I was still a young man when I came into the possession of an excellent
estate. This consisted of a large country house, surrounded by lawns,
groves, and gardens, and situated not far from the flourishing little
town of Boynton. Being an orphan with no brothers or sisters, I set up
here a bachelor's hall, in which, for two years, I lived with great
satisfaction and comfort, improving my grounds and furnishing my house.
When I had made all the improvements which were really needed, and
feeling that I now had a most delightful home to come back to, I
thought it would be an excellent thing to take a trip to Europe, give
my mind a run in fresh fields, and pick up a lot of bric-a-brac and
ideas for the adornment and advantage of my house and mind.
It was the custom of the residents in my neighborhood who owned houses
and travelled in the summer to let their houses during their absence,
and my business agent and myself agreed that this would be an excellent
thing for me to do. If the house were let to a suitable family it
would yield me a considerable income, and the place would not present
on my return that air of retrogression and desolation which I might
expect if it were left unoccupied and in charge of a caretaker.
My agent assured me that I would have no trouble whatever in letting my
place, for it offered many advantages and I expected but a reasonable
rent. I desired to leave everything just as it stood, house,
furniture, books, horses, cows, and poultry, taking with me only my
clothes and personal requisites, and I desired tenants who would come
in bringing only their clothes and personal requisites, which they
could quietly take away with them when their lease should expire and I
should return home.
In spite, however, of the assurances of the agent, it was not easy to
let my place. The house was too large for some people, too small for
others, and while some applicants had more horses than I had stalls in
my stable, others did not want even the horses I would leave. I had
engaged my steamer passage, and the day for my departure drew near, and
yet no suitable tenants had presented themselves. I had almost come to
the conclusion that the whole matter would have to be left in the hands
of my agent, for I had no intention whatever of giving up my projected
travels, when early one afternoon some people came to look at the
house. Fortunately I was at home, and I gave myself the pleasure of
personally conducting them about the premises. It was a pleasure,
because as soon as I comprehended the fact that these applicants
desired to rent my house I wished them to have it.
The family consisted of an elderly gentleman and his wife, with a
daughter of twenty or thereabout. This was a family that suited me
exactly. Three in number, no children, people of intelligence and
position, fond of the country, and anxious for just such a place as I
offered them--what could be better?
The more I walked about and talked with these good people and showed
them my possessions, the more I desired that the young lady should take
my house. Of course her parents were included in this wish, but it was
for her ears that all my remarks were intended, although sometimes
addressed to the others, and she was the tenant I labored to obtain. I
say "labored" advisedly, because I racked my brain to think of
inducements which might bring them to a speedy and favorable decision.
Apart from the obvious advantages of the arrangement, it would be a
positive delight to me during my summer wanderings in Europe to think
that that beautiful girl would be strolling through my grounds,
enjoying my flowers, and sitting with her book in the shady nooks I had
made so pleasant, lying in my hammocks, spending her evening hours in
my study, reading my books, writing at my desk, and perhaps musing in
my easy-chair. Before these applicants appeared it had sometimes
pained me to imagine strangers in my home; but no such thought crossed
my mind in regard to this young lady, who, if charming in the house and
on the lawn, grew positively entrancing when she saw my Jersey cows and
my two horses, regarding them with an admiration which even surpassed
my own.
Long before we had completed the tour of inspection I had made up my
mind that this young lady should come to live in my house. If
obstacles should show themselves they should be removed. I would tear
down, I would build, I would paper and paint, I would put in all sorts
of electric bells, I would reduce the rent until it suited their
notions exactly, I would have my horses' tails banged if she liked that
kind of tails better than long ones--I would do anything to make them
definitely decide to take the place before they left me. I trembled to
think of her going elsewhere and giving other householders a chance to
tempt her. She had looked at a good many country houses, but it was
quite plain that none of them had pleased her so well as mine.
I left them in my library to talk the matter over by themselves, and in
less than ten minutes the young lady herself came out on the lawn to
tell me that her father and mother had decided to take the place and
would like to speak with me.
"I am so glad," she said as we went in. "I am sure I shall enjoy every
hour of our stay here. It is so different from anything we have yet
seen."
