Читать книгу The Greatest Romance Novels of Grace Livingston Hill - Grace Livingston Hill - Страница 76

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Phoebe, too much exhausted to demur, walked silently beside the self-reliant Miranda, and in a moment more they were safely in the store.

"Say, Mr. Peebles, is Mis' Peebles to home ? 'Cause Phoebe Deane wants t' git a drink o' water powerful bad. Ken she jest go right in and get it whilst I get a spool o' cotton?"

"Why certainly, certainly, young ladies, walk right in,"said the affable Mr. Peebles, arising from a nail keg.

Miranda had Phoebe into the back room in no time, and was calmly debating over the virtues of different spools of thread when Hiram Green entered puffing and snorting like a porpoise, and gazed about him confidently. Then suddenly a blank look spread over his face. The one he was searching for was not there? Could he have been mistaken?

Miranda, innocently paying for her thread, eyed him furtively, and began her keen putting of two and two together, figuring out her problem with a relish. "Hiram Green, to be sure—Ah! It was Hiram who had tried to walk beside Phoebe on Sunday. Hiram Green"—contemptuously—"of all men! Umph! "

These were something like her thoughts. Then with wide-eyed good nature she paid for her thread, said good-evening to Mr. Peebles, and deliberately went out the door of the store to the street. Hiram had watched her suspiciously, but she held her head high as if she were going straight home, and slipped in the dark around to the side door where she walked in on Mrs. Peebles and the astonished Phoebe without ceremony.

"Did yeh get yer drink, Phoebe? Ev'nin' Mis' Peebles. Thank yeh, no I can't set down. Mis' Spafford needs this thread t' oncet. She jest ast me wouldn't I run down and git it so's she could finish up some piller-slips she's makin'. Come on, Phoebe, ef yer ready. Ken we go right out this door, Mis' Peebles; there's so many men in the store, an' I can't bear 'em to stare at my pretty red hair, you know."And in a moment more she had whisked Phoebe out the side door into the dark yard, where they could slip through the fence to the side street.

"Now, which way ? "demanded Miranda, briefly, in a low tone, as they emerged from the shadow of the store to the sidewalk.

"Oh, Miranda, you're so kind,"said Phoebe, hardly knowing what to do, for she dared not tell her errand to her. "I think I can go quite well by myself now. I'm not much afraid, and I'll soon be done and go home."

"See here, Phoebe Deane, d'yeh think I'm goin' t' leave a little white-faced thing like you with them two star eyes t' go buffetin' round alone in the dark when there's liable to be lopsided nimshies follerin' round? Yeh can say what yeh like, but I'm goin' to foiler yeh till I see yeh safe inside yer own door."

"Oh, you dear, good Miranda!"choked Phoebe, with a teary smile, clasping her arm tight. "If you only knew how glad I was to see you."

"I knowed all right. I cud see you was scared. But come 'long quick er that hound in there'll be trackin' us again. Which way ? "

"To Judge Bristol's,"breathed Phoebe, in low frightened whisper.

"That's a good place to go,"said Miranda, with satisfaction. "I guess you won't need me inside with you. I'm not much on fancy things, an' I'll fit better outside with the fence-posts, but I'll be there to take yeh home. My! but you'd orter a' seen Hiram Green's blank look when he got in the store an' seen you want there. I'm calculatin' he'll search quite a spell 'fore he makes out which way we disappeared."

Phoebe's heart beat wildly at the thought of her escape. She felt as if an evil fate were dogging her every step.

"Oh, Miranda!"she shivered. "What if you hadn't come along just then!"

"Well, there ain't no use cipherin' on that proposition. I was thar, an' I generally calculate to be thar when I'm needed. Jest you rest easy. There ain't no long-legged, good-fer-nothin' bully like Hiram Green goin' to gather you in, not while I'm able to bob 'round. Here we be. Now I'll wait in the shadow behind this bush while you go in."

Phoebe timidly approached the house, while Miranda, as usual, selected her post of observation with discernment and a view to the lighted window of the front room where the family were assembled.

Janet did not keep Phoebe waiting long this time, but swept down upon her in a frock of ruby red with a little gold locket hung from a bit of black velvet ribbon about her neck. Her dark hair was arranged in clusters of curls each side of her sparkling face, and the glow on her cheek seemed reflected from the color of her garments. Phoebe almost spoke her admiration, so beautiful did this haughty girl seem to her.

