A GENTLEMAN'S LIE
I
Becky was not well. Aunt Claudia, perceiving her listlessness, decided
that she needed a change. Letters were written to the Nantucket
grandfather, and plans made for Becky's departure. She was to spend a
month on the island, come back to Boston to the Admiral's big old house
on the water-side of Beacon Street, and return to Huntersfield for
Christmas.
Becky felt that it was good of everybody to take so much trouble. She
really didn't care in the least. She occupied herself steadily with each
day's routine. She bent her head over the fine embroidery of a robe she
was making for Mary. She cut the flowers for the vases and bowls, she
recited nursery rhymes to Fiddle, entrancing that captious young person
with "Oranges and Lemons" and "Lavender's Blue." She read aloud to the
Judge, planned menus for Aunt Claudia, and was in fact such an angel in
the house that Truxton, after three days of it, protested.
"Oh, what's the matter with Becky, Mums?"
"Why?"
"She hasn't any pep."
"I know."
"Isn't she well?"
"I have tried to have her see a doctor. But she won't. She insists that
she is all right----"
"She is not. She is no more like the old Becky than champagne is
like--milk---- Becky was the kind that--went to your head--Mums. You
know that--sparkling."
"I have wondered," Mrs. Beaufort said, slowly, "if anything happened
while I was away."
"What could happen----"
His mother sighed. "Nothing, I suppose----" She let it go at that. Her
intuitions carried her towards the truth. She had learned from Mandy and
the Judge that Dalton had spent much time at Huntersfield in her
absence. Becky never mentioned him. Her silence spoke eloquently, Mrs.
Beaufort felt, of something concealed. Becky was apt to talk of things
that interested her. And there had been no doubt of her interest in
Dalton before her aunt had gone away.
Randy, coming often now to Huntersfield, had his heart torn for his
beloved. No one except himself knew what had happened, and the knowledge
stirred him profoundly. He held that burning torches and a stake were
none too good for Dalton. He sighed for the old days in Virginia when
gentlemen settled such matters in the woods at dawn, with pistols,
seconds, a shot or two. Farther back it would have been an affair of
knives and tomahawks--Indian chiefs in a death struggle.
But neither duels nor death struggles were in the modern mode, nor would
any punishment which he might inflict on Dalton help Becky in this
moment of deep humiliation. He knew her pride and the hurt that had come
to her, he knew her love, and the deadly inertia which had followed the
loss of illusion.
Randy's love was not a selfish love. In that tense moment of Becky's
confession on the day of the barbecue, his own hopes had died. The boy
in him had died, too, and he had reached the full stature of a man. He
wanted to protect and shield--he was all tenderness. He felt that he
would dare anything, do anything, if he could bring back to Becky the
dreams of which Dalton robbed her.
Night after night he sat in his room up-stairs in the old Schoolhouse,
and wrote on "The Trumpeter Swan." It was an outlet for his pent-up
emotions, and something of the romance which was denied him, something
of the indignation which stirred him, something of the passions of love
and revenge which fought within him, drove his pen onward, so that his
little tale took on color and life. Crude, perhaps, in form, it was yet
a song of youth and patriotism. It was Randy's call to his comrades.
There was to be no compromise. They must make men look up and listen--to
catch the sound of their clear note. The ideals which had made them
fight brutality and greed were living ideals. They were not to be doffed
with their khaki and overseas caps. Their country called, the whole
world called, for men with faith and courage. There was no place for
pessimism, no place for materialism, no place for sordidness.
His hero was, specifically, a man who had come back from the fighting,
flaming with the thought of his high future. He had found the world
smiling and unconcerned. It was this world which needed to listen to the
call of trumpets--high up----
The chapters in which he wrote of love--for there was a woman in the
story--were more beautiful than Randy realized. It was of a boy's love
that he told--delicately. It was his own story of love denied, yet
enriching a life.
