Chapter 21

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_ CHAPTER XXI

The second afternoon of Lawrence Croft's confinement in the little building in Mrs Keswick's yard, passed drearily enough. The sky retained its sombre covering of clouds, and the rain came down in a melancholy, capricious way, as if it were tears shed by a child who was crying because it was bad. The monotony of the slowly moving hours was broken only by a very brief visit from the old lady, who was going somewhere in the covered spring wagon, and who looked in, before she started, to see if her patient wanted anything; and by the arrival of a bundle of old novels sent by Mrs Null. These books Lawrence looked over with indifferent interest, hoping to find one among them that was not a love story, but he was disappointed. They were all based upon, and most of them permeated with, the tender passion, and Lawrence was not in the mood for reading about that sort of thing. A person afflicted with a disease is not apt to find agreeable occupation in reading hospital reports upon his particular ailment.

The novels were put aside, and although Lawrence felt that he had smoked almost too much during that day, he was about to light another cigar, when he heard a carriage drive into the yard. Turning to the window he saw a barouche, evidently a hired one, drawn by a pair of horses, very lean and bony, but with their heads reined up so high that they had an appearance of considerable spirit, and driven by a colored man, sitting upon a very elevated seat, with a jaunty air and a well-worn whip. The carriage drove over the grass to the front of the house--there was no roadway in the yard, the short, crisp, tough grass having long resisted the occasional action of wheels and hoofs--and there stopping, a gentleman, with a valise, got out. He paid the driver, who immediately turned the vehicle about, and drove away. The gentleman put his foot upon the bottom step as if he were about to ascend, and then, apparently changing his mind, he picked up his valise, and came directly toward the office, drawing a key from his pocket as he walked. It was Junius Keswick, and in a few minutes his key was heard in the lock. As it was not locked the key merely rattled, and Lawrence called out: "Come in." The door opened, and Junius looked in, evidently surprised. "I beg your pardon," said he, "I didn't know you were in here."

"Please walk in," said Lawrence. "I know I am occupying your room, and it is I who should ask your pardon. But you see the reason why it was thought well that I should not have stairs to ascend." And he pointed to his bandaged foot.

"Have you hurt yourself?" asked Junius, with an air of concern.

And then Lawrence gave an account of his accident, expressing at the same time his regret that he found himself occupying the room which belonged to the other.

"Oh, don't mention that," said Junius, who had taken a seat near the window. "There are rooms enough in the house, and I shall be perfectly comfortable. It was quite right in my aunt to have you brought in here, and I should have insisted upon it, myself, if I had been at home. I expected to be away for a week or more, but I have now come back on account of your letter."

"Does that need explanation?" asked Lawrence.

"Not at all," said Junius. "I had no difficulty in understanding it, although I must say that it surprised me. But I came because I am not satisfied with the condition of things here, and I wish to be on the spot. I do not understand why you and Miss March should be invited here during my absence."

"That I do not understand either," said Lawrence, quickly, "and I wish to impress it on your mind, Mr Keswick, that when I came here, I not only expected to find you, but a party of invited guests. I will say, however, that I came with the express intention of meeting Miss March, and having that interview with her which I could not have in her uncle's house."

"I was not entirely correct," said Junius, "when I said that I did not know why these rather peculiar arrangements had been made. My aunt is a very managing person, and I think I perceive her purpose in this piece of management." "She is opposed to a marriage between you and Miss March?"

"Most decidedly," said Junius. "Has she told you so?"

"No," said Lawrence, "but it has gradually dawned upon me that such is the case. I believe she would be glad to have Miss March married, and out of your way."

Junius made no answer to this remark, but sat silent for a few moments. Then he said: "Well, have you settled it with Miss March?"

"No, I have not," said Lawrence. "If the matter had been decided, one way or the other, I should not be here. I have no right to trespass on your aunt's hospitality, and I should have departed as soon as I had discovered Miss March's sentiments in regard to me. But I have not been able to settle the matter, at all. I had one opportunity of seeing the lady, and that was not a satisfactory interview. Yesterday morning, I made another attempt, but before I could get to her I sprained my ankle. And here I am; I can not go to her, and, of course, she will not come to me. You cannot imagine how I chafe under this harassing restraint."

"I can imagine it very easily," said Junius.

"The only thing I have to hope for," said Lawrence, "is that to-morrow may be a fine day, and that the lady may come outside and give me the chance of speaking to her at this open door."

