The Mistress of Bonaventure Part 12

"Say, was you forgotten when brains were given out? He's just Ted Caryl, and I think he's bad. Pop says his firm's meaner than road agents. He comes round evenings and swops business lies with Pop, 'specially when Bee is here, but he can't be clever. Ma says he don't even know enough to be sure which girl he wants. They is two of them, and I like Lou best."

"Why?" I asked, because the urchin seemed to expect some comment; and he proceeded to convince me. "They is both pretty, but Lou is nicest. I found it out one day I'd been eating corduroy candy, and Bee she just dropped me when I got up on her knee. She didn't say anything, but she looked considerable. Then I went to Lou, and she picked me up and gave me nicer candies out of a gilt-edge box. Ma says she must have been an angel, because her dress was all sticky, and I think she is. There was one just like her with silver wings in the church at Sault Chaudiere.

One night Ma and them was talking 'bout you, and Bee sits quite still as if she didn't care, but she was listening. Lou, she says: 'Poor----' I don't think it was poor devil."

"Do you know where little boys who tell all they hear go to?" I asked; and Leyland junior pointed to a dusky sail that showed up behind the island before he answered wearily: "You make me tired. I've been asked that one before. Here's Ted and the others coming. I'm off to see what they have brought for me."

He vanished among the boulders, and, filling my pipe again, I kept still, feeling no great inclination to take part in the casual chatter of people with whose customs I had almost lost touch. I was struck by the resemblance of the names the child mentioned to those of Haldane's daughters, but both were tolerably common, and it did not please me that Mrs. Leyland should make a story of my struggles for the amus.e.m.e.nt of strangers. So some time had pa.s.sed before I entered the veranda of the little wooden house, and, as it was only partially lighted by a shaded lamp, managed to find a place almost un.o.bserved in a corner. Thus I had time to recover from my surprise at the sight of Beatrice and Lucille Haldane seated at a little table beneath the lamp. Two men I did not know leaned against the bal.u.s.trade close at hand, and several more were partly distinguishable in the shadows. From where I sat some of the figures were projected blackly against a field of azure and silver, for the moon now hung above the lake. Beatrice Haldane was examining what appeared to be a bound collection of photographic reproductions.

"Yes. As Mrs. Leyland mentions, I have met the original of this picture, and it is a good one, though it owes something to the retoucher," she said; and I saw my hostess smile wickedly at her husband when somebody said: "Tell us about him. How interesting!"

Beatrice Haldane answered lightly: "There is not much to tell. The allegorical t.i.tle explains itself, if it refers to the edict that it is by the sweat of his brow man shall earn his bread, which most of our acquaintances seem to have evaded. The West is a hard, bare country, and its inhabitants, though not wholly uncivilized, hard men. I should like to send some of our amateur athletes to march or work with them. This one is merely a characteristic specimen."

I wondered what the subject of the picture was, but waited an opportunity to approach the speaker, while, as I did so, a young man said: "I should rather like to take up your sister's challenge. Pulling the big catboat across here inside an hour without an air of wind was not exactly play; but can you tell us anything more about these tireless Westerners, Miss Lucille?"

The younger girl, who sat quietly, with her hands in her lap, looked up.

"It is the fashion never to grow enthusiastic; but I am going to tell you, Ted. Those men were always in real earnest, and that is why they interested me; but I shouldn't take up the challenge if I were you. We call this camping. They lie down to sleep on many a journey in a snow trench under the arctic frost, ride as carelessly through blinding blizzard as summer heat, and, I concluded, generally work all day and half the night. They are not hard in any other sense, but very generous, though they sometimes speak, as they live, very plainly."

Some of the listeners appeared amused, others half-inclined to applaud the girl, and there was a little laughter when Miss Haldane interposed: "This is my sister's hobby. Some of them, you may remember, seem to live upon gophers, Lucille."

Lucille Haldane did not appear pleased at this interruption; but the flush of animation and l.u.s.ter in her eyes wonderfully became her. "I do not know that even gophers would be worse than the canned goose livers and other disgusting things we import for their weight in silver," she said. "All I saw in the West pleased me, and, because I am a Canadian first and last, I don't mind being smiled at for admitting that I am very glad I have seen the men who live there at their work. They are doing a great deal for our country."

"They could not have a stancher or prettier champion, my dear," said a gray-haired man who sat near me. "It would be hard to grow equally enthusiastic about your profession, Ted."

