As the train rocked down the mountain-side next day, past tobacco-fields
stripped bare, and orchards where no red fruit shone, and fields now
brown and sere, and as it sped over the low country, Lawson had one
thought. He would see, when the train pulled into Richmond, somewhere in
the throng about the station Frances' bright face and serene shining
eyes. She would be there with those of the city who came to welcome
them. The travellers laughed and jested, sang and cheered and yelled,
Lawson with them, his heart light as a boy's; but all of this outward
atmosphere was like a dream to him,--the reality was the vision he saw
of a girl's face. He was first out of the coach. His eager eyes searched
the crowd. In all the press was not one face he knew. He was half
resentful when he was hurried away, and glum and silent in the midst of
the joyful hubbub around him.
Then he pulled himself together; she was out on the grounds, of course.
When the game began, his inattention and wretched play fairly lost the
day, until the wrath of the captain called and kept him to the work in
hand. He stayed the night in Richmond, went to the play, loitered about
the shopping streets next day, and saw only strangers or those who had
come down from the mountains with them.
Late that afternoon, tired, disgusted, self-scornful, he took a train
for home. When he passed the professor's house he saw a beam of light
shine out on the quadrangle on a spot where no gleam had shone for many
a night.
He walked deliberately out on the sward and looked up. He cared not who
saw him or who chaffed him, and a University man has to order his life
with care if he wishes it not to become a burden to him. Fortunately it
was late, and there were no men about corridor or campus. He stood
watching; it might be the old negress there for all he knew.
The curtains were pulled aside, the casement opening on the balcony was
flung open, and a tall supple figure stood outlined sharply against the
flood of light behind her. His heart seemed pulsing in his throat and
choking him. Then Frances stepped lightly out on the porch and began to
unfasten the heavy shutters from the clasps holding them back to the
brick wall.
He walked quickly across till he stood under the balcony's edge; the
vine climbing the pillar was bare, its dry branches rustling in the
night wind.
"Frances!" he called softly.
There was no answer, and he heard a light footstep across the porch and
a rattling at the other shutter.
"Miss Holloway!" he called distinctly.
"Who is there? Where--"
The voice called again; she leaned over the railing and saw a tall
figure below looming in the star-lit dusk. "Who is it?" she asked, a
quick catch in her breath.
"Do you not know me?" reproachfully.
"Mr. Lawson?" the voice was low and full, and the intonation gracefully
easy, with the old ring of cheer in it. Hard riding, hard thinking, hot
scorning, and firm resolving had made many changes in Frances; best of
all it had restored her old manner of gay ease.
"Where have you been?" questioned the voice below.
"Ever so many places."
"When did you come back?" If there was any tender reproach in the voice,
the young woman up there did not heed it.
"Yesterday."
Yesterday! when he was searching for her, longing for her,--and she was
here. "Why didn't you stay for the game?"
"I couldn't; I am expecting some friends from Richmond. I had to come
home and see that Susan had the house in order."
There was a second's silence. The young man below stood motionless: "I
want to see you," he said firmly.
"Can't you? What a pity it's so dark!"
"To-morrow?"
"I shall not have a minute's time."
"Soon?" he insisted.
"Of course!" as if it were a matter of no consequence whatever.
"I shall expect to," and then there was silence again.
"I am glad you won!" called the girl. "Good night!"
"Oh, yes, we won!" he said, a trifle bitterly, as he strode away.
Frances leaned faintly against the rail. It was over, the moment she had
dreaded unspeakably, and she was in her rightful place again. She knew
it; she blessed the night whose darkness had given her assurance. She
blessed the unexpected meeting when there was no time for awkward
confusion. She tapped her finger-tips on the rail and smiled to herself
as she stood there, but the icy touch of the frost already forming
roused her to a sense of the cold and chill. She hurried in, locked the
shutters and then went running down the stairs.
"Father," she said with a happy laugh, "father, I am so glad to be at
home." She leaned over his chair and put her arms about his neck.
"Are you?" there was a sparkle of joy in the professor's dark eyes; "so
am I!" He slipped his arm about her and pulled her down on the arm of
the chair. "You mustn't run away again; I don't know what to do without
you; you must never run away again, too far!"
Lawson, though he was not given to poetical comparisons, was remembering
with keen pain the first hour when he stood beneath the balcony and
Frances had talked with him. It was morning then, it was night now; the
sunlight was in the sky, only the cold stars now; she had come down to
him blithely that warm, bright day when the world was a flood of
sunshine and color; he had gone alone now, and it was cold and dark, and
the color had drifted from the outside world and the joy from his heart.