"Oh, I _can't_ tell you! Let me try to forget it! He did everything
that we have suspected, and more! I let him borrow money of me--I
permitted his familiarities and his vulgarity as long as I could endure
it--I listened to all his schemes. Why, Chester, d'you know, he is
trying to destroy me, and make _her_ take my place permanently? He
hasn't a scruple! He's after my money, and, worst of all, after _me_!
It's incredible. Oh, if you can't outwit him, I'm lost!"
"There's only one sure way, now, to foil him, Joy. You must marry me
this afternoon!"
"I thought of that, too," she said, "and I think I'm ready. This
forenoon has opened my eyes to the danger. If you say so, we'll go over
to the Harbor. Oh, Chester, can you really marry such a mutilated,
enslaved person as I am?"
"I am going to free you," I said, still holding her close.
"And Edna--" she broke away to look at me fearfully. "What will you do
with Edna?"
"To-morrow there will, I hope, no longer be such a person."
"Then shan't we wait till to-morrow?"
"You forget," I said, "that, at his first opportunity, it is possible
for _him_ to marry _her_! The risk is too great!"
"That settles it--come to the house and we'll get Leah!"
My hopes reached to the skies, then, and I was sure that I could conquer
anything and everything that stood between me and the fulfilment of her
rescue. With the surrender, she, too, gave herself up completely to the
occasion. We took hands and raced up the lane like two children. In
that moment I got a fresh glimpse of what sort of person Joy really was,
when she was free. Edna's galumphing was not more gay and abandoned,
Edna's laugh never rang out more merrily. When we burst into the house
I think that Leah, for a moment, thought we had both gone mad.
We did not even wait for Uncle Jerdon to return with the carriage. I
went out to see that my motor-car was in order, while Joy, laughing with
Leah so gaily that I could hear them even from the stable, prepared for
the trip.
Joy threw up her window, to call out: "Chester, I want that little chain
Edna gave you! I must have 'something old and something new, something
borrowed, something blue'!" I knew, then, that the last trace of
feeling at that incident had disappeared.
She came down all in white--hat, veil, gown, gloves, stockings, shoes,
parasol. Leah, too, was dressed for the occasion, modestly, as usual;
for, though she could well have carried off a modish toilet, she always
shrank from being in the least conspicuous, as if fearing to compromise
Joy by appearing to assume a social equality. She was in a frock of
ecru linen, just severe enough in its trim design to keep her place with
Joy's bewitching laces and flounces and chiffon. I myself made a
sorry-looking bridegroom, I fear, for I had found something to do under
the belly of my machine, and the employment did the only costume I had
little good.
So, bidding King good-by, we were off with enthusiasm. Even Leah had
caught the infection of our high spirits--for a moment the tension had
been let down all along the line. Leah had, indeed, much reason to be
happy. She had implicit confidence in my ability to frustrate the
doctor's plans, she saw herself now safe with Joy, she anticipated for
her mistress a new beatitude. Under the influence of this, I noticed
that she lapsed, for the first time in my experience, partly into a
negro dialect. It was the more remarkable and significant because I had
seen her under the stress of fear and horror, and neither had affected
her speech. It showed me how rare perfect happiness had been in her
life, that this glint of joy should break the bonds of her speech and
unloose the tongue of her girlhood. Both Joy and I laughed freely at
her, and she herself laughed with us.
We raced madly for the Harbor, sought the Methodist minister there, went
into his cool prim front parlor, were introduced to his wife--who had
that day enough to gossip about, I'll warrant--and the thing was done in
ten minutes. Then we piled happily into the car and pelted home.