登陆注册
16244100000016

第16章

"No,miss.I will be with you in a moment."

I wish I could say that he went back to calm his pulses,which the dangerous music of Miss Mayfield's voice had set to throbbing,by a few moments'calm and dispassionate reflection.But he only returned to brush his curls out of his eyes and ears,and to button over his blue flannel shirt a white linen collar,which he thought might better harmonize with Miss Mayfield's attire.

She was sitting on the staircase,poking her parasol through the balusters."You need not have taken that trouble,Mr.Jeff,"she said pleasantly."YOU are a part of this mountain picture at all times;but I am obliged to think of dress.""It was no trouble,miss."

Something in the tone of his voice made her look in his face as she rose.It was a trifle paler,and a little older.The result,doubtless,thought Miss Mayfield,of his yesterday's experience with the deputy-sheriff.

Such was her rapid deduction.Nevertheless,after the fashion of her sex,she immediately began to argue from quite another hypothesis.

"You are angry with me,Mr.Jeff."

"What,I--Miss Mayfield?"

"Yes,you!"

"Miss Mayfield!"

"Oh yes,you are.Don't deny it?"

"Upon my soul--"

"Yes!You give me punishments and--penances!"Jeff opened his blue eyes on his tormentor.Could Aunt Sally have been saying anything?

"If anybody,Miss Mayfield--"he began.

"Nobody but you.Look here!"

She extended her little hand with a smile.In the centre of her palm lay four shining double B SHOT.

"There!I found those in my slipper this morning!"Jeff was speechless.

"Of course YOU did it!Of course it was YOU who found my slipper!"said Miss Mayfield,laughing."But why did you put shot in it,Mr.

Jeff?In some Catholic countries,when people have done wrong,the priests make them do penance by walking with peas in their shoes!

What have I ever done to you?And why SHOT?They're ever so much harder than peas."Seeing only the mischievous,laughing face before him,and the open palm containing the damning evidence of the broken Eley's cartridge,Jeff stammered out the truth.

"I found the slipper in the bear-skin,Miss Mayfield.I put it in my trunk to keep,thinking yer wouldn't miss it,and it's being a kind of remembrance after you're gone away--of--of the night you came here.Somebody moved the trunk in my room,"and he hung his head here."The things inside all got mixed up.""And that made you change your mind about keeping it?"said Miss Mayfield,still smiling.

"No,miss."

"What was it,then?"

"I gave it back to you,Miss Mayfield,because I was going away.""Indeed!Where?"

"I'm going to find another location.Maybe you've noticed,"he continued,falling back into his old apologetic manner in spite of his pride of resolution--"maybe you've noticed that this place here has no advantages for a hotel.""I had not,indeed.I have been very comfortable.""Thank you,miss."

"When do you go?"

"To-night."

For all his pride and fixed purpose he could not help looking eagerly in her face.Miss Mayfield's eyes met his pleasantly and quietly.

"I'm sorry to part with you so soon,"she said,as she stepped back a pace or two with folded hands."Of course every moment of your time now is occupied.You must not think of wasting it on me."But Jeff had recovered his sad composure."I'd like to go with you,Miss Mayfield.It's the last time,you know,"he added simply.

Miss Mayfield did not reply.It was a tacit assent,however,although she moved somewhat stiffly at his side as they walked towards the door.Quite convinced that Jeff's resolution came from his pecuniary troubles,Miss Mayfield was wondering if she had not better assure him of his security from further annoyance from Dodd.

Wonderful complexity of female intellect!she was a little hurt at his ingratitude to her for a kindness he could not possibly have known.Miss Mayfield felt that in some way she was unjustly treated.How many of our miserable sex,incapable of divination,have been crushed under that unreasonable feminine reproof,"You ought to have known!"The afternoon sun was indeed shining brightly as they stepped out before the bleak angle of the "Half-way House";but it failed to mitigate the habitually practical austerity of the mountain breeze--a fact which Miss Mayfield had never before noticed.The house was certainly bleak and exposed;the site by no means a poetical one.She wondered if she had not put a romance into it,and perhaps even into the man beside her,which did not belong to either.It was a moment of dangerous doubt.

