"Why, whatever is the matter, Cynthia?" cried Lila, as if in terror.
Cynthia came forward until she stood directly at the mare's head, where she delivered her message with a gasp:
"Mother insists upon talking to Jim.There's no help for it; he must come."Weatherby dropped the mare's hoof and raised a breathless question to Cynthia's face, while Lila asked quickly:
"Does she know?"
"Know what?" demanded Cynthia, turning grimly upon her."Of course she knows that Jim is his father's son."The young man rose and laid the hammer down on the overturned barrel; then he led the mare back to her stall, and coming out again, washed his hands in a tub of water by the door.
"Well, I'm ready," he observed quietly."Shall I go in alone?""Oh, we don't ask that of you," said Lila, laughing."Come; I'll take you." She slipped her hand under his arm and they went gaily toward the house, leaving Cynthia to pick up the horseshoe nails lying loose upon the ground.
Hearing the young man's step on the threshold, Mrs.Blake turned her head with a smile of pleasant condescension and stretched out her delicate yellowed hand.
"This is Jim Weatherby, mother," said Lila in her softest voice.
"Cynthia says you want to talk to him."
"I know, my child; I know," returned Mrs.Blake, with an animated gesture."Come in, Jim, and don't trouble to stand.Find him a chair, Lila.I knew your father long before you were born," she added, turning to the young man, "and I knew only good of him.Isuppose he has often told you of the years he worked for us?"Jim held her hand for an instant in his own, and then, bending over, raised it to his lips.
"My father never tires of telling us about the old times, and about Mr.Blake and yourself," he answered in his precise English, and with the simple dignity which he never lost.Lila, watching him, prayed silently that a miracle might open the old lady's eyes and allow her to see the kind, manly look upon his face.
Mrs.Blake nodded pleasantly, with evident desire to put him wholly at his ease.
"Well, his son is becoming quite courtly," she responded, smiling, "and I know Jacob is proud of you--or he ought to be, which amounts to the same thing.There's nothing I like better than to see a good, hard-working family prosper in life and raise its station.Not that I mean to put ideas into your head, of course, for it is a ridiculous sight to see a person dissatisfied with the position in which the good Lord has placed him.That was what I always liked about your mother, and I remember very well her refusing to wear some of my old finery when she was married, on the ground that she was a plain, honest woman, and wanted to continue so when she was a wife.I hope, by the way, that she is well.""Oh, quite.She does not walk much, though; her joints have been troubling her."To Lila's surprise, he was not the least embarrassed by the personal tone of the conversation, and his sparkling blue eyes held their usual expression of blithe good-humour.
"Indeed!" Mrs.Blake pricked at the subject in her sprightly way.
"Well, you must persuade her to use a liniment of Jamestown weed steeped in whisky.There is positively nothing like it for rheumatism.Lila, do we still make it for the servants? If so, you might send Sarah Weatherby a bottle.""I'll see about it, mother.Aren't you tired? Shall I take Jim away?""Not just yet, child.I am interested in seeing what a promising young man he has become.How old are you, Jim?""Twenty-nine next February.There are two of us, you know--I've a sister Molly.She married Frank Granger and moved ten miles away.""Ah, that brings me to the very point I was driving at.Above all things, let me caution you most earnestly against the reckless marriages so common in your station of life.For heaven's sake, don't marry a woman because she has a pretty face and you cherish an impracticable sentiment for her.If you take my advice, you will found your marriage upon mutual respect and industry.Select a wife who is not afraid of work, and who expects no folderol of romance.Love-making, I've always maintained, should be the pastime of the leisure class exclusively.""I'm not afraid of work myself," replied Jim, laughing as he looked boldly into the old lady's sightless eyes, "but I'd never stand it for my wife--not a--a lick of it!""Tut, tut! Your mother does it."
Jim nodded."But I'm not my father," he mildly suggested.
"Well, you're a fine, headstrong young fool, and I like you all the better for it," declared Mrs.Blake."You may go now, because I feel as if I needed a doze; but be sure to come in and see me the next time you're over here.Lila, put the cat on my knees and straighten my pillows."Lila lifted the cat from the rug and placed it in the old lady's lap; then, as she arranged the soft white pillows, she bent over suddenly and kissed the piece of purple glass on the fragile hand.
Chapter IV.In Which Christopher Hesitates Following his impulsive blow in defense of Will Fletcher, Christopher experienced, almost with his next breath, a reaction in his feeling for the boy; and meeting him two days later at the door of the tobacco barn, he fell at once into a tone of contemptuous raillery.
"So you let Fred smash you up, eh?" he observed, with a sneer.
Will flushed.
"Oh, you needn't talk like that," he answered; "he's the biggest man about here except you.By the way, you're a bully friend to a fellow, you know, and it's not a particle of use pretending you don't like me, because you can't help hitting back jolly quick when anybody undertakes to give me a licking.""Why were you such a fool as to go at him?" inquired Christopher, glancing up at his evenly hanging rows of tobacco, and then coming outside to lock the door."You'll never get a reputation as a fighter if you are always jumping on men over your own size.