Junius smiled grimly. "It appears to me," he said, "as if it were likely to rain for several days. But now I must go into the house and see the family. I hope you believe me, sir, when I say I am sorry to find you in your present predicament."

"Yes," said Lawrence, smiling, although he did not feel at all gay, "for, otherwise, I might have been finally rejected and far away."

"If you had been rejected," said Junius, "I should have been very glad, indeed, to have you stay with us."

"Thank you," said Lawrence.

"I will look in upon you again," said Junius, as he left the room.

Lawrence's mind, which had been in a very unpleasant state of troubled restiveness for some days, was now thrown into a sad turmoil by this arrival of Junius Keswick. As he saw that tall and good-looking young man going up the steps of the house porch, with his valise in his hand, he clinched both his fists as they rested on the arm of his chair, and objurgated the anti-detective.

"If it had not been for that rascal," he said to himself, "I should not have written to Keswick, and he would not have thought of coming back at this untimely moment. The only advantage I had was a clear coast, and now that is gone. Of course Keswick was frightened when he found I was staying in the same house with Roberta March, and hurried back to attend to his own interests. The first thing he will do now will be to propose to her himself; and, as they have been engaged once, it is as like as not she will take him again. If I could use this foot, I would go into the house, this minute, and have the first word with her." At this he rose to his feet and made a step with his sprained ankle, but the sudden pain occasioned by this action caused him to sit down again with a groan. Lawrence Croft was not a man to do himself a physical injury which might be permanent, if such doing could possibly be avoided, and he gave up the idea of trying to go into the house.

"I tell you what it is, Letty," said Uncle Isham, when he returned to the kitchen after having carried Lawrence's supper to him, "dat ar Mister Croft in de offis is a gittin wuss an' wuss in he min', ebery day. I neber seed a man more pow'ful glowerin' dan he is dis ebenin."

"I reckin' he j'ints is healin' up," said Letty. "Dey tells me dat de healin' pains mos' gen'rally runs into de min'."

About nine o'clock in the evening Junius Keswick paid Lawrence a visit; and, taking a seat by one side of the fireplace, accepted the offer of a cigar.

"How are things going on in the house?" asked Lawrence.

"Well," said Keswick, speaking slowly, "as you know so much of our family affairs, I might as well tell you that they are in a somewhat upset condition. When I went in, I saw, at first, no one but my cousin, and she seemed so extraordinarily glad to see me that I thought something must be wrong, somewhere; and when my aunt returned--she was not at home when I arrived--she was thrown into such a state of mind on seeing me, that I didn't know whether she was going to order me out of the house or go herself. But she restrained herself, wonderfully, considering her provocation, for, of course, I have entirely disordered her plans by appearing here, when she had arranged everything for you to have Miss March to yourself. But, so far, the peace has been kept between us, although she scarcely speaks to me."

"And Miss March?" said Lawrence. "You have seen her?"

"Yes," said Junius, "I saw her at supper, and for a short time afterwards, but she soon retired to her room."

"Do you think she was disturbed by your return?" asked Lawrence.

"I won't say that," said Junius, "but she was certainly not herself. Mrs Null tells me that she expects to go home to-morrow morning, having written to her uncle to send for her."

"That is bad, bad, very bad," said Lawrence.

After that there was a pause in the conversation, during which Mr Croft, with brows very much knit, gazed steadfastly into the fire. "Mr Keswick," he said presently, "what you tell me fills me with consternation. It is quite plain that I shall have no chance to see Miss March, and, as there is no one else in the world who will do it for me, I am going to ask you to go to her, to-morrow morning, and speak to her in my behalf."

When this had been said, Junius Keswick dropped his cigar upon the floor, and sat up very straight in his chair, gazing fixedly at Lawrence. "Upon my word!" he said, "I knew you were a cool man, but that request freezes my imagination. I cannot conceive how any man can ask another to try to win for him a lady whom he knows the other man desires to win for himself. You have made some requests before that were rather astounding, but this one overshadows them all."

"I admit," said Lawrence, "that what I ask is somewhat out of the way, but you must consider the circumstances. Suppose I had met you in mortal combat, and I had dropped my sword where you could reach it and I could not; would you pick it up and give it to me? or would you run me through?"

"I don't think that comparison is altogether a good one," said Junius.

"Yes, it is," said Lawrence, "and covers the case entirely. I am here, disabled, and if you pick up my sword, as I have just asked you to do, it is not to be assumed that your action gives me the victory. It merely gives me an equal chance with yourself."

