Do let it remain where it is, said Mrs. Bradley, greatly amused, and pray sit still and take some refreshment. Youll make yourself ill after your exertions, she added, with a charming assumption of matronly solicitude.
But Im not at all deserving of your sympathy, said Mainwaring, with a laugh. Im awfully fond of walking, and my usual constitutional isnt much under this.
Perhaps you were stronger than you are now, said Mrs. Bradley, gazing at him with a frank curiosity that, however, brought a faint deepening of color to his cheek.
I dare say youre right, he said suddenly, with an apologetic smile. I quite forgot that Im a sort of an invalid, you know, travelling for my health. Im not very strong here, he added, lightly tapping his chest, that now, relieved of the bands of his knapsack, appeared somewhat thin and hollow in spite of his broad shoulders. His voice, too, had become less clear and distinct.
Mrs. Bradley, who was still watching him, here rose potentially. You ought to take more care of yourself, she said. You should begin by eating this biscuit, drinking that glass of whiskey, and making yourself more comfortable in Jims room until we can get the spare room fixed a little.
But I am not to be sent to bedam I? asked Mainwaring, in half-real, half-amused consternation.
Im not so sure of that, said Mrs. Bradley, with playful precision. But for the present well let you off with a good wash and a nap afterwards in that rocking-chair, while my cousin and I make some little domestic preparations. You see, she added with a certain proud humility, weve got only one servanta Chinaman, and there are many things we cant leave to him.
The color again rose in Mainwarings cheek, but he had tact enough to reflect that any protest or hesitation on his part at that moment would only increase the difficulties of his gentle entertainers. He allowed himself to be ushered into the house by Mrs. Bradley, and shown to her husbands room, without perceiving that Miss Macy had availed herself of his absence to run to the end of the veranda, mischievously try to lift the discarded knapsack to her own pretty shoulder, but, failing, heroically stagger with it into the passage and softly deposit it at his door. This done, she pantingly rejoined her cousin in the kitchen.
Well, said Mrs. Bradley, emphatically. DID you ever? Walking fifteen miles for pleasureand with such lungs!
And that knapsack! added Louise Macy, pointing to the mark in her little palm where the strap had imbedded itself in the soft flesh.
Hes nice, though; isnt he? said Mrs. Bradley, tentatively.
Yes, said Miss Macy, he isnt, certainly, one of those provincial fine gentlemen you object to. But DID you see his shoes? I suppose they make the miles go quickly, or seem to measure less by comparison.
Theyre probably more serviceable than those high-heeled things that Captain Greyson hops about in.
But the Captain always ridesand rides very wellyou know, said Louise, reflectively. There was a moments pause.
I suppose Jim will tell us all about him, said Mrs. Bradley, dismissing the subject, as she turned her sleeves back over her white arms, preparatory to grappling certain culinary difficulties.
Jim, observed Miss Macy, shortly, in my opinion, knows nothing more than his note says. Thats like Jim.
Theres nothing more to know, really, said Mrs. Bradley, with a superior air. Hes undoubtedly the son of some Englishman of fortune, sent out here for his health.
Hush!
Miss Macy had heard a step in the passage. It halted at last, half irresolutely, before the open door of the kitchen, and the stranger appeared with an embarrassed air.
But in his brief absence he seemed to have completely groomed himself, and stood there, the impersonation of close-cropped, clean, and wholesome English young manhood. The two women appreciated it with cat-like fastidiousness.
I beg your pardon; but really youre going to let a fellow do something for you, he said, just to keep him from looking like a fool. I really can do no end of things, you know, if youll try me. Ive done some camping-out, and can cook as well as the next man.
The two women made a movement of smiling remonstrance, half coquettish, and half superior, until Mrs. Bradley, becoming conscious of her bare arms and the strangers wandering eyes, colored faintly, and said with more decision:
Certainly not. Youd only be in the way. Besides, you need rest more than we do. Put yourself in the rocking-chair in the veranda, and go to sleep until Mr. Bradley comes.
Mainwaring saw that she was serious, and withdrew, a little ashamed at his familiarity into which his boyishness had betrayed him. But he had scarcely seated himself in the rocking-chair before Miss Macy appeared, carrying with both hands a large tin basin of unshelled peas.
There, she said pantingly, placing her burden in his lap, if you really want to help, theres something to do that isnt very fatiguing. You may shell these peas.
SHELL themI beg pardon, but how? he asked, with smiling earnestness.
How? Why, Ill show youlook.
She frankly stepped beside him, so close that her full-skirted dress half encompassed him and the basin in a delicious confusion, and, leaning over his lap, with her left hand picked up a pea-cod, which, with a single movement of her charming little right thumb, she broke at the end, and stripped the green shallow of its tiny treasures.
He watched her with smiling eyes; her own, looking down on him, were very bright and luminous. There; thats easy enough, she said, and turned away.
Butone moment, MissMiss?
Macy, said louise.
Where am I to put the shells?
Oh! throw them down theretheres room enough.
She was pointing to the canyon below. The veranda actually projected over its brink, and seemed to hang in mid air above it. Mainwaring almost mechanically threw his arm out to catch the incautious girl, who had stepped heedlessly to its extreme edge.
How odd! Dont you find it rather dangerous here? he could not help saying. I meanyou might have had a railing that wouldnt intercept the view and yet be safe?
Its a fancy of Mr. Bradleys, returned the young girl carelessly. Its all like this. The house was built on a ledge against the side of the precipice, and the road suddenly drops down to it.
Its tremendously pretty, all the same, you know, said the young man thoughtfully, gazing, however, at the girls rounded chin above him.
Yes, she replied curtly. But this isnt working. I must go back to Jenny. You can shell the peas until Mr. Bradley comes home. He wont be long.
She turned away, and re-entered the house. Without knowing why, he thought her withdrawal abrupt, and he was again feeling his ready color rise with the suspicion of either having been betrayed by the young girls innocent fearlessness into some unpardonable familiarity, which she had quietly resented, or of feeling an ease and freedom in the company of these two women that were inconsistent with respect, and should be restrained.
He, however, began to apply himself to the task given to him with his usual conscientiousness of duty, and presently acquired a certain manual dexterity in the operation. It was good fun to throw the cast-off husks into the mighty unfathomable void before him, and watch them linger with suspended gravity in mid air for a momentapparently motionlessuntil they either lost themselves, a mere vanishing black spot in the thin ether, or slid suddenly at a sharp angle into unknown shadow. How deuced odd for him to be sitting here in this fashion! It would be something to talk of hereafter, and yet,he stoppedit was not at all in the line of that characteristic adventure, uncivilized novelty, and barbarous freedom which for the last month he had sought and experienced. It was not at all like his meeting with the grizzly last week while wandering in a lonely canyon; not a bit in the line of his chance acquaintance with that notorious ruffian, Spanish Jack, or his witnessing with his own eyes that actual lynching affair at Angels. No! Nor was it at all characteristic, according to his previous ideas of frontier rural seclusionas for instance the Pike County cabin of the family where he stayed one night, and where the handsome daughter asked him what his Christian name was. No! These two young women were very unlike her; they seemed really quite the equals of his family and friends in England,perhaps more attractive,and yet, yes, it was this very attractiveness that alarmed his inbred social conservatism regarding women. With a man it was very different; that alert, active, intelligent husband, instinct with the throbbing life of his saw-mill, creator and worker in one, challenged his unqualified trust and admiration.