Suppose she asked you how long you had made up your mind against the law, how should you feel? And if she asked me whether I'd known it all along, and I had to say I had, and that I'd supported and encouraged you in it, how should I feel?""She mightn't ask any such question," said Jeff, gloomily. Cynthia gave a little impatient "Oh!" and he hastened to add: "But you're right; I've got to tell her. I'll tell her to-night--""Don't wait till to-night; do it now."
"Now?"
"Yes; and I'll go with you as soon as I've seen the youngest Miller girl." They had reached the helps' house now, and Cynthia said: "You wait outside here, and I'll go right back with you. Oh, I hope it isn't doing wrong to put it off till I've seen that girl!" She disappeared through the door, and Jeff waited by the steps outside, plucking up one long grass stem after another and biting it in two. When Cynthia came out she said: "I guess she'll be all right. Now come, and don't-lose another second.""You're afraid I sha'n't do it if I wait any longer!""I'm afraid I sha'n't." There was a silence after this.
"Do you know what I think of you, Cynthy?" asked Jeff, hurrying to keep up with her quick steps. "You've got more courage--""Oh, don't praise me, or I shall break down!""I'll see that you don't break down," said Jeff, tenderly. "It's the greatest thing to have you go with me!""Why, don't you SEE?" she lamented. "If you went alone, and told your mother that I approved of it, you would look as if you were afraid, and wanted to get behind me; and I'm not going to have that."They found. Mrs. Durgin in the dark entry of the old farmhouse, and Cynthia said, with involuntary imperiousness: "Come in here, Mrs. Durgin;I want to tell you something."
She led the way to the old parlor, and she checked Mrs. Durgin's question, "Has that Miller girl--""It isn't about her," said Cynthy, pushing the door to. "It's about me and Jeff."Mrs. Durgin became aware of Jeff's presence with an effect of surprise.
"There a'n't anything more, is there?"
"Yes, there is!" Cynthia shrilled. "Now, Jeff!""It's just this, mother: Cynthy thinks I ought to tell you--and she thinks I ought to have told you last night--she expected me to--that I'm not going to study law.""And I approve of his not doing it," Cynthia promptly followed, and she put herself beside Jeff where he stood in front of his mother's rocking-chair.
She looked from one to the other of the faces before her. "I'm sorry a son of mine," she said, with dignity, "had to be told how to act with his mother. But, if he had, I don't know as anybody had a better right to do it than the girl that's going to marry him. And I'll say this, Cynthia Whitwell, before I say anything else: you've begun right. I wish I could say Jeff had."There was an uncomfortable moment before Cynthia said: "He expected to tell you.""Oh Yes! I know," said his mother, sadly. She added, sharply: "And did be expect to tell me what he intended to do for a livin'?""Jeff took the word. "Yes, I did. I intend to keep a hotel.""What hotel?" asked Mrs. Durgin, with a touch of taunting in her tone.
"This one."
The mother of the bold, rebellious boy that Jeff had been stirred in Mrs.
Durgin's heart, and she looked at him with the eyes, that used to condone his mischief. But she said: "I guess you'll find out that there's more than one has to agree to that.""Yes, there are two: you and Jackson; and I don't know but what three, if you count Cynthy, here."His mother turned to the girl. "You think this fellow's got sense enough to keep a hotel?""Yes, Mrs. Durgin, I do. I think he's got good ideas about a hotel.""And what's he goin' to do with his college education?"Jeff interposed. "You think that all the college graduates turn out lawyers and doctors and professors? Some of 'em are mighty glad to sweep out banks in hopes of a clerkship; and some take any sort of a place in a mill or a business house, to work up; and some bum round out West 'on cattle ranches; and some, if they're lucky, get newspaper reporters' places at ten dollars a week."
Cynthia followed with the generalization: "I don't believe anybody can know too much to keep a hotel. It won't hurt Jeff if he's been to Harvard, or to Europe, either.""I guess there's a pair of you," said Mrs. Durgin, with superficial contempt. She was silent for a time, and they waited. "Well, there!"she broke out again. "I've got something to chew upon for a spell, Iguess. Go along, now, both of you! And the next time you've got to face your mother, Jeff, don't you come in lookin' round anybody's petticoats!
I'll see you later about all this."
They went away with the joyful shame of children who have escaped punishment.
"That's the last of it, Cynthy," said Jeff.
"I guess so," the girl assented, with a certain grief in her voice.
"I wish you had told her first!"
"Oh, never mind that now!" cried Jeff, and in the dim passageway he took her in his arms and kissed her.
He would have released her, but she lingered in his embrace. "Will you promise that if there's ever anything like it again, you won't wait for me to make you?""I like your having made me, but I promise," he said.
Then she tightened her arms round his neck and kissed him.
