ABSOLUTELY BLAMELESS.
Most men who are by nature excitable surprise their friends on occasions
by exhibiting great calmness. Shirley Roseleaf, who had often been
thrown into the greatest heat by far less important happenings than the
one just narrated, seemed a picture of repose as he walked through the
wood with his friend in the direction of the horses they had tethered.
"How did you discover they were going to have this meeting?" asked Weil,
nervously. "I am all at sea."
"I have been on his track ever since the day I was to have been
married," was the reply. "I didn't intend to leave a mystery like that
unsolved. I discovered that the Ferns were living here, and that
Hannibal originated a few miles further on. I found that Miss Daisy was
still a little afraid of him, that he was using an influence over her
which was to say the least strange. Before I got at the truth I had some
queer misgivings, you may believe."
Mr. Weil stared at his companion.
"But how did you learn all this?" he demanded.
"Oh," said Roseleaf, with a slight laugh, "I've been in this
neighborhood for two months. They haven't met once but I heard every
word they said. Little by little I gained the truth of the matter. And
to-night, as it was perhaps the last time they would be together, I
wanted you to understand it perfectly."
Archie frowned at the thoughts that crept in upon his brain.
"Excuse me for saying that you don't appear to mind it much," he
muttered. "If you have heard many conversations like the one to which I
just listened, and could go away without expressing the thoughts you
ought to feel, you are made up differently from me."
"That may be so, too," smiled the other, good-humoredly. "But remember
that things are changed. I once was a man in love--now I am simply a
writer of romance."
The elder man shivered.
"Could one be actually in love with a girl like that and then recover
from it?" he asked, half to himself.
"I don't think I ever was very much in love," was the quick reply. "But
never mind that. Let us talk of Hannibal. You spoke of going after him.
What would you have done had you carried out that intention?"
Weil had not thought of the matter in this concrete form. He had wanted
to punish the negro for his crimes against the woman he so dearly loved,
against the old man for whom he had such a warm affection. How he would
have accomplished this he had not decided. The first thing was to follow
and tax the wretch with his offense. Subsequent events would have
depended on the way Hannibal met the accusation. Certainly the temper of
the pursuer would have been warm, and his conduct might have been
severe.
"I don't know," he said. "I should have told him for one thing that he
would have to reckon with something more than a weak girl or a poor old
man if he annoyed that family again. In case he had been impertinent I
cannot say what I might have been tempted to do."
"All the more reason for congratulating yourself," replied Roseleaf, as
they reached the horses, "that you did not follow him. He has promised
to keep away from the Ferns, and I think they have seen the last of him.
What is done can't be undone, ugly as it is. Now," he continued,
vaulting into his saddle, "your course is reasonably plain. You must
visit Miss Daisy soon, let her know that the extent of her misfortune is
in your possession, and after a reasonable time, ask her to marry you."
Archie Weil, who had also mounted his horse, came near falling from the
back of the animal at this very abrupt suggestion.
"That is just what you should do," continued Roseleaf, without allowing
him to speak. "You are desperately in love. Daisy likes you very well,
and it would take but little effort on your part to induce even a warmer
sentiment. Her father thinks you one of the angels that came down to
earth and forgot to return to heaven. She ought not to go through life
alone. Her only trouble is the suspicion that rests on her name--a
suspicion she considers herself bound in honor to do nothing to lift.
Show her that you know how innocent she is, and you will bring a new
light to her eyes, a new smile to her lips."
"But," asked Archie, catching at the straw, "how can I tell her--how can
I explain the source of my information?"
Roseleaf laughed.
"By the novel method of using the truth, or at least a part of it," he
said. "Tell her you were out riding and saw Hannibal, and followed him.
You needn't count me into it. Why, you've got to let her know, or else I
have. It's a thing she would almost give her life to have revealed
without her aid. Go like a man and take that heavy weight off her young
soul."
Finally Weil consented. He would not discuss the question of whether he
would afterwards speak of the hope that lay nearest his heart. But he
would go to her, as Roseleaf suggested, and relieve her of the strain
that had worn so deeply. He would go the very next day. The sooner it
was accomplished the better. The more he thought of it the more
delighted he grew that he could carry such tidings. He could make Daisy
happier. That was enough for him--at present. If he could make himself
happy at a future date--but there was time enough for that.
He sat upright in his saddle and exulted as his horse bounded nimbly
over the ground. Why was it not already day, that he might turn the
beast in the opposite direction! The hours would be very long before the
sun rose and he could start on his joyful errand. The sombre hue of his
countenance disappeared before the contentment that began to fill his
breast.
He slept well, notwithstanding the fact that he expected to lie awake
all night when he retired. In the morning, on going down to breakfast,
he found that Shirley had left still earlier, leaving word that he had
started on a quest for game. Weil did not mind. He had enough before him
for one day. He was going to see Daisy, and he had that to tell which
would lighten the load she had so long felt compelled to carry.
