Winthrop thought that he could like Julian Wayne if that youth would
let him. But it was evident from the moment of their first meeting
that Julian wasn’t going to allow anything of the sort. He arrived
at Waynewood Saturday night, and Winthrop, who had spent the evening
with the Major at ’Squire Parish’s house, did not meet him until
Sunday morning. He was tall, dark haired and sallow complexioned,
and as handsome as any youth Winthrop had ever seen. His features
were regular, with a fine, straight nose, wide eyes, a strong chin
and a good, somewhat tense, mouth that matched with the general air
of imperiousness he wore. Winthrop soon discovered that Julian Wayne
retained undiminished the old Southern doctrine of caste and that he
looked upon the new member of the Waynewood household with a polite
but very frank contempt. He was ardent, impetuous, and arrogant, but
they were traits of youth rather than of character, and Winthrop,
for his part, readily forgave them. That he was head-over-heels in
love with Holly was evident from the first, and Winthrop could have
liked him the more for that. But Julian’s bearing was discouraging
to any notions of friendship which Winthrop might have entertained.
For Winthrop breakfast――which Miss India attended, as was her usual
custom on Sundays――was an uncomfortable meal. He felt very much like an
intruder, in spite of the fact that both Miss India and Holly strove to
include him in the conversation, and he was relieved when it was over.
Julian imperiously claimed Holly’s companionship and the two went
out to the front porch. Miss India attended to the matter of dinner
supplies, and then returned to her room to dress for church. Being cut
off from the porch, Winthrop went up-stairs and took a chair and a
book out on to the gallery. But the voices of the two below came up to
him in a low, eager hum, interspersed with occasional words, and drew
his mind from the book. He was a little disappointed in Julian Wayne,
he told himself. He could have wished a different sort of a man for
Holly’s husband. And then he laughed at himself for inconsistency. Only
two days before he had been celebrating just the youthful traits which
Julian exhibited. Doubtless the boy would make her a very admirable
mate. At least, he was thoroughly in love with her. Winthrop strove to
picture the ideal husband for Holly and found himself all at sea on the
instant, and ended by wondering whimsically how long he would allow
Julian undisputed possession of her if he were fifteen――even ten――years
younger!
Later they all walked to church, Julian and Holly leading the way, as
handsome a couple as had ever passed under the whispering oak-trees,
and Winthrop and Miss India pacing staidly along behind――at a discreet
interval. Miss India’s bearing toward him amused Winthrop even while
it piqued him. She was the most kind, most courteous little woman in
the world to him, displaying a vast interest in and sympathy for his
invalidism, and keeping an anxious watch over his goings and comings
in the fear that he would overtax his strength. And yet all the while
Winthrop knew as well as he knew his name that she resented his
ownership of her home and would be vastly relieved at his departure.
And knowing this, he, on every possible occasion, set himself to win
the little lady’s liking, with, he was forced to acknowledge, scant
prospect of success.
Winthrop sat between Miss India and Holly, with Julian at the end of
the pew. It was his first sight of the little, unadorned Episcopal
church, for he had not accompanied the ladies the previous Sunday. It
was a plain, uncompromising interior in which he found himself. The
bare white walls were broken only by big, small-paned windows of plain
glass. The pews were of yellow pine and the pulpit and stiff chairs on
either side were of the same. The only note of decoration was found in
the vase of roses which stood beside the big closed Bible. A cottage
organ supplied the music. But there was color in the congregation,
for the younger women wore their best dresses and finest hats, and
Winthrop concluded that all Corunna was at church. For awhile he
interested himself in discovering acquaintances, many of them scarcely
recognizable to-day in their black coats and air of devoutness. But
the possibilities of that mode of amusement were soon exhausted, since
the Wayne pew was well past the middle of the church. After the sermon
began Winthrop listened to it for awhile. Probably it was a very
excellent and passably interesting sermon, but the windows were wide
open and the languorous air waved softly, warmly in, and Winthrop’s
eyes grew heavier and heavier and the pulpit mistier and mistier and
the parson’s voice lower and lower and....
He opened his eyes very suddenly, for Holly had reached forth and
brought the toe of her shoe into sharp contact with his ankle. He
turned to find her watching him with grave face and laughing eyes, and
he looked his thanks. Then his eyes roved by to encounter the hostile
stare of Julian, who had witnessed the incident and was jealously
resenting the intimacy it denoted.
After church the party delayed at the door to greet their friends.
Julian, with the easy courtesy that so well became him, shook hands
with fully half the congregation, answering and asking questions in his
pleasant, well-bred drawl. Winthrop wondered pessimistically if he had
in mind the fact that in another year or so he would be dependent on
these persons for his bread and butter. But Julian’s punctiliousness
gave Winthrop his chance. Miss India and Holly had finished their share
of the social event and had walked slowly out on to the porch, followed
by Winthrop. Presently Julian emerged through the door in conversation
with Mrs. Somes, and Winthrop turned to Holly.
“There comes your cousin,” he said. “Shall we start on ahead and let
them follow?”
There was a little flicker of surprise in the brown eyes, followed by
the merest suggestion of a smile. Then Holly moved toward the steps and
Winthrop ranged himself beside her.
“A little discipline now and then has a salutary effect, Miss Holly,”
he remarked, as they passed out through the gate.