"I am afraid my cousin is too busy to see you,"she said, in a kindly, condescending tone. "He is very busy preparing to leave on the early stage in the morning. He finds he must go to New York sooner than he expected."

"I will not keep him,"said Phoebe, earnestly, rising, "but I must see him for just a minute. Will you kindly tell him it is Phoebe Deane, and that she says she MUST see him for just a moment ? "

"You will find he will desire you to send the message by me,"said Janet, quite confidently. "It does not do to say must to my cousin Nathaniel."

But contrary to Janet's expectation Nathaniel came down at once, with welcome in his face. Phoebe was standing with her hand upon the letter over her heart waiting for him breathlessly. The watching Miranda eyed him jealously through the front window-pane to see if his countenance would light up properly when he saw his visitor, and was fully satisfied. He hastened to meet her, and take her hand in greeting, but she, alarmed for her mission, did but hold out the letter to him.

"I found this, Mr. Graham, spread out in the road, and read the one sentence which showed it was private. I have not read any more, and I shall never breathe even that one of course. After I had read that sentence I did not dare give it into any hands but yours. I may have been wrong, but I have tried to do right. I hope you can explain it to your cousin, for I can see she thinks it very strange."

He tried to detain her, to thank her, to introduce her to his cousin, who had by this time entered and was watching them distantly, but Phoebe was in haste to leave; and Janet was haughtily irresponsive.

He followed her to the door and said in a low tone: "Miss Deane, you have done me a greater service than I can possibly repay. I have been hunting frantically for this letter all day. It is most important. I know I can trust you not to speak of it to a soul. I am deeply grateful. You may not know it, but not only my life and safety but that of others as well has been in your hands to-day with the keeping of that letter."

"Oh, then I am glad I have brought it safely to you. I have been frightened all day lest something would happen that I could not get it to you without its being found out. And if it has been of service I am more than glad, because then I have repaid your kindness to me in the woods that day."

Now that she was away from Janet’s scrutinizing eyes Phoebe could dimple into a smile.

"Oh, what I did that day was a little, little thing beside your service,"said he.

"A kindness is never a little thing/' answered Phoebe, gently. "Good-night, Mr. Graham. Miranda is waiting for me,"and she sped down the path without giving him opportunity for a reply. Miranda had wandered into the shaft of light down by the gate that streamed from the candle Nathaniel held, and Phoebe flew to her as if to a rock of refuge. They turned and looked back as they reached the gate. Nathaniel was still standing on the top step with the tall candle held above his head to give them light, and through the window they could dimly see Janet's slim figure standing by the mantelpiece toying with some ornaments. Phoebe gave a great sigh of relief that the errand was accomplished, and grasping Miranda's arm clung lovingly to her, and so they two walked softly through the village streets and out the country way into the road that was white with the new risen moon; while Hiram Green, perplexed and baffled, searched vainly through the village for a clue to Phoebe's whereabouts, and finally gave it up and dragged his weary limbs home. Excitement of this sort did not agree with his constitution and he was mortally tired.

Nathaniel turned back into the house again, his vision filled with the face of the girl who had just brought his letter back to him. His great relief at finding it was almost lost in his absorption in the thought of Phoebe Deane, and the sudden pang that came to him with his remembrance of Hiram Green. Could it be? Could it possibly be that she was bound in any way to that man ?

Janet roused him from this thought by demanding to know what on earth the message was that made that girl so absurdly secretive.

Nathaniel smiled. "It was just a letter of mine she had found. A letter that I have searched everywhere for."

"How did she know it was your letter?"There was something offensive in Janet's tone. Nathaniel felt his color rising like a girl. He wondered what was the matter with Janet that she should be so curious.

"Why, it was addressed to me of course!"

"Then why in the world couldn't she give it to me ? She was here in the morning and we had a long argument about it. She said it was a private message and the person who sent it did not wish anyone but you to see it, and yet she professed not to know who the person was who sent it. I told her that was ridiculous; that of course you had no secrets from your family; but she was quite stubborn and went away. Who is she, anyway, and how does she happen to know you ? "

Nathaniel could be haughty, too, when he liked, and now he drew himself up to his greatest height.

