WHEREIN PHILIP AMMON RETURNS TO THE LIMBERLOST,AND ELNORA STUDIES THE SITUATIONWe must be thinking about supper,mother,"said Elnora,while she set the wings of a Cecropia with much care.
"It seems as if I can't get enough to eat,or enough of being at home.I enjoyed that city house.I don't believe I could have done my work if I had been compelled to walk back and forth.I thought at first I never wanted to come here again.Now,I feel as if I could not live anywhere else.""Elnora,"said Mrs.Comstock,"there's some one coming down the road.""Coming here,do you think?"
"Yes,coming here,I suspect."
Elnora glanced quickly at her mother and then turned to the road as Philip Ammon reached the gate.
"Careful,mother!"the girl instantly warned."If you change your treatment of him a hair's breadth,he will suspect.Come with me to meet him."She dropped her work and sprang up.
"Well,of all the delightful surprises!"she cried.
She was a trifle thinner than during the previous summer.
On her face there was a more mature,patient look,but the sun struck her bare head with the same ray of red gold.
She wore one of the old blue gingham dresses,open at the throat and rolled to the elbows.Mrs.Comstock did not appear at all the same woman,but Philip saw only Elnora;heard only her greeting.He caught both hands where she offered but one.
"Elnora,"he cried,"if you were engaged to me,and we were at a ball,among hundreds,where I offended you very much,and didn't even know I had done anything,and if Iasked you before all of them to allow me to explain,to forgive me,to wait,would your face grow distorted and unfamiliar with anger?Would you drop my ring on the floor and insult me repeatedly?Oh Elnora,would you?"Elnora's big eyes seemed to leap,while her face grew very white.She drew away her hands.
"Hush,Phil!Hush!"she protested."That fever has you again!You are dreadfully ill.You don't know what you are saying.""I am sleepless and exhausted;I'm heartsick;but I am well as I ever was.Answer me,Elnora,would you?""Answer nothing!"cried Mrs.Comstock."Answer nothing!
Hang your coat there on your nail,Phil,and come split some kindling.Elnora,clean away that stuff,and set the table.Can't you see the boy is starved and tired?
He's come home to rest and eat a decent meal.Come on,Phil!"Mrs.Comstock marched away,and Philip hung his coat in its old place and followed.Out of sight and hearing she turned on him.
"Do you call yourself a man or a hound?"she flared.
"I beg your pardon----"stammered Philip Ammon.
"I should think you would!"she ejaculated."I'll admit you did the square thing and was a man last summer,though I'd liked it better if you'd faced up and told me you were promised;but to come back here babying,and take hold of Elnora like that,and talk that way because you have had a fuss with your girl,I don't tolerate.
Split that kindling and I'll get your supper,and then you better go.I won't have you working on Elnora's big heart,because you have quarrelled with some one else.
You'll have it patched up in a week and be gone again,so you can go right away.""Mrs.Comstock,I came to ask Elnora to marry me.""The more fool you,then!"cried Mrs.Comstock.
"This time yesterday you were engaged to another woman,no doubt.Now,for some little flare-up you come racing here to use Elnora as a tool to spite the other girl.
A week of sane living,and you will be sorry and ready to go back to Chicago,or,if you really are man enough to be sure of yourself,she will come to claim you.She has her rights.An engagement of years is a serious matter,and not broken for a whim.If you don't go,she'll come.
Then,when you patch up your affairs and go sailing away together,where does my girl come in?""I am a lawyer,Mrs.Comstock,"said Philip."It appeals to me as beneath your ordinary sense of justice to decide a case without hearing the evidence.It is due me that you hear me first.""Hear your side!"flashed Mrs.Comstock."I'd a heap sight rather hear the girl!""I wish to my soul that you had heard and seen her last night,Mrs.Comstock,"said Ammon."Then,my way would be clear.I never even thought of coming here to-day.I'll admit I would have come in time,but not for many months.My father sent me.""Your father sent you!Why?"
"Father,mother,and Polly were present last night.
They,and all my friends,saw me insulted and disgraced in the worst exhibition of uncontrolled temper any of us ever witnessed.All of them knew it was the end.
Father liked what I had told him of Elnora,and he advised me to come here,so I came.If she does not want me,I can leave instantly,but,oh I hoped she would understand!""You people are not splitting wood,"called Elnora.
"Oh yes we are!"answered Mrs.Comstock."You set out the things for biscuit,and lay the table."She turned again to Philip."I know considerable about your father,"she said."I have met your Uncle's family frequently this winter.I've heard your Aunt Anna say that she didn't at all like Miss Carr,and that she and all your family secretly hoped that something would happen to prevent your marrying her.That chimes right in with your saying that your father sent you here.I guess you better speak your piece."Philip gave his version of the previous night.
"Do you believe me?"he finished.
"Yes,"said Mrs.Comstock.
"May I stay?"
"Oh,it looks all right for you,but what about her?""Nothing,so far as I am concerned.Her plans were all made to start to Europe to-day.I suspect she is on the way by this time.Elnora is very sensible,Mrs.Comstock.
Hadn't you better let her decide this?"
"The final decision rests with her,of course,"admitted Mrs.Comstock."But look you one thing!She's all I have.
As Solomon says,`she is the one child,the only child of her mother.'I've suffered enough in this world that I fight against any suffering which threatens her.
So far as I know you've always been a man,and you may stay.But if you bring tears and heartache to her,don't have the assurance to think I'll bear it tamely.
