RELIEF OR REGRET?
"TELL me what you have found out, Jim. I think I know why you have come
all this way to London," Jacqueline Ralston said.
The man and girl were seated on a bench in Kew Gardens, the wonderful
park a few miles out from London, two afternoons after the arrival of
the Rainbow Ranch party. Ruth and the three other girls had gone to view
Westminster Abbey. But Jack, pleading a need of fresh air, arranged for
a few quiet hours with Jim.
The man rose and thrusting his hands deep into his pockets, started
striding up and down. His blue eyes were curiously gentle, but his mouth
was stern. Indeed, he represented a strange combination of anger and
nervousness. Finally, before speaking, he placed himself on the seat
next Jack again, but this time so that he could look directly into her
face.
Jack's eyes were down, her manner quiet and reserved. The man had no
way of guessing how his news would affect her.
"See here, boss," he began after a moment, "you and I've been pretty
much on the level with each other _all the time_, haven't we? We ain't
tried to keep things back 'cause they hurt." He took the girl's gloved
hand, patting it softly. "Sometimes, maybe, I've seemed harder with you,
Jack, than with the others. But I always thought you'd understand. You
kind of like to face the music, to know the worst and have things
settled quick. Well--"
Possibly Jacqueline's face turned a shade paler; certainly her lips did.
Nevertheless, they curved into a kind of a smile.
"Well, we aren't getting them settled very quickly today, are we, Jim?"
she returned. "You are right, though, I do like to know the truth. What
have you found out about Captain Madden."
"That he ain't no good," Jim replied, forgetting his grammar and all his
carefully planned methods of breaking the unpleasant news to the girl.
"Seems like the English know how to put it better than we do when they
say a fellow is a _cad_. I tell you, Jack, this is honest. I've found
out every thing I could from the time this man was a boy. He has never
done an honest day's work in his life. Why, I even learned that he had
written back to Wyoming to ask what the Rainbow Mine was worth. 'Course,
I don't claim he don't care for you, child--most any man might be able
to manage that. But to think of John Ralston's daughter and my old boss
of the Rainbow Ranch marrying a man old enough to be her father, and
such a man!" Jim had been trying his best to hold in, but now he swore
softly under his breath. "Say, Jack, old girl, say you believe I'm
telling you the truth. I hate to hurt you, the Lord only knows how much,
but if you don't tell me you'll break it all off, I think I'll go plumb
crazy." And Jim mopped the moisture from his brow, though it was a
peculiarly cool day.
Jack was so painfully silent. Could a girl not quite twenty suffer much
over an interrupted love affair? Jim did not know. He remembered his own
grief when Ruth refused him. It had been awful! He carried the ache
inside of him to this day. Glancing at the girl near him, he saw that
the tears, which came so rarely, were now in her clear gray eyes.
"I believe you, Jim," she returned finally. "I believe you'd play fair
with me and with Captain Madden even if you loathed the idea of my
caring for him. Don't worry, old man. I promise this is the end. But,
please, would you mind if I cried a while? No one is paying any
attention to us and I think I'd like to very much."
Without waiting for permission, Jack's shoulders shook, and she covered
her face with her hands. But a few seconds later Jim sighed so miserably
that Jack slipped one of her hands inside his and held it close.
"I am not crying because my heart is broken, Jim dear," she explained;
"I think I am crying because I am ashamed of myself. Sometimes I wonder
how many lessons it will take before I learn not to be so self-willed. I
have made things so hard for Ruth and for the other girls. Yet I
believed what Captain Madden told me; I thought people were prejudiced
against him just because he was poor. And I hate that. So when Ruth and
Frank said such horrid things I told him I would marry him if you would
give your consent. And, oh Jim, I have been so afraid lately--"
Jack began crying softly again.
"Been so afraid, poor little girl! If you only knew how I dreaded
telling you this, I haven't had a good night's sleep in two weeks, and
waiting for you to arrive in London nearly broke my nerve." Jim Colter
probably had not shed any tears in almost twenty years, yet he looked
perilously on the verge of them now.
Jack pulled at his coat sleeve uncertainly. "But Jim, dear, you don't
know what I have been afraid of! I have been afraid you would discover
that Captain Madden was all right and that I would then _have_ to marry
him. I had given him my word. It would not have been honest to go back
on it. You see, when we were in Rome I did believe I cared for him. He
was awfully kind and interesting and different from any one I had ever
known. Then I suppose I was flattered in thinking a so much older, wiser
man could care for a stupid girl like me. And Ruth and Frank were
dreadfully dictatorial. But since we left Rome, I've been thinking--I
feel I have not been doing anything else _but_ think. And I realized
that I did not really love Captain Madden. I felt as if I should die if
he took me away from my family. Still I didn't know just what to do. I
was so frightened, Jim, until I saw you there at Charing Cross."
Jim Colter took off his big western hat. The English sky of a June day
can be a very lovely thing--soft fleecy clouds, floating over a surface
of translucent blue. Jim looked up into it. "I thank Thee, Lord," he
whispered reverently, and then, stooping over, kissed Jack.
The next moment he was up on his feet. And though he failed to electrify
Kew Gardens by giving his celebrated cowboy yell, he waved his sombrero
and the yell apparently took place inside him.
"Come on, Jack, let's do something quick to celebrate or I'm liable to
bust with gladness!" he exclaimed. "This is a right pretty park we're
in. I hear it's one of _the_ most famous on the map, with every known
tree growing inside it. Wouldn't you like me to buy it for you, or maybe
you can think of some other little remembrance?"
Jack hung on to his arm and the man and girl started off on their
sight-seeing expedition together, both feeling as though they were
treading on air instead of the velvet softness of the English turf.
"I should like to go back and tell Ruth at once and apologize for being
a nuisance," Jack confided, "but I don't want any one to guess I have
been crying, and then Ruth will probably be mooning over tombstones in
the Abbey until dinner time. I tell you what, Jim, we will have a
wonderful dinner party tonight to celebrate and you can wear the new
evening clothes you bought yesterday. Then, afterwards, you must take
all of us to the theater. Now I have got you to myself, we might as well
see Kew and have some tea. I am dreadfully hungry. You can bring Ruth
some time by herself and I will promise to keep the girls away."
Jim did not answer. But, under the circumstances, it is perfectly
certain that he could have refused Jack nothing in the world.
For the next two hours he could hardly keep his eyes off her. And he
seemed especially happy when she devoured three English scones and drank
two cups of strong tea.
"Ain't intendin' to pine away, are you, Jack?" he asked. And then, when
the girl blushed, he laughed and held out his hand.
"Shake on it once more, boss," he demanded, "and you can count on this,
sure thing. You ain't going to make but one man happier than you've made
me this day. And that is when you say 'yes' to the right fellow."