Part 25 (1/2)

Then she turned away somewhat abruptly, and went back into the shanty.

”Hetty scarcely seems as delighted as one would have expected,” said Ingleby.

Leger, whose face had grown a trifle grave, laughed in a fas.h.i.+on which suggested that it cost him an effort. ”One so seldom gets a windfall of this kind that it's a trifle difficult to know how to express one's satisfaction. The only thing that occurs to me is to smash all the cooking utensils, but, considering the distance from the settlement, that would scarcely be convenient.”

Ingleby, who flung himself down beside the fire, made no answer, but vacantly drank the coffee and ate the food that Hetty brought him. He was, in fact, almost oblivious of his surroundings, for again his fancy was busy with alluring visions, and now that the tension was over his perceptions were dulled by the weariness of his worn-out body. At last, however, he became sensible that Leger was no longer there and that Hetty was sitting alone on the opposite side of the sinking fire.

”Where's Tom?” he asked.

”I think he's asleep,” said Hetty. ”It's no wonder. Aren't you very tired, Walter?”

Ingleby laughed drowsily and stretched his aching limbs. ”I really believe I am, though I scarcely felt it until this moment. What are you sitting up for, Hetty?”

”I don't quite know. Still, one doesn't come into a fortune every day. I suppose it is a fortune, Walter?”

Ingleby's face grew a trifle grave. ”It at least looks like it, but n.o.body could tell just now. A placer mine often works out unexpectedly.”

”Still, if it doesn't, what are you going to do?”

”Why don't you say--we?”

Hetty smiled curiously, and shook her head. ”You will not want Tom and me now.”

”If you fancy I would ever be willing to lose sight of either of you you are doing me a wrong. Haven't I been living on your bounty--on what you made by baking with your own little hands? Would we have found the gold if it hadn't been for you?”

Hetty flushed a little, but she persisted.

”I'm not sure the new friends you will make would approve of us,” she said.

”Then,” said Ingleby decisively, ”they will not be friends of mine. You don't seem to understand that you have a third share in the mine, and Tom holds another. The result of that will be that you will be able to live as you like and dress as prettily as anybody. Still, don't you think that old print gown--I suppose it is print--you put on to bake in is worth all a court-lady's finery?”

Hetty once more shook her head. ”I should still be Hetty Leger--who waited at a boarding-house, and sold bread to the miners,” she said. ”If I pretended to be any one else people would only find me out and laugh, as well as look down on me. Nothing that I could put on or any one could teach me would make me quite the same as--Miss Coulthurst--you see.”

Ingleby, who had not expected this, was not exactly pleased. He was very grateful to Hetty, and thought, which was how he expressed it, a good deal of her; but since she had raised the point, there was certainly a difference between her and Grace Coulthurst. It did not occur to him that the difference might, after all, be in Hetty's favour, and that there were qualities she possessed which are worth more than many accomplishments and a reposeful manner. In the meanwhile Hetty appeared to expect an answer, and he felt that she had placed him in a difficulty.

”What you have suggested applies as much to me,” he said.

Hetty laughed. ”I was wondering what you would say--and I suppose it does. Still, n.o.body seems to mind the little difference so much in a man when he has plenty of money. You are going to marry Miss Coulthurst if you get rich, Walter?”

”Yes,” said Ingleby gravely, ”if she will have me, which I am afraid is far from certain; but I must make myself more than a placer miner first.

That is why, if Tom is willing, I shall probably start a contractor's business and build roads and bridges. They are always wanted in this Province, and I fancy making them wouldn't be so very difficult. Tom would stay in the office--he has the brains, you see--and I like the outside life in the bush. It is a useful profession that everybody looks up to here, and we could, of course, bring out a young English engineer.”

He had sunk back a little upon the pile of branches where he lay, and Hetty noticed that his eyes were heavy; but he roused himself with an effort.

”We will go back to Vancouver when the mine works out. You shall choose the house--one of the pretty ones outside the town with the wooden pillars and painted scrollwork. We will get a China boy to cook for you--and you shall have a pair of ponies to drive in Stanley Park. Tom will keep the books and get the orders while I do the work. Roads and bridges, flumes and dams, are always wanted--and I must be more than a placer miner.”

Then his head sank forward, and Hetty, who sat still for a minute, rose with a little wistful smile, and looked down at him. He lay with eyes quite closed now, and one arm stretched out, for the needs of the worn-out body had at last proved stronger than his will. His jacket had fallen open to the waist, and Hetty noticed how thin he was and the hollowness of his quiet face. Then she slipped softly into the tent where Leger lay asleep, and coming out with a coa.r.s.e brown blanket, spread it over Ingleby, though as she did it the flickering light showed a rich damask in her cheek. Then laying fresh wood on the fire she stole away and left him to sleep. The great branches that met above him kept off the dew, and one could sleep as well there as in the tent.