Yet--because man cannot live up always to the measure of his own vision,
there came often between Randy and the written page the image of George
Dalton, smiling and insolent. And he would lay down his pen, and lean
his head on his hand, and gaze into space, and sometimes he would speak
out in the silence. "I will make him suffer."
It was in one of these moments that he saw how it might be done. "He
would let fruit drop to the ground and rot if no other man wanted it,"
he analyzed keenly, "but if another man tried to pick it up, he would
fight for it."
Dalton was still at King's Crest. Mrs. Waterman had not responded
satisfactorily to the operation. The doctors had grave doubts as to her
recovery. Madge was convalescing at the Flippins'.
Randy had been content, hitherto, to receive bulletins indirectly from
both of the invalids. But on the morning following the birth of his
great idea he rode on horseback to King's Crest. He looked well on
horseback, and in his corduroys, with a soft shirt and flowing tie, a
soft felt hat, he was at his best.
He found George and Oscar on the west terrace, shaded by blue and
white-striped awnings, with a macaw, red and blue on a perch--a peacock
glimmering at the foot of the steps--and the garden blazing beyond.
There were iced drinks in tall glasses--a litter of cigarettes on
smoking-stands, magazines and newspapers on the stone floors, packs of
cards on a small table. Oscar, hunched up in a high-backed Chinese
chair, was white and miserable. George looked bored to extinction.
Randy, coming in, gave a clear-cut impression of strength and youth.
"Mother sent some wine jelly for Mrs. Waterman," he said to Oscar. "It
was made from an old recipe, and she thought it might be different. And
there were some hundred-leaved roses from our bush. I gave them to your
man."
Oscar brightened. He was grateful for the kindness of these queer
neighbors of his who would have nothing to do with him and his wife when
they were well, and who had seemed to care not at all for his money. But
who, now that sickness had come and sorrow, offered themselves and their
possessions unstintedly.
"I'll go and see that Flora gets them," he said. "She hasn't any
appetite. She's--it's rather discouraging----"
Randy, left alone with Dalton, was debonair and delightful. George,
looking at him with speculative eyes, decided that there was more to
this boy than he would have believed. He had exceedingly good manners
and an ease that was undeniable. There was of course good blood back of
him. And in a way it counted. George knew that he could never have been
at ease in old clothes in the midst of elegance.
It was Randy who spoke first of Becky. Dalton's heart jumped when he
heard her name. Night after night he had ridden towards Huntersfield,
only to turn back before he reached the lower gate. Once he had ventured
on foot as far as the garden, and in the hush had called softly,
"Becky." But no one had answered. He wondered what he would have done if
Becky had responded to his call. "I am not going to be fool enough to
marry her," he told himself, angrily, yet knew that if he played the
game with Becky there could be no other end to it.
Randy said, quite naturally, that Becky was going away. To Nantucket. He
asked if George had been there.
"Once, on Waterman's yacht. It's quaint--but a bit spoiled by summer
people----"
"Becky doesn't know the summer people. Her great-grandparents were among
the first settlers, and the Merediths have never sold the old home."
"She is a pretty little thing," George said. "And she's buried down
here."
"I shouldn't call it exactly--buried."
George, with his eyes on the peacock, smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
Randy smiled and his eyes, too, were on the peacock. He was thinking
that there were certain points of resemblance between the gorgeous bird
and Dalton. They glimmered in the sunlight and strutted a bit----
He came back to say easily, "Has Becky told you of our happiness----"
George gave him a startled glance. "Happiness?"
"We are to be married when she comes back--at Christmas."
"Married----"
"Yes," coolly, "it was rather to be expected, you know. We played
together as children--our fathers played together--our grandfathers--our
great-grandfathers."
A cold wave seemed to sweep over George. So this young cub would have
her beauty!
"Aren't you rather young----?" he demanded, "and what have you to give
her?"
"Love," said Randy calmly, "a man's respect for her goodness and
worth--for her innocence. She's a little saint in a shrine."
"Is she?" Georgie-Porgie asked, and smiled to himself; "few women are
that."
