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diff --git a/43977-8.txt b/43977-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 5c265d3..0000000 --- a/43977-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8661 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Seven Darlings, by Gouverneur Morris - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Seven Darlings - -Author: Gouverneur Morris - -Illustrator: Howard Chandler Christy - -Release Date: October 19, 2013 [EBook #43977] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEVEN DARLINGS *** - - - - -Produced by Annie R. McGuire. This book was produced from -scanned images of public domain material from the Google -Print archive. - - - - - - - - - -THE SEVEN DARLINGS - - - - -[Illustration: She stood stock-still, in plain view if they had looked -her way] - - - - -THE -SEVEN DARLINGS - - * * * * * - -BY GOUVERNEUR MORRIS - - * * * * * - - -[Illustration] - - -With Frontispiece -By HOWARD CHANDLER CHRISTY - - * * * * * - -A. L. BURT COMPANY -Publishers -New York -Published by Arrangements with CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS - - - - -COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY -CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS - - - - -TO -HOPE DAVIS - - - - -THE SEVEN DARLINGS - - - - -I - - -Six of the Darlings were girls. The seventh was a young man who looked -like Galahad and took exquisite photographs. Their father had died -within the month, and Mr. Gilpin, the lawyer, had just faced them, in -family assembled, with the lamentable fact that they, who had been so -very, very rich, were now astonishingly poor. - -"My dears," he said, "your poor father made a dreadful botch of his -affairs. I cannot understand how some men----" - -"Please!" said Mary, who was the oldest. "It can't be any satisfaction -to know why we are poor. Tell us just how poor we are, and we'll make -the best of it. I understand that The Camp isn't involved in the general -wreck." - -"It isn't," said Mr. Gilpin, "but you will have to sell it, or at least, -rent it. Outside The Camp, when all the estate debts are paid, there -will be thirty or forty thousand dollars to be divided among you." - -"In other words--_nothing_," said Mary; "I have known my father to spend -more in a month." - -"Income--" began Mr. Gilpin. - -"_Dear_ Mr. Gilpin," said Gay, who was the youngest by twenty minutes; -"don't." - -"Forty thousand dollars," said Mary, "at four per cent is sixteen -hundred. Sixteen hundred divided by seven is how much?" - -"Nothing," said Gay promptly. And all the family laughed, except Arthur, -who was trying to balance a quill pen on his thumb. - -"I might," said Mr. Gilpin helplessly, "be able to get you five per cent -or even five and a half." - -"You forget," said Maud, the second in age, and by some thought the -first in beauty, "that we are father's children. Do you think _he_ ever -troubled his head about five and a half per cent, or even," she finished -mischievously, "six?" - -Arthur, having succeeded in balancing the quill for a few moments, laid -it down and entered the discussion. - -"What has been decided?" he asked. His voice was very gentle and -uninterested. - -"It's an awful pity mamma isn't in a position to help us," said Eve. - -Eve was the third. After her, Arthur had been born; and then, all on a -bright summer's morning, the triplets, Lee, Phyllis, and Gay. - -"That old scalawag mamma married," said Lee, "spends all her money on -his old hunting trips." - -"Where is the princess at the moment?" asked Mr. Gilpin. - -"They're in Somaliland," said Lee. "They almost took me. If they had, I -shouldn't have called Oducalchi an old scalawag. You know the most -dismal thing, when mamma and papa separated and _she_ married _him_, was -his turning out to be a regular old-fashioned brick. He can throw a fly -yards further and lighter than any man _I_ ever saw." - -"And if you are bored," said Phyllis, "you say to him, 'Say something -funny, Prince,' and he always can, instantly, without hesitation." - -"All things considered," said Gay, "mamma's been a very lucky girl." - -"Still," said Mary, "the fact remains that she's in no position to -support us in the lap of luxury." - -"Our kid brother," said Gay, "the future Prince Oducalchi, will need all -she's got. When you realize that that child will have something like -fifty acres of slate roofs to keep in order, it sets you thinking." - -"One thing I insist on," said Maud, "mamma shan't be bothered by a lot -of hard-luck stories----" - -"Did it ever occur to you, Mr. Gilpin," said Arthur, in his gentle -voice, "that my sisters are the six sandiest and most beautiful girls in -the world? I've been watching them out of the corner of my eye, and -wishing to heaven that I were Romney or Gainsborough. I'd give a million -dollars, if I had them, for their six profiles, immortally painted in a -row. But nowadays if a boy has the impulse to be a painter, he is given -a camera; or if he wishes to be a musician, he is presented with a -pianola. Luxury is the executioner of art. Personally I am so glad that -I am going to be poor that I don't know what to do." - -"Aren't you sorry for us, Artie?" asked Gay. - -"Very," said he; "and I don't like to be called Artie." - - * * * * * - -Immediately after their father's funeral the Darlings had hurried off to -their camp on New Moon Lake. An Adirondack "camp" has much in common -with a Newport "cottage." The Darlings' was no exception. There was -nothing camp-like about it except its situation and the rough bark -slats with which the sides of its buildings were covered. There were -very many buildings. There was Darling House, in which the family had -their sleeping-rooms and bathrooms and dressing-rooms. There was Guide's -House, where the guides, engineers, and handy men slept and cooked, and -loafed in rainy weather. A passageway, roofed but open at the sides, led -from Darling House to Dining House--one vast room, in the midst of which -an oval table which could be extended to seat twenty was almost lost. -Heads of moose, caribou, and elk (not "caught" in the Adirondacks) -looked down from the walls. Another room equally large adjoined this. It -contained tables covered with periodicals; two grand pianos (so that -Mary and Arthur could play duets without "bumping"); many deep and easy -chairs, and a fireplace so large that when it was half filled with -roaring logs it looked like the gates of hell, and was so called. - -Pantry House and Bar House led from Dining House to Smoke House, where -an olive-faced chef, all in white, was surrounded by burnished copper -and a wonderful collection of blue and white. - -There was Work House with its bench, forge, and lathe for working wood -and iron; Power House adjoining; and on the slopes of the mountain back -of the camp, Spring House, from which water, ice-cold, at high pressure -descended to circulate in the elaborate plumbing of the camp. - -For guests, there were little houses apart--Rest House, two -sleeping-rooms, a bath and a sitting-room; Lone House, in which one -person could sleep, keep clean, write letters, or bask on a tiny balcony -thrust out between the stems of two pine-trees and overhanging deep -water; Bachelor House, to accommodate six of that questionable species. -And placed here and there among pines that had escaped the attacks of -nature and the greed of man were half a dozen other diminutive houses, -accommodating from two to four persons. - -The Camp was laid out like a little village. It had its streets, paved -with pine-needles, its street lamps. - -It had grown from simple beginnings with the Darling fortune; with the -passing of this, it remained, in all its vast and intricate elaboration, -like a white elephant upon the family's hands. From time to time they -had tried the effect of giving the place a name, but had always come -back to "The Camp." As such it was known the length and breadth of the -North Woods. It was _The_ Camp, par excellence, in a region devoted to -camps and camping. - -"Other people," the late Mr. Darling once remarked, "have more land, but -nobody else has quite as much camp." - -The property itself consisted of a long, narrow peninsula thrust far out -into New Moon Lake, with half a mountain rising from its base. With the -exception of a small village at the outlet of the lake, all the -remaining lands belonged to the State, and since the State had no -immediate use for them and since the average two weeks' campers could -not get at them without much portage and expense, they were regarded by -the Darlings as their own private preserves. - -"The Camp," said Mr. Gilpin, "is, of course, a big asset. It is unique, -and it is celebrated, at least among the people who might have the means -to purchase it and open it. You could ask, and in time, I think, get a -very large price." - -They were gathered in the playroom. Mary, very tall and beautiful, was -standing with her back to the fireplace. - -"Mr. Gilpin," she said, "I have been coming to The Camp off and on for -twenty-eight years. I will never consent to its being sold." - -"Nor I," said Maud. "Though I've only been coming for twenty-six." - -"In twenty-four years," said Eve, "I have formed an attachment to the -place which nothing can break." - -"Arthur," appealed Mr. Gilpin, "perhaps you have some sense." - -"I?" said Arthur. "Why? Twenty-two years ago I was born here." - -"Good old Arthur!" exclaimed the triplets. "We were born here, too--just -nineteen years ago." - -"But," objected Mr. Gilpin, "you can't run the place--you can't live -here. Confound it, you young geese, you can't even pay the taxes." - -Lee whispered to Gay. - -"Look at Mary!" - -"Why?" - -"She's got a look of father in her eyes--father going down to Wall -Street to raise Cain." - -Mary spoke very slowly. - -"Mr. Gilpin," she said, "you are an excellent estate lawyer, and I am -very fond of you. But you know nothing about finance. We are going to -live here whenever we please. We are going to run it wide open, as -father did. We are even going to pay the taxes." - -Mr. Gilpin was exasperated. - -"Then you'll have to take boarders," he flung at her. - -"Exactly," said Mary. - -There was a short silence. - -"How do you know," said Gay, "that they won't pick their teeth in -public? I couldn't stand that." - -"They won't be that kind," said Mary grimly. "And they will be so busy -paying their bills that they won't have time." - -"Seriously," said Arthur, "are you going to turn The Camp into an inn?" - -"No," said Mary, "not into an inn. It has always been _The_ Camp. We -shall turn it into _The_ Inn." - - - - -II - - -Mr. Gilpin had departed in what had perhaps been the late Mr. Darling's -last extravagant purchase, a motor-boat which at rest was a streak of -polished mahogany, and at full speed, a streak of foam. The reluctant -lawyer carried with him instructions to collect as much cash as possible -and place it to the credit of the equally reluctant Arthur Darling. - -"Arthur," Mary had agreed, "is perhaps the only one of us who could be -made to understand that a bank account in his name is not necessarily at -his own personal disposal. Arthur is altruistically and Don Quixotically -honest." - -It was necessary to warm the playroom with a tremendous fire, as October -had changed suddenly from autumn to winter. There was a gusty grayness -in the heavens that promised flurries of snow. - -Since Mary's proposal of the day before to turn the expensive camp into -a profitable inn, the family had talked of little else, and a number of -ways and means had already been chosen from the innumerable ones -proposed. In almost every instance Arthur had found himself an amused -minority. His platform had been: "Make them comfortable at a fair -price." - -But Mary, who knew the world, had retorted: - -"We are not appealing to people who consider what they pay but to people -who only consider what they get. Make them luxurious; and they will pay -anything we choose to ask." - -After Mr. Gilpin's chillsome departure in the _Streak_, the family -resumed the discussion in front of the great fire in the playroom. Wow, -the dog, who had been running a deer for twenty-four hours in defiance -of all game-laws, was present in the flesh, but his weary spirit was in -the land of dreams, as an occasional barking and bristling of his mane -testified. Uncas, the chipmunk, had also demanded and received -admittance to the council. For a time he had sat on Arthur's shoulder, -puffing his cheeks with inconceivable rapidity, then, soporifically -inclined by the warmth of the fire and the constant strain incident to -his attempts to understand the ins and outs of the English language when -rapidly and even slangily spoken, he dropped into Arthur's breast-pocket -and went to sleep. - -Arthur sighed. He was feeling immensely fidgety; but he knew that any -sudden, irritable shifting of position would disturb the slumbers of -Uncas, and so for nearly an hour he held himself heroically, almost -uncannily, still. - -Two years ago, dating from his graduation, Arthur had had a change of -heart. He had been so dissipated as to give his family cause for the -utmost anxiety. He had squandered money with both hands. He had had a -regular time for lighting a cigarette, namely, when the one which he had -been smoking was ready to be thrown away. He had been a keen hunter and -fisherman. His chief use for domestic animals was to tease them and play -tricks upon them. Then suddenly, out of this murky sky, had shone the -clear light of all his subsequent behavior. He neither drank nor smoked; -he neither slaughtered deer nor caught fish. He was never quarrelsome. -He went much into the woods to photograph and observe. He became almost -too quiet and self-effacing for a young man. He asked nothing of the -world--not even to be let alone. He was patient under the fiendish -ministrations of bores. He tamed birds and animals, spoiling them, as -grandparents spoil grandchildren, until they gave him no peace, and were -always running to him at inconvenient times because they were hungry, -because they were sleepy, because they thought somebody had been -abusing them, or because they wished to be tickled and amused. - -"He's like a peaceful lake," Maud had once said, "deep in the woods, -where the wind never blows," and Eve had nodded and said: "True. And -there's a woman at the bottom of it." - -The sisters all believed that Arthur's change of heart could be traced -to a woman. They differed only as to the kind. - -"One of our kind," Mary thought, "who wouldn't have him." - -"One of our kind," thought Maud, "who couldn't have him." - -And the triplets thought differently every day. All except Gay, who -happened to know. - -"But," said Maud, "if we are to appeal to people of our own class, all -mamma's and papa's old friends and our own will come to us, and that -will be much, too much, like charity." - -"Right," said Mary. "Don't tell _me_ I haven't thought of that. I have. -Applications from old friends will be politely refused." - -"We can say," said Eve, "that we are very sorry, but every room is -taken." - -"But suppose they aren't?" objected Arthur. - -Eve retorted sharply. - -"What is that to do with it? We are running a business, not a Bible -class." - -But Phyllis was pulling a long face. - -"Aren't we ever to see any of our old friends any more?" - -Lee and Gay nudged each other and began to tease her. - -"Dearest Pill," they said, "all will yet be well. There is more than one -Geoffrey Plantagenet in the world. You shall have the pick of all the -handsome strangers." - -"Oh, come, now!" said Arthur, "Phyllis is right. Now and then we must -have guests--who don't pay." - -"Not until we can afford them," said Mary. "Has anybody seen the -sketch-map that papa made of the buildings?" - -"I know where it is," said Arthur, "but I can't get it now; because Wow -needs my feet for a pillow and at the moment Uncas is very sound -asleep." - -"Can't you _tell_ us where it is?" - -"Certainly," he said; "it's in the safe. The safe is locked." - -"And where is the key?" - -"Just under Uncas." - -"Very well, then," said Mary, "important business must wait until -Stripes wakes up. Meanwhile, I think we ought to make up our minds how -and how much to advertise." - -"There are papers," said Eve, "that all wealthy Americans always see, -and then there's that English paper with all the wonderful -advertisements of country places for sale or to let. I vote for a -full-page ad in that. People will say, 'Jove, this must be a wonderful -proposition if it pays 'em to advertise it in an English paper.'" - -Everybody agreed with Eve except Arthur. He merely smiled with and at -her. - -"We can say," said Eve, "shooting and fishing over a hundred thousand -acres. Does the State own as much as that, Arthur?" - -He nodded, knowing the futility of arguing with the feminine conscience. - -"Two hundred thousand?" - -He nodded again. - -"Then," said Eve, "make a note of this, somebody." Maud went to the -writing-table. "Shooting and fishing over hundreds of thousands of -acres." - -"There must be pictures," said Maud, "in the text of the ad--the place -is full of them; and if they won't do, Arthur can take others--when Wow -and Uncas wake up." - -"There must be that picture after the opening of the season," said Mary, -"the year the party got nine bucks--somebody make a point of finding -that picture." - -"There are some good strings of trout and bass photographically -preserved," said Gay. - -"A picture of chef in his kitchen will appeal," said Lee. - -"So will interiors," said Maud. "Bedrooms with vistas of plumbing. Let's -be honestly grateful to papa for all the money he spent on porcelain and -silver plate." - -"Oh, come," said Mary, "we must advertise in the American papers, too. I -think we should spend a good many thousand dollars. And of course we -must do away with the big table in the dining-house and substitute -little tables. I propose that we ransack the place for photographs, and -that Maud try her hand at composing full-page ads. And, Arthur, please -don't forget the sketch plan of the buildings--we'll have to make quite -a lot of alterations." - -"I've thought of something," said Maud. "Just a line. Part of the ad, of -course, mentions prices. Now I think if we say prices from so and so -up--it looks cheap and commonplace. At the bottom of the ad, then, after -we've described all the domestic comforts of The Camp and its sporting -opportunities, let's see if we can't catch the _clientèle_ we are after -with this: - - "'PRICES RATHER HIGH.'" - -"Maud," said Mary, after swift thought, "your mind is as clear as a gem. -Just think how that line would have appealed to papa if he'd been -looking into summer or winter resorts. Make a note of it-- What are you -two whispering about?" - -Lee and Gay looked up guiltily. They had not only been whispering but -giggling. They said: "Nothing. Absolutely nothing." - -But presently they put on sweaters and rowed off in a guide boat, so -that they might converse without fear of being observed. - -"Sure you've got it?" asked Lee. - -"Umm," said Gay, "sure." - -They giggled. - -"And you think we're not just plain conceited?" - -"My dear Lee," said Gay, "Mary, Maud, and Eve are famous for their faces -and their figgers--have been for years, poor old things. Well, in my -candid opinion, you and Phyllis are better-looking in every way. I look -at you two from the cool standpoint of a stranger, and I tell you that -you are incomparably good-looking." - -Lee laughed with mischievous delight. - -"And you look so exactly like us," she said, "that strangers can't tell -us apart." - -"For myself," said Gay demurely, "I claim nothing. Absolutely nothing. -But you and Pill are certainly as beautiful as you are young." - -"For the sake of argument, then," said Lee, "let's admit that we six -sisters considered as a collection are somewhat alluring to the eye. -Well--when the mail goes with the ads Maud is making up, we'll go with -it, and make such changes in the choice of photographs as we see fit." - -"That won't do," said Gay. "There will be proofs to correct." - -"Then we'll wait till the proofs are corrected and sent off." - -"Yes. That will be the way. It would be a pity for the whole scheme to -fall through for lack of brains. I suppose the others would never -agree?" - -"The girls _might_," said Lee, "but Arthur never. He would rise up like -a lion. You know, deep down in his heart he's a frightful stickler for -the proprieties." - -"We shall get ourselves into trouble." - -"It will not be the first or the last time. And besides, we can escape -to the woods if necessary, like Bessie Belle and Mary Grey." - -"Who were they?" - - "'They were two bonnie lassies. - They built a house on yon burn brae - And thecht it o'er wi' rashes.'" - - - - -III - - -If we except Arthur, whose knowledge of the Adirondack woods and waters -was that of a naturalist, Lee and Gay were the sportsmen of the family. -They had begun to learn the arts of fishing and hunting from excellent -masters at the tender age of five. They knew the deeps and shallows of -every lake and brook within many miles as intimately as a good housewife -knows the shelves in her linen closet. They talked in terms of blazes, -snags, spring holes, and runways. Each owned a guide boat, incomparably -light, which she could swing to her shoulders and carry for a quarter of -a mile without blowing. If Lee was the better shot, Gay could throw the -more seductive fly. - -There had been a guide in the girls' extreme youth, a Frenchman, Pierre -Amadis de Troissac, who had perhaps begun life as a gentleman. Whatever -his history, he had taught the precious pair the rudiments of French and -the higher mysteries of fishing. - -He had made a special study of spring holes, an essential in Adirondack -trout-fishing, and whenever the Darlings wanted trout, it had only been -necessary to tell De Troissac how many they wanted and to wait a few -hours. On those occasions when he went fishing for the larder, Lee and -Gay, two little roly-polies with round, innocent eyes, often accompanied -him. It never occurred to De Troissac that the children could mark down -the exact places from which he took fish, and, one by one and quite -unintentionally, he revealed to them the hard-won secrets of his spring -holes. The knowledge, however, went no further. They would have told -Phyllis, of course, if she had been a sport. But she wasn't. She -resembled Lee and Gay almost exactly in all other ways; but the spirit -of pursuit and capture was left out of her. Twice she had upset a boat -because a newly landed bass had suddenly begun to flop in the bottom of -it, and once, coming accidentally upon a guide in the act of -disembowelling a deer, she had gone into hysterics. She could row, carry -a boat, swim, and find the more travelled trails; but, as Lee and Gay -said: "Pill would starve in the woods directly the season was over." - -She couldn't discharge even a twenty-two calibre rifle without shutting -her eyes; she couldn't throw a fly twenty feet without snarling her -leader. The more peaceful arts of out-of-doors had excited her -imagination and latent skill. - -In the heart of the woods, back of The Camp, not to be seen or even -suspected until you came suddenly upon it, she had an acre of gardens -under exquisite cultivation, and not a little glass. She specialized in -nectarines, white muscats of Alexandria, new peas, and heaven-blue -larkspur. But, for the sake of others, she grew to perfection beets, -sweet corn, the lilies in variety, and immense Japanese iris. - -As The Camp was to be turned into an inn which should serve its guests -with delicious food, Phyllis and her garden became of immense importance -and she began to sit much apart, marking seed catalogues with one end of -a pencil and drumming on her beautiful teeth with the other. - -Negotiations had been undertaken with a number of periodicals devoted to -outdoor life, and a hundred schemes for advertising had been boiled down -to one, which even Arthur was willing to let stand. To embody Mary's -ideas of a profitable proposition into a page of advertising without -being too absurd or too "cheap," had proved extremely difficult. - -"We will run The Inn," she said, "so that rich people will live very -much as they would if they were doing the running. One big price must -cover all the luxuries of home. We must eliminate all extras--everything -which is a nuisance or a trouble. Except for the trifling fact that we -receive pay for it, we must treat them exactly as papa used to treat his -guests. He gave his guests splendid food of his own ordering. When they -wanted cigars or cigarettes, they helped themselves. There was always -champagne for dinner, but if men preferred whiskey and soda, they told -the butler, and he saw that they got it. What I'm driving at is this: -There must be no difference in price for a guest who drinks champagne -and one who doesn't drink anything. And more important still, we must do -all the laundering without extra charge; guides, guide boats, guns, and -fishing-tackle must be on tap--just as papa had everything for his -guests. The one big price must include absolutely everything." - -Added to this general idea, it was further conveyed in the final -advertisement that the shooting was over hundreds of thousands of acres -and the fishing in countless lakes and streams. And the last line of -the ad, as had been previously agreed, was this: - - "PRICES RATHER HIGH." - -And, as Gay said to Lee: "If that doesn't fetch 'em--you and I know -something that maybe will." - -The full-page ad began and ended with a portrait of Uncas, the chipmunk, -front view, sitting up, his cheeks puffed to the bursting point. The -centre of the page was occupied by a rather large view of The Camp and -many of the charming little buildings which composed it, taken from the -lake. Throughout the text were scattered reproductions--strings of -trout, a black bear, nine deer hanging in a row, and other seductions to -an out-of-door life. For lovers of good food there was a tiny portrait -of the chef and adjoining it a photograph of the largest bunch of white -muscats that had ever matured in Phyllis's vinery. - -A few days before the final proofs began to come in from the advertising -managers, there arrived, addressed to Gay, a package from a firm in New -York which makes a specialty of developing and printing photographs for -amateurs. Gay concealed the package, but Lee had noted its existence, -and sighed with relief. A little later she found occasion to take Gay -aside. - -"Was the old film all right? Did they print well?" - -Gay nodded. "It always was a wonderful picture," she said. - -"Us for the tall timber," she said--"when they come out." - -The final proofs being corrected and enveloped, Gay and Lee, innocent -and bored of face, announced that, as there was nothing to do, they -thought they would row the mail down to the village. It was a seven-mile -row, but that was nothing out of the ordinary for them and it was -arranged that the _Streak_ should be sent after them in case they showed -signs of being late for lunch. - -Gay rowed with leisurely strokes, while Lee, seated in the stern, busied -herself with a pair of scissors and a pot of paste. She was giving the -finally corrected proofs that still more final correcting which she and -Gay had agreed to be necessary. - -They had decided that the centrepiece of the advertisement--a mere -general view of The Camp--though very charming in its way, "meant -nothing," and they had made up their unhallowed minds to substitute in -its place one of those "fortunate snap-shots," the film of which Gay -had--happened to preserve. - -In this photograph the six Darling sisters were seated in a row, on the -edge of The Camp float. Their feet and ankles were immersed. They wore -black bathing-dresses, exactly alike, and the bathing-dresses were of -rather thin material--and very, very wet. - -The six exquisite heads perched on the six exquisite figures proved a -picture which, as Lee and Gay admitted, might cause even a worthy young -man to leave home and mother. - -It was not until they were half-way home that Lee suddenly cried aloud -and hid her face in her hands. - -"For Heaven's sake," exclaimed Gay, "trim boat, and what's the matter -anyway?" - -"Matter?" exclaimed Lee; "that picture of us sits right on top of the -line _Prices Rather High_. And it's too late to do anything about it!" - -Gay turned white and then red, and then she burst out laughing. "'Tis -awful," she said, "but it will certainly fetch 'em." - - - - -IV - - -The Camp itself underwent numerous changes during the winter; and even -the strong-hearted Mary was appalled by the amount of money which it had -been found necessary to expend. The playroom would, of course, be -reserved for the use of guests, and a similar though smaller and -inferior room had been thrust out from the west face of Darling House -for the use of the family. Then Maud, who had volunteered to take charge -of all correspondence and accounts, had insisted that an office be built -for her near the dock. This was mostly shelves, a big fireplace, and a -table. Here guests would register upon arrival; here the incoming mail -would be sorted and the outgoing weighed and stamped. It had also been -found necessary, in view of the very large prospective wash, to enlarge -and renovate Laundry House and provide sleeping quarters for a couple of -extra laundresses. - -Those who are familiar with the scarcity and reluctance of labor in the -Adirondacks will best understand how these trifling matters bit into the -Darling capital. - -Sometimes Mary, who held herself responsible for the possible failure of -the projected inn, could not sleep at night. Suppose that the -advertising, which would cost thousands of dollars, should fall flat? -Suppose that not a single solitary person should even nibble at the high -prices? The Darlings might even find themselves dreadfully in debt. The -Camp would have to go. She suffered from nightmares, which are bad, and -from daymares, which are worse. Then one day, brought across the ice -from the village of Carrytown at the lower end of the lake, she received -the following letter: - - MISS DARLING, - The Camp, New Moon Lake in the Adirondacks, New York. - - DEAR MADAM:--Yesterday morning, quite by accident, I saw the - prospectus of your inn on the desk of Mr. Burns, the advertising - manager of _The Four Seasons_. I note with regret that you are not - opening until the first of July. Would it not be possible for you - to receive myself and a party of guests very much earlier, say just - when the ice has gone out of the lake and the trout are in the warm - shallows along the shores? Personally, it is my plan to stay on - with you for the balance of the season, provided, of course, that - all your accommodations have not been previously taken. - - With regard to prices, I note only that they are "rather high." I - would suggest that, as it would probably inconvenience you to - receive guests prior to the date set for the formal opening of - your camp, you name a rate for three early weeks which would be - profitable to you. There will be six men in my party, including - myself. - - Very truly yours, - SAMUEL LANGHAM. - -Mary, her face flushed with the bright colors of triumph, read this -letter aloud to the assembled family. - -"Does anybody," she asked, "know anything about Samuel Langham? Is he a -suitable person?" - -"I know of him," said Arthur, smiling at some recollection or other. "He -is what the newspapers call a 'well-known clubman.' He is rich, fat, -good-natured, and not old. It is that part of your prospectus which -touches upon the _cuisine_ that has probably affected him. His father -was a large holder of Standard Oil securities." - -"As for me," said Gay, "I've seen him. Do you remember, Phyllis, being -asked to a most 'normous dinner dance at the Redburns' the year we came -out? At the last minute you caught cold and wanted to back out, but Mary -said _that_ wasn't done, and so I went in your place, and, as usual, -nobody knew the difference. Well, Mr. Langham was there. I didn't meet -him, but I remember I watched him eat. He is very smug-looking. He -didn't like the champagne. I remember that. He lifted his glass -hopefully, took one swallow, put his glass down, and never touched it -again. His face for the rest of dinner had the expression of one who has -been deeply wronged. I thought of Louis XVI mounting the scaffold." - -"I do wish," said Mary, "that we knew what kind of wine the creature -likes." - -"Father left a splendid collection," said Arthur. "Take Mr. Langham into -the cellar. He'll enjoy that. Let him pick his own bottle." - -In the event, Maud sat down in her new office and wrote Mr. Langham that -he and his five guests could be received earlier in the season. And -then, with fear and trembling, she named a price _per diem_ that -amounted to highway robbery. - -Mr. Langham's answer was prompt and cheerful. He asked merely to be -notified when the ice had gone out of the lake. - -"Well," said Mary, with a long-drawn sigh of relief, "the prices don't -seem to have frightened him nearly as much as they frightened us. But, -after all, the prospectus was alluring--though we say it that -shouldn't." - -Lee and Gay were troubled by qualms of conscience. The advertisements of -The Camp were to appear in the February number of some of the more -important periodicals, and the two scapegraces were beginning to be -horribly alarmed. - -Magazines have a way of being received last by those most interested in -seeing them. And before even a copy of _The Four Seasons_ reached the -Darlings, there came a number of letters from people who had already -seen the advertisement in it. One letter was from a very old friend of -the family, and ran as follows: - - MY DEAR MARY: - - How could you! I have seen your advertisement of The Camp in _The - Four Seasons_. It is earning much talk and criticism. I don't know - what you could have been thinking of. I have always regarded you - as one of the sanest and best-bred women I know. But it seems that - you are not above sacrificing your own dignity to financial - gain---- - -"Well, in the name of all that's ridiculous," exclaimed Mary; "of all -that's impertinent!--will somebody kindly tell me what my personality -has to do with our prospectus of The Camp?" - -Those who could have told her held their tongues and quaked inwardly. -The others joined in Mary's surprise and indignation. Even Arthur, who -hated the whole innkeeping scheme, was roused out of his ordinary -placidity. - -"I shall write to the horrid old woman," said Mary, "and tell her to -mind her own business. I shall also tell her that we are receiving so -many applications for accommodations that we don't know how to choose. -That isn't quite true, of course; but we have received some. Since I am -not above sacrificing my dignity"--she went on angrily--"to financial -gain, I may as well throw a few lies into the bargain." - -The next day, addressed to "The Camp," came the long-expected number of -_The Four Seasons_. Arthur opened it and began to turn the leaves. -Presently, from the centre of a page, he saw his six beautiful sisters -looking him in the face. - -"Mary!" he called, in such a voice that she came running. She looked and -turned white. Eve came, and Maud and Phyllis. - -"Who is responsible for this--" cried Arthur, "for this sickening--this -degraded piece of mischief?" - -"You corrected the final proofs yourself," said Maud. - -"And sealed them up. If I find that some mischief-maker in the office of -_The Four Seasons_ has been playing tricks----" - -"The mischief-makers are to be found nearer home," said Mary. "Don't you -remember that Lee and Gay took the proofs to the post-office. They said -they were bored and could think of nothing to do. _This_ is what they -were thinking of doing!" - -"Where are they?" he said in a grim voice. - -"Now, Arthur," said Maud, "think before you say anything to them that -you may regret. As for the picture of us in our bathing-suits--well, I, -for one, don't see anything dreadful about it. In fact, I think we look -rather lovely." - -Arthur groaned. - -"I want to talk to Lee and Gay," he said. "My sisters--an advertisement -in a magazine--for drummers and newsboys to make jokes about----" - -He grew white and whiter, until his innocent sisters were thoroughly -frightened. Then he started out of the playroom in search of Lee and -Gay. - -In or about The Camp they were not to be found. Nobody had seen them -since breakfast. With this information, he returned to the playroom. - -"They've run away," he said, "and I'm going after them." - -"I wouldn't," said Mary. "The harm's been done. You can't very well -spank them. I wish you could. You can only scold--and what earthly good -will that do them, or you?" - -"I don't know that anything I may say," said Arthur, "_will_ do them any -good. I live in hopes." - -"Have you any idea where they've gone?" - -"I'll cast about in a big circle and find their tracks." - -When Arthur, mittened and snow-shoed, had departed in search of Lee and -Gay, the remaining sisters gathered about the full-page advertisement in -_The Four Seasons_, and passed rapidly from anger to mild hysterics. -Mary was the last to laugh. - -And she said: "Girls, I will tell you an awful secret. I never would -have consented to this, but as long as Lee and Gay have gone and done -it, I'm--_glad_." - -"The only thing _I_ mind," said Eve, "is Arthur. He'll take it hard." - -"We can't help that," said Maud. "Business is business. And this -wretched, shocking piece of mischief spells success. I feel it in my -bones. There's no use being silly about ourselves. We've got our way to -make in the world--and, as a sextet----" - -She lingered over the picture. - -"As a sextet, there's no use denying that we are rather lovely to look -at." - -Phyllis put in a word blindly. - -"Maud," she said, "among the applications you have received, how many -are from women?" - -Maud laughed aloud. - -"None," she said. - -"There wouldn't be," said Eve. - -"Well," said Mary, "compared to the rest of you, I'm quite an old woman, -and I say--so much the better." - - - - -V - - -Even on going into the open air from a warmed room, it would not have -struck you as a cold day. But thermometers marked a number of degrees -worse than zero. The sky was bright and blue. Not a breath of wind -stirred. In the woods the underbrush was hidden by the smooth -accumulations of snow, so that the going was open. - -The Adirondack winter climate is such that a man runs less risk of -getting too cold than of getting too warm. Arthur, moving swiftly in a -great circle so that at some point he should come upon the tracks of his -culprit sisters, shed first his mittens and then his coat. The former he -thrust into his trousers pocket, and he hung the latter to a broken limb -where he could easily find it on his return. - -"There would be some sense in running away in summer," he thought. "It -would take an Indian or a dog to track them then, but in winter--I gave -them credit for more sense." - -He came upon the outgoing marks of their snow-shoes presently, just -beyond Phyllis's garden, to the north of the camp. In imagination he saw -the two lithe young beauties striding sturdily and tirelessly over the -snow, and then and there the extreme pinnacles of his anger toppled and -fell. There is no occupation to which a maiden may lend herself so -virginal as woodmanship. And he fell to thinking less of his young -sisters' indiscretion than of the extreme and unsophisticated innocence -which had led them into it. What could girls know of men, anyway? What -did his sisters know of him? That he had been extravagant and rather -fast. Had they an inkling of what being rather fast meant? His smooth -forehead contracted with painful thoughts. Even Mary's indignation upon -the discovery of the photograph in _The Four Seasons_ had not matched -his own. She had been angry because she was a gentlewoman, and -gentlewomen shun publicity. She had not even guessed at the degradation -to which broadcast pictures of beautiful women are subjected. His anger -turned from his sisters presently and glowered upon the whole world of -men; his hands closed to strike, and opened to clutch and choke. That -Lee and Gay had done such a thing was earnest only of innocence coupled -with mischief. They must know that what they had done was wrong, since -they had fled from any immediate consequences, but how wrong it was they -could never dream, even in nightmares. Nor was it possible for him to -explain. How, then, could any anger which he might visit upon them -benefit? And who was he, when it came to that, to assume the -unassailable morality of a parent? - -It came to this: That Arthur followed the marks of Lee's and Gay's -snow-shoes mechanically, and raged, not against them, not against the -world of men, but against himself. He had said once in jest that many an -artistic impulse had been crushed by the camera and the pianola. But how -pitifully true this had been in his own case! If he had been born into -less indulgence, he might have painted, he might have played. The only -son in a large family of daughters, his father and mother had worshipped -the ground upon which his infant feet had trod. He had never known what -it was to want anything. He had never been allowed to turn a hand to his -own honest advantage. He was the kind of boy who, under less golden -circumstances, would have saved his pocket-money and built with his own -hands a boat or whatever he needed. There is a song: "I want what I want -when I want it." Arthur might have sung: "I get what I'm going to want -and then I don't want it." - -His contemporaries had greatly envied him, when, as a mere matter of -justice, they should have pitied him. All his better impulses had been -gnarled by indulgence. He had done things that showed natural ability; -but of what use was that? He was too old now to learn to draw. He played -rather delightfully upon the piano, or any other instrument, for that -matter. To what end? He could not read a note. - -There was nothing that Arthur could not have done, if he had been let -alone. There were many things that he would have done. - -At college he had seen in one smouldering flash of intuition how badly -he had started in the race of life. When others were admiring his many -brilliancies, he was mourning for the lost years when, under almost any -guidance save that of his beloved father, he might have laid such sturdy -foundations to future achievements--pedestals on which to erect statues. - -Self-knowledge had made him hard for a season and cynical. As a tired -sea-gull miscalculates distance and dips his wings into the sea, so -Arthur, when he thought that he was merely flying low the better to see -and to observe, had alighted without much struggling in a pool of -dissipation and vice. - -The memory was more of a