Pembroke

Then he paused, and leaned up against some pasture bars and looked around him. There was nobody in sight on the road in either direction,

n, and as he listened they seemed to take on a rhythmic cadence. Presently the drone of multifold vibrations sounded in his ears with even rise and fall, like the mighty breathing of

d not want to see them. Barney avoided everybody now; he had been nowhere since the cherry party, not even to meeting. He led the li

long way there was no house except Sylvia Crane's. There was one cellar where a house had stood before Barney could remember. There were a few old blackened chimney-bricks still there, the step-stone worn by dead and forgotten feet, and the old lilac-bushes that had grown against the front windows. Two poplar-trees,

he winter. He saw for a second the driving slant of the snow-storm over the old drifting road, he saw the white slant of Sylvia's house-roof through it. And at the same time a curious, pleasant desire, which might be primitive and coeval with the provident passion of the squirrels and honey-bees, thrilled him. Then he dismissed it bitterly. What need of winter-stores and provisions for sweet home-comfort in the hearts of fre

apples of gold, against the background of dark violet clouds. Barney looked at this tree, which was glorified for the time almost out of its common meaning as a tree,

rolling slowly towards him. They disappeared suddenly, and he thought they had turned into a lane which opened upon the road just there. He thought to himself, and with no concern, that it might have been his sister Rebecca-so

a dim shaft of candle-light which streamed from the room beyond. He started, for he thought it might be

tinct words behind him, and turned. "What is it?" he called. But still he c

't goin' past, Richard? You ain't goin' past, Richard?" Syl

clutching piteously with pale fingers through the gloom. Barney drew back

she wavered. Barney thought she was going to fall, and he stepped forward and caught hold of her elbow. "I gu

ht upon him, and then withdrew herself, all unnerved as she was, with the inborn maiden reticence which so many years had strengthened; once she pushed him f

ess you've made a mistake, Miss

drawn off; but she clung to his arm, and it seemed to him that he was forced to sit down be

rds him, her head thrown back. Her thin, faded cheeks were burning, her blue eyes eager, her lips twitching with pitiful smiles. The room was dim

brushed away unseen cobwebs, and stood up. "You have made-" he began again; but Sylvia interrupted him with a weak cry. "Set down here, set down here, jest a minute, if you don't want to kill me!" she wailed out, and she clutched

er set with me on it before, an'-you'd been comin'-here a long while bef

made no

?" she went on. "You ain't never, an' you've been co

nd her, seemingly with

r it-it didn't seem as if I could bear it, Richard." Sylvia turned her pale profile closer to Barney's breast and sobbed faintly. "I've watched so long fo

's breast except in dreams. For the moment he could not stir; he had a feeling of horror, as if he saw his own double. There was a subtle resemblance which lay deeper than the f

. They had a dreadful time. I had to stay there. It wa'n't my fault. If Barney had come back, I could have got here in season; but poor Charlotte was settin' out there all alone on the doorste

away, and stood up again. "Now, Miss Crane," he said, "I've got to tell you. Yo

up at him. "I don't know what you say

in a loud, distinct voice. Sylvia's straining, questioning e

-cloth sofa, and gasped faintly. Barney bent over her. "Now don't feel bad

re half gasping for breath, and h

her gently, and repeated the question. He did not know if she were faint or dying; he had never seen anybody faint or d

resently came back with a dipper of water, and held it dripping over Sylvia. "Hadn't you better drink a little?" he urged. But Sylvia suddenly motioned him away and sat up. "No

ertain and embarrassed. "The room ain't very light, and it's dark outside;

what the reason was; it don't make any dif

d Barney; "I sha'n't ever spe

' suffer for nothin' at all, jest as he makes me. You had better not tell of it, Barney Thayer, when it was all due to your awful will that won't let you give in to anybody, in the

rd, but carried the dipper of water back to the kitchen, returned with the candle, setting it gingerly on the white mantel-shelf between a vase of dried flowers and a mottle-backed shell, and w

from a pale wild sky. The moon was young

e as he had been among the village people of late, and little as he had heard of the village gossip, he knew the story of Richard Alger's desertion of Sylvia Crane. Was he not like Richard Alger in his own desertion of Charlotte Barnard? and had not Sylvia

h that awful eagerness which comes from a hunger of the heart? He had seen one woman's wounded heart,

here Charlotte lived, he stood still, looking in her direction. He seemed to see her, a quarter of a

d a little shadowy figure met him with a soft shock. The was a smothered nervous titter from the figure. Barney did not know who it was; he muttered an ap

; "you frightened me. I

why. "Oh, is it you, Rose?" he returned, stif

nd her voice sounded a

topped a

if-you're mad

ourse I a

acted kind of que

know what you mean," he said at length. "I don't know h

and-you've hardly spoken to

and he turned away again, but Rose caught his arm. "T

re," Barney retur

is side, her head sunk on his shoulder. "I've been worrying about it all these months," she said in his ear. Her sof

anything about it,"

ds reptiles and unsought love seized Barney. He unclasped her clinging hands, and fairly pushed her away from him

t, and she turned back. She was trembling from head to foot, there was a great rushing in her ears; but she hea

irt brushed her light-colored one, and Charlotte's voice, full of co

e," Rose faltered; she could

demanded Charlotte. "What mad

elf-defence. "He was out in the ro

rlotte said, pitilessly. "You followed

done anything out of the w

e time you have been pretending to be such a good fri

e, don't-

end to me; and now when Barney don't notice you, you follow him up as no girl that thought anythin

what I do!" Rose cri

y else came along, you'd c

ver have thought of Barney if he-ha

use," said Cha

would never come bac

o have done so by you, if

ct him never to marry anybody because he isn

ever marry anybody he don't like because she follows hi

very happy," said she, "and I sha'n't be happy my whole life, but I wouldn't chang

t another word, and Charlotte crossed

them weighed upon her. She had a childish sense of shame and remorse, and a conviction of the truth of Charlotte's words. And yet she

to the wall, and scudded along swiftly that no one might recognize her. All at once a young

ou," she sa

are if I walk

ose, "not if

he had known he worshipped her afar off; she had laughed at him and half despised him, but now she felt s

e out alone," he said, in h

roup of returning people. Suddenly Rose, in spite of herself, began to cry. She

you, has there?" he stammer

sobbed

ain't

isn't an

e they reached the old tavern Rose had stopped crying-she even tried to laugh and turn

something had scare

held Rose's arm. He had adored her secretly ever since he was a child, and he had never dared as much as that before.

and something in her voice gave

is arms around her. "I'm sorry you

gainst her wet, burning one. He was several years younger than she. She had half scorned him,

e boy, half beside himself with joy and t

Finally Rose raised herself. "I must

cent, passionate lips approached

me a little?"

ain. Then, with a murmured "good-night," she fled into the house, and the boy we