After Randy had gone George Dalton walked the floor. He knew innocence
when he saw it, and he knew that Randy had told the truth. Becky
Bannister was as white as the doves that were fluttering down to the
garden pool to drink. He had never cared particularly for innocence.
But he cared for Becky. He knew now that he cared tremendously. Randy
had made him know it. It had not seemed so bad to think of Becky as
breaking her heart and waiting for a word from him. It seemed very bad,
indeed, when he thought of her as married to Randy.
He felt that, of course, she did not love Randy; that he,
Georgie-Porgie, had all that she had to give---- But woman-like, she had
taken this way to get back at him. He wondered if she had sent Randy.
Up and down the terrace he raged like a lion. He wanted to show that
cub--oh, if he might show him----!
Randy had known that he would rage, and as he rode home he had the
serene feeling that he had stuck a splinter in George's flesh.
Oscar Waterman joined George on the terrace, but noticed nothing. His
mind was full of Flora. "I am sorry young Paine went so soon. I wanted
to thank him. Flora can't eat the jelly, but it was good of them to send
it. She can't eat anything. She's worse, George. I don't know how I am
going to stand it."
George was in no mood for condolence. Yet he was not quite heartless.
"Look here," he said, "you mustn't give up."
"George, if she dies," Oscar said, wildly, "what do you think will
happen to me? I never planned for this. I planned for a good time. I
thought maybe that when we were old--one of us might go. But it wouldn't
be fair to take her now--and leave me."
"I have given her--everything----" he went on. "I--I think I've been a
good husband. I have always loved her a lot, George, you know that."
He was a plain little man, but at this moment he gained something of
dignity. And there was this to say for him, that what he felt for Flora
was a deeper emotion than George had ever known.
"The doctor says the crisis comes to-night. I am not going to bed. I
couldn't sleep. George--I've been wondering if I oughtn't to call
in--some kind of clergyman--to see her."
"People don't, nowadays, do they?" George asked rather uncomfortably.
"Well, I don't see why they shouldn't. There ought to be somebody to
pray for Flora."
There was, it developed upon inquiry, a little old rector who lived not
far away. George went for him in his big car.
The little man, praying beside Flora's gorgeous bed, felt that this was
the hundredth sheep who had wandered and was found. The other ninety and
nine were safely in the fold. He had looked after the spiritual
condition of the county for fifty years. There had been much to
discourage him, but in the main if they strayed they came back.
He prayed with fervor, the fine old prayers of his church.
"Look down from heaven, we humbly beseech thee, with the eyes of mercy
upon this child now lying upon the bed of sickness: Visit her, O Lord,
with thy salvation; deliver her in thy good appointed time from bodily
pain, and save her soul for thy mercies' sake; that, if it shall be thy
pleasure to prolong her days here on earth, she may live for thee, and
be an instrument of thy glory, by serving thee faithfully, and doing
good in her generation; or else receive her into those heavenly
habitations, where the souls of those who sleep in the Lord Jesus enjoy
perpetual rest and felicity."
Flora, lying inert and bloodless, opened her eyes. "Say it again," she
whispered. "Say it again."
II
Randy rode straight from Hamilton Hill to Huntersfield. He found Becky
in the Bird Room. She had her head tied up in a white cloth, and a big
white apron enveloped her. She was as white as the whiteness in which
she was clad, and there were purple shadows under her eyes. The windows
were open and a faint breeze stirred the curtains. The shade of the
great trees softened the light to a dim green. After the glare of
Oscar's terrace it was like coming from a blazing desert to the bottom
of the sea.
There was a wide seat under a window which looked out towards the hills.
Becky sat down on it. "Everybody is out," she said, "except Aunt
Claudia. She is taking a nap up-stairs."
"I didn't come to see everybody, Becky. I came to see you."
"I am glad you came. I can rest a bit."
"You work as hard as if you had to do it."
