. I have loved you ever since I met you at Peter Sadler's, and, no matter what you say about it, I shall love you to the end of my life.”

”Even if I should send you away with one of the others?”

”Yes; no matter what you did.”

”That would be wrong,” she said.

”It doesn't matter. Right or wrong, I'd do it.”

Margery gave him a glance from which it would have been impossible to eliminate all signs of admiration. ”And if I were to arrange it otherwise,” she said, ”would you undertake to keep the others away?”

There was no answer to this question, but in a minute afterwards Clyde exclaimed: ”Do you think any one would dare to come near you if they saw you now?”

”Hardly,” said Margery, raising her head from his shoulder and looking up into his sparkling eyes. ”Really, Harrison, you ought not to speak in such a loud voice. If Aunt Harriet were to hear you she might dare to come.”

Margery was late to dinner, although the horn was blown three times.

Much to the surprise of his wife, Mr. Archibald returned to camp about an hour before dinner.

”How is this?” she exclaimed. ”Wasn't the fis.h.i.+ng good?”

”I have had a disagreeable experience,” he said, ”and I will tell you about it. I was fis.h.i.+ng in a little cove some distance down the lake and having good sport, when I heard a thumping, and looking around I saw Raybold in a boat rowing towards me. I suppose he thought he was rowing, but he was really floating with the current; but as he neared me he suddenly pulled his boat towards me with such recklessness that I was afraid he would run into me. I considered his rowing into the cove to be a piece of bad manners, for of course it would spoil my fis.h.i.+ng, but I had no idea he actually intended to lay alongside of me. This he did, however, and so awkwardly that his boat struck mine with such force that it half tipped it over. Then he lay hold of my gunwale, and said he had something to say to me.

”I was as angry as if a man in the street had knocked my hat down over my eyes and said that he did so in order to call my attention to a subscription paper. But this indignation was nothing to what I felt when the fellow began to speak. I cannot repeat his words, but he stated his object at once, and said that as this was a good opportunity to speak to me alone, he wished to ask me to remove what he called the utterly useless embargo which I had placed upon him in regard to Margery. He said it was useless because he could not be expected to give up his hopes and his plans simply because I objected to them; and he went on to say that if I understood him fully, and if Margery understood him, he did not believe that either of us would object. And then he actually asked me to use my influence with her to make her listen to him. From what he said, I am sure he has been speaking to her. I did not let him finish, but turned and blazed at him in words as strong as would come to me. I ordered him never to speak to me again or show himself in my camp, and told him that if he did either of these things he would do them at his peril; and then, for fear he might say something which would make me lose control of myself, I jerked up my anchor and rowed away from him. I didn't feel like fis.h.i.+ng any more, and so I came back.”

”His behavior is shameful,” said Mrs. Archibald. ”And what is more, it is ridiculous, for Margery would not look at him. What sort of a man does he think you are, to suppose that you would give your permission to any one, no matter who he might be, to offer marriage to a young lady in your charge? But what are you going to do about it? I think it very likely he will come to this camp, and he may speak to you.”

”In that case I shall have him driven out,” said Mr. Archibald, ”as if he were a drunken vagabond. Personally I shall have nothing to do with him, but I shall order my guides to eject him.”

”I hope that may not be necessary,” said his wife. ”It would make bad feeling, and deeply wound his sister, for it would be the same thing as putting her out. She talks too much, to be sure, but she is a lady, and has treated us all very courteously. I wish we could get through the rest of our stay here without any disturbance or bad feeling.”

”I wish so too, with all my heart,” said her husband. ”And the only thing necessary to that end is that that a.s.s Raybold shall keep out of my sight.”

It was about two o'clock that afternoon, and Mrs. Archibald, under her tree, her basket of stockings all darned and her novel at its culminating point of interest, was the only visible occupant of Camp Rob, when Corona Raybold came walking towards her, an obvious purpose in her handsome face, which was somewhat flushed by exercise.

”I do not think,” she said, as soon as she was near enough for Mrs.

Archibald to hear her, ”that the true purpose and intention of our plan is properly understood by all of the party. I think, after some explanation, everything will go well, but I have been endeavoring for the last half-hour to find Mrs. Perkenpine, and have utterly failed. I am very hungry, but I can discover nothing to eat. All our stores appear to be absolutely raw, or in some intermediate state of crudity. I intend to order some provisions in cans or boxes which will be at all times available, but I have not done so yet, and so I have come over to speak to you about the matter. Did your guides prepare your dinner as usual?”

”Oh yes,” said Mrs. Archibald. ”A hermit life seems to make no difference with Mr. Matlack. We become a.s.sociates at meal-times, but, as you see, we have separated again.”

”I must instil into Mrs. Perkenpine's mind,” said Corona, ”that, in order thoroughly to act out her own nature, she must cook and do other things of a domestic character. Of course she will do those things in her own way; that is to be expected; but she must do them. It is impossible to imagine a woman of her cla.s.s whose soul is not set more or less upon domestic affairs. I will instance Mr. Matlack. His nature belongs to the woods and the out-of-door world, and that nature prompts him to cook what he shoots.”

Mrs. Archibald laughed. ”I think his nature is a very good one,” she said, ”and I will go with you to find him and see if he cannot give you a luncheon, if not a dinner.”

”Thank you very much,” said Corona; ”but indeed I do not wish to trouble you. I will go to him myself. You are very kind, but it is not in the least degree necessary for you to accompany me. A cup of tea and some little trifle is all I shall ask him for.”