As the two friends approached the buggy, Dixie, who had seen them,
suddenly turned her head in an opposite direction and seemed to be
laughing immoderately at the beginning of a barrel-race. To attract her
attention Henley cleared his throat and coughed. But whether she heard
he never knew. At all events she was heartily amused, as was evidenced
by her free laughter and the sparkle of her merry eyes. As it was,
Henley reached the buggy and clutched the front wheel and shook it,
while, with his left hand, he held Long's arm in a nervous grasp.
"Oh, it's you!" she said, sweeping him with a careless glance and
allowing her eyes to be drawn back at once to the racers. "Ain't it fun?
You ought to have seen that boy try to climb the greasy pole just now.
He put sand all over his pants to make 'em rough, but he could only go
so high, and there he stopped, unable to budge a hair's-breadth. He hung
to it for a minute, as red as blood in the face, and then begun to slide
down as slow as the hour-hand of a clock till he sat flat on the
ground."
"I fetched Mr. Long down; you know--you may remember he wanted to meet
you," Henley stammered, under a restraint that was new to him. And, as
the couple stared at each other, he finished with a gulp--"Mr. Jasper
Long, Miss Dixie Hart--Miss Dixie Hart, Mr. Jasper Long."
Dixie was polite and absolutely unruffled, while Long was one straight
flush from head to foot. "Come--come over to see our brag show?" he
stuttered, with an untoward jerk of the body, for he had tried to put
his foot on the hub of the wheel and missed it. It was a bow so
pronounced that Long's hat was dislodged and hurled to the ground. In
his shocked sympathy for his friend, Henley was bewildered by noting
that Dixie was actually subduing a laugh, her rebellious lips covered
with her white-gloved hand. Long secured his hat, drew himself up, and
repeated his platitude.
"I thought I would," she said, now gravely studying his face, his hair,
his clothing, and his broad, restless hands, on the backs of which
rather long hairs lay beaded with perspiration. "Alfred was coming
along, and as I have never been to a tournament before, and as he was so
set on bringing me, I decided to make the trip. I've heard him speak of
you. You are in the bank, ain't you?"
"Why, no, Miss Dixie--" Henley began, but there was a certain warning
quality darting from her eyes, now fixed on him, that broke into his
puzzled correction, and then he caught the drift of her harmless
pretence and obliterated himself with a low grunt of perplexity.
"Why, no, I'm _J. W._ Long, of the 'Live and Let Live Grocery,'" the
merchant said. "The other feller is _L. A._ I've had circulars scattered
broadcast all over your county. Looks like you'd have seen some of 'em.
I believe in lettin' folks know you are alive and in the push. I'm
surprised that Alf didn't tell you about me and my business, even if you
hain't heard it from others over your way or through the papers."
"There are some Longs that rented land from me a few years ago," Dixie
said, evasively. "I wonder if they are akin to you. Seems to me, now I
think of it, that you favor 'em some."
"They may be away-off fourth or fifth cousins, I don't really know."
Long looked as if he thought the conversation had taken quite an
unprofitable turn. "I never was much of a hand to keep track of far-off
kin. Folks is liable to want credit on a score like that, and think they
never have to settle."
Then the colloquy languished. Henley was plainly not a success as a
manager of delicate situations. What puzzled him beyond any mystery he
had ever stumbled on in the intricate make-up of his charming neighbor
was her evident cool and detached enjoyment of his and Long's
awkwardness. At any rate, he reflected with satisfaction, he could
extricate himself from the tangle, and in that, at least, he felt that
he had the advantage of Long.
"I see an old fellow over there at that covered wagon that was bantering
me for a hoss-trade the other day," he courageously threw into the gap.
"I believe I'll go see how he talks now. There will be a sight of
hoss-flesh change hands to-day. I understand there's a gypsy camp in the
edge o' town, and they are the dickens on a swap."
"Hold on a minute!" Long called out, as Henley was moving off, his hat
lifted. "I want to see you."
Henley pulled up a few yards away, behind Dixie's back, and Long joined
him.
"Are you going to leave me the bag to hold?" Long asked, in a tone of
blended gratification and nervousness.