She leaned back against the green linen cushions of the window seat and
looked up at him. "I do have to do it. There is nobody else. Mandy is
busy, and, anyhow, Grandfather doesn't like to have the servants in
here. And neither do I---- It is almost as if the birds were alive--and
loved me."
Randy hugged his knee and meditated. "But there are lots of rich women
who wouldn't dust a room."
She made a gesture of disdain. "Oh, _that_ kind of rich people."
"What kind?"
"The kind that aren't used to their money. Who think ladies--are idle.
Sister Loretto says that is the worst kind--the awful kind. She talked
to me every day about it. She said that money was a curse when people
used it only for their ease. Sister Loretto hates laziness. She had
money herself before she took her vows, but now she works every hour of
the day and she says it brings her happiness."
Randy shook his head. "Most of us need to play around a bit, Becky."
"Do we? I--I think most women would be better off if they were like
Sister Loretto."
"They would not. Stop talking rot, Becky, and take that thing off your
head. It makes you look like a nun."
"I know. I saw myself in the glass. I don't mind looking like a nun,
Randy."
"Well, I mind. Turn your head and I'll take out that pin."
"Don't be silly, Randy."
He persisted. "Keep still while I take it out----"
He found the pin and unwound the white cloth. "There," he said, drawing
a long breath, "you look like yourself again. You were so--austere, you
scared me, Becky."
He was again hugging his knees. "When are you going away?"
"On the twenty-ninth. I shall stay over until next week for the
Merriweathers' ball."
"I didn't know whether you would feel equal to it."
"I shall go on Mary's account. It will be her introduction to Truxton's
friends, and if I am there it will be easier for her. She has a lovely
frock, jade green tulle with a girdle of gold brocade. It came down for
me with a lot of other clothes, and it needed only a few changes for her
to wear it."
"You will be glad to get away?"
"It will be cooler--and I need the change. But it is always more formal
up there--they remember that I have money. Here it is forgotten."
"I wish I could forget it."
"Why should you ever think of it?" she demanded with some heat. "I am
the same Becky with or without it."
"Not quite the same," he was turning his hat in his hand. Then, raising
his eyes and looking at her squarely, he said what he had come to say,
"I have--I have just been to see Dalton, Becky."
A wave of red washed over her neck, touched her chin, her cheeks. "I
don't see what that has to do with me."
"It has a great deal to do with you. I told him you were going to marry
me."
The wave receded. She was chalk-white.
"Randy, how dared you do such a thing?"
"I dared," said Randy, with tense fierceness, "because a man like Dalton
wants what other men want. He will think about you a lot, and I want him
to think. He won't sleep to-night, and I want him to stay awake. He will
wonder whether you love me, and he will be afraid that you do--and I
want him to be afraid."
"But it was a lie, Randy. I am not going to marry you."
"Do you think that I meant that----? That I am expecting anything for
myself?"
"No," unsteadily, her slender body trembling as if from cold, "but what
did you mean?"
"I told you. Dalton's got to come back to you and beg--on his knees--and
he will come when he thinks you are mine----"
"I don't want him to come. And when you talk like that it makes me
feel--smirched----"
Dead silence. Then, "It was a gentleman's lie----"
"Gentlemen do not lie. Go to him this minute, Randy, and tell him that
it isn't true."
"Give me three days, Becky. If in that time he doesn't try to see you or
call you up, I'll go---- But give me three days."
She wavered. "What good will it do?"
He caught up her cold little hands in his. "You will have a chance to
get back at him. And when you stick in the knife, you can turn it--until
it hurts."
III
It was while the family at Huntersfield were at dinner that the
telephone rang. Calvin answered, and came in to say that Miss Becky was
wanted. She went listlessly. But the first words over the wire stiffened
her.
It was George's voice, quick imploring. Saying that he had something to
tell her. That he must see her----
"Let me come, Becky."
"Of course."
"You mean that I--may----?"
"Why not?"