weariness to him than a sharp regret. Of what -use is remorse--after the fact? Let it come before and all will be well. - -At last, more by accident than design, he drew out of the muddy ways -into which he had fallen and limped off--not so much toward better -things as away from worse. - -Then it was that Romance had come for him, and carried him on strong -wings upward toward the empyrean. - -Even now, she was only twenty. She had married a man more than twice her -age. He had been her guardian, and she had felt that it was her duty. -Her marriage proved desperately unhappy. She and Arthur met, and, as -upon a signal, loved. - -For a few weeks of one golden summer, they had known the ethereal bliss -of seeing each other every day. They met as little children, and so -parted. They accepted the law and convention which stood between them, -not as a barrier to be crossed or circumvented but with childlike faith -as a something absolutely impassable--like the space which separates the -earth and the moon. - -They remained utterly innocent in thought and deed, merely loved and -longed and renounced so very hard that their poor young hearts almost -broke. - -Not so the "old man." - -It happened, in the autumn of that year, that he brought his wife to New -York, in whose Wall Street he had intricate interests. He learned that -she was by way of seeing more of Arthur than a girl of eighteen married -to a man of nearly fifty ought to see. He did not at once burst into -coarse abuse of her, but, worldly-wise, set detectives to watch her. He -had, you may say, set his heart upon her guilt. To learn that she was -utterly innocent enraged him. One day he had the following conversation -with a Mr. May, of a private detective bureau: - -"You followed them?" - -"To the park." - -"Well?" - -"They bought a bag of peanuts and fed the squirrels." - -"Go on." - -"Then they rode in a swan-boat. Then they walked up to the reservoir and -around it. Then they came back to the hotel." - -"Did they separate in the office?" - -"On the sidewalk." - -"But last night? She said she was dining with her sister and going to -the play. What did she do last night?" - -"She did what she said. Believe me, sir--if I know anything of men and -women, you're paying me to run fool's errands for you. _They_ don't need -any watching." - -"You have seen them--kiss?" - -"Never." - -"Hold hands?" - -"I haven't seen any physical demonstration. I guess they like each other -a lot. And that's all there is to it." - -But the "old man" made a scene with her, just such a scene as he would -have made if the detective's report had been, in effect, the opposite of -what it was. He assumed that she was guilty; but, for dread of scandal, -he would not seek a divorce. He exacted a promise that she would not see -Arthur, or write to him, or receive letters from him. - -Then, having agreed with certain magnates to go out to China upon the -question of a great railroad and a great loan, he carried her off with -him, then and there. So that when Arthur called at the hotel, he was -told that they had gone but that there was a note for him. If it was -from the wife, the husband had dictated it: - - Don't try to see me ever any more. If you do, it will only make my - life a hell on earth. - -That had been the tangible end of Arthur's romance. But the intangible -ends were infinite and not yet. His whole nature had changed. He had -suffered and could no longer bear to inflict pain. - -He lifted his head and looked up a little slope of snow. Near the top, -wonderfully rosy and smiling, sat his culprit sisters. He had forgotten -why he had come. He smiled in his sudden embarrassment. - -"Don't shoot, colonel," called Gay, "and we'll come down." - -"Promise, then," he said, "that you'll never be naughty again." - -"We promise," they said. - -And they trudged back to camp, with jokes and laughter and three very -sharp appetites. - - - - -VI - - -Beyond seeing to it that the alluring picture of his sisters should not -appear in any future issues of the magazines, Arthur did not refer to -the matter again. The girls, more particularly Lee and Gay, always -attributed the instant success of The Camp to the picture; but it is -sanely possible that an inn run upon such very extravagant principles -was bound to be a success anyway. America is full of people who will pay -anything for the comforts of home with the cares and exasperations left -out. - -A majority of the early applications received at The Camp office, and -politely rejected by Maud, were from old friends of the family, who were -eagerly willing to give its fallen finances a boost. But the girls were -determined that their scheme should stand upon its own meritorious feet -or not at all. - - * * * * * - -When Samuel Langham learned that the ice was going out of New Moon Lake, -he wrote that he would arrive at Carrytown at such and such an hour, -and begged that a boat of some sort might be there to meet him. His -guests, he explained, would follow in a few days. - -"Dear me," said Maud, "it will be very trying to have him alone--just -like a real guest. If he'd only bring his friends with him, why, they -could entertain him. As it is, we'll have to. Because, even if we are -innkeepers now, we belong to the same station in life that he does, and -he knows it and we know it. I don't see how we can ever have the face to -send in a bill afterward." - -"I don't either," said Mary, "but we must." - -"I've never pictured him," said Arthur, "as a man who would brave early -spring in the Adirondacks for the sake of a few trout." - -"I bet you my first dividend," said Lee, "that his coat is lined with -sable." - -It was. - -As the _Streak_, which had gone to Carrytown to meet him, slid for the -dock (his luggage was to follow in the _Tortoise_, a fatter, slower -power-boat), there might have been seen standing amidships a tall, stout -gentleman of about thirty-six or more, enveloped in a handsome overcoat -lined with sable. - -He wore thick eye-glasses which the swiftness of the _Streak_'s going -had opaqued with icy mist, so that for the moment Mr. Samuel Langham -was blind as a mole. Nevertheless, determined to enjoy whatever the -experience had in store for him, he beamed from right to left, as if a -pair of keen eyes were revealing to him unexpected beauties and -delights. - -Arthur, loathing the rôle, was on the float to meet him. - -On hearing himself addressed by name, Mr. Samuel Langham removed one of -his fur-lined gloves and thrust forward a plump, well-groomed hand. - -"I believe that I am shaking hands with Mr. Darling," he said in a slow, -cultivated voice; "but my glasses are blurred and I cannot see anything. -Is my foot going for the float--or the water?" - -"Step boldly," said Arthur; and, in a hurried aside, as he perceived the -corner of a neatly folded greenback protruding between two of Mr. -Langham's still-gloved fingers: "You are not to be subjected to the -annoyance of the tipping system. We pay our servants extra to make the -loss up to them." - -Mr. Langham's mouth, which was rather like a Cupid's bow, tightened. And -he handed the greenback to the engineer of the _Streak_, just as if -Arthur's remonstrance had not been spoken. On the way to the office he -explained. - -"Whenever I go anywhere," he said, "I find persons in humble situations -who smile at me and wish me well. I smile back and wish them well. It is -because, at some time or other, I have tipped them. To me the system has -never been an annoyance but a delightful opportunity for the exercise of -tact and judgment." - -He came to a dead halt, planting his feet firmly. - -"I shall be allowed to tip whomsoever I like," he said flatly, "or I -shan't stay." - -"Our ambition," said Arthur stiffly, "is to make our guests comfortable. -Our rule against tipping is therefore abolished." - -They entered the office. Mr. Langham could now see, having wiped the fog -from his glasses. He saw a lovely girl in black, seated at a table -facing him. Beyond her was a roaring fire of backlogs. Arthur presented -Mr. Langham. - -"Are you frozen?" asked Maud. "Too cold to write your name in our -brand-new register?" - -He took the pen which she offered him and wrote his name in a large, -clear hand, worthy of John Hancock. - -"It's the first name in the book," he said. "It's always been a very -lucky name for me. I hope it will be for you." - -Arthur had escaped. - -"There is one more formality," said Maud: "breakfast." - -"I had a little something in my car," said Mr. Langham; "but if it -wouldn't be too much trouble--er--just a few little eggs and things." - -"How would it be," said Maud, "if I took you straight to the kitchen? My -sister Mary presides there, and you shall tell her exactly what you -want, and she will see that you get it." - -A rosy blush mounted Mr. Langham's good-natured face. - -"Oh," he said, with the deepest sincerity, "if I am to have the _entrée_ -to the kitchen, I shall be happy. I will tell you a secret. At my club I -always breakfast in the kitchen. It's against the rules, but I do it. A -friendly chef--beds of glowing charcoal--burnished copper--piping-hot -tidbits." - -It was up-hill to Smoke House, and Mr. Langham, in his burdensome -overcoat, grew warm on the way, and was puffing slightly when he got -there. - -"Mary," Maud called--"Mr. Langham!" - -"The kitchen is the foundation of all domestic happiness," said he. "I -have come to yours as fast as I could. I think--I _know_, that I never -saw a brighter, happier-looking kitchen." - -He knew also that he had never seen so beautiful a presiding deity. - -"Your sister," he said, "told me that I could have a little breakfast -right here." And he repeated the statement concerning his club kitchen. - -"Of course, you can!" said Mary. - -"Just a few eggs," he said, "and if there's anything green----" - -They called the chef. He was very happy because the season had begun. He -assigned Mr. Langham a seat from which to see and at which to be served, -then with the wrist-and-finger elegance of a prestidigitator, he began -to prepare a few eggs and something green. - -"The trout--" Mary began dutifully, as it was for the sake of these that -Mr. Langham had ostensibly come so early in the season. - -"Trout?" he said. - -"The fishing--" She made a new beginning. - -"The fishing, Miss Darling," he said, "will be of interest to my -friends. For my part, I don't fish. I have, in common with the kind of -boat from which fishing is done, nothing but the fact that we are both -ticklish. I saw your prospectus. I said: 'I shall be happy there, and -well taken care of.' Something told me that I should be allowed to -breakfast in the kitchen. The more I thought about it the less I felt -that I could wait for the somewhat late opening of your season, so I -pretended to be a fisher of trout. And here I am. But, mark you," he -added, "a few trout on the table now and then--I like that!" - -"You shall have them," said Mary, "and you shall breakfast in the -kitchen. I do--always." - -"Do you?" he exclaimed. "Why not together, then?" - -His eyes shone with pleasure. - -"I should be too early for you," she said. - -"You don't know me. Is it ever too early to eat? Because I am stout, -people think I have all the moribund qualities that go with it. As a -matter of fact, I rise whenever, in my judgment, the cook is dressed and -down. Is it gross to be fond of food? So many people think so. I differ -with them. Not to care what you eat is gross--in my way of thinking. Is -there anything, for instance, more fresh in coloring, more adequate in -line, than a delicately poached egg on a blue-and-white plate? You call -this building Smoke House? I shall always be looking in. Do you mind?" - -"Indeed we don't," said Mary. "Do we, chef?" - -Chef laid a finger to his lips. It was no time for talk. "Never disturb -a sleeping child or a cooking egg," was one of his maxims. - -"I knew that I should be happy here," said Mr. Langham. "I am." - -Whenever he had a chance he gazed at Mary. It was her face in the row of -six that had lured him out of all his habits and made him feel that the -camp offered him a genuine chance for happiness. To find that she -presided over the kitchen had filled his cup to the brim. But when he -remembered that he was fat and fond of good things to eat and drink, his -heart sank. - -He determined that he would eat but three eggs. They were, however, -prepared in a way that was quite new to him, and in the determined -effort to discern the ingredients and the method he ate five. - -"There is something very keen about your Adirondack air," he explained -guiltily. - -But Mary had warmed to him. Her heart and her reputation were involved -in the _cuisine_. She knew that the better you feed people the more they -love you. She was not revolted by Mr. Langham's appetite. She felt that -even a canary of a man must have fallen before the temptation of those -eggs. - -They were her own invention. And chef had executed them to the very turn -of perfection. - -Almost from the moment of his arrival, then, Mr. Samuel Langham began to -eat his way into the heart of the eldest Miss Darling. - -In culinary matters a genuine intimacy sprang up between them. They -exchanged ideas. They consulted. They compared menus. They mastered the -contents of the late Mr. Darling's cellars. - -Mr. Langham chose Lone House for his habitation. He liked the little -balcony that thrust out over the lake between the two pine-trees. And by -the time that his guests were due to arrive, he had established himself, -almost, in the affections of the entire family. - -"He may be greedy," said Arthur, "but he's the most courteous man that -ever 'sat at meat among ladies'!" - -"He's got the kindest heart," said Mary, "that ever beat." - - - - -VII - - -Mr. Langham's five guests arrived somewhat noisily, smoking five long -cigars. Lee and Gay, watching the float from a point of vantage, where -they themselves were free from observation, observed that three of the -trout fishermen were far older than they had led themselves to expect. - -"That leaves only one for us," said Gay. - -"Why?" - -"Can't you see from here that the fifth is an Englishman?" - -"Yes," said Lee. "His clothes don't fit, and yet he feels perfectly -comfortable in them." - -"It isn't so much the clothes," said Gay, "as the face. The other faces -are excited because they have ridden fast in a fast boat, though they've -probably often done it before. Now he's probably never been in a fast -boat in his life till to-day, and yet he looks thoroughly bored." - -The Englishman without changing his expression made some remark to the -other five. They roared. The Englishman blushed, and looked vaguely -toward a dark-blue mountain that rose with some grandeur beyond the -farther shore of the lake. - -"Do you suppose," said Lee, "that what he said was funny or just dumb?" - -"I think it was funny," said Gay, "but purely accidental." - -"I think I know the other youth," said Lee; "I think I have danced with -him. Didn't Mr. Langham say there was a Renier among his guests?" - -"H. L.," Gay assented. - -"That's the one," Lee remembered. "Harry Larkins Renier. We have danced. -If he doesn't remember, he shall be snubbed. I like the old guy with the -Mark Twain hair." - -"Don't you know _him_? I do. I have seen his picture often. He's the -editor of the _Evening Star_. Won't Arthur be glad!" - -"What's his name?" - -"Walter Leyden O'Malley. He's the literary descendant of the great Dana. -Don't talk to me, child; I know a great deal." - -Gay endeavored to assume the look of an encyclopædia and failed. - -"Mr. Langham," said Lee, "mentioned three other names, Alston, -Pritchard, and Cox. Which do you suppose is which?" - -"I think that Pritchard is the very tall one who looks like a Kentucky -colonel; Cox is the one with the very large face; of course, the -Englishman is Alston." - -"I don't." - -"We can find out from Maud." - -When the new arrivals, escorted by Arthur and Mr. Langham, had left the -office, Lee and Gay hurried in to look at their signatures and to -consult Maud as to identities. - -The Kentucky-colonel-looking man proved to be Alston. Cox had the large -face, and the Englishman--John Arthur Merrivale Pritchard, as was to be -expected--wrote the best hand. Mr. O'Malley, the famous editor, wrote -the worst. His signature looked as if it had been traced by an inky worm -writhing in agony. - -"Tell us at once," Gay demanded, "what they are like." - -Maud regarded her frolicsome sisters with inscrutable eyes, and said: - -"At first, you think that Mr. Cox is a heartless old cynic, but when you -get to know him really well--I remember an instance that occurred in the -early sixties----" - -"Oh, dry up!" said Lee. "Are they nice and presentable, like fat old Sam -Langham?" - -"The three old ones," said Maud, "made me think of three very young boys -just loose from school. Messrs. Renier and Pritchard, however, seem more -used to holidays. There is, however, a complication. All five wish to go -fishing as soon as they can change into fishing clothes, and there -aren't enough guides to go around." - -"What's the trouble?" asked Gay eagerly. - -"Bullard," Maud explained, "has sent word that his wife is having a -baby, and Benton has gone up to Crotched Lake West to see if the ice is -out of it. That leaves only three guides to go around. Benton oughtn't -to have gone. Nobody told him to. But he once read the Declaration of -Independence, and every now and then the feeling comes over him that he -must act accordingly." - -"But," exclaimed Lee, "what's the matter with Gay and me?" - -"Nothing, I hope," said Maud; "you look well. I trust you feel well." - -"We want to be guides," said Gay; "we want to be useful. Hitherto we've -done nothing to help. Mary works like a slave in the kitchen; you here. -Eve will never leave the laundry once the wash gets big. Phyllis has her -garden, in which things will begin to grow by and by, but we--we have no -excuse for existence--none whatever. Now, I could show Mr. Renier where -the chances of taking fish are the best." - -"No," said Lee firmly; "I ought to guide him. It's only fair. He once -guided me--I've always remembered--bang into a couple who outweighed us -two to one, and down we went." - -"Mary will hardly approve of you youngsters going on long expeditions -with strange young men," Maud was quite sure; "and, of course, Arthur -won't." - -Lee and Gay began to sulk. - -At that moment Arthur came into the office. - -"Halloo, you two!" he said. "Been looking for you, and even shouting. -The fact is, we're short of guides, and Mary and I think----" - -Lee and Gay burst into smiles. - -"What did we tell you, Maud? Of course, we will. There are no wiser -guides in this part of the woods." - -"That," said Arthur, "is a fact. The older men looked alarmed when I -suggested that two of my sisters--you see, they've always had -native-born woodsmen and even Indians----" - -"Then," said Lee, "we are to have the guileless youths. I speak for -Renier." - -"Meanie," said Gay. - -"Lee ought to have first choice," said Arthur. "It's always been -supposed that Lee is your senior by a matter of twenty minutes." - -"True or not," said Gay, "she looks it. Then I'm to guide the -Englishman." - -"If you don't mind." Arthur regarded her, smiling. He couldn't help it. -She was _so_ pretty. "And I'd advise you not to be too eager to show -off. Mr. Pritchard has hunted and fished more than all of us put -together." - -"That little pink-faced snip!" exclaimed Gay. "I'll sure see how much he -knows." - -Half an hour later she was rowing him leisurely in the direction of -Placid Brook, and examining his somewhat remarkable outfit with -wondering eyes. This was not difficult, since his own eyes, which were -clear brown, and very shy, were very much occupied in looking over the -contents of the large-tackle box. - -"If you care to rig your rod," said Gay presently, "and cast about as we -go, you might take something between here and the brook." - -"Do you mean," he said, "that you merely throw about you at random, and -that it is possible to take fish?" - -"Of course," said she--"when they are rising." - -"But then the best one could hope for," he drawled, "would be -indiscriminate fish." - -"Just what do you mean by that?" - -"Why!"--and this time he looked up and smiled very shyly--"if you were -after elephant and came across a herd, would you pick out a bull with a -fine pair of tusks, or would you fire indiscriminately into the thick of -them, and perhaps bring down the merest baby?" - -"I never heard of picking your fish," said Gay. - -"Dear me," he commented, "then you have nearly a whole lifetime of -delightful study before you!" - -He unslung a pair of field-glasses, focussed them, and began to study -the surface of the placid lake, not the far-off surface but the surface -within twenty or thirty feet. Then he remarked: - -"Your flies aren't greatly different from ours. I think we shall find -something nearly right. One can never tell. The proclivities of trout -and char differ somewhat. I have never taken char." - -"You don't think you are after char now, do you?" exclaimed Gay. -"Because, if so--this lake contains bass, trout, lake-trout, sunfish, -shiners, and bullheads, but no char." - -Pritchard smiled a little sadly and blushed. He hated to put people -right. - -"Your brook-trout," he said, "your _salmo fontinalis_, isn't a trout at -all. He's a char." - -Gay put her back into the rowing with some temper. She felt that the -Englishman had insulted the greatest of all American institutions. The -repartee which sprang to her lips was somewhat feeble. - -"If a trout is a char," she said angrily, "then an onion is a fruit." - -To her astonishment, Mr. Pritchard began to laugh. He dropped everything -and gave his whole attention to it. He laughed till the tears came and -the delicate guide boat shook from stem to stern. Presently the germ of -his laughing spread, and Gay came down with a sharp attack of it -herself. She stopped rowing. Two miles off, a loon, that most exclusive -laugher of the North Woods, took fright, dove, and remained under for -ten minutes. - -The young people in the guide boat looked at each other through smarting -tears. - -"I am learning fast," said Gay, "that you count your fish before you -catch them, that trout are char, and that Englishmen laugh at other -people's jokes." - -She rowed on. - -"Don't forget to tell me when you've chosen your fish," she remarked. - -"You shall help me choose," he said; "I insist. I speak for a -three-pounder." - -"The event of a lifetime!" - -"Why, Miss Gay," he said, "it's all the event of a lifetime. The Camp, -the ride in the motor-boat, the wonderful, wonderful breakfast, water -teeming with fish, the woods, and the mountains--millions of years ago -it was decreed that you and I should rock a boat with laughter in the -midst of New Moon Lake. And yet you speak of a three-pounder as the -event of a lifetime! My answer is a defiance. We shall take one _salmo -fontinalis_--one wily char. He shall not weigh three pounds; he shall -weigh a trifle more. Then we shall put up our tackle and go home to a -merry dinner." - -"Mr. Pritchard," said Gay, "I'll bet you anything you like that you -don't take a trout--or a char, if you like--that will weigh three pounds -or over. I'll bet you ten to one." - -"Don't do that," he said; "it's an even shot. What will you bet?" - -"I'll bet you my prospective dividends for the year," she said, -"against----" - -"My prospective title?" - -He looked rather solemn, but laughter bubbled from Gay. - -"It's a good sporting proposition," said Pritchard. "It's a very sound -title--old, resonant--and unless you upset us and we drown, tolerably -certain to be mine to pay--in case I lose." - -"I don't bet blindly," said Gay. "What is the title?" - -"I shall be the Earl of Merrivale," said he; "and if I fail this day to -take a char weighing three pounds or over, you will be the Countess of -Merrivale." - -"Dear me!" said Gay, "who ever heard of so much depending on a mere -fish? But I don't like my side of the bet. It's all so sudden. I don't -know you well enough, and you're sure to lose." - -"I'll take either end of the bet you don't like," said Mr. Pritchard -gravely. "If I land the three-pounder, you become the countess; if I -don't, I pay you the amount of your dividends for the year. Is that -better?" - -"Much," smiled Gay; "because, with the bet in this form, there is -practically no danger that either of us will lose anything. My dividends -probably won't amount to a row of pins, and you most certainly will not -land so big a fish." - -Meanwhile they had entered the mouth of Placid Brook. The surface was -dimpling--rings became, spread, merged in one another, and were not. The -fish were feeding. - -"Let us land in the meadow," said Mr. Pritchard, his brown eyes clear -and sparkling, "and spy upon the enemy." - -"Are you going to leave your rod and things in the boat?" - -"For the present--until we have located our fish." - -They landed, and he advanced upon the brook by a detour, stealthily, -crouching, his field-glasses at attention. Once he turned and spoke to -Gay in an authoritative whisper: - -"Try not to show above the bushes." - - - - -VIII - - -The sun was warm on the meadow, and although the bushes along its margin -were leafless, the meadow itself had a greenish look, and the feel of -the air was such that Gay, upon whom silence and invisibility had been -enjoined, longed to dance in full sight of the trout and to sing at the -top of her voice: "Oh, that we two were Maying!" Instead, she crouched -humbly and in silence at Pritchard's side, while he studied the dimpling -brook through his powerful field-glasses. - -Gay had never seen red Indians except in Buffalo Bill's show, where it -is made worth their while to be very noisy. But she had read her Cooper -and her Ballantyne, - - "Ballantyne, the brave, - And Cooper of the wood and wave," - -and she knew of the early Christian patience with which they are -supposed to go about the business of hunting and fishing. - -Pritchard, she observed, had a weather-red face and high cheek-bones. He -was smooth-shaved. He wore no hat. But for his miraculously short-cut -hair, his field-glasses, his suit of coarse Scotch wool, whose colors -blended so well with the meadow upon which he crouched, he might have -been an Indian. His head, the field-glasses, the hands which clasped -them, moved--nothing else. - -"Is it a bluff?" thought Gay. "Is he just posing, or is there something -in it?" - -Half an hour passed--three quarters. Gay was pale and grimly smiling. -Her legs had gone to sleep. But she would not give in. If an Englishman -could fish so patiently, why, so could she. She was fighting her own -private battle of Bunker Hill--of New Orleans. - -Pritchard lowered his glasses, handed them to Gay, and pointed up the -brook and across, to where a triangular point of granite peered a few -inches above the surface. Gay looked through the glasses, and Pritchard -began to whisper in her ear: - -"Northwest of that point of rock, about two feet--keep looking just -there, and I'll try to tell you what to see." - -"There's a fish feeding," she answered; "but he must be a baby, he just -makes a bubble on the surface." - -"There are three types of insect floating over him," said Pritchard; "I -don't know your American beasts by name, but there is a black, a brown, -and a grayish spiderlike thing. He's taking the last. If you see one of -the gray ones floating where he made his last bubble, watch it." - -Gay presently discerned such an insect so floating, and watched it. It -passed within a few inches of where the feeding trout had last risen and -disappeared, and a tiny ring gently marked the spot where it had been -sucked under. Gay saw a black insect pass over the fatal spot unscathed, -then browns; and then, once more, a gray, very tiny in the body but with -longish legs, approached and was engulfed. - -"Now for the tackle box," Pritchard whispered. - -They withdrew from the margin of the brook, Gay in that curious ecstasy, -half joy, half sorrow, induced by sleepy legs. She lurched and almost -fell. Pritchard caught her. - -"Was the vigil too long?" he asked. - -"I liked it," she said. "But my legs went to sleep and are just waking -up. Tell me things. There were fish rising bold--jumping clean -out--making the water boil. But you weren't interested in them." - -"It was noticeable," said Pritchard, "and perhaps you noticed that one -fish was feeding alone. He blew his little rings--without fear or -hurry--none of the other fishes dared come anywhere near him. He lives -in the vicinity of that pointed rock. The water there is probably deep -and, in the depths, very cold. Who knows but a spring bubbles into a -brook at the base of that rock? The fish lives there and rules the water -around him for five or six yards. He is selfish, fat, and old. He feeds -quietly because nobody dares dispute his food with him. He is the -biggest fish in this reach of the brook. At least, he is the biggest -that is feeding this morning. Now we know what kind of a fly he is -taking. Probably I have a close imitation of it in my fly box. If not, -we shall have to make one. Then we must try to throw it just above -him--very lightly--float it into his range of vision, and when he sucks -it into his mouth, strike--and if we are lucky we shall then proceed to -take him." - -Gay, passionately fond of woodcraft, listened with a kind of awe. - -"But," she said, seeing an objection, "how do you know he weighs three -pounds and over?" - -"Frankly," said Pritchard, "I don't. I am gambling on _that_." He shot -her a shy look. "Just hoping. I know that he is big. I believe we shall -land him. I hope and pray that he weighs over three pounds." - -Gay blushed and said nothing. She was beginning to think that Pritchard -might land a three-pounder as well as not--and she had light-heartedly -agreed, in that event, to become the Countess of Merrivale. Of course, -the bet was mere nonsense. But suppose, by any fleeting chance, that -Pritchard should not so regard it? What _should_ she do? Suppose that -Pritchard had fallen victim to a case of love at first sight? It would -not, she was forced to admit (somewhat demurely), be the first instance -in her own actual experience. There was a young man who had so fallen in -love with her, and who, a week later, not knowing the difference--so -exactly the triplets resembled each other--had proposed to Phyllis. - -They drew the guide boat up onto the meadows and Pritchard, armed with a -scoop-net of mesh as fine as mosquito-netting, leaned over the brook and -caught one of the grayish flies that were tickling the appetite of the -big trout. - -This fly had a body no bigger than a gnat's. - -Pritchard handed Gay a box of japanned tin. It was divided into -compartments, and each compartment was half full of infinitesimal trout -flies. They were so small that you had to use a pair of tweezers in -handling them. - -Pritchard spread his handkerchief on the grass, and Gay dumped the flies -out on it and spread them for examination. And then, their heads very -close together, they began to hunt for one which would match the live -one that Pritchard had caught. - -"But they're too small," Gay objected. "The hooks would pull right -through a trout's lip." - -"Not always," said Pritchard. "How about this one?" - -"Too dark," said Gay. - -"Here we are then--a match or not?" - -The natural fly and the artificial placed side by side were wonderfully -alike. - -"They're as like as Lee and me," said Gay. - -"Lee?" - -"Three of us are triplets," she explained. "We look exactly alike--and -we never forgive people who get us mixed up." - -Pritchard abandoned all present thoughts of trout-fishing by scientific -methods. He looked into her face with wonder. - -"Do you mean to tell me," said he, "that there are two other -D-D-Darlings exactly like you?" - -"Exactly--a nose for a nose; an eye for an eye." - -"It isn't true," he proclaimed. "There is nobody in the whole world in -the least like you." - -"Some time," said Gay, "you will see the three of us in a row. We shall -look inscrutable and say nothing. You will not be able to tell which of -us went fishing with you and which stayed at home----" - -"'This little pig went to market,'" he began, and abruptly became -serious. "Is that a challenge?" - -"Yes," said Gay. "I fling down my gauntlet." - -"And I," said Pritchard, "step forward and, in the face of all the -world, lift it from the ground--and proclaim for all the world to hear -that there is nobody like my lady--and that I am so prepared to prove at -any place or time--come weal, come woe. Let the heavens fall!" - -"If you know me from the others," Gay's eyes gleamed, "you will be the -first strange young man that ever did, and I shall assign and appoint in -the inmost shrines of memory a most special niche for you." - -Pritchard bowed very humbly. - -"That will not be necessary," he said. "If I land the three-pounder. In -that case, I should be always with you." - -"I wish," said Gay, "that you wouldn't refer so earnestly to a piece of -nonsense. Upon repetition, a joke ceases to be a joke." - -Pritchard looked troubled. - -"I'm sorry," he said simply. "If it is the custom of the country to bet -and then crawl, so be it. In Rome, I hasten to do as the Romans do. But -I thought our bet was honorable and above-board. It seems it was just -an--an Indian bet." - -Gay flushed angrily. - -"You shall not belittle anything American," she said. "It was a bet. I -meant it. I stand by it. If you catch your big fish I marry you. And if -I have to marry you, I will lead you such a dance----" - -"You wouldn't have to," Pritchard put in gently, "you wouldn't have to -lead me, I mean. If you and I were married, I'd just naturally -dance--wouldn't I? When a man sorrows he weeps; when he rejoices he -dances. It's all very simple and natural----" - -He turned his face to the serene heavens, and, very gravely: - -"Ah, Lord!" he said. "Vouchsafe to me, undeserving but hopeful, this -day, a char--_salmo fontinalis_--to weigh a trifle over three pounds, -for the sake of all that is best and sweetest in this best of all -possible worlds." - -If his face or voice had had a suspicion of irreverence, Gay would have -laughed. Instead, she found that she wanted to cry and that her heart -was beating unquietly. - -Mr. Pritchard dismissed sentiment from his mind, and with loving hands -began to take a powerful split-bamboo rod from its case. - - - - -IX - - -Gay's notion of scientific fishing might have been thus summed: Know -just where to fish and use the lightest rod made. Her own trout-rod -weighed two and a half ounces without the reel. Compared to it, -Pritchard's was a coarse and heavy instrument. His weighed six ounces. - -"You could land a salmon with that," said Gay scornfully. - -"I have," said Pritchard. "It's a splendid rod. I doubt if you could -break it." - -"Doesn't give the fish much of a run for his money." - -"But how about this, Miss Gay?" - -He showed her a leader of finest water-blue catgut. It was nine feet -long and tapered from the thickness of a human hair to that of a thread -of spider-spinning. Gay's waning admiration glowed once more. - -"That wouldn't hold a minnow," she said. - -"We must see about that," he answered; "we must hope that it will hold a -very large char." - -He reeled off eighty or ninety feet of line, and began to grease it with -a white tallow. - -"What's that stuff?" Gay asked. - -"Red-deer fat." - -"What for?" - -"To make the line float. We're fishing with a dry-fly, you know." - -Gay noticed that the line was tapered from very heavy to very fine. - -"Why is that?" she asked. - -"It throws better--especially in a wind. The heavy part will carry a fly -out into half a gale." - -He reeled in the line and made his leader fast to it with a swift, -running hitch, and to the line end of the leader he attached the fly -which they had chosen. Upon this tiny and exquisite arrangement of fairy -hook, gray silk, and feathers, he blew paraffin from a pocket atomizer -that it might float and not become water-logged. - -"Do we fish from the shore or the boat?" Gay asked. - -"From this shore." - -"You'll never reach there from this shore." - -"Then I've misjudged the distance. Are you going to use the landing-net -for me, in case it's necessary?" - -Gay caught up the net and once more followed his stealthy advance upon -the brook. - -Pritchard had one preliminary look through the field-glasses, -straightened his bent back, turned to her with a sorrowing face, and -spoke aloud. - -"He's had enough," he said. "He's stopped feeding." - -Gay burst out laughing. - -"And our fishing is over for the day? This shall be said of you, Mr. -Pritchard, that you are a merciful man. You are not what is called in -this country a 'game hog.'" - -"Thank you," he said gravely. "But if you think the fishing is over for -the day, you don't know a dry-fly fisherman when you see one. We made -rather a late start. See, most of the fish have stopped feeding. They -won't begin again much before three. The big fellow will be a little -later. He has had more than the others; he is older; his digestion is no -longer like chain lightning; he will sleep sounder, and dream of the -golden days of his youth when a char was a trout." - -"_That_," said Gay, "is distinctly unkind. I have been snubbed enough -for one day. Are we to stand here, then, till three or four o'clock, -till his royal highness wakes up and calls for breakfast?" - -"No," said Pritchard; "though I would do so gladly, if it were -necessary, in order to take this particular fish----" - -"You might kneel before your rod," said Gay, "like a knight watching his -arms." - -"To rise in the morning and do battle for his lady--I repeat I should do -so gladly if it would help my chances in the slightest. But it -wouldn't." - -He rested his rod very carefully across two bushes. - -"The thing for us to do," he went on, "is to have lunch. I've often -heard of how comfortable you American guides can make the weary, wayworn -wanderer at the very shortest notice." - -"Is that a challenge?" - -"It is an expression of faith." - -Their eyes met, and even lingered. - -"In that case," said Gay, "I shall do what I may. There is cold lunch in -the boat, but the wayworn one shall bask in front of a fire and look -upon his food when it is piping hot. Come!" - -Gay rowed him out of the brook and along the shore of the lake for a -couple of miles. She was on her mettle. She wished him to know that she -was no lounger in woodcraft. She put her strong young back into the work -of rowing, and the fragile guide boat flew. Her cheeks glowed, and her -lips were parted in a smile, but secretly she was filled with dread. She -knew that she had brought food, raw and cooked; she could see the head -of her axe gleaming under the middle seat; she would trust Mary for -having seen to it that there was pepper and salt; but whether in the -pocket of the Norfolk jacket there were matches, she could not be sure. -If she stopped rowing to look, the Englishman would think that she had -stopped because she was tired. And if, later, it was found that she had -come away without matches, he would laugh at her and her pretenses to -being a "perfectly good guide." - -She beached the boat upon the sand in a wooded cove, and before -Pritchard could move had drawn it high and dry out of the water. Then -she laughed aloud, and would not tell him why. She had discovered in the -right-hand pocket of her coat two boxes of safety-matches, and in the -left pocket three. - -"Don't," said Gay, "this is my job." - -She lifted the boat easily and carried it into the woods. Pritchard had -wished to help. She laid the boat upon soft moss at the side of a -narrow, mounting trail, slung the package of lunch upon her shoulders, -and caught up her axe. - -"Don't I help at all?" asked Pritchard. - -"You are weary and wayworn," said Gay, "and I suppose I ought to carry -you, too. But I can't. Can you follow? It's not far." - -A quarter of a mile up the hillside, between virgin pines which made one -think bitterly of what the whole mountains might be if the science of -forestry had been imported a little earlier in the century, the steep -and stony trail ended in an open space, gravelly and abounding in huge -bowlders, upon which the sun shone warm and bright. In the midst of the -place was a spring, black and slowly bubbling. At the base of one great -rock, a deep rift in whose face made a natural chimney, were traces of -former fires. - -"Wait here," commanded Gay. - -Her axe sounded in a thicket, and she emerged presently staggering under -a load of balsam. She spread it in two great, fragrant mats. Then once -more she went forth with her axe and returned with fire-wood. - -Pritchard, a wistful expression in his eyes, studied her goings and her -comings, and listened as to music, to the sharp, true ringing of her -axe. - -"By Jove," said he to himself, "that isn't perspiration on her -forehead--it's honest sweat!" - -In spite of the bright sunshine, the heat of the fire was wonderfully -welcome, and began to bring out the strong, delicious aroma of the -balsam. Gay sat upon her heels before the fire and cooked. There was a -sound of boiling and bubbling. The fragrance of coffee mingled with the -balsam and floated heavenward. During the swift preparation of lunch -they hardly spoke. Twice Pritchard begged to help and was twice refused. - -She spread a cloth between the mats of balsam upon one of which -Pritchard reclined, and she laid out hot plates and bright silver with -demure precision. - -"Miss Gay," he said very earnestly, "I came to chuckle; I thought that -at least you would burn the chicken and get smoke in your eyes, but I -remain to worship the deity of woodcraft. An Indian could not do more -swiftly or so well." - -Gay swelled a little. She had worked very hard; nothing had gone wrong, -so far. She was not in the least ashamed of herself. But her greatest -triumph was to come. - -Uncas, the chipmunk, had that morning gone for a stroll in the forest. -He had the spring fever. He had crossed Placid Brook, by a fallen log; -he had climbed trees, hunted for last year's nuts, and fought battles of -repartee with other chipmunks. About lunch time, thinking to return to -Arthur and recount the tale of his wanderings, he smelled a smell of -cooking and heard a sound of voices, one of which was familiar to him. -He climbed a bowlder overlooking the clearing, and began to scold. Gay -and Pritchard looked up. - -"My word!" said Pritchard, "what a bold little beggar." - -Now, to Gay, the figure of Uncas, well larded with regular meals, was -not to be confounded with the slim little stripes of the spring woods. -She knew him at once, and she spoke nonchalantly to Pritchard. - -"If you're a great deal in the woods," she said, "you scrape -acquaintance with many of the inhabitants. That little pig and I are old -friends. You embarrass him a