He waited until after nine o'clock, feeling that some regard must be
paid to _les convenances_, even on such an important occasion as this.
When he was in the saddle he rode as slowly as he could bring himself to
do, to make his arrival still later. At last he reached the gate of
Oakhurst, and when he had summoned the porter he sent him for Mr. Fern,
stating that he had happened to ride in that direction and wanted merely
to make a short call.
It was but a few minutes before the servant returned, and the
hospitable master of the premises came with him. Mr. Fern upbraided Weil
for using so much ceremony, remarking that although he was living in a
retired way, there was always one friend he was glad to see. Giving up
the horse, Archie accompanied his host to the house, where the latter
said he would send at once for Daisy.
"A minute," interpolated Archie. "I want a little talk with you first,
alone."
Mr. Fern looked up curiously. He believed he knew what his visitor was
about to say. He had long suspected the feelings which Archie
entertained for Daisy. He knew also that his daughter would consent to
wed no man, no matter who, while there hung over her fair fame the
terrible mystery of her wedding night.
"I want to tell you," pursued Archie, before his host could interrupt,
"that I have made a great discovery--one of the utmost moment to your
family. I know what happened on that day so sad to all of us,
and--listen to me, Mr. Fern!--I know that your child is absolutely
blameless in the matter."
The listener's face grew very white. He understood imperfectly, but it
seemed to him that a tale he could not bear to hear was about to be
forced upon him.
"Mr. Weil," he said, earnestly, "I hope you will not continue this
subject. I do not know what occurred--I do not wish to know. I have
consulted my daughter's sentiments entirely. She prefers to have the
veil unlifted, and I respect her wish."
The visitor could hardly contain himself for impatience.
"That has been true hitherto," he replied. "But Miss Daisy herself will
be more than delighted when she knows I am aware of the entire
facts--which she has been prevented, by a promise extracted from her,
from revealing. Call her, let me tell her that I know everything, and
how I know it, and you will see the happiest girl in America."
Mr. Fern shook his head doubtfully. He was much afraid of doing
something to injure Daisy's feelings. He could not believe she wanted to
have the trouble that had crushed her raked up by any one. Archie
persisted, however, and his arguments at last won the day.
"You do not think I would come here with any tidings I did not believe
agreeable?" he said, interrogatively. "You know I care too much for--for
both of you--to do that."
When Miss Daisy was summoned, which she was at last, and Mr. Weil gently
let drop a hint of what he had to tell, the girl was hardly less
agitated than her father had been. Instead, however, as the visitor
expected, of relying on her natural protector during the expected
recital, she whispered to Mr. Fern, who obediently rose and let her lead
him out of the room. Presently she returned, and took a chair opposite
to Mr. Weil. Her face was so pathetic, her attitude so entreating, that
he quite forgot what he had come to tell, and leaning toward her, took
her hands in his.
"Daisy," he said, "I--I--" and he could go no further.
"Yes, I know," she answered, in a low voice. "But there is a reason why
I cannot listen to you. I have told you that before. I ought not even to
say as much as this. I should not even remain in the room while you
explain the least thing."
He choked down the rising in his throat and hastened, lest she should
follow literally the sentiment she had outlined and leave him to
himself.
"This has all been true, until now," he said. "You were under a promise,
an oath. But--Daisy, last night I heard all that passed between you and
your persecutor, and there is no longer any need for mystery between
us."
She gasped, as if her breath was going.
"You--you heard!"
"Everything. I was within forty feet of you. Are you sorry that the
awful cloud is blown away--that your perfect innocence is proved without
a violation of your plighted word?"
For the girl was crying, slowly, without hysteria, crying with both her
hands tightly clasped over her eyes.
"_I_ did not need it, not I," continued the man, earnestly. "I knew you
had done nothing of your free will that the whole world might not know.
But I knew, too, that you would be pleased to have your innocence
established. And I was glad for another reason. I love you, Daisy. I
have loved you a very long time. Your sister was right in that. Had you
not shown such a marked preference for my friend I would have done my
best to win you, months and months ago. While you felt that you were an
object of suspicion I knew you would not consent to be my wife. Now,
that obstacle is gone and--Daisy--I want you."
The hands were withdrawn from the tear-stained face, a handkerchief was
hastily passed over it, and Daisy turned half away from the speaker.
"You will not refuse, my love," he murmured, bending again toward her.
"You will promise?"
One of her hands strayed toward him, and was clasped joyfully in his
own.
"But, in relation to that other matter," said Daisy, some moments later,
when the sweet tokens of love had been given and taken, "I must be as
silent as before. I have listened to you, but I have not replied. You
can understand the reason. Never speak of it to me again, if you do not
wish to inflict pain. It is something I cannot discuss."
"I may tell your father, though," he whispered.
"It would be best not. He is content now. No, I beg you, say nothing to
any one."
And he promised, like the lover he was, and sealed it with another kiss
on her pure mouth.
"I may tell him of--of our love?" he asked.
"Oh, yes; we will tell him of that together."