He turned again: "You're just as good as you can be, but I can manage
some way."
"I'll watch for Lanham," she answered, quietly, "and keep him talking as
long as I can. He's just drunk enough to make a scene."
Half-way to the house, Joe met Harry Barker.
"What did she want?" he inquired, curiously.
When Joe told him he plunged into his pocket and drew out two dollars,
then offered to go among the young fellows and collect the balance of
the amount, but Joe caught hold of him.
"Think of something else."
"I could explain to the boys--"
"You go and ask Mrs. Lawrence if she won't step out on the porch," the
other commanded; "she's my great-aunt, and I never asked anything of her
before."
But Mrs. Lawrence was not sympathetic. She told Joe flatly that she
never lent money, and that the water-set was as much as she could afford
to give. "It ain't paid for, though," she added; "and if you'd rather
have the money, I suppose I can send it back. But seems to me I
shouldn't have been in such an awful hurry to git married; I should 'a'
waited a month or so, till I had something to git married on. But you're
just like your father--never had no calculation. Do you want I should
return that silver?"
Joe hesitated. It was an easy way out of the difficulty. Then a vision
of Esther rose before him, and the innocent preparations she had been
making for the display of the gift; "No," he answered, shortly. And Mrs.
Lawrence, with a shake of the shoulders as though she threw off all
responsibility in her young relative's affairs, bustled away. "I'm going
to keep that water-set if everything else has to go," he declared to the
astonished Harry. "Let 'em set me out in the road; I guess I'll git
along." He had a humorous vision of himself and Esther trudging forth,
with the water-set between them, to seek their fortune.
He flung himself from the porch, and was confronted by Jonas Ingram. The
old fellow emerged from behind a lilac-bush with a guilty yet excited
air.
"Young man, I ain't given to eaves-dropping, but I was strollin' along
here and I heered it all; and as I was calculatin' to give my niece a
present--" He broke off and laid a hand on Joe's arm. "Where is that
dod-blasted fool of a Lanham? I'll pay him; then I'll break every bone
in his dum body!" he exclaimed, waxing profane. "Come here disturbin'
decent folks' weddin's! Where is he?"
He started off down the path, striking out savagely with his stick. Joe
watched him a moment, then put after him, and Harry Barker followed.
"If this ain't the liveliest weddin'!"
Nevertheless, he was disappointed in his expectations of an encounter.
When the trio emerged through the gap in the wall they found only Sarah
Norton awaiting them.
"Lanham's come and gone," she announced. "No, I didn't give him a thing,
except a piece of my mind," she answered, in response to a look from
Joe. "I told him that he was acting like a fool; that father was in for
a thousand dollars to you in the fall, and that you would pay then, as
you promised, and that he'd better clear out."
"Oh, if I could jest git a holt of him!" muttered Jonas Ingram.
"That seemed to sober him," continued the girl; "but he said he wasn't
the only one that had got scared; that Merrill was going for his tables
and chairs; but Lanham said he'd run up to the cottage, and if he was
there, he'd send him off. You see, father threw out as if he wasn't
owing you anything," she added, in a lower voice, "and that's what
stirred 'em up."
Joe turned white, in a sudden heat of anger--the first he had shown,
"I'll stir him--" he began; then his eyes met hers. He reddened. "Oh,
Sarah, I'm ever so much obliged to you!"
"It was nothing. I guess it was lucky I wasn't invited to the wedding,
though." She laughed, and started away, leaving Joe abashed. She glanced
back. "I hope none of this foolishness'll reach Mis' Elsworth's ears,"
she called, in a friendly voice.
"I hope it won't," muttered Joe, fervently, and stood watching her till
the old man pulled his sleeve.
"Lanham may not keep his word to the girl. Best go down there, hadn't
we?"