little. He doesn't know you. If you weren't -here, he'd come right into my lap and beg." - -Pritchard looked at her gravely. - -"Truly?" he said. - -"I think he will anyway," said Gay, and she made sounds to Uncas which -reassured him and brought him presently on a tearing run for her lap. -Here, when he had been fed, he yawned, stretched himself, and fell -asleep. - -"Mowgli's sister!" said Pritchard reverently. "Child, are there the -scars of wolves' teeth on your wrists and ankles?" - -"No, octogenarian," said Gay; "there aren't any marks of any kind. What -time is it?" - -"It is half-past two." - -"Then you shall smoke a cigarette, while I wash dishes." - -She slid the complaining Uncas from her lap to the ground. - -"Unfortunately," said Pritchard, "I didn't bring a cigarette." - -"And you've been dying for a smoke all this time? Why don't you ask the -guide for what you want?" - -"Have you such a thing?" - -"I have." - -"But you--you yourself don't--do you?" He looked troubled. - -"No," said Gay. "But my father was always forgetting his, and it made -him so miserable I got into the habit of carrying a full case years ago -whenever we went on expeditions. He used to be so surprised and -delighted. Sometimes I think he used to forget his on purpose, so that -I could have the triumph of producing mine." - -Pritchard smoked at ease. Gay "washed up." Uncas, roused once more from -slumber by the call of one of his kind, shook himself and trotted off -into the forest. - -Gay, scouring a pan, was beginning to feel that she had known Pritchard -a long time. She had made him comfortable, cared for him in the wild -woods, and the knowledge warmed her heart. - -Pritchard was saying to himself: - -"We like the same sort of things--why not each other?" - -"Miss Gay," he said aloud. - -"What?" - -"In case I land the three-pounder and over, I think I ought to tell you -that I'm not very rich, and I know you aren't. Would that matter to you? -I've just about enough," he went on tantalizingly, "to take a girl on -ripping good trips into central Africa or Australia, but I can't keep -any great state in England--Merrivale isn't a show place, you know--just -a few grouse and pheasants and things, and pretty good fishin'." - -"However much," said Gay, "I may regret my _bet_, there was nothing -Indian about it. I'm sure that you are a clean, upright young man. I'm -a decent sort of girl, though I say it that shouldn't. We might do -worse. I've heard that love-matches aren't always what they are cracked -up to be. And I'm quite sure that I want to go to Africa and hunt big -game." - -"Thank you," said Pritchard humbly. "And at least there would be love on -one side." - -"Nonsense," said Gay briskly. "I'm ready, if you are." - -Pritchard jumped to his feet and threw away his cigarette. - -"Now," he said, "that you've proved everything, _won't_ you let me -help?" - -Gay refused him doubtfully, and then with a burst of generosity: - -"Why, yes," she said, "and, by the way, Mr. Pritchard, there was no -magic about the chipmunk. He's one my brother trained. He lives at The -Camp, and he was just out for a stroll and happened in on us. I don't -want you to find out that I'm a fraud from any one--but me." - - - - -X - - -The big trout was once more feeding. And Pritchard began to cast his -diminutive fly up-stream and across. But he cast and got out line by a -system that was new to Gay. He did not "whip" the brook; he whipped the -air above it. He never allowed his fly to touch the water but drew it -back sharply, and, at the same time, reeled out more line with his left -hand, when it had fallen to within an inch or two of the surface. His -casts, straight as a rifle-shot, lengthened, and reached out toward the -bowlder point near which the big trout was feeding, until he was -throwing, and with consummate ease, a line longer than Gay had ever seen -thrown. - -"It's beautiful," she whispered. "Will you teach me?" - -"Of course," he answered. - -His fly hovered just above the ring which the trout had just made. -Pritchard lengthened his line a foot, and cast again and again, with no -further change but of an inch or two in direction. - -"There's a little current," he explained. "If we dropped the fly into -the middle of the ring, it would float just over his tail and he -wouldn't see it. He's looking up-stream, whence his blessings flow. The -fly must float straight down at him, dragging its leader, and not -dragged by it." - -All the while he talked, he continued casting with compact, forceful -strokes of his right wrist and forearm. At last, his judgment being -satisfied by the hovering position attained by fly and leader, he -relaxed his grip of the rod; the fly fell upon the water like -thistle-down, floated five or six inches, and was sucked under by the -big trout. - -Pritchard struck hard. - -There was a second's pause, while the big trout, pained and surprised, -tried to gather his scattered wits. Three quarters of Pritchard's line -floated loosely across the brook, but the leader and the fly remained -under, and Pritchard knew that he had hooked his fish. - -Then, and it was sudden--like an explosion--the whole length of floating -line disappeared, and the tip of Pritchard's powerful rod was dragged -under after it. - -The reel screamed. - -"It's a whale!" shouted Gay, forgetting how much depended upon the size -of the fish, "a whale!" - -The time for stealthy movements and talk in whispers was over. Gay -laughed, shouted, exhorted, while Pritchard, his lips parted, his cheeks -flushed, gayly fought the great fish. - -"Go easy; go easy!" cried Gay. "That hook will never hold him." - -But Pritchard knew his implements, and fished with a kind of joyous, -strong fury. - -"When you hang 'em," he exulted, "land em." - -The trout was a great noble potentate of those waters. Years ago he had -abandoned the stealthy ways of lesser fish. He came into the middle of -the brook where the water is deep and there is freedom from weeds and -sunken timber, and then up and down and across and across, with blind, -furious rushes he fought his fight. - -It was the strong man without science against the strong man who knows -how to box. The steady, furious rushes, snubbed and controlled, became -jerky and spasmodic; in a roar and swirl of water the king trout showed -his gleaming and enormous back; a second later the sunset colors of his -side and the white of his belly. Inch by inch, swollen by impotent fury, -galvanically struggling and rushing, he followed the drag of the leader -toward the beach, where, ankle-deep in the water, Gay crouched with the -landing-net. - -She trembled from head to foot as a well-bred pointer trembles when he -has found a covey of quail and holds them in control, waiting for his -master to walk in upon them. - -The big trout, still fighting, turning, and raging, came toward the -mouth of the half-submerged net. - -"How big is he, Miss Gay?" - -The voice was cool and steady. - -"He's five pounds if he's an ounce," her voice trembled. "He's the -biggest trout that ever swam. - -"He _isn't_ a trout," said Pritchard; "he's a char." - -If Gay could have seen Pritchard's face, she would have been struck for -the first time by a sort of serene beauty that pervaded some of its -expressions. The smile which he turned upon her crouching figure had in -it a something almost angelic. - -"Bring him a little nearer," she cried, "just a little." - -"You're sure he weighs more than three pounds?" - -"Sure--sure--don't talk, land him, land him----" - -For answer Pritchard heaved strongly upward upon his rod and lifted the -mighty fish clear of the water. One titanic convulsion of tortured -muscles, and what was to be expected happened. The leader broke a few -inches from the trout's lip, and he returned splashing to his native -element, swam off slowly, just under the surface, then dove deep, and -was seen no more. - -"Oh!" cried Gay. "Why _did_ you? Why _did_ you?" - -She had forgotten everything but the fact that the most splendid of all -trout had been lost. - -"Why did you?" she cried again. - -"Because," he said serenely and gently, smiling into her grieved and -flushed face, "I wouldn't have you as the payment of a bet. I will have -you as a gift or not at all." - -They returned to The Camp, Pritchard rowing. - -"I owe you your prospective dividends for the year," he said. "If they -are large, I shall have to give you my note and pay as I can." - -She did not answer. - -"I think you are angry with me," he said. "I'd give more than a penny -for your thoughts." - -"I was thinking," said she, "that you are very good at fishing, but that -the art of rowing an Adirondack guide boat has been left out of you." - -"Truly," he said, "was that what you were thinking?" - -"No," she said; "I was thinking other things. I was thinking that I -ought to go down on my knees and thank you for breaking the leader. You -see, I'd made up my mind to keep my word. And, well, of course, it's a -great escape for me. - -"Why? Was the prospect of marrying me so awful?" - -"The prospect of marrying a man who would rather lose a five-pound fish -than marry me--was awful." - -Pritchard stopped rowing, and his laughter went abroad over the quiet -lake until presently Gay's forehead smoothed and, after a prelude of -dimples, she joined gayly in. - -When Pritchard could speak, he said: - -"You don't really think that, do you?" - -"I don't know what I think," said Gay. "I'm just horrid and cross and -spoiled. Don't let's talk about it any more." - -"But I said," said he, "I said 'As a bet, no; but as a gift'--oh, with -what rapture and delight!" - -"Do you mean that?" She looked him in the face with level eyes. - -Once more he stopped rowing. - -"I love you," he said, "with my whole heart and soul." - -"Don't," said Gay, "don't spoil a day that, for all its ups and downs, -has been a good day, a day that, on the whole, I've loved--and let's -hurry, please, because I stood in the water and it was icy." - -After that Pritchard rowed with heroic force and determination; he -lacked, however, the knack which overlapping oar handles demand, and at -every fifteenth or sixteenth stroke knocked a piece of "bark" from his -knuckles. - -Smarting with pain, he smiled gently at her from time to time. - -"Will you guide me to-morrow?" - -"To-morrow," she said, "there will be enough real guides to go around." - -"You really are, aren't you?" he said. - -"What?" - -"Angry with me." - -"Oh, no--I think--that what you said--what you said--was a foolish thing -to say. If I came to you with my sisters Lee and Phyllis, you wouldn't -know which of the three I was, and yet--you said--you said----" - -"It isn't a question of words--it's a question of feeling. Do you really -think I shouldn't know you from your sisters?" - -"I am sure of it," said Gay. - -"But if you weren't?" - -"Then I should still think that you had tried to be foolish but I -shouldn't be angry." - -"How," said Pritchard, his eyes twinkling, "shall I convince the girl I -love--that I know her by sight?" - -Gay laughed. The idea seemed rather comical to her. - -"To-night," she said, "when you have dined, walk down to the dock alone. -One of us three will come to you and say: 'Too bad we didn't have better -luck.' And you won't know if she's Lee or Phyllis or me." - - * * * * * - -Pritchard smoked upon the dock in the light of an arc-lamp. A vision, -smiling and rosy, swept out of the darkness, and said: - -"Too bad we didn't have better luck!" - -"I beg your pardon," said Pritchard, "you're not Miss Gay, but I haven't -had the pleasure of being presented to Miss Lee or Miss Phyllis." - -The vision chuckled and beat a swift, giggling retreat to a dark spot -among the pines, where other giggles awaited her. - -A second vision came. - -"Too bad we didn't have better luck!" - -Pritchard smiled gravely into the vision's eyes, and said in so low a -voice that only she could hear: - -"Bad luck? I have learned to love you with all my heart and soul." - -Silence. An answering whisper. - -"How did you know me?" - -"How? Because my heart says here is the only girl in all the world--see -how different, how more beautiful and gentle she is than all other -girls." - -"But I'm not Gay--I'm Phyllis." - -"If you are Phyllis," he whispered, "then you never were Gay." - -She laughed softly. - -"I _am_ Gay." - -"Why tell me? I know. Am I forgiven?" - -"There is nothing," she said swiftly, "to forgive," and she fled -swiftly. - -To her sisters waiting among the pines she gave explanation. - -"Of course, he knew me." - -"How?" - -"Why, he said there couldn't be any doubt; he said I was so very much -better-looking than any sister of mine could possibly be." - -Forthwith Lee pinioned Gay's arms and Phyllis pulled her ears for her. - -Mr. Pritchard paced the dock, offering rings of Cuban incense to the -stars. - - * * * * * - -From Play House came the sounds which men make when they play cards and -do not care whether they win or lose. - -Maud was in her office, adding a column of figures which the grocer had -sent in. The triplets, linked arm in arm, joined her. Arthur came, and -Eve and Mary. - -They agreed that they were very tired and ready for bed. - -"It's going to be a success, anyway," said Mary. "That seems certain." - -"We must have the plumber up," said Eve; "the laundry boiler has sprung -a leak. Who's that in your pocket, Arthur?" - -"Uncas. He came in exhausted after a long day in the woods. Something -unusual happened to him. I know, because he tried so very hard to tell -me all about it just before he went to sleep, and of course he couldn't -quite make me understand. I think he was trying to warn me of -something--trying to tell me to keep my eyes peeled." - -The family laughed. Arthur was always so absurd about his pets. All -laughed except Gay. She, in a dark corner, like the rose in the poem, -blushed unseen. - - - - -XI - - -When their week was up, Mr. Langham's guests, Messrs. O'Malley, Alston, -and Cox, felt obliged to go where income called them. Renier, however, -who had only been at work a year, decided that he did not like his job, -and would try for another in the fall. Lee delivered herself of the -stern opinion that a rolling stone gathers no moss, and Renier answered -that his late uncle had been a fair-to-middling moss gatherer, and that -to have more than one such in a given family was a sign of low tastes. -"I have a little money of my own," he said darkly, "and, what's more, I -have a little hunch." To his face Lee upbraided him for his lack of -ambition and his lack of elegance, but behind his back she smiled -secretly. She was well pleased with herself. It had only taken him three -days to get so that he knew her when he saw her, and for a young man of -average intellect and eyesight that was almost a record. - -The triplets were not only as like as three lovely vases cast in the -same mould but it amused them to dress alike, without so much as the -differentiation of a ribbon, and to imitate each other's little tricks -of speech and gesture. It was even possible for them to fool their own -brother at times when he happened to be a little absent-minded. - -Every day Renier fished for many hours, and always the guide who handled -his boat and showed him where to throw his flies was Lee. - -"They're only children," said Mary, "and I think they're getting -altogether too chummy." - -Arthur did not answer, and for the very good reason that Mary's words -were not addressed to him, nor were they addressed to Maud or Eve. -Indeed, at the moment, these three were sound asleep in their beds. It -was to that plumper and earlier bird, Mr. Samuel Langham, that Mary had -spoken. The end of a kitchen table, set with blue-and-white dishes and -cups that steamed, fragrantly separated them. They had formed a habit of -breakfasting together in the kitchen, and it had not taken Mary long to -discover that Sam Langham's good judgment was not confined to eatables -and drinkables. She consulted him about all sorts of things. She felt as -if she had known him (and trusted him) all her life. - -"Renier," he said, "is one of the few really eligible young men I know. -That is why I asked him up here. I don't mean that my intention was -match-making, but when I saw your picture in the advertisement, I said -to myself: 'The Inn is no place for attractive scalawags. Any man that -goes there on my invitation must be sound, morally and financially.' -Young Renier is as innocent of anything evil as Miss Lee herself. If -they take a fancy to each other--of course it's none of my business, -but, my dear Miss Darling--why not?" - -"Coffee?" - -"Thanks." - -"An egg?" - -"Please." - -Mary was very tactful. She never said: "_Some more_ coffee?" She never -said: "_Another_ egg?" - -"Some people," said Mr. Langham, smiling happily, "might say that _we_ -were getting too chummy." - -"Suppose," said Mary, "that somebody did say just that?" - -"I should reply," said Mr. Langham thoughtfully, "that of the few really -eligible men that I know, I myself am, on the whole, the most eligible." - -Mary laughed. - -"Construe," she said. - -"In the first place," he continued, "and naming my qualifications in the -order of their importance, I don't ever remember to have spoken a cross -word to anybody; secondly, unless I have paved a primrose path to -ultimate indigestion and gout, there is nothing in my past life to -warrant mention. To be more explicit, I am not in a position to be -troubled by--er--'old agitations of myrtle and roses'; third, something -tells me that in a time of supreme need it would be possible for me to -go to work; and, fourth, I have plenty of money--really plenty of -money." - -Mary smiled almost tenderly. - -"I can't help feeling," she said, "that I, too, am a safe proposition. I -am twenty-nine. My wild oats have never sprouted. I think we may -conclude that they were never sown. The Inn was my idea--mostly, though -I say it that shouldn't. And The Inn is going to be a success. We could -fill every room we've got five times--at our own prices." - -"I pronounce your bill of health sound," said Mr. Langham. "Let us -continue to be chummy." - -"Coffee?" - -"Thanks." - -Whatever chance there may have been for Gay and Pritchard to get "too -chummy"--and no one will deny that they had made an excellent start--was -promptly knocked in the head by Arthur. It so happened that, in a -desperately unguarded moment, when Arthur happened to be present, -Pritchard mentioned that he had spent a whole winter in the city of -Peking. The name startled Arthur as might the apparition of a ghost. - -"Which winter?" he asked. "I mean, what year?" - -Pritchard said what year, and added, "Why do you ask?" - -Arthur had not meant to ask. He began a long blush, seeing which Gay -turned swift heels and escaped upon a suddenly ejaculated pretext. - -"Why," said Arthur lamely, "I knew some people who were in Peking that -winter--that's all." - -"Then," said Pritchard, "we have mutual friends. I knew every foreigner -in Peking. There weren't many." - -Although Arthur had gotten the better of his blush, he felt that -Pritchard was eying him rather narrowly. - -"They," said Arthur, "were a Mr. and Mrs. Waring." - -"I hope," said Pritchard, "that _he_ wasn't a friend of yours." - -"He was not," said Arthur, "but she was. I was very fond of her." - -"Nobody," said Pritchard, "could help being fond of her. But Waring was -an old brute. One hated him. He wouldn't let her call her soul her own. -He was always snubbing her. We used to call her the 'girl with the dry -eyes.'" - -"Why?" asked Arthur. - -"It's a Chinese idea," said Pritchard. "Every woman is supposed to have -just so many tears to shed. When these are all gone, why, then, no -matter what sorrows come to her, she has no way of relieving them." - -Arthur could not conceal his agitation. And Pritchard looked away. He -wished to escape. He thought that he could be happier with Gay than with -her brother. But Arthur, agitation or no agitation, was determined to -find out all that the young Englishman could tell him about the Warings. -He began to ask innumerable questions: "What sort of a house did they -live in?" "How do Christians amuse themselves in the Chinese capital?" -"Did Mrs. Waring ride?" "What were some of her friends like?" etc., etc. -There was no escaping him. He fastened himself to Pritchard as a -drowning man to a straw. And his appetite for Peking news became -insatiable. Pritchard surrendered gracefully. He went with Arthur on -canoe trips and mountain climbs; at night he smoked with him in the open -camp. And, in the end, Arthur gave him his whole confidence; so that, -much as Pritchard wished to climb mountains and go on canoe trips with -Gay, he was touched, interested, and gratified, and then all at once he -found himself liking Arthur as much as any man he had ever known. - -"There is something wonderfully fine about your brother," he said to -Gay. "At first I thought he was a queer stick, with his pets and his -secret haunts in the woods, and his unutterable contempt for anything -mean or worldly. We ought to dress him up in proof armor and send him -forth upon the quest of some grail or other." - -"Grails," said Gay, "and auks are extinct." - -"Grails extinct!" exclaimed Pritchard. He was horrified. - -"Why, my dear Miss Gay, if ever the world offered opportunities to -belted knights without fear and without reproach, it's now." - -"I suppose," said she, "that Arthur has told you all about his--his -mix-up." - -Pritchard nodded gravely. - -"Is that the quest he ought to ride on?" - -"No--it won't do for Arthur. He might be accused of self-interest. That -should be a matter to be redressed by a brother knight." - -"Or a divorce court." - -"Miss Gay!" - -"I don't think it's nice for one's brother to be in love with a married -woman." - -"It isn't," said Pritchard gravely, "for him. It's hell." - -"_We_," said Gay, "never knew her." - -"She's not much older than you," said Pritchard. "If I'd never seen you, -I'd say that she was the prettiest girl I'd ever seen. But she's gentler -and meeker than even you'd be in her boots. She isn't self-reliant and -able." - -"You talk as if you'd been in love with her yourself." - -"I? I thought I was talking as if I was in love with you." - -"Looks like it, don't it?" said she. "Spending all your time with a -girl's brother." - -"Not doing what you most want to do," said Pritchard, "is sometimes -thought knightly." - -"Do you know," she said critically, "sometimes I think you really like -me a lot. And sometimes I think that I really like you. The funny thing -is that it never seems to happen to both of us at the same time. There's -Arthur looking for you. Do me a favor--shake him and come for a tramp -with me." - -"I can't," said Pritchard simply. "I've promised. But to-morrow----" - -"_Certainly not_," said she. - - - - -XII - - -Warm weather and the real opening of the season arrived at the same -time. The Camp hummed with the activities and the voices of people. And -it became possible for the Darlings to withdraw a little into their -shells and lead more of a family life. As Maud said: - -"When there were more proprietors than guests, we simply had to sail in -and give the guests a good time. But now that the business is in full -blast, we mustn't be amateurs any more." - -Langham, Renier, and the future Earl of Merrivale remained, of course, -upon their well-established footing of companionship, but the Darlings -began to play their parts of innkeepers with the utmost seriousness and -to fight shy of any social advances from the ranks of their guests. - -Indeed, for the real heads of the family, Mary, Maud, and Eve, there was -serious work to be done. For, to keep thirty or forty exigent and -extravagant people well fed, well laundered, well served, and well -amused is no frisky skirmish but a morning-to-night battle, a constant -looking ahead, a steady drain upon the patience and invention. - -In Sam Langham Mary found an invaluable ally. He knew how to live, and -could guess to a nicety the "inner man" of another. Nor did he stop at -advice. Being a celebrated _bon viveur_ he went subtly among the guests -and praised the machinery of whose completed product they were the -consumers and the beneficiaries. He knew of no place, he confided, up -and down the whole world, where, for a sum of money, you got exactly -what you wanted without asking for it. - -"Take me for an example," he would say. "I have never before been able -to get along without my valet. Here he would be a superfluity. I am -'done,' you may say, better than I have ever been able to do myself. And -I know what I'm talking about. What! You think the prices are really -rather high. Think what you are getting, man--think!" - -Among the new guests was a young man from Boston by the name of Herring. -He had written that he was convalescing from typhoid fever and that his -doctor had prescribed Adirondack air. - -Renier knew Herring slightly and vouched for him. - -"They're good people," he said, "his branch of the Herring family--the -'red Herrings' they are called locally--if we may speak of Boston as a -'locality'--he's the reddest of them and the most showy. If there's -anything he hasn't tried, he has to try it. He isn't good at things. But -he does them. He's the fellow that went to the Barren Lands with a -niblick. What, you never heard of that stunt? He was playing in foursome -at Myopia. He got bunkered. He hit the sand a prodigious blow and the -ball never moved. His partner said: 'Never mind, Syd, you hit hard -enough to kill a musk-ox.' - -"'Did I?' said Herring, much interested, 'but I never heard of killing a -musk-ox with a niblick. Has it ever been done? Are there any authorities -one might consult?' - -"His partner assured him that 'it' had never been done. Herring said -that was enough for him. The charm of Herring is that he never smiles; -he's deadly serious--or pretends to be. When they had holed out at the -eighteenth, Herring took his niblick and said: 'Well, so long. I'm off -to the Barren Lands.' - -"They bet him there and then that he would neither go to the Barren -Lands nor kill a musk-ox when he got there. He took their bets, which -were large. And he went to the Barren Lands, armed only with his niblick -and a camera. But he didn't kill a musk-ox. He said they came right up -to be photographed, and he hadn't the heart to strike. He brought back -plenty enough pictures to prove where he'd been, but no musk-ox. He -aimed at one tentatively but at the last moment held his hand. 'He -remembered suddenly,' he said, 'that he had never killed anything, and -didn't propose to begin.' So he came home and paid one bet and pocketed -the other. He can't shoot; he can't fish; he can't row. He's a perfect -dub, but he's got the soul of a Columbus." - -"Something tells me," said Pritchard, "that I shall like him." - -Herring, having arrived and registered and been shown his rooms, was not -thereafter seen to speak to anybody for two whole days. As a matter of -fact, though, he held some conversation with Renier, whom he had met -before. - -"It's just Boston," Renier explained. "They're the best people in the -world--when--well, not when you get to know them but when they get to -know you. Give him time and he will blossom." - -"He looks like a blossom already," said Lee. "He looks at a little -distance like a gigantic plant of scarlet salvia, or a small maple-tree -in October." - -Upon the third day Mr. Herring came out of his shell, as had been -prophesied. He went about asking guests and guides, with almost -plaintive seriousness, questions which they were unable to answer. He -began to make friends with Pritchard and Langham. He solemnly presented -Arthur with a baseball that had figured in a Yale-Harvard game. Then he -got himself introduced to Lee. - -"You guide, don't you?" he said. - -"I have guided," she said, "but I don't. It was only in the beginning of -things when there weren't enough real guides to go around. But, surely -you don't need a guide. You've been to the Barren Lands and all sorts of -wild places. You ought to be a first-class woodsman." - -"I thought I'd like to go fishing to-morrow," he said. "It's very -disappointing. I've looked forward all my life to being guided by a -young girl, and when I saw you, I said, if this isn't she, this is her -living image." - -"You shall have Bullard," said Lee. "He knows all the best places." - -Herring complained to Arthur. "Your sisters," he said, "are said to be -the best guides in the Adirondacks, but they won't take me out. How is -a fellow to convalesce from typhoid if people aren't unfailingly kind to -him?" - -Arthur laughed, and said that he didn't know. - -"Let me guide you," he offered. - -"No," said Herring, "it isn't that I want to be guided. It's that I want -the experience of being guided by a girl. I want to lean back and be -rowed." - -Herring walked in the woods and came upon Phyllis's garden, with Phyllis -in the midst of it. - -"Halloo again!" he said. - -Now it so happened that he had never seen Phyllis before. - -She straightened from a frame of baby lettuce and smiled. She loved -bright colors, and his flaming hair was becoming to her garden. - -"Halloo again!" she said. - -"Have you changed your mind?" he asked. - -She sparred for time and enlightenment and said: - -"It's against all the rules." - -"We could," said he, "start so early that nobody would know. I have -often gotten up at five." - -"So have I," said Phyllis wistfully. - -"We could be back before breakfast." - -Phyllis appeared to think the matter over. - -"Of course," he said, "you said you wouldn't. But if girls didn't change -their minds, they wouldn't be girls." - -"That," said Phyllis, "is perfectly true." - -To herself she said: - -"He's asked Lee or Gay to guide him, and thinks he's asked me." - -Now, Phyllis was not good with oars or fishing-tackle, but she liked -Herring's hair and the fact that he never smiled. Furthermore, she -believed that, if the worst came to the worst, she could find some of -the places where people sometimes took trout. - -"I have never," said Herring, "been guided by a young girl." - -"What, never!" exclaimed Phyllis. - -"Never," he said. "And I am sure that it would work wonders for me." - -"Such as?" - -"It might lead me to take an interest in gardening. I have always hoped -that I should some day." - -"People," thought Phyllis, "interested in gardening are rare--especially -beautiful young gentlemen with flaming hair. Here is my chance to -slaughter two birds with one stone." - -"You'll swear not to tell?" she exhorted. - -"Yes," he said, "but not here. Soon. When I am alone." He did not smile. - -"Then," she said, "be at the float at five-thirty sharp." - -That night she sought out Lee and Gay. - -"Such a joke," she said. "I've promised to guide Mr. Herring--to-morrow -at five-thirty, but he thinks that it's one of you two who has promised. -Now, as I don't row or fish, one of you will have to take my place for -the credit of the family." - -But her sisters were laughing in their sleeves. - -"My dear girl," said Gay, "why the dickens didn't you tell us sooner? We -also have made positive engagements at five-thirty to-morrow morning." - -"What engagements?" exclaimed Phyllis. - -Gay leaned close and whispered confidentially. - -"We've made positive engagements," she said, "to sleep till breakfast -time." - - - - -XIII - - -In an athletic generation Phyllis was an anachronism. She was the sort -of girl one's great-grandmother was, only better-looking--one's -great-grandmother, if there is any truth in oil and canvas, having been -neatly and roundly turned out of a peg of wood. Phyllis played no game -well, unless gardening is a game. She liked to embroider and to write -long letters in a wonderfully neat hand. She disliked intensely the -roaring of firearms and the diabolic flopping of fresh-caught fish. She -was one of those people who never look at a sunset or a moonrise or a -flower without actually seeing them, and yet, withal, her sisters Lee -and Gay looked upon her with a certain awe and respect. She was so -strong in the wrists and fingers that she could hold them when they were -rambunctious. And she was only afraid of things that aren't in the least -dangerous. "No," they said, "she can't fish and shoot and row and play -tennis and dive and swim under water, but she's the best dancer in the -family--probably in the world--and the best sport." - -Phyllis was, in truth, a good sport, or else she was more attracted by -Mr. Herring's _Salvia-splendens_ hair than she would have cared to -admit. Whatever the cause, she met him at the float the next morning at -five-thirty, prepared to guide him or perish in the attempt. She wore a -short blue skirt and a long white sweater of Shetland wool. It weighed -about an ounce. She wore white tennis shoes and an immense pair of -well-oiled gardening gloves. At least she would put off blistering her -hands as long as possible. - -Phyllis, to be exact, was five minutes early for her appointment. This -gave her time to get a boat into the water without displaying -awkwardness to any one but herself--also, to slip the oars over the -thole-pins and to accustom herself to the idea of handling them. She had -taken coaching the night before from Lee and Gay, sitting on a bearskin -rug in front of the fire, and swaying rhythmically forward and back. - -As Herring was no fisherman, her sisters advised her to row very slowly. -"Tell him," they said, "that a boat rushing through water alarms fish -more than anything in the world." - -She told him when he was seated in the stern of the boat facing her. - -"You mustn't mind going very slow," she said. "The fish in this part of -the Adirondacks are noted for their sensitiveness in general and their -acute sense of hearing in particular. Why, if I were to row as fast as I -can"--there must have been a twinkle in her eyes--"trout miles away -would be frightened out of their skins," and she added mentally, "and I -should upset this horribly wabbly boat into the bargain." - -They proceeded at a snail's pace, Phyllis dabbing the water gingerly -with her oars, with something of that caution and repulsion with which -one turns over a dead snake with a stick--to see if it is dead. - -The grips of guide-boat oars overlap. And your hands follow rather than -accompany each other from catch to finish, and from finish to catch. If -you are careless, or not to the stroke born or trained, you occasionally -knock little chunks of skin and flesh from your knuckles. - -Herring watched Phyllis's gentle and restrained efforts with inscrutable -eyes. - -"I never could understand," he said, "how you fellows manage to row at -all with that sort of an outfit. At Harvard they only give you one oar -and let you take both hands to it, and then you can't row. At least, I -couldn't. They put me right out of the boat. They said I caught crabs. -As a matter of fact, I didn't. All I did was to sit there, and every now -and then the handle of my oar banged me across the solar plexus." - -"We're not going far, you know," said Phyllis (and she mastered the -desire to laugh). "Hadn't you--ah--um--better put your rod together?" - -"Oh, I can do that!" said Herring. "You begin with the big piece and you -stick the next-sized piece into that, and so on. And I know how to put -the reel on, because the man in the store showed me, and I know how to -run the line through the rings." - -"Well," said Phyllis, "that's more than half the battle." - -"And," Herring continued, "he showed me how to tie on the -what-you-may-call-it and the flies." - -"Good!" said Phyllis. - -"And, of course," he concluded, "I've forgotten." - -Now, Phyllis had been shown how to tie flies to a leader only the night -before, and she, also, had forgotten. - -"There are," she said, "a great many fetiches among anglers. Among them -are knots. Now, in my experience, almost any knot that will stand will -do. The important thing is to choose the right flies." - -As to this, she had also received instruction, but with better results, -since it was an entirely feminine affair of colored silks and feathers. - -"I will tell you which flies to use," she said. - -"And," said he, "you will also have to show me how to cast." - -"What!" she exclaimed, and stopped rowing, "You don't know how to cast?" - -"No," he said, "I don't. I'm a dub. Didn't you know that?" - -"But," she protested, "I can't teach you in a morning"--and she added -mentally--"or in a whole lifetime, for that matter." - -It was not more than a mile across the mouth of a deep bay to the brook -in which they had elected to fish. With no wind to object, the most -dabbily propelled guide boat travels with considerable speed, and before -Herring had managed to tie the flies which Phyllis had selected to his -leader (with any kind of a knot) they were among the snaggy shallows of -the brook's mouth. - -The brook was known locally as Swamp Brook, its shores for a mile or -more being boggy and treacherous. Fishermen who liked to land -occasionally and cast from terra firma avoided it. Phyllis had selected -it solely because it was the nearest brook to the camp which contained -trout. If she had remembered how full it was of snags, and how easily -guide boats are turned turtle, she would have selected some other brook, -even, if necessary, at the "Back of beyond." It had been easy enough to -propel the boat across the open waters of the lake, but to guide it -clear of snags and around right-angle bends, especially when the genius -of rowing demands that eyes look astern rather than ahead, was beyond -her powers. The boat ran into snags, poked its nose into boggy banks, -turned half over, righted, rushed on, and stopped again with rude bumps. - -Herring, that fatalistic young Bostonian, began to take an interest in -his fate. His flies trailed in the water behind him. His eyes never left -Phyllis's face. His handsome mouth was as near to smiling as it ever -got. - -"Do you," he said presently, "swim as well as you row?" - -She stopped rowing; she laughed right out. - -"Just about," she said. - -"Good," he said seriously, "because I'm a dub at it, and in case of an -upset, I look to you." - -"The truth," said Phyllis, "is that there's no place to swim to. It's -all swamp in here." - -"True," said Herring; "we would have to cling to the boat and call upon -Heaven to aid us." - -One of Herring's flies, trailing in the water, proved, at this moment, -overwhelmingly attractive to a young and unsophisticated trout. - -Herring shouted with the triumph of a schoolboy, "I've got one," and -sprang to his feet. - -"Please sit down!" said Phyllis. "We almost went that time." - -"So we did," said Herring. - -He sat down, and they almost "went" again. - -"Now," said Phyllis, "play him." - -"Play him?" said Herring. "Watch me." And he began to pull strongly upon -the fish. - -The fish was young and weak. Herring's tackle was new and strong. The -fish dangled in mid-air over the middle of the boat. - -"Sorry," said Herring, "I can't reach him. Take him off, please." - -It has been said that Phyllis was a good sport. If there was one thing -she hated and feared more than another, it was a live fish. She reached -forward; her gloved hand almost closed upon it; it gave a convulsive -flop; Phyllis squeaked like a mouse, threw her weight to one side, and -the boat quietly upset. - -The sportsmen came to the surface streaming. - -"I can touch bottom," said Herring politely; "can you?" - -"Yes," she said, "but my feet are sinking into it--" She tore them loose -and swam. Herring did likewise. And they clung to the boat. - -"I hope you'll forgive me," said Phyllis. "I never rowed a boat before -and I never could stand live fish." - -"It was my fault," said Herring. "Something told me to lean the opposite -from the way you leaned. But it told me too late. The truth is I don't -know how to behave in a boat. Well, you are still guide. It's up to -you." - -"What is up to me?" - -"A plan of some sort," said he, "to get us out of this." - -"Oh, no," she said, "it's up to you." - -"My plan," he said, "would be to get back into the boat and row home. It -seems feasible, and even easy. But appearances are deceptive. I think -I'd rather walk. What has happened here might happen out on the middle -of the lake." - -"What you don't realize," said Phyllis, "is that we're in the midst of -an impassable swamp." - -"Impassable?" - -"Well, no one's ever crossed it except in winter." - -"What--no one!" - -He was immensely interested. - -"Do you know," he went on confidentially, "the only things that I'm good -at are things for which there are no precedents--things that nobody has -ever done before. That's why I'm so fond of doing unusual things. Now, -you say that this swamp has never been crossed? Enough said. You and I -will cross it. We _will_ do it. Are you game?" - -"It seems," said Phyllis, "merely a question of when and where we drown. -So I'm game. Your teeth are chattering." - -"Thank you," said Herring. "But no harm will come to them. They are very -strong." - -"I hope," said Phyllis, "that when I come out of the water you won't -look at me. I shall be a sight." - -"A comrade in trouble," said Herring, "is never a sight." - -"I am so ashamed," said Phyllis. - -"What of?" - -"Of being such a fool." - -"You're a good sport," said Herring. "That's what you are." - -By dint of violent kicking and paddling with their free hands they -managed to propel the guide boat from the centre of the brook to a -firm-looking clump of reeds and alder roots which formed a tiny -peninsula from that shore which was toward The Camp. Covered with slime -and mud they dragged themselves out of the water and stood balancing -upon the alder roots to recover their breath. - -"We must each take an oar," said Herring. "We can make little bridges -with them. And we must keep working hard so as to get warm. We shall -live to write a brochure about this: 'From Clump to Clump, or Mudfoots -in the Adirondacks.'" - -Between that clump on which they had found a footing and the next was -ten feet of water. - -Herring crossed seven feet of it with one heavy jump, fell on his face, -caught two handfuls of viburnum stems, and once more dragged himself out -of water. - -"Now then," he called, "float the oars over to me." And when Phyllis had -done this: "Now you come. The main thing in crossing swamps is to keep -flat instead of up and down. Jump for it--fall forward--and I'll get -your hands!" - -Once more they stood side by side precariously balancing. - -"The moment," said Herring, "that you begin to feel bored, tell me." - -"Why?" - -"So that I can encourage you. I will tell you that you are doing -something that has never been done before. And that will make you feel -fine and dandy. What we are doing is just as hard as finding the North -Pole, only there isn't going to be so much of it. Now then, in -negotiating this next sheet of water----" - -And so they proceeded until the sun was high in the heavens and until it -was low. - - - - -XIV - - -To attempt the dangerous