The brief trip to the Berkshires was longer than any he had taken
these nine months. He looked forward animatedly to the journey,
remembering details of travel--such trivial touches as the oval brass
wash-bowls of a Pullman sleeper, and how, when the water is running
out, the inside of the bowl is covered with a whitish film of water,
which swiftly peels off. He recalled the cracked white paint of a
steamer's ventilator; the abruptly stopping zhhhhh of a fog-horn; the
vast smoky roof of a Philadelphia train-shed, clamorous with the
train-bells of a strange town, giving a sense of mystery to the
traveler stepping from the car for a moment to stretch his legs; an
ugly junction station platform, with resin oozing from the heavy
planks in the spring sun; the polished binnacle of the S.S. _Panama_.
He expected keen joy in new fields and hills. Yet all the way north he
was trying to hold the train back. In a few minutes, now, he would see
Ruth. And at this hour he did not even know definitely that he liked
her.
He could not visualize her. He could see the sleeve of her blue
corduroy jacket; her eyes he could not see. She was a stranger. Had he
idealized her? He was apologetic for his unflattering doubt, but of
what sort _was_ she?
The train was stopping at her station with rattling windows and a
despairing grind of the wheels. Carl seized his overnight bag and
suit-case with fictitious enthusiasm. He was in a panic. Emerging
from the safe, impersonal train upon the platform, he saw her.
She was waving to him from a one-seated phaeton, come alone to meet
him--and she was the adorable, the perfect comrade. He thought
jubilantly as he strode along the platform: "She's wonderful. Love
her? Should say I do!"
While they drove under the elms, past white cottages and the village
green, while they were talking so lightly and properly that none of
the New England gossips could be wounded in the sense of propriety,
Carl was learning her anew. She was an outdoor girl now, in
low-collared blouse and white linen skirt. He rejoiced in her
modulating laugh; the contrast of blue eyes and dark brows under her
Panama hat; her full dark hair, with a lock sun-drenched; her bare
throat, boyishly brown, femininely smooth; the sweet, clean,
fine-textured girl flesh of the hollow of one shoulder faintly to be
seen in the shadow of her broad, drooping collar; one hand, with a
curious ring of rose quartz and steel points, excitedly pounding a
tattoo of greeting with the whip-handle; her spirited irreverences
regarding the people they passed; chatter which showed the world
transformed as through ruby glass--a Ruth radiant, understanding, his
comrade. She was all that he had believed during her absence and
doubted while he was coming to her. But he had no time to repent of
his doubt, now, so busily was he exulting to himself, slipping a hand
under her arm: "Love her? I--should--say--I--do!"
The carriage rolled out of town with the rhythmic creak of a country
buggy, climbed a hill range by means of the black, oily state road,
and turned upon a sandy side-road. A brook ran beside them. Sunny
fields alternated with woods leaf-floored, quiet, holy--miraculous
after the weary city. Below was a vista of downward-sloping fields,
divided by creeper-covered stone walls; then a sun-meshed valley set
with ponds like shining glass dishes on a green table-cloth; beyond
all, a long reach of hillsides covered with unbroken fleecy forest,
like green down....
"So much unspoiled country, and yet there's people herded in subways!"
complained Carl.
They drove along a level road, lined with wild raspberry-bushes and
full of a thin jade light from the shading maples. They gossiped of
the Patton Kerrs and the Berkshires; of the difference between the
professional English week-ender and the American, who still has
something of the naive provincial delight of "going visiting"; of New
York and the Dunleavys. But their talk lulled to a nervous hush. It
seemed to him that a great voice cried from the clouds: "It is beside
_Ruth_ that you are sitting; Ruth whose arm you feel!" In silence he
caught her left hand.
As he slowly drew back her hand and the reins with it, to stop the
ambling horse, the two children stared straight at each other, hungry,
tremulously afraid. Their kiss--not only their lips, but their spirits
met without one reserve. A straining long kiss, as though they were
forcing their lips into one body of living flame. A kiss in which his
eyes were blind to the enchantment of the jade light about them, his
ears deaf to brook and rustling forest. All his senses were
concentrated on the close warmth of her misty lips, the curve of her
young shoulder, her woman sweetness and longing. Then his senses
forgot even her lips, and floated off into a blurred trance of
bodiless happiness--the kiss of Nirvana. No foreign thought of trains
or people or the future came now to drag him to earth. It was the most
devoted, most sacred moment he had known.
