"Blake has been a deuced good friend to me," insisted Will;"that's what the old man hates--what he's hated steadily all along.The whole trouble started when I wouldn't choose my friends to please him; and when at last I undertook to pick out my own wife there was hell to pay."Maria's gaze wandered inquiringly in the direction of the house, which had a disordered and thriftless air.
"Is she here?" she asked, not without a slight nervousness in her voice.
Will followed her glance, and, taking off his big straw hat, pulled at the shoestring tied tightly around the crown.
"Not now; but you'll see her some day, when she's dressed up, and I tell you she'll be worth your looking at.All she needs is a little money to turn her into the most tearing beauty you ever saw.""And she's not at home?"
"Not now," he replied impatiently; "her mother has just come over and taken her off.I say, Maria," he lowered his voice, and an eager look came into his irresolute face, which already showed the effects of heavy drinking, "this can't keep up, you know; it really can't.We must have money, for there's a child coming in the autumn.""A child!" exclaimed Maria, startled."Oh, Will! Will!" She glanced round again at the barren landscape and the squalid little house; "then something must be done at once--there's no time to lose.I'll speak to grandfather about it this very night.""At least, there's no harm in trying," said Will, catching desperately at the suggestion."Even if you don't make things better, there's a kind of comfort in the thought that you can't make them worse.We're at the bottom of the hill already.So, if you don't pull us up, at least you won't push us any farther down.""Oh, I'll pull you up, never fear; but you must give me time.""Your own affairs are in rather a muddle I reckon, by now?""Hopeless, it seems; but I'll share with you the few hundreds Istill have.I brought this to-day, thinking you might be in immediate need."As she drew the little roll of bills from her pocket, Will reached out eagerly, and, seizing it from her, counted it greedily in her presence."Well, you're a downright brick, Maria," he remarked, as he thrust it hastily into his shirt.
Disappointment had chilled Maria's enthusiasm a little, but the next instant she dismissed the feeling as ungenerous, and slipped her hand affectionately through his arm as he walked back with her into the road.
"I wish I could see Molly," she said again, her eyes on the house, where she caught a glimpse of a bright head withdrawn from one of the windows.
"She is over at her mother's, I told you," returned Will irritably, and then, stooping to kiss her hurriedly, he added in a persuasive voice: "Bring the old man to reason, Maria; it's life or death, remember.""I'll do my best, Will; I'll go on my knees to him to-night.""Does he dislike you as much as ever?"
"No; he rather fancies me, I think.Last evening he grew almost amiable, and this morning Aunt Saidie told me he left me a pound of fresh butter from the market jar.If you only knew how fond he's grown of his money you would realise what it means.""Well, keep it up, for God's sake.Humour him for all he's worth.
Coddle and coax him into doing something for us, or dying and leaving us his money."Maria's face grew grave."That's the serious part, Will; he talks of leaving every penny he has to foreign missions.""The devil!" cried Will furiously."If he does, I hope he'll land in hell.Don't let him, Maria.It all rests with you.Why, if he did, you'd starve along with us, wouldn't you?""Oh, you needn't think of me--I could always teach, you know, and a little money buys a great deal of happiness with me.I have learned that great wealth is almost as much of an evil as great poverty.""I'd take the risk of it, every time; and he is beastly rich, isn't he, Maria?""One of the very richest men in the State, they told me at the cross-roads.""Yet he has the insolence to cut me off without a dollar.Look at this petered-out little farm he's given me.Why, it doesn't bring in enough to feed a darkey!""We'll hope for better things, dear; but you must learn to be patient--very patient.His anger has been smothered so long that it has grown almost as settled as hate.Aunt Saidie doesn't dare mention your name to him, and she tells me that if I so much as speak of you he'll turn me out of doors.""Then it's even worse than I thought."
"Perhaps.I can't say, for I haven't approached the subject even remotely as yet.Keep your courage, however, and I promise you to do my best."She kissed him again, and then, turning her face homeward, started at a rapid walk down the lane.The interview with Will had disturbed her more than she liked to admit, and it was with a positive throb of pain that she forced herself at last to compare the boy of five years ago with the broken and dispirited man from whom she had just parted.Was this tragedy the end of the young ambition which Fletcher had nursed so fondly, this--a nervous, overworked tobacco-grower, with bloodshot eyes, and features already inflamed by reckless drinking? The tears sprang to her lashes, and, throwing up her hands with a pathetic gesture of protest, she hastened on homeward as if to escape the terror that pursued her.
She had turned from the lane into the main road, and was just approaching the great chestnuts which grew near the abandoned ice-pond, when, looking up suddenly at the call of a bird above her head, she saw Christopher Blake standing beside the rail fence and watching her with a strong and steady gaze.