passage of a swamp when they might have -returned to camp in the guide boat was undoubtedly a most imbecile -decision. And if Phyllis had not been thoroughly flustered by the upset, -which was all her fault, she never would have consented to it. As for -Herring's voice in the matter, it was that which the young man always -gave when there was a question of adventure. He didn't get around -mountains by the valley road. He climbed over them. He had not in his -whole being a suspicion of what is dangerous. He had never been afraid -of anything. He probably never would be. He would have enjoyed leading -half a dozen forlorn hopes every morning before breakfast. - -"We were idiots," said Phyllis, "to leave the boat." - -"We can't go back to it now," said Herring. "We don't know the way." - -"Your voice sounds as if you were glad of it." - -"I am. I was dreadfully afraid you'd decide against crossing this -swamp. I'd set my heart on it." - -"It isn't I," said Phyllis, "that's against our crossing this swamp. -It's the swamp." - -"The main thing," said Herring, with satisfaction (physically he was -almost exhausted), "is that here we are safe and sound. We don't know -where 'here' is, but it's with us, it won't run away. When we've rested -we shall go on, taking 'here' with us. Wherever we go is 'here.' Think -of that!" - -"I wish I could think of something else," said Phyllis, "but I can't. -I'm almost dead." - -"You are doing something that no girl has ever done before, not even -your sisters, those princesses of fortune. Years from now, when you -begin, 'Once when I happened to be crossing the Swamp with a young -fellow named Herring--' they will have to sit silent and listen." - -"If you weren't so cheerful," said Phyllis, "I should have begun to cry -an hour ago. Do you really think this is fun?" - -"Do I think it's fun? To be in a scrape--not to know when or how we are -going to get out of it? You bet I think it's fun." - -"People have died," said Phyllis, "having just this sort of fun. Suppose -we can't get out?" - -"You mean to-day? Perhaps we can't. Perhaps not to-morrow. Perhaps we -shall have to learn how to live in a swamp. A month of the life we've -led for the last few hours might turn us into amphibians. That would be -intensely novel and interesting. But, of course, when winter comes and -the place freezes over we can march right out and take up our orthodox -lives where we left off. Listen!" - -"What?" - -"I think I hear webs growing between my fingers and toes." - -Phyllis laughed so that the partially dried mud on her face cracked. - -"What," she said, "are we going to eat this side of winter? What are we -going to eat now?" - -His face expressed immense concern. - -"What? You are hungry? Allow me!" - -He produced from his inside pocket a very large cake of sweet chocolate, -wrapped in several thicknesses of oiled silk. - -"My one contribution," he said, "to the science of woodcraft." - -Phyllis ate and was refreshed. Afterward she washed all the mud from her -face. Herring watched the progress of the ablution with much interest. - -"Wonderful!" he said presently. - -"What is wonderful?" she asked, not without anticipation of a -compliment. - -"Wonderful to find that something which is generally accepted as -true--is true. To see it proved before your eyes." - -"What do you mean?" - -"I mean," he said, "that I never before actually saw a girl wash her -face. I've seen 'em when they said they were going to. I've seen 'em -when they said they just had. But now I know." - -"If you weren't quite mad," said Phyllis, "you'd be very exasperating. -Here am I, frightened half to death, cold and miserable, and dreadfully -worried to think how worried my family must be, and there are you, -almost too tired to stand, actually delighted with yourself, because -you're in trouble and because for the first time in your life you've -seen a girl wash her face. Can't you be serious about anything?" - -"Not about a half-drowned girl taking the trouble to wash her face," he -said. - -"You," said she, "would look much better if you washed yours." - -"But," he said, "we'll be covered with mud again before we've gone fifty -yards." - -"Because you are going into a coal mine to-morrow," said Phyllis, "is -no reason why you shouldn't be clean to-day." - -"True," said Herring, and he washed his face. - - * * * * * - -At breakfast that morning Pritchard received the following cablegram: - - Come home and shake hands. I'm off. M. - -Greatly moved, he carried it to Gay, and without comment put it in her -hand. - -"Who is M?" she asked. - -"My uncle, the Earl of Merrivale." - -"What does _I'm off_ mean?" - -"It means," said Pritchard, "that they've given him up, and he wants to -make friends. He never liked my father or me." - -"It means," said Gay generously, "that you are going away?" - -"Yes," he said, "at once. But it means more. It means that I've got to -find out if I'm--to come back some time?" - -"Of course, you are to come back," she said. - -Words rose swiftly to Pritchard's lips and came no further. Indeed, he -appeared to swallow them. - -"And I'm glad you are going to make friends with your uncle," said Gay. - -"There'll be such lots of young men here when the season opens," said -Pritchard. - -"Judging by applications," said Gay, "we shall be swamped with gentlemen -of all ages." - -Pritchard's melancholy only deepened. "Will you come as far as Carrytown -in the _Streak_?" he asked. - -She nodded, and said she would because she had some shopping to do. - -During that short, exhilarating rush across the lake, and afterward -walking up and down on the board platform by the side of the waiting -train, he tried his best to ring a little sentiment out of her, but -failed utterly. - -The locomotive whistled, and the conductor came out of the village -drug-store, staggering slightly. - -"I've left all my dry-fly tackle," said Pritchard. "Will _you_ take care -of it for me?" - -"With pleasure," said Gay. - -"I'd like you to use it. It's a lovely rod to throw line." - -"All aboard!" - -"I'd like to bring you out some rods and things. May I?" - -"You bet you may!" exclaimed Gay. - -Pritchard sighed. The train creaked, jolted, moved forward, stopped, -jerked, and moved forward again. Pritchard waited until the rear steps -of the rear car were about to pass. - -"Good-by, Miss Gay!" - -They shook hands firmly, and Pritchard swung himself onto the moving -train. Gay, walking rapidly and presently breaking into a trot, -accompanied him as far as the end of the platform. She wanted to say -something that would please him very much without encouraging him too -much. - -"Looks as if I was after you!" she said. - -Pritchard's whole soul was in his eyes. And there was a large lump in -his throat. Suddenly Gay reached the end of the long platform and -stopped running. The train was now going quite fast for an Adirondack -train. The distance between them widened rapidly. - -"Wish you weren't going," called Gay. - -And she saw Pritchard reach suddenly upward and pull the rope by which -trains are stopped in emergencies. While the train was stopping and the -train hands were trying to find out who had stopped it and why, -Pritchard calmly alighted, and returned to where Gay was standing. - -"I just had to look at you once more--close," he said; "you never can -tell what will happen in this world. I may never see you again, and the -thought is killing me. Think of that once in a while, please." - -He bent swiftly, caught her hand in his, kissed it, and was gone. Or, if -not exactly gone, she saw him no more, because of suddenly blinding -tears. - -When she reached The Camp, Arthur was at the float to meet her. - -"Phyllis and Herring haven't come back," he said. "Lee says they went -fishing. Do you know where they went?" - -"I don't. And they ought to have been back hours ago." - -"Yes," said Arthur, "and we're all starting out to look for them. Care -to come with me?" - -"Yes," she said; "I've got to do _something_." - -Something in her voice took his mind from the more imminent matter. - -"What's wrong, Gay?" - -She shook her head. - -"Nothing. Let's start. If Phyl rowed, they must have gone to the nearest -possible fishing grounds." - -At this moment Sam Langham came puffing down from Cook House. He was -dressed in white flannels and carried a revolver. - -"It's to signal with," he explained. "I'm going to try Loon Brook, -because it's the only brook I know when I see it." - -"Bullard's gone to Loon Brook." - -"Pshaw--can't I ever be of any use!" - -"Good Lord," said Gay, "look!" - -There came around the nearest bend a man rowing one guide boat and -towing another, which was empty. Arthur called to him in a loud, hoarse -voice: - -"Where'd you find that boat?" - -"Up Swamp Brook," came the answer. - -Arthur and Gay went gray as ashes. - -"Who's to tell Mary?" said Arthur presently. - -Then Sam Langham spoke. - -"If you don't mind," he said, "I think I will." - -An hour later the entire male population of The Camp was dragging Swamp -Brook for what they so dreaded to find. - - - - -XV - - -It wasn't all discouragement. For now and then it seemed as if the swamp -was going to have a shore of dry land. At such times Herring would -exclaim: - -"There you see! It had never been done before, and now it's been done, -and we've done it." - -And then it would seem to Phyllis as if a great weight of fear and -anxiety had been lifted from her. - -But the shore of the swamp always turned out to be an illusion. Once -Herring, firmly situated as he believed, went suddenly through a crust -of sphagnum moss and was immersed to the arm-pits. For some moments he -struggled grimly to extricate himself, and only sank the deeper. Then he -turned to Phyllis a face whimsical in spite of its gravity and pallor, -and said: "If you have never saved a man's life, now is your chance. I'm -afraid I can't get out without help." - -It was then that her phenomenally strong little hands and wrists stood -them both in good stead. The arches of her feet against a submerged -root of white cedar, she so pulled and tugged, and exhorted Herring to -struggle free, that at last he came out of that pocket quagmire and lay -exhausted in the ooze at her feet. - -He was incased from neck to foot in a smooth coating of brown slime. -Presently he rolled over on his back and looked up at her. - -"There you see!" he said. "You'd never saved a man's life before, and -now you've done it. Please accept my sincere expressions of envy and -gratitude-- Why, you're crying!" - -She was not only crying, but she was showing symptoms of incipient -hysteria. "An old-fashioned girl," thought Herring, "like -Great-grandmother Saltonstall." He raised himself to a sitting position -just in time to slide an arm around her waist as, the hysteria now well -under way, she sat down beside him and began to wave her hands up and -down like a polite baby saying good-by to some one. - -"One new thing under the sun after another," thought Herring. "Never had -arm round hysterical girl's waist before. Got it there now. When you -need _her_, she takes a good brace and pulls for all she's worth. When -she needs _you_, she seats herself on six inches of water and yells. -Just like Great-grandmother Saltonstall." Aloud he kept saying: "That's -right! Greatest relief in the world! Go to it!" And his arm tightened -about her with extraordinary tenderness. - -Her hysterics ended as suddenly as they had begun. And then she wasted a -valuable half-hour apologizing for having had them; Herring protesting -all the while that he had enjoyed them just as much as she had, and that -they had done him a world of good. And then they had to stop talking -because their teeth began to chatter so hard that they simply couldn't -keep on. Herring stuttered something about, "Exercise is what a body -needs," and they rose to their feet and fought their way through a dense -grove of arbor-vitæ. - -"The stealthy Indian goes through such places without making a sound," -said Herring. - -"Or getting his moccasins wet," said Phyllis. "Oh!" And she sank to the -waist. - -"Never mind," said Herring, "it will be dark before long. And when we -have no choice of where to step, maybe we'll have better luck." - -"It will _have_ to be dark very soon," said Phyllis, "if we have any -more of our clothes taken away from us by the brambles." - -"That's a new idea!" exclaimed Herring. "Young couple starve to death -in the woods because modesty forbids them to join their friends in the -open. The head-line might be: 'Stripped by Brambles,' or 'The Two -Bares.'" - -He was so pleased with his joke that he had to lean against a tree. The -laughing set him to coughing, and Phyllis beat him methodically between -the shoulders. - -Herring still refused to be serious. In helping Phyllis over the bad -places, he performed prodigies of misapplied strength and made -prodigious puns. And he said that never in his life had he been in such -a delightful scrape. - -Once, while they were resting, Phyllis said: - -"All you seem to think of is the fun you're having. Most men would be -thinking about the anxiety they were causing others and about the -miseries of their companion." - -"But," he protested, "you are enjoying yourself too. You don't think you -are, but you are. It's your philosophy that is wrong. You like to live -too much in the present. I like to lay by stores of delightful memories -against rainy days. The worse you feel now, the more you'll enjoy -remembering how you felt--some evening, soon--your back against soft -cushions and the soles of your feet toward the fire." - -"Ugh!" shuddered Phyllis. "Don't talk about fires. Oh, dear!" - -"What's wrong _now_!" - -"I'm so stiff I don't think I can take another step. We oughtn't to have -rested so long." - -But she did take another step, and would have fallen heavily if Herring -had not caught her. A moment later she lost a shoe in the ooze, and -wasted much precious daylight in vain efforts to locate and recover it. - -"Sit down on that root," commanded Herring. And she obeyed. He knelt -before her, lifted her wet, muddy little stockinged foot and set it on -his knee. - -"What size, please, miss?" he asked, giving an excellent imitation of a -somewhat officious salesman. - -"I don't know; I have them made," said Phyllis wearily, but trying her -best to smile. - -"Something in this style?" suggested Herring. He had secretly removed -one of his own shoes, and handling it with a kind of comic reverence, as -if the soggy, muddy thing was a precious work of art, he presented it to -her attention. - -And then Phyllis smiled without even trying and then laughed. - -"I said a _shoe_," she said, "not a travelling bath-tub." - -But he slipped that great shoe over her little foot, and so bound it to -her ankle with his handkerchief and necktie that it promised to stay on. - -"But you?" she said. - -"Luck is with me to-day," said Herring. "Anybody can walk through an -impassable swamp, but few are given the opportunity to hop. General -Sherman should have thought of that. It would have showed the -Confederates just what he thought of them if instead of marching through -Georgia he had hopped." - -And he pursued this new train of thought for some time. He improvised -words to old tunes, and sang them at the top of his lungs: "As we were -hopping through Georgia." And last and worst he sang: "There'll be a hop -time in the old town to-night." And when he had occasion to address -Phyllis directly, he no longer called her Miss Darling, but "Goody Two -Shoes." He said that his own name was not Mr. Herring but Mr. Hopper, -and that he was a famous cotillon leader. - -But even he became a little quiet when the light began to fail, and a -little serious. - -"Whatever happens," he said, "it will be a great comfort to you to -realize that it's entirely my fault. On the other hand, if we had -gotten back into that boat, we might have been drowned long before -this." - -A little later Phyllis said: "I'm about all in. It's too dark to see. -I----" - -"Couldn't have chosen a better camping site myself," said Herring -humbly. "First thing to think of is the water-supply--and fuel. Now, -here the fuel grows right out of the water----" - -"We haven't any matches." - -"Yes, we have; but they are wet and won't light." - -"We'll die of cold before morning," said Phyllis; "there's no use -pretending we won't." - -"On the contrary. Now is the time to pretend all sorts of things. Did -you ever try to make a fire by rubbing two sticks together?" - -"Never." - -"Well, try it. It will make you warmer than the fire would. Afterward we -will play 'Paddy cake, Paddy cake,' and 'Bean Porridge hot.'" - -"Do men in danger always carry on the way you do?" asked Phyllis. - -"Always," he answered. - -"I can understand trying to be funny during a cavalry charge, or while -falling off a cliff," said Phyllis, "but not while slowly and miserably -congealing." - -"You are not a Bostonian," said Herring. "Half the inhabitants of that -municipality freeze to death and the others burn." - -"I've stayed in Boston," said Phyllis, "and the only difference that I -could see between it and other places was that the people were more -agreeable and things were done in better taste. And what gardens!" - -"Ever seen the Arboretum?" - -"Have I?" - -"In lilac time?" - -"Mm!" - -She was on her favorite topic. She forgot that she was cold, wet, -miserable, and a frightful anxiety to her family. - -"But why be an innkeeper?" asked Herring. "Why not set up as a -landscape-gardener?" - -"I don't know enough. But I've often thought----" - -"I've got five hundred acres outside of Boston that I'd like to turn you -loose on." - -"You speak as if I were a goat." - -"The first thing to do is to drain the swamps. Now, I'll make you a -proposition. I can't put it in writing, because it's too dark to see and -I have no writing materials, but there is nothing fishy about us -Herrings. You to landscape my place for me, cause a suitable house to -be built, and so forth; I to pay you a thousand dollars a month, and a -five per cent commission on the total expenditure." - -"And what might _that_ amount to?" - -"What you please," said Herring politely. - -"Who says Bostonians are cold?" exclaimed Phyllis. And there began to -float through her head lovely visions of landscapes of her own making. - -"You're still joking, aren't you?" she said after a while. - -"I don't know landscapes well enough to joke about them," he said. - -"But I can't design a house!" - -"Oh, you will have architects to do that part. You just pick the general -type." - -"What kind of a house do you want?" - -"It depends on what kind of a house _you_ want." - -"Oh, dear," she exclaimed, "what fun it would be!" - -"Will you do it?" - -She was tempted beyond her strength. - -"Yes," she said, and began to talk with irresponsible delight and -enthusiasm. - -"Ah," thought Herring to himself, "find out what really interests a girl -and she'll forget all her troubles." - -It began suddenly to grow light. - -"Good heavens!" exclaimed Phyllis. "The woods must be on fire! Oh, the -poor trees!" - -"It isn't fire," said Herring, "it's the moon--'Queen and huntress, -chaste and fair--goddess excellently bright'--was ever such luck! I -hoped we were going to stand here cosily all night talking about -marigolds and cowslips and wallpapers, and now it's our duty to move on. -Come, Goody Two Shoes, Policeman Moon has told us to move on. I shall -never forget this spot. And I shan't ever be able to find it again." - -They toiled forward a little way, and lo! upon a sudden, they came to -firm and rocky land that sloped abruptly upward from the swamp. They -climbed for several hundred feet and came out upon a bare hilltop, from -which could be seen billows of forest and one great horn of Half Moon -Lake, silver in the moonlight. - -"Why, it isn't a mile to camp," said Phyllis. She swayed a little, -tottered, rocked backward and then forward, and fell against Herring's -breast in a dead faint. - -In a few moments she came to and found that she was being carried in -strong arms. It was a novel, delicious, and restful sensation--one which -it seemed immensely sensible to prolong. She did not, then, immediately -open her eyes. - -She heard a voice cheerful, but very much out of breath, murmuring over -her: - -"New experience. Never carried girl before. Experience worth repeating. -Like 'em old-fashioned--like Great-grandmother Saltonstall. Like 'em to -faint." - -A few minutes later, "Where am I?" said Phyllis. - -"In my arms," said Herring phlegmatically, as if that was one of her -habitual residing places. - -"Put me down, please." - -"I hear," said he, "and I obey with extreme reluctance. I made a bet -with myself that I could carry you all the way. And now I shall never -know. Feel better?" - -"Mm," she said, and "What a nuisance I've been all through! But it was -pretty bad, some of it, wasn't it?" - -"Already you are beginning to take pleasure in remembering. What did I -tell you? Don't be frightened. I am going to shout." - -He shouted in a voice of thunder, and before the echo came back to them -another voice, loud and excited, rose in the forest. And they heard -smashings and crashings, as a wild bull tearing through brittle bushes. -And presently Sam Langham burst out of the thicket with a shower of -twigs and pine-needles. - -His delight was not to be measured in words. He apostrophized himself. - -"Good old Sam!" he said. "He knew you weren't drowned in the brook. He -knew it would be just like Herring to want to cross that swamp. As soon -as I heard somebody say that it was impassable, I said: 'Where is the -other side? That's the place to look for them.' But why didn't you make -more noise?" - -"Oh," said Herring, "we were so busy talking and exploring and doing -things that had never been done before that it never occurred to us to -shout." - -"Herring," said Langham sternly, "you have the makings of a hero, but -not, I am afraid, of a woodsman." - -"Well, we're safe enough now," said Herring. "Excuse me a moment----" - -"Excuse you! What?" - -"It's very silly--been sick you know--over-exertion--think better faint -and get it over with." - -Langham knelt and lifted Herring's head. - -"You lift his feet," he said to Phyllis, "send the blood to his heart; -bring him to." - -Herring began to come out of his faint. - -"This young man," said Langham, "may be something of an ass, but he's -got sand." - -"He carried me a long way," said Phyllis, the tears racing down her -cheeks; "and he's only just over typhoid, and he never stopped being -cheerful and gallant, and he _isn't_ an ass!" - -Herring came to, but was not able to stand. He had kept up as long as he -had to, and now there was no more strength in him. - -Phyllis accepted the loan of Langham's coat. - -"I'll stay with him," she said, "while you go for help." - -The moment Langham's back was turned she spread the coat over Herring. - -"_Please--don't!_" he said. - -"You be quiet," said she sharply. "How do you feel?" - -"Pretty well used up, thank you. Hope you'll 'scuse me for this -collapse. Shan't happen again. Lucky thing you and I don't both collapse -same moment." - -A faint moan was wrung from him. She touched his cheek with her hand. It -was hot as fire. She was an old-fashioned girl, and the instinct of -nursing was strong in her. - -She was an old-fashioned girl. There had almost always been a young man -in her life about whom, for a while, she wove more or less intensely -romantic fancies. They came; they went. But almost always there was one. - -She raised her lovely face and looked at the moon, and made an unspoken -confession. There had always been one. Well, now there was another! - - - - -XVI - - -When the real season opened, you might have thought that the whole -venture was Mr. Sam Langham's and that he had risked the whole of his -money in it. Without being officious, he had words of anxious advice for -the Darlings, severally and collectively. His early breakfasts in Smoke -House with Mary, the chef beaming upon the efficient and friendly pair, -lost something of their free and easy social quality, and became -opportunities for the gravest discussions of ways and means. - -The opening day would see every spare room in the place occupied--by a -man. To Mary it seemed a little curious that so few women, so few -families, and so many bachelors had applied for rooms. But to Sam -Langham the reasons for this were clear and definite. - -"It was the picture in the first issues of your advertisement that did -it. I only compliment and felicitate you when I say that every bachelor -who saw that picture must have made up his mind to come here if he -possibly could. And that every woman who saw it must have felt that she -could spend a happier summer somewhere else. Now, if you had circulated -a picture of half a dozen men, each as good-looking as your brother -Arthur, the results would have been just the opposite." - -"Women aren't such idiots about other women's looks as you think they -are," said Mary. - -"I didn't say they were idiots; I intimated that they were sensible. The -prettiest woman at a summer resort always has a good time--not the best, -necessarily, but very good. Now, no woman could look at that picture of -you and your sisters and expect to be considered the prettiest woman -_here_. Could she, Chef?" - -Chef laughed a loud, scornful, defiant, gesticulant, Gallic laugh. His -good-natured features focussed into a scathing Parisian sneer; he turned -a delicate omelette over in the air and said, "Lala!" - -"There are," continued Mr. Langham, "only half a dozen women in the -world who can compare in looks with you and your sisters. There's the -Princess Oducalchi--your mother. There's the Countess of Kingston, Mrs. -Waring, Miss Virginia Clark--but these merely compare. They don't -compete." - -Mr. Langham tried to look very sly and wicked, and he sang in a humming -voice: "Oh, to be a Mussulman, now that spring is here." - -"Coffee?" said Mary. - -"Please." - -"Well," said she, as she poured, "the whys and wherefores don't matter. -It's to be a bachelor resort--that seems definitely settled. But I think -we had better send the triplets away. I don't want the Pritchard and -Herring episodes repeated while my nerves are in this present state. And -there's Lee--if she isn't leading Renier into one folly after another, I -don't know what she is doing. They seem to think that keeping an inn is -a mere excuse for flirtation." - -"Don't send them away," said Langham. "If you sent those three girls to -a place where there weren't any men at all--they'd flirt with their -shadows. Better have 'em flirting where you can watch 'em than where you -can't. And besides--are you quite sure that the Pritchard and Herring -episodes were mere flirtations? Day before yesterday I came upon Miss -Gay by accident; she was practising casting." - -"That's how she spends half her time." - -"But she was practising with Pritchard's rod! Yesterday I came upon her -in the same place----" - -"By accident?" smiled Mary. - -"By design," he said honestly. "And this time she wasn't casting. She -had the rod lying across her knees, and her eyes were turned dreamily -toward the bluest and most distant mountain-top." - -"'Why do you look at that mountain?' I said. - -"'Because it's blue, too,' said she. - -"'And what makes you blue?' I asked. - -"'The same cause that makes the mountain blue,' said she. - -"'Hum,' said I. 'Then it must be distance.' - -"'Something like that,' she said. 'I sometimes think I'm the most distant -person in the world.' - -"'You're probably not the only person who thinks that!' said I. - -"And she said, 'No? Really?' And that was all I could get out of her. -Except that, just as I was walking away, I heard a sharp whistling sound -and my cap--my new plaid cap--was suddenly tweaked from the top of my -head and hung in a tree. She must have practised a lot with that rod of -Pritchard's. It was a beautiful cast----" - -"She might have put your eye out!" exclaimed Mary. - -"She hung the apple of my eye in a tree," said he dolefully. "You know -that one with the green and brown? And last night it rained." - -"I hope she expressed sorrow," said Mary. - -"She was going to, but I got laughing and then she did." - -"What a dear you are!" exclaimed Mary. "And so you think she's making -herself mournful over Mr. Pritchard? And what are the reasons for -thinking that Phyllis is serious about Mr. Herring?" - -"He's sent for blue-prints of his property outside Boston, and they are -busy with plans for landscaping it. Narrow escape that! I didn't let on; -but the second day I thought he was a goner. I did." - -Mary sighed. - -"We might just as well have called it a matrimonial agency in the first -place instead of an inn." - -Mr. Langham rose reluctantly. - -"I have an engagement with Miss Maud," he explained. - -The faintest ripple of disappointment flitted across Mary's forehead. - -"I've promised to help her with her books," said he. "Some of the -journal entries puzzle her; and she has an idea that The Inn ought to -have more capital. And we are going into that, too." - -"I hope," said Mary, "that you aren't going to lend us money without -consulting me." - -Chef was in a distant corner, quite out of ear-shot. And Mr. Langham, -emboldened by one of the most delicious breakfasts he had ever eaten, -shot an arch glance at Miss Darling. - -"I wouldn't consult you about lending money," he said; "I wouldn't -consult you about giving money. But any time you'll let me consult you -about _sharing_ money----" - -Panic overtook him, and he turned and fled. But upon Mary's brow was no -longer any ripple of disappointment--only the unbroken alabaster of -smooth serenity. She reached for the household keys and said to herself: - -"Maud is a steady girl--even if the rest of us aren't." - -She caught a glimpse of herself in the bottom of a highly polished -copper utensil and couldn't help being pleased with what she saw. - -On the way to the office Mr. Langham fell in with Arthur. This one, -Uncas scolding and chatting upon his shoulder, was starting off for a -day's botanizing--or dreaming maybe. - -"Arthur--one moment, please," said Langham. "As the head of the family -I want to consult you about something." - -"Yes?" said Arthur sweetly. "Of course, Uncas, you are too noisy." And -he put the offended little beast into his green collecting case. - -"I never would have come here," said Mr. Langham, "if it hadn't been for -that advertisement." - -Arthur frowned slightly. - -"You mean----" - -"Yes. But I came," said Mr. Langham, "not as a pagan Turk but as a -Christian gentleman. I was just about to take passage for Liverpool when -I saw your sister Mary looking out at me from _The Four Seasons_. And so -I wrote to ask if I could come here. I have lived well, but I am not -disappointed. I am very rich----" - -"My dear Sam," said Arthur, "you are the best fellow in the world. What -do you want of me?" - -"To know that you think I'd try my best to make a girl happy if she'd -let me." - -"A girl?" smiled Arthur. "_Any_ girl?" - -"In all the world," said Mr. Langham, "there is only one girl." - -"If I were you," said Arthur, "I'd ask her what _she_ thought about -it." - -Langham assumed a look of terrible gloom. - -"If she didn't think well of it I'd want to cut my throat. I'd rather -keep on living in blissful uncertainty, but I wanted _you_ to -know--_why_ I am here, and _why_ I want to stay on and on." - -"Why, I'm very glad to know," said Arthur, "but surely it's your own -affair." - -Mr. Langham shook his head. - -"Last night," said he, "I was dozing on my little piazza. Who should row -by at a distance but Miss Gay and Miss Lee. You know how sounds carry -through an Adirondack night? Miss Lee said to Miss Gay: 'I tell you he -doesn't. Not _really_. He's just a male flirt.' 'A butterfly,' said Miss -Gay." - -"But how do you know they were referring to you?" - -"By the way the blessed young things laughed at the word '_butterfly_'. -So I wanted you to know that my intentions are tragically serious, no -matter what others may say. Whatever I may be, and I have been insulted -more than once about my figure and my habits, I am _not_ a flirt. I am -just as romantic as if I was a living skeleton." - -Here Arthur's head went back, and he laughed till the tears came. And -Mr. Langham couldn't help laughing, too. - -A few moments later he was going over The Inn books with Maud Darling -and displaying for her edification an astonishing knowledge of entries -and a truly magical facility in figuring. Suddenly, apropos of something -not in the least germane, he said: - -"Miss Maud, when in your opinion is the most opportune time for a man to -propose to a girl?" - -"When he's got her alone," said she promptly, "and has just been -dazzling her with a display of his erudition and understanding." - -And she, whom Mary had described as the one steady sister in the lot, -flung him a melting and piercing glance. But Mr. Langham was not -deceived. - -"I ask you an academic question," he said, "and you give me an -absolutely cradle-snatching answer. I may _look_ easy, Miss Maud, but -there are people who will protect me." - -"The best time to propose to a girl? You really want to know? I thought -you were just starting one of your jokes." - -"If I am," said he, "the joke will be on me. But I _really_ want to -know." - -"The best moment," said she, "is that moment in which she learns that -one of her friends or one of her sisters younger than she is engaged to -be married. When an unengaged girl hears of another girl's engagement -she has a momentary panic, during which she is helpless and defenseless. -That is my best judgment, Mr. Sam Langham. And the older the girl the -greater the panic. And now I've betrayed my sex. In fact, I have told -you absolutely all that is definitely known about girls." - -Just outside the office he met Gay. - -"Halloo!" she said. - -He only made signs at her and flapped his arms up and down. - -"_They_ can't talk," he said. - -"Who can't talk?" - -He held her with a stern glance, and if the word had been hissable, -would have hissed it. - -"Butterflies," he said. - -Then Miss Gay turned the color of a scarlet maple in the fall of the -year. Then she squealed and ran. - - - - -XVII - - -"Are we all here?" asked Mary. - -She had summoned her sisters and Arthur to the office for a conference. - -"All except Sam Langham," said Gay. - -"I didn't know that he was one of the family," said Mary. - -"Of course, you _know_," said Gay; "you would. _I_ was just guessing." - -"Well, he isn't," said Mary, trying not to change color or to enjoy -being teased about Mr. Langham. - -The triplets sat in a row upon a bench made of little birch logs with -the bark on. It was not soft sitting, as Lee whispered, but one had -one's back to the light, and in case one had done something wrong -without knowing it and was in for a scolding, that would prove an -immense advantage. - -"What I wanted to say," said Mary, "is just this----" - -She stood up and looked rather more at the triplets than any one else, -so that Lee exclaimed, "Votes for women," and Gay echoed her with, -"Yes, but none for poor little girls in their teens." - -"Hitherto," continued the orator, "The Inn has been only informally -open. It's been more like having a few friends stopping with us. We had -to see more or less of them. But after to-day there will be a crowd, and -I think it would be more dignified and pleasanter for them if _some_ of -us kept ourselves a little more to ourselves. What do _you_ think, -Arthur?" - -Arthur looked up sweetly. It was evident that he had not been listening. - -"Why, Mary," he said, "I think it might be managed with infinite -patience." - -The triplets giggled; Maud and Eve exchanged amused looks. - -"Arthur," said Mary, "you can make one contribution to this discussion -if you want to. You can tell us what you are really thinking about, so -that we needn't waste time trying to guess." - -"Why," said he gently, "you know I have quite a knack with animals, -taming them and training them, and I was wondering if it would be -possible to train a snail. _That's_ what I was thinking about. I have a -couple in my pocket at the moment, and----" - -"Never mind _now_," said Mary hurriedly, and she turned to the -triplets. "What do _you_ think of what I said?" - -"I think it was tortuous and involved," said Lee, "and that it would -hardly bear repetition." - -"It smacked of paternalism," said Gay. And even Phyllis, her mind upon -the convalescing Herring, was moved to speak. - -"You said it would be more dignified for some of us to keep to -ourselves. Perhaps it would. You said it would be pleasanter for the -people who are coming here to stay. I doubt it!" - -"Bully for you, old girl," shouted Lee and Gay; "sick her!" - -Mary moaned. She was proof against their hostilities, but the language -in which they were couched pierced her to the marrow. - -"I am sure," she said, "that Maud and Eve will agree with me." - -"Of course," said Eve. - -"Naturally," said Maud. - -"There!" exclaimed Mary, with evident triumph. - -"We agree," said Eve, "that _some_ of us should keep ourselves more to -ourselves." - -And she looked sternly at the triplets. But then she turned and looked -sternly at Mary and rose to her feet. - -"We think," she said with a _j'accuse_ intonation, "that those who -haven't kept themselves to themselves should, and that those who -have--shouldn't. Maud and I, for instance, haven't the slightest -objection to being fetched for and carried for by attractive young men. -Have we, Maud? But hitherto, as must have been obvious to the veriest -nincompoop, we have done our own fetching and carrying." - -There was a short silence. Mary blushed. Arthur fidgeted. He was -wondering if snails preferred the human voice or whistling. - -"I'm quite sure," said Maud, "that I haven't been wandering over the -hills with future earls, or lost in swamps with interesting invalids, or -basked morning after morning in the sunny smile of a gourmet----" - -Mary paled under this attack. - -"Mr. Langham is altogether different," she said. - -"Oh, quite!" cried Lee. - -"Utterly, absolutely different!" cried Gay. "To begin with, he's richer; -and to end with, he's fatter." - -"I shouldn't have said 'fat,'" said Lee. "I should have said -'well-larded,' but then I am something of a stylist." - -"Sam Langham," said Mary, "is everybody's friend. And he's an immense -help in lots of ways; and then he has a certain definite interest in The -Inn. Because, if we need it, he's going to lend us money to carry our -accounts." - -Gay whispered to Lee behind her hand. Lee giggled. - -"What was that?" asked Mary sharply. - -"Only a quotation." - -"What quotation?" - -"Oh, Gay just said something about 'Bought and Paid For.'" - -Here Arthur interrupted. - -"They're like snails," said he to Mary. "You can only train 'em with -infinite patience." - -Phyllis rose suddenly and became the cynosure of all eyes except her -own, whose particular cynosure at the moment was the floor. She moved -toward the door. - -"Where are you off to?" asked Mary. - -"I'm just going to speak to Chef." - -"What about?" - -"About some chicken broth." - -"For yourself?" - -The gentle Phyllis was being goaded beyond endurance. At the door she -turned and lifted her great eyes to Mary's. - -"No," she said bitterly; "it's for Arthur's snails." - -There was a silence. - -"If there's any voting," said Phyllis, "I give my proxy to Gay." And she -vanished through the door. - -"I'm sure," said Mary, "I don't know what the modern young girl is -coming to!" - -"I know where _that_ one is going to," said Gay; "spilling the chicken -broth in her unseemly haste." - -Then Arthur spoke. - -"The modern young girl," he said, "is coming to just where her -grandmother came, and by the same road. Girls will be girls. So let's be -thankful that the men who have come here so far have been--men. And -hopeful that those who are to come will be also. I've lived too much -with nature not to know what's natural--when I see it." - -"Do you think," said Gay sweetly, "that it's natural for a man to eat as -much as Sam Langham does?" - -"As natural under the peculiar circumstances," said Arthur, "as it is -for you to tease." - -Lee rose. - -"And you?" said Mary, smiling at last. - -"Oh," said Lee witheringly, "I have an engagement to carve initials -surrounded by a heart on a birch-tree." - -And when Lee had gone Gay spoke up. - -"I shouldn't wonder," said she, "if, by way of a blind, the baggage had -told the truth." - -"We should never have called it The Inn," said Mary; "we should have -called it The Matrimonial Agency." - -"Every pretty girl," said Arthur, "is a matrimonial agency." - -At this moment Uncas, the chipmunk, rushed screaming into the room and -flung himself into Arthur's lap. Arthur comforted the little beast, and -noticed that his nose and face bore fresh evidences of a fight. Uncas -complained very bitterly; he was evidently trying to talk. - -"Is Stripes hurt?" asked Mary. - -"It's his feelings," said Arthur. "He's been made a victim of misplaced -confidence. Some young woman has been encouraging him." - -"Poor little man!" said Gay with sudden emotion. "Did ums want some nice -vasy on ums poor sick nose?" - -"He would only lick it off," regretted Arthur. - -Mr. Langham's jolly face appeared in the open door. - -"I've seen two depart," he said, "and thought maybe the meeting was -over." - -"It is," said Mary, and, after a moment's hesitation, she boldly joined -Mr. Langham and walked off by his side. Even Arthur chuckled. - -"And what was the meeting about?" asked Mr. Langham. - -"Oh," said Mary, "they won't be serious--not any of them--not even -Arthur. So we forgot what the meeting was for, and got into violent -discussion about--about natural history." - -"And what side did you take?" - -"Oh," said Mary, "we were all on the same side--_really_, and that was -what made the discussion so violent." - -"The day," said Langham, "is young. I feel ripe for an adventure. And -you?" - -"What sort of an adventure?" - -"I thought that if one--or rather if _two_ climbed to the top of a very -little hill and sat down in the sunshine and admired the view----" - - * * * * * - -Far out on the lake they could see Lee, lolling in the stern of a guide -boat. Young Renier was at the oars. But the boat was not being -propelled. It was merely drifting. - -"I wonder," said Langham, and he watched her face stealthily, "if by any -chance those two are really engaged?" - -Was there the least hardening of that lovely, gentle face, the least -fleeting expression of that sort of panic which one experiences when -arriving at the station in time to see the train pull out but not too -late to get aboard by the exercise of swift and energetic manoeuvres? - -"Don't say such things!" she said presently. "It's like jumping out from -behind a tree and shouting, 'Boo!'" - -Mr. Langham smiled complacently and changed the subject. But he said to -himself: "That Maud is a clever girl!" - -"I