"I don't see that I'm doing you one bit of good," Henley answered,
gravely. "This is your day of grace. If you can't fix things up after
what I've done we'll have to call it off. I've done my part. I fetched
her here, but I can't make women out, and I don't intend to try. Life is
too short. When I get bothered about what a woman's going to do or not
do I want to get blind, staving drunk; it always has that effect on me,
and you know I'm inclined to sobriety."
"The trouble is, I don't know whether I'm welcome or not," Long
declared, grimly. "I have never felt exactly that way before. Do you
reckon she'd look with favor on the invite to dinner at the hotel?"
"You bet she will!" Henley was more sure of his ground now. "Cooking and
fixing up the table is a woman's joy, and they'll go just to see what
hotel fare is like, and, as a rule, they will sample every article
that's passed."
"Well, I'll risk it on your judgment, Alf. You've stood by me so far
like a man and a brother, and I don't believe you'd set a trap for me to
tumble in."
"Not me," answered Henley. "But I was wondering what you think of her
looks; men differ in tastes, and--"
"Shucks!" Long sniffed. "You needn't ask me that. That'ud be a fool
question for a blind man to ask. Why, Alf, she is the stunningest trick
that ever wore shoe-leather. She's so dadblamed purty I can't look her
straight in the face. There is some'n in her eyes and the way she sets
and bends her neck an' cocks 'er head that makes me feel like one of the
chaps in olden times that knelt on a strip of carpet at a queen's
throne. But it ain't just her looks and trim shape and nobby little
feet--it's the woman herself, by gosh! She looks clean through a feller;
what she says goes from her as straight as a gun-shot. Well, I'll hurry
back and do the best I can. I'm having a big time, Alf--a big, roaring
time."
All the rest of the morning, as he strolled here and there through the
merry assemblage, Henley managed to keep the pair in sight. Long kept
the same position, his right foot on the hub of the wheel, his face
upturned to Dixie's. It was the passing of the local military company
and the surging of the spectators forward that gave Long a valuable
opportunity, for he got into the buggy and sat beside the girl. Henley
could see him lashing the air over the dashboard with his whip in a
most reckless manner.
"The blame fool!" Henley ejaculated. "He's wearing out that whip. I
wonder if he thinks I buy the best whalebone for him to court with.
She'd like 'im better if he'd set still, anyway, and not be cavorting
about like a jumping-jack."
Noon came, and Henley saw the pair alight from the buggy and walk across
to the hotel. Thereupon he betook himself to the house of his friends,
and had his own dinner. When it was time to start home he went down to
the wagon-yard. He found them seated in the buggy, and, to his surprise,
he saw nothing in the manner of either to indicate that any sort of
understanding had been reached.
"I reckon it's time we was on the way," Henley announced to her, as he
shaded his eyes and glanced at the declining sun.
"Yes, it's high time," Dixie answered, crisply. "I was wondering where
on earth you was. I'll have to pay for this jaunt, and the sooner I set
in to my work at home the better it will be for me."
Long made elaborate excuses to Dixie for absenting himself, and followed
Henley to where his horse was hitched.
"Well," said Henley, as he was putting the collar on the animal, "how
did you make out?"
"I hardly know, Alf." Long looked very grave. "There is no use saying
she is exactly the thing I am looking for, but, as much as I've seen of
her to-day, I don't know any more'n a rabbit what my showing is. She
ain't a bit like these town-women; you _can_ sorter get at them, for
they are on the carpet, and they don't make no beans about it. But this
un has a way of making you watch every step you take and every word you
speak. I've been in the habit of having women folks listen to all I
say, and laugh hearty now and then, but this un has her eyes on
everything that is passing, and seems to me to laugh at the wrong time,
when there ain't the slightest call for amusement. I reckon maybe I'd
have made more progress if we'd been where thar wasn't so much to
attract her attention. I don't know--I'm just guessing. But I'm game to
the backbone, Alf, and I'm in the race. You hear me? I'm in to stay."
"That's the way to talk," Henley agreed. "A woman that ain't hard to win
ain't worth having. These town-gals are after your money; it is my
opinion that this one will have to like you a powerful lot before she
gives up her freedom."