He seemed to hesitate. "But I thought----"
Her laugh was light and clear. "I must get back to my dinner. I have
only had my soup. And I am simply--_starving_----"
It was not what he had expected. Not in the least. As he hung up the
receiver he was conscious too of a baffled feeling that Becky had, in a
sense, held the reins of the situation.
In spite of her famished condition, Becky did not at once go to the
dining-room. She called up King's Crest, and asked for Randy.
She wanted to know, she said, whether he had anything on for the
evening. No? Then could he come over and bring the boarders? Oh, as many
of them as would come. And they would dance. She was bored to _death_.
Her laugh was still clear and light, and Randy wondered.
Then she went back to the dinner table and ate the slice of lamb which
the Judge had carved for her. She ate mint sauce and mashed potatoes,
she ate green corn pudding, and a salad, and watermelon. Her cheeks were
red, and Aunt Claudia felt that Becky was looking much better. For how
could Aunt Claudia know that everything that Becky ate was like sawdust
to her palate. She found herself talking and laughing a great deal, and
Truxton teased her.
After dinner she went up-stairs with Mary and showed her a new way to do
her hair, and found an entrancing wisp of a frock for Mary to wear.
"It will be great fun having the boarders from King's Crest. There are a
lot of young people of all kinds--and not many of them our kind, Mary."
Mary smiled at her. "I am not quite your kind, am I?"
"Why not? And oh, Mary, you are happy, happy. And you are lovely with
your hair like that, close to your head and satin-smooth."
Mary, surveying herself in the glass, gave an excited laugh. "Do you
know when I married Truxton I never thought of this?"
"Of what?" Becky asked.
"Of pretty clothes--and dances--and dinners. I just knew that he--loved
me, and that he had to leave me. But I don't suppose I could make the
world believe it."
"Truxton believes it, doesn't he, Mary?"
"Yes."
"And I believe it. And what do you care for the others? It is what we
know of ourselves, Mary," she drew a quick breath. "It is what we know
of ourselves----"
Becky was wearing the simple frock of pale blue in which George had seen
her on that first night when he came to Huntersfield.
"Aren't you going to change?" Mary asked.
"No. It is too much trouble." Becky was in front of the mirror. Her
pearls caught the light of the candles. Her bronze hair was a shining
wave across her forehead. "It is too much trouble," she said, again, and
turned from the mirror.
She had a dozen frocks that had come in the rosy hamper--frocks that
would have made the boarders open their eyes. Frocks that would have
made Dalton open his. But Becky had the feeling that this was not the
moment for lovely clothes. She felt that she would be cheapened if she
decked herself for George.
When the two girls went down-stairs Truxton was waiting for his wife. "I
thought you would never come," he said. He drew her within the circle of
his arm, and they went out into the garden. The Judge and Mrs. Beaufort
were on the porch. Becky sat on the step and leaned her head against
Aunt Claudia's knee.
"What in the world made you ask all those people over, Becky?" the Judge
demanded.
"Oh, they're great fun, Grandfather, and I felt like it."
"Have you planned anything for them to eat, Claudia?"
"Watermelons. Calvin has put a lot of them in the spring."
The stars were thick overhead. Becky looked up at them and relaxed a
little. Since Dalton had spoken to her over the wire she had gone
through the motions of doing normal things. She had eaten and talked,
and now she was sitting quite still on the step while Aunt Claudia
smoothed her hair, and the Judge talked of things to eat.
But shut up within her was a clock which ticked and never stopped. _"He
will come--when he thinks--you are mine---- He will come--when he
thinks--you are mine----"_
Randy and his mother arrived in Little Sister, with two of the boarders
for good measure in the back seat. They had dropped Major Prime at
Flippins', where he was to make a call on Madge MacVeigh. He had
promised to come later, however, if Randy would drive over and get him.
The rest of the boarders were packed variously into their cars and the
surrey, and as soon as they arrived they proceeded to occupy the lawn
and the porch, and to overflow the garden. They made a great deal of
pleasant noise about it, and the white gowns of the women, and the white
flannels of the men gave an impressionistic effect of faint blue against
the deeper blue of the night.