suppose," said Mary after a while, "that this is the last really -peaceful day we'll have for a long time. To-morrow the place will be -full of strange, critical faces. And it will be one long wrestle to make -everything go smoothly all the time." - -She sighed. - -"There are only two ways to success," said Langham. "One is across the -wrestling-mat, and one is through the pasture of old Bull Luck. But I'm -convinced that The Inn is going to pay very handsomely. There is a -fortune in it." - -"There mightn't be," said Mary, "if--" and she broke into a peal of -embarrassed laughter. - -"If what?" - -"I was thinking of that _dreadful_ picture." - -"I often think of it," said Mr. Langham, "and of the first time I saw -it." - -Mary gave him a somewhat shy look. - -"Of course it didn't influence you," she said. - -"But it did. And that day I forgot to eat any lunch. I am looking -forward," he said, "to warm weather--I enjoy a swim as much as anybody." - -"Why is it," said Mary, "that a girl is ashamed when it is her money -that attracts a man, and proud when it is her face? Both are equally -fortuitous; both are assets in a way--but of the two, it is the money -alone which is really useful." - -"It sounds convincing to a girl," mused Mr. Langham, "when a man says to -her: 'I love you because of your beautiful blue eyes!' But it wouldn't -sound in the least convincing if he said: 'I love you because of your -beautiful green money!' I don't attempt to explain this. I am merely -stating what appears to me to be a fact. But, as you say, money is, or -should be, an asset of attraction." - -"I suppose beauty is held in greater esteem," said Mary, "because it is -more democratically bestowed. Money seems to beget hatred because it -isn't." - -"The French people," said Langham, "hated the nobility because of their -wealth and luxury. To-day a common mechanic has more real luxuries at -his disposal than poor Louis XVI had, but he hates the rich people who -have more than he has--and so it will go on to the end of time." - -"Will there always be rich people and poor people?" - -"There will always be rich people, but some time they will learn to -spend their money more beneficently, and then there won't be any really -poor people. If the attic of your house were infected with dirt and -vermin you couldn't sleep until it had been cleaned and disinfected. So, -some day, rich men will feel about their neighbors; cities about their -slums; and nations about other nations. I can imagine a future Uncle Sam -saying to a future John Bull"--and he sunk his voice to a comically -confidential whisper: "'Say, old man, I hear you're pressed for ready -cash; now't just so happens I'm well fixed at the moment, and--oh, just -among friends! Bother the interest!' What a spectacle this world -is--it's like the old English schools that Dickens wrote out of -existence--just bullying and hazing all around! Why, if a country was -run on the most elementary principles of honesty and efficiency, the -citizens of that country would never have occasion to say: 'Our taxes -are almost unbearable.' They would be nudging each other in the streets -and saying: 'My, that was a big dividend we got!'" - -Mr. Langham only stopped because he was out of breath. His face was red -and shining. He mopped his brow with his handkerchief. - -Mary was almost perfectly happy. She loved to hear Langham run on and -on. His voice was so pleasant, and his face beamed so with kindness. And -from many things which he had from time to time let slip she was -convinced that she needn't be an old maid unless she wanted to be. And -so to climb a little hill with him, to sit in the sun, and to admire the -view was really an exciting venture. For she never knew what he was -going to let slip next. And equally exciting was the fact that if that -slip should be in the nature of a leading question, she could only guess -what her answer would be. - -When a man is offered something that he very much wants--a trifling -loan, for instance--his first instinct is to deny the need. And a girl, -when the man she wants offers himself, usually refuses at the first -time of asking. And some, especially rich in girl nature, which is -experience of human nature and somewhat short of divine, will persist in -refusing even unto the twentieth and thirtieth time. - -Mary Darling was in a deep reverie. From this, his eyes twinkling behind -their thick glasses, Mr. Langham roused her with the brisk utterance of -one of his favorite quotations: - -"'General Blank's compliments,'" said he, "'and he reports that the -colored troops are turning black in the face.'" - -Mary smiled her friendliest smile. - -"I was wondering," she said, "what had become of Lee and Renier." - -"I have noted," said Mr. Langham, "that she always calls him by his last -name, sometimes with the prefix you--'You Renier' put like that. And I -was wondering if he ever turns the trick on her." - -"Why should he?" asked Mary innocently. - -"You have forgotten," said he, "that her last name is Darling." His eyes -twinkled with amazing and playful boldness. "You're _all_ Darlings," he -exclaimed, "and"--a note of self-pity in his voice--"I'm just a fat old -stuff!" - -"That," said Mary primly, "is perfectly correct, but for three trifling -errors--you're not fat, you're not old, and you're not a stuff!" - -If she had told him that he was handsome as Apollo he could not have -been more pleased. - -And so their adventure progressed in the pleasant sunlight that warmed -the top of the little hill. No very exciting adventure, you say? And of -a shilly-shallying and even snail-like motion? - -Oh, you can't be always riding to rescues, and falling over cliffs, and -escaping from burning houses. - -At that moment, by the purest accident, the tip of Mr. Langham's right -forefinger just brushed against Mary's sleeve. And there went through -him from head to foot a great thrill, as if trumpets had suddenly -sounded. - -"I suppose," said Mary, after a little while, "that we ought to be -going." - -"But I'd rather sit here than eat," said Mr. Langham. - -"Honestly? So would I." - -"Then," said Mr. Langham, "without exposing ourselves to any other -danger than that of starvation, I propose that we lose ourselves--as -_other people do_--in short, that we remain here until one or other of -us would rather--eat." - -"Good gracious," said Mary, "we might be here a week!" - -Mr. Langham rose slowly to his feet. Far off he could see pale smoke -flitting upward through the tree-tops. He turned and looked into Miss -Darling's smiling, upturned face. - -"I'll just run down and tell Arthur we're not _really_ lost," he said. -"But I'll make him promise not to look for us. I'll be right -back--almost before you can say 'Jack Robinson.'" - -She held out her hands. He took them and helped her to her feet. And -then they both laughed aloud. - -"Thank Heaven," said Mary, "that whatever else you and I may suffer -from, it isn't from insanity--or slim appetites! As a matter of fact, -I'm famished." - -"Thank God!" said Mr. Langham; "so am I." - -And they began to descend the hill. For to keep men and women and -adventurers going, the essential thing is food. And there's many a -promising romance that has come to nothing for want of a loaf of bread -and a jug of wine. - - - - -XVIII - - -In a certain part of the Land of Cotton, where they grow nothing but -rice, Colonel Melville Meredith stood beside the charred foundations of -a house and nursed his chin with his hand. With the exception of a sword -which the King of Greece had given him, all those possessions which he -had considered of value had gone up in smoke with the house of his -ancestors. The family portraits were gone, the silver Lamarie, and -Lesage, and all the Domingan satinwood. If Colonel Meredith had been an -older man, he must almost have wept. But the grip upon his chin was not -of one mourning. It was the grip of consideration. He was wondering what -sort of a new house he should build upon the foundations of the old. - -He must, of course, build upon the old site. There were other good sites -among his thousands of acres, but none which was so well planted. A good -architect could copy the Taj Mahal for you. But the Pemaque oak is one -hundred and seven feet, or less, in circumference, and the avenue of -oaks leading from the turnpike, two miles away, was planted in 1653. -There were also divers jungles of rhododendrons, laurel, and azalea in -the river garden that it had taken no less than a great-grandmother to -plant. - -"It can't be the first conflagration in the family," he thought. -"Everybody's ancestors, at one time or another, must have lost by fire -and built again. As for Pemaque--it _was_ a lovely old house, but a new -house could be just as lovely, and it could have bathrooms and be made -rat-proof. And I wouldn't mind if people scratched the floors." - -I have said that Colonel Meredith had lost all the possessions which he -valued. But of course the land remained, the trees, the duck ponds, the -alligator sloughs, and so forth. There remained, also, a robust youth, -crowded with experiences and memories of wars and statesmen and of -delightful people who live for pleasure. There remained, also--least -valuable of all to a man of action and sentiment--a perfectly safe -income, derived from bonds, of nearly two hundred and fifty thousand -dollars a year. Colonel Meredith was by all odds the richest man in that -part of the Land of Cotton, where they grow nothing but rice. - -It was piping hot among the foundations of the old house; the sticky, -ticky season had descended upon the Carolina seacoast. The snakes and -the lizards were saying among themselves, "Now this is really something -like," and were behaving accordingly. Every few minutes a new and -ambitious generation of mosquitoes was hatched. The magnolias were going -to seed. Colonel Meredith's Gordon setter, a determined expression upon -his face, had been scratching himself with almost supercanine speed for -the last twenty minutes. - -Colonel Meredith scorned ticks, trod with indifference upon snakes, and -was not poisoned or even pained by mosquitoes, but he had travelled all -over the world and was not averse to being cooler and more comfortable. - -"We've got the grandest climate in the world," he thought loyally, "for -eight months in the year--but when it comes to summer give me Vera Cruz, -Singapore, or even hell. I'll build a home for autumn, winter, and -spring, but when it gets to be summer, I'll go away and shoot polar -bears." - -He whistled his dog and walked thoughtfully to where his automobile was -waiting in the shade. His driver, an Irish boy from New York, was in a -state of wilt. - -"I have determined," said Colonel Meredith, "not to begin building -until cool weather. We shall go North to-night. I hope the thought will -refresh you. Now we will go back to Mr. Jonstone's. Do you feel able to -drive, or shall I?" - -It was typical of the region that the Mr. Jonstone with whom Meredith -was stopping should own the best bed of mint south of Washington, and -could make the best mint-juleps. The mint-bed was about all he did own. -Everything else was heavily mortgaged. Everything, that is, except the -family silver and jewels. These Jonstone's grandmother had buried when -Sherman came marching through, and had almost immediately forgotten -where she had buried them. Jonstone employed one trustworthy negro whose -year-around business was to dig for the treasure. There existed a list -of the objects buried, which was enough to make even a rich man's palm -itch. - -"Nothing to-day," said Jonstone as his guest drove up. "And it's about -time for a julep." - -"I'm going North to-night," said Meredith, "and you're going with me." - -They were cousins, second or third, of about the same age. They even -looked alike, but whereas Meredith had travelled all over the world, -Jonstone had never been south of Savannah or north of Washington. - -He began with an ivory toddy-stick to convert sugar and Bourbon into -sirup. - -"How's that, Mel?" he asked. "And why?" - -"Between us two, Bob," said Meredith, "this is one hell of a climate in -summer. The brighter we are the quicker we'll get out of it." - -"I'd like to go you on that, but aside from the family silver I haven't -a penny in the world." - -"Bob, I'm sick of offering to lend you money. I'm sick of offering to -give you money. There's only one chance left." - -Jonstone made a gentle clashing sound with fine ice. - -"As you know, my family silver has all gone up in smoke. Now yours -hasn't. Suppose you sell me yours. What's it worth?" - -"With or without the diamonds?" - -"If I should ever marry, it would be advisable to have the diamonds." - -"Well," said Jonstone, beginning to turn over a bundle of straws, with -the object of selecting four which should be flawless, "I don't want to -stick you. We have a complete list of the pieces, with their weights and -dates. Some of the New York dealers could tell us what the collection -would be worth in the open market. Double that sum in the name of -sentiment, and I'll go you." - -"I must have a free hand to hunt for the stuff in my own way-- It's -perfection--you never, never made a better one--now, how about the -diamonds?" - -"I have the weights. And you know the Jonstones were always particular -about water." - -"That's why they are all dead but you. Then you'll come?" - -Bob Jonstone nodded. - -"You'll have to lend me a suit of clothes--but, look here, Mel: suppose -the silver and stuff has been lifted--doesn't exist any more? Wouldn't -I, in selling it to you, be guilty of sharp practice?" - -"Our great-great-grandfather, the Signer, doesn't exist any more, Bob. -That silver is somewhere--in some form or other. I pay for it, and it's -mine. Does it matter if I never see it or handle it? I shall always be -able to allude to it--isn't that enough? As for you, you'll be able to -pay all your mortgages, to fix the front door so's it won't have to be -kept shut with a keg of nails, and to spend what is necessary on your -fields." - -"Of course," said Jonstone, who had finished his julep. "It afflicts me -to part with what has been in the family so long." - -"But you ought to be afflicted." - -"Why?" - -"Didn't you vote for Wilson?" - -Jonstone nodded solemnly. - -"Come, then," said Meredith, as if he were pardoning an erring child; -"there's just time for one julep and to pack up our things. You'll just -love New York. And when we get there we'll make up our minds whether -we'll go to Newport or Bar Harbor. Bob, did it ever occur to you that -you and I ought to get married? That looks as if it was going to be -better than the other, though darker-- What's the use of having -ancestors if you're not going to be one?" - -"Show me a girl as handsome as Sully's portrait of Great-grandmother -Pringle, and I'll take notice." - -"Why, every other girl in a Broadway chorus has got the old lady skinned -to death, Bob!" - -"You may be worldly-wiser than me, Mel, but you've lost your reverence. -It's always been agreed in the family that Great-grandmother Pringle was -the most beautiful woman in the South. And when a man says 'the South,' -and refers at the same time to female charms, he has as good as said the -whole world." - -"Bob, among ourselves, do you really think Jefferson Davis was a -greater man than Abraham Lincoln?" - -"Ssssh!" said Jonstone. - -"Do you really think the Southern armies wiped up the map with the -Northern armies every time they met? And do you really think that -wooden-faced doll that Sully painted has no equal for beauty north of -the Mason and Dixon line? What you need is travel and experience." - -"What's the matter with _you_ getting married?--My God, don't spill -that, Mel!" - -"There's nothing the matter with it. And I'll tell you what I'll do: I -will if you will." - -"They ought to be sisters, seeing as how you and I have always been like -brothers and voted the Democratic ticket and fought chickens." - -"And fed the same ticks and mosquitoes." - -"We'll have a double wedding. We'll each be the other's best man, and -they'll each be the other's best girl." - -"No--no; they are each to be our best girls." - -"What I mean is----" - -"I know what you mean, but you've made this julep too strong." - -"That's _one_ thing they can't do in the North." - -"What's that?" - -"Make a julep." - -Meredith considered this at some length. "No, Bob," he said at length, -"they can't. But I once met a statesman from Maine who made a thing that -looked like a julep, tasted like a julep, and that--I'd say it if it was -my dying statement--had the same effect." - -"She must be better-looking than Great-grandmother Pringle," said -Jonstone. "She must be able to make a julep, and she must have a sister -just like her. Can you lend me a suit of clothes till we get to New -York?" - -"I can lend you anything from a yachting suit to a Bulgarian uniform." - -"And you're sure I'm not imposing on you in the matter of the silver?" - -"Sure. I just want to know it's mine." - -In the morning, soon after this precious pair had breakfasted, a boy -went through the train with newspapers and magazines. He proclaimed in -the sweetest Virginian voice that his magazines were just out, but a -copy of _The Four Seasons_ which Colonel Meredith bought proved not only -to be of an ancient date but to have had coffee spilled upon it. - -At the moment when this discovery was made, the youthful paper-monger -had just swung from the crawling train to the platform of a way -station, so there was no redress. The cousins agreed, laughing, that if -a Yankee had played them such a trick they would have wished to cut his -heart out, but that, turned upon them by a fellow countryman, it was -merely a proof of smartness and push. - -"Between you and me, Bob," said Colonel Meredith, "an accurate count of -our Southern population would proclaim a villain or two here and there. -I was brought up to believe that to be born in a certain region was all -that was necessary. But that's not so. I tell you this because I am -afraid that when you are meeting people in New York and having a good -time you will be wanting to lay down the law, to wit, that one -Southerner can whip five Yankees. Don't do it. I will tell you a horrid -truth. I was once whipped by a small-sized Frenchman within an inch of -my life. He had studied _le boxe_ under Carpentier and I hadn't. Did you -ever study _le boxe_? No? An Anglo-Saxon imagines that he was born -boxing. And it takes a licking by a man of Latin blood to prove to him -that he wasn't. Just because people make funny noises and monkey cries -when they fight doesn't prove that they are afraid. There is nothing so -ridiculous as a baboon going into action and nothing more terrible when -he gets there." - -"The more you travel, Mel, the more you show a deplorable tendency to -foul your own nest." - -"_I_ run down the South? I like that! But, my dear Bob, there is only -one chosen people. And it isn't us." Here he made a significant gesture -with his hands, turning the palms up, and they both laughed. "A Jew," he -went on, "is what he is because he is a Jew. His good points and his bad -are racial. But between two men of our race there is no material -resemblance. One is mean, the other generous; one broad, one narrow; one -brave, the other not. Do you know why hornless cows give less milk than -horned cows? Because there are fewer of them. Do you know why there are -more honest men in the North, and pretty girls, than there are in the -South? Simply because there are more men and more girls. It also follows -that there are more dishonest men and ugly girls; more of everything, in -fact." - -He was slowly turning over the pages of _The Four Seasons_, looking -always, with Pemaque in mind, at pictures of country houses. Suddenly he -closed the magazine, looked pensively out of the window, and began to -whistle with piercing sweetness. He once more opened the magazine, but -this time with great caution as if he was half afraid that something -disagreeable would jump out at him. Nothing did, however. He folded the -magazine back upon itself and held it close to his eyes, then far off, -then at mid-distance. - -"What's the matter with you?" said Bob Jonstone. - -"Nothing," said Meredith, "only I'm thinking there ought to be six of us -instead of only two. Look at that page and tell me where we're going to -spend the summer." - -Jonstone took the magazine and saw the six Darling sisters sitting on -the float in their bathing-dresses. Presently he smiled and said: -"You've just won an argument, Mel." - -"How's that?" - -"Why, in the South there wouldn't be so many of them--but maybe they are -not always there. Maybe they were only there last summer." - -"Well, we can find out where they've gone, can't we?" - -"It doesn't seem in strict good breeding to pursue ladies one doesn't -know." - -"Why, bless you, I chased all over Europe after a face I saw in _The -Sketch_, only to find out that she was willing to marry anybody with -money and had a voice like a guinea-hen. And after I'd found that out, -she chased _me_ all over Europe and as far East as Cairo." - -"I've never been chased by a woman," said Jonstone a little wistfully. -"What happened in the end?" - -"I left Cairo between two days, fled away into the desert with some -people just stepped out of the Bible, and never came back." - -"Suppose she hadn't been willing to marry you and had had a voice like a -dove?" - -"Don't suppose. We are on a new quest." - -"What is the Adirondacks?" - -"We wouldn't think much of it in the South. It's a place where you are -always cool and clean and can drink the nearest water. The trout don't -eat mud and haven't got long white whiskers, and the deer are bigger -than dogs, and you don't go to sleep at night. The night just comes and -puts you to sleep. It's just like Bar Harbor--only a little more so in -some ways and a little less so in others." - -Jonstone spread _The Four Seasons_ wide open upon his knees. - -"Let's agree right now," he said, "which each of us thinks is the -prettiest. It would be dreadful after travelling so far if we were both -to pick on the same one." - -"We would have to fight a duel," said Meredith, "with swords, and -considering that you could never even sharpen a pencil without cutting -yourself----" - -"A boy wouldn't come along," said Jonstone, "and sell us a copy of a -magazine months old if fate hadn't meant us to see this picture. I think -I like the third one from the end." - -"I think I like the three that look just alike." - -"That is because you have travelled in Turkey. You never seem to -remember that you are a Christian gentleman." - - - - -XIX - - -When they found out how much the buried silver was worth--the inventory -was very thorough in the matter of description, dates, and weights--Mr. -Bob Jonstone burst out laughing. But Colonel Meredith, although -determined to stand by his bargain whatever the cash cost, looked like a -man who has just missed the last train. - -"I haven't got that much money loose, Bob," he said, "but I can raise it -in a few days and then we'll execute a bill of sale. Meanwhile, allow me -to congratulate you on your accession to the aristocracy." - -"Aristocracy? It's blood that counts--not money." - -"According to the old democracy, yes. According to the new, -distinguished people pay an income tax and common people don't. And you, -a moment ago, before the valuation was completed, were a very common -fellow, indeed." - -"Mel, I had no idea that old junk was worth so much." - -"You hadn't? Well, it's worth more. I'm getting a bargain. Thank the -Lord you're a gentleman, so there's no danger of your backing out." - -Jonstone seized his cousin's hand and pressed it affectionately. - -"Mel," he said, "can you afford to do this thing? God knows the money -will make all the difference in the world to me! But in taking it I -don't feel any too noble." - -"It was always ridiculous for me to be rich and for you to be poor. -That's done with. I'm still rich, thank God!--and you're well-to-do. You -can travel if you like, breed horses, install plumbing, burn coal, and -marry." - -"If I was sure that the silver would ever be turned up, I wouldn't feel -so sheepish." - -"As long as you don't look sheepish or act sheepish--suppose that now, -after a slight fortification, we visit a tailor. It is necessary for you -to dress according to your station in life." - -Their first day in New York was immensely amusing to both of them. -Meredith was coming back to it after a long absence; Jonstone was seeing -it for the first time, and for the first time his pockets were full of -money that he did not owe. Now, New York is one of the finest summer -resorts in the world. Do not pity the poor business man who sends his -family to the mountains for the hot weather, for while they are burned -by the sun and fed an interminable succession of blueberry pies, he -basks in the cool of electric fans and dines on the fat of the land. His -business may worry him, but there is no earthly use in his attending to -it. That is done for him. He can skip away when he pleases for an -afternoon's golf or tennis. Somebody's motor is always going somewhere -where there is pleasure to be found and laughter. The lights of Luna -Park are brighter than the Bar Harbor stars, and the ocean which pounds -upon Long Beach is just as salt as that which thunders against Great -Head--and about twice as warm. For pure torture give me a swim anywhere -north of Cape Cod. Merely to step into such water is like having one's -foot bitten off by a shark. - -It did not take Jonstone long to acknowledge that New York is even -bigger than Richmond, Virginia, and even livelier. The discovery of a -superannuated mosquito in his bathroom had made him feel at home, and -the fact that the head bartender in the hotel, though a native of -Ireland, fashioned a delicious julep. - -But his equanimity came very near to being upset in the subway. He felt -a hand slipping into his pocket and caught it by the wrist. He had a -grip like looped wire twisted with pinchers. The would-be thief uttered -a startled shriek and was presently turned over to a policeman. - -All the way to the station-house Mr. Jonstone talked excitedly and -triumphantly to his cousin. - -"Yes, sir," he said, "you had me groggy with your high buildings and -your Aladdin-cave stores and your taxicabs and park systems. But by the -Everlasting, sir, this would never have happened to me south of the -Mason and Dixon line. No, sir; we may be short on show but we're long on -honesty down there. I don't even have to lock my door at night." - -"That's because the lock's broken and you've always kept it shut with a -keg of nails. There are more pickpockets in New York than in Charleston, -but only because there are more pockets to pick." - -"I don't get you," said Jonstone stiffly. A little later he did. - -The culprit was asked his name by a formidable desk sergeant. - -"Stephen Breckenridge." - -Bob Jonstone gasped. - -"Where do you come from?" - -"Lexington, Kentucky." - -Colonel Meredith let forth a howl of laughter. And after he had been -frowned into decorum by the sergeant, he continued for a long time to -look as if he was going to burst. - -For some hours Mr. Jonstone was moody and unamused. Then suddenly he -broke into a winning smile. - -"Mel," he said, "I wouldn't have minded so much if he had been smart -enough to get my money. It was bad finding out that he was a compatriot -of ours, but much more to realize that he was a fool." - - - - -XX - - -Mr. Langham was consulted about everything. And it was to him that Maud -Darling took Meredith's letter asking for accommodations. - -"We've only two rooms left," she said, "and such nice people have come, -or are coming, that it would be an awful pity if we had the bad luck to -fill up with two men that weren't nice. Did you ever hear of a Colonel -Meredith?" - -"Is that his letter? May I look?" - -Mr. Langham read the letter through very carefully. Then he said, -looking at her over the tops of his thick glasses: - -"I don't know if you know it, but I have made quite a study of -handwritings. The writer of this letter is a gentleman--a Southern -gentleman, if I am not mistaken. Accepting this premise, we may assume -that his friend Mr. Robert Middleton Jonstone is also a Southern -gentleman. Middleton, in fact, is pure South Carolinian." - -"But if they are from South Carolina, wouldn't our terms stagger them? -I've always understood that Southern gentlemen lost all their money in -the war." - -"Nevertheless," said Mr. Langham, "this is the writing of a rich man." - -"How _can_ you know that?" - -"I tell you that I have made a study of handwriting. It is also the -writing of a horse-loving, war-loving, much-travelled man--in the late -twenties." - -"You will tell me next that he is about five feet ten inches tall, has -blue eyes, and is handsome as an angel." - -"You take the words out of my mouth, Miss Maud." - -"Tell me more." She was laughing now. - -"He is very handsome, but not as angels are--his eyes are too bold and -roving. If he wasn't a good man he would be a very bad man. There was a -time, even, when strong drink appealed to him. He is quixotically brave -and generous. And I should by all means advise you to let him have his -accommodations." - -"I can never tell when you are joking." - -"I was never more serious in my life. Shall I tell you something else -that I have deduced?" - -"Please." - -"Well, then, he isn't married, Miss Maud, and he is a great catch!" - -Miss Maud blushed a trifle. - -"I don't know if you know it," she said, "but I have made a profound -study of palmistry. Will you lend me your hand a moment?" - -"Very willingly. And I don't care if some one were to see us." - -She studied his palm with great sternness. - -"I read here," she said, "with regret, that you are an outrageous flirt. -It seems also that you are something of a fraud." - -"One more calumny," exclaimed Mr. Langham, "and I withdraw my hand with -a gesture of supreme indignation." - -But she held him very tightly by the fingers. - -"And this little line," she cried, "tells me that you have known Colonel -Meredith intimately for years and that you never studied handwriting in -all your born days." - -Mr. Langham began to chuckle all over. - -"The next time," he said, "that people tell me you are easily imposed -on, I shall deny it." - -"You _do_ know him?" - -He blinked and nodded like a wise owl. - -"Shall I write or telegraph?" - -"You will use your own judgment." - -So she did both. She wrote out a telegram and sent it to Carrytown in -the _Streak_. And she tried to picture in her mind a young man who -should look like an angel if his eyes weren't too bold and roving. - -Her sisters and her brother all proclaimed that Maud was a really -sensible person. But none of them knew how really sensible she was. - -She was, for instance, more interested in Colonel Meredith than in his -cousin Mr. Jonstone, and for the simple reason that she knew the one to -be rich and handsome and knew nothing whatever about the other. - - - - -XXI - - -Mr. Langham was at the float to welcome the two Carolinians. - -"You have," he complimented Colonel Meredith, "once more proved the -ability to land on your feet in a soft spot. You will be more -comfortable here, better fed, better laundered than anywhere else in the -world." - -As they strolled from the float to the office, Mr. Jonstone looked about -him a little uneasily. Not one of the beautiful girls who had looked -into his eyes from the page of _The Four Seasons_ was in sight, or, -indeed, any girl, woman, or female of any sort whatever. He had led -himself to expect a resort crowded with rustling and starchy boarders. -He found himself, instead, in a primeval pine forest in which were -sheltered many low, austere buildings of logs, above whose great -chimneys stood vertical columns of pale smoke. It was not yet dusk, but -the air among the long shadows had an icy quality and was heavily -charged with the odor of balsam. It was difficult to believe the season -summer, and Mr. Jonstone was reminded of December evenings in the -Carolinas. - -"This is the office," said Mr. Langham, and he ushered them into the -presence of a bright birch fire and Maud Darling. Each of the -Carolinians drew a quick breath and bowed as if before royalty. Mr. -Langham presented them to Miss Darling. She begged them to write their -names in the guest book and to warm themselves at the fire. - -"And then," said Sam Langham, "I'll shake them up a cocktail and show -them their house." - -"Are we to have a whole house to ourselves?" asked Colonel Meredith. He -had not yet taken his eyes from Maud Darling's face. - -"It's only two rooms: bath, parlor, and piazza," she explained. - -"That last?" asked Mr. Jonstone. - -"It's the same thing as a 'poach,'" explained Mr. Langham with a sly -twinkle in his eyes. - -"It's to sit on and enjoy the view from," added Maud. - -"But I don't want to admire the view," complained Colonel Meredith. "I -want to lounge about the office. It's the prerogative of every American -citizen to lounge about the office of his hotel." - -Colonel Meredith had yet to take his eyes from Maud Darling's face. And -it was with protest written all over it that he at length followed his -cousin and Mr. Langham into the open air. - -The three were presently sampling a cocktail of the latter's shaking in -the latter's snug little house, and speech was loosened in their mouths. - -"Darling, _père_," explained Sam Langham, "went broke. He used to run -this place as it is run now, with this difference: that in the old days -he put up the money, while now it is the guests who pay. Two years ago -the Miss Darling you just met was one of the greatest heiresses in -America; now she keeps books and makes out bills." - -"And are there truly five others equally lovely?" asked Colonel -Meredith. - -"Some people think that the oldest of the six is also the loveliest," -said Sam Langham, loyal to the choice of his own heart. "But they are -all very lovely." - -To the Carolinians, warmed by Langham's cocktail, it seemed pitiful that -six beautiful girls who had had so much should now have so little. And -with a little encouragement they would have been moved to the expression -of exaggerated sentiments. It was Maud, however, and not the others, -who had aroused these feelings in their breasts. The desire to benefit -her by some secret action--and then to be found out--was very strong in -them both. - -Langham left them after a time and they began to dress for dinner. -Usually they had a great deal to say to each other; often they disputed -and were gorgeously insolent to each other about the most trifling -things, but on the present occasion their one desire was to dress as -rapidly as possible and to visit the office upon some pretext or other. - -When Colonel Meredith from the engulfment of a starched shirt announced -that he had several letters to write and wondered where one could buy -postage-stamps, it afforded Bob Jonstone malicious satisfaction to -inform him that the "little drawer in their writing-table contained not -only plenty of twos but fives and a strip of special deliveries." - -"All I have to think about," said he, "is my laundry. I suppose they can -tell me at the office." - -"_They?_" exclaimed Colonel Meredith. - -As he spoke the collar button sprang like a slippery cherry-stone from -between his thumb and forefinger, fell in the exact middle of the room -in a perfectly bare place, and disappeared. Up to this moment the -cousins had remained on even terms in the race to be dressed first. But -now Mr. Jonstone gained and, before the collar button was found, had -given a parting "slick" to his hair and gone out. - -It was now dark, and the woodland streets of The Camp were lighted by -lanterns. Windows were bright-yellow rectangles. A wind had risen and -the lake could be heard slapping against the rocky shore. - -Maud Darling had left the office long enough to change from tailor-made -tweeds to the simplest white muslin. She was adding up a column in a fat -book. She looked golden in the firelight and the lamplight, and -resembled some heavenly being but for the fact that, for the moment, she -was puzzled to discover the sum of seven and five and was biting the end -of her pencil. The divine muse of Inspiration lives in the "other" ends -of pens and pencils. The world owes many of its masterpieces of -literature and invention to reflective nibbling at these instruments, -and if I were a teacher I should think twice before I told my pupils to -take their pencils out of their mouths. - -Mr. Jonstone knocked on the open door of the office. - -"This is the office," said Miss Maud Darling; "you don't have to knock. -Is anything not right?" - -"Everything is absolutely perfect," bowed Mr. Jonstone. "But you are -busy. I could come again. I only wanted to ask about sending some things -to a laundry." - -"You're not supposed to think about that," said Maud. "There is a -clothes-bag in the big closet in your bedroom and my sister Eve does the -rest." - -"Oh, but I couldn't allow----" - -"Not with her own hands, of course; she merely oversees the laundry and -keeps it up to the mark. But if you like your things to be done in any -special way you must see her and explain." - -"In my home," said Jonstone, "my old mammy does all the washing and most -everything else, and I wouldn't dare to find fault. She would follow me -up-stairs and down scolding all the time if I did. You see, though she -isn't a slave any more, she's never had any wages, and so she takes it -out in privileges and prerogatives." - -"No wages ever since the Civil War!" exclaimed Maud. - -"We had to have servants," he explained, "and until the other day there -was never any money to pay them with. We had nothing but the plantation -and the family silver." - -"And of course you couldn't part with that. In the North when we get -hard up we sell anything we've got. But in the South you don't, and I've -always admired that trait in you beyond measure." - -"In that case," said Mr. Jonstone, turning a little pale, "it is my duty -to tell you that the other day I parted with my silver in exchange for a -large sum of money. I made up my mind that I had only one life to live -and that I was sick of being poor." - -Maud smiled. - -"If you want to keep your ill-gotten gains," she said, "you ought never -to have come to this place. Wasn't there some kind friend to tell you -that our prices are absolutely prohibitive? We haven't gone into -business for fun but with the intention of making money hand over fist. -It's only fair to warn you." - -She imagined that, at the outside, he might have received a couple of -thousand dollars for his family silver, and it seemed wicked that he -should be allowed to part with this little capital for food, lodging, -and a little trout-fishing. - -"My silver," he said, "turned out to be worth a lot of money, and I have -put it all in trust for myself, so that my wife and children shall never -want." - -A flicker of disappointment appeared in Maud Darling's eyes. - -"But I didn't know you were married," she said lamely. - -"Oh, I'm not--yet!" he exclaimed joyfully. "But I mean to be." - -"Engaged?" she asked. - -"Hope to be--mean to be," he confessed. - -And at this moment Colonel Melville Meredith came in out of the night. -Having bowed very low to Miss Darling, he turned to his cousin. - -"Did Langham find you?" he asked. - -"No." - -"Well, he's a-waiting at our house. I said I thought you'd be right -back." - -"Then we--" began Jonstone. - -"Not we--_you_," said his cousin, malice in his eyes. "I want to ask -Miss Darling some questions about telegrams and special messages by -telephone." - -Bob Jonstone withdrew himself with the utmost reluctance. - -"We have a telephone that connects us with the telegraph office at -Carrytown," Maud began, but Colonel Meredith interrupted almost rudely. - -"We engaged our rooms for ten days only," he said, "but I want to keep -them for the rest of the summer. Please don't tell me that they are -promised to some one else." - -"But they are," said she; "I'm very sorry." - -"Can't you possibly keep us?" - -She shook her fine head less in negation than reflection. - -"I don't see how," she said finally, "unless some one gives out at the -last minute. There are just so many rooms and just so many applicants." - -"How long," he asked, "would it take to build a little house for my -cousin and me?" - -"If we got all the carpenters from Carrytown," said Maud, "it could be -done very quickly. But----" - -"Now you are going to make some other objection!" - -"I was only going to say that if you wanted to go camping for a few -weeks, we could supply you with everything needful. We have first-rate -tents for just that sort of thing." - -"But we don't want to go camping. We want to stay here." - -"Exactly. There is no reason why you shouldn't pitch your tent in the -main street of this camp and live in it." - -"That's just what we'll do," said Colonel Meredith, "and to-morrow we'll -pick out the site for the tent--if you'll help us." - - - - -XXII - - -Early the next morning Colonel Meredith and his cousin Bob Jonstone -presented themselves at the office dressed for walking. Butter would not -have melted in their mouths. - -"Can you come now and help us pick out a site for the tent?" asked the -youthful colonel. - -Maud was rather busy that morning, but she closed her ledger, selected a -walking-stick, and smiled her willingness to aid them. - -"It will seem more like real camping-out," said Mr. Jonstone, "if we -don't pitch our tent right in the midst of things. Suppose we take a -boat and row along the shores of the lake, keeping our eyes peeled." - -Maud was not averse to going for a row with two handsome and agreeable -young men. They selected a guide boat and insisted on helping her in and -cautioning her about sitting in the middle. Maud had almost literally -been brought up in a guide boat, but she only smiled discreetly. The -cousins matched for places. As Maud sat in the stern with a paddle for -steering, Colonel Meredith, who won the toss, elected to row stroke. Bob -Jonstone climbed with gingerness and melancholy into the bow. Not only -was he a long way from that beautiful girl, but Meredith's head and -shoulders almost completely blanketed his view of her. - -"We ought to row English style," he said. - -"What is English style, and why ought we to row that way?" - -"In the American shells," explained Jonstone, "the men sit in the -middle. In the English shells each man sits as far from his rowlock as -possible." - -"Why?" asked Meredith, who understood his cousin's predicament -perfectly. - -"So's to get more leverage," explained Jonstone darkly. - -"It's for Miss Darling to say," said Meredith. "Which style do you -prefer, Miss Darling, English or American?" - -"I think the American will be more comfortable for you both and safer -for us all," said she. - -"There!" exclaimed