When everything had been settled I wanted to take them again over the
place and point out a lot of things I had omitted. I particularly
wanted to show them some lovely walks in the woods. But there was no
time, for they had to catch a train.
Her name was Vincent--Cora Vincent, as I discovered from her mother's
remarks.
As soon as they departed I had my mare saddled and rode into town to
see my agent. I went into his office exultant.
"I've let my house," I said, "and I want you to make out the lease and
have everything fixed and settled as soon as possible. This is the
address of my tenants."
The agent asked me a good many questions, being particularly anxious to
know what rent had been agreed upon.
"Heavens!" he exclaimed, when I mentioned the sum, "that is ever so
much less than I told you you could get. I am in communication now
with a party whom I know would pay you considerably more than these
people. Have you definitely settled with them? Perhaps it is not too
late to withdraw."
"Withdraw!" I cried. "Never! They are the only tenants I want. I was
determined to get them, and I think I must have lowered the rent four
or five times in the course of the afternoon. I took a big slice out
of it before I mentioned the sum at all. You see," said I, very
impressively, "these Vincents exactly suit me." And then I went on to
state fully the advantages of the arrangement, omitting, however, any
references to my visions of Miss Vincent swinging in my hammocks or
musing in my study-chair.
It was now May 15, and my steamer would sail on the twenty-first. The
intervening days I employed, not in preparing for my travels, but in
making every possible arrangement for the comfort and convenience of my
incoming tenants. The Vincents did not wish to take possession until
June 1, and I was sorry they had not applied before I had engaged my
passage, for in that case I would have selected a later date. A very
good steamer sailed on June 3, and it would have suited me just as well.
Happening to be in New York one day, I went to the Vincents' city
residence to consult with them in regard to some awnings which I
proposed putting up at the back of the house. I found no one at home
but the old gentleman, and it made no difference to him whether the
awnings were black and brown or red and yellow. I cordially invited
him to come out before I left, and bring his family, that they might
look about the place to see if there was anything they would like to
have done which had not already been attended to. It was so much
better, I told him, to talk over these matters personally with the
owner than with an agent in his absence. Agents were often very
unwilling to make changes. Mr. Vincent was a very quiet and
exceedingly pleasant elderly gentleman, and thanked me very much for my
invitation, but said he did not see how he could find the time to get
out to my house before I sailed. I did not like to say that it was not
at all necessary for him to neglect his affairs in order to accompany
his family to my place, but I assured him that if any of them wished to
go out at any time before they took possession they must feel at
perfect liberty to do so.
I mentioned this matter to my agent, suggesting that if he happened to
be in New York he might call on the Vincents and repeat my invitation.
It was not likely that the old gentleman would remember to mention it
to his wife and daughter, and it was really important that everything
should be made satisfactory before I left.
"It seems to me," he said, smiling a little grimly, "that the Vincents
had better be kept away from your house until you have gone. If you do
anything more to it you may find out that it would have been more
profitable to have shut it up while you are away."
He did call, however, partly because I wished him to and partly because
he was curious to see the people I was so anxious to install in my
home, and to whom he was to be my legal representative. He reported
the next day that he had found no one at home but Miss Vincent, and
that she had said that she and her mother would be very glad to come
out the next week and go over the place before they took possession.
"Next week!" I exclaimed. "I shall be gone then!"
"But I shall be here," said Mr. Barker, "and I'll show them about and
take their suggestions."
This did not suit me at all. It annoyed me very much to think of
Barker showing Miss Vincent about my place. He was a good-looking
young man and not at all backward in his manners.
"After all," said I, "I suppose that everything that ought to be done
has been done. I hope you told her that."
"Of course not," said he. "That would have been running dead against
your orders. Besides, it's my business to show people about places. I
don't mind it."
This gave me an unpleasant and uneasy feeling. I wondered if Mr.
Barker were the agent I ought to have, and if a middle-aged man with a
family and more experience might not be better able to manage my
affairs.
"Barker," said I, a little later, "there will be no use of your going
every month to the Vincents to collect their rent. I shall write to
Mr. Vincent to pay as he pleases. He can send a check monthly or at
the end of the season, as it may be convenient. He is perfectly
responsible, and I would much prefer to have the money in a lump when I
come back."
Barker grinned. "All right," said he, "but that's not the way to do
business, you know."
