"What on earth is it all about, I wonder?" he muttered. "Must be telling her the story of his whole life!"
He had asked her to meet him in the old rose garden when she came out. For the dozenth time he strolled in and sat down on their favorite rustic1. He could neither sit still nor content himself with wandering.
"What the devil's the matter with me anyhow?" he said aloud. "The next thing I'll be thinking I'm in love—good joke—bah!"
Helen was not the ideal he had dreamed. She had simply brought a sweet companionship into his life—that was all. She was a good fellow. She could walk, ride, run and hold her own at any game he liked to play. He had walked with her over miles of hills and valleys stretching in every direction about town. He had never grown tired of these walks. He didn't have to entertain her. They were silent often for a long time. They sat down beside the roadway, laughed and talked[Pg 320] like chums with never a thought of entertaining each other.
In the long rides they had taken in the afternoons and sometimes late in the starlight or moonlight, she had never grown silly, sentimental2 or tiresome3. A restful and home-like feeling always filled him when she was by his side. He hadn't thought her very beautiful at first, but the longer he knew her the more charming and irresistible4 her companionship became.
"Her figure's a little too full for the finest type of beauty!" he was saying to himself now. "Her arms are splendid, but the least bit too big, and her face sometimes looks too strong for a girl's! It's a pity. Still, by geeminy, when she smiles she is beautiful! Her face seems to fairly blossom with funny little dimples—and that one on the chin is awfully5 pretty! She just misses by a hair being a stunningly6 beautiful girl!"
He flicked7 a fly from his boot with a switch he was carrying and glanced anxiously toward the house. "And I must say," he acknowledged judicially8, "that she has a bright mind, her tastes are fine, her ideals high. She isn't all the time worrying over balls and dresses and beaux like a lot of silly girls I know. She's got too much sense for that. The fact is, she has a brilliant mind."
Now that he came to think of it, she had a mind of rare brilliance9. Everything she said seemed to sparkle. He didn't stop to ask the reason why, he simply knew that it was so. If she spoke10 about the weather, her words never seemed trivial.
He rose scowling11 and walked back to the house.
"What on earth can they be talking about all this[Pg 321] time?" he cried angrily. Just then his father's tall figure stepped out on the porch, walked its length and entered the sitting-room12 by one of the French windows.
He sprang up the steps, thrust his head into the hall, and softly whistled. He waited a moment, there was no response, and he repeated the call. Still receiving no answer, he entered cautiously:
"Miss Helen!"
He tipped to the library door and called again:
"Miss Helen!"
Surprised that she could have gone so quickly he rushed into the room, glanced hastily around, crossed to the window, looked out on the porch, heard the rustle13 of a skirt and turned in time to see her flying to escape.
With a quick dash he headed her off.
Hiding her face she turned and ran the other way for the door through which he had entered.
With a laugh and a swift leap Tom caught her arms.
"Lord, you're a sprinter14!" he cried breathlessly. "But I've got you now!" he laughed, holding her pinioned15 arms tightly.
Helen lifted her tear-stained face:
"Please——"
Tom drew her gently around and looked into her eyes:
"Why—what on earth—you're crying!"
She tried to draw away but he held her hand firmly:
"What is it? What's happened? What's the matter?"
His questions were fired at her with lightning rapidity.[Pg 322]
The girl dropped forlornly on the lounge and turned her face away:
"Please go!"
"I won't go—I won't!" he answered firmly as he bent16 closer.
"Please—please!"
"Tell me what it is?"
Helen held her face resolutely17 from him.
"Tell me," he urged tenderly.
"I can't!"
She threw herself prostrate18 and broke into sobs19.
The boy wrung20 his hands helplessly, started to put his arm around her, caught himself in time and drew back with a start. At last he burst out passionately21:
"Don't—don't! For heaven's sake don't! It hurts me more than it does you—I don't know what it is but it hurts—it hurts inside and it hurts deep—please!"
Without lifting her head Helen cried:
"I don't want to live any more!"