"It is Miss Haldane's genius which makes the most of everybody's good points," answered a young man with a frank face and stalwart appearance, turning towards me. "I am afraid the rest of us would see only a tired and dusty farmer who looked as though twelve hours' sleep would be good for him. What's your idea of the West? If I remember Mrs. Leyland correctly, you come from the land of promise, don't you?"

"We certainly work tolerably hard out there, but it is no great credit to us when we have to choose between that and starvation; and the West is the land of disappointment as well as promise," I answered dryly.

The rest glanced around in our direction, and Mrs. Leyland laughed mischievously. "If any of you are really interested, my friend here, who came in so quietly, would, I dare say, answer your questions. Let me present you, Rancher Ormesby."

I bowed as, endeavoring to remember the names that followed, I moved towards the chair beside her when she beckoned. It lay full in the light, and I noticed blank surprise in the faces turned towards me.

Beatrice Haldane dropped the alb.u.m, and for some reason the clear rose color surged upwards from her sister's neck. I stooped to recover the book, which lay open, and then stared at it with astonishment and indignation, for the face of the man standing beside a weary team, waist-deep in the tall gra.s.s of a slough, was unmistakably my own. I had forgotten the click of the camera shutter that hot morning.

"It was hardly fair of my hostess not to warn me, and this print was published without my knowledge or consent," I said. "Still, it shows how we earn a living in my country, and I can really tell you little more.

We resemble most other people in that we chiefly exert ourselves under pressure of necessity--and one would prefer to forget that fact during a brief holiday."

The listeners either smiled or nodded good-humoredly and it was Lucille Haldane who held out her hand to me, while her elder sister returned my salutation with a civility which was distinct from cordiality. How Mrs.

Leyland changed the situation I do not remember, nor how, when some of the party were inspecting fire-flies in the gra.s.ses by the lake, I found myself beside Beatrice Haldane at the end of the veranda. I had schooled myself in preparation for a possible meeting, but she looked so beautiful with the moonlight on her that I spoke rashly.

"We parted good friends--but no one could have hoped you felt the slightest pleasure at the present meeting."

"Frankness is sometimes irksome to both speaker and listener," said the girl, turning her dark eyes upon me steadily. "Can you not be satisfied with the possibility of your being mistaken?"

"No," I answered doggedly, and she smiled. "Then suppose one admitted you had surmised correctly?"

"I should ask the cause," and Beatrice Haldane, saying nothing, looked a warning, which, being filled with an insane bitterness, I would not take. "It would hurt me to conclude that those you honored with your friendship on the prairie would be less welcome here."

She raised her head a little with the Haldane's pride, which, though never paraded, was unmistakable. "You should have learned to know us better. Neither your prosperity nor the reverse would have made any difference."

"Then is there no explanation?" I asked, forgetting everything under the strain of the moment; and it was evident that Beatrice Haldane shared her sister's courage, for, though there was a darker spot in the center of her cheek she answered steadily: "There is. We are disappointed in you, Rancher Ormesby."

Then, without another word, she turned away, and presently the rattle of oars and a gleam of moonlit canvas told that the catboat was returning across the lake.

"I hope you have enjoyed the meeting with your friends," said Mrs.

Leyland, presently. "Very much, I a.s.sure you," I answered, with an effort which I hope will be forgiven me.

CHAPTER X

A TEMPTATION

Leyland had a weakness for what he termed hardening himself by occasional feats of endurance, from which it resulted that I spent several days in his company wandering, with a wholly unnecessary load of camp gear upon my back, through a desolation of uncomfortably wooded hills. Now it is not easy for a business man of domesticated habits to emulate a pack mule and enjoy the proceeding, and when Mrs. Leyland, after burdening her husband with everything she could think of, desired to add a small tin bath, there was little difficulty in predicting that our journey would not be extensive. Having a load of fifty pounds already, I ignored the suggestion that I might carry the bath, and hurried Leyland off before his spouse could further hamper us. One thick blanket, a kettle, and a few pounds of provisions would have amply sufficed, so a large-sized tent seemed to be distinctly superfluous, to say nothing of the bag filled with hair-brushes, towels, and scented soap.

Leyland commenced the march with enthusiasm, and certainly presented a picturesque appearance as he plodded along in leather jacket and fringed leggings, with the folded tent upon his shoulders and a collection of tin utensils jingling about him. I was somewhat similarly caparisoned, and, because it would have hurt his feelings, I overcame the temptation to fling half my load into a creek we crossed, though this would have greatly pleased me. A fourth of the weight would have sufficed for a two-hundred-mile journey in the West.