"She's as independent as a hog on ice." Long smiled, but not at his
simile. "I hardly knowed what to do when we got to the hotel. I thought
she was accepting my invite, you see, when, lo and behold, at settling
time she drawed out her money and insisted on planking down her part to
a fraction of a cent. I argued as strong as I knowed how agin it, but
nothing would do her but to pay her way. I feel mean about that, Alf.
What would _you_ have done?"
"Why, it's the part of a gentleman to let a lady have her way in _every
single thing_," Henley opined. "If she asks you to get her a drink of
water, she wants it; and if she asks to pay her bill at a hotel, she
wants that; to accuse her of anything else would be prying into her
private matters. If she didn't want to eat at your expense the first day
she was throwed with you--well, that was her business. I think it is
spunky, myself. I reckon you didn't come right out and talk marrying?"
Henley ended with a rather anxious look at his friend.
"No, Alf, I was afraid to--I don't know why, but, as much as I wanted to
ease my mind on the matter, I just couldn't get it out. It seemed to
lodge in my throat; in fact, I was scared half the time. Every time I'd
say a thing, no matter how little, I'd wonder if it injured my case or
not. Alf, I'm a goner--a clean goner. I'll never have a minute's peace
till she's mine. It's going to be slow work. I asked her if I couldn't
drive out to see her next Sunday, but she wouldn't hear to it. She
finally said I could come on the first Sunday of next month to hear a
brag preacher that is billed to appear for the first time on that date.
It's a dern long time to wait, but she's laid down the law, and I'll
have to obey it."
During the drive home Dixie seemed wilfully uncommunicative, and she and
Henley were silent most of the way. As they were on the brow of the hill
overlooking Chester, however, she drew a deep breath and said: "Well,
Alfred, I certainly had a bang-up time. Carrie Wade may make her brags
of how she runs things, but I certainly had a rip-roaring time."
"But," ventured Henley, his eyes on the jostling back of his horse,
"from what Long intimated--at least from what he hinted--it appears that
you and him didn't come to any, that is to say, any _positive_
agreement."
The girl laughed heartily, covering her face with both hands, and bent
downward.
"You men are so silly, Alfred. You want an important thing like that to
be over in a minute, while a woman--a woman naturally would like for it
to last. If that fellow could insure me, in some shape or other, that
he'd keep acting and talking like he did to-day, _after we was married_,
I'd be more interested than I am. But hot-headed ones like him cool down
about as quick as they get het up. As a general thing the marriage altar
seems to rest on a big cake of ice, and overheated couples catch colds
that make 'em sniff the rest of their lives."
"I've been waiting to hear you say how he--what you thought of Long's
looks," stammered the match-maker; "that always seems the main thing
in--in a deal o' this sort."
"Well," she chuckled, "I'm better at making rag-dolls than men, but if
men-making was my trade I think I could have turned out a better job
than Long. Folks say that to be wide betwixt the eyes shows sense. That
may be so up to certain limits, but I'm afraid his are entirely too far
apart. Why, when you set close to him you can't see both of 'em at the
same time; you have to look first at one and then at the other. I tried
to get around the trouble by looking at his nose, but that seemed to be
crooked and awful flat. I didn't like them long hairs on his hands; his
forefathers must have lived in a cold climate."
"The hairs don't mean nothing." Henley was amused, in spite of his
loyalty to his friend. "A heap of men are that way."
"You ain't." Dixie glanced at the rather slender hands of her companion,
and then lifted her eyes to his face slowly and studiously. "You haven't
got a big chunk of a head, either, and flopping, fuzzy ears, and, above
all, Alfred, you ain't dead stuck on yourself. If I marry that man it
will be after I've taken him down several pegs. His vanity fairly leaks
out of him and stands in a puddle at his feet. Well, that don't matter.
When he comes to take me to meeting it will be the talk of the entire
community. Carrie Wade will laugh on the other side of her face. I would
have let him come earlier, but I want to take plenty of time to make me
a dandy dress and get me a new hat. I'm going to cut a wide swath.
That's to be my one big day of triumph and getting even."