"Do you mean," said Junius, "that you want me to go to Miss March, and deliberately ask her if she will marry you?"

"No," said Lawrence, "I have done that myself. But there are certain points in regard to which I want to be set right with Miss March. And now I wish you to understand me, Mr Keswick. I speak to you, not only as a generous and honorable man, which I have found you to be, but as a rival. I cannot believe that you would be willing to profit by my present disadvantages, and, as I have said two or three times before, it would certainly be for your interest, as a suitor for the lady, to have this matter settled."

"Wouldn't it be better, then," said Junius, "if I were to go immediately, and speak to her for myself?"

"No," said Lawrence, "I don't think that would settle the affair at all. From what I understand of your relations with Miss March, she knows you are her lover, and yet she neither accepts nor declines you. If you were to go to her now, it is not likely she would give you any definite answer. But in regard to me, it would be different. She would say yes or no. And if she made the latter answer I think you could walk over the course. I am not vain enough to say that I have been an obstacle to your success, but I assure you that I have tried very hard to make myself such an obstacle."

"It seems to me," said Junius, imitating his companion in the matter of knitting his brows and gazing into the fire, "that this affair could be managed very simply. Miss March is not going at the break of day. Why don't you contrive to see her before she starts, and say for yourself what you have to say?"

"Nothing would please me better than that," said Croft, "but I don't believe she would give me any chance to speak with her. Since my accident, she has persistently and pointedly refused to grant me even the shortest interview."

"That ought to prove to you," said Keswick, "that she does not desire your attentions. You should consider it as a positive answer."

"Not at all," said Lawrence, "not at all. And I don't think you would consider it a positive answer if you were in my place. I think she has taken some offence which is entirely groundless, and if you will consent to act for me it will enable me to set straight this misunderstanding."

"Confound it!" exclaimed Keswick. "Can't you write to her? or get some one else to take your love messages?"

"No," said Lawrence, "I cannot write to her, for I am not sure that under the circumstances she would answer my letter. And I have already asked Mrs Null, the only other person I could ask, to speak for me, but she has declined."

"By the Lord Harry!" exclaimed Junius, "you are the rarest wooer I ever heard of."

"I assure you," said Lawrence, his face flushing somewhat, "that it is not my desire to carry on my wooing in this fashion. My whole soul is opposed to it, but circumstances will have it so. And as I don't intend, if I can help it, to have my life determined by circumstances, I must go ahead in despite of them, although I admit that it makes the road very rough."

"I should think it would," said Junius. And then there was a pause in the conversation.

"Well, Mr Keswick," said Lawrence, presently, "Will you do this thing for me?"

"Am I to understand," said Junius, "that if I don't do it, it won't be done?"

"Yes," said Lawrence, "you are positively my last chance. I have racked my brains to think of some other way of presenting my case to Miss March, but there is no other way. I might stand at my door, and call to her as she entered the carriage, but that would be the height of absurdity. I might hop on one foot into the house, but, even if I wished to present myself in that way, I don't believe I could get up that long flight of steps. It would be worse than useless to write, for I should not know what was thought of my letter, or even if it had been read. Mrs Keswick cannot carry my message; Mrs Null will not; and I have only you to call upon. I know it is a great deal to ask, but it means so much to me--to both of us, in fact--that I ask it."

"You were kind enough to say a little while ago," said Junius, "that you considered me an honorable man. I try to be such, and, therefore, will frankly state to you that I can think of but three motives, satisfactory to myself, for undertaking this business for you, and not one of them is a generous one. In the first place, I might care to do it in order to have this matter settled, for you are such an extraordinary suitor, that I don't know in what form you may turn up, the next time. Secondly, from what you tell me of Miss March's repugnance to meet you, I don't believe my mission will have an issue favorable to you, and the more unfavorable it is, the better I shall like it. My third reason for acting for you is, that the whole affair is such an original one that it will rather interest me to be engaged in it. This last reason would not hold, however, if I had the least expectation of being successful."

"You consent then?" said Lawrence, quickly, turning towards the other. "You'll go to Miss March for me?"

"Yes, I think I will," said Junius, "if you will accept the services of a man who is decidedly opposed to your interests."