I may have been mistaken, but I fancied that I saw in my agent's face
an expression which indicated that he intended to call on the first day
of each month, on the pretext of telling Vincent that it was not
necessary to pay the rent at any particular time, and that he also
proposed to make many other intervening visits to inquire if repairs
were needed. This might have been a good deal to get out of his
expression, but I think I could have got more if I had thought longer.
On the day before that on which I was to sail, my mind was in such a
disturbed condition that I could not attend to my packing or anything
else. It almost enraged me to think that I was deliberately leaving
the country ten days before my tenants would come to my house. There
was no reason why I should do this. There were many reasons why I
should not. There was Barker. I was now of the opinion that he would
personally superintend the removal of the Vincents and their
establishment to my home. I remembered that the only suggestion he had
made about the improvement of the place had been the construction of a
tennis-court. I knew that he was a champion player. Confound it!
What a dreadful mistake I had made in selecting such a man for my
house-agent. With my mind's eye I could already see Miss Vincent and
Barker selecting a spot for tennis and planning the arrangements of the
court.
I took the first train to New York and went directly to the steamboat
office. It is astonishing how many obstacles can be removed from a
man's path if he will make up his mind to give them a good kick. I
found that my steamer was crowded. The applications for passage
exceeded the accommodations, and the agent was delighted to transfer me
to the steamer that sailed on June 3. I went home exultant. Barker
drove over in the evening to take his last instructions, and a blank
look came over his face when I told him that business had delayed my
departure, and that I should not sail the next day. If I had told him
that part of that business was the laying out of a tennis-court he
might have looked blanker.
Of course the date of my departure did not concern the Vincents,
provided the house was vacated by June 1, and I did not inform them of
the change in my plans, but when the mother and daughter came out the
next week they were much surprised to find me waiting to receive them
instead of Barker. I hope that they were also pleased, and I am sure
that they had every reason to be so. Mrs. Vincent, having discovered
that I was a most complacent landlord, accommodated herself easily to
my disposition and made a number of minor requirements, all of which I
granted without the slightest hesitation. I was delighted at last to
put her into the charge of my housekeeper, and when the two had betaken
themselves to the bedrooms I invited Miss Vincent to come out with me
to select a spot for a tennis-court. The invitation was accepted with
alacrity, for tennis, she declared, was a passion with her.
The selection of that tennis-court took nearly an hour, for there were
several good places for one and it was hard to make a selection;
besides, I could not lose the opportunity of taking Miss Vincent into
the woods and showing her the walks I had made and the rustic seats I
had placed in pleasant nooks. Of course she would have discovered
these, but it was a great deal better for her to know all about them
before she came. At last Mrs. Vincent sent a maid to tell her daughter
that it was time to go for the train, and the court had not been
definitely planned.
The next day I went to Miss Vincent's house with a plan of the grounds,
and she and I talked it over until the matter was settled. It was
necessary to be prompt about this, I explained, as there would be a
great deal of levelling and rolling to be done.
I also had a talk with the old gentleman about books. There were
several large boxes of my books in New York which I had never sent out
to my country house. Many of these I thought might be interesting to
him, and I offered to have them taken out and left at his disposal.
When he heard the titles of some of the books in the collection he was
much interested, but insisted that before he made use of them they
should be catalogued, as were the rest of my effects. I hesitated a
moment, wondering if I could induce Barker to come to New York and
catalogue four big boxes of books, when, to my surprise, Miss Vincent
incidentally remarked that if they were in any place where she could
get at them she would be pleased to help catalogue them; that sort of
thing was a great pleasure to her. Instantly I proposed that I should
send the books to the Vincent house, that they should there be taken
out so that Mr. Vincent could select those he might care to read during
the summer, that I would make a list of these, and if Vincent would
assist me I would be grateful for the kindness, and those that were not
desired could be returned to the storehouse.
What a grand idea was this! I had been internally groaning because I
could think of no possible pretence, for further interviews with Miss
Vincent, and here was something better than I could have imagined. Her
father declared that he could not put me to so much trouble, but I
would listen to none of his words, and the next morning my books were
spread over his library floor.