"Oh, is that all?" Tom laughed. "I see, you've stubbed your toe and don't want to live any more!"
"I mean it!" she broke in desperately23.
"Good joke!" he cried again, laughing. "You don't want to live any more! Twenty years old and every line of your graceful24, young form quivering with the joy of life—you—you don't want to live! That's great!"
The girl lifted her dimmed eyes, looked at him a moment, and spoke the thought that had poisoned her soul—spoke it in hard, bitter accents with a touch of self-loathing:
"I've just learned that my birth is shadowed by disgrace!"[Pg 323]
"Well, what have you to do with that?" he asked quickly. "Your whole being shines with truth and purity. What's an accident of birth? You couldn't choose your parents, could you? You're a nameless orphan25 and my father is the attorney of an old fool guardian26 who lives somewhere in Europe. All right! The worst thing your worst enemy could say is that you're a child of love—a great love that leaped all bounds and defied the law—a love that was madness and staked all life on the issue! That means you're a child of the gods. Some of the greatest men and women of the world were born like that. Your own eyes are clear. There's no cloud on your beautiful soul——"
Tom paused and Helen lifted her face in rapt attention. The boy suddenly leaped to his feet, turned away and spoke in ecstatic whispers:
"Good Lord—listen at me—why—I'm making love—great Scott—I'm in love! The big thing has happened—to me—to me! I feel the thrill of it—the thing that transforms the world—why—it's like getting religion!"
He strode back and forth27 in a frenzy28 of absurd happiness.
Helen, smiling through her tears, asked:
"What are you saying? What are you talking about?"
With a cry of joy he was at her side, her hand tight gripped in his:
"Why, that I'm in love, my own—that I love you, my glorious little girl! I didn't realize it until I saw just now the tears in your eyes and felt the pain of it. Every day these past weeks you've been stealing into my heart until now you're my very life! What hurts[Pg 324] you hurts me—your joys are mine—your sorrows are mine!"
Laughing in spite of herself, Helen cried:
"You—don't realize what you're saying!"
"No—but I'm beginning to!" he answered with a boyish smile. "And it goes to my head like wine—I'm mad with its joy! I tell you I love you—I love you! and you love me—you do love me?"
The girl struggled, set her lips grimly and said fiercely:
"No—and I never shall!"
"You don't mean it?"
"I do!"
"You—you—don't love another?"
"No—no!"
"Then you do love me!" he cried triumphantly29. "You've just got to love me! I won't take any other answer! Look into my eyes!"
She turned resolutely away and he took both hands drawing her back until their eyes met.
"Your lips say no," he went on, "but your tears, your voice, the tremor30 of your hand and the tenderness of your eyes say yes!"
Helen shook her head:
"No—no—no!"
But the last "no" grew feebler than the first and he pressed her hand with cruel pleading:
"Yes—yes—yes—say it, dear—please—just once."
Helen looked at him and then with a cry of joy that was resistless said:
"God forgive me! I can't help it—yes, yes, yes, I love you—I love you!"
Tom snatched her to his heart and held her in perfect[Pg 325] surrender. She suddenly drew her arms from his neck, crying in dismay:
"No—no—I don't love you!"
The boy looked at her with a start and she went on quickly:
"I didn't mean to say it—I meant to say—I hate you!"
With a cry of pain she threw herself into his arms, clasping his neck and held him close.
His hand gently stroked the brown hair while he laughed:
"Well, if that's the way you hate—keep it up!"
With an effort she drew back:
"But I mustn't——"
"There!" he said, tenderly drawing her close again. "It's all right. It's no use to struggle. You're mine—mine, I tell you!"
With a determined31 effort she freed herself:
"It's no use, dear, our love is impossible."
"Nonsense!"
"But you don't realize that my birth is shadowed by disgrace!"
"I don't believe it—I wouldn't believe it if an angel said it. Who dares to say such a thing?"
"Your father!"
"My father?" he repeated in a whisper.
"He has always known the truth and now that I am of age he has told me——"
"Told you what?"
