"No, dear mother, I'm not sick--only at heart." He put his arms around
her neck and resting his head on her shoulder, began to sob.
It had been a long time since she had seen her boy shed tears.
"Mother," he sprang to his feet and forced himself to talk, "I must tell
you. The bank has failed and--and--I have not always told you of my
business transactions, mother. I now owe more than we are worth in this
world. I have been investing in real estate. I paid a big price for the
Riverside Addition, and the paper I asked you to sign was a mortgage on
the farm to secure a loan. Mother, I thought it was a good investment,
and it would have been had the railroad remained, but now property has
sunk so low that all we own will not pay my debts. And the bank has
failed also--O mother!"
"My son, do not carry on like that. If the worst comes, we still have
the farm, haven't we?"
"You do not understand, mother; our creditors can take that, too."
Then she also broke down, and at sight of her tears the son gained
control of his own feelings, and tried to comfort his mother. She should
never want as long as he had two strong hands with which to work, he
assured her. All would be right in the end. "What I have done, I can do
again, mother; and though if it comes to the worst, it will be hard, I
am young yet, and have life before me."
For an hour they sat on the sofa with their arms around each other,
talking and planning; and then when they became silent, the pictures
they saw in the glowing coals partook of a log house, a dreary sagebrush
plain, and the building of canals and reservoirs.
The worst did come. They could, perhaps, have retained a part of Ames
farm, but they decided to give up everything, pay their debts, and face
the world honorably. So, before Christmas, everything had been cleared
up, and Widow Ames was installed in a neat three-roomed house nearer
town, for which they paid a monthly rental.
Miss Virginia Wilton was on a visit to her "folks in the East." Rupert
both longed and feared for her return. In his letters he had said
nothing about the change in his affairs. He would wait until her return,
and then he would explain it fully to her. He had decided, for her sake,
to propose to her the postponement of their marriage until spring. He
would certainly be better prepared then. It would be a sacrifice on his
part, but Virginia would be wise enough to see its advisability. Yes,
they would counsel together, and Virginia's love would be the power to
hold him up. After all, the world was not so dark with such a girl as
Virginia Wilton waiting to become his wife.
The day after her return to Willowby, Rupert called on her. Mrs. Worth,
the landlady, responded to his knock, and said that Virginia had gone
out for the day. She was, however, to give him this note if he called.
Rupert took the paper and turned away. He would find her at some
neighbor's. He carefully broke the envelope and read:
_Dear Mr. Ames_:
As I have accepted a position to teach in another state, I shall
have to leave Willowby tomorrow. I shall be too busy to see you, and
you have too much good sense to follow me. Forget the past. With
kindest regards, I am, _Virginia Wilton_.
* * * * *
Nina was married on the first of the year. Widow Ames died about two
weeks after.
And so life's shifting scenes came fast to Rupert Ames; and they were
mostly scenes of dreariness and trial; but he did not altogether give
up. Many of his friends were his friends still, and he could have
drowned his sorrow in the social whirl; but he preferred to sit at home
during the long winter evenings, beside his fire and shaded lamp, and
forget himself in his books. He seemed to be drifting away from his
former life, into a strange world of his own. He lost all interest in
his surroundings. To him, the world was getting empty and barren and
cold.
The former beautiful valley was a prison. The hills in which his boyhood
had been spent lost all their loveliness. How foolish, anyway, he began
to think, to always live in a narrow valley, and never know anything of
the broad world without. Surely the soul will grow small in such
conditions.
Early that spring, Rupert packed his possessions in a bundle which he
tied behind the saddle on his horse and bade good-bye to his friends.
"Where are you going, Rupe?" they asked.