DEFORREST DECIDES
Deforrest Young sat alone in his bachelor apartments, which he'd
obtained after the quarrel with Waldstricker over the churching of
Tessibel Skinner. He was in Ithaca in response to a letter from Mrs.
Waldstricker, stating that she would meet him in his rooms this
afternoon.
His mind was busily at work with many problems. For the past week he had
had no word from Tessibel Skinner. Her silence was significant.
Mischief-making anxiety, which always pictures the worst side of a
situation, tormented him cruelly. He hoped Helen might have news from
the shanty by the lakeside.
When Mrs. Waldstricker finally appeared, his first impulse was to ask
about the squatter girl, but the troubled expression of his sister's
face checked the question on his lips. He drew her tenderly into his
arms, and attempted to comfort her with reassuring pats and caresses.
"You shouldn't have ventured out, dear," he chided. "Sit down here!...
There! Now tell me what's the matter."
"I'm so miserable, Forrie," she wept. "I can't do a thing with
Ebenezer.... He's in such a state of temper all the time!"
"Don't try to talk for a moment, dearest," soothed the lawyer, much
moved.
"But I must--I want to! It seems as if my whole life has been upset in
some unaccountable manner. And it isn't any better since Frederick and
Madelene went away. I was in hopes after they'd gone, I might have some
peace."
"Is it still--" Young's inquiry was broken off by his auditor's
exclamation.
"Yes, it's Tessibel Skinner! He seems perfectly possessed about her. I
can't understand why, either. I always tell him she's nothing to us. He
has even gone so far--Oh, Forrie, dear, tell me it isn't so!"
"What isn't so?" asked Deforrest, puzzled.
"Ebenezer says--he says you'd marry--" The inquisitor's courage oozed
away before she finished her sentence. Her brother turned and strode up
and down the room, while Mrs. Waldstricker's eyes, full of questioning
anguish, followed his tall figure.
"I suppose he said I'd marry Tessibel Skinner. Is that it?" His voice
was low, deep and intense. Wheeling about he looked across at his
sister.
She got up from her chair and went to him. Her desire to placate her
brother supported her determination to know his precise attitude toward
her husband. She placed her hand on his arm and replied hurriedly,
"Yes, that's what he said. I told him it was no such thing; that you did
what you could for the lonely child without a thought--"
Deforrest's hand closed over the speaker's.
"You were mistaken, then," he asserted quietly. "I'd have married
Tessibel Skinner long ago, if she'd consented."
"Forrie, dear, you wouldn't! You couldn't! Especially now! Oh, darling,
you're all I've got in the world.... Can't you see it would break my
heart?"
"You needn't worry about it, sister mine." A sad shake of his head
emphasized his reply. "Tess won't marry me. She knows I love her and
want to care for her, but she won't let me. She sticks there in that
wretched shanty, alone with her trouble and refuses every offer I make.
Her courage is splendid. I love her for it, although I'm torn to pieces
with anxiety."
"And I never knew," Helen mused. "I thought--I thought it was--just you
were charitable and kind."
"No, it wasn't that. I've loved her since the first, but she couldn't
love me, that's all. Then this awful thing happened." The deepening
lines in his face and his twitching lips revealed the intensity of his
solicitude. "Have you heard anything about her?"
"Yes. A man by the name of Brewer, one of the squatters, brought me a
message."
"Yes, yes!" interrupted the man, very impatiently.
Helen pressed her face against his arm. She divined the pain he was
suffering. How was she to soften the hurt her answer would inflict, even
her loving heart couldn't imagine.
"She has a baby boy," she whispered.
"God!" groaned Deforrest.
"The baby was born a few days ago, and every day the squatter's been at
our house, ostensibly to sell something, but really to tell me about
her.... I saw him this morning, and he says they are both doing nicely.
Forrie, don't you think--" There was something in her brother's stricken
face that broke off her question.
"Don't I think what, dear?" He got up and resumed his restless pacing up
and down.
"Oh, I want you to be happy. Couldn't you possibly--forget you've loved
her?"
"No, I can't," and he came to a standstill in front of her. "I might as
well be truthful, dear, as long as you know this much.... If Tessibel
will marry me, I'll take her and the boy--" he choked, paused a few
seconds and went on. "I'll take them both away from Ithaca. It's the
only happiness in store for me, and I believe I could make her happy,
too."
"I can't bear the thought of it," cried Helen, desperately. "Please
don't think I'm meddling, but has she told you anything?"
"No. Some one has mistreated the child shamefully, but she won't tell
anything about it."
"Poor little girl!" sighed Mrs. Waldstricker. "How I wish now I'd done
more for her! I might have, you know."
The lawyer raised his hand deprecatingly.
"What's past, is done with," he answered gloomily. "I don't know how
much she'll let me do, but I am going to help her in spite of herself.
That shack by the lake is an awful place. I swear I'll give her decent
surroundings and a chance to live.... I'm going down today."
"But, Forrie," his sister objected, "I want you to come home with me to
dinner. You haven't been to our house in a long time, not since the
night you came from Binghamton and went off to Skinner's in the storm."
