Jupiter Lights Part 14

"Have you made a vow, then, never to marry?" Ferdie demanded, looking at her with a merry gleam in his eyes.

"Should you object--if Cicely were willing to give him to me?" Eve continued, a slight haughtiness in her manner alone replying to his remark.

"I suppose I couldn't, though I'm fond of the little chap." ("Fond!" Eve thought. She looked at him, with parted lips, in suspense.) "But I can't imagine Cicely's consenting," Ferdie went on; "she is devoted to the child."

"Not so much as she is to you."

"Do you want _me_ to urge her to give him to you?"

"Yes," Eve answered.

"Why do you want him? For your own pleasure?"

Eve hesitated a moment. "Partly."

"Are you by any possibility fancying that you can take better care of him than we can?" asked Ferdie, relapsing into his laugh, and sending another pebble skimming over the shining waters. "Leaving Cicely aside, I am the jolliest of fathers."

"It must be that he does not know," Eve thought; "whatever his faults, hypocrisy is not one of them."

But this only made him the more terrible to her--a man who could change so unconsciously into a savage.

"Granting the jolliness, I wish you would ask Cicely," she said; "do it for my sake. I am lonely, I shall grow lonelier. It would be everything to me to have him."

"Of course you will grow lonelier," said Ferdie. He turned towards her, leaning on his elbow. "Come, let me advise you; don't be a forlorn old maid. All women ought to marry; it is much better for them."

"Are they then so sure to be happy?" asked Eve, sarcastically.

"Of course they are.--The nice ones."

Eve looked at him. "Even when married to brutes?--to madmen?"

"Oh, you wouldn't select a brute. As for the madmen, they are locked up," answered Ferdie, comfortably.

Eve rose. "I don't know what I shall say next--if I stay here," was her thought.

"I wish you knew my brother Paul," remarked Ferdie as he lifted himself from the sand. "_I_ can't argue with you, _I_ can't put you down" (his smile as he said "put you down" was wonderfully sweet). "But he could--Paul could; and what's more, he would, too! He hates a woman who goes on as you do."

"Your brother lives in Canada, I believe?" said Eve, coldly.

"Canada?--what gave you that idea? He loathes Canada. He has charge of a mine on Lake Superior. He has always worked tremendously hard, poor old Paul! I have never approved of it, such a steady grind as that."

"What is the name of the place?"

"Port aux Pins; called by the natives Potterpins. Are you thinking of going there?"

"I may," Eve answered. Her tone was defiant in spite of herself; what did she care for Port aux Pins and his brother, save for their connection with his wretched self?

They had begun to walk towards home; Dilsey was in advance with Jack. "I beg you to urge Cicely to let me have him," Eve began again, her eyes resting on Jack's little wagon.

"You have made up your mind to ask a favor of me; you must want it terribly," Ferdie responded. He took off his hat and let the breeze blow over his forehead. "I will do what I can for you. Of course we cannot, Cicely and I, give up her child to you entirely; but he might live with you for part of the year, as you desire it so much. My intention is to go back to Valparaiso; I like the life there, and I shall make it my home; there are excellent houses to be had, I have one in view at this moment. Later, of course, Cicely would wish her boy to come to her there. But in the meantime, while he is still so young--yes, I will do what I can for you; you may count upon me."

"Thanks," answered Eve. Her words were humble, but she did not look humble as she spoke them; Ferdie with his favors and his good-nature seemed to her more menacing than ever.

The tranquil life went on. Every morning she said to herself, "To-day something must happen!" But the Arcadian hours continued, and two more weeks pa.s.sed slowly by. Eve began to hate the sunshine, the brilliant, undimmed southern stars.

"My dear, you are growing paler," said Miss Sabrina one day. "Perhaps this sea-air of ours is not good for you."

Eve wanted to reply: "Is it good to be watching every instant?--to be listening and starting and thinking one hears something?" "You are right; it is not," she answered aloud; "all the same, I will stay awhile longer, if you will let me."

"Oh, my dear--when we want you to _live_ here!"

"Perhaps I shall die here," Eve responded, with a laugh.

Miss Sabrina looked at her in surprise; for the laugh was neither gentle nor sweet.

Eve was tired, tired mentally and physically; this state of pa.s.sive waiting taxed her; action of some sort, even though accompanied by the hardest conditions, would have been easier to her ardent unconquered will. She occupied herself with Jack; she said as little as she could to Ferdie; and she watched Cicely. Underneath this watchfulness there grew up a strong contempt for love.

X.

"Eve!" A hand on Eve's shoulder.

Eve sat up in bed with a start; Cicely stood beside her, candle in hand.

"Help me to dress Jack," she said.

Eve was out of bed in an instant. She lighted her own candle.

Cicely lifted the sleeping child from his crib, and began hastily to dress him. Eve brought all the little garments quickly. "Are you going to take him out of the house?" she asked. (They spoke in whispers.)

"Yes."

Eve threw on her own clothes.

After a moment, during which the hands of both women moved rapidly, Eve said, "Where is he?"

"Outside--out of the house for the moment. But he will come back; and then, if he comes down this hall, we must escape."

"Where? We must have the same ideas, you know," said Eve, b.u.t.toning her dress, and taking her hat and shawl from the wardrobe.

"I thought we could go through the ballroom, and out by the north wing."

"And once outside?"

"We must hide."

"But where?"