It was after nightfall when Henley put Dixie down at the cottage and
drove around to his barn. In the stable doorway lurked a shadow of
uncertain shape and quite motionless. It turned out to be the form of
Jason Wrinkle. The pipe in his mouth glowed like a speeding firefly as
he stepped down to the buggy.
"Hello! Well," he muttered, with a low, significant laugh, "you've come
back--reports notwithstanding to the contrary, female, legal, or
otherwise."
"Yes, I'm back," Henley said, rather curtly. "Anything strange about
it?"
"Well, I was just wonderin'. Huh, in this day and time of new-fangled
ways and doin's a body never knows what will happen. You'll certainly
never know if you listen to talk." Wrinkle peered into the face of his
stepson-in-law quite studiously for a moment, and with no little
irritation Henley unfastened the hamestring with a downward jerk and
began to remove the harness.
"What's the matter with you, anyway?" he asked. "Are you up to another
one of your infernal jokes?"
"No, I hain't," Wrinkle puffed. "That one about the baby was my last
one--on you, anyway. You took it like some old, peevish man, and sulked
and looked crooked for a week. I've tried to study out just how that
happened to go agin the grain so mighty awful, but I'm up agin a snag.
No, Alf, you make the bread-and-butter for this shebang, and you work
better when you hain't plagued. This time I come as a friend, and maybe
adviser--I don't know, it is all owin' to how you'll feel about it. For
all I know to the contrary, you may be as innocent as snow that hain't
been walked on, and, if you _are_, you ought to know what is going on
behind your back."
"Behind my back?" Henley jerked the words from him as he tossed the
harness into the buggy and allowed his horse to find his stall unguided.
"Well, what's going on behind my back?"
Wrinkle sucked audibly at the stem of his pipe before he delivered
himself into the eager expectancy that was massed between him and his
companion. "Alf," he began, finally, "you've dealt with humanity, in one
shape and another, enough to know that this is a sort of hide-bound
community, and, well, you driv' off this mornin' with a good-lookin'
young woman, didn't you?"
"Of course I did!" Henley retorted. "What of that?"
"You went toward Carlton, didn't you?"
"I went _to_ Carlton," Henley answered, restraining an outburst with
difficulty. "I took Miss Dixie over on--on business. It was transacted,
and--"
"You didn't tell Hettie whar you was bound for?"
"I didn't, because I didn't think it made any difference. She's never
interested in what I do or where I go, and there was no reason for
telling her."
"Maybe not--maybe not," Wrinkle answered, aimlessly, "but it wouldn't
'a' done yore case any harm if you had sorter tetched on it before
startin' out. You see, Carrie Wade sa'ntered over about eleven o'clock.
She hain't been a constant visitor at our house, and as she had a kind
o' fidgety walk on her, an' a curious dazzle in her eyes, I knowed she
hadn't come to see the pattern of the new quilt as she claimed, and so,
bein' a friend of yourn, I set down at the window and listened,
wonderin' when she'd quit her eternal preamble an' git down to business.
Purty soon I knowed land was in sight, for she said, like she was in a
sort of a dream, for she wasn't lookin' at anybody in particular--she
said: 'I seed Dixie Hart an' Alfred drivin' off this mornin'. They was
headed fer Saunder's Spring, at the foot o' the mountain. She had on her
best duds (which ain't sayin' much)'--them was Carrie's words, not
mine--'an' a whoppin' big picnic basket full o' good things. That girl
will do to watch, Mrs. Henley. As they passed our house the reins was
lyin' loose in the buggy, an' Dixie was leanin' agin Alfred like a sick
kitten to a hot brick.' It was the fust Hettie had heard of the
scrape--the trip, I mean--and I thought she'd flare up, or wilt, or
some'n or other, but she was on the job as quick as a flash. On my soul,
I don't believe old Het so much as batted her eye, though the revelation
must have been as sudden as a mule-kick in the ribs. She give the quilt
she was showin' a pull agin the frame like she wanted to straighten out
the stitches, an' said, 'Yes, Alf give 'er a lift over to Carlton. I'm
awfully glad he had company.' And on that she axed Carrie how her Ma's
sore foot was, an' recommended Dr. Stone's hoss liniment, an' cited a
good many cases where cures to both man an' beast had been made at a
small outlay.
"But Carrie Wade wasn't thar to l'arn how to doctor sore feet. She
leaned back in her chair and laffed; you could 'a' heard her this far if
you'd 'a' been here an' the pig was asleep. She riz and went and slapped
Hettie on the back and said:
'You watch my words, Mrs. Henley, thar's goin' to be talk, an' lots of
it. Dixie Hart has got tired o' bein' out o' the ring of young folks,
an' is bent on gittin' attention by fair means or foul. Alf's
good-lookin', plenty young, an' she's deliberately cuttin' her eyes at
'im. I've heard she goes to the store when she don't need a thing, an'
that they sa'nter home together through the woods.'"
"The trifling hussy!" Henley muttered, angrily. "I thought she was a
meddlesome busybody, and now I know it."
"Well, you know Hettie don't smile more 'n once a year," Wrinkle
tittered, "but this was her anniversary. She was actually one broad grin
from ear to ear."
"'I wish somebody _would_ stir Alf up a little bit,' she said. 'He's
entirely too poky. Carrie, that man is the slowest stick that ever
lived. I wish some pretty, dashin' gal like Dixie Hart _would_ flirt
with him good and hard. If you wasn't so old I'd git _you_ to do it. My
first husband was different; he was a great ladies' man. That is the
only thing that will make married life bearable. A dead certainty in
love-matters is killin.'"