"Helen, dear," Young explained, apologetically, "I can't come to your
house as long as Ebenezer feels toward me the way he does. You see,
don't you?"
"Oh, I suppose I do, but I just can't stand it. Eb has acted badly and
tried to shoulder it all off on you. But can't you overlook it, honey?"
"Why, Helen, how can I? I don't feel any too pleasant toward him, and he
doesn't want to be friends, either. He pays no attention to my wishes
but tries to ride rough shod over me. He regards my interest in Tess as
a personal affront. He persecutes her because he thinks he's annoying
me. But there, don't cry any more. You'll only make yourself ill! I
think you ought to go home and lie down. You've some one else besides
yourself and Eb to think of, dear girl."
"I know it," she sobbed, "and I've tried to show Ebenezer how happy we'd
be if he'd forget those people down the lake and let you do what you
want to. Sometimes I think he's lost his mind. I really don't know what
to do."
Helen rose from her chair.
"Nor do I," replied Young.
"But, Deforrest, don't you think if you talked to Ebenezer, he'd see
things differently?"
"I'm afraid not," said he, adjusting Mrs. Waldstricker's furs. "You see,
Eb's always had his own way in most things, and I can't take any other
position about Tess, and I won't."
"I wish you would come home with me," sighed Mrs. Waldstricker, when her
brother was tucking the sleigh robe about her.
"I'm sorry I can't, Helen. You'll hear from me soon," he promised, as
the sleigh moved away.
Half an hour later found the lawyer astride his horse, his fine face
clouded in sorrowful thought.
He cantered along the hard packed road. Here he noted the shimmering
veil of ice over some brooklet waterfall in a cleft of the hill side.
There the precise punctures of a rabbit track dotted the level snow of
the woods. Beyond a herd of cattle standing placidly around a
straw-stack blew clouds of vapor from their steaming nostrils. The
silent beauty of the hills, glistening in their frosty covering, set off
to advantage the silvery sheen of the ice-laden lake. Through the trees,
he caught occasional glimpses of East Hill winter-wrapped in its white
mantle. Just north of the city shone the resplendence of the ice-cloaked
rocks and waterfalls of Fall Creek Gorge, like a massive garniture
emblazoned on the mantle's skirt. The unbroken calm of the quiet winter
afternoon touched the rider's overwrought heart and awoke in him a sense
of the peace and the dignity of the visible creation. The untroubled
serenity and repose which all nature presented, soothed his troubled
spirit. Something of the unruffled confidence expressed by Tessibel,
when he'd last left her, penetrated his revery. Her words, "I know
Love's everywhere the hull time," had comforted him many times, and now
they came again upon their healing mission.
* * * * *
Tessibel's baby was one week old. This afternoon she lay partially
dressed on the cot while Andy was plying his noiseless way about the
kitchen. He stopped a moment on the journey to the stove and smiled at
the young mother.
"I bet he comes today," said he. "You'd better be gettin' that sorrow
offen yer face, brat."
"I ain't right sorryful, Andy," she answered. "I was jest thinkin' of
all the good things Mr. Young air done for me, an' hopin' he'd get you
free, too. Mebbe when Spring comes, Andy, you can run in the woods with
me!"
"I air prayin' for it every day, kid."
"When you ain't afeered of Auburn any more," said the girl, after a
moment's silence, "we'll go away from this shanty, an' mebbe we can both
work. That'd be nice, eh, Andy?"
"Anything'd be nice if I air with you, an' the baby, brat," he choked.
"Oh, you'll stay with us all right," smiled Tessibel. "Daddy left me to
take care of you an' I air goin' to do it!"
Conversation lagged for a time. The dwarf poured out a cup of tea, and
placed a large slice of bread on a plate with some potatoes and meat.
These he took to the bedside.
"I don't know what we'd a done without Jake," he observed, drawing his
chair to the table.
Tess was beginning to eat a late dinner. Between bites she smilingly
assented.
"Jake air a awful good man.... Andy, ain't the baby stirrin' on the
chair?"
The dwarf went to the improvised cradle and carefully drew away the
blanket.
"He wants turnin' on 'is other side, that air all." With deft fingers he
rolled the baby boy over, placed the sugar rag between the twisting
lips, and went back to his dinner.
"Jake was tellin' me this morning," she continued, "Sandy Letts got
three years and a half in Auburn."
"That'll be dreadful for him," the little man responded, thinking of his
lonely years in prison. "But body-snatchin' air an awful thing. Reckon
he won't try it again when he gets out.... Eh, kid?"
"At any rate, he won't be after us for a while," she replied, sighing
contentedly.
"Well, I must slick up a bit," Andy announced presently. "I want to get
the shanty fixed. Young'd think I weren't doin' right by ye, if 'tain't
red up, brat."
"When I tell him all ye've done," she smiled affectionately, "I bet
he'll be praisin' ye."
Then they were silent until the little man'd gathered and washed the few
dishes.