The hay-harvest was still going on when Curtis and Jennie drove down the
valley to meet Elsie and Lawson at Pinon City. "Father is much changed,"
Elsie had written. "You will hardly know him now. He has forgotten all
about his campaign; he remembers you only momentarily, so that you need
not feel any resentment. He will probably meet you as if he had never
seen you before. Please do not show any surprise, no matter what he
says."
Curtis expected to find Brisbane a poor shambling wreck of a man, morose
and sorrowful to look upon, and his astonishment was correspondingly
profound as the ex-Senator descended from the train. His step was
vigorous, and his face was placid and of good color; thus much the young
soldier took in at a glance, then he forgot all the world in the radiant
face of his heart's beloved.
As she put up her lips to be kissed, Elsie's eyes were dim with tears,
and she hurried to Jennie as if for relief from her emotion. When she
turned, her father was shaking hands urbanely with Curtis.
"Glad to meet you, sir," he said, in the tone of the suave man of
position. "I didn't catch the name."
A spasm of pain crossed Elsie's face. "This is Mr. Curtis, papa. Don't
you remember Captain Curtis?"
"Ah, yes, so it is," he replied. "I remember you spoke of him once
before. I am very glad to make your acquaintance--very glad indeed,
sir."
To meet this calm politeness in a man who, in his right mind, would have
refused to shake hands, was deeply moving to the young officer. To all
outward appearance the great promoter was the same, and on all matters
concerning his first campaign and first term, and especially on the
events of his early life, he spoke with freedom, even with humor, but of
the incidents of the later campaign he had no recollection. That he had
been defeated and humbled seemed also to have left no lasting mark upon
his mind.
"The fact is, my memory has grown very bad," he explained. "I can
remember faces in a dim way, but anything that is said to me I forget
instantly."
For a time the thought of Brisbane's mental decay threw a gloom over the
party, but Elsie said: "Please don't mind him. I have reached a certain
philosophic calm in the matter. I can do him no good by sorrowing. I
have, therefore, determined to be as happy as I can."
Curtis cheerfully called: "We must start at once. Will your father go
with us?"
"Oh no! I am afraid to have him undertake that. He will go on to Copper
City with his secretary."
"Of course, that is best," replied Curtis, vastly relieved.
Brisbane parted with Elsie quite matter-of-factly, and his urbanity
remained unbroken as he shook hands with Curtis. "Pleased to have met
you, sir," he said, and, in spite of her resolution, the tears filled
the daughter's eyes. The old warrior's smiling forgetfulness of feuds
was tragic.
As they rode homeward, Curtis and Elsie sat as before on the forward
seat, and he detailed what had taken place at the agency, and she
listened, genuinely absorbed. She laughed and she wept a little as his
story touched on the pathetic incidents of the year.
"You are like a father confessor," she said. "You hold in your hands the
most intimate secrets of your people. I don't understand your patience
with them. Do you feel that you have made your demonstration?"
"What I have done is written in lines of gold and green on the earth.
The sky is too bright to remember my gray days," he replied, most
exultantly.
She looked at him quizzically. "You are developing new and singular
powers."
"I have a new and singular teacher."
"New?" she queried.
"New to me," he answered, and in such enigmatic way they expressed their
emotion while Lawson and Jennie chatted gayly and in clear prose behind.
Part of the time Elsie drove, and that gave Curtis an excuse to lay his
hand on her wrist when he wished her to drive slow. At the half-way
house she shuddered and made a mouth of disgust. "Let's hurry past here;
I have a bad heart when I think of those horrible men."
"They are thinning out, and this ranch has 'changed hands' as they say
on restaurant signs in Chicago. Here's our north line of fence," he
said, as they came to a big, new gate. "I hastened to build this at
once before anything happened to prevent. This keeps the stock of the
white man out, and has stopped all friction."
As they came in sight of the flag-pole, Elsie cried out: "Just think!
This is the third time I have driven up this road in this way. Twice
with you."
"I know it is wonderful. I don't intend you to go away without me."
She was ignoring every one of his suggestions now, but the flush of her
cheek and a certain softness in her eyes encouraged him to go on.
As they alighted at the door, Jennie remained to look after her bundles,
and Curtis and Elsie entered the library together. He who had waited so
eagerly for this moment turned and folded her close in his arms. "I need
you, sweetest! I'll never let you go again. Never!"
This was her moment to protest; but she was silent, with her face
against his shoulder.
Jennie bounced into the hall with a great deal of premonitory clatter
and hurried Elsie to her room to rest.
"And now you're to be my really truly sister," she said, closing the
door behind her.
"I think--George," she hesitated a little, and blushed before speaking
his name, "expects it--rather confidently."
"Then give me a good hug, you glorious thing!"