A Far Country, Book 1

cy and took her allegiance for granted, never seeking to fathom the nature of the spell I exercised over her. Naturally other children teased me about her; but what was worse, with tha

Peters yard crying out:-"Nancy's in lov

fly at them-even as she flew at the head-hunters when the Petrel was menaced; and she could run like a deer. Woe to the unfortunate victim she overtook! Masculine strength, exercised apologetically, availed but little, and I have seen Russell

ter with you, Ralph Ha

usation that invariably

girls are in love w

veness that made a continual appeal to my imagination. She was never obvious or commonplace, and long before I began to experience the discomforts and sufferings of youthful love I was fascinated by a nature eloquent with cont

girl to a party; Mrs. Willett had smiled over the proceeding, but Nancy and I took it most seriously, as symbolic of things to come. I can see Powell Street, where Nancy lived, at four o'clock on a mild and cloudy December afternoon, the decorous, retiring houses, Nancy on one side of the pavement by the iron fences and I on

viting us to enter the brightness within. The shades were drawn, the carpets were covered with festal canvas, the folding doors between the square rooms were flung back, the prisms of the big chandeliers flung their light over

u East, now ch

he one you l

would induce her to enter such a foolish game. I experienced a novel discomfiture when Ralph kissed Nancy.... Afterwards came the feast, from which H

bewildered, at these first tender notes. The music quickened, tripping in ecstasy, to change by s

being, neither girl nor woman, had magically been evolved. Could it be possible that she loved me still? My complacency had vanished; suddenly I had become the aggressor, if only I had known how to "aggress"; b

Peters. It was in February; I remember because I had ventured-with incredible daring-to send Nancy an elaborate, rosy Valentine; written on t

of this the

anothe

epent, and

his Va

s when I thought of its pos

the word "ailment" advisedly, since he evidently put my trouble in the same category with diphtheria or scarlet fever, remarking that it was "darned hard luck." In vain I sought to explain that I did not regard it as such in the least; there was suffering, I admitted, but a degree of bliss none could comprehend who had not felt it. He refused to be envious, o

sual. Nancy's school was dismissed at two, so was mine. By walking fast I could reach Salisbury Street, near St. Mary's Seminary for Young Ladies, in time to catch her, but even then for many days I was doomed to disappointment. She was either in company with other girls, or else she had taken another route; this I surmised led past Sophy McAlery's house, and I enlisted Tom as a confederate. He was to make straight for the McAlery's on Elm while I followed Powel

g Sophy's gate and immediately sounded the alarm. She leap

dare you frighten

d her in su

he said. "I didn't t

must have

," he equivocated,-a remark not

e you do

practising

ornfully. "I shouldn't think you

t louder," he de

cal moment I appeared around the corner considerably out of breath, my

id. "Hello, Nancy.

rists, she gave me a most disconcerting look; there was in i

Tom," I e

you might have.

most uncomfortable notion that she suspected the plot. Meanwhile we had begun to walk along, all three of us, Tom, obviously ill at ease

ounced abruptly, and tur

sturdy figure

boys!" said Nancy, a

friend," I r

care much for your c

nner at half past

missing yours, Hugh?

s remark I was seized by a spasm of apprehension. But nothing happened.

ice of yo

t's nice," I faltered. "I'd rath

lly said it. But again I received no rebuke; instead came a remark

ice valentine,"

like?" I as

d Cupids, and the picture of a young

that

e, in the oddest handwrit

h," I hazarde

she replied disdainfully. "Be

ooked down at me from the stone steps her eyes shone with a soft light that filled me with radiance, and into her voi

you again-coming fr

You'll be late to dinner,

m. Love had taken away my appetite.... After dinner, when I was wanderi

to do that again,

was no arrangement in this, and we both feigned surprise when we encountered one another. It was Nancy who poss

begun to gossip. It was Nancy who conceived the brilliant idea-the more delightful because she said nothing about it to me-of making use of Sophy. She would leave school with Sophy, and I waited on the corner near the McAlery house. Poor Sophy! She

t one another in the sunshine.... At last we achieved the great adventure of a clandestine meeting and went for a walk in the afternoon, avoiding the houses of our friends. I've forgotten which of us had the boldness to propose it. The croc

to the incomprehensible shyness her presence continued to inspire. Although we did not altogether abandon our secret trysts, we began to meet in more natural ways; there were garden parties and picnics where we strayed together through the woods and fields, pausing to tear off, one by one, the petals of a daisy, "She loves me, she loves me not." I never ventured to kiss her; I always thought afterwards I might have done so, she had seemed so willing, her eyes had shone so expectantly as I sat beside her on the grass; nor can I tell why I desire

d. "Of course I like you better than

word "love," but w

y father that I was to change cars. Again and again I almost succeeded in screwing up my courage to the point of mentioning college to him,-never quite; his manner, though kind and calm, somehow strengthened my suspicion that I had been judged and found wanting, and doomed to "business": galley slavery, I deemed it, humdrum, prosaic, degrading! When I thought of it at night I experienced almost a frenzy of self-pity. My father couldn't intend to do that, just becau

far back as my memory goes she had been something of an invalid; she had a sweet, sad face, and delicate hands so thin as to seem almost transparent; and she always sat in a chair under the great tree on the lawn, smiling at us as we soared to dizzy heights in the swing, or played croquet, or scurri

asily, while we talked. To be in Nancy's presence and not alone with Nancy was agonizing, and I wondered at a sang-froid beyond my power to achieve, accused her of coldness, my sufferings being the greater because she seemed more beautiful, daintier, more irreproachable than I had ever see

on the lawn. Then, at supper, to cap the climax of untoward incidents, an animated discussion was begun as to the relative merits of the various colleges, the girls, too, taking sides. Mac Willett, Nancy's cousin, was going to Yale, Gene Hollister to Princeton, the Ewan boys to our State University, while Perry Blackwood and Ralph Hambleton and Ham

muster. "I haven't talked it over with my father yet." It was

in surprise. She wa

ather mean to put you in

n this painful subject. Perhaps it was because of this very reason, knowing me as

wander, nursing my wrongs, in a far corner of the garden, gay shouts and laughter still echoing in my ears. I was negligible, even my pathetic subterfuge had been detected and cruelly ridiculed by these friends whom I had always loved and sought out, and who now were

a little gate in it, and I had my hand on the latch when I heard the sound

h! H

Nancy stoo

ou're no

, I

hy

ow, there's no u

siness! Oh, Hugh, why are you so foolish and so proud? Do

evarication, the complex feelings from which it sprang. But at that mo

er has not spoken. It is true that I'm going to colleg

ering passion. I think the very intensity of it frightened her.

t realize it, my journey in

time. I would show my father, these companions of mine, and above all Nancy herself the stuff of which I was made, compel them sooner or later to admit that they had misjudged me. I had been possessed

pride. Gradually, however, a feeling of uneasiness crept over me: as pretence, her performance was altogether too realistic; she threw her whole soul into it, danced with Ralph as often as she had ever danced with me, took walks with him, deferred to hi

he chapel at the top of the building; we, the graduates, sat in two rows next to the platform, and behind us the wooden benches nicked by many knives-were filled with sisters and mothers and fathers, some a

n to higher institutions of learning. Others..." I gulped. Quoting the Scriptures, he complimented those who had made the most of their opportunities. And it was then that he called out, impressively, the name of Ralph Forrester Hambleton. Summa cum laude! Suddenly I was seized with passionate, vehement regrets at the sound of the applause. I might have been the prize scholar, i

allery of the flag-decked gymnasium

I felt astonished and relieved, yet I was heavy with sadness. My emancipation had been b