For the present, said the master dryly.
The first class was called. Later, when his duty brought him to her side, he was surprised to find that she was evidently already prepared with consecutive lessons, as if she were serenely unconscious of any doubt of her return, and as coolly as if she had only left school the day before. Her studies were still quite elementary, for Cressy McKinstry had never been a brilliant scholar, but he perceived, with a cynical doubt of its permanency, that she had bestowed unusual care upon her present performance. There was moreover a certain defiance in it, as if she had resolved to stop any objection to her return on the score of deficiencies. He was obliged in self-defence to take particular note of some rings she wore, and a large bracelet that ostentatiously glittered on her white armwhich had already attracted the attention of her companions, and prompted the audible comment from Johnny Filgee that it was truly gold. Without meeting her eyes he contented himself with severely restraining the glances of the children that wandered in her direction. She had never been quite popular with the school in her previous role of fiancee, and only Octavia Dean and one or two older girls appreciated its mysterious fascination; while the beautiful Rupert, secure in his avowed predilection for the middle-aged wife of the proprietor of the Indian Spring hotel, looked upon her as a precocious chit with more than the usual propensity to objectionable breathing. Nevertheless the master was irritatingly conscious of her presencea presence which now had all the absurdity of her ridiculous love-experiences superadded to it. He tried to reason with himself that it was only a phase of frontier life, which ought to have amused him. But it did not. The intrusion of this preposterous girl seemed to disarrange the discipline of his life as well as of his school. The usual vague, far-off dreams in which he was in the habit of indulging during school-hours, dreams that were perhaps superinduced by the remoteness of his retreat and a certain restful sympathy in his little auditors, which had made himthe grown-up dreameracceptable to them in his gentle understanding of their needs and weaknesses, now seemed to have vanished forever.
At recess, Octavia Dean, who had drawn near Cressy and reached up to place her arm round the older girls waist, glanced at her with a patronizing smile born of some rapid free-masonry, and laughingly retired with the others. The master at his desk, and Cressy who had halted in the aisle were left alone.
I have had no intimation yet from your father or mother that you were coming back to school again, he began. But I suppose THEY have decided upon your return?
An uneasy suspicion of some arrangement with her former lover had prompted the emphasis.
The young girl looked at him with languid astonishment. I reckon paw and maw aint no objection, she said with the same easy ignoring of parental authority that had characterized Rupert Filgee, and which seemed to be a local peculiarity. Maw DID offer to come yer and see you, but I told her she neednt bother.
She rested her two hands behind her on the edge of a desk, and leaned against it, looking down upon the toe of her smart little shoe which was describing a small semicircle beyond the hem of her gown. Her attitude, which was half-defiant, half-indolent, brought out the pretty curves of her waist and shoulders. The master noticed it and became a trifle more austere.
Then I am to understand that this is a permanent thing? he asked coldly.
Whats that? said Cressy interrogatively.
Am I to understand that you intend coming regularly to school? repeated the master curtly, or is this merely an arrangement for a few daysuntil
Oh, said Cressy comprehendingly, lifting her unabashed blue eyes to his, you mean THAT. Oh, THATS broke off. Yes, she added contemptuously, making a larger semicircle with her foot, thats overthree weeks ago.
And Seth Davisdoes HE intend returning too?
He! She broke into a light girlish laugh. I reckon not much! Slongs Im here, at least. She had just lifted herself to a sitting posture on the desk, so that her little feet swung clear of the floor in their saucy dance. Suddenly she brought her heels together and alighted. So thats all? she asked.
Yes.
Kin I go now?
Yes.
She laid her books one on the top of the other and lingered an instant.
Been quite well? she asked with indolent politeness.
Yesthank you.
Youre lookin right peart.
She walked with a Southern girls undulating languor to the door, opened it, then charged suddenly upon Octavia Dean, twirled her round in a wild waltz and bore her away; appearing a moment after on the playground demurely walking with her arm around her companions waist in an ostentatious confidence at once lofty, exclusive, and exasperating to the smaller children.
When school was dismissed that afternoon and the master had remained to show Rupert Filgee how to prepare Uncle Bens tasks, and had given his final instructions to his youthful vicegerent, that irascible Adonis unburdened himself querulously:
Is Cressy McKinstry comin reglar, Mr. Ford?
She is, said the master dryly. After a pause he asked, Why?
Ruperts curls had descended on his eyebrows in heavy discontent. Its mighty rough, jest ez a feller reckons hes got quit of her and her jackass bo, to hev her prancin back inter school agin, and rigged out like ez if shed been to a fire in a milliners shop.
You shouldnt allow your personal dislikes, Rupert, to provoke you to speak of a fellow-scholar in that wayand a young lady, too, corrected the master dryly.
The woods is full o sich feller-scholars and sich young ladies, if yer keer to go a gunning for em, said Rupert with dark and slangy significance. Ef Id known she was comin back Idhe stopped and brought his sunburnt fist against the seam of his trousers with a boyish gesture, Id hev jist
What? said the master sharply.
Id hev played hookey till she left school agin! It moutnt hev bin so long, neither, he added with a mysterious chuckle.
That will do, said the master peremptorily. For the present youll attend to your duty and try to make Uncle Ben see youre something more than a foolish, prejudiced school-boy, or, he added significantly, he and I may both repent our agreement. Let me have a good account of you both when I return.
He took his hat from its peg on the wall, and in obedience to a suddenly formed resolution left the school-room to call upon the parents of Cressy McKinstry. He was not quite certain what he should say, but, after his habit, would trust to the inspiration of the moment. At the worst he could resign a situation that now appeared to require more tact and delicacy than seemed consistent with his position, and he was obliged to confess to himself that he had lately suspected that his present occupationthe temporary expedient of a poor but clever young man of twentywas scarcely bringing him nearer a realization of his daily dreams. For Mr. Jack Ford was a youthful pilgrim who had sought his fortune in California so lightly equipped that even in the matter of kin and advisers he was deficient. That prospective fortune had already eluded him in San Francisco, had apparently not waited for him in Sacramento, and now seemed never to have been at Indian Spring. Nevertheless, when he was once out of sight of the school-house he lit a cigar, put his hands in his pockets, and strode on with the cheerfulness of that youth to which all things are possible.