"Miss Deane is quite a charming girl, Janet, and you would do well to make her acquaintance. She is a friend of Mrs. Spafford, and was visiting her last evening when I happened in on business and they made me stay to tea."

"That's no sign of where she belongs socially,"said Janet, disagreeably; "Mrs. Spafford may have had to invite her just because she didn't know enough to go home before supper. Besides, Mrs. Spafford's choice in friends might not be mine at all."

"Janet, Mr. and Mrs. Spafford are unimpeachable socially and every other way. And I happen to know that Miss Deane was there by invitation. I heard her speaking of it as she bade her good-night."

"Oh, indeed!"sneered Janet, quite beside herself with jealousy. "I suppose you were waiting to take her home! "

"Why, certainly,"said Nathaniel, looking surprised. "What has come over you, Janet ? You do not talk like your usual kind self."

His tone brought angry tears to Janet's eyes.

"I should think it was enough,"she said, trying to hide the tears in her little lace handkerchief, "having you go off suddenly like this when we've scarcely had you a week, and you busy and absent-minded all the time; and then to have this upstart of a girl coming here with secrets that you will not tell me about. I want to know who wrote that letter, Nathaniel, and what it is about. I can't stand it to have that girl smirking behind me in church knowing things about my cousin that I am not told. I must know."

"Janet! "said Nathaniel, pained and surprised, "you must be ill. I never saw you act this way before. You know very well that I'm just as sorry as can be to have to rush off sooner than I had planned, but it, can't be helped. I'm sorry if I have been absent-minded. I have been trying to decide some matters of my future and I suppose that has made me somewhat abstracted. As for the letter, I would gladly tell you about it, but it is another's secret, and I could not honorably do so. You need fear no such feeling on Miss Deane's part, I am sure. Just meet her with your own pleasant, winning way, and say to her that I have explained to you that it was all right. That ought to satisfy both you and her. She asked me to explain it to you."

"Well, you haven't done so, at all. I am sure I can't see what possible harm it could do for you to tell me about it, inasmuch as that other girl knows all about it, too. I should think you would want me to watch and be sure that she doesn't tell—unless, indeed, the secret is between you two."

There was a hint in Janet's tone which seemed almost like an insinuation. Nathaniel grew quite stern.

"The secret is not between Miss Deane and myself,"he said, "and she does not know it any more than you do. She found it open, and read only one line which told her it was absolutely private. She tells me she did not read another word."

"Very likely! "sneered Janet, coldly. "Do you think any woman would find it possible to read only one line of a secret? Your absolute faith in this stranger is quite childlike."

"Janet, would you have read further if it had fallen into your hands?"

"Well,—I—why—of course that would be different,"said Janet, coloring and looking disconcerted, "but you needn't compare me——"

"Janet, you have no right to think she has a lower sense of honor than you have. I feel sure she has not read it."

But Janet, with haughty mien and flashing eyes in which tears were scarcely concealed, swept up the stairs and took refuge in her room, where a perfect storm of tears and mortification followed.

Nathaniel, confounded, dismayed, after vainly tapping at her door and begging her to come out and explain her strange conduct, went sadly to his packing, puzzling much over the strange ways of girls with one another. Here for instance were two well suited to friendship, and yet he could plainly see that they would have nothing to do with one another. He dearly loved his cousin. She had been his playmate and companion from childhood, and he could not understand why suddenly she had grown so disregardful of his wishes. He tried to put it away, deciding that he would say another little word about this charming Miss Deane to Janet in the morning before he left, but Miss Janet forestalled any such attempt by sending down word that she had a headache and would try to sleep a little longer to get rid of it. She would only call a cool little good-bye to her cousin through the closed door, as he, mildly distressed, was hurrying down to the stage waiting for him at the door.

Meantime Miranda and Phoebe had hurried out past the old red school-house into the country road white with frosty moonlight, Phoebe all the time protesting that Miranda must not go with her.

"Why not, in conscience!"said Miranda. "I'll jest enjoy the walk. I was thinkin' of goin' on a lark this very evenin', only I hadn't picked out a companion."

"But you'll have to come all the way back alone, Miranda."