"Of course I never expected you to favor them," said Lawrence, "nor is it necessary that you should. All I ask is, that you carry a message to Miss March, and if she needs any explanation of it, that you will explain in the way that I shall indicate; that you shall tell me how she received my message; and that you shall bring me back her answer. There is no need of your making any proposition to her; that has already been done; what I want is, that she should not go away from here with a misunderstanding between us, and that she shall give me at least the promise of a hearing."

"Very good," said Junius, "now, what is it that you want me to say?"

This was not an easy question for Lawrence to answer. He knew very well what he wanted to say, if he had a chance of saying it himself. He wanted to pour his whole heart out to Roberta March, and, showing her its present passion, to ask her to forgive those days in which his mind only had appeared to be engaged. He believed he could say things that would force from her the pardon of his previous short-comings, if she considered them as such. She had been very gracious to him in time past, and he did not see why she should not be still more gracious now, if he could remove the feelings of resentment, which he believed were occasioned by her womanly insight into the motives of his conduct toward her, during those delightful summer days at Midbranch.

But to get another person to say all this was a very different thing. He was sure, however, that if it were not said now, it would never be said. It would be death to all his hopes if Miss March went away, feeling towards him as she now felt; therefore he stiffened his purpose which was quite used to being stiffened; hardened his sensibilities; and took his plunge. Gazing steadfastly at the back of the fireplace while he spoke, he endeavored to make Junius Keswick understand the nature, and the probable force of the objections to his line of action as a suitor, which had grown up in the mind of Miss March; and he also endeavored to show how completely and absolutely he had been changed by the vigor and ardor of his present affection; and how he was entitled to be considered by Miss March as a lover who had but one thought and purpose, and that was to win her; and, as such, he asked her to give him an opportunity to renew his proposal to her. "Now, then," said Lawrence, "I have placed the case before you, and I beg you will present it, as nearly as possible, in the form in which I have given it to you."

"Mr Croft," said Junius, "this case of yours is worse than I thought it was. What woman of spirit would accept a man who admitted, that during the whole of his acquaintance with her he had had his doubts in regard to suitability, etc., but who, when a crisis arrived, and another man turned up, had determined to overlook all his objections and take her, anyway."

"That is a very cold-blooded way of putting it," said Lawrence, "and I don't believe at all that she will look upon it in that light. If you will set the matter before her as I have put it to you, I believe she will see it as I wish her to see it."

"Very well," said Junius, rising, and taking out his watch, "I will make your statement as accurately as I can, and without any interpretations of my own. And now I must bid you good-night. I had no idea it was after twelve o'clock."

"And you will observe her moods?" asked Lawrence.

"Yes," said Junius as he opened the door, "I will carefully observe her moods."

When Junius had gone, Lawrence turned his face again toward the fireplace, where the last smouldering stick had just broken apart in the middle, and the two ends had wearily fallen over the andirons as if they wished it understood that they could do no more burning that night. Taking this as a hint, Lawrence prepared to retire. "Old Isham must have gone to bed long ago," he said, "but as I have asked for so much assistance to-day, I think it is well that I should try to do some things for myself."

It was, indeed, very late, but behind the partially closed shutters of a lower room of the house sat old Mrs Keswick, gazing at the light that was streaming from the window of the office, and wondering what those two men were saying to each other that was keeping them sitting up together until after midnight.

Annie Peyton, too, had not gone to bed, and looking through her chamber window at the office, she hoped that cousin Junius would come away before he lost his temper. Of course she thought he must have been very angry when he came home and found Mr Croft here at the only time that Roberta March had ever visited the house, and it was quite natural that he should go to his rival, and tell him what he thought about it. But he had been there a long, long time, and she did hope they would not get very angry with each other, and that nothing would happen. One thought comforted her very much. Mr Croft was disabled, and Junius would scorn to take advantage of a man in that condition.

At an upper window, at the other end of the house, sat Roberta March, ready for bed, but with no intention of going there until Junius Keswick had come out of the office. Knowing the two men as she did, she had no fear that any harm would come to either of them during this long conference, whatever its subject might be. That she, herself, was that subject she had not the slightest doubt, and although it was of no earthly use for her to sit there and gaze upon that light streaming into the darkness of the yard, but revealing to her no more of what was going on inside the room than if it had been the light of a distant star, still she sat and speculated. At last the office door opened, and Junius came out, turning to speak to the occupant of the room as he did so. The brief vision of him which the watchers caught, as he stood for a moment in the lighted doorway before stepping out into the darkness, showed that his demeanor was as quiet and composed as usual; and one of the three women went to bed very much relieved. _

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