"There is nothing like judicious exercise for bracing one's whole system," panted my companion, when we had covered the first league in two hours or so. "How a wide prospect like this rests the vision. Say, can't we sit down and enjoy it a little?"

I nodded agreement, and we spent most of that day in sitting down and smoking, while, as it happened, a sudden breeze blew the tent over upon us at midnight, and anybody who has crawled clear of the thrashing canvas in such circ.u.mstances can guess what followed. Leyland, as generally happens, wriggled headforemost into what might be termed the pocket of the net, and it cost me some trouble to extricate him. Next morning he awoke with a toothache and general shortness of temper, as a result of trying to sleep in the rain, and appeared much less certain about the benefits to be derived from such excursions.

"If you will let me pick out the few things we really want and throw the rest away, I'll engage that you will enjoy the remainder of the march,"

I said.

"I wish I could, but it can't be done," and Leyland, staring ruefully at his load, shook his head. "'Twoinette's so--so blamed systematic, and if one of those brushes was missing she'd have to start in from the beginning with a whole new toilet outfit. Of course, you don't understand these things yet, but you will some day. A wife with cultured tastes requires to be considered accordingly."

I was resting on one elbow gazing up between the pine branches at the blue of the sky, with the clean-scented needles crackling under me, and made no answer. Nevertheless, it struck me that I might find too much culture irksome, especially if it implied that I must carry half my household sundries upon my back whenever I started on an expedition.

Hitherto I had not considered this side of the question when indulging in certain roseate visions, but as Leyland spoke there opened up unpleasant possibilities of having to stand by, a mere director, clear of the heat and dust of effort, and pay others to do the work I found pleasure in. Then as I reflected that there was small need to trouble about such eventualities, a face, that was not Beatrice Haldane's, rose up before my fancy. It was forceful as well as pretty, quick to express sympathy and enthusiasm; and I decided that the man who won Lucille Haldane would have a helpmate who would encourage instead of restrain his energies, and, if need be, take her place beside him in the struggle. Then I dismissed the subject as having nothing to do with me.

Leyland seemed loath to resume his rambles, and on the following morning, after he had, I fancy, lain awake abusing the mosquitoes all night, his patience broke down. "I'm getting too old to enjoy this description of picnic as I used to," he said. "The fact is, if I mule this confounded bric-a-brac around much longer I shall drop in my tracks."

"Shall we turn back?" I asked him.

The tired man shook his head. "We'll strike for water, and if we can't find a canoe anywhere you can build a raft. I wouldn't crawl through any more of those muskegs for a thousand dollars."

I had no objections, and Leyland's comments became venomous during the march, for the lake was distant, and the pine woods thick. He fell into thickets, and shed his burden broadcast across the face of each steeper descent, so that it cost us many minutes to collect it again, and once we spent an hour in the mire of a muskeg on hands and knees in search of a vine-pattern mustard spoon. Leyland, who became profane during the proceedings, said his wife might consider that its loss would destroy the harmony of a whole dinner service. At last, however--my comrade, panting heavily, and progressing with a crab-like gait, because he had wrenched one knee and blistered a heel--the broad lake showed up beneath the blazing maple leaves ahead. They were donning their full glories of gold and crimson before the coming of the frost.

"Thank heaven!" said Leyland with fervent sincerity. "I'll sit here forever unless you can find something that will float me home."

He limped on until we were clear of the trees, and then flung himself down among the boulders with a gasp of relief, for fortune had treated him kindly. There was a fresh breeze blowing, and the broad stretch of water was streaked by lines of frothy white; but we had come out upon a sheltered bay, and a big catboat lay moored beneath a ledge. A group of figures rose from about a crackling fire, there was a shout of recognition, and the young man I had been introduced to as Ted Caryl came forward to greet us.

"Just in time! The kettle's boiling; but have you been practicing for a strong-man circus, Leyland?" he said. My companion, still retaining his rec.u.mbent position, answered dryly: "I have been taking exercise and diverting myself."

"So one might have fancied from your exhilarated appearance," commented Caryl. "We can give you a pa.s.sage home by water if you have had enough of it."

"I'll go no other way if I have to swim," said Leyland grimly.

Then the younger man turned to me: "Do you happen to know anything about seamanship?"