Within the house, the rugs were up in the drawing-room, the library, the
dining-room, and the wide hall; there sounded, presently, the tinkling
music of the phonograph, and there was the unceasing movement of
white-clad figures which seemed to float in a golden haze.
Becky danced a great deal, with Randy, with the younger boarders, and
with the genial gentleman. She laughed with an air of unaffected gayety.
And she felt that her heart stopped beating, when at last she looked up
and saw Dalton standing in the door.
She at once went towards him, and gave him her hand. "I wonder if you
know everybody?"
Her clear eyes met his without self-consciousness. He attempted a
swagger. "I don't want to know everybody. How do they happen to be
here?"
"I asked them. And they are really very nice."
He did not see the niceness. He had thought to find her in the setting
which belonged to her beauty. The silent night, the fragrance of the
garden, the pale statues among the trees, and himself playing the game
with a greater sense of its seriousness than ever before.
Throughout the evening George watched for a chance to see Becky alone.
Without conspicuously avoiding him, she had no time for him. He
complained constantly. "I want to talk to you. Run away with me,
Becky--and let these people go."
"It isn't proper for a hostess to leave her guests."
"Are you trying to--punish me?"
"For what?"
So--she too was playing----! She had let him come that he might see
her--indifferent.
Becky had danced with George once, and with Randy three times. George
had protested, and Becky had said, "But I promised him before you
came----"
"You knew I was coming?"
"Yes."
"You might have kept a few----"
She seemed to consider that. "Yes, I might. But not from Randy----"
At last he said to her, "I have been out in the garden. There is a star
shining in the little pool where the fishes are. I want you to see the
star."
It was thus he had won her. He had always seen stars shining in little
pools, or a young moon rising from a rosy bed. But it had never meant
anything. She shook her head. "I should like to see your little star.
But I haven't time."
"Are you afraid to come?"
"Why should I be?"
"Well, there's Love--in the garden," he was daring--his sparkling eyes
tried to hold hers and failed.
She was looking straight beyond him to where Randy stood by a window,
tall and thin with his Indian profile, and his high-held head.
"We are going to have watermelons in a minute," was her romantic
response to Dalton's fire. "You'd better stay and eat some."
"I don't want to eat. And if you aren't afraid you'll come."
Calvin and Mandy and their son, John, with Flippins' Daisy, had
assembled the watermelons on a long table out-of-doors. Above the table
on the branch of a tree was hung an old ship's lantern brought by
Admiral Meredith to his friend, the Judge. It gave a faint but steady
light, and showed the pink and green and white of the fruit, the dusky
faces of the servants as they cut and sliced, and handed plates to the
eager and waiting guests.
Becky, standing back in the shadows with Randy by her side, watched the
men surge towards the table, and retire with their loads of
lusciousness. Grinning boys were up to their ears in juice, girls,
bare-armed and bare-necked, reached for plates held teasingly aloft. It
was all rather innocently bacchanal--a picture which for Becky had an
absolutely impersonal quality. She had entertained her guests as she had
eaten her dinner, outwardly doing the normal and conventional thing,
while her mind was chaotic. This jumble of people on the lawn seemed
unreal and detached. The only real people in the world were herself and
Dalton.
"How did you happen to ask us?" Randy was saying.
"Because I wanted you----"
"That doesn't explain it. It has something to do with Dalton----"
"He said he was coming--and I wanted a crowd."
"Were you afraid to see him alone?"
"He says that I am."
"When did he say it?"
"Just now. He's in the garden, Randy."
"Waiting for you?"
"He says that he is waiting."
Randy gave a quick exclamation. "Surely you won't go."
"Why not? I've got to turn--the knife----"
He groaned. "So this is what I've let you in for----"
"Well, I shall see it through, Randy."
"Becky, don't go to him in the garden."
"Why not?"