As he became again conscious of lips and cheek and brave shoulders and
of her wide-spread fingers gripping his upper arm, she was slowly
breaking the spell of the kiss. But again and again she kissed him,
hastily, savage tokens of rejoicing possession.
She cried: "I do know now! I do love you!"
"Blessed----"
In silence they stared into the woods while her fingers smoothed his
knuckles. Her eyes were faint with tears, in the magic jade light.
"I didn't know a kiss could be like that," she marveled, presently. "I
wouldn't have believed selfish Ruth could give all of herself."
"Yes! It was the whole universe."
"Hawk dear, I wasn't experimenting, that time. I'm glad, glad! To know
I can really love; not just curiosity!... I've wanted you so all day.
I thought four o'clock wouldn't ever come--and oh, darling, my dear,
dear Hawk, I didn't even know for sure I'd like you when you came!
Sometimes I wanted terribly to have your silly, foolish, childish,
pale hair on my breast--such hair! lady's hair!--but sometimes I
didn't want to see you at all, and I was frightened at the thought of
your coming, and I fussed around the house till Mrs. Pat laughed at me
and accused me of being in love, and I denied it--and she was right!"
"Blessed, I was scared to death, all the way up here. I didn't think
you could be as wonderful as I knew you were! That sounds mixed
but---- Oh, blessed, blessed, you really love me? You really love me?
It's hard to believe I've actually heard you say it! And I love you so
completely. Everything."
"I love you!... That is such an adorable spot to kiss, just below your
ear," she said. "Darling, keep me safe in the little house of arms,
where there's only room for you and me--no room for offices or Aunt
Emmas!... But not now. We must hurry on.... If a wagon had been coming
along the road----!"
As they entered the rhododendron-lined drive of the Patton Kerr place,
Carl remembered a detail, not important, but usual. "Oh yes," he said,
"I've forgotten to propose."
"Need you? Proposals sound like contracts and all those other dull
forms; not like--that kiss.... See! There's Pat Kerr, Jr., waving to
us. You can just make him out, there on the upper balcony. He is the
darlingest child, with ash-blond hair cut Dutch style. I wonder if you
didn't look like him when you were a boy, with your light hair?"
"Not a chance. I was a grubby kid. Made noises.... Gee! what a bully
place. And the house!... Will you marry me?"
"Yes, I will!... It _is_ a dear place. Mrs. Pat is----"
"When?"
"----always fussing over it; she plants narcissuses and crocuses in
the woods, so you find them growing wild."
"I like those awnings. Against the white walls.... May I consider that
we are engaged then, Miss Winslow--engaged for the next marriage?"
"Oh no, no, not engaged, dear. Don't you know it's one of my
principles----"
"But look----"
"----not to be engaged, Hawk? Everybody brings the cunnin' old jokes
out of the moth-balls when you're engaged. I'll marry you, but----"
"Marry me next month--August?"
"Nope."
"September?"
"Nope."
"Please, Ruthie. Aw yes, September. Nice month, September is. Autumn.
Harvest moon. And apples to swipe. Come on. September."
"Well, perhaps September. We'll see. Oh, Hawk dear, can you conceive
of us actually sitting here and solemnly discussing being _married_?
Us, the babes in the wood? And I've only known you three days or so,
seems to me.... Well, as I was saying, _perhaps_ I'll marry you in
September (um! frightens me to think of it; frightens me and awes me
and amuses me to death, all at once). That is, I shall marry you
unless you take to wearing pearl-gray derbies or white evening ties
with black edging, or kill Mason in a duel, or do something equally
disgraceful. But engaged I will not be. And we'll put the money for a
diamond ring into a big davenport.... Are we going to be dreadfully
poor?"
"Oh, not pawn-shop poor. I made VanZile boost my salary, last week,
and with my Touricar stock I'm getting a little over four thousand
dollars a year."
"Is that lots or little?"
"Well, it 'll give us a decent apartment and a nearly decent maid, I
guess. And if the Touricar keeps going, we can beat it off for a year,
wandering, after maybe three four years."
"I hope so. Here we are! That's Mrs. Pat waiting for us."
