第107章

"Found out! You bet I've found out! I only wish to the Lord I'd found out months ago, that's all.""Hum....Charlie didn't tell you?...No-o, no, he couldn't have got back so soon.""Back be hanged! I don't know whether he's back or not, blast him.

But I ain't a fool ALL the time, Jed Winslow, not all the time Iain't.And when I came home tonight and found Maud cryin' to herself and no reason for it, so far as I could see, I set out to learn that reason.And I did learn it.She told me the whole yarn, the whole of it.And I saw the scamp's letter.And Idragged out of her that you--you had known all the time what he was, and had never told me a word....Oh, how could you, Jed!

How could you!"

Jed's voice was a trifle less listless as he answered.

"It was told me in confidence, Sam," he said."I COULDN'T tell you.And, as time went along and I began to see what a fine boy Charlie really was, I felt sure 'twould all come out right in the end.And it has, as I see it.""WHAT?"

"Yes, it's come out all right.Charlie's gone to fight, same as every decent young feller wants to do.He thinks the world of Maud and she does of him, but he was honorable enough not to ask her while he worked for you, Sam.He wrote the letter after he'd gone so as to make it easier for her to say no, if she felt like sayin'

it.And when he came back from enlistin' he was goin' straight to you to make a clean breast of everything.He's a good boy, Sam.

He's had hard luck and he's been in trouble, but he's all right and I know it.And you know it, too, Sam Hunniwell.Down inside you you know it, too.Why, you've told me a hundred times what a fine chap Charlie Phillips was and how much you thought of him, and--"Captain Hunniwell interrupted."Shut up!" he commanded."Don't talk to me that way! Don't you dare to! I did think a lot of him, but that was before I knew what he'd done and where he'd been.Do you cal'late I'll let my daughter marry a man that's been in state's prison?""But, Sam, it wan't all his fault, really.And he'll go straight from this on.I know he will.""Shut up! He can go to the devil from this on, but he shan't take her with him....Why, Jed, you know what Maud is to me.She's all I've got.She's all I've contrived for and worked for in this world.Think of all the plans I've made for her!""I know, Sam, I know; but pretty often our plans don't work out just as we make 'em.Sometimes we have to change 'em--or give 'em up.And you want Maud to be happy.""Happy! I want to be happy myself, don't I? Do you think I'm goin' to give up all my plans and all my happiness just--just because she wants to make a fool of herself? Give 'em up! It's easy for you to say 'give up.' What do you know about it?"It was the last straw.Jed sprang to his feet so suddenly that his chair fell to the floor.

"Know about it!" he burst forth, with such fierce indignation that the captain actually gasped in astonishment."Know about it!"repeated Jed."What do I know about givin' up my own plans and--and hopes, do you mean? Oh, my Lord above! Ain't I been givin'

'em up and givin' 'em up all my lifelong? When I was a boy didn't I give up the education that might have made me a--a MAN instead of--of a town laughin' stock? While Mother lived was I doin' much but give up myself for her? I ain't sayin' 'twas any more'n right that I should, but I did it, didn't I? And ever since it's been the same way.I tell you, I've come to believe that life for me means one 'give up' after the other and won't mean anything but that till I die.And you--you ask me what I know about it! YOUdo!"

Captain Sam was so taken aback that he was almost speechless.In all his long acquaintance with Jed Winslow he had never seen him like this.

"Why--why, Jed!" he stammered.But Jed was not listening.He strode across the room and seized his visitor by the arm.

"You go home, Sam Hunniwell," he ordered."Go home and think--THINK, I tell you.All your life you've had just what I haven't.

You married the girl you wanted and you and she were happy together.You've been looked up to and respected here in Orham;folks never laughed at you or called you 'town crank.' You've got a daughter and she's a good girl.And the man she wants to marry is a good man, and, if you'll give him a chance and he lives through the war he's goin' into, he'll make you proud of him.You go home, Sam Hunniwell! Go home, and thank God you're what you are and AS you are....No, I won't talk! I don't want to talk!...

Go HOME."

He had been dragging his friend to the door.Now he actually pushed him across the threshold and slammed the door between them.

"Well, for...the Lord...sakes!" exclaimed Captain Hunniwell.

The scraping of the key in the lock was his only answer.