"The whole thing is wrong," the boy said, slowly. "I lied to give you
your opportunity, and now, I'd rather die than think of you out
there----"
"Then you don't trust me, Randy?"
"My dear, I do. But I don't trust--him."
IV
George had known that she would come. Yet when he saw the white blur of
her gown against the blackness of the bushes, his heart leaped. All
through the ages men have waited for women in gardens--"_She is coming,
my own, my sweet_----" and farther back, "_Make haste, my beloved_," and
in the beginning, as Mandy could have told, a serpent waited.
Dalton was not, of course, a serpent. He was merely a very selfish man,
who had always had what he wanted, and now he wanted Becky. He was
still, perhaps, playing the game, but he was playing it in dead earnest
with Randy as his opponent and Becky the prize.
She recognized a new note in his voice and was faintly disturbed by it.
"So you are not afraid?"
"No."
She sat down on the bench. Behind them was the pale statue of Diana, the
pool was at their feet with its little star.
"Why should I be afraid?" she asked.
"You are trying to shut me out of your heart, Becky--and you are afraid
I may try to--open the door."
"Silly," she said, clearly and lightly, but with a sense of panic. Oh,
why had she come? The darkness seemed to shut her in; his voice was
beating against her heart----
He was saying that he loved her, _loved_ her. Did she understand? That
he had been _miserable_? His defense was masterly. He played on her
imagination delicately, as if she were a harp, and his fingers touched
the strings. He realized what a cad he must have seemed. But she was a
saint in a shrine--it will be seen that he did not hesitate to borrow
from Randy. She was a saint in a shrine, and well, he knelt at her
feet--a sinner. "You needn't think that I don't know what I have done,
Becky. I swept you along with me without a thought of anything serious
in it for either of us. It was just a game, sweetheart, and lots of
people play it, but it isn't a game now, it is the most serious thing in
life."
There is no eloquence so potent as that which is backed by genuine
passion. Becky coming down through the garden had been so sure of
herself. She had felt that pride would be the rock to which she would
anchor her resistance to his enchantments. Yet here in the garden----
"Oh, _please_," she said, and stood up.
He rose, too, and towered above her. "Becky," he said, hoarsely, "it's
the real thing--for me----"
His spell was upon her. She was held by it--drawn by it against her
will. Her cry was that of a frightened and fascinated bird.
He bent down. His face was a white circle in the dark, but she could see
the sparkle of his eyes. "Kiss me, Becky."
"I shall never kiss you again."
"I love you."
"Love," she said, with a sort of tense quiet, "does not kiss and run
away."
"My heart never ran away. I swear it. Marry me, Becky."
He had never expected to ask her. But now that he had done it, he was
glad.
She was swayed by his earnestness, by the thought of all he had meant
to her in her dreams of yesterday. But to-day was not yesterday, and
George was not the man of those dreams. Yet, why not? There was the
quick laughter, with its new ring of sincerity, the sparkling eyes, the
Apollo head.
"Marry me, Becky."
Beyond the pool which reflected the little star was the dark outline of
the box hedge, and beyond the hedge, the rise of the hill showed dark
against the dull silver of the sky--a shadow seemed to rise suddenly in
that dim brightness, the tall thin shadow of a man with a clear-cut
profile, and a high-held head!
Becky drew a sharp breath--then faced Dalton squarely. "I am going to
marry Randy."
His laugh was triumphant----
"Do you think I am going to let you? You are mine, Becky, and you know
it. _You are mine_----"
V
Randy, having made a record run with Little Sister to the Flippins', had
brought back Major Prime. When he returned Becky had disappeared. He
looked for her, knowing all the time that she had gone down into the
garden to meet Dalton. And he had brought Dalton back to her, he had
given him this opportunity to plead his cause, had given him the
incentive of a man of his kind to still pursue; he had, as he had said,
let Becky in for it, and now he was raging at the thought.