The Patton Kerr house, set near the top of the highest hill in that
range of the Berkshires, stood out white against a slope of crisp
green; an old manor house of long lines and solid beams, with striped
awnings of red and white, and in front a brick terrace, with
basket-chairs, a swinging couch, and a wicker tea-table already
welcomingly spread with a service of Royal Doulton. From the terrace
one saw miles of valley and hills, and villages strung on a rambling
river. The valley was a golden bowl filled with the peace of
afternoon; a world of sun and listening woods.
On the terrace waited a woman of thirty-five, of clever face a bit
worn at the edges, carefully coiffed hair, and careless white blouse
with a tweed walking-skirt. She was gracefully holding out her hand,
greeting Carl, "It's terribly good of you to come clear out into our
wilderness." She was interrupted by the bouncing appearance of a
stocky, handsome, red-faced, full-chinned, curly-black-haired man of
forty, in riding-breeches and boots and a silk shirt; with him an
excited small boy in rompers--Patton Kerr, Sr. and Jr.
"Here you are!" Senior observantly remarked. "Glad to see you,
Ericson. You and Ruthie been a deuce of a time coming up from town.
Holding hands along the road, eh? Lord! these aviators!"
"Pat!"
"Animal!"
----protested Mrs. Kerr and Ruth, simultaneously.
"All right. I'll be good. Saw you fly at Nassau Boulevard, Ericson.
Turned my horn loose and hooted till they thought I was a militant,
like Ruthie here. Lord! what flying, what flying! I'd like to see you
race Weymann and Vedrines.... Ruthie, will you show Mr. Ericson where
his room is, or has poor old Pat got to go and drag a servant away
from reading _Town Topics_, heh?"
"I will, Pat," said Ruth.
"I will, daddy," cried Pat, Jr.
"No, my son, I guess maybe Ruthie had better do it. There's a certain
look in her eyes----"
"Basilisk!"
"Salamander!"
Ruth and Carl passed through the wide colonial hall, with mahogany
tables and portraits of the Kerrs and the sword of Colonel Patton. At
the far end was an open door, and a glimpse of an old-fashioned garden
radiant with hollyhocks and Canterbury bells. It was a world of utter
content. As they climbed the curving stairs Ruth tucked her arm in
his, saying:
"Now do you see why I won't be engaged? Pat Kerr is the best chum in
the world, yet he finds even a possible engagement wildly
humorous--like mothers-in-law or poets or falling on your ear."
"But gee! Ruth, you _are_ going to marry me?"
"You little child! My little boy Hawk! Of course I'm going to marry
you. Do you think I would miss my chance of a cabin in the Rockies?...
My famous Hawk what everybody cheered at Nassau Boulevard!" She opened
the door of his room with a deferential, "Thy chamber, milord!... Come
down quickly," she said. "We mustn't miss a moment of these days....
I am frank with you about how glad I am to have you here. You must be
good to me; you will prize my love a little, won't you?" Before he
could answer she had run away.
After half home-comings and false home-comings the adventurer had
really come home.
He inspected the gracious room, its chintz hangings, four-poster bed,
low wicker chair by the fireplace, fresh Cherokee roses on the mantel;
a room of cheerfulness and open spaces. He stared into woods where a
cool light lay on moss and fern. He did not need to remember Ruth's
kisses. For each breath of hilltop air, each emerald of moss, each
shining mahogany surface in the room, repeated to him that he had
found the Grail, whose other name is love.
Saturday, they loafed over breakfast, the sun licking the tree-tops in
the ravine outside the windows; and they motored with the Kerrs to
Lenox, returning through the darkness. Till midnight they talked on
the terrace. They loafed again, the next morning, and let the fresh
air dissolve the office grime which had been coating his spirit. They
were so startlingly original as to be simple-hearted country lovers,
in the afternoon, declining Kerr's offer of a car, and rambling off on
bicycles.
From a rise they saw water gleaming among the trees. The sullen green
of pines set off the silvery green of barley, and an orchard climbed
the next rise; the smoky shadow of another hill range promised long,
cool forest roads. Crows were flying overhead, going where they would.
The aviator and the girl who read psychology, modern lovers, stood
hand in hand, as though the age of machinery were a myth; as though he
were a piping minstrel and she a shepherdess. Before them was the open
road and all around them the hum of bees.