The selection and cataloguing of the volumes desired occupied the
mornings of three days. The old gentleman's part was soon done, but
there were many things in the books which were far more interesting to
me than their titles, and to which I desired to draw Miss Vincent's
attention. All this greatly protracted our labors. She was not only a
beautiful girl, but her intelligence and intellectual grasp were
wonderful. I could not help telling her what a great pleasure it would
be to me to think, while wandering in foreign lands, that such an
appreciative family would be enjoying my books and my place.
"You are so fond of your house and everything you have," said she,
"that we shall almost feel as if we were depriving you of your rights.
But I suppose that Italian lakes and the Alps will make you forget for
a time even your beautiful home."
"Not if you are in it," I longed to say, but I restrained myself. I
did not believe that it was possible for me to be more in love with
this girl than I was at that moment, but, of course, it would be the
rankest stupidity to tell her so. To her I was simply her father's
landlord.
I went to that house the next day to see that the boxes were
properly repacked, and I actually went the next day to see if the right
boxes had gone into the country, and the others back to the storehouse.
The first day I saw only the father. The second day it was the mother
who assured me that everything had been properly attended to. I began
to feel that if I did not wish a decided rebuff I would better not make
any more pretences of business at the Vincent house.
There were affairs of my own which should have been attended to, and I
ought to have gone home and attended to them, but I could not bear to
do so. There was no reason to suppose she would go out there before
the first of June.
Thinking over the matter many times, I came to the conclusion that if I
could see her once more I would be satisfied. Then I would go away,
and carry her image with me into every art-gallery, over every glacier,
and under every lovely sky that I should enjoy abroad, hoping all the
time that, taking my place, as it were, in my home, and making my
possessions, in a measure, her own, she would indirectly become so well
acquainted with me that when I returned I might speak to her without
shocking her.
To obtain this final interview there was but one way. I had left my
house on Saturday, the Vincents would come on the following Monday, and
I would sail on Wednesday. I would go on Tuesday to inquire if they
found everything to their satisfaction. This would be a very proper
attention from a landlord about to leave the country.
When I reached Boynton I determined to walk to my house, for I did not
wish to encumber myself with a hired vehicle. I might be asked to stay
to luncheon. A very strange feeling came over me as I entered my
grounds. They were not mine. For the time being they belonged to
somebody else. I was merely a visitor or a trespasser if the Vincents
thought proper so to consider me. If they did not like people to walk
on the grass I had no right to do it.
None of my servants had been left on the place, and the maid who came
to the door informed me that Mr. Vincent had gone to New York that
morning, and that Mrs. Vincent and her daughter were out driving. I
ventured to ask if she thought they would soon return, and she answered
that she did not think they would, as they had gone to Rock Lake,
which, from the way they talked about it, must be a long way off.
Rock Lake! When I had driven over there with my friends, we had taken
luncheon at the inn and returned in the afternoon. And what did they
know of Rock Lake? Who had told them of it? That officious Barker, of
course.
"Will you leave a message, sir?" said the maid, who, of course, did not
know me.
"No," said I, and as I still stood gazing at the piazza floor, she
remarked that if I wished to call again she would go out and speak to
the coachman and ask him if anything had been said to him about the
time of the party's return.
Worse and worse! Their coachman had not driven them! Some one who
knew the country had been their companion. They were not acquainted in
the neighborhood, and there could not be a shadow of a doubt that it
was that obtrusive Barker who had indecently thrust himself upon them
on the very next day after their arrival, and had thus snatched from me
this last interview upon which I had counted so earnestly.
I had no right to ask any more questions. I left no message nor any
name, and I had no excuse for saying I would call again.
I got back to my hotel without having met any one whom I knew, and that
night I received a note from Barker, stating that he had fully intended
coming to the steamer to see me off, but that an engagement would
prevent him. He sent, however, his best good wishes for my safe
passage, and assured me that he would keep me fully informed of the
state of my affairs on this side.
"Engagement!" I exclaimed. "Is he going to drive with her again
to-morrow?"
My steamer sailed at two o'clock the next day, and after an early
breakfast I went to the company's office to see if I could dispose of
my ticket. It had become impossible, I told the agent, for me to leave
America at present. He said it was a very late hour to sell my ticket,
but that he would do what he could, and if an applicant turned up he
would give him my room and refund the money. He wanted me to change to
another date, but I declined to do this. I was not able to say when I
should sail.
