第20章

"He said it was all right," she began feverishly."What did he mean, mother?" She was hoping she was to be spared the worst part of her ordeal.

But her mother's reply dashed her hopes, made her settle back among the cushions and hide her face."It IS all right, Polly.

You're to have your own way, and it's your father's way.John has convinced him that he really has changed.We knew--that is, I suspected why you were coming, and we thought we'd give you a surprise--give you what your heart was set on, before you had to ask for it.I'm so sorry, dear, that the shock was--"Pauline lay perfectly still, her face hidden.After a pause:

"I don't feel well enough to see him now.I want this day with you and father.To-morrow--to-morrow, we'll--to-day I want to be as I was when I was--just you and father, and the house and the garden."Her mother left her for a moment and, when she came back, said:

"He's gone."

Pauline gave a quick sigh of relief.Soon she rose."I'm going for father, and we'll walk in the garden and forget there's anybody else in the world but just us three."At half-past eight they had family prayers in the sitting-room;Pauline kneeling near her mother, her father kneeling beside his arm-chair and in a tremulous voice pouring out his gratitude to God for keeping them all "safe from the snares and temptations of the world," for leading them thus far on the journey.

"And, God, our Father, we pray Thee, have this daughter of ours, this handmaiden of Thine, ever in Thy keeping.And these things we ask in the name of Thy Son--Amen." The serene quiet, the beloved old room, the evening scene familiar to her from her earliest childhood, her father's reverent, earnest voice, halting and almost breaking after every word of the petition for her; her mother's soft echo of his "Amen"--Pauline's eyes were swimming as she rose from her knees.

Her mother went with her to her bedroom, hovered about her as she undressed, helped her now and then with fingers that trembled with happiness, and, when she was in bed, put out the light and "tucked her in" and kissed her--as in the old days."Good night--God bless my little daughter--my HAPPY little daughter."Pauline waited until she knew that they were sleeping.Then she put on a dressing-gown and went to the open window--how many springtimes had she sat there in the moonlight to watch, as now, the tulips and the hyacinths standing like fairies and bombarding the stars with the most delicious perfumes.

She sat hour after hour, giving no outward sign of battle within.

In every lull came Scarborough's "Be SURE, Pauline!" to start the tumult afresh.When the stars began to pale in the dawn she rose--she WAS sure.Far from sure that she was doing the best for herself; but sure, sure without a doubt, that she was doing her duty to her parents.

"I must not punish THEM for MY sin," she said.

Late the next morning she went to the farthest corner of the garden, to the small summer-house where she had played with her dolls and her dishes, where she had worked with slate and spelling-book, where she had read her favorite school-girl romances, where she had dreamed her own school-girl romance.She was waiting under the friendly old canopy of bark--the posts supporting it were bark-clad, too; up and around and between them clambered the morning-glories in whose gorgeous, velvet-soft trumpets the sun-jewels glittered.

And presently he came down the path, his keen face and insolent eyes triumphant.He was too absorbed in his own emotion especially to note hers.Besides, she had always been receptive rather than demonstrative with him.

"We'll be married again, and do the gossips out of a sensation," he said.Though she was not looking at him, his eyes shifted from her face as he added in a voice which at another time she might have thought strained: "Then, too, your father and mother and mine are so strait-laced--it'd give 'em a terrible jar to find out.You're a good deal like them, Polly--only in a modern sort of way."Pauline flushed scarlet and compressed her lips.She said presently: "You're sure you wish it?""Wish what?"

"To marry me.Sometimes I've thought we're both too young, that we might wait----"He put his arm round her with an air of proud possession.

"What'd be the sense in that?" he demanded gaily."Aren't you MINE?"And again she flushed and lowered her eyes and compressed her lips.Then she astonished him by flinging her arms round his neck and kissing him hysterically."But I DO love you!" she exclaimed."I do! I DO!"