Joyce of the North Woods Part 28

She laughed, and the sound thrilled the man as her beauty did. It was new, and wonderful. He staggered to his feet and reached out to her like a man blinded by a sudden glare.

She evaded his touch, and gave that wild little laugh again.

"You like it?" she asked, from across the table.

"Like it? You--are--divine!"

"Why--did--you--do it?"

"I had a mad fancy to see just how great your--beauty was."

"And--you see?"

"Heavens! I do see."

"And you think?"

"What any man would think," Gaston's excitement was rising, "who had been starved for--years--and then finds all he's hungered for--alone in the North Woods. Think?"

The breaking of a flaming log startled them, and it steadied Gaston for a moment. Joyce had herself well in hand. The victory was hers if only she could command this new power long enough.

"Please," she pleaded, "please sit down. I have something to say to you."

CHAPTER XII

Gaston sank back in his chair, and Joyce sat down opposite. The table was between them, and the light of the fire and lamp flooded over the girl.

She was wonderful in that gown, and with her splendid, pale hair framing her face with its fair glory.

The shock of surprise was pa.s.sing, but Gaston still looked at the girl as if he had never seen her before.

"What is it, Joyce?" he asked presently; "what has changed you so?" Then he smiled, for the question seemed crude and ill-advised.

"The dress--isn't that what you wanted?"

"I do not mean the dress--there is something else."

"So there is--but it came with the dress. Perhaps you--did not order that--well, then, it must be _your_ part of the surprise. Don't you remember that story you read to me once--about the mantle of Elijah? You know it made the humble wearer--great. Well, these pretty things,"--she touched them lightly--"they make me--a woman. The sort of woman who must--ask questions--and get answers--true answers."

"Why, don't you trust--me?"

The pained question was wrung from Gaston's lips. The steady look from the big eyes went strangely to his heart.

"I--do--not know--you--as you--are now," she said firmly.

"It is not I who am changed, Joyce, it is you. Everything is just the same except that I see you are more--wonderful than I dreamed."

"Nothing is going to be the same again. I knew it while Mr. Drew was talking the other day--I have thought it all out since."

"Curse him!" Gaston broke in; "what did he say? Why did you go to him Joyce? How could you?"

There was pain in the words--pain and a dumb fear.

"It only happened to be Mr. Drew. Some one would have made me know in time."

"Joyce;" he was actually pleading with her! The knowledge burnt into the quickening soul. "Joyce, what did you trust in me, before you went to Drew?"

"Your goodness--your--unselfishness. I knew the goodness--I have only begun to see the--unselfishness."

"My unselfishness? Good heavens!" In spite of the strangeness of it all, Gaston laughed. Then an impatience stifled him. A brute instinct drove him on. Her beauty had captured his senses, and he meant to tear down the pitiful wall he had upbuilded between her and him, and force her to see the inevitable.

He had wondered if she could stir him--well he knew now. What idiots they had both been!

He was through with the Past forever. The Past that had held him to a false ideal. There should be no more imbecile philosophy in the North Woods as far as he and she were concerned.

"See here," he began, and his voice was almost hard; "don't you know when I shut you away from what you knew as danger--Jude and all the rest of the h.e.l.l that went with him--I shut you away from what people--people like Drew and his set--know as mercy?"

Joyce's eyes widened, but she did not speak. Gaston rushed on--he wanted the scene over. She was too heavenly beautiful sitting there, he must bring her closer.

"They would call you--well, they wouldn't call you a good woman. They are very particular about their women. In a way, you must have known this, Joyce. You've played the game like a thoroughbred, and when one considers _how_ you've played it, the wonder grows--but they'd never believe that--even if we told them. Great heavens! how could they, if they saw you?

"That there was no other way for me to help you then, that you had no other shelter in G.o.d's world would not alter the case at all. And I've been a fool, Joyce, a maudlin fool--all along!"

The woman opposite was looking at him through tears, but the sweet mouth was quivering pitifully.

"Joyce"; the tone caused the tear-dimmed eyes to close; "let us face the music--and--dance along to the tune."

Gaston leaned toward her and when she dared to look at him she saw that the future was in her hands!

"You--you thought I knew this all along?"

"In a way--yes!"

Joyce's eyes dropped and a flush rose to her pale, still face.

"Then those--those people--the good people, what would they have thought about you?"

"Oh! some would have thought me a--d.a.m.ned scoundrel; and they would have been right had I ever intended to leave you to their mercy.

Others--well, others--"

"Please tell me, you see I want to understand everything and that world is not mine--you know."

"The others,"--and now Gaston dropped his own eyes--"the others would have forgotten all about it--had I chosen to go back!"

"But they--would not have forgotten about me?"