I now had no plan of action. All I knew was that I could not leave
America without finding out something definite about this Barker
business. That is to say, if it should be made known to me that
instead of attending to my business, sending a carpenter to make
repairs, if such were necessary, or going personally to the plumber to
make sure that that erratic personage would give his attention to any
pipes in regard to which Mr. Vincent might have written, Barker should
mingle in sociable relations with my tenants, and drive or play tennis
with the young lady of the house, then would I immediately have done
with him. I would withdraw my business from his hands and place it in
those of old Mr. Poindexter. More than that, it might be my duty to
warn Miss Vincent's parents against Barker. I did not doubt that he
was a very good house and land-agent, but in selecting him as such I
had no idea of introducing him to the Vincents in a social way. In
fact, the more I thought about it the more I became convinced that if
ever I mentioned Barker to my tenants it would be to warn them against
him. From certain points of view he was actually a dangerous man.
This, however, I would not do until I found my agent was really
culpable. To discover what Barker had done, what he was doing, and
what he intended to do, was now my only business in life. Until I had
satisfied myself on these points I could not think of starting out upon
my travels.
Now that I had determined I would not start for Europe until I had
satisfied myself that Mr. Barker was contenting himself with attending
to my business, and not endeavoring to force himself into social
relations with my tenants, I was anxious that the postponement of my
journey should be unknown to my friends and acquaintances, and I was,
therefore, very glad to see in a newspaper, published on the afternoon
of the day of my intended departure, my name among the list of
passengers who had sailed upon the Mnemonic. For the first time I
commended the super-enterprise of a reporter who gave more attention to
the timeliness of his news than to its accuracy.
I was stopping at a New York hotel, but I did not wish to stay there.
Until I felt myself ready to start on my travels the neighborhood of
Boynton would suit me better than anywhere else. I did not wish to go
to the town itself, for Barker lived there, and I knew many of the
townspeople; but there were farmhouses not far away where I might spend
a week. After considering the matter, I thought of something that
might suit me. About three miles from my house, on an unfrequented
road, was a mill which stood at the end of an extensive sheet of water,
in reality a mill-pond, but commonly called a lake. The miller, an old
man, had recently died, and his house near by was occupied by a
newcomer whom I had never seen. If I could get accommodations there it
would suit me exactly. I left the train two stations below Boynton and
walked over to the mill.
The country-folk in my neighborhood are always pleased to take summer
boarders if they can get them, and the miller and his wife were glad to
give me a room, not imagining that I was the owner of a good house not
far away. The place suited my requirements very well. It was near
her, and I might live here for a time unnoticed, but what I was going
to do with my opportunity I did not know. Several times the conviction
forced itself upon me that I should get up at once and go to Europe by
the first steamer, and so show myself that I was a man of sense.
This conviction was banished on the second afternoon of my stay at the
mill. I was sitting under a tree in the orchard near the house,
thinking and smoking my pipe, when along the road which ran by the side
of the lake came Mr. Vincent on my black horse General and his daughter
on my mare Sappho. Instinctively I pulled my straw hat over my eyes,
but this precaution was not necessary. They were looking at the
beautiful lake, with its hills and overhanging trees, and saw me not!
When the very tip of Sappho's tail had melted into the foliage of the
road, I arose to my feet and took a deep breath of the happy air. I
had seen her, and it was with her father she was riding.
I do not believe I slept a minute that night through thinking of her,
and feeling glad that I was near her, and that she had been riding with
her father.
When the early dawn began to break an idea brighter than the dawn broke
upon me: I would get up and go nearer to her. It is amazing how much
we lose by not getting up early on the long summer days. How beautiful
the morning might be on this earth I never knew until I found myself
wandering by the edge of my woods and over my lawn with the tender
gray-blue sky above me and all the freshness of the grass and flowers
and trees about me, the birds singing among the branches, and she
sleeping sweetly somewhere within that house with its softly defined
lights and shadows. How I wished I knew what room she occupied!
The beauties and joys of that hour were lost to every person on the
place, who were all, no doubt, in their soundest sleep. I did not even
see a dog. Quietly and stealthily stepping from bush to hedge, I went
around the house, and as I drew near the barn I fancied I could hear
from a little room adjoining it the snores of the coachman. The lazy
rascal would probably not awaken for two or three hours yet, but I
would ran no risks, and in half an hour I had sped away.