A close, listless heat held Monday afternoon, even on the hilltop. The
clay tennis-court was baking; the worn bricks of the terrace reflected
a furnace glow. The Kerrs had disappeared for a nap. Carl, lounging
with Ruth on the swinging couch in the shade, thought of the slaves in
New York offices and tenements. Then, because he would himself be back
in an office next day, he let the glare of the valley soothe him with
its wholesome heat.
"Certainly would like a swim," he remarked. "Couldn't we bike down to
Fisher's Pond, or maybe take the Ford?"
"Let's. But there's no bath-house."
"Put a bathing-suit under your dress. Sun 'll dry it in no time, after
the swim."
"As you command, my liege." And she ran in to change.
They motored down to Fisher's Pond, which is a lake, and stopped in a
natural woodland-opening like a dim-lighted greenroom. From it
stretched the enameled lake, the farther side reflecting unbroken
woods. The nearer water-edge was exquisite in its clearness. They saw
perch fantastically floating over the pale sand bottom, among
scattered reeds whose watery green stalks were like the thin columns
of a dancing-hall for small fishes. The surface of the lake, satiny as
the palm of a girl's hand, broke in the tiniest of ripples against
white quartz pebbles on the hot shore. Cool, flashing, golden-sanded,
the lake coaxed them out of their forest room.
"A lot like the Minnesota lakes, only smaller," said Carl. "I'm going
right in. About ready for a swim? Come on."
"I'm af-fraid!" She suddenly plumped on the earth and hugged her
skirts about her ankles.
"Why, blessed, what you scared of? No sharks here, and no undertow.
Nice white sand----"
"Oh, Hawk, I was silly. I felt I was such an independent modern woman
a-a-and I aren't! I've always said it was silly for girls to swim in a
woman's bathing-suit. Skirts are so cumbersome. So I put on a boy's
bathing-suit under my dress--and--I'm terribly embarrassed."
"Why, blessed----Well, I guess you'll have to decide." His voice was
somewhat shaky. "Awful scared of Carl?"
"Yes! I thought I wouldn't be, with you, but I'm self-conscious as can
be."
"Well, gee! I don't know. Of course----Well, I'll jump in, and you can
decide."
He peeled off his white flannels and stood in his blue bathing-suit,
not statue-like, not very brown now, but trim-waisted, shapely armed,
wonderfully clean of neck and jaw. With a "Wheee!" he dashed into the
water and swam out, overhand.
As he turned over and glanced back, his heart caught to see her
standing on the creamy sand, a shy, elfin figure in a boy's
bathing-suit of black wool, woman and slim boy in one, silken-throated
and graceful-limbed, curiously smaller than when dressed. Her white
skirt and blouse lay tumbled about her ankles. She raised rosy arms to
hide her flushed face and her eyes, as she cried:
"Don't look!"
He obediently swam on, with a tenderness more poignant than longing.
He heard her splashing behind him, and turned again, to see her racing
through the water. Those soft yet not narrow shoulders rose and fell
sturdily under the wet black wool, her eyes shone, and she was all
comradely boy save for her dripping, splendid hair. Singing, "Come on,
lazy!" she headed across the pond. He swam beside her, reveling in the
well-being of cool water and warm air, till they reached the solemn
shade beneath the trees on the other side, and floated in the dark,
still water, splashing idle hands, gazing into forest hollows, spying
upon the brisk business of squirrels among the acorns.
Back at their greenwood room, Ruth wrapped her sailor blouse about
her, and they squatted like un-self-conscious children on the beach,
while from a field a distant locust fiddled his August fandango and in
flame-colored pride an oriole went by. Fresh sky, sunfish like tropic
shells in the translucent water, arching reeds dipping their
olive-green points in the water, wavelets rustling against a gray
neglected rowboat, and beside him Ruth.
Musingly they built a castle of sand. An hour of understanding so
complete that it made the heart melancholy. When he sighed, "Getting
late; come on, blessed; we're dry now," it seemed that they could
never again know such rapt tranquillity.
Yet they did. For that evening when they stood on the terrace, trying
to forget that he must leave her and go back to the lonely city in the
morning, when the mist reached chilly tentacles up from the valley,
they kissed a shy good-by, and Carl knew that life's real adventure is
not adventuring, but finding the playmate with whom to quest life's
meaning.