[Illustration: BECKY DREW A SHARP BREATH--THEN FACED DALTON SQUARELY--"I
AM GOING TO MARRY RANDY"]
Nellie Custis, padding at his heels, had known that something disturbed
him. He walked restlessly from room to room, from porch to porch, across
the lawn, skirted the garden, stopped now and then to listen, called
once when he saw a white figure alone by the big gate, "Becky!"
Nellie knew who it was that he wanted. And at last she instituted a
search on her own account. She went through the garden, passed the pool,
found Becky's feet in blue slippers, and rushed back to her master with
an air of discovery.
But Randy would not follow her. He must, he knew, set a curb on his
impatience. He walked beyond the gate, following the ridge of the hill
to the box hedge. He was not in the least aware that his shadow showed
up against the silver of the sky. Perhaps Fate guided him to the ridge,
who knows? At any rate, it seemed so afterwards to Becky, who felt that
the shadow of Randy against the silver sky was the thing that saved her.
She gave the old Indian cry, and he answered it.
His shadow wavered on the ridge. He was lost for a moment against the
blackness of the hedge, and emerged on the other side of the pool.
"Randy," she was a bit breathless, "here we are. Mr. Dalton and I. I
saw you on the ridge. You have no idea how tall your shadow seemed----"
She was talking in that clear light voice which was not her own. Dalton
said sullenly, "Hello, Paine." And Randy's heart was singing, "She
called me."
The three of them walked to the house together. Becky had insisted that
she must go back to her guests. George left them at the step. He was for
the moment beaten. As he drove his car madly back to King's Crest, he
tried to tell himself that it was all for the best. That he must let
Becky alone. He would be a fool to throw himself away on a shabby
slender slip of a thing because she had clear eyes and bronze hair.
But it was not because of her slenderness and clear eyes and bronze hair
that Becky held him, it was because of the force within her which
baffled him.
The guests were leaving. They had had the time of their lives. They
packed themselves into their various cars, and the surrey, and shouted
"good-bye." The Major stayed and sat on the lawn to talk to the Judge
and Mrs. Beaufort. Mary and Truxton ascended the stairs to the Blue
Room, where little Fiddle slept in the Bannister crib that had been
brought down from the attic.
Becky and Randy went into the Bird Room and sat under the swinging
lamp. "I have something to tell you, Randy," Becky had said, and as in
the days of their childhood the Bird Room seemed the place for
confidences.
Becky curled herself up in the Judge's big chair like a tired child.
Randy on the other side of the empty fireplace said, "You ought to be in
bed, Becky."
"I shan't--sleep," nervously. There were deep shadows under her troubled
eyes. "I shan't sleep when I go."
Randy came over and knelt by her side. "My dear, my dear," he said, "I
am afraid I have let you in for a lot of trouble."
"But the things you said were true--he came--because he thought
I--belonged to--you."
She hesitated. Then she reached out her hand to him. "Randy," she said,
"I told him I was going to marry--you."
His hand had gone over hers, and now he held it in his strong clasp. "Of
course it isn't true, Becky."
"I am going to make it true."
Dead silence. Then, "No, my dear."
"Why not?"
"You don't love me."
"But I like you," feverishly, "I like you, tremendously, and don't you
want to marry me, Randy?"
"God knows that I do," said poor Randy, "but I must not. It--it would be
Heaven for me, you know that. But it wouldn't be quite--cricket--to let
you do it, Becky."
"I am not doing it for your sake. I am doing it for my own. I want to
feel--safe. Do I seem awfully selfish when I say that?"
A great wave of emotion swept over him. She had turned to him for
protection, for tenderness. In that moment Randy grew to the full
stature of a man. He lifted her hand and kissed it. "You are making me
very happy, Becky, dear."
It was a strange betrothal. Behind them the old eagle brooded with
outstretched wings, the owl, round-eyed, looked down upon them and
withheld his wisdom, the Trumpeter, white as snow, in his glass case,
was as silent as the Sphinx.
"You are making me very happy, Becky, dear," said poor Randy, knowing as
he said it that such happiness was not for him.