Now I knew exactly why I was staying at the house of the miller. I was
doing so in order that I might go early in the mornings to my own home,
in which the girl I loved lay dreaming, and that for the rest of the
day and much of the night I might think of her.
"What place in Europe," I said to myself, "could be so beautiful, so
charming, and so helpful to reflection as this sequestered lake, these
noble trees, these stretches of undulating meadow?"
Even if I should care to go abroad, a month or two later would answer
all my purposes. Why had I ever thought of spending five months away?
There was a pretty stream which ran from the lake and wended its way
through a green and shaded valley, and here, with a rod, I wandered and
fished and thought. The miller had boats, and in one of these I rowed
far up the lake where it narrowed into a creek, and between the high
hills which shut me out from the world I would float and think.
Every morning, soon after break of day, I went to my home and wandered
about my grounds. If it rained I did not mind that. I like a summer
rain.
Day by day I grew bolder. Nobody in that household thought of getting
up until seven o'clock. For two hours, at least, I could ramble
undisturbed through my grounds, and much as I had once enjoyed these
grounds, they never afforded me the pleasure they gave me now. In
these happy mornings I felt all the life and spirits of a boy. I went
into my little field and stroked the sleek sides of my cows as they
nibbled the dewy grass. I even peeped through the barred window of
Sappho's box and fed her, as I had been used to doing, with bunches of
clover. I saw that the young chickens were flourishing. I went into
the garden and noted the growth of the vegetables, feeling glad that
she would have so many fine strawberries and tender peas.
I had not the slightest doubt that she was fond of flowers, and for her
sake now, as I used to do for my own sake, I visited the flower beds
and borders. Not far from the house there was a cluster of
old-fashioned pinks which I was sure were not doing very well. They
had been there too long, perhaps, and they looked stunted and weak. In
the miller's garden I had noticed great beds of these pinks, and I
asked his wife if I might have some, and she, considering them as mere
wild flowers, said I might have as many as I liked. She might have
thought I wanted simply the blossoms, but the next morning I went over
to my house with a basket filled with great matted masses of the plants
taken up with the roots and plenty of earth around them, and after
twenty minutes' work in my own bed of pinks, I had taken out all the
old plants and filled their places with fresh, luxuriant masses of buds
and leaves and blossoms. How glad she would be when she saw the fresh
life that had come to that flower-bed! With light footsteps I went
away, not feeling the weight of the basket filled with the old plants
and roots.
The summer grew and strengthened, and the sun rose earlier, but as that
had no effect upon the rising of the present inhabitants of my place,
it gave me more time for my morning pursuits. Gradually I constituted
myself the regular flower-gardener of the premises. How delightful the
work was, and how foolish I thought I had been never to think of doing
this thing for myself! but no doubt it was because I was doing it for
her that I found it so pleasant.
Once again I had seen Miss Vincent. It was in the afternoon, and I had
rowed myself to the upper part of the lake, where, with the high hills
and the trees on each side of me, I felt as if I were alone in the
world. Floating, idly along, with my thoughts about three miles away,
I heard the sound of oars, and looking out on the open part of the
lake, I saw a boat approaching. The miller was rowing, and in the
stern sat an elderly gentleman and a young lady. I knew them in an
instant: they were Mr. and Miss Vincent.
With a few vigorous strokes I shot myself into the shadows, and rowed
up the stream into the narrow stretches among the lily-pads, under a
bridge, and around a little wooded point, where I ran the boat ashore
and sprang upon the grassy bank. Although I did not believe the miller
would bring them as far as this, I went up to a higher spot and watched
for half an hour; but I did not see them again. How relieved I was!
It would have been terribly embarrassing had they discovered me. And
how disappointed I was that the miller turned back so soon!
