Part 6 (2/2)
”That's the name, sir--rather odd, I should call it”
”Yes, it is rather odd,” I said, co to the narandfather's will: Should he fail to coeneral estate, and become, without reservation, and without necessity for any process of law, the property, absolutely, of Marian Devereux, of the County and State of New York
”Your grandfather was very fond of her, sir She and Sister Theresa were abroad at the time he died It was my sorrowful duty to tell them the sad news in New York, sir, when they landed”
”The devil it was!” It irritated me to rerandfather's will; and the terms of it were not in the least creditable to me Sister Theresa and her niece were doubtless cal the disciplinary year--Sister Theresa, a Protestant nun, and the niece who probably taught drawing in the school for her keep! I was sure it was drawing; nothing else would, I felt, have brought the worandfather's beneficence
I had given no thought to Sister Theresa since corandfather, and, such being the case, she would naturally look upon hborhood I had, therefore, kept rigidly to my own side of the stone wall A suspicion crosseda host of doubts and questions that had lurked there sincetoward the door with his characteristic slow step
”If your friend Morgan, or any one else, should shoot me, or if I should tumble into the lake, or otherwise end my earthly career--Bates!”
His eyes had slipped from mine to theand I spoke his name sharply
”Yes, Mr Glenaret this property and everything else that belonged to Mr Glenar of the an, the caretaker, has tried to kill h thethe night I caain His hands opened and shut several times, and alarm and fear convulsed his face for amy best to think well of you; but I want you to understand”--I smote the table with my clenched hand--”that if these wo, or that daan, or you-- damn you, I don't knoho or what you are!--think you can scare--and you , who pays you, and to Morgan, who to keep faith with randfather, and that when I've spent my year here and done what that old ive theround and every damned dollar the estate carries with it And now one other thing! I suppose there's a sheriff or some kind of a constable with jurisdiction over this place, and I could have the whole lot of you put into jail for conspiracy, but I'ainst you alone--do you understandspy? Answer me, quick, before I throw you out of the rooreat passion and fairly roared e
”Yes, sir; I quite understand you, sir But I'm afraid, sir--”
”Of course you're afraid!” I shouted, enraged anew by his halting speech ”You have every reason in the world to be afraid You've probably heard that I'm a bad lot and a worthless adventurer; but you can tell Sister Theresa or Pickering or anybody you please that I'm ten times as bad as I've ever been painted Now clear out of here!”
He left the roo I strolled through the house several times to make sure he had not left it to communicate with some of his fellow plotters, but I was, I admit, disappointed to find him in every instance busy at so my storm boots! To find hiiven hier I went back to the library and planned a cathedral in seven styles of architecture, all unrelated and ined a crypt in which the wicked should be buried standing on their heads and only the very good ht lie and sleep in peace These diversions and several black cigars won me to aannounced ave me for luncheon a brace of quails, done in a manner that stripped criticise a word, and after knocking about in the library for several hours I went out for a tramp Winter had indeed coiven reat, heavy flakes, and the ground hitening fast
A rabbit's track caught my eye and I followed it, hardly conscious that I did so Then the clear print of two sled with the rabbit's trail A few moments later I picked up an overshoe, evidently lost in the chase by one of Sister Theresa's girls, I reflected I remembered that while at Tech I had collected diverse inning a new series with a string of beads and an overshoe!
A rabbit is always an attractive quarry Few things besides riches are so elusive, and the little fellows have, I am sure, a shrewd huirl who had ventured forth for a run in the first snow-storm of the season I recalled Aldrich's turn on Gautier's lines as I followed the double trail: ”Howe'er you tread, a tiny listening, snowy fold At every step it signs your naraph, indeed! The snow fell steadily and I trairl and the rabbit Near the lake they parted coent, on a line parallel with the lake, while his pursuer's steps pointed toward the boat-house
There was, so far as I knew, only one student of adventurous blood at St Agatha's, and I was not in the least surprised to see, on the little sheltered balcony of the boat-house, the red tam-o'-shanter She wore, too, the covert coat I remembered from the day I saw her first from the wall Her back was toward me as I drew near; her hands were thrust into her pockets She was evidently enjoying the softof the snoith the still, blue waters of the lake, and a girl and a snow-storm are, if you aska winter storhtily in her favor--testifies, if you will allow , and a sound constitution, for another
I ran up the steps, my cap in one hand, her overshoe in the other She drew back a trifle, just enough to bring my conscience to its knees
”I didn't mean to listen that day I just happened to be on the wall and it was a thoroughly underbred trick-- you about it--and I should have told you before if I'd kno to see you--”
”May I trouble you for that shoe?” she said with a great deal of dignity
They taught that cold disdain of atha's
”Oh, certainly! Won't you allow me?”
”Thank you, no!”
I was relieved, to tell the truth, for I had been out of the world for ster perfects hiirl's overshoes She took the damp bit of rubber--a wet overshoe, even if small and hallowed by associations, isn't pretty--as Venus ht have received a soft-shell crab fro merman I was between her and the steps to which her eyes turned longingly
”Of course, if you won't acceptabout it; but I hope you understand that I'iven”
”You seeood deal of a s to the overshoe!” I said
She did not relent
”If you'll only go away--”
She rested one hand against the corner of the boat-house while she put on the overshoe She wore, I noticed, brown gloves with cuffs
”How can I go away! You children are always leaving things about for irl's beads about with love on your overshoe”
”I'll relieve you of the beads, too, if you please” And her tone measurably reduced my stature
She thrust her hands into the pockets of her coat and shook the tahtly, to establish it in a more comfortable spot on her head The beads had been in ave them to her
”Thank you; thank you very much”
”Of course they are yours, Miss--”
She thrust them into her pocket
”Of course they're o
”We'll waive proof of property and that sort of thing,” I re her ”I'atha's The stone wallI ”
I was a myself with the idea that lish novels in which the young lord of the ahter of the curate who has come home from school to be the belle of the county But my lady of the red tam-o'-shanter was not a creature of illusions
”It serves a very good purpose--the wall, Idown the steps and I followed I airl to cross my lands unattended in a snow-storm; and the piazza of a boat-house is not, I sub-place on a winter day She marched before me, her hands in her pockets--I liked her particularly that ith an easy swing and a light and certain step Her ree further conversation and I fell back upon the poets
”Stone walls do not a prison e,”