Galusha the Magnificent Part 52

"And I'm awfully proud of you, too," she told him.

"Nothing to be proud of; I'm lucky, that's all. And don't you see, dear, how this is going to help us? I shall be earning good pay and I shall save every cent possible, you can bet on that. Rooms are furnished by the company for single men, and houses, nice, comfortable houses, for the married ones. In three months, or in six at the most, I shall have added enough to what I have saved already to make it possible for us to be married. And we WILL be married. Just think of you and me having one of those pretty little houses for our own, and being there together, in our home! Just think of it! Won't it be wonderful!"

He looked down into her face and smiled and she, looking up into his, smiled, too. But she shook her head, nevertheless.

"Yes, dear," she said, "it would be wonderful. But it's too wonderful to be true, I'm afraid."

"Why? Nonsense! Of course it can be true. And it's going to be, too, in six months, perhaps sooner."

But still she shook her head.

"It can't be, Nelson," she said, sadly. "Don't you see it can't? There is father."

"Your father will be all right. That's one of the good things about this new job of mine. You will be only a little way from him. He'll be here at the light, with Zach to look after him, and you can come over every few days to make sure things are going as they should. Why--"

She touched his lips with her fingers.

"Don't, dear," she begged. "You know you're only talking just because it is nice to make-believe. I like to hear you, too; but what is the use when it's ONLY make-believe? You know what father's health really is; you know how nervous he is. Doctor Powers told me he must not be overexcited or--or dreadful things might happen. You saw him at that horrid seance thing."

He shrugged. "If I didn't see I heard," he admitted.

"Yes, you heard. And you know how near--Now suppose I should tell him that you and I intended getting married and going to Trumet to live; what do you think would happen?"

"But, look here, Lulie: You've got to tell him some time, because we ARE going to be married, you know."

"Are we? Yes, I--I hope we are. But, oh, Nelson, sometimes I get almost discouraged. I CAN'T leave him in that way, you know that. And, in a sense, I don't want to leave him, because he is my father and I love him."

"But, confound it, you love me, too, don't you?"

"You know I do. But--but--oh, dear! What can I do?"

He did not answer at once. After a moment he said, rebelliously: "You have got your own life to live. Your father has lived the biggest part of his. He hasn't any right to prevent your being happy. It would be different if he had any excuse for it, reasonable excuse. I'm a--well, I'm not a thief--or a fool, quite, I hope. I can provide for you comfortably and I'll do my level best to be a good husband to you. If there was any excuse for his hating me, any except that idiotic spirit craziness of his. And what right has he to order you around? A hundred years or so ago fathers used to order their sons and daughters to marry this one or the other, and if they didn't mind they disinherited 'em, or threw 'em out of doors, or some such stuff. At least, that's the way it worked, according to the books and plays. But that doesn't go nowadays.

What right has he--"

But again she touched his lips.

"Don't, Nelson, please," she said, gently. "Rights haven't anything to do with it, of course. You know they haven't, don't you? You know it's just--just that things are AS they are and that's all. If father was as he used to be, his real self, and he behaved toward you as he is doing, I shouldn't hesitate at all. I should marry you and feel I was doing exactly right. But now--"

She stopped and he, stooping, caught a gleam of moisture where the moonlight touched her cheek. He put his arm about her waist.

"Don't, dear," he said, hastily. "I'm sorry. Forgive me, will you? Of course you're dead right and I've been talking like a jacka.s.s. I'll behave, honest I will.... But what ARE we going to do? I won't give you up, you know, no matter if every spirit control in--in wherever they come from orders me to."

She smiled. "Of course we're not going to give each other up," she declared. "As for what we're going to do, I don't know. I suppose there is nothing to do for the present except to wait and--and hope father may change his mind. That's all, isn't it?"

He shook his head. "Waiting is a pretty slow game," he said. "I wonder, if I pretended to fall in love with Marietta Hoag, if those Chinese spooks of hers would send word to Cap'n Jeth that I was really a fairly decent citizen. Courting Marietta would be hard medicine to take, but if it worked a cure we might try it. What do you think?"

"I should be afraid that the remedy might be worse than the disease.

Once in Marietta's clutches how would you get away?"

"Oh, that would be easy. I'd have Doctor Powers swear that I had been suffering from temporary softening of the brain and wasn't accountable for what I'd been doing."

"She might not believe it."

"Maybe not, but everybody else would. Nothing milder than softening of the brain would account for a fellow's falling in love with Marietta Hoag."

A little later, as they were parting, she said, "Nelson, you're an awfully dear fellow to be so thoughtful and forbearing and--and patient.

Sometimes I think I shouldn't let you wait for me any longer."

"Let me! How are you going to stop me? Of course I'll wait for you.

You're the only thing worth waiting for in the world. Don't you know that?"

"I know you think so. But, oh, dear, it seems sometimes as if there never would be any end to the waiting, and as if I had no right to ask--"

"There, there! Don't YOU begin talking about rights. There's going to be an end and the right kind of end. No Chinese spooks are going to keep us apart, my girl, not if I can help it."

"I know. But can you help it?... I must go now. Yes, I must, or father will wonder where I am and begin looking for me. He thinks I am over at Martha Phipps', you know. Good-night, dear."

"Good-night, girlie. Don't worry, it's coming out all right for us, I'm sure of it. This new job of mine is the first step in that direction.

There! Kiss me and run along. Good-night."

They kissed and parted, Lulie to hasten back along the path to the light and Nelson to stride off in the opposite direction toward South Wellmouth. Neither of them saw two figures which had, the moment before, appeared upon the summit of the knoll about thirty yards from the edge of the bluff and directly behind them. But the pair on the knoll saw them.

Martha Phipps had been standing by the window of the sitting room in her home looking out. She had been standing there for some minutes. Galusha Bangs, in the rocking-chair by the center table, was looking at her.

Suddenly Martha spoke.

"I declare!" she exclaimed. "I do believe that's the loveliest moon I ever saw. I presume likely," she added, with a laugh, "it's the same moon I've always seen; it just looks lovelier, that's all, seems to me.

It will be beautiful to look at from the top of the bluff, the light on the water, I mean. You really ought to walk over and see it, Mr. Bangs."

Galusha hesitated, rubbed his spectacles, and then was seized with an inspiration.

"I--I will if you will go, too," he said.

Martha turned to see if he was in earnest.

"Mercy me!" she exclaimed. "Why should I go? I've seen that moon on that same water more times than I like to count."

"But you haven't seen it--ah--recently. Now have you?"

"Why, no, I don't know as I have. Come to think of it, I don't believe I've been over to the top of the bank to see the moonlight since--well, since father died. Father loved to look at salt water by sunlight or moonlight--or no light. But, good gracious," she added, "it seems awfully foolish, doesn't it, to go wading through the wet gra.s.s to look at the moon--at my age?"

"Why, not at all, not at all," persisted Galusha. "I must be--ah--vastly older than you, Miss Phipps, and--"

"Nonsense!"

"Oh, but I am, really. One has only to look at me to see. And there are times when I feel--ah--incredibly ancient; indeed, yes. Now in your case, Miss Martha--"

"In my case I suppose I'm just a slip of a girl. For mercy sakes, don't let's talk ages, no, nor think about 'em, either.... Do YOU want to go out to-night to look at that moon, Mr. Bangs?"

"Why, yes--I--if you--"