the man of war, "what did I tell you?" - -"But--" continued Maud. - -"I could have told you there would be a 'but,'" interrupted Jonstone -triumphantly. - -"But," repeated Maud, "I'm coxswain, and I want to see what every man in -my boat is doing." - -So they rowed English style. - -"It's like a dinner-party," explained Maud to Colonel Meredith, who -appeared slightly discomforted. "Don't you know how annoying it is when -there's a tall centrepiece and you can't see who's across the table from -you?" - -"Even if you don't want to look at him when you have found out who he -is," agreed Meredith. "Exactly." - -They came to a bold headland of granite crowned with a half-dozen old -pines that leaned waterward. - -"That's rather a wonderful site, I think," said Maud. - -"Where?" said the gentlemen, turning to look over their shoulders. Then, -"It looks well enough from the water," said Jonstone, "but we ought not -to choose wildly." - -"Let us land," said Colonel Meredith, "and explore." - -They landed and began at once to find reasons for pitching the tent on -the promontory and reasons for not pitching it. - -"The site is open and airy," said Jonstone. - -"It is," said Colonel Meredith. "But, in case of a southwest gale, our -tent would be blown inside out." - -A moment later, "How about drinking-water?" asked the experienced -military man. - -"I regret to say that I have just stepped into a likely spring," said -Jonstone. - -"We must sit down and wait till it clears." - -When the spring once more bubbled clean and undefiled Mr. Jonstone -scooped up two palmfuls of water and drank. - -"Delicious!" he cried. - -Colonel Meredith then sampled the spring and shook his head darkly. - -"This spring has a main attribute of drinking-water," he said; "it is -wet. Otherwise----" - -"What's the matter with my spring?" demanded his cousin. - -"Silica, my dear fellow--silica. And you know very well that silica to a -man of your inherited tendencies spells gout." - -Jonstone nodded gravely. - -"I'm afraid that settles it." And he turned to Maud Darling. "I can keep -clear of gout," he explained, "only just as long as I keep my system -free from silica." - -"Do you usually manage to?" asked Maud, very much puzzled. - -"So far," he said, "I have _always_ managed to." - -"Then you have never suffered from gout?" - -"Never. But now, having drunk at this spring, I have reason to fear the -worst. It will take at least a week to get that one drink out of my -system." - -And so they passed from the promontory with the pine-trees to a little -cove with a sandy beach, from this to a wooded island not much bigger -than a tennis-court. In every suggested site Jonstone found -multitudinous charms and advantages, while Colonel Meredith, from the -depths of his military experience, produced objections of the first -water. For to be as long as possible in the company of that beautiful -girl was the end which both sought. - -Maud had gone upon the expedition in good faith, but when its true -object dawned upon her she was not in the least displeased. The very -obvious worship which the Carolinians had for her beauty was not so -personal as to make her uncomfortable. It was rather the worship of two -artists for art itself than for a particular masterpiece. Of the six -beautiful Darlings Maud had had the least experience of young men. She -was given to fits of shyness which passed with some as reserve, with -others as a kind of common-sense and matter-of-fact way of looking at -life. The triplets, young as they were, surpassed the other three in -conquests and experience. And this was not because they were more lovely -and more charming but because they had been a little spoiled by their -father and brought into the limelight before their time. Furthermore, -with the exception of Phyllis, perhaps, they were maidens of action to -whom there was no recourse in books or reflection. Such accomplishments -as drawing and music had not been forced upon them. They could not have -made a living teaching school. But Lee and Gay certainly could have -taught the young idea how to shoot, how to throw a fly, and how to come -in out of the wet when no house was handy. As for Phyllis, she would -have been as like them as one pea is like two others but for the fact -that at the age of two she had succeeded in letting off a 45-90 rifle -which some fool had left about loaded and had thereby frightened her -early sporting promises to death. But it was only of weapons, squirming -fish, boats, and thunder storms that she was shy. Young gentlemen had no -terrors for her, and she preferred the stupidest of these to the -cleverest of books. - -Mary, Maud, and Eve had wasted a great part of their young lives upon -education. They could play the piano pretty well (you couldn't tell -which was playing); they sang charmingly; they knew French and German; -they could spell English, and even speak it correctly, a power which -they had sometimes found occasion to exercise when in the company of -foreign diplomatists. The change in their case from girlhood to young -womanhood had been sudden and prearranged: in each case a tremendous -ball upon a given date. The triplets had never "come out." - -If Lee or Gay had been the victim of the present conspiracy, the -gentlemen from Carolina would have found their hands full and -overflowing. They would have been teased and misconstrued within an inch -of their lives; but Maud Darling was genuinely moved by the candor and -chivalry of their combined attentions. There was a genuine joyousness in -her heart, and she did not care whether they got her home in time for -lunch or not. And it was only a strong sense of duty which caused her to -point out the high position attained by the sun in the heavens. - -With reluctance the trio gave up the hopeless search for a camp site and -started for home upon a long diagonal across the lake. It was just then, -as if a signal had been given, that the whole surface of the lake became -ruffled as when a piece of blue velvet is rubbed the wrong way, and a -strong wind began to blow in Maud's face and upon the backs of the -rowers. - -Several hours of steady rowing had had its effect upon unaccustomed -hands. It was now necessary to pull strongly, and blisters grew swiftly -from small beginnings and burst in the palms of the Carolinians. Maud -came to their rescue with her steering paddle, but the wind, bent upon -having sport with them, sounded a higher note, and the guide boat no -longer seemed quick to the least propulsion and light on the water, but -as if blunt forward, high to the winds, and half full of stones. She did -not run between strokes but came to dead stops, and sometimes, during -strong gusts, actually appeared to lose ground. - -The surface of the lake didn't as yet testify truly to the full strength -of the wind. But soon the little waves grew taller, the intervals -between them wider, and their crests began to be blown from them in -white spray. The heavens darkened more and more, and to the northeast -the sky-line was gradually blotted out as if by soft gray smoke. - -"We're going to have rain," said Maud, "and we're going to have fog. So -we'd better hurry a little." - -"Hurry?" thought the Carolinians sadly. And they redoubled their -efforts, with the result that they began to catch crabs. - -"Some one ought to see us and send a launch," said Maud. - -At that moment, as the wind flattens a field of wheat to the ground, the -waves bent and lay down before a veritable blast of black rain. It would -have taken more than human strength to hold the guide boat to her -course. Maud paddled desperately for a quarter of a minute and gave up. -The boat swung sharply on her keel, rocked dangerously, and, once more -light and sentient, a creature of life, made off bounding before the -gale. - -"We are very sorry," said the Carolinians, "but the skin is all off our -hands, and at the best we are indifferent boatmen." - -"The point is this," said Maud: "Can you swim?" - -"I can," said Colonel Meredith, "but I am extremely sorry to confess -that my cousin's aquatic education has been neglected. Where he lives -every pool contains crocodiles, leeches, snapping-turtles, and -water-moccasins, and the incentive to bathing for pleasure is slight." - -"Don't worry about me," said Mr. Jonstone. "I can cling to the boat -until the millennium." - -"We shan't upset--probably," said Maud. "It will be better if you two -sit in the bottom of the boat. I'll try to steer and hold her steady. -This isn't the first time I've been blown off shore and then on shore. I -suppose I ought to apologize for the weather, but it really isn't my -fault. Who would have thought this morning that we were in for a storm?" - -"If only you don't mind," said Colonel Meredith. "It's all _our_ fault. -You probably didn't want to come. You just came to be friendly and kind, -and now you are hungry and wet to the skin----" - -"But," interrupted Bob Jonstone, "if only you will forget all that and -think what pleasure we are having." - -"I can't hear what you say," called Maud. - -"I beg your pardon," shouted Mr. Jonstone. "I didn't quite catch that. -What did Miss Darling say, Mel?" - -"She said she wanted to talk to me and for you to shut up." - -Mr. Jonstone made a playful but powerful swing at his cousin, and the -guide boat, as if suddenly tired of her passengers, calmly upset and -spilled them out. - -A moment later the true gallantry of Mr. Bob Jonstone showed forth in -glorious colors. Having risen to the surface and made good his hold upon -the overturned boat, he proposed very humbly, as amends for causing the -accident, to let go and drown. - -"If you do," said Maud, excitement overcoming her sense of the -ridiculous, "I'll never speak to you again." - -Colonel Meredith opened his mouth to laugh and closed it a little -hastily on about a pint of water. - - - - -XXIII - - -The water was so rough, the weather so thick, and their point of view so -very low down in the world that Maud and the Carolinians could neither -see the shore from which they had departed nor that toward which they -were slowly drifting. The surface water was warm, however, owing to a -week of sunshine, and it was not necessary to drop one's legs into the -icy stratum beneath. - -It is curious that what the three complained of the most was the -incessant, leaden rain. Their faces were colder than their bodies. They -admitted that they had never been so wet in all their lives. Maud and -Colonel Meredith, not content with the slow drifting, kicked vigorously; -but Bob Jonstone had all he could do to cling to the guide boat and keep -his head above water. His legs had a way of suddenly rising toward the -surface and wrapping themselves half around the submerged boat. An -effort was made to right the boat and bale her out. But Maud's -water-soaked skirt and a sudden case of rattles on the part of Jonstone -prevented the success of the manoeuvre. - -Half an hour passed. - -"Personally," said Jonstone, "I've had about enough of this." - -His clinging hands looked white and thin; the knuckles were beginning to -turn blue. He had a drawn expression about the mouth, but his eyes were -bright and resolute. - -"I've always understood," said Colonel Meredith, "that girls suffer less -than men from total submersion in cold water. I sincerely hope, Miss -Darling, that this is so." - -"Oh, I'm not suffering," said she; "not yet. My father used to let us go -in sometimes when there was a skin of ice along shore. So please don't -worry about me." - -Mr. Jonstone's teeth began to chatter very steadily and loudly. And just -then Maud raised herself a little, craned her neck, and had a glimpse of -the shore--a long, half-submerged point, almost but not quite -obliterated by the fog and the splashing rain. - -"Land ho!" said she joyfully. "All's well. There's a big shallow off -here; we'll be able to wade in a minute." - -And, indeed, in less than a minute Bob Jonstone's feet found the hard -sand bottom. And in a very short time three shipwrecked mariners had -waded ashore and dragged the guide boat into a clump of bushes. - -"And now what?" asked Colonel Meredith. - -"And now," said Maud, "the luck has changed. Half a mile from here is a -cave where we used to have picnics. There's an axe there, matches, and -probably a tin of cigarettes, and possibly things to eat. It's all -up-hill from here, and if you two follow me and keep up, you'll be warm -before we get there." - -Her wet clothes clung to her, and she went before them like some swift -woodland goddess. Their spirits rose, and with them their voices, so -that the deer and other animals of the neighboring woods were disturbed -and annoyed in the shelters which they had chosen from the rain. -Sometimes Maud ran; sometimes she merely moved swiftly; but now and then -while the way was still among the dense waterside alders, she broke her -way through with fine strength, reckless of scratches. - -The following Carolinians began to worship the ground she trod and to -stumble heavily upon it. They were not used to walking. It had always -been their custom to go from place to place upon horses. They panted -aloud. They began to suspect themselves of heart trouble, and they had -one heavy fall apiece. - -Suddenly Maud came to a dead stop. - -"I smell smoke," she said. "Some one is here before us. That's good -luck, too." - -She felt her way along the face of a great bowlder and was seen to enter -the narrow mouth of a cave. - -"Who's here?" she called cheerfully. - -The passageway into the cave twisted like the letter S so that you came -suddenly upon the main cavity. This--a space as large as a -ball-room--had a smooth floor of sand, broken by one or two ridges of -granite. At the farther end burned a bright fire, most of whose smoke -after slow, aimless drifting was strongly sucked upward through a hole -in the roof. Closely gathered about this fire were four men, who looked -like rather dissolute specimens of the Adirondack guide, and a young -woman with an old face. Maud's quick eyes noted two rusty Winchester -rifles, a leather mail-bag, and the depressing fact that the men had not -shaved for many days. - -It is always awkward to enter your own private cave and find it occupied -by strangers. - -"You mustn't mind," said Maud, smiling upon them, "if we share the -fire. It's really our cave and our fire-wood." - -"Sorry, miss," said one of the men gruffly, "but when it comes on to -rain like this a man makes bold of any shelter that offers." - -"Of course," said Maud. "I'm glad you did. We'll just dry ourselves and -go." - -She seated herself with a Carolinian on either side, and their clothes -began to send up clouds of steam. - -The young woman with the old face, having devoured Maud with hungry, sad -eyes, spoke in a shy, colorless voice. - -"It would be better, miss, if you was to let the boys go outside. I -could lend you my blanket while your clothes dried." - -"That's very good of you," said Maud, "but I'm very warm and comfortable -and drying out nicely." - -One of the men rose, grinned awkwardly, and said: - -"I'll just have a look at the weather." With affected carelessness he -caught up one of the Winchesters and passed from sight toward the -entrance of the cave. This manoeuvre seemed to have a cheering effect -upon the other three. - -"What do you find to shoot at this time of year?" asked Maud, and she -smiled with great innocence. - -"The game-laws," said the man who had spoken first, "weren't written for -poor men." - -"Don't tell me," exclaimed Maud, "that you've got a couple of partridges -or even venison just waiting to be cooked and eaten!" - -"No such luck," said the man. - -Neither of the Carolinians had spoken. They steamed pleasantly and -appeared to be looking for pictures in the hot embers. Their eyes seemed -to have sunk deeper into their skulls. Men who were familiar with them -would have known that they were very angry about something and as -dangerous as a couple of rattlesnakes. After a long while they exchanged -a few words in low voices and a strange tongue. It was the dialect of -the Sea Island negroes--the purest African grafted on English so pure -that nobody speaks it nowadays. - -"What say?" asked one of the strangers roughly. - -Colonel Meredith turned his eyes slowly upon the speaker. - -"I remarked to my cousin," said he icily, "that in our part of the world -even the lowest convict knows enough to rise to his feet when a lady -enters the room and to apologize for being alive." - -"In the North Woods," said the man sulkily, "no one stands on ceremony. -If you don't like our manners, Mr. Baltimore Oriole, you can lump 'em, -see?" - -"I see," said Colonel Meredith quietly, "that that leather mail-bag over -there belongs to the United States Government. And I have a strong -suspicion, my man, that you and your allies were concerned in the late -hold-up perpetrated on the Montreal express. And I shall certainly make -it my business to report you as suspicious characters to the proper -authorities." - -"That'll be too easy," said the man. "And suppose we was what you think, -what would we be doing in the meantime? I ask you _what_?" - -Mr. Jonstone interrupted in a soft voice. - -"Oh, quit blustering and threatening," he said. - -"Say," said a man who had not yet spoken, "do you two sprigs of jasmine -ever patronize the 'movies'? And, if so, did you ever look your fill on -a film called 'Held for Ransom'? You folks has a look of being kind o' -well to do, and it looks to me as if you'd have to pay for it." - -"Why quarrel with them?" said Maud, with gravity and displeasure in her -voice, but no fear. "Things are bad enough as they are. I saw that the -minute we came in. Just one minute too late, it seems." - -"That's horse-sense," admitted one of the men. "And when this rain holds -up, one of us will take a message to your folks saying as how you are -stopping at an expensive hotel and haven't got money enough to pay your -bill." - -"And that," said Colonel Meredith, "will only leave three of you to -guard us. Once," he turned to Maud, "I spent six hours in a Turkish -prison." - -"What happened?" she asked. - -"I didn't like it," he said, "and left." - -"This ain't Turkey, young feller, and we ain't Turks. If you don't like -the cave you can lump it, but you can't leave." - -"We don't intend to leave till it stops raining," put in Mr. Jonstone -sweetly. - -"Miss Darling," said Colonel Meredith, "you don't feel chilled, do you? -You mustn't take this adventure seriously. These people are desperate -characters, but they haven't the mental force to be dangerous. It will -be the greatest pleasure in the world both to my cousin and myself to -see that no harm befalls you." He turned once more to the unshaven men -about the fire. - -"Have you got anything worth while in that mail-bag?" he asked. "I read -that the safe in the Montreal express only contained a few hundred -dollars. Hardly worth risking prison for--was it?" - -"We'll have enough to risk prison for before we get through with you." - -"You might if you managed well, because I am a rich man. But you are -sure to bungle." - -He turned to the woman and asked with great kindness: - -"Is it their first crime?" - -"Yes, sir," she said. "Mr.----" - -"Shut up!" growled one of her companions. - -"A gentleman from New York turned us out of the woods so's he could have -them all to himself and after we'd spent all our money on lawyers. So my -husband and the boys allowed they had about enough of the law. And so -they held up the express, but it was more because they were mad clear -through than because they are bad, and now it's too late, and--and----" - -Here she began to cry. - -"It's never too late to mend," said Maud. - -"Have you spent any of the money they took?" asked Colonel Meredith. - -"No, sir; we haven't had a chance. We've got every dime of it." - -"Did you own the land you were driven off?" - -"No, sir, but we'd always lived on it, and it did seem as if we ought to -be left in peace----" - -"To shoot out of season, to burn other people's wood, trap their fish, -and show your teeth at them when they came to take what belonged to -them? I congratulate you. You are American to the backbone. And now you -propose to take my money away from me." - -Colonel Meredith turned to his cousin, after excusing himself to Maud, -and they conversed for some time in their strange Sea Island dialect. - -"Can that gibberish," said one of the train robbers suddenly. "I'm sick -of it." - -"We shan't trouble you with it again, as we've already decided what to -do." - -The robber laughed mockingly. - -"In view of your extreme youth," said Colonel Meredith sweetly, "in view -of the fact that you are also young in crime and that one member of your -party is a woman, we have decided to help you along the road to reform. -In my State there is considerable lawlessness; from this has evolved the -useful custom of going heeled." - -He spoke, and a blue automatic flashed cruelly in his white hand. His -action was as sudden and unexpected as the striking of a rattlesnake. - -"All hands up," he commanded. - -There was a long silence. - -"You've got us," said the youngest of the robbers sheepishly. "How about -the man on guard with a Winchester?" - -"My cousin Mr. Jonstone will bring him in to join the conference. And, -meanwhile, I shall have to ask the ladies to look the other way while my -cousin changes clothes with one of you gentlemen." - -Of the three villains, Jonstone selected the youngest and the tidiest, -and with mutual reluctance, suspicion, and startled glances toward where -the ladies sat with averted faces, they changed clothes. - -A broad felt hat, several sizes too big for him, added the touch of -completion to the Carolinian's transformation. He took the spare -Winchester and, without a word, walked quietly toward the mouth of the -cave and was lost to sight. - -Maud did not breathe freely until he had returned, unhurt, carrying both -Winchesters and driving an exceedingly sheepish backwoodsman before him. - -He expressed the wish to resume his own clothes. This done, he and his -cousin broke into good-natured, boyish laughter. - -The oldest and most sheepish of the backwoods-men kept repeating, "Who -would 'a' thought he'd have a pistol on him!" and seemed to find a world -of comfort in the thought. - -"What are you going to do with them?" Maud asked almost in a whisper. "I -think I feel a little sorry for them." - -"Bob!" exclaimed Colonel Meredith. - -"What?" - -"_She_ feels a little sorry for them. Don't you?" - -"Yes, _sir_!" replied Mr. Jonstone fervently. - -Colonel Meredith addressed himself to the young woman with the old face. - -"Do you believe in fairies?" he asked. - -She only looked pathetic and confused. - -"Miss Darling, here," he went on, "is a fairy. She left her wand at -home, but if she wants to she can make people's wishes come true. Now -suppose you and your friends talk things over and decide upon some -sensible wishes to have granted. Of course, it's no use wishing you -hadn't robbed a train; but you could wish that the money would be -returned, and that the police could be induced to stop looking for you, -and that some one could come along and offer you an honest way of making -a living. So you talk it over a while and then tell us what you'd -like." - -"Aren't you going to give us up?" asked one of the men. - -"Not if you've any sense at all." - -"Then I guess there's no use us talking things over. And if the young -lady is a fairy, we'd be obliged if she'd get busy along the lines -you've just laid down." - -All eyes were turned on Maud. And she looked appealingly from Colonel -Meredith to Mr. Jonstone and back again. - -"What ought I to say? What ought I to promise? _Can_ the money be -returned? Can the police be called off? And if I only had some work to -give them, but over at The Camp----" - -"Every good fairy," said Colonel Meredith, "has two helpers to whom all -things are possible." - -"Truly?" - -The Carolinians sprang to their feet, clicked their heels together into -the first position of dancing, laid their right hands over their hearts, -and bowed very low. - -"Then," said Maud laughing, "I should like the money to be returned." - -"I will attend to that," said Colonel Meredith. - -"And the police to be called off." - -Again the soldier assumed responsibility. - -"But who," she asked, "will find work for them?" - -"I will," said Mr. Jonstone. "They shall build the house for my cousin -and me to live in. You can build a house, can't you? A log house?" - -"But where will you build it?" asked Maud. "You found fault with all the -best sites on the lake." - -"The very first site we visited suited us to perfection." - -"But you said the spring contained cyanide or something." - -"We were talking through our hats." - -"But why----" - -The Carolinians gazed at her with a kind of beseeching ardor, until she -understood that they had only found fault with one promising building -site after another in order that they might pass the longest time -possible in her company. - -And she returned their glance with one in which there was some feeling -stronger than mere amusement. - - - - -XXIV - - -Concerning information, Mark Twain wrote that it appeared to stew out of -him naturally, like the precious ottar of roses out of the otter. With -the narrator of this episodical history, however, things are very -different. And just how the good fairy, Maud Darling, was enabled to -keep her promises to the outlaws seems to him of no great moment. But -the money _was_ returned to the express company; the police _were_ -called off; and the four robbers, with the woman to cook for them, went -to work at building a log house on the point of pines to be occupied in -the near future by the Carolinians. - -They were not sorry to have been turned from a life of sin. It is only -when a life of sin is gilded, padded, and pleasant that people hate to -turn from it. When virtue entails being rained on, starved, and hunted, -it isn't a very pleasant way of life, either. - -The face of the young female bandit lost its look of premature old age. -She went about her work singing, and the humming of the kettle was her -accompaniment. The four men looked the other men of the camp in the face -and showed how to lay trees by the heels in record time. To their -well-swung and even better-sharpened axes even the stems of oaks were as -wax candles. It became quite "the thing" for guests at The Camp to go -out to the point and admire the axe-work and all the processes of -frontier house-building. - -When people speak of "love in a cottage," there rises nearly always, in -my mind, the memory of a log house that a friend of mine and I came -across by the headwaters of a great river in Canada. - -It stood--the axe marks crisp, white, and blistered with pitch--upon the -brink of a swirling brown pool full of grilse. The logs of which it was -built had been dragged from a distance, so that in the immediate -neighborhood of the cabin was no desolation of dead tree-tops and dying -stumps. Everything was wonderfully neat, new, and in order. About the -pool and the cabin the maples had turned yellow and vermilion. And above -was the peaceful pale blue of an Indian-summer sky. - -We opened the door, held by a simple latch, and found ourselves in the -pleasantest of rooms, just twenty feet by fifteen. The walls and the -floor had been much whitened and smoothed by the axe. The place smelt -vaguely of pitch and strongly of balsam. There was a fireplace--the fire -all laid, a bunk to lie on, a chair to sit on, a table to write on, a -broom to sweep with. And neatly set upon clean shelves were various jams -in glass, and meats, biscuits, and soups in tins. There was also a -writing (on birch bark) over the shelves, which read: "Help yourself." - -We took down the shutters from the windows and let in floods of autumn -sun. Then we lighted the fire, and ate crackers and jam. - -It hurt a little to learn at the mouth of our guide that the cabin -belonged to a somewhat notorious and decidedly crotchety New York -financier who controlled the salmon-fishing in those waters. I had -pictured it as built for a pair of eminently sensible and supernaturally -romantic honeymooners or for a poet. And I wanted to carry away that -impression. For in such a place love or inspiration must have lasted -just as long as the crackers and jam. And there is no more to be said of -a palace. - -One day Mary Darling and Sam Langham visited the new cabin. And Sam -said: "If one of the happy pair happened to know something of cooking, -what a place for a honeymoon!" - -Shortly afterward, Phyllis and Herring came that way, and Herring said: -"If I was in love, and knew how to use an axe, I'd build just such a -house for the girl I love and make her live in it. I believe I will, -anyway." - -"Believe what?" asked Phyllis demurely. "Believe you will make her live -in it?" - -"Yes," he said darkly--"no matter who she is and no matter how afraid of -the mice and spiders with which such places ultimately become infested." - -Lee and Renier visited the cabin, also. They remarked only that it had a -wonderfully smooth floor, and proceeded at once thereon, Lee whistling -exquisitely and with much spirit, to dance a maxixe, which was greatly -admired by the ex-outlaws. - -Maud came often with the Carolinians, and as for Eve, she came once or -twice all by herself. - -Jealousy is a horrid passion. It had never occurred to Eve Darling that -she was or ever could be jealous of anybody. And she wasn't--exactly. -But seeing her sisters always cavaliered by attractive men and slipping -casually into thrilling and even dangerous adventures with them -disturbed the depths of her equanimity. It was delightful, of course, to -be made much of by Arthur and to go upon excursions with him as of old. -But something was wanting. Arthur's idea of a pleasant day in the woods -was to sit for hours by a pool and attempt to classify the croaks of -frogs, or to lie upon his back in the sun and think about the girl in -far-off China whom he loved so hopelessly. - -Thanks to her excellent subordinate, and to her own administrative -ability, Laundry House made fewer and fewer encroachments upon Eve's -leisure. And often she found that time was hanging upon her hands with -great heaviness. Memory reminded her that things had not always been -thus; for there are men in this world who think that she was the most -beautiful of all the Darlings. - -It was curious that of all the men who had come to The Camp, Mr. Bob -Jonstone had the most attraction for her. They had not spoken half a -dozen times, and it was quite obvious that his mind, if not his heart, -was wholly occupied with Maud. Wherever you saw Maud, you could be -pretty sure that the Carolinians, hunting in a couple, were not far off. -Of the two, Colonel Meredith was the more brilliant, the more showy, and -the better-looking. Added to his good breeding and lazy, pleasant voice -were certain Yankee qualities--a total lack of gullibility, a certain -trace of mockery, even upon serious subjects. Mr. Jonstone, on the other -hand, was a perfect lamb of earnestness and sincerity. If he heard of an -injustice his eyes flamed, or if he listened to the recital of some -pathetic happening they misted over. Once beyond the direct influence of -his cousin there was neither mischief in him nor devilment. It was for -this reason, and in this knowledge, that he had put his newly acquired -moneys in trust for himself. - -In the little house by the lake where the cousins still slept, -conversation seldom flagged before one or two o'clock in the morning. -Having said good-night to each other at about eleven, one or the other -was pretty sure to let out some new discovery about the Darlings in -general and Maud Darling in particular, and then all desire for sleep -vanished and their real cousinly confidences began. - -But these confidences had their limits, for neither confessed to being -sentimentally interested in the young lady, whereas, within limits, they -both were. And each enjoyed the satisfaction of believing (quite -erroneously) that he deceived the other. I do not wish to convey the -impression that they were actually in love with her. - -When you are really in love, you are also in love before breakfast. -That is the final test. And when love begins to die, that is the time -when its weakening pulse is first to be concerned. What honest man has -not been mad about some pretty girl (in a crescendo of madness) from tea -time till sleep time and waked in the morning with no thought but for -toast and coffee the soonest possible? and gone about the business of -the morning and early afternoon almost heart-whole and fancy-free, and -relapsed once more into madness with the lengthening of the shadows? A -man who proposes marriage to a girl until he has been in love with her -for twenty-four consecutive hours is a light fellow who ought to be -kicked out of the house by her papa. As for the girl, let her be sure -that he is bread and meat to her, comfort and rest, demigod and man, -wholly necessary and not to be duplicated in this world, before she even -says that she will think about it. - -In the early morning there would arise in the house of the Carolinians -the sounds of whistling, of singing, laughter, scuffling, and running -water. So that a girl who really wanted either of them must, in -listening, have despaired. - -As for Maud Darling, she was disgusted with herself--theoretically. But -practically she was having the time of her life. In theory, she felt -that no self-respecting girl ought to be unable to decide which of the -two young men she liked the better. In practice, she found a constant -pondering of this delicate question to be delightful. It was very -comfortable to know that the moment she was free to play there were two -pleasant companions ready and waiting. - -Sentiment and gayety attended their goings and comings. The Carolinians, -fortified by each other's presence, were veritable Raleighs of -extravagant devotion. In engineering, for instance, so that Maud should -not have to step in a damp place, there were displayed enough gallantry -and efficiency to have saved her from an onslaught of tigers. If the -trio climbed a mountain, Maud gave herself up to the heart-warming -delight of being helped when help was not in the least necessary. In -short, she behaved as any natural young woman would, and should. She -flirted outrageously. But in the depths of her heart a genuine -friendship for the Carolinians was conceived and grew in breadth and -strength. What if they did out-gallant gallantry? - - - - -XXV - - -One Sunday, Eve, from her window--she was rather a lazy girl that -Sunday--witnessed the following departures from the camp. Sam Langham -and Mary in a guide boat, with fishing-tackle and an immense hamper -which looked like lunch. Herring and Phyllis could be seen hoisting the -sails on the knockabout. Herring had never sailed a boat and was -prepared to master that simple art at once. Lee and Renier were girt for -the mountain. Renier appeared to have a Flobert rifle in semihiding -under his coat, and it was to be feared that if he saw a partridge, he -would open fire on it, close season though it was. He and Lee would -justify this illegal act by cooking the bird for their lunch. Gay -commandeered the _Streak_ and departed at high speed toward Carrytown. -She had in one hand a sheet of blue-striped paper, folded. It resembled -a cablegram. And Eve thought that it must be of a very private nature, -or else Gay would have telephoned it to the Western Union office, -instead of carrying it by hand. The next to depart from the camp was -Arthur. He moved dreamily in a northwesterly direction, accompanied by -Uncas, the chipmunk, and Wow, the dog. Other guests made departures. - -All of which Eve, half dressed and looking lazily from her window, -lazily noted, remarking that for her Sunday was a day of rest and that -she thanked Heaven for it. And she did not feel any differently until -Maud and the Carolinians walked out on the float and began to pack a -guide boat for the day. - -Then her lazy, complacent feelings departed, and were succeeded by a -sudden, wide-awake surge of self-pity. She felt like Cinderella. Nobody -had asked her to go anywhere or do anything, and nobody had even thought -of doing so. When she was dead they would gather round her coffin and -remember that they hadn't asked her to go anywhere or do anything, and -they would be very sorry and ashamed and they would say what a nice girl -she had been, and how she had always tried to give everybody a good -time. - -Between laughter and tears and mortification, Eve finished dressing, set -her lovely jaw, and went out into the delicious, cool calm of the -mountain morning. She could still hear the voices of many of the -departing ones; and the rattling and creaking of the knockabout's -blocks and rigging. She heard Herring say to Phyllis: "I think it would -be better if I could make the boom go out on this side, but I can't." -Phyllis's answer was a cool, contented laugh. It was as if she said: -"Hang the boom! _We're_ here!" - -Have you ever had the feeling that you would like to board a swift boat, -head for the open sea, and never come back? Or that you could plunge -into some boundless, trackless forest and keep straight on until you -were lost, and died (beautifully and painlessly), and were covered with -beautiful leaves by little birds? - -Eve enjoyed (and suffered from) a hint of this latter feeling. She ate a -light breakfast (it would be better not to begin starving till she was -actually lost in the boundless, trackless forest), selected a light, -spiked climbing-stick with a crooked handle, headed for one of the -northeasterly mountains, and was soon deep in the shade of the pines and -hemlocks. - -After a few miles, the trail that she followed split and scattered in -many directions, like the end of an unravelled rope. She followed an old -lumber road for a long way, turned into another that crossed it at an -angle of forty-five degrees, took no account of the sun's position in -the heavens or of the marked sides of trees. If she came to a high -place from which there was a view, she did not look at it. She just kept -going--this way and that, up and down. In short, she made a conscious, -anxious effort to lose herself. The easterly mountain toward which she -had first headed kept bobbing up straight ahead. And always there was -the knowledge in the back of her head of the exact location of The Camp, -and of all the other landmarks, familiar to her since early youth. - -"Drag it!" she said, at length, her eyes on the mountain. "I'll climb -the old thing, put melancholy aside, and call this a good, if -unaccompanied, Sunday." - -The morning coolness had departed. It was one of those hot, breathless, -mountain forenoons that kill the appetite and are usually followed, -toward the late afternoon, by violent electrical disturbances. - -Eve was not as fit as she had supposed, or as she thought. As a matter -of fact, she was setting too fast a pace, considering the weather and -the angle of the mountain slope; and she was as wet as if she had played -several hard sets of tennis with a partner who stood in one corner of -the court and let her do all the running. - -As she climbed, reproaching her wind for being so short, she remembered -that the hollow tip of this particular northeastern mountain was filled -with a deep pool of water. Nobody had ever called it a lake. The map -called it a pond; but it wasn't even that--it was a pool. Springs fed it -just fast enough to make up for the evaporation. It had no outlet. It -was shaped like a fat letter O. At one end was a little beach of white -sand. Indeed, the bottom of the pool was all firm, smooth, and clean, -and the whole charming little body of water was surrounded by thick -groves of dwarf mountain trees and bushes. Not content with being a -perfect replica, in miniature, of a full-grown Adirondack lake, this -pool had in its midst an island, a dozen feet in diameter, densely -shrubbed and shaded by one diminutive Japanesque pine. - -When Eve came to the pool, hot, tired, and rather bothered at the -thought of the long walk back to camp, she had but the vaguest idea of -just why the Lord had placed such a pool on top of a mountain, impelled -her to climb that mountain, and made the day so piping hot. - -Eve stood a little on the sand beach. She felt hotter and hotter, and -the pool looked cooler and cooler. Presently, a heavenly smile of -solution brightened her flushed, warm face, and she withdrew into a -shady clump of bushes. From this there came first the exclamation "Drag -it!" then a sound of some sort of a string being sharply broken in two, -and then there came from the clump of bushes Eve herself, looking for -all the world like a slice of the silver moon. - -And as you may have seen the silver moon slip slowly into the sea, so -Eve vanished slowly into the pool--all but her shapely little round -head, with its crisp bright-brown hair and its lovely face, happy now, -exhilarated, and eager as are the faces of adventurers. - -And Eve thought if one didn't have to eat, if one didn't end by being -cold, if one could make time stand still--she would choose to be always -and forever a slice of the silver moon, lolling in a mountain pool. - -She had the kind of hair that wets to perfection. But it was not the -sort of permanent wave which lasts six months or so, costs twenty-five -dollars, and is inculcated by hours of alternate baking and shampooing. -Eve had always had a permanent wave. She feared neither fog nor rain, -nor water in any form of application. And so it was that, now and then, -as she lolled about the pool, she disappeared from one fortunate square -yard of surface and reappeared in another. - -Half an hour had passed, when suddenly the mountain stillness was broken -by men's voices. - -Eve was at the opposite side of the pool from where she had left her -clothes. Between her and the approaching voices was the little island. -She landed hastily upon this and hid herself among the bushes. - -Three gross, fat men and one long, lean man, with a face like leather -and an Adam's apple that bobbed like a fisherman's float, came down to -the beach, sweating terribly, and cast thereon knapsacks, picnic -baskets, hatchets, fishing-tackle, and all the complicated paraphernalia -of amateurs about to cook their own lunch in the woods. - -All but one had loud, coarse, carrying voices, and they all appeared to -belong to the ruling class. They appeared, in short, to have neither -education nor refinement nor charm nor anything to commend them as -leaders or examples. Eve wondered how it was possible for them to find -pleasure even in each other's company. They quarrelled, wrangled, found -fault, abused each other, or suddenly forgot their differences, -gathering about the fattest of the fat men and listening, almost -reverently, while he told a story. When he had finished, they would -throw