第16章

Champney to leave it here on his way to his house.He lives just yonder, yo' know."It was impossible to resist this invincible naivete.Courtland bit his lip as the vision arose before him of this still more naif English admirer bringing hither, at Miss Sally's bidding, the tribute which she wished to place on the grave of an old lover to please a THIRD man.Meantime, she had put her two little hands behind her back in the simulated attitude of "a good girl," and was saying half smilingly, and he even thought half wistfully:--"Are yo' satisfied?"

"Perfectly."

"Then let's go away.It's mighty hot here."They turned away, and descending the slope again re-entered the thicker shade of the main avenue.Here they seemed to have left the sterner aspect of Death.They walked slowly; the air was heavy with the hot incense of flowers; the road sinking a little left a grassy bank on one side.Here Miss Sally halted and listlessly seated herself, motioning Courtland to do the same.He obeyed eagerly.The incident of the wreath had troubled him, albeit with contending sensations.She had given it to please HIM; why should HE question the manner, or torment himself with any retrospective thought? He would have given worlds to have been able to accept it lightly or gallantly,--with any other girl he could; but he knew he was trembling on the verge of a passionate declaration; the magnitude of the stake was too great to be imperiled by a levity of which she was more a mistress than himself, and he knew that his sentiment had failed to impress her.His pride kept him from appealing to her strangely practical nature, although he had recognized and accepted it, and had even begun to believe it an essential part of the strong fascination she had over him.But being neither a coward nor a weak, hesitating idealist, when he deliberately took his seat beside her he as deliberately made up his mind to accept his fate, whatever it might be, then and there.

Perhaps there was something of this in his face."I thought yo'

were looking a little white, co'nnle," she said quietly, "and Ireckoned we might sit down a spell, and then take it slowly home.

Yo' ain't accustomed to the So'th'n sun, and the air in the hollow WAS swampy." As he made a slight gesture of denial, she went on with a pretty sisterly superiority: "That's the way of yo' No'th'n men.Yo' think yo' can do everything just as if yo' were reared to it, and yo' never make allowance for different climates, different blood, and different customs.That's where yo' slip up."But he was already leaning towards her with his dark earnest eyes fixed upon her in a way she could no longer mistake."At the risk of slipping up again, Miss Dows," he said gently, dropping into her dialect with utterly unconscious flattery, "I am going to ask you to teach me everything YOU wish, to be all that YOU demand--which would be far better.You have said we were good friends; I want you to let me hope to be more.I want you to overlook my deficiencies and the differences of my race and let me meet you on the only level where I can claim to be the equal of your own people--that of loving you.Give me only the same chance you gave the other poor fellow who sleeps yonder--the same chance you gave the luckier man who carried the wreath for you to put upon his grave."She had listened with delicately knitted brows, the faintest touch of color, and a half-laughing, half-superior disapprobation.When he had finished, she uttered a plaintive little sigh."Yo'

oughtn't to have said that, co'nnle, but yo' and me are too good friends to let even THAT stand between us.And to prove it to yo'

I'm going to forget it right away--and so are yo'.""But I cannot," he said quickly; "if I could I should be unworthy of even your friendship.If you must reject it, do not make me feel the shame of thinking you believe me capable of wanton trifling.I know that this avowal is abrupt to you, but it is not to me.You have known me only for three months, but these three months have been to me the realization of three years' dreaming!"As she remained looking at him with bright, curious eyes, but still shaking her fair head distressedly, he moved nearer and caught her hand in the little pale lilac thread glove that was, nevertheless, too wide for her small fingers, and said appealingly: "But why should YOU forget it? Why must it be a forbidden topic? What is the barrier? Are you no longer free? Speak, Miss Dows--give me some hope.Miss Dows!--Sally!"She had drawn herself away, distressed, protesting, her fair head turned aside, until with a slight twist and narrowing of her hand she succeeded in slipping it from the glove which she left a prisoner in his eager clasp."There! Yo' can keep the glove, co'nnle," she said, breathing quickly."Sit down! This is not the place nor the weather for husking frolics! Well!--yo' want to know WHY yo' mustn't speak to me in that way.Be still, and I'll tell yo'."She smoothed down the folds of her frock, sitting sideways on the bank, one little foot touching the road."Yo' mustn't speak that way to me," she went on slowly, "because it's as much as yo'