The young man made no answer, but turned and ran. He longed for some one
to wreak vengeance on. The other two had difficulty in keeping up with
him. The first object that attracted their attention was the bureau. It
was standing beside the back steps. Joe tried the door; it was
fastened. He drew forth the key and fitted it into the lock, but still
the door did not yield. He turned and faced the others. "_Some one's in
there!_"
Jonas Ingram broke forth into an oath. He shook his cane at the house.
"Some one's in there, and they've got the door bolted on the inside,"
continued Joe. His voice had a strange sound even to himself. He seemed
to be looking on at his own wrath. He strode around to a window, but the
blinds were closed; the blinds were closed all over the house; every
door was barred. Whoever was inside was in utter darkness. Joe came back
and gave the door a violent shake; then they all listened, but only the
pecking of a hen along the walk broke the silence.
"I'll get a crowbar," suggested Harry, scowling in the fierce sunlight.
Jonas Ingram stood with his hair blowing out from under his hat and his
stick grasped firmly in his gnarled old hand. He was all ready to
strike. His chin was thrust out rigidly. They both pressed close to Joe,
but he did not heed them. He put one shoulder against a panel; every
muscle was set.
"Whoever you are, if I have to break this door down--"
There was a soft commotion on the inside and the bolt was drawn. Joe,
with the other two at his heels, fairly burst into the darkened place,
just in time to see a white figure dart across the room and cast itself
in a corner. For an instant they could only blink. The figure wrapped
its white arms about some object.
"You can have everything but this table; you can't have--this." The
words ended in a frightened sob.
"_Esther!_"
"_Oh, Joe!_" She struggled to her feet, then shrank back against the
wall. "Oh, I didn't know it was you. Go 'way! go 'way!"
"Why, Esther, what do you mean?" He started towards her, but she turned
on him.
"Where is she?"
"Where's who?"
She did not reply, but standing against the wall, she stared at him with
a passionate scorn.
"You don't mean Sarah Norton?" asked Joe, slowly. Esther quivered. "Why,
she came to tell me of the trouble her father was trying to get me into.
But how did you come here, Esther? How did you know anything about it?"
She did not answer. Her head sank.
"How did you, Esther?"
"I saw--you in the lane," she faltered, then caught up her veil as
though it had been a pinafore. Joe went up to her, and Jonas Ingram took
hold of Harry Barker, and the two stepped outside, but not out of
ear-shot; they were still curious. They could hear Esther's sobbing
voice at intervals. "I tried to make 'em stop, but they wouldn't, and I
slipped in past 'em and bolted the door; and when you came, I thought it
was them--and, oh! ain't they our things, Joe?"
The old man thrust his head in at the door. "Yes," he roared, then
withdrew.
"And won't they take the table away?"
"No," he roared again. "I'd just like to see 'em!"
Esther wept harder. "Oh, I wish they would; I ought to give 'em up. I
didn't care for them after I thought--that. It was just that I had to
have something I wouldn't let go, and I tried to think only of saving
the table for the water-set."
"Come mighty near bein' no water-set," muttered Jonas to himself; then
he turned to his companion. "Young man, I guess they don't need us no
more," he said.
When he regained his sister-in-law's, he encountered that lady carrying
a steaming dish. Guests stood about under the trees or sat at the long
tables.
"For mercy sakes, Jonas, have you seen Esther? She made fuss enough
about havin' that dove fixed up in the parlor, and she and Joe ain't
stood under it a minit yet."
"That's a fact," chuckled the old fellow. "They ain't stood under no
dove of peace yet; they're just about ready to now, I reckon."
* * * * *
And up through the lane, all oblivious, the lovers were walking slowly.
Just before they reached the gap in the wall, they paused by common
consent. Cherry and apple trees drooped over the wall; these had ceased
blossoming, but a tangle of wild-rose bushes was all ablush. It dropped
a thick harvest of petals on the ground. Joe bent his head; and Esther,
resting against his shoulder, lifted her eyes to his face. All
unconsciously she took the pose of the woman in the Frohman poster. They
kissed, and then went on slowly.