I now extended the supervision of my grounds. I walked through the
woods, and saw how beautiful they were in the early dawn. I threw
aside the fallen twigs and cut away encroaching saplings, which were
beginning to encumber the paths I had made, and if I found a bough
which hung too low I cut it off. There was a great beech-tree, between
which and a dogwood I had the year before suspended a hammock. In
passing this, one morning, I was amazed to see a hammock swinging from
the hooks I had put in the two trees. This was a retreat which I had
supposed no one else would fancy or even think of! In the hammock was
a fan--a common Japanese fan. For fifteen minutes I stood looking at
that hammock, every nerve a-tingle. Then I glanced around. The spot
had been almost unfrequented since last summer. Little bushes, weeds,
and vines had sprung up here and there between the two trees. There
were dead twigs and limbs lying about, and the short path to the main
walk was much overgrown.
I looked at my watch. It was a quarter to six. I had yet a good hour
for work, and with nothing but my pocket-knife and my hands I began to
clear away the space about that hammock. When I left it, it looked as
it used to look when it was my pleasure to lie there and swing and read
and reflect.
To approach this spot it was not necessary to go through my grounds,
for my bit of woods adjoined a considerable stretch of forest-land, and
in my morning walks from the mill I often used a path through these
woods. The next morning when I took this path I was late because I had
unfortunately overslept myself. When I reached the hammock it wanted
fifteen minutes to seven o'clock. It was too late for me to do
anything, but I was glad to be able to stay there even for a few
minutes, to breathe that air, to stand on that ground, to touch that
hammock. I did more than that. Why shouldn't I? I got into it. It
was a better one than that I had hung there. It was delightfully
comfortable. At this moment, gently swinging in that woodland
solitude, with the sweet odors of the morning all about me, I felt
myself nearer to her than I had ever been before.
But I knew I must not revel in this place too long. I was on the point
of rising to leave when I heard approaching footsteps. My breath
stopped. Was I at last to be discovered? This was what came of my
reckless security. But perhaps the person, some workman most likely,
would pass without noticing me. To remain quiet seemed the best
course, and I lay motionless.
But the person approaching turned into the little pathway. The
footsteps came nearer. I sprang from the hammock. Before me was Miss
Vincent!
What was my aspect I know not, but I have no doubt I turned fiery red.
She stopped suddenly, but she did not turn red.
"Oh, Mr. Ripley," she exclaimed, "good morning! You must excuse me. I
did not know--"
That she should have had sufficient self-possession to say good morning
amazed me. Her whole appearance, in fact, amazed me. There seemed to
be something wanting in her manner. I endeavored to get myself into
condition.
"You must be surprised," I said, "to see me here. You supposed I was
in Europe, but--"
As I spoke I made a couple of steps toward her, but suddenly stopped.
One of my coat buttons had caught in the meshes of the hammock. It was
confoundedly awkward. I tried to loosen the button, but it was badly
entangled. Then I desperately pulled at it to tear it off.
"Oh, don't do that," she said. "Let me unfasten it for you." And
taking the threads of the hammock in one of her little hands and the
button in the other, she quickly separated them. "I should think
buttons would be very inconvenient things--at least, in hammocks," she
said smiling. "You see, girls don't have any such trouble."
I could not understand her manner. She seemed to take my being there
as a matter of course.
"I must beg a thousand pardons for this--this trespass," I said.
"Trespass!" said she, with a smile. "People don't trespass on their
own land--"
"But it is not my land," said I. "It is your father's for the time
being. I have no right here whatever. I do not know how to explain,
but you must think it very strange to find me here when you supposed I
had started for Europe."
"Oh! I knew you had not started for Europe," said she, "because I have
seen you working in the grounds--"
"Seen me!" I interrupted. "Is it possible?"
"Oh, yes," said she. "I don't know how long you had been coming when I
first saw you, but when I found that fresh bed of pinks all
transplanted from somewhere, and just as lovely as they could be,
instead of the old ones, I spoke to the man; but he did not know
anything about it, and said he had not had time to do anything to the
flowers, whereas I had been giving him credit for ever so much weeding
and cleaning up. Then I supposed that Mr. Barker, who is just as kind
and attentive as he can be, had done it; but I could hardly believe he
was the sort of man to come early in the morning and work out of
doors,"--("Oh, how I wish he had come!" I thought. "If I had caught
him here working among the flowers!"),--"and when he came that
afternoon to play tennis I found that he had been away for two days,
and could not have planted the pinks. So I simply got up early one
morning and looked out, and there I saw you, with your coat off,
working just as hard as ever you could."