"It's only your blood, dear boy," she said; "but look a little deeper, and you'll find my own."She put up her two yearning hands, and drew his face and lips down to her own.When Ridgeway raised his head again, her eyes were closed; but her mouth still smiled as with the memory of a kiss.
They bore her to the house, still breathing, but unconscious.That night the road was filled with clattering horsemen; and the summoned skill of the countryside for leagues away gathered at her couch.The wound, they said, was not essentially dangerous; but they had grave fears of the shock to a system that already seemed suffering from some strange and unaccountable nervous exhaustion.
The best medical skill of Tuolumne happened to be young and observing, and waited patiently an opportunity to account for it.
He was presently rewarded.
For toward morning she rallied, and looked feebly around.Then she beckoned her father toward her, and whispered, "Where is he?""They took him away, Jinny dear, in a cart.He won't trouble you agin." He stopped; for Miss Jenny had raised herself on her elbow, and was levelling her black brows at him.But two kicks from the young surgeon, and a significant motion towards the door, sent Mr.
McClosky away muttering."How should I know that 'HE' meant Ridgeway?" he said apologetically, as he went and returned with the young gentleman.The surgeon, who was still holding her pulse, smiled, and thought that--with a little care--and attention--the stimulants--might be--diminished--and---he--might leave--the patient for some hours with perfect safety.He would give further directions to Mr.McClosky--down stairs.
It was with great archness of manner, that, half an hour later, Mr.
McClosky entered the room with a preparatory cough; and it was with some disappointment that he found Ridgeway standing quietly by the window, and his daughter apparently fallen into a light doze.He was still more concerned, when, after Ridgeway had retired, noticing a pleasant smile playing about her lips, he said softly:--"You was thinking of some one, Jinny?"
"Yes, father," the gray eyes met his steadily,--"of poor John Ashe!"Her recovery was swift.Nature, that had seemed to stand jealously aloof from her in her mental anguish, was kind to the physical hurt of her favorite child.The superb physique, which had been her charm and her trial, now stood her in good stead.The healing balsam of the pine, the balm of resinous gums, and the rare medicaments of Sierran altitudes, touched her as it might have touched the wounded doe; so that in two weeks she was able to walk about.And when, at the end of the month, Ridgeway returned from a flying visit to San Francisco, and jumped from the Wingdam coach at four o'clock in the morning, the Rose of Tuolumne, with the dewy petals of either cheek fresh as when first unfolded to his kiss, confronted him on the road.
With a common instinct, their young feet both climbed the little hill now sacred to their thought.When they reached its summit, they were both, I think, a little disappointed.There is a fragrance in the unfolding of a passion, that escapes the perfect flower.Jenny thought the night was not as beautiful; Ridgeway, that the long ride had blunted his perceptions.But they had the frankness to confess it to each other, with the rare delight of such a confession, and the comparison of details which they thought each had forgotten.And with this, and an occasional pitying reference to the blank period when they had not known each other, hand in hand they reached the house.
Mr.McClosky was awaiting them impatiently upon the veranda.When Miss Jenny had slipped up stairs to replace a collar that stood somewhat suspiciously awry, Mr.McClosky drew Ridgeway solemnly aside.He held a large theatre poster in one hand, and an open newspaper in the other.
"I allus said," he remarked slowly, with the air of merely renewing a suspended conversation,--"I allus said that riding three horses to onct wasn't exactly in her line.It would seem that it ain't.
From remarks in this yer paper, it would appear that she tried it on at Marysville last week, and broke her neck."