"Good!" Henley chuckled. "Hettie saw through her, and headed her off in
fine style."
"Well, 'out of the heart the mouth speaketh,'" quoted Jason. "And the
truth is, Alf, I railly don't think Hettie would care a hill o' beans if
you _did_ sort o' prove that you was up to snuff. You ort to profit by
what's gone before in matrimony as you have in tradin' amongst men.
Dick, when all is said an' done, was her maiden choice, an' if thar ever
was a woman roustabout, a feller that had a bow and a scrape for every
pair o' bright eyes that come his way, that feller was Dick Wrinkle. He
kept Hettie in hot water, and I don't know but what the cold bath you've
giv' 'er has sort o' gone agin her constitution. She's a critter that
likes what she can't git better 'n what lies right at hand wigglin' to
attract attention. No, you needn't be afeard of any family row. The
truth is, I think Hettie is some better pleased than she has been for a
long time. I reckon she's beginnin' to feel a sort o' pride in you. It
ain't from her that you'll have trouble, but from Carrie Wade."
"Trouble, how?" Henley asked, impatiently, as he was turning toward the
lights in the farm-house.
"Why, from her clatterin' tongue. If she'll talk like that to us, you
know she will about town, and it takes a powerful small spark to set a
haystack of scandal afire. Folks think Hettie has driv' you pretty far,
anyway, with her odd, graveyard notions, and it wouldn't take much
to--to start a ugly report."
Henley furiously tore himself from the old gossip and went into the
house. As he paused at the water-shelf and filled a basin to wash the
dust of his drive from his face and hands, he saw his wife moving about
in the dimly lighted kitchen, and was struck by her easy and obviously
gratified bearing. He was drying his hands on a towel which hung from a
roller on the wall when Mrs. Wrinkle came out and suddenly faced him.
She caught her breath, stared in surprise for a moment, then turned into
the kitchen. Henley saw her clutch his wife's sleeve and give it a
warning pull. She meant to speak in an undertone, but her piping voice
slipped a cog and Henley heard her say:
"They didn't run off; he's back! He's out thar wash--"
"Sh!" came from Mrs. Henley's lips. "Be quiet; you don't know what you
are talking about."
"Why, Carrie Wade said him an' Dixie Hart had 'loped away, an'--"
"Didn't I tell you to hush?" Mrs. Henley commanded, in a guarded tone.
"You go set down and be quiet for once in your life. You've said enough
about this thing."
Henley saw the old woman stand staring blankly for a moment, and then
she came back to him in the half-darkness and stood mutely eying him
from beneath the black poke-bonnet. Leaving her, he went into the
dining-room, where a lamp was shedding yellow rays over the meal his
wife had ready for him. He sat down in his accustomed place, and Mrs.
Henley promptly brought his coffee.
"It must have been powerful hot on the Carlton road," she said. "We
mighty nigh melted here in the shade with every window and door wide
open."
"It wasn't so much hotter than common." He put sugar into his coffee,
and slowly stirred it. "I reckon moving at a brisk pace through the air
keeps you from feeling heat as much as you would if you was setting
still. We didn't start back till toward sundown."
"They had some sort of a celebration over there, didn't they?" Mrs.
Henley reached over and pushed the biscuits nearer to his plate.
"Yes, but it didn't amount to much."
"I reckon Dixie liked it. The poor girl hain't been away often."
"I think she did," Henley said. "Anyways, she acted that way all
through. She had a tiptop seat in my buggy, where she could catch first
sight of everything that happened, and she took it all in, every speck
of it, even a good dinner at the hotel."
"Oh, I see." Mrs. Henley's brow was furrowed in perplexity. She left the
room and returned in a moment with a bowl in her thin hands. "Here is
some fresh apple-butter; it's right from the spring. You can put rich
milk on it; there's plenty just from the cow."
The wrinkle remained on her brow while he helped himself liberally. She
stood and studied his profile from the lighted side. The best reader of
her facial expression in the family, had he been a witness, and he
doubtless was, as the windows were open, would have found much to rivet
his attention in the unwonted solidity of her features. Henley ate
silently for several minutes before she spoke again. Then she cleared
her voice, drew herself up more erectly, and said:
"You say Dixie set in the buggy all the time? Why, I had an idea from
something Pa dropped that she went over there to attend to some
er--business or other."
"Well, a body _might_ attend to business setting in a buggy," he said,
ambiguously and he put a spoonful of apple-butter into a broad smile and
swallowed both as he looked at her with twinkling eyes.
The furrows deepened on the austere brow of the woman, and she drew her
under lip inward and pressed it between her teeth.
"I don't know exactly what you mean," she said, presently. "I supposed
she had things to buy for her farm, or--"
Henley laughed. "I may as well tell you the secret, Hettie. You ain't
any hand to gad about and talk, and I know it will be safe with you. The
truth, is I'm a match-maker. You've heard me speak of Jasper Long? Well,
he's dying to get married, and I've been a sort o' go-between with him
and Dixie. He wanted to meet her, and I took her over, and--"
"Oh!" The furrows were gone, the colorless face lighted up from within.
"I understand now." She walked round the table and leaned over the
dishes toward him and laughed. "Alfred," she tittered, "you certainly
are the most goody-goody old poke of a stick that ever wore man's
clothes, and you are blind, blind as a day-old kitten. You know men, all
grades and styles of 'em, but you are a born fool when it comes to
women. When that girl marries Jasper Long--I say, when Dixie Hart takes
him, let me know, will you?" and she turned from the room, leaving him
more than convinced that he didn't understand women, and certain that he
never should try to do so again.