In the hushed interval after Madam Fulton had died and Billy Stark had
gone away sadly, knowing he should return to America no more, Osmond
went to find Rose. He had seen her briefly, in the common ways of life,
but it was evident to her that they were not to meet alone. Perhaps his
mind had fixed itself inexorably against her, she thought, and he meant
to see her only to say good-by. But even that contented her, if it must
be. The splendor of their understanding abode with her and made his will
seem easy. When the tide of new love went down, it would be another
thing; but now it was at the flood, and the light of heaven shone in it.
He came walking through the garden, and she saw him come. Grannie sat
out there among the hollyhocks, waiting for Peter. He had left his
painting to bring her a glass of water from the house, and she rested in
a somnolent calm. Grannie liked the sunshine, and to-day it was opulent
and flooding. To Osmond, looking at her as he came, her serenity seemed
even majestic. She had forgotten the world, he saw, and a smile brooded
upon her face, that face where no evil passions had ever dwelt, and
where peace had lain like a visible sign for many years. As he passed
her portrait, he glanced at it in proud wonder because Peter had done
it. To Osmond it looked complete as it was, and he found it another and
only less beautiful grannie in the garden, with an added touch of life
upon the face, something that did not lie there every day. It was a
shade of sadness in the midst of the tranquillity, as if grannie also,
in spite of her calm, had known great hungers. It tempered her childlike
quality and made what might be called her character as enduring as time
that had wrought it. She opened her eyes, when he neared her, and her
smile came, the one that was for him alone and never failed him.
"What were you thinking about, grannie?" he asked her.
"A good many things," she said. "Florrie and poor Billy Stark."
"You'll miss her, grannie!"
"Not long, son. And I'm very glad she's gone. Florrie never was one to
bear old age. She'd have had to meet it soon!"
Osmond smiled tenderly at the ingenuous implication, but then he
bethought him it was true. Madam Fulton never had been old. Grannie put
out her hand to his.
"I've been thinking of you, son, all the morning. I hoped you'd come."
"Yes, grannie. I couldn't come before."
"No. You look like a new man."
"I am a new man, grannie."
He gave the kind hand a little tight grasp, and left her. Peter was
coming with the glass of water, and Peter, too, had a morning light on
his face, only his was the look of the maker who sees the vision of
fulfillment.
"Good picture, Pete," said Osmond.
Peter nodded in entire acquiescence.
"I don't know what grannie looks like," he said. He was gazing into the
glass of water, as if it were a crystal and he could find the answer
there. "I've been trying to think. Like a baby--with a sort of
innocence--like a fate, a kind one,--like the earth goddess. If I've put
in all I see, it's a corker."
"It's the mother look," said Osmond. "But it is a corker, safe enough."
They parted with a nod, but Peter stopped.
"Hear that!" he said.
Rose was singing. The song began so triumphantly, with such dash and
splendor, that it was almost like improvising. Osmond felt it like a
call. He went on to the house, and Peter, after that moment of
listening, also kept on the way that took him to his work. He, too,
walked with quickened step, and there was light in his eyes. All the
vibrations of his being quickened to the song; but he was thinking what
a stunning world it was to have such things in it: paint and canvas and
disturbing songs and broken hearts. The song ceased suddenly. He knew
why. Osmond had gone into the room and Rose had met him. Peter sighed.
Then he laughed, took grannie's empty glass from her, and sat down to
work.
"It's a funny world, grannie," he remarked.
Grannie smiled at him. She understood him also, though he was not in her
heart as Osmond was.
"You like your work, don't you, Peter?" she remarked. "It's just the
right thing for you."
Peter plunged at it.
"It's the best thing out," he affirmed. "It's the top bubble on the
biggest wave." Then he too, because the song had ceased, began one on
his own account, with an inward rueful apology to his broken heart. For
the song should have been a sad one, but Peter could not paint when the
vibrations lagged, and so he made it gay.
Osmond followed the voice, and met Rose in the sitting-room, where she
stood waiting for him. She wore a morning gown of demure dimity, with a
little ruffle about her singing throat. When she saw him, she laughed,
for no reason. Then she blushed. For Osmond was not the same. He came up
to her and took her hands.
"You don't look like a goddess," he said.
They were smiling at each other out of an equal hope.
"I'm not a goddess. I'm just girl."
"Not a terrible Parisian?"
She looked down at her dress, that had wrought the simplicity.
"I put it on for you," she said. "You didn't like my chiffons that other
night."
"How did you know I should come?"
"You knew it. Why shouldn't I know it? Are the wires down?"
Then, by one impulse, they began to walk back and forth through the
room, hand in hand, like children.
"You go next week," he said, although he knew she did.
"Yes."
"When do you come back?"
"As soon as I can race through all the business there. In a month, I
hope--perhaps less."
"Shall you come straight here?"
"I may stay a day or two in New York. I shall bring letters. I shall try
to get a footing there."
"I will meet you in New York. Grannie has folks there. I'll take you to
them."
It was a different man that spoke, decisive, dominating. She flushed in
keen delight. They stopped at the window and looked out on the garden
beds, in that tranquil summer hush, all growth and bloom. He drew her
hand to his lips and spoke intemperately.
"What a fool I was to come by day!"
"Why, Osmond?"
"I wanted it to be by day, with no glamour round us, to make you judge,
accept, reject things as they are. But now I need the night to help me."
She was a picture of breathing happiness. He forgot his part. "Rose," he
cried, "it's love between us!"
"It's love," she answered.
"I came to tell you the past is past. It's not to be remembered. Not a
doubt! not a fear! not even a fear for you. You're not to love a coward.
I won't have that. Will you take me, make what you can of me?"
The light on their faces spoke without their will.
"I'm not going to mark it down," he said. "I'm not going to say it isn't
worthy of you. It's going to be, the sort the big lovers died for. I
have looked the thing in the face. I adore it. I'm going where it leads
me."
She calmed as he grew fervid.
"Sit down, Osmond," she said. "We must talk. There aren't many days to
talk in."
But as he sat, he kept her hand.
"Shall I tell you why I've been staying away from you?" he asked.
"If you want to. But I know."
"You don't know the half. I have had to conquer all sorts of fears,
chiefly for you. For me it's nothing. I'd rather have one minute of you
and lose you to-morrow than not to have had you. But for you!" A wistful
shade fell upon his face. "My own dear child!" he mused. "It must be
well for you."
"It will be well."
"It shall. It's a great adventure, Rose. It's a big challenge--the
biggest. I promise you--"
"No! no!"
"Yes. I promise you my undying faith. And I won't be a coward."
She was looking at him, smiling.
"You're a darling lover," she said. "Such pretty words!"
Then they laughed.
"This is nothing to what I can do," said Osmond. "I shall read the
poets."
He leaned to her and they kissed, like children. Tears came into his
eyes. He foresaw strange beauties he had never dreamed of. There would
be the sweet, slumbrous valleys and the sharp lightnings of fierce love,
but there would be also the homely intimacies, the foolishness of
children who, hand in hand, can smile at everything.
"Do you suppose you could tell what I am thinking?" he wondered.
The air of the playhouse seemed to be about her, and she knew.
"You are playing we are on a ship," she said.
"Yes, we two alone--"
"We're just starting on the great adventure--"