Part 47 (2/2)

At the same time he was vaguely conscious that this period of alternate hope and fear, of cold fits and hot, would one day be sweet in the retrospect, and regretted with some sadness; an episode in the lover's progress gone beyond recall.

There was a sound of wheels on the county road, then on his own property. He wondered at the unusual dispatch of his Carlos, but realized in a moment that a buggy was approaching, not a wagon. Then there was a light slouching step on the veranda, and he rose to greet Tom Colton.

”By Jove, old chap, I'm glad to see you,” he began, and thankful that he had written his condolences; but he paused abruptly. Colton ignored the outstretched hand.

”So you've got your pa.s.sport?” he said. And his ingenuous blue eyes were full of a hard antagonism.

”Yes,” said Gwynne. ”I should have told you in a day or two. How did you find out?” he added, curiously. ”I took my oath before the pa.s.sport clerk in the innermost recess of the State Department.”

”There's not much I don't find out. Only, I got wind of this a little too late. So did some others, or you might have hung round Was.h.i.+ngton for the next four years. Do you call it square not to have told me of this before you left?”

”I saw no obligation to take you into my confidence. In the first place the result of my pilgrimage was very doubtful, and in the second you would have done all you could to balk me. When have I given you reason to write me down an a.s.s?”

”You are too d.a.m.ned clever,” muttered Colton. ”Too clever by half. Much better for you if you had stayed where you were. You had no enemies when you left, but now, let me tell you, you've got a bunch that it will take more than your cleverness to handle.”

”They can do their worst. I thought that all I needed was hard work, but I fancy that what I missed most was the stimulus of enemies.”

”Well, you've got it all right.”

Somewhat to the host's surprise he suddenly seated himself and tipped back his chair. Gwynne remained standing, leaning against a pillar, his hands in his pockets. Colton surveyed him frankly. His eyes were still hard and he was very angry, but he saw no reason why he should be uncomfortable, and although he could disguise his feelings when he chose, he knew that here it was safe to allow himself the luxury of frankness. He was the more annoyed, as what friends.h.i.+p he was capable of he had given to Gwynne. That would not have stayed hand or foot a moment, were his path in the least obstructed, but he regretted that they had come to an issue so early in the game. Indeed, he had hoped to manipulate Gwynne's destinies so subtly that they would be politically bound for life, with himself always a length ahead. It was true that once or twice he had felt a misgiving that the Englishman, with all his aristocratic disdain for devious ways, might match him and win, but the shock of this early outwitting had been none the less severe.

”Did you have a hard time getting it?” he demanded.

”Rather. Never heard so much palaver in my life.”

”Well, I wish there had been more. I think I have at least the right to ask what you intend to do next.”

”Return to Judge Leslie's office to-morrow--for the matter of that, I have read a good deal since I left. In September I shall have been a year in the State, and of course I can vote. I am not so sure that I shall.”

”Yes! That is all, I suppose?”

”For the present. You are too good a politician to fancy that American citizens.h.i.+p has invested me with a halo. Except to a hundred odd farmers, Rosewater, a small group in San Francisco, and a party boss or two, I am unknown. No doubt I shall be several years achieving sufficient prominence either to run for office, or to accomplish anything whatever--outside of Rosewater. So far as I can see, this immediate citizens.h.i.+p has effected two results only: I am now in a position to take advantage of any political change that may develop, instead of sowing for another to reap--and--”

He hesitated, and Colton shot him a keen glance. ”It has made a change in you, I guess. I noticed that the minute I laid eyes on you. If anything was needed to make me madder, it was that.”

”Yes--I am changed. That is to say, I am poised. In spite of the determination to absorb Americanism with every pore, there was always the lurking doubt that it wouldn't do; that some day I should make a bolt for England. Now the matter is settled forever. I not only am an American but always have been. The highest legal opinion in the country was called in, and that was what finally decided the question. I accepted it as literally as the others did, and in so doing I relegated my English life to the episodical backwaters: among my adventures in India and Africa. I fancy that if England came to a death struggle in my time, and every man counted, I should fight for her. I certainly never should fight against her. But it is a profound relief to me that I am not throwing her over, that we have no legitimate right to each other. I fancy that that, too, demoralized me a bit.”

”How did you feel when you took that oath?” asked Colton, more and more curious, almost forgetting his grievance. ”It's a kind of solemn oath.

I've had a sort of chill when I've heard it taken once or twice.”

”There could hardly be a more solemn oath. I don't know that it gave me a chill, but I certainly read it over several times before I took it.

And I took it without any reservations.”

”Did you feel an American the moment you took it?”

”Yes--I did. That is to say I felt a certain buoyancy. The die was cast.

There could be no more hesitation and doubt. My new life had actually begun.”

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