"Well, what's that ? You don't s'pose anybody's goin' to chase ME, do yeh? If they want to they're welcome. I'd jest turn round an' say: 'Boo! I'm red-haired an' freckled, an' I don't want nothin' of you, nor you of me. Git 'long with yeh!'"Miranda's inimitable manner brought a merry laugh to Phoebe's lips and helped to relieve the tension of the heavy strain she had been under. She felt like laughing and crying all at once. Miranda seemed to understand and enter into her mood, and kept her in ripples of laughter till they neared her home. Then, suddenly sobering, Phoebe attempted to make Miranda go back at once, but Miranda was stubborn. Not until she saw her charge safe inside her own door would the faithful soul budge an inch.

"Well then, Miranda, I'll have to tell you how I got out,"said Phoebe, confidentially. "There was a caller—some one I didn't care to see—so I went upstairs and they thought I'd gone to bed. I just slipped out my window to the low shed roof and dropped down. I'll have to be very still, for I wouldn't care to have them know I slipped away like that. It might make them ask me questions. You see I had found a letter that I knew Mr. Graham had dropped, and it ought to go to him at once. If I had asked Albert to take it there would have been a big fuss and Emmeline would have wanted to know all about it, and maybe read it, and I didn't think it would be best "

"I see,"said Miranda, comprehensively, "so you tuk it yourself. O' course. Who wouldn't, I'd like to know? All right, we'll jest slip in through the pasture and round to your shed, an' I'll give yeh a boost up. Two's better one fer a job like that, ef one is a red-head. I take it yer caller ain't present any longer. Reckon he made out to foller yeh a piece but we run him into a hole, an' he didn't make much. Hush, now; don't go to thankin', 'taint worth, while till I git through, fer I've jest begun this job, an' I intend to see it through. Here, put yer hand on my shoulder. Now let me hold this foot, don't you be 'fraid, I'm good an' strong. There yeh go! Now yer up! Is that your winder up there ? Wait,, hope to see yeh again soon. Happy dreams! "and she slid around the corner to watch Phoebe till she disappeared into the little dark window above. Then Miranda made for the road, looking curiously in at the side window of the Deanes's sitting-room on the way, to make sure she was right about the caller being gone, and to watch if they had heard Phoebe, for she thought it might be necessary for her to invent a diversion of some sort. But she only saw Albert asleep in his chair and Emmeline working grimly at her sewing.

About half way to the red school-house Miranda met Hiram Green. He looked up, frowning. He thought it was Phoebe, and wondered if it were possible that she was going to the village for a fourth trip yet that night. If she were, she must be crazy."

"Ev'nin', Hiram,"said Miranda, nonchalantly, "seen anythin' of a little white kitten with one blue eye and one green one, an.' a black tip to her tail, an' a pink nose ? I've been up to see if she follered Phoebe Deane home from our house las' night, but she's gone to bed with the toothache an' I wouldn't disturb her fer the world. I thought I'd maybe find her round this way ? You ain't seen her, have yeh ? "

"No,"growled 'Hiram, suspiciously, "I'd a wrung her neck ef I had."

"Oh, thank you, Mr. Green. You're very kind,"said Miranda, sweetly. "I'll remember that, next little kitten I lose. I'll know jest who t' apply to fer it. Lovely night, ain't it? Don't trouble yerself 'bout the kitten. I reckon it's safe somewheres. 'Taint every one 's ez blood-thirsty's you be. Good-night."And Miranda flung off down the road before Hiram could decide whether she was poking fun at him or was extremely dull. At last he roused himself from his weary pondering, uttered his accustomed ejaculation, "Gosh!"looked up the road toward the Deanes, and down toward the vanishing Miranda, brought forth the expression he reserved for the perplexing crises in his life, "Gosh Ninety!"and went home to bed. He had not been able all day to quite fathom the mystery which he was attempting to control, and this new unknown quantity was more perplexing than all that had gone before. What, for instance, had Miranda Griscom to do with Phoebe Deane? His slow brain remembered that she had been in the store where Phoebe —it must have been Phoebe; for he did not believe he could have been mistaken—had disappeared. Had Miranda spirited her away somewhere ? Ah! And it was Miranda who had come up to Phoebe after church and interrupted their walk together! What had Miranda to do with it all? Hang Miranda! He would like to wring her neck, too. With such charming meditations he fell asleep.