"I don't know but that you're right,Mr.Jeff,"she said finally,as they faced the hill,and began the ascent together."This place is a little queer,and bleak,and--unattractive.""Yes,miss,"said Jeff,with direct simplicity,"I've always wondered what you saw in it to make you content to stay,when it would be so much prettier,and more suitable for you at the 'Summit.'"Miss Mayfield bit her lip,and was silent.After a few moments'climbing she said,almost pettishly,"Where is this famous 'Summit'?"Jeff stopped.They had reached the top of the hill.He pointed across an olive-green chasm to a higher level,where,basking in the declining sun,clustered the long rambling outbuildings around the white blinking facade of the "Summit House."Framed in pines and hemlocks,tender with soft gray shadows,and nestling beyond a foreground of cultivated slope,it was a charming rustic picture.

Miss Mayfield's quick eye took in its details.Her quick intellect took in something else.She had seated herself on the road-bank,and,clasping her knees between her locked fingers,she suddenly looked up at Jeff."What possessed you to come half-way up a mountain,instead of going on to the top?""Poverty,miss!"

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 茅山秘籍

    茅山秘籍

    这是一部叙述真实的故事的书,说的是一个小城镇里一次来了一些年轻的游客;而故事正是由这些年轻的游客引发而来的,据说自从他们来到了这个小城镇以后,这个城镇就没有得到过安宁,这是为什么呢?据说为此还有几位神秘的人物会出现在这个小镇中,他们的出现又会迎来怎样的环节?而主人公到底是何去何从?让我与你一起进入这个世界吧……
  • 最强猎者

    最强猎者

    只有猎人和战士的大陆,不需要任何花哨的魔法和所谓吸收天地灵气的修炼,只要不停的在生死线中积累经验才会更强。只有剑与弓的世界也会擦出不同的火花!
  • 坑爹金手指发家史

    坑爹金手指发家史

    别人家的金手指是灵泉肥田,别人家的金手指是要风得风要雨得雨,别人家的……对,那是别人家的!女猪脚表示,自己家的金手指就是坑姐的!摸啥啥就坏,碰啥啥就散,尼玛每天还提心吊胆的怕把别人给摸“散”了!唉,这日子可神马时候到头啊……【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • 学霸笔记之人心难测

    学霸笔记之人心难测

    2124年,H市发生了一起离奇死亡事件,目击者称,当时行驶在马路上的两辆出租车非常奇怪,好像是预谋好的相向而撞。导致一死两伤,经媒体和警方多方面查证,死者名叫蓝羽墨,冬尼高中特优毕业生,三年来一直保持全校第一的傲人成绩,年仅17岁。正当警方全力调查死者死因时,死者的母亲在死者的房间里找到了一本日记,痛哭流涕。而对于警方来言,幕后凶手浮出水面......
  • 梦境管家

    梦境管家

    【苏绿茶完结篇】本书记载着古老的大陆-签约的------梦源。在这个国土里住着三位首领:卞晶,嘟红,北元天昊,他们拥有着强大的魔力,拥有至高无上的权威,他们不是用手中的魔力来压倒普通人,他们是人类百姓最信奉的。
  • 都市玩火人

    都市玩火人

    一个普通人,突然获得操控火焰的能力,从此,人生轨迹出现了奇妙的偏差,这是否是他所想要的生活?
  • 超级翻牌系统

    超级翻牌系统

    作为一个新世纪的青年,陈玉也就是为了上大学混日子,等着以后毕业找个养家糊口的工作,不过无意中绑定了一个翻牌系统之后,陈玉人生彻底偏离了正常的轨迹,在翻牌的路上越走越远了。【宿主,请翻牌!】...【任务身份:校花一个月男友!】...【任务内容:期间获取校花初吻以及老妈的认可!】...【任务奖励:校花一枚!】...我就想知道,这翻出来的什么任务???
  • 中国军事之最

    中国军事之最

    本书介绍了中国古今军事史上的军事家、火炮、火箭、手榴弹、战斗机等军事武器、战争史等内容。
  • 蓬莱群侠传

    蓬莱群侠传

    【注,本书原名人妖传说,由于特殊原因,不能见此书,所以只能想这个土的可以让我自己都只能撞墙的名字了】自古人妖不两立,然又有一些奇人怪妖,厌俗通婚,产下杂异,半人半妖,是为半妖。
  • 娇妻很丑:夫君,从了吧

    娇妻很丑:夫君,从了吧

    古代版:E城有女,奇丑,名云溪,巧遇一男,曰:滴水之恩,当涌泉相报,吾救汝性命,汝该当如何?男对曰:如何?此女曰:以身相许之。现代版:纪云溪:要么娶我,要么,死!安清月:宁死不屈?纪云溪:是吗?安清月:我娶!