their heads far back and scream with laughter. He must have told -wonderfully funny stories; but his voice was no more than a husky -whisper, so that Eve could not make head or tail of them. - -After a while the whispering fat man produced from one of the baskets -four little glasses and a fat dark bottle. And shortly after there was -less wrangling and more laughter. - -The thin man with the leathery face and the bobbing Adam's apple put a -fishing-rod together, tied a couple of gaudy flies to his leader, and -began to cast most unskilfully from the shores of the pool, moving along -slowly from time to time. - -The fat men, occasionally calling to ask if he had caught anything, -busied themselves with preparations for lunch. One of them made -tremendous chopping sounds in the wood and furnished from time to time -incommensurate supplies of fire-wood. Smoke arose and a kettle was -slung. - -Meanwhile Eve, cowering among the bushes, for all the world like her -famous ancestress when the angel came to the garden, did not quite know -what to do. She had only to lift her voice and explain, and the men -would go away for a time. She felt sure of that. She had been brought -up to believe in the exquisite chivalry of the plain American man. - -But there was something about the four which repelled her, which stuck -in her throat. She did not wish to be under any sort of obligation to -any of them. And so she kept mousy-quiet, and turned over in her mind an -immense number of worthless stratagems and expedients. - -Have you ever tried to lie on the lawn under a tree and read for an hour -or two--incased in all your buffer of clothes? Try it some time--without -the buffers. Try it in the buff. And then imagine how comfortable Eve -was on the island. Imagine how soft it felt to her elbows, for instance. -And imagine to yourself, too, that it was not an uninhabited island--but -one upon which an immense gray spider had made a home and raised a -family. - -From time to time the inept caster of flies returned to the camp-fire, -always in answer to a boisterous summons from his friends. And after -each visit, his leathery face became redder and his casting more absurd. - -Finally his flies caught in a tree, his rod broke, and he abandoned the -gentle art of angling for that time and place. Meanwhile steam ran from -the kettle and mingled with the smoke of the fire. The sound of voices -was incessant. Ten minutes later the gentlemen were served. - -Midway of the meal, some of which was burnt black and some of which was -quite raw, there was produced a thermos bottle as big as the leg of a -rubber boot. And a moment later, icy-cold champagne was frothing and -bubbling in tumblers. - -In that high air, upon a thick foundation of raw whiskey, the brilliant -wine of France had soon built a triumphant edifice, so that Eve, cold -now, miserable, and frightened, felt that the time for an appeal to -chivalry was long since past. - -Far from their wives and constituents, the four politicians were -obviously not going to stop short of complete drunkenness. Indeed, it -was an opportunity hardly to be missed. For where else in the woods -could nature be more exquisite, dignified, and inspiring? - -It got so that Eve could no longer bear to watch them or to listen to -them. Pink with shame, fury, hatred, and fear, she stuffed her fingers -in her ears and hid her face. - -Thus lying, there came to her after quite a long interval, dimly, a -shout and a howl of laughter with an entirely new intonation. She looked -up then and saw the thin man, waist-deep in the bushes, just where she -had left her clothes, making faces of beastly mystery at his companions, -beckoning to them and urging them to come look. They went to him, -presently, staggering and evil. - -And then they scattered and began to hunt for her. - - - - -XXVI - - -"Tired?" queried Mr. Bob Jonstone, with some indignation. "I'm not a bit -tired. I haven't had enough exercise to keep me quiet. And if it wasn't -your turn to make the fire, your privilege, and your prerogative, I'd -insist on chopping the wood myself. No," he said, leaning back -luxuriously, "I find it very hard to keep still. This walking on the -level is child's play. What I need to keep me in good shape is mountains -to climb." - -"Like those we have at home," said Colonel Meredith, and if he didn't -actually wink at Maud, who was arranging some chops on a broiler, he -made one eye smaller than the other. - -"What's wrong with _this_ mountain?" asked Maud. - -"Why, we are only half-way up, and the real view is from the top!" - -"Of course," said Colonel Meredith, "if you want to see the view, don't -let us stop you. We'll wait for you. Won't we, Miss Maud?" - -She nodded, her eyes shining with mischief. - -"But," the colonel continued, "Bob is a bluff. He's had all the climbing -he can stand. Nothing but a chest full of treasure or a maiden in -distress would take him a step farther." - -"After lunch," said Mr. Jonstone, "I shall." - -"Do it now! Lunch won't be ready for an hour. Any kind of a walker could -make the top of the mountain and be back in that time. But I'll bet you -anything you like that you can't." - -"You will? I'll bet you fifty dollars." - -"Done!" - -Mr. Jonstone leaped to his feet in a business-like way, waved his hand -to them, and started briskly off and up along the trail by which they -had come, and which ended only at the very top of the mountain. It -wasn't that he wanted any more exercise. He wanted to get away for a -while to think things over. He had learned on that day's excursion, or -thought he had, that two is company and that three isn't. The pleasant -interchangeableness of the trio's relations seemed suddenly to have -undergone a subtle change. It was as if Maud and Colonel Meredith had -suddenly found that they liked each other a little better than they -liked him. - -So it wasn't a man in search of exercise or eager to win a bet who was -hastening toward the top of a mountain, but a child who had just -discovered that dolls are stuffed with sawdust. He suffered a little -from jealousy, and a little from anger. He could not have specified what -they had done to him that morning, and it may have been his imagination -alone that was to blame, but they had made him feel, or he had made -himself feel, like a guest who is present, not because he is wanted but -because for some reason or other he had to be asked. - -He walked himself completely out of breath and that did his mind good. -Resting before making a final spurt to the mountain-top, he heard men's -voices shouting and hallooing in the forest. The sounds carried him back -to certain coon and rabbit hunts in his native state, and he wondered -what these men could be hunting. And having recovered his breath, he -went on. - -He came suddenly in view of a great round pool of water in the midst of -which was a tiny island, thickly wooded. Just in front of him a fire -burned low on a beach of white sand. - -Upon the beach, his back to Jonstone, stood a tall, thin man who -appeared to be gazing at the island. Suddenly this man began to shout -aloud: - -"She's on the island! She's on the island!" - -From the woods came the sound of crashings, scramblings, and oaths, -and, one by one, three fat men, very sweaty and crimson in the face, -came reeling out on the beach, and ranged themselves with the thin man, -and looked drunkenly toward the island. - -"She's hiding on the island, the cute thing," said the thin man. - -"Did you see her?" - -"I saw the bushes move. That's where she is." - -"How deep's the water?" - -"I'll tell you in about a minute," said the thin man. He threw his coat -from him, and, sitting down with a sudden lurch, began to unlace his -boots. - -"Maybe you don't know it," he said, "but I'm some swimmer, I am." - -There was a moment of silence and then there came from the island a -voice that sent a thrill through Mr. Bob Jonstone from head to foot. The -voice was like frightened music with a sob in it. - -"Won't you please go away!" - -"Good God," he thought, "they're hunting a woman!" - -The drunken men had answered that sobbing appeal with a regular -view-halloo of drunken laughter. - -Mr. Bob Jonstone stepped slowly forward. His thin face had a bluish, -steely look; and his eyes glinted wickedly like a rattlesnake's. Being -one against four, he made no declaration of war. He came upon them -secretly from behind. And first he struck a thin neck just below a -leathery ear, and then a fat neck. - -He was not a strong man physically. But high-strung nerves and cold, -collected loathing and fury are powerful weapons. - -The thin man and the fat man with the whispering voice lay face down on -the beach and passed from insensibility into stupefied, drunken sleep. -But with the other two, Mr. Jonstone had a bad time of it, for he had -broken a bone in his right hand and the pain was excruciating. Often, -during that battle, he thought of the deadly automatic in his pocket. -But if he used that, it meant that a woman's name would be printed in -the newspaper. - -The fat men fought hard with drunken fury. Their strength was their -weight, and they were always coming at him from opposite sides. But an -empty whiskey bottle caught Mr. Jonstone's swift eye and made a sudden -end of what its contents had begun. He hit five times and then stood -alone, among the fallen, a bottle neck of brown glass in his hand. - -Then he lifted his voice and spoke aloud, as if to the island: - -"They'll not trouble you now. What else can I do?" - -"God bless you for doing what you've done! I'm a fool girl, and I -thought I was all alone and I went in swimming, and they came and I hid -on the island. And I--I haven't got my things with me!" - -"Couldn't you get ashore without being seen? These beasts won't look. -And I won't look. You can trust me, can't you?" - -"When you tell me that nobody is looking I'll come ashore." - -"Nobody is looking now." - -He heard a splash and sounds as of strong swimming. And he was dying to -look. He took out his little automatic and cocked it, and he said to -himself: "If you do look, Bob, you get shot." - -Ten minutes passed. - -"Are you all right?" he called. - -"Yes, thank you, all right now. But how can I thank you? I don't want -you to see me, if you don't mind. I don't want you to know who I am. But -I'm the gratefulest girl that ever lived; and I'm going home now, wiser -than when I came, and, listen----" - -"I'm listening." - -"I think I'd almost die for you. There!" - -Mr. Jonstone's hair fairly bristled with emotion. - -"But am I never to see you, never to know your name?" - -The answer came from farther off. - -"Yes, I think so. Some time." - -"Do you promise that?" - -Silence--and then: - -"I _almost_ promise." - - * * * * * - -Having assured himself that the drunken men were not dead, Mr. Jonstone -sighed like a furnace and started down the mountain. - -His hand hurt him like the devil, but the pain was first cousin to -delight. - - - - -XXVII - - -The Camp was much concerned to hear of poor Mr. Jonstone's accident. A -round stone, he said, had rolled suddenly under his foot and -precipitated him down a steep pitch of path. He had put out his hands to -save his face and, it seemed, broken a bone in one of them. And at that, -the attempted rescue of his face had not been an overwhelming success. - -It was not until the doctor had come and gone that Mr. Jonstone told his -cousin what had really happened. Colonel Meredith was much excited and -intrigued by the narrative. - -"And you've no idea who she was?" he asked. - -"No, Mel; I've thought that the voice was familiar. I've thought that it -wasn't. It was a very well-bred Northern voice--but agitated probably -out of its natural intonations. Voices are queer things. A man might not -recognize his own mother's voice at a time when he was not expecting to -hear it." - -"Voices," said Colonel Meredith, "are beautiful things. This wasn't a -motherly sort of voice, was it?" - -"But it might be," said Mr. Jonstone gently. "I wonder if they've -anything in this place to make a fellow sleep. Bromide isn't much good -when you've a sure-enough sharp pain." - -"You feel mighty uncomfortable, don't you, Bob?" - -The invalid nodded. He was pale as a sheet, and he could not keep still. -He had received considerable physical punishment and his entire nervous -system was quivering and jumping. - -"I'll see if anybody's got anything," said Colonel Meredith, and he went -straight to the office, where he found Maud Darling and Eve. - -"My cousin is feeling like the deuce," he said. "He won't sleep all -night if we don't give him something to make him. Do you know of any one -that's got anything of that sort--morphine, for instance?" - -"The best thing will be to take the _Streak_ and get some from the -doctor," said Maud. "Let's all go." - -"I think I won't," said Eve, looking wonderfully cool and serene. "But -I'll walk down to the float and see you off. What a pity for a man to -get laid up by an accident that might have been avoided by a little -attention!" - -Colonel Meredith stiffened. - -"I am sorry to contradict a lady," he said, "but my cousin has given me -the particulars of his accident, and it was of a nature that could -hardly have been avoided by a man. I think, Miss Maud, if you will order -a launch, I had better tell my cousin where I am going, in case he -should feel that he was being neglected." - -"Don't bother to do that," said Eve. "I'll get word to him." - -"Oh, thank you so much, will you?" - -"He's lying down, I suppose." - -"Yes; he has retired for the night." - -"I'll send one of the men," said Eve, "or Sam Langham." - -So they went one way and Eve went the other, walking very quickly and -smiling in the night. - -"Mr. Jonstone--oh, Mr. Jonstone! Can you hear me?" - -With a sort of shudder of wonder Mr. Jonstone sat up in his bed. - -"Yes," he said, "I do hear you--unless I am dreaming." - -"You're not dreaming. You are in great pain, owing to an accident which -could hardly have been avoided by a man, and can't sleep." - -"I am in no pain now." - -"Colonel Meredith has gone to Carrytown for something to make you -sleep, so you aren't to fret and feel neglected if he doesn't come back -to you at once." - -"Just the same it's a horrible feeling--to be all alone." - -"But if some one--any one were to stay within call----?" - -"If _you_ were to stay within call it would make all the difference in -the world." - -"You don't know who I am, do you?" - -"I don't know what you look like, and I don't know your name. But I know -who you are. And once upon a time--long years ago--you promised, you -half promised, to tell me the other things." - -"My name is a very, very old name, and I look like a lot of other -people. But you say you know who I am. Who am I?" - -Mr. Bob Jonstone laughed softly. - -"It's enough," said he, "that I know. But are you comfortable out there? -You're on the porch, aren't you?" - -"No; I'm standing on the ground and resting my lazy forehead against the -porch railing." - -"I'd feel easier if you came on the porch and made yourself comfortable -in a chair, just outside my window. And we could talk easier." - -"But you're not supposed to talk." - -"Listening would be good for me." - -There was a sound of light steps and of a chair being dragged. - -"I wish you wouldn't sit just round the corner," said Mr. Jonstone -presently. "If you sat before the window, sideways, I could see your -profile against the sky." - -"I'm doing very well where I am, thank you." - -"But, please, why shouldn't I see you? Why are you so embarrassed at -me?" - -"Wouldn't you be embarrassed if you were a girl and had been through the -adventure I went through? Wouldn't you be a little embarrassed to see -the man who helped you, and look him in the face?" - -"Don't you ever want me to see you? Because, if you don't, I will go -away from this place in the morning and never come back." - -"Somehow, that doesn't appeal to me very much either." - -"I am glad," said Mr. Jonstone quietly. - -"How does your hand feel?" - -"Which hand?" - -"The one you hurt." - -"It feels very happy, and the other hand feels very jealous of it." - -"Seriously--are you having a pretty bad time?" - -"I am having the time of my life--seriously--the time that lucky men -always have once in their lives." - -"Are you very impatient for the morphine?" - -"I shall not take it when it comes. It is far better knowing what one -knows, remembering what one remembers, and looking forward to what a -presumptuous fool cannot help but look forward to--it is far better to -keep awake; to lie peacefully in the dark, knowing, remembering, and -looking forward." - -"And just what are you looking forward to?" - -"To a long life and a happy one; to the sounds of a voice; to a sudden -coming to life of the whole 'Oxford Book of Verse'; to seeing a face." - -There was a long silence. - -"Are you there?" - -"Yes; but you mustn't talk." - -"I think you are tired. Please don't stay any more if you are tired." - -"I'm not tired." - -"Then perhaps you are bored." - -"I'm not bored." - -"Then what are you?" - -"You keep quiet." - -When, at last, Colonel Meredith came, important with morphine and the -doctor's instructions, he found his cousin Mr. Bob Jonstone sleeping -very quietly and peacefully, a much dog-eared copy of the "Oxford Book -of Verse" clasped to his breast. - -Unfortunately the colonel, after putting out the light again, bumped -into a table, and Mr. Jonstone waked. - -"That you, Mel?" - -"Yes, Bob; sorry I waked you. Did Miss Darling send word explaining that -I should be quite a while coming back?" - -"Which Miss Darling?" - -"Which? Why, Miss Eve." - -"Yes, she sent word." - -"And how have you been?" - -"I took a turn for the better shortly after you left. A little while ago -I lighted a candle, and read a little and got sleepy. And now I think -I'll go to sleep again." - -"You don't need the morphine?" - -"No, Mel. Thank you. Good-night." - -"Good-night." - -"Mel?" - -"What is it?" - -"Isn't Eve about the oldest name you know?" - -"Oldest, I guess, except Adam and Lilith. You go to sleep." - -And Colonel Meredith tiptoed out of the room, murmuring: "Seems to be a -little shaky in his upper stories." - - - - -XXVIII - - -A point of land just across the lake from the camp belonged to the -Darlings' mother, the Princess Oducalchi. One night the light of fires -and lanterns appeared on this point and the next morning it was seen to -be studded here and there with pale-brown tents. The Darlings were -annoyed to think that any one should trespass on so large a scale on -some one else's land. In a code of laws shot to pieces with class -legislation, trespassers are, of course, exempt from punishment; their -presence and depredations in one's private melon-patch are none the less -disagreeable, and Arthur Darling, as his mother's representative, was -peculiarly enraged. - -Arthur, in his idle moments, when, for instance, he was not studying the -webs of spiders or classifying the cries of frogs, sometimes let his -mind run on politics and the whole state of the Union. In such matters, -of course, he was only a tyro. Why should the puny and prejudiced -population of Texas have two votes in the Senate when the hordes of New -York have but two? Why, in a popular form of government, should the -minority do the ruling? Why should not a hard-working rich man have an -equal place in the sun with a man who, through laziness and a moral -nature twisted like a pretzel, remains poor? Why should education be -forced on children in a country where education, which means good -manners and the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, amounts -practically to disfranchisement? - -Arthur, in his political ruminations, could never get beyond such -questions as these. If A has paid for and owns a piece of land, why is -it not A's to enjoy, rather than B's, whose sole claim thereto is -greater strength of body than A, and the desire to possess those things -which are not his? - -At least, Arthur could row across to the point and protest in his -mother's name. If the trespassers were gentlefolk who imagined -themselves to have camped upon public land, they would, of course, offer -to go and to pay all damages--in which event, Arthur would invite them -to stay as long as they pleased, only begging that they would not set -the woods on fire. If, however, the trespassers belonged to one of the -privileged classes for whose benefit the laws are made and continued, he -would simply be abused roundly and perhaps vilely. He would then take a -thrashing at the hands of superior numbers, and the incident would be -closed. - -Colonel Meredith, seeing Arthur about to embark on his mission, offered -help and comfort in the emergency. - -"Just you wait till I fetch my rifle," he said; "and if there's any -trifling, we'll shoot them up." - -"Shoot them up!" exclaimed Arthur. "If we shot them up, we'd go from -here to prison and from prison to the electric chair." - -"In South Carolina," Colonel Meredith protested, "if a man comes on our -land and we tell him to get off and he won't, we drill a hole in him." - -"And that's one of the best things about the South," said Arthur. "But -we do things differently in the North. If a man comes on my land and I -tell him to get off and he says he won't, then I have the right to put -him off, using as much force as is necessary. And if he is twice as big -as I am and there are three or four of him, you can see, without using -glasses, how the matter must end." - -"Then all you are out for is to take a licking?" - -"That is my only privilege under the law. But I hope I shall not have to -avail myself of it. Where there are so many tents there must be money. -Where there is money there are possessions, and where there are -possessions, there are the same feelings about property that you and I -have." - -"Still," said Colonel Meredith, "I wish you'd take me along and our -guns. There is always the chance of managing matters so that fatalities -may be construed into acts of self-defense." - -"Get behind me, you man of blood!" exclaimed Arthur, laughing, and he -leaped into a canoe, and with a part of the same impulse sent it flying -far out from the float. Then, standing, he started for the brown tents -with easy, powerful strokes, very earnest for the speedy accomplishment -of a disagreeable duty. That anything really pleasant might come of his -expedition never entered his head. - -"Arthur gone to put them off?" - -"Why, yes! Good-morning, Miss Gay." - -"Good-morning, yourself, Colonel Meredith, and many of them. Want to -look?" - -"Thank you." - -Colonel Meredith focussed the glasses upon the brown tents. - -"What do you make them out to be?" - -"I can make out a sort of nigger carrying tea into one of the tents. And -there's a young lady in black. She seems to be walking down to the -shore to meet your brother. And now she's waving her hand to him." - -"The impudent thing," exclaimed Gay. "What's my brother doing?" - -"He's paddling as if he expected to cross a hundred yards of water in a -second. If the young lady comes any closer to the water, she'll get -wet." - -Suddenly blushing crimson, he thrust the field-glasses back into Gay's -hands, and cried with complete conviction that he was "blessed." - -In the bright field of magnification, hastily focussed to her own -vision, Gay beheld her brother and the young woman in black tightly -locked in each other's arms. - - - - -XXIX - - -To Arthur, half-way across the lake, considering just what he should say -to the trespassers, the sudden sight of the person whom of all persons -in the world he least expected and most wanted to see was a staggering -physical shock. He almost fell out of his canoe. And if he had done that -he might very likely have drowned, so paralyzing in effect were those -first moments of unbelievable joy and astonishment. Then she waved her -hand to him and swiftly crossed the beach, and he began to paddle like a -madman. When the canoe beached with sudden finality, Arthur simply made -a flying leap to the shore and caught her in his arms. - -Then he held her at arm's length, and if eyes could eat, these would -have been the last moments upon earth of a very lovely young woman. - -Then a sort of horror of what he had done and of what he was doing -seized him. His hands dropped to his sides and the pupils of his eyes -became pointed with pain. But she said: - -"It's all right, Arthur; don't look like that. My husband is dead." - -"Dead?" said Arthur, his face once more joyous as an angel's. "Thank God -for that!" - -And why not thank God when some worthless, cruel man dies? And why not -write the truth about him upon his tombstone instead of the conventional -lies? - -"But why didn't you write to me?" demanded Arthur. - -"It had been such a long time since we saw each other. How did I know -that you still cared?" - -"But how could I stop caring--about you?" - -"Couldn't you?" - -"Why, I didn't even try," said Arthur. "I just gave it up as a bad job. -But how, in the name of all that's good and blessed, do you happen to be -in this particular place at this particular time? Did you, by any -chance, come by way of the heavens in a 'sweet chariot'? I came to eject -trespassers, and I find you!" - -"And I came to spy on you, Arthur, and to find out if you still cared. -And if you didn't, I was going to tie a stone round my neck and lie down -in the lake. Of course, if I'm a trespasser----" - -They had moved slowly away from the shore toward the tents. From one of -these a languid, humorous voice that made Arthur start hailed them. And -through the fly of the tent was thrust a beautiful white hand and the -half of a beautiful white arm. - -"I can't come out, Arthur," said the voice; "but good-morning to you, -and how's the family?" - -"Of all people in the world," exclaimed Arthur; "my own beautiful -mamma!" And he sprang to the extended hand and clasped it and kissed it. - -"Your excellent stepfather," said the voice, "is out walking up an -appetite for breakfast. I hope you will be very polite to him. If it -hadn't been for him, Cecily would have stayed in London, where we found -her. He wormed her secret out of her and brought her to you as a -peace-offering." - -There was a deep emotion in Arthur's voice as he said: - -"Then there shall always be peace between us." - -The hand had been withdrawn from the light of day; but the languid, -humorous voice continued to make sallies from the brown tent. - -"We didn't want to be in the way; so, remembering this bit of property, -we just chucked our Somali outfit into a ship, and here we are! I was -dreadfully shocked and grieved to hear that you were all quite broke and -had started an inn. In New York it is reported to be a great success, is -it?" - -"Why, I hope so," said Arthur; "I don't really know. Mary's head man. -Maud keeps the books; the triplets keep getting into mischief, and Eve, -so far as I know, keeps out. As for me, I had an occupation, but it's -gone now." - -"What was your job, Arthur?" - -"My job was to have my arm in imagination where it now is in reality." - -"Cecily!" exclaimed the voice. "Is that boy hugging you publicly? Am I -absolutely without influence upon manners even among my own tents?" - -"Absolutely, Princess!" laughed Cecily. - -"Then the quicker I come out of my tent the better! You'll stop to -breakfast, Arthur?" - -"With pleasure, but shan't I get word to the girls? Of course, they -would feel it their duty to call upon you at once." - -"I should hope so--as an older woman I should expect that much of them. -But, princess or no princess, I refuse to stand on ceremony. In my most -exalted and aristocratic moments I can never forget that I am their -mother. So after breakfast _I_ shall call on _them_." - -At this moment, very tall and thin, in gray Scotch tweeds, carrying a -very high, foreheady head, there emerged from the forest Prince -Oducalchi, leading by the hand his eight-year-old son, Andrea, and -singing in a touching, clear baritone something in Italian to the effect -that a certain "Mariana's roses were red and white, in the market-place -by the clock-tower!" - -Andrea wore a bright-red sweater, carried a fine twenty-bore gun made by -a famous London smith, and looked every inch a prince. He had all the -Darling beauty in his face and all the Oducalchi pride of place and -fame. - -"Mr. Darling, I believe?" asked the prince, his left eyebrow slightly -acockbill. "I have not had the pleasure of seeing you for some years, -but I perceive that you are by way of accepting my peace-offering." - -"I was never just to you," said Arthur, a little pale and looking very -proud and handsome, "and you have been very good to my mamma and you -have been very good to me. Will you forgive me?" - -"I cannot do that. There has been nothing to forgive. But I will shake -hands with you with all the pleasure in the world--my dear Cecily, does -he come up to the memories of him? Poor children, you have had a sad -time of it in this merry world! I may call you 'Arthur'? Arthur, this is -your half-brother, Andrea. I hope that you will take a little time to -show him the beautiful ways of your North Woods." - -Arthur shook hands solemnly with the small boy, and their stanchly met -eyes told of an immediate mutual confidence and liking. - -"I've always wanted a brother in the worst way," said Arthur. - -"So have I," piped Andrea. - -And then Princess Oducalchi came out of her tent, and proved that, -although her daughters resembled her in features, simplicity, and grace -and dignity of carriage, they would never really vie with her in beauty -until they had loved much, suffered much, borne children into the world, -and remembered all that was good in things and forgotten all that was -evil. - -"Mamma," said Arthur, "is worth travelling ten thousand miles to see any -day, isn't she?" - -"On foot," said Prince Oducalchi, "through forests and morasses infested -with robbers and wild beasts." - -The princess blushed and became very shy and a little confused for a few -moments. Then, with a happy laugh, she thrust one hand through her -husband's arm, the other through Arthur's, and urged them in the -direction of the tent, where breakfast was to be served. - -Andrea followed, with Cecily holding him tightly by the hand. - -"If we had not been buried in Somaliland at the time," said Arthur's -mother, "we would never have let this 'Inn' happen. I'm sure you were -against it, Arthur?" - -"Of course," said he simply. "But with sister Mary's mind made up, and -the rest backing her, what could a poor broken-hearted young man do? And -it has worked out better than I ever hoped. I don't mean in financial -ways. I, mean, the sides of it that I thought would be humiliating and -objectionable haven't been. Indeed, it's all been rather a lark, and -Mary insists upon telling me that we are a lot better off than we were. -We charge people the most outrageous prices! It's enough to make a dead -man blush in the dark. And the only complaint we ever had about it was -that the prices weren't high enough. So Mary raised them." - -"But," objected Prince Oducalchi, "you, and especially your sisters, -cannot go on being innkeepers forever. You, I understand, for -instance"--and his fine eyes twinkled with mirth and kindness--"are -thinking of getting married." - -"I am," said Arthur, with so much conviction that even his Cecily -laughed at him. - -"When I divorced your poor father," said the princess, "he happened to -be enjoying one of his terrifically rich moments. So, in lieu of -alimony, he turned over a really huge sum of money to me. When I married -Oducalchi and told him about the money, he made me put it in trust for -you children, to be turned over to you after your father's death. So you -see there was never any real need to start the Inn--but of course we -were in Africa and so forth and so on-- If you've finished your coffee, -I'm dying to see the girls. And I'm dying to tell them about the money, -and to send all the horrid guests packing!" - -"Some of the horrid guests," said Arthur, "won't pack. Of course, the -girls think that I only study frogs and plants; but it's a libel. When -two and two are thrust into my hands, I put them together, just as -really sensible people do. You will find, mamma, a sad state of affairs -at the camp." - -Princess Oducalchi began to bristle with interest and alarm. - -"Andrea," said his father, "have a canoe put overboard for me." - -Andrea rose at once and left the breakfast tent. - -"Now, Arthur," cried the princess, "tell me everything at once!" - -"Gay," said Arthur, "is in love with a young Englishman, and knows that -she is. He had to go home to be made an earl; but I think she is -expecting him back in a few days, because she is beginning to take an -interest in the things she really likes. Mary is in love with Sam -Langham, and he with her. They, however, don't know this. Phyllis has -forsaken her garden and become a dead-game sport. This she has done for -the sake of a red-headed Bostonian named Herring. Lee and a young fellow -named Renier are neglecting other people for each other. And our sedate -Maud, formerly very much in the company of two fiery Southerners, is now -very much in the company of one of them, Colonel Meredith, of South -Carolina. The other Carolinian, Mr. Bob Jonstone, sprained his wrist the -other day, and it seems that sister Eve was intended by an all-wise -Providence to be a trained nurse. But in the case of those last -mentioned there are certain mysteries to be solved." - -At this moment Andrea appeared at the tent opening and announced in his -piping child voice: "The canoe is overboard, papa." - - - - -XXX - - -Andrea stuck to his big brother like a leech, and insisted upon crossing -to The Camp in the same canoe with him and Cecily. To Andrea the -possibility of newly engaged persons wishing to be by themselves was -negligible. Princess Oducalchi, an old hand on inland waters, took -charge of the other canoe, and, like Arthur, in spite of a look of -resigned horror on her husband's face, paddled standing up. - -Arthur, too happy to make speed, was rapidly distanced by his mother, -whose long, graceful figure and charming little, round head he regarded -from time to time with great admiration. - -"She might be one of my sisters!" he exclaimed to Cecily. - -"If she only was," said Cecily, "and the others were only exactly like -her, then I shouldn't be a bit frightened." - -"Frightened?" - -"Wouldn't you be frightened if I had six great angry brothers and you -were just going to meet them for the first time?" - -Arthur smiled steadily and shook his head. - -"I'm too happy to be afraid of anything." - -"I'm not. The happier I feel the more frightened I feel. And I can feel -your sisters picking me all to pieces, and saying what a horrid little -thing I am!" - -"Little? Haven't I told you that you are exactly the right size?" - -"No, you haven't." - -"Then I tell you now. I leave it to Andrea. Isn't she exactly the right -size, Andrea?" - -"Then mamma is too tall." - -"No, mamma is exactly the right size for a mamma. In fact, Andrea," -exulted Arthur, "on this particular morning of this particular year of -grace everything in the world is exactly the right size, except me. I'm -not half big enough to contain my feelings. So here goes!" - -And the sedate Arthur put back his head, which resembled that of the -young Galahad, and opened his mouth, and let forth the most -blood-curdling war-whoop that has been sounded during the Christian era. - -Cecily clapped her hands to her ears, and Andrea gazed upon his big -brother with redoubled admiration. - -"Is that like Indians do?" he asked. - -"Not at all," said Arthur; "that's what studious and domesticated young -men do when they've overslept, and wake up to find the sky blue and the -forest green." And once more he whooped terrifically. And Wow, the dog, -heard him, and thought he had gone mad; and Uncas, the chipmunk, ran to -the top of a tall tree at full speed, down it even faster, and into a -deep and safe hole among the roots. - -Gay alone was at the float to receive the Oducalchis; but now word of -their coming had gone about The Camp, and the remaining Darlings could -be seen hurrying up from various directions. - -From embracing her mother, Gay turned with characteristic swiftness and -sweetness to Cecily, who had just stepped from Arthur's canoe to the -float, flung her arms around her, and kissed her. - -"I'm not quite sure of your name," she said; "but I love you very much, -and you're prettier than all outdoors." - -Then Maud came, followed by Eve and Mary, with Lee next and Phyllis -last, and they all talked at once, and made much of their mother and -Cecily and little Andrea. And they all teased Arthur at once, and -showered Oducalchi with polite and hospitable speeches. And he was -greatly moved, because he knew very well that these beautiful maidens -had loved their own brilliant scapegrace father to distraction, and that -it was hard for them to look with kindness upon his successor. - -Never, I think, did a mere float, an affair of planks supported by the -displacing power of empty casks, have gathered upon it at one time so -much beauty, so many delighted and delightful faces. - -And now came guides, servants, and camp helpers, to whom Princess -Oducalchi had been a kind and understanding mistress in the old days, -and then, shyly and hanging back, hoping they were wanted and not sure, -Sam Langham, Renier, Herring, the Carolinians, and others, until the -float began to sink and there was a laughter panic and a general rush up -the gangway to the shore. Here Wow, the dog, did a great deal of swift -wagging and loud barking, and Uncas, the chipmunk, from the top of a -tree said: "I'm not really angry, but I'm scolding because I'm afraid to -come down, and nobody loves me or makes much of me--ever!" - -To Arthur, standing a little aside, beaming with pride and happiness, -and recording in his heart every pleasant thing which his sisters said -to Cecily and every pleasant look they gave her, came Gay presently, and -slipped an arm through his. - -"I'm so glad," she said. - -But there was something in her voice that was not glad, and with one -swift glance he read her wistful heart. He pressed her arm, and said: - -"I know one poor little kid that's left out in the cold for the moment; -one little lion that feels as if it wasn't going to get any martyr; one -little sister that a big brother loves and understands a little bit -better than any of the others-- So there! At the moment every _chacune_ -has her _chacun_, except one. Moments are fleeting, my dear, and other -moments are ahead. I, too, have lived bad, empty, unhappy moments." - -"But you always knew that she cared." - -"And don't you know about him?" - -"I only know that I've seen so many people appear to be idiotically -happy at the same time, and it makes me want to cry." - -"And for that very reason," said Arthur, "the moments that are ahead -will be the happier." - -"I wonder," said Gay, and, "I know," said Arthur. - - - - -XXXI - - -The fact of Arthur's sudden blossoming into a full-fledged and emphatic -figure of romance had an unsettling effect upon many of the peacefully -disposed minds in The Camp. It is always so when friends, especially in -youth, come to partings of ways. Clement, who takes the Low road, cannot -but be disturbed at the thought of those possible adventures which lie -in wait for Covington, who has fared forth by the High. There was the -feeling among many of the young people in the camp that, if they didn't -hurry, they might be left behind. Nobody expressed this feeling or -acknowledged it or recognized in it anything more than a feeling of -unrest; but it existed, nevertheless, and had its effect upon actions -and affections. - -Renier had been leading a life of almost perfect happiness. For the -things that made him happy were the same sort of things that make boys -happy. No school; no parental obstructions or admonitions; -green-and-blue days filled from end to end with fishing, sailing, -making fires, shooting at marks, and perfecting himself in physical -attainments. Add to these things the digestion and the faculties of a -healthy boy interested neither in drink, tobacco, nor in any book which -failed to contain exciting and chivalrous adventures, and, above all, a -companion whose tastes and sympathies were such that she might just as -well have been a boy as not. - -They were chums rather than sweethearts. It needed a sense of old times -coming to an end and new times beginning to make them realize the full -depth and significance of their attachment for each other. - -There were four of us once "in a kingdom by the sea," and I shall not -forget the awful sense of partings and finality, and calamity, for that -matter, furnished by a sudden sight of the first flaming maple of -autumn. - -"I think your mother's a perfect brick," said Renier. "She makes you -feel as if she'd known you all your life, and was kind of grateful to -you for living." - -"I'm rather crazy about the prince," said Lee. "Of course, I oughtn't to -be. But I can't help it, and after all he's been awfully good to mamma. -Do you believe in divorce?" - -"I never did until I saw your mother. She wouldn't ask for anything that -she didn't really deserve." - -"But it's funny, isn't it," said Lee, "that so many people get on -famously together until they are actually married, and then they begin -to fight like cats? I knew a girl who was engaged to a man for five -years. You'd think they'd get to know each other pretty well in that -time, wouldn't you? But they didn't. They hadn't been married six months -before they hated each other." - -"And that proves," said Renier, "that long engagements are a mistake." - -"Smarty!" exclaimed Lee. - -"I suppose your brother'll be getting married right away, won't he? -Haven't they liked each other for ever so long?" - -"M'm!" Lee nodded. "But Arthur never does anything right away. He does -too much mooning and wool-gathering. If a united family can get him to -the altar in less than a year they'll have accomplished wonders. There's -one thing, though--when we do get him married good and proper, he'll -stay married. He's like that at all games. It comes natural to him to -keep his eyes in the boat. He's got the finest and sweetest nature of -any man in this world, _I_ think." - -"Of course, you except present company?" - -"Heavens, yes!" cried Lee, and they both laughed. - -Then, suddenly, Lee looked him in the eyes quite solemnly. - -"I wasn't fooling," she said, "not entirely. I _do_ think you're fine -and sweet. I didn't always, but I do now." - -There was levity in Renier's words but not in his voice. - -"This," he said, "so far has been a perfectly good Tuesday." - -"Whatever we do together," said Lee, "you always give me the best of it. -It's been a good summer." - -"Do you feel as if summer was over, too?" - -She nodded. - -"That's funny, isn't it? Because it's nowhere near over, is it? Maybe -it's the