THE HEART OF A ROSE
And the evening and the morning were the second day. At a time when,
through the diffused and fading light of the sun-vacant sky, the
silver-pale stars blinked one by one in their awakening; when the
protesting twitter of disturbed birds seeking their rest sounded sweetly
clear above the steady rumble of the marshland frogs; when the
velvet-footed killers stretched and yawned and gazed with dilated pupils
at the near approach of night; when the men who persuaded luck to their
advantage, in various ways, began to gather about the tables in cow-town
and mining-camp, and there was a lighting of lamps by the foresighted
and a trimming of wicks by the procrastinators--the French Rose faced
her father, Jean, and did battle for love and happiness, though she knew
it not.
The easy-going Jean had known nothing of the manner in which their guest
was wounded, nor by whom; and Rose had not thought it wise to tell him,
even if it occurred to her in the stress of that first day. But Jean
had heard many rumors in Twin River, many disquieting facts and equally
disturbing inferences. He had hurried home beset with fears for the
outcome, alarmed at the reckless step Rose had taken and vainly asking
himself why. Immediately upon his entry he had set Pickles at a task
which would occupy him away from the cabin. Standing moodily at the
window he watched him go. Then he turned to his daughter for an
explanation.
"Is Dave here yesterday?" he asked.
"Yes," replied Rose, non-committally.
Jean turned over in his mind this new fact and fitted it into the
pattern. "For why you go so fast to Twin?" he questioned.
"No one is here but me. Fritz, he go to the Two Y's ranch."
"You tell him?"
"No. He hear Dave talk an' go to tell M'sieu Peters Dave have stole all
his money."
"_Diable_! Steal?"
"Yes."
Jean knitted his brows in the effort to understand the reason for this;
quite naturally he came back in a circle to his first inquiry and
repeated it: "For why you go to Twin?"
"I go for men to catch Dave when he steal the money." This, while not
strictly true, was the nearest to truth that Jean could understand.
The trend of his thoughts was shown by his next question. "Dave--he
know?" he asked, and his anxiety was apparent.
"Yes," was the brief answer.
"_Mon Dieu!_" exclaimed Jean. He turned from her and stared with
unseeing eyes over the land he had struggled hard to make his own. And
now he must lose it. Rapidly calculating how long his slender resources
would support him until Rose could dispose of his stock and follow,
despair came upon him as he realized that the vengeance of Dave was not
to be escaped. "For why," he asked, hoarsely, "for why you do this?"
"For why?" repeated Rose and the thrill in her voice caused him to turn
and look at her in surprise. "Figure to yourself, then: That devil he
come here and he sneer at you, and he insult me--yes. Many times he
insult me that I have to hold myself, so! that I do not kill him. I
endure. He send me---_Dieu!_ that I should say it--he make dirt of me
to walk on, to arrive at a man who is high, good, ah, a man! _mon pere_,
a man like you, one time when you have no fear. He send me. I say
nothing. Many times he try, like a dog, to spring at his throat, but
always, it is nothing but snap at his heels. Like a dog which he is.
Then he come to me and say he is triumph. He get much money. And he
tell me go with him. Me! me! he command like he is master and me slave.
He steal money from M'sieu Peters and him and me, we go away together,
like that, like man and his squaw. And I say nothing. Ah, _mon pere_!
it is too much--too much. If it be some other man--not M'sieu
Peters--then I go. I save you, _mon pere_, though it kill me. But--it
is too much."
She bowed her head, filled with self-reproach, with a knowledge that her
father could never see this thing as she did. Jean stared at her,
motionless; but his dumb amaze slowly lifted. He came to her and rested
his hand lightly on her bowed head. "_Ma Rose--ma belle Rose_--when you
have for a good man so big love as that, I would die, with gladness, to
know so big happiness is come to you." And he went swiftly from the
cabin.
At the closing of the door she sprang to it and threw it wide again.
"You will not go--now--to-night?" she called.
The answer, low, determined, in the tones of the father of that other
time, reassured her: "No. We stay. Maybe--who knows?--God is good."
She went back and with steady hand lit the lamp and placed it on the
table. The noble face was aglow with hopeful pride: he would face it at
last, this thing that had embittered both their lives.
"Rose!"
She started and turned in dismay toward the inner room. He was
awake--how long?--and calling her.
"Rose!" the call came again, gentle but insistent. "Rose, I--I want
you."
She stood a moment longer, both hands pressed against her heart, her
breath coming in great gasps and in her eyes the frightened look of a
child. Then she caught up the lamp and with swift step went in and
stood beside the bunk. "Is it then you rest ill, my friend?" she asked
softly, and then bent to re-arrange the pillow. Buck's hand closed over
hers.
"Rose," he whispered, "Rose--I heard."
She slipped to her knees, hiding her face in the pillow, her figure
shaking with great tremors and sobs breaking from her so that she could
scarcely speak. "Oh, I am ashamed," she said brokenly, "I am ashamed."
"Ashamed! And I----" he stopped, drawing in a deep breath at the wonder
of it; then raising himself to rest on bent arm, he laid his cheek
against her hair. "I 'm th' one as ought to be ashamed, Rose: a man o'
my age, an' feelin' th' way I do--an' you a girl. But I 've got to have
you, Rose. I just got to have you. An' if you don't say 'yes' I swear
to God I 'll give up an' pull out o' this country. I don't want to stop
another day if you say 'no.'"
She drew away from him and raised her head to look at him doubtfully,
appealingly, believingly. A wonderful smile broke through her tears and
stilled the trembling of her lips. "You mean it, Buck. Oh! You do!
You do!" Her arms were about him and she lowered him gently back again.
"Rest you, and get well quickly, wounded man," she murmured. "My
man--my man until I die--and after."
FINIS