"Just what I said, and warned me that marriage could only bring pain and sorrow to those I love."
"He gave you no facts—only these vague warnings?"
"Yes, more—he told me——"[Pg 326]
She paused and moved behind the table:
"That my father and mother were never married."
"Nothing more?" the boy asked eagerly.
"That's enough."
"Not for me!"
"Suppose my father were a criminal?"
"No matter—your soul's as white as snow"
"Suppose my mother——"
"I don't care who she was—you're an angel!"
Helen faced him with strained eagerness:
"You swear that no stain on my father or mother can ever make the least difference between us?"
"I swear it!" he cried grasping her hand. "Come, you're mine!"
Helen drew back:
"Oh, if I could only believe it——"
"You do believe it—come!"
He opened his arms and she smiled.
"What shall I do!"
"Come!"
Slowly at first, and then with quick, passionate22 tenderness she threw herself into his arms:
"I can't help it, dearest. It's too sweet and wonderful—God help me if I'm doing wrong!"
"Wrong!" he exclaimed indignantly. "How can it be wrong, this solemn pledge of life and love, of body and soul?"
She lifted her face to his in wonder:
"And you will dare to tell your father?"
"In good time, yes. But it's our secret now. Keep it until I say the time has come for him to know. I'll manage him—promise!"[Pg 327]
"Yes! How sweet it is to hear you tell me what to do! I shall never be lonely or afraid again."
The father's footstep on the porch warned of his approach.
"Go quickly!" the boy whispered. "I don't want him to see us together yet—it means too much now—it means life itself!"
Helen moved toward the door, looked back, laughed, flew again into his arms and quickly ran into the hall as Norton entered from the porch.
The boy caught the look of surprise on his father's face, realized that he must have heard the rustle of Helen's dress, and decided32 instantly to accept the fact.
He boldly walked to the door and gazed after her retreating figure, his back squarely on his father.
Norton paused and looked sharply at Tom:
"Was—that—Helen?"
The boy turned, smiling, and nodded with slight embarrassment33 in spite of his determined effort at self-control:
"Yes."
The father's keen eyes pierced the boy's:
"Why should she run?"
Tom's face sobered:
"I don't think she wished to see you just now, sir."
"Evidently!"
"She had been crying."
"And told you why?"
"Yes."
The father frowned:
"She has been in the habit of making you her confidant?"[Pg 328]
"No. But I found her in tears and asked her the reason for them."
Norton was watching closely:
"She told you what I had just said to her?"
"Vaguely," Tom answered, and turning squarely on his father asked: "Would you mind telling me the whole truth about it?"
"Why do you ask?"
The question came from the father's lips with a sudden snap, so suddenly, so sharply the boy lost his composure, hung his head, and stammered34 with an attempt at a smile:
"Oh—naturally curious—I suppose it's a secret?"
"Yes—I wish I could tell you, but I can't"—he paused and spoke with sudden decision:
"Ask Cleo to come here."
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1
rustic
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| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
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sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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3
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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4
irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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5
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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6
stunningly
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| ad.令人目瞪口呆地；惊人地 | |
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7
flicked
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| （尤指用手指或手快速地）轻击( flick的过去式和过去分词 )； （用…）轻挥； （快速地）按开关； 向…笑了一下（或瞥了一眼等） | |
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judicially
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| 依法判决地，公平地 | |
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brilliance
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| n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智 | |
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10
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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11
scowling
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| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的现在分词 ) | |
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12
sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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13
rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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14
sprinter
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| n.短跑运动员，短距离全速奔跑者 | |
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15
pinioned
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| v.抓住[捆住]（双臂）( pinion的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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17
resolutely
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| adj.坚决地，果断地 | |
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18
prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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19
sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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20
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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21
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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22
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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23
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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24
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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25
orphan
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| n.孤儿；adj.无父母的 | |
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26
guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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27
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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28
frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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29
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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30
tremor
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| n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震 | |
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31
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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32
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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33
embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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34
stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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