excitement of the Oducalchis' arrival and your brother's -engagement. It makes you sort of feel as if there wasn't time to settle -back into the regular life and get things going again before the leaves -fall." - -He spoke. And from the fine striped maple under which they sat there -fell, and fluttered slowly into Lee's lap, a great yellowing leaf ribbed -with incipient scarlet. - -"That only means," said Renier--but there was a kind of awe in his -voice--"that this particular tree has indigestion." - -And they sat for a time in silence and looked at the leaf. And lo! -Arthur came upon them, smiling. - -"I was looking for you two," he said. "I thought maybe you'd do me a -great favor. I've got to play host, and----" - -"Nobody would miss us!" exclaimed Lee. - -"They wouldn't?" said Arthur. "I'll bet you anything you like that, -during your absence, you will both be mentioned among the missing, by -name, at least five times." - -"What'll you bet?" asked Lee eagerly. "Nobody ever thinks of _us_. -Nobody ever mentions _us_. Nobody even loves _us_. What'll you bet?" - -"Anything you like," said Arthur, "and if necessary I will take charge -of the five personal mentionings and make them myself!" - -Lee shook her head sadly, and said: "Once an accepted lover, always a -sure thing, man. Oh, Arthur, how low you have fallen! You used to -engineer bets with me for the sheer joy of seeing me win them. But now -you are on the make, and it looks as if there was no justice under -heaven-- Where do you want us to go and what do you want us to do when -we get there? Of course, we'll go; we always do. Everybody sends us on -errands, and we always go. The longer the errands the oftener we go. But -nobody seems to realize that we might enjoy spending one single solitary -afternoon sitting under a striped maple and watching the green leaves -turn yellow. Nobody even loves us! But when we are dead there will be -the most frightful remorse and sorrow." - -Arthur leaned heavily against the stem of the striped maple. - -"Your sad case," he said, "certainly cries aloud for justice and -redress----" - -"'Kid us along, Bo,'" said Lee; "we love it!" - -"I want two people," said Arthur, "for whom I have affection and in whom -I have confidence, to go at once to Carrytown in the _Streak_ and -consult a lawyer upon a matter of paramount importance and delicacy--" -He hesitated, and Lee said: - -"I pray you, without further ado, continue your piquant narrative." - -Then Arthur, in a tone of solemn, confidential eagerness: - -"Look here, you two, go to Carrytown, will you, and find out how quickly -two people can get married in the State of New York, and what they have -to do about licenses and things? Will you? I'll be eternally obliged." - -"Of course, we will," exclaimed Lee in sudden excitement. "Are you -game?" - -"You bet your sweet life I'm game!" cried the vulgar Renier. And a few -minutes later the two inseparable school-boyesque chums, whom nobody -mentioned, whom everybody sent on errands, and whom nobody even loved, -were streaking across the lake in the _Streak_. - -There was but the one lawyer in Carrytown and the one stenographer. -Their shingles hang one above the other on the face of the one brick -building. - -At the door of this building Lee suddenly drew back. - -"Look here!" she said. "Won't it look rather funny if we march in hand -in hand and say: 'Beg pardon, sir, but how do you get married in the -State of New York?'" - -"It _would_ look funny," said Renier, "and I shouldn't wonder if it made -us feel funny. But the joke would really be on the lawyer. We could say -'_Honi soit qui mal y pense_' to him. Of course, if it would really -embarrass you----" - -"It wouldn't," said Lee, "_really_." - -So they went up a narrow flight of stairs and knocked on the door of -room Number Five. There was no answer. So they pushed open the door and -entered a square room bound in sheepskin with red-and-black labels. -There was nobody in the room, and Lee exclaimed: - -"Nobody even loves us." - -"He'll be in the back room," said Renier. "I know. Once I swiped a -muskmelon from a lawyer's melon-patch, and had to see him about it. _He_ -was in the back room----" - -"'Counting out his money'?" - -"No; he was drinking whiskey with a judge and a livery-stable keeper, -and they were all spitting on a red-hot stove." - -"What did he do about the melon?" - -"He told me to can the melon and have a drink. I had already canned the -melon as well as I could (I wasn't educated along scientific lines) and -my grandmother had promised me any watch I wanted if I didn't drink till -I was twenty-one." - -"Did you?" - -"I did not." - -"Did you get the watch?" - -"I did not." - -"Why not?" - -"Grandma reneged. She said she didn't remember making any such promise." - -They pushed open a swinging door and entered the back room. - -Here, in a revolving chair, sat a stout young man with a red face. Upon -his knees sat a stout young woman with a red face. And with something of -the consistency with which a stamp adheres to an envelope so the one red -face appeared glued to the other red face. - -The red face of the stout young man had one free eye which detected the -presence of intruders. And the stout young man said: - -"Caught with the goods! Jump up, Minnie, and behave yourself!" - -Minnie's upspring was almost a record-breaker. - -Renier began to stammer: - -"I b-b-beg your pardon," he said, "but I thought you might b-b-be able -to tell me how to g-g-get married in New York State." - -The stout young man rose from his revolving chair; he was embarrassed -almost to the point of paralysis, but his mind and mouth continued to -work. - -"You've come to just the right man," he said, "at just the right time, -for information of that sort. First, you hire a stenographer; then you -get a mash on her. Then she sits in your lap--she _will_ do it--and then -you kiss her. And then you get a license, and then you curse laws and -red tape for a while, and then you wed. Now, what you want is a -license?" - -"Exactly," said Renier. "It--it's for another fellow." - -"Friend of yours?" queried the stout young man. - -"Yes." - -"And you want a license for him, not for yourself?" - -Renier nodded. - -"At this moment," said the stout young man, "there are assembled on the -long wharf, chewin' tobacco and cursin', some twenty-five or thirty -marines. Would you mind just stepping down and telling that to them?" - -"I am quite serious," said Renier. "It is my friend who wants to get -married." - -"And _you_ don't?" - -Renier stammered ineffectually. - -"Then," said the stout young man, with a glance at Lee (of the highest -admiration), "you're a gol-darn fool." - -And forthwith he was so vulgar as to burst into a sudden snatch of -song: - - "Old man Rule was a gol-darn fool, - For he couldn't see the water in the gol-darn pool!" - -At the finish of this improvisation the dreadfully confused Minnie went, -"Tee-hee!" - -And, horror of horrors, that charming boylike companion, Lee Darling, -behind whom were well-bred generations, also went suddenly, "Tee-hee." - -"Licenses," said the stout young man, "are applied for in room Five. -After you, sir; after you, miss." - -And, with a waggish expression, he turned to Minnie. - -"Be back in five minutes," he said; "try not to forget me, my flighty -one." - -When they were in the front room, he said: - -"Before a license is issued, the licensor must be satisfied as to the -preliminaries. Now, then, what can you tell me as to lap sitting and -kissings?" - -"You," cried Lee, in a sudden blaze of indignation, "are the freshest, -most objectionable American I ever set eyes on." - -The stout young man turned appealingly to Renier. - -"You wouldn't say that," he said; "you'd say I was just typical, -wouldn't you, now? And I wish you would tell her that, though in these -backwoods I have been obliged to eschew my Chesterfield, I've got a -great big heart in me and mean well." - -During the last words of this speech he became appealingly wistful. - -"Why," said he to Lee, "just because Minnie and me is stout, don't you -think we know heaven when we see it--the empyrean! Yesterday she threw -me down, and I says to her: 'Since all my life seems meant for -"fails"--since this was written and needs must be--my whole soul rises -up to bless your name in pride and thankfulness. Who knows but the world -may end to-night?' To-day she sits in my lap and we see which can hug -the hardest. Ever try that?" - -And suddenly the creature's voice melted and shook. He was a genuine -orator, as we Americans understand it, having that within his powers of -voice that defies logic and melts the heart. - -"Wouldn't you," he said, "even _like_ to sit in his lap? Wouldn't you -_love_ to sit in his lap and be hugged?" - -Lee looked to Renier for help, as he to her. And they took a step apiece -directly toward each other, and another step. It was as if they had been -hypnotized. Suddenly Renier caught Lee's hand in his, and after a -moment of looking into his eyes she turned to the stout man, and sang in -miraculous imitation of him: - - "Young Miss Mule is a gol-darn fool, - But you made her see the water in the gol-darn pool." - -"I'll just get a license blank," said the stout young man. "They're in -the back room." - -"Thank you," said Renier--"if you will, Mr.----" - -"Heartbeat!" flashed the stout young man, and left them. And he wasn't -lying or making fun that time. For that was his really truly name. And -in northern New York people are beginning to think that he is by way of -being up to it. - -Suddenly Lee quoted from a joke that she and Renier had in common. She -said, as if surprised: - -"'Why, there's a table over there!'" - -And Renier, his voice suddenly breaking and melting, answered: - -"'Why, so there is--and here's a chair!'" - -And Mr. Heartbeat, making a supreme effort to live up to his name, did -not return with the license blank for nearly eight minutes. During -those minutes, Renier resolved that in every room in his home there -should be at least one revolving chair. And they came out of Mr. -Heartbeat's office no longer boyish companions but lovers, a little -startled, engaged, and licensed to be married. - - - - -XXXII - - -"Lee, dear," said Renier, "you don't feel that that fellow buncoed you -into this, do you? Please say you don't." - -"Of course, I wasn't buncoed," she said, and with infinite confidence. -"Why, I've seen the thing coming for months! Haven't you?" - -"I've seen a certain girl begin by being very dear and grow dearer and -dearer--I wish we could _walk_ back. I'm afraid of motor-boats, fresh -water, and sudden storms on mountain lakes. And I hereby highly resolve -that after this perilous trip I shall never again do anything dangerous, -such as watching people going up in aeroplanes, such as sitting around -with wet feet, such as eating green fruit, such as-- Oh, my own darling -little kiddie," he whispered with sudden trembling emotion, "but this -life is precious." - -"George and Charley are looking at us," said Lee, "with funny looks. I -wonder if they are _on_? I wonder if everybody will be _on_--just by -looking at us. _Do_ I look foolish?" - -"You do not, but I think you are foolish to take a feller like me, and -that's why I'm going to dance down this gang-plank and snap my fingers -and shock George and Charley out of their senses." - -During this first part of the _Streak_'s swift rush from Carrytown to -The Camp a tranquil silence came over them. Lee, I think, was searching -her heart with questions. But she had no doubt of her love for Renier; -she doubted only her capacity to be to him exactly the wife he needed. -And I know that Renier just sat, brazening the critical glances of -George and Charley, and adored her with his eyes. - -And what were his thoughts? Would you give a penny for them? He leaned -closer to her, and in a whisper that thrilled them both to the bone, he -quoted from Poe: - - "And neither the angels in heaven above, - Nor the demons down under the sea, - Can ever dissever my soul from the soul - Of the beautiful Annabel Lee." - -And a little later he said: - -"I never knew till to-day what poetry is for. I thought people who wrote -it were just a little simple and that people who read and quoted it were -perfect jackasses." - -"And what is poetry for?" asked Lee, smiling. - -"Poetry," he said, "is for _you_." - -As they neared the camp the sentiment in their hearts yielded a little -to excitement. - -"When we tell 'em," said Lee, "it's going to be just like a bomb going -off. And everybody will be terribly envious." - -"Nobody even loves us," laughed Renier, and he quoted: - - "Among ten million, one was she, - And surely all men hated me." - -And like a flash Lee answered: - - "Among ten million he was one, - So all the ladies fought like fun." - -"One thing is sure," sand Renier, "we've more than executed Brother -Arthur's delicate and confidential commission. What we don't know about -getting married in the State of New York simply doesn't exist." - -Arthur, eager and impatient, was like a more famous person, watching and -waiting. - -"Well," he said, "thank you a thousand times. And what did you find -out?" - -"We've brought you a license blank," said Lee; "you simply fill it out -with your names and ages and things--like this--" And she placed a -second paper in her brother's hands. - -And conspicuous on the paper he saw Lee's name and Renier's. His hands -shook a little, and his face became very grave and tender. - -"Say you're surprised!" exclaimed Lee; "say you were never so surprised -in all your born days!" - -"But I'm not surprised," said Arthur. "Come here to me!" He opened his -arms to her and she flung herself into them. Over her shoulder and -hiding head Arthur spoke to Renier. - -"No man," he said, "knows his own heart, and no woman knows hers. Nobody -can promise with honesty to love forever. For sometimes love dies just -as simply and inexplicably as it is born. But a man can promise to be -good to his wife always, and tender with her and faithful to her, and if -he is a gentleman he will make those promises good." - -"I make those promises," said Renier simply; "will you give her to me?" - -"It is for no man to give or to withhold," said Arthur. "The gods give. -The duty of brothers is just to try to help things along and to love -their sisters and to be friends with their brothers-in-law." - - - - -XXXIII - - -"And now," said Lee, "I think I'll tell mamma." - -On the way to find the princess, Lee and Renier encountered Herring. He -appeared to be hurrying, but something in their faces brought him to a -sudden stop. - -Their attempts to meet his inquiring gaze with indifference proved -unavailing, for he closed one eye and said: - -"Which of you two has swallowed the family canary? Or has each of you -swallowed half of him?" - -The guilty pair were unable to preserve their natural coloring. They -turned crimson, and each showed a courteous willingness to let the other -be the first to speak. - -"You've been to Carrytown," said Herring. "I saw you start. You raced -down to the float. And in your rivalry to see which should board the -_Streak_ first, it looked as if you were going to knock each other -overboard. Renier, he won, and you, Miss Lee, were annoyed. When you -returned from Carrytown, you had long, pensive, anxious faces. Renier -stepped ashore and, in helping you ashore, gave you both hands. When a -girl whom I have seen climb a tree after a baby owl accepts the aid of a -man's two hands in stepping from a solid boat to a solid float, there is -food for thought. Having landed, you proceeded direct to the head of the -Darling family and were for some time engaged with him in solemn -discourse. A paper was shown him. From a distance it looked as if it -might be some sort of a license--a license to hunt and be hunted, -perhaps----" - -"But it wasn't," said Lee suddenly, and she thrust her hand under -Renier's arm. "If you must know, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, it was a license -to love and be loved. So there!" - -She was no longer blinking, nor was Renier. They looked so loving and -proud that it was Herring's turn to feel embarrassment. Then he said: - -"I only meant to be a tease. If I'd really thought anything--I wouldn't, -of course; none of my darn business. But I'm _awfully_ glad. I've hoped -all along it would happen. It's the best ever. Am I to be secret as the -grave or can I tell--any one I happen to meet?" - -"Give us ten minutes to tell mamma," said Lee, "and then consider your -lips unsealed." - -Herring had drawn from his pocket a stop-watch and set it going. - -"Ten minutes," he said. "Thanks awfully! And good luck!" - -He had turned, waving his free hand to them, and darted away. - -Lee laughed scornfully. - -"Any one he happens to meet!" she exclaimed. "He's headed straight for -the garden, and there he'll just _happen_ to meet Phyllis. She was -speaking of her tomatoes at breakfast, and saying that they ought to be -ripening and that she was going to have a look at them." - -"Lee, darling," said Renier, "nobody can possibly see us. And when Mr. -Heartbeat left us alone in the front room it was a frightfully long time -ago. And sometimes a fellow's arms get to aching with sheer emptiness, -and--and, 'this is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the -hemlocks----'" - -"Are mostly birches and larches hereabouts," said Lee, and, with a happy -laugh, she drifted into a pair of arms that closed tightly about her. -And, "It doesn't matter if anybody does see us," she said. - - * * * * * - -It was characteristic of Herring that he should enter the garden by -leaping over the fence. It was also characteristic that he should catch -his foot on the top rail and fall at full length in a bed of very -beautiful and much cherished phlox. - -Phyllis, in the path near by, gazed at the fallen man with mirth and -anxiety. - -"Hurt?" she asked. - -He rose and examined a watch which he was carrying in his right hand. - -"Crystal smashed," he said, "but still going. And I've got to wait four -minutes!" - -"Why have you got to wait four minutes?" - -"Because I promised to wait ten, and six of them have elapsed. Oh, but -won't you be excited when I am at liberty to speak! It's more exciting -than when we were lost in the woods, crossing the swamp that had never -been crossed before. Meanwhile, let us calm ourselves by talking of -something prosaic. How are the tomatoes getting on?" - -Phyllis put up her hand in a smiling military salute. - -"'General Blank's compliments,'" she said, "'and the colored troops are -turning black in the face.'" - -"My favorite breakfast dish," said Herring, "is grilled tomatoes, -preceded by raw oysters and oatmeal." - -"Isn't it nice," said Phyllis, "that there is money in the family after -all, and we're going to give up The Camp as an inn?" - -"It would have been given up anyway," said Herring. "A determined body -of men had so resolved in secret. There's one minute left." - -For some reason they found nothing to say during the whole of that -minute. When the last second thereof had passed forever, Herring said -simply: - -"Your sister Lee and Renier are going to be married." - -I cannot describe the expression that came over Phyllis's face. It -wasn't exactly jealousy; it wasn't exactly the expression of a beautiful -female commuter who has just missed her train. It wasn't a wild look, or -a happy look, or a sad look. Perhaps it was a little bit more of an -aching void look than anything else. - -Whatever its exact nature, the wily Herring studied it with an immense -satisfaction. And then his heart began to flurry in a sort of panic. - -"Lee!" exclaimed Phyllis, "married! Why, they're nothing but children!" - -She felt something encircle her waist. She looked down and saw a hand -and part of an arm. - -"What are you doing?" she asked, in a sort of daze. - -"I'm trying to establish a hold on you," said Herring, and toward the -end of so saying his voice broke; "and you're not to feel lonely and -deserted with me standing here, are you?" - -For a moment it seemed to Herring that Phyllis was going to extricate -herself from his encircling arm. She achieved, indeed, a quarter -revolution to the left and away from him. - -"Don't, Phyllis!" he cried. "Don't do it! I couldn't bear it!" - -Then she ceased revolving to the left, stopped, and from a startled, -uncertain, half-frightened young person became suddenly a warmly loving -young person, warmly loved, who revolved suddenly to the right, and -became the recipient of a sudden storm of ecstatic exclamations and -kisses. - -And then, nestling close to the one and only man in the world, she -listened with complete satisfaction to his efforts to explain to her -just how beautiful and wonderful and good she was. - - - - -XXXIV - - -When Lee and Renier, locked in each other's arms, stood in the forest -primeval, they were mistaken in imagining themselves to be unobserved. - -A short half-hour before, Mary Darling had received a proposal of -marriage. But Mr. Sam Langham, usually so worldly-wise, had erred, -perhaps, in his choice of time and place. Whatever a huge kitchen, -bright with sunlight upon burnished copper, may be, it is not a romantic -place. And, worse than this, Mary herself was not in a romantic mood. -Certain supplies due by the morning express had not arrived. Chef was at -the telephone shouting broken French to the butcher in Carrytown; one of -the kitchen-maids had come down with an aching tooth, and the other had -been sent upon an errand from which she should have long since returned. - -"Oh," exclaimed Mary, as Mr. Langham entered, smiling, "everything is in -such a mess! I don't believe there's going to be any lunch to-day for -any one. And I think I shall have a nervous breakdown!" - -"I told you you would long ago," said Langham, "if you didn't rest more -and take things easier. What _does_ it matter if things go wrong once in -a while? And if there isn't going to be any lunch, I'm glad, for one. I -was thinking of not eating mine, anyway. And if _I'm_ not hungry, you -can be pretty sure that nobody else is hungry. I tell you it hurts me to -see you work so hard. I admire it and I bow down, but it hurts. You tell -Chef to do the best he can, and you come for a brisk walk with me. We'll -walk up an appetite, and----" - -"I can't _possibly_," said Mary. "I've got to stand by." - -"Then you go for a walk and I'll stand by. Only trust me. _I'll_ see -that nobody goes hungry." - -She did not appear to have heard his offer, and Mr. Langham spoke again, -with a sudden change of tone. - -"I'd like to take you out of this. I'd like to make everything in the -world easy for you, if you would only let me. But you know that. You've -known it all along. And knowing it, you've never even shown that it -interested you; and so I suppose it's folly for me to mention it. But a -man can't give up all his hopes of happiness in this world without even -stating them, can he? I've hoped that you might get to care a little -about me----" - -Mary interrupted him with considerable impatience. - -"Really," she said, "with Chef shouting at the telephone, and all, I -don't know what you are driving at." - -At that Mr. Langham looked so hurt and so unhappy and woebegone that -Mary was touched with remorse. - -"I didn't realize you were in earnest," she said. "I'm sorry I've hurt -your feelings, but it's no use. I'm sorry--awfully sorry; but it's no -use." - -"I'm sorry, too," said Langham; "sorry I spoke; sorrier there was no use -in speaking; sorriest of all that I'm no good to any one. But as long as -I had to come a cropper, why, I'm glad it was for no one less wonderful -than you. Will you let things be as they were? I won't bother you about -my personal feelings ever again by a look or a word." - -After he had gone Mary stood for a while with knitted brows. Chef had -finished telephoning. The kitchen was in silence. Suddenly she broke -this silence. - -"Chef," she exclaimed, "I'm no use at all! You'll just have to do the -best you can about lunch by yourself." - -And she left the kitchen with great swiftness, looking like an angel on -the verge of tears. - -Chef's shining red face divided into a white smile, and he began to -bustle about and make a noise with pots and pans and carving tools, and -to sing as he bustled: - - "_Sur le pont d'Avignon_ - _L'on y danse, l'on y danse_, - _Sur le pont d'Avignon_ - _L'on y danse tout en rond--_ - _Les belles dames font comm'ça_, - _Et puis encore comm'ça._" - -It is probable that in his gay Parisian youth Chef had known a good deal -about _les belles dames_. He had latterly given much attention to the -progress of Miss Darling's friendship with Mr. Langham, and that this -same progress had received a sharp setback under his very nose concerned -him not a little. Chef possessed altogether too much currency that had -once belonged to that lavish tipper, Mr. Langham. And Chef did not wish -Mr. Langham to be driven from the kitchen and The Camp. He wished Mr. -Langham to become a permanent Darling asset--like himself and the -French range. And so, half singing, half speaking, and furiously -bustling, he announced: - -"I'll show her how little difference she makes. Without advice or -dictation, practically without supplies of any kind, I shall arrange, -_nom de Dieu!_ a luncheon which, for pure deliciousness, will not have -been surpassed during the entire Christian era. I shall hint to her that -I tolerate her in my kitchen because I have known her since she was a -little girl, but I shall make it clear by words and deeds that her -presence or absence is not of the least importance. Let her then turn -for comfort to the worthy, generous, and rich Mr. Langham, for whom the -mere poaching of an egg is an exquisite pleasure!" - -And he frowned and began to think formidable and inventive thoughts -about matters connected with his craft and immediate needs and -necessities. - -Mary Darling had, of late, often imagined herself receiving an offer of -marriage from Mr. Langham. That is badly expressed. Only the most -insufferable and self-sufficient of men make offers of marriage. Your -true, modest, and chivalrous lover gets down on his real or figurative -knees and begs and beseeches. She had, then, often imagined her hand in -the act of being besought by Mr. Langham. Being a practical young woman, -she had pictured this as happening (repeatedly) at sunset, by moonlight, -in the depths of romantic forests or on the tops of romantic mountains. -And some voice in her (some very practical voice) told her that it never -should have happened in a kitchen. - -Mr. Langham's "sweet beseeching", instead of "moving her strangely," had -made her rather cross. And such tenderness as she usually had for him -had fled to cover. But now, as the clean, green forest closed about her, -she had a reaction. She came to a dead stop and realized that she had -been through an emotional crisis. Her heart was beating as if she had -just finished a steep, swift climb. And her heart was aching too, aching -for the kind and gentle friend and well-wisher to whom she had been so -inexplicably cold and cutting. It was in vain to mourn for that diamond -of a heart which she had rejected with so much finality. He had said -that he would never "bother" her again (_Bother_ her! The idea!), and he -never would. He was a man of his word, Sam Langham was. Perhaps, even -now he was causing his things to be packed with a view to leaving The -Camp for ever and a day. But what could she do? Could she go to him (in -person or by writing) and in his presence eat as much as a single -mouthful of humble-pie? No, she could not possibly do that. Then, what -could she do? Well, with the usual negligible results, she could cry her -eyes out over the spilt milk. - -She went swiftly forward, the shadows dappling her as she went, and her -heart swelling and swelling with self-pity and general miserableness. -Thoughts of Arthur and his happiness flashed through her mind. The -thought that she, Mary Darling, unmarried, would in the course of a few -years be called an old maid, caused her a panicky feeling. She pictured -herself as very old (and very ugly), exhibiting improbable Chinese dogs -at dog-shows and scowling at rosy babies. And I must say she almost -laughed. - -The path turned sharply to the right and disclosed to Mary's eyes two -young people who stood locked in each other's arms and rocked slightly -from side to side--rocked with ineffable delight and tenderness. - -She stood stock-still, in plain view if they had looked her way, until -presently they unlocked arms, drew a little apart, and had a good long -look at each other, and then turned their backs upon that part of the -forest and departed slowly. - -Whither she was going, Mary did not know. But she went very swiftly and -had upon her face the expression of a beautiful female commuter who has -arrived at the station just in time to see her train pull out. But this -expression changed when she found her path blocked by the diminutive -house in which Sam Langham lived, and saw Sam Langham, a look of wonder -on his face, rise from his big piazza chair and come toward her. - -"Lee and Renier are going to be married," she exclaimed, all out of -breath, "and I didn't mean to be such a brute! And I wouldn't have hurt -you for anything in the world!" - -Sam Langham only looked at her, for he was afraid to speak. - -"I'm just an old goose," said Mary humbly, but very bravely, "and I take -everything back. And if you meant what you said, Sam, and want to begin -all over again, why, don't just stand there and look at me." - -And presently she was ashamed of herself for having been so forward, and -so she pursued the feelings of shame to their logical conclusion and hid -her face. - -And now, for the first time, she realized how hard she had worked ever -since The Camp was changed into an inn to make it a go, and how much -she needed rest and comforting and a masculine executive to lean on. - -"Who said," murmured the ecstatic Langham, "that nothing good ever came -of liking good things to eat?" - -"Sam," said Mary, "I'm so happy I don't care if lunch is burned to a -cinder." - -It wasn't. Out of odds and ends of raw materials, and great slugs and -gallons of culinary genius, Chef produced a lunch that transcended even -Mary's and Langham's belief in him. - -But it was Arthur who insisted that champagne be opened; and perhaps the -champagne made the lunch seem even more delicious than it really was. - -Maud and Eve had already discounted Arthur's engagement and Lee's. They -had not, it is true, learned of the latter without feeling that if they -didn't hurry they would miss their train; but they had disguised and -fought off that feeling until now they were their gay and natural -selves. It remained for Mr. Langham to shock them suddenly into a new -set of emotions. - -"I should be obliged," said he, rising to his feet, with a glass of -champagne in his hand, "if everybody would drink the health of the -happiest man present." Arthur and Renier looked very self-conscious. -But Mr. Langham concluded: "And that man is myself. I have the honor to -announce that, beyond peradventure, the loveliest and sweetest girl in -all the world----" - -And at that Mary blushed so and looked so happy and beautiful that -everybody shouted with joy and surprise and laughter, and drank -champagne, and tossed compliments about like shuttlecocks. And Arthur -and Renier and Langham had a violent dispute as to which was the -happiest; and decided to settle the dispute with sabres at--twenty -paces. - -Her first burst of surprise and excitement and pleasure having passed, -Eve Darling experienced a sudden sinking feeling. She felt as if all the -people she most loved to be with were going away on a delightful -excursion and that she was being left behind. It was at this moment, -while the uproar was still at its height, that she heard the shaken -voice of Mr. Bob Jonstone in her ear. - -"How about us?" he demanded. - -"How about us--what?" she answered. - -Then she felt her hand seized and held in the secret asylum furnished by -the table-cloth, and there stole over her the solaceful feeling of -having been asked at the last moment to go upon the delightful -excursion. - -"Eve?" - -"Eve, darling--is it all right?" - -"All right." - -And then up shot Mr. Jonstone like a projectile from a howitzer, and he -cried aloud, his habitual calmness and lazy habit of speech flung to the -winds. - -"You're not the only happy men in the world," he shouted. "I'm happier -than the three of you put together, I am! Because my Darling is the best -and most beautiful of all Darlings, and if any man dares to gainsay -that, let him just step outside with me for five minutes--that's all." - -Colonel Meredith's hair bristled like the mane of a fighting terrier. - -"Do you mean to say," he whispered to Maud in a sort of savage whisper, -"that I've got to swallow that insult without protest?" - -It was on the tip of Maud's tongue to say that she didn't know what he -meant. But how could she say that when she knew perfectly well? - -"Only give me the right to answer him," continued the sincere warrior. -He rose to his feet. "Is it yes--or no?" - -"It's yes--yes," exclaimed Maud and, horrified with herself, she leaned -back blushing and full of wonder. - -"Mr. Jonstone--Mr. Bob--Jonstone!" cried Colonel Meredith. - -Mr. Jonstone's attention was presently attracted, and he gave his cousin -a glittering look. - -"I'll be only too delighted to step outside with you for five minutes," -said Colonel Meredith. - -And the cousins glared and glared at each other. But whether or not they -were really in earnest, if only for a moment, will never be known; at -any rate, each of them appeared suddenly to perceive something comic -about the other, and both burst into peals of schoolboy laughter. - -Only Gay's happiness seemed a little forced, and her mother's. - - - - -XXXV - - -Gay hardly slept at all. She was at her window half the night asking -troubled questions of the stars and of the moon and of the moonlight on -the lake. She had not, during the summer, taken her sisters' affairs -very seriously, perhaps because she was so seriously engrossed with her -own. She had, even in her heart, almost accused them of flirting and -carrying on lest time hang heavy on their hands. Her own romance she had -supposed all along to be real, the others mere reflections of romantic -places and situations. But it began to look as if only her own romance -had been spurious. It was a long time since she had heard from -Pritchard. He had told her very simply that he was now the Earl of -Merrivale, and that, as soon as certain things were settled and -arranged, he intended to return to America. After that, there had been -no word from him of any kind. She tried to comfort herself with the -thought that if he was that kind of man--blow hot, blow cold--she was -well rid of him, and she failed dismally. - -A man is in love with a certain girl. He learns that she is vain, gay, -extravagant, heartless, and going to marry some other man. Does any of -this comfort him? Not if he is in love with her, it doesn't. Not a bit. - -So Gay could say to herself: "He's thoughtless and inconstant, and I'm -well out of it!" She could say that, and she did say that, and then she -buried her face in her pillow and cried very quietly and very hard. - -She was up before the sun. - -It would have taken more than one night of wakefulness and weeping to -leave marks upon that lovely face which sudden cold water and the -resolution to suffer no more could not erase. - -But she had not rowed a mile or more before the color in her cheeks was -really vivid again and the whites of her eyes showed no traces of tears. - -She did not know why she was rowing or whither. It was as if some strong -hand had forced her from bed before sunrise, forced her into her -fishing-clothes, forced her into a guide boat, placed oars in her hands, -and compelled her to row. - -She even smiled, wondering where she was going. - -"I can go anywhere I like," she thought; "but I don't want to go -anywhere in particular, and yet I am quite obviously on my way to -somewhere or other. I'm like Alice in Wonderland. I think I'll go to -Carrytown and get the morning mail." - -But she had no sooner beached toward Carrytown than the distance there -seemed unutterably long, especially for a rower who had yet to -breakfast. - -"I know," thought Gay at last; "I'll row to Placid Brook and see if the -big trout is still feeding in his private preserve. I'll land just where -we did before and cross the meadow and spy on him from behind a bush. I -wish I'd brought some tackle. I'd like to catch him and cook him for my -breakfast--so I would!" - -Upon this resolution, the work of rowing became very light. It was as if -the force which had started her upon the excursion had had Placid Brook -in mind all the time. - -Having laid her course for the meadow at the mouth of Placid Brook, she -kept the stern of the boat in direct line with a distant mountain-top, -and so held it. The sun was now peeping over the rim of the world, and -here and there morning breezes were darkening and dappling the burnished -surface of the lake. - -Now and then, as she neared the meadow, Gay glanced over her shoulder, -once for quite a long time, resting on her oars, because she thought -she saw a doe with a fawn. They turned out to be nothing more tender -than a couple of granite rocks. And once again she rested on her oars -and looked for a long time--not this time upon the strength of a -hallucination, but of an impulse. - -She followed this inconsequential act with a long sigh, and enough -strokes of the oar to bring her to land. - -When she stood upright on the meadow she could see the very spot from -which Pritchard had cast for the big trout. And she saw (and had a -curious dilating of the heart at the same moment) that that particular -spot of meadow was once more occupied by a human being--or were her eyes -and her breakfastless stomach playing tricks? - -A young man in rusty meadow-colored clothes appeared to be kneeling with -his back toward her. She advanced swiftly toward him, curious only of a -great wonder and an indescribable (and possibly fatal) beating of her -heart. And suddenly she knew that her man was real and no hallucination, -for she perceived at her feet the stub of a Turkish cigarette, still -smoking. Then she called to him: - -"Halloo, there!" - -The Earl of Merrivale started as if he had been shot at, then leaped to -his feet and turned toward her with a cry of joy. - -"What are you doing here?" he cried. - -And they had approached to within touching distance of each other. - -"I don't know," she said. "What are you?" - -"It was too early to pay calls," he said, "so I thought I'd have one -more whack at the big char and bring him to you for a present. But tell -me--does our bet still stand?" - -He looked at her so tenderly and lovingly and hopefully that she hadn't -the heart to be anything but tender and loving herself. - -"The bet still stands," she said, "if you win. I've missed you -terribly." - -"I took him," said the earl. "I was just weighing him when you called. -He weighs a lot more than three pounds. So I win." - -"Yes, you win." - -"And the bet still stands?" - -She nodded happily. - -"And you won't renege--you'll pay? You'll be Countess of Merrivale?" - -"If you want me to be," she said humbly. - -"If I want you to be!" - -And she had imagined herself so often in his arms that she was not now -surprised or troubled to find herself there. - -"I was so unhappy," she said; "and now I'm so happy." - -And after a little while she said: - -"I'd like to see him." - -Presently they stood looking down at the great trout. - -"He's done a lot for us, hasn't he?" said Gay. "He was the beginning of -things. And it seems sort of a pity----" - -"He's still breathing. He'll live if we put him back. Shall we?" - -"Yes, please." - -There was plenty of life and fight in the old trout. He no sooner felt -that water was somewhere under him than he gave a triumphant, indignant -flop, tore himself from Merrivale's hands, and disappeared with a -splendid, smacking splash. - -"Good old boy!" laughed Merrivale. - -"And yet," said Gay, "it's a pity that we couldn't take him back to camp -and show him off. He was the biggest trout I ever saw." - -"He wasn't a trout, dear," said Merrivale; and he grinned lovingly at -her. "He was a char." - -"Of course he was," said Gay humbly; "I forgot." - - - - -XXXVI - - -I wish I could write first, "The Seven Darlings lived happily ever -afterward," and then the word "Finis." But I cannot end so easily and -maintain a reputation for veracity. They can't have lived happily -afterward until they are dead--can they? At the moment they have just -closed The Camp after the summer and scattered to their winter homes; -that is, all of them except Gay. - -The Camp, of course, is no longer an inn. They run it on joint account -for themselves and for their friends. And they have delightful times. - -Colonel Meredith has built a tremendous house on his ancestral acres, -and during the winter Arthur and his wife, the Herrings, the Reniers, -the Jonstones, and the Langhams are apt to make it their headquarters. - -Gay and her young man were to have visited the Merediths this winter. -There was going to be a united family effort to discover the buried -silver which Mr. Bob Jonstone sold to his cousin, but of course the -great war has upset this excellent plan, together with a good many -million other plans, even more excellent and important. - -The Earl of Merrivale is fighting somewhere in the wet ditches--Gay -doesn't know exactly where. She herself, a red cross on her sleeve, is -with one of the field-hospitals, working like a slave to save life. -Because her husband is an Englishman, she didn't think that she could -ever be kind to a German or an Austrian, but that turned out to be a -whopping big error of judgment. They all look alike to her now, and her -heart almost breaks over them. But I don't know what will become of her -if anything happens to Merrivale. I think poor little Gay would just -curl up and die. He is all the world to her, just as she is to him. - -Well, they are only one loving couple out of a good many hundred -thousands. The times are too momentous to follow them further or waste -words and sympathy on them. The world is thinking in big figures, not in -units. - -Only a sentimentalist here and there regards as more important than -empire and riches the little love-affairs that death is hourly ending, -and the little babies who are never to be born. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Seven Darlings, by Gouverneur Morris - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEVEN DARLINGS *** - -***** This file should be named 43977-8.txt or 43977-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/9/7/43977/ - -Produced by Annie R. McGuire. 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