“Oh, are you doing this for discipline?” asked Holly, innocently.
“I am doing it to please myself, discipline your cousin, and――well, I
don’t know what the effect on you may be.”
“I believe you’re hinting for compliments, Mr. Winthrop!”
“Maybe; I’ve been feeling strangely frivolous of late. By the way,
please accept my undying gratitude for that kick.”
“You ought to be grateful,” answered Holly, with a laugh. “In another
moment your head would have been on Auntie’s shoulder and――I hope you
don’t snore, Mr. Winthrop?”
“Heavens! Was it as bad as that? I _am_ grateful! Fancy your Aunt’s
horror!” And Winthrop laughed at the thought.
“Oh, Auntie would have just thought you’d fainted and had you carried
home and put to bed,” said Holly.
“I wonder how much you know?” mused Winthrop, turning to look down into
her demure face.
“About what, Mr. Winthrop?”
“About my――my invalidism.”
“Why, you’re a very sick man, of course,” replied Holly. “Auntie is
quite worried about you at times.”
Winthrop laughed.
“But you’re not, I suspect. I fancy you have guessed that I am
something of an impostor. Have you?”
“Mh-mh,” assented Holly, smilingly.
“I thought so; you’ve been so fearfully attentive with that――lovely
medicine of late. Aren’t you ashamed of yourself to cause me so much
affliction?”
“Aren’t you ashamed to impose on two unsuspecting ladies?”
“Well, seeing that I haven’t fooled you I don’t think you need to
say ‘two.’ But I’m not altogether to blame, Miss Holly. It was that
scheming Uncle Major of yours that beguiled me into it. He declared up
and down that if I wanted to remain at Waynewood the only thing to do
was to continue being an invalid. And now――well, now I don’t dare get
well!”
Holly laughed gayly.
“If you had owned up before, you would have been spared a good many
doses of medicine,” she said. “It was lots of fun to make you take it!
But now I don’t reckon I’ll have the heart to any more.”
“Bless you for those words!” said Winthrop, devoutly. “That infernal
medicine has been the one fly in my ointment, the single crumbled leaf
in my bed of roses. Hereafter I shall be perfectly happy. That is, if I
survive the day. I fancy your cousin may call me out before he leaves
and put a bullet into me.”
“Why?” asked Holly, innocently.
“Jealousy, my dear young lady. Haven’t I carried you off from under his
nose?”
“I don’t reckon I’d have gone if I hadn’t wanted to,” said Holly, with
immense dignity.
“That makes it all the worse, don’t you see? He is convinced by this
time that I have designs on you and looks upon me as a hated rival. I
can feel his eyes boring gimlet-holes in my back this moment.”
“It will do him good,” said Holly, with a little toss of her head.
“That’s what I thought,” said Winthrop. “But I doubt if he is capable
of taking the same sensible view of it.”
“I’m afraid you don’t like him,” said Holly, regretfully.
“My dear Miss Holly,” he expostulated, “he doesn’t give me a chance.
I am as dirt under his feet. I think I might like him if he’d give me
chance. He’s as handsome a youngster as I’ve ever seen, and I fancy
I can trace a strong resemblance between him and the portrait of your
father in the parlor; the eyes are very like.”
“Others have said that,” answered Holly, “but I never could see the
resemblance; I wish I could.”
“I assure you it’s there.”
“Julian is very silly,” said Holly, warmly. “And I shall tell him so.”
“Pray don’t,” begged Winthrop. “He doubtless already dislikes me quite
heartily enough.”
“He has no right to be rude to you.”
Winthrop smiled ruefully.
“But he isn’t; that’s the worst of it! He’s scrupulously polite――just
as one would be polite to the butler or the man from the butcher’s!
No, don’t call him to account, please; we shall get on well enough, he
and I. Maybe when he discovers that I am not really trying to steal
you away from him he will come off his high horse. I suppose, however,
that the real reason for it all is that he resents my intrusion at
Waynewood――quite in the popular manner.”
He regretted the latter remark the instant he had made it, for Holly
turned a distressed countenance toward him.
“Oh, have we been as bad as all that?” she cried, softly. “I’m so
sorry! But really and really you mustn’t think that we don’t like you
to be at Waynewood! You won’t, will you? Please don’t! Why, I――I have
been so happy since you came!”
“Bless you,” answered Winthrop, lightly, “I really meant nothing. And
if you are willing to put up with me, why, the others don’t matter at
all. But I’m awfully glad to know that you haven’t found me a bother,
Miss Holly.”
“How could I? You’ve been so nice and――and chummy! I shan’t want you
to go away,” she added, sorrowfully. “I feel just as though you were a
nice, big elder brother.”
“That’s just what I am,” replied Winthrop, heartily, “a big elder
brother――_and_ a slave――and _always_ an admirer.”
“And I shall tell Julian so,” added Holly.
“I wouldn’t, really.”
“But why?”
“Oh, well, you’ll just make him more jealous and unhappy, my dear. Or,
at least, that’s the effect it would have on me were I in his place,
and I fancy lovers are much the same North and South.”
“Jealousy is nasty,” said Holly, sententiously.
“Many of our most human sentiments are,” responded Winthrop dryly, “but
we can’t help them.”