Then I'll Come Back to You

refused to stay entirely pent-up; he frowned at her seemingly inane interruptions of the technical discussion into which he had immediately plunged with the East Coast Company's enginee

eb's eyes; he took note of Miss Sarah's illuminated face, a

g in their chairs. "Let me in on it-let me laugh, too-if there is anyt

mischief fairly danced in their shimmering, liquid depths. The girl's face, even to him who had long before grown overfamiliar with its beau

ake neither rime nor reason. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to get Mr. O'Mara's reason for establishing his hea

d, meekly. Her giggle,

d is not so difficult. There are several miles of swamp work, I think he said, and a bridge or something, which promises troub

eming meekness. Moreover, the working of Caleb's

he weather," the girl struggled on. "Mr. O'Mara predicted it woul

llison t

sat, a little red of face himself, gaz

he prompted h

s face and half-closed his eyes. He leaned back and rai

't thinkin' it will. It'll jest be rainin', come sun

tarted to rise, and then dropped back into his chair, dumfounded. There was no doubt concerning the success of his daughter's query. At la

ott said that you could outguess dear old

all. Even the reticence which seemed a part of Steve's grave face and big body was swept aside before the tumult

se enough of me not to have known instantly who it must be, the first day you began your endless reiteration of 'my m

n that the phrase was a relic of her own childhood, which she had once coined in extenuation of conduct to

o himself in a fashion which made Caleb remember that moment of inexplicable vehemence, outside on the vera

y. I know it was some sort of a rumpus, with Barbara in i

arbara's swift silence and Steve's hint of self-consciousnes

course! It was a matter of knight-errantry and ladies fa

thoughtful; then he fell to poundin

don't suffer any longer, Barbara, though I must state that this is the first time I ever knew you to search so diligently beneath the table for renewed composure. I am not going to expound Mr. O'Mara's rea

edy. When the men rose, after breakfast, to go down into the town, she, too, declared her intention of accompanying them, as though it were the expected thing. She crossed the lawn at Steve's side, ahead of her father and Caleb, with Mi

Cal," he said. "And you were right. It does take stuff to make that sort of

Her very unconsciousness of self intensified and emphasized it for the man whose steady gaze rarely left her warm face. And more than once she caught herself watching for his slow smile to spread and crinkle the corners of his eyelids; once or twice, in a little lull, she found time to wonder at that new and quite fr

d and liked him. Thinking of him and-and-has often kept

nd Steve thought that she was phrasing her own reply. He could not know that she wanted a moment in which to contemplate the little hint o

he summer you were here?" she asked finally. "A pale,

en no

e for her? He was always supercilious with the rest of u

nclination

courses of action, which we have come to accept and … and recognize. But he was always gentle with her, and kind, and-oh, I think reverend is the right word! Now, knowing

ore slowly now, w

't!-but his father cared that way for a woman, cared just as utterly. And everybody thought this match was an assured thing; they even wondered at it a little, she was so … so mouselike, and Garry so brilliant and ha

g example, but he-that man whom Mary Graves married-had an unspeakable record! Her family made the match-the newspapers call it a union of America's

ther to return-and when Garry reappeared they talked more. I never knew before that a change so terrible could take place in anyone so much a man as I know Garry to be. It's not just his fa

hink you could come down again, Friday, if you have to go back into the woods before then? I'm going to have a party for some week-end guests-a masque dance. Ga

asting appreciation for the finenesses of him whom they had known together. Steve nodded his comprehension, and made no answer to her invitation to him, then. But they found conversation somehow less easy after that. It was not until the

n was different. The men still swarmed in on the drives, brilliant dots of color against the neutral background of the dusty wide streets. Their capacity for abandonment to pleasure, their prodigality, was as great as ever, but the old-time picturesque simplicity of it all seemed lacking-the simplicity which had once mitigated much that would have been otherw

g malevolently at O'Mara, the girl shrank against her companion and clutched his arm. The red-shirted one fell to singing after they had passed. A maudlin rend

orks on the Reserve Company's cut, which we are to move in the spring, and whenever he has had a trifle more tha

im. His short laugh failed entirel

a friend of yours,

e admitted. "Not when he

lannel sleeve. "Did you know that your arm grew as hard as iron for an instant? I never knew that any

olored

t has to be hard. It constitutes what one of m

lighted bob of her head with which she

ust have heard of

ed again in t

work and-and the men who are doing it, than I had any idea myself. Why, I'll wager that you never knew, yourself, that he once wrote in to the

of appreciation

uest-even if it is funny. He has been cook for me; but he's been doctor and nurse and countless other

s. Then, with face averted, "Didn't he embroider you a-a

grew v

" he blurted, and B

Then it is true? I-I ne

n, she told herself that she did like more than a

himself in-in yellow worsted on a red background. I have it still, displayed in a conspicuous place in the shack up-river. But now I'll wager that you can't guess what the

back her head and burst int

she sing-songed. And when they we

, please! Can't I m

iverman who was pouring forth his whole soul in the refrain of "Harrigan, That's Me!" And almost immediately, in answer to Barbara's question, Steve pointed across to a short, plump figure in conversation with McLean, the mill superintendent. Even

m?" she asked eage

attractive member of the opposite sex. He came without being called. Barbara had a closer and closer view of him, until he stopped at last directly in front of them and bowed. She wanted to laugh at that wide face-at the grandiloquent flourish with which he removed his hat-and would have ha

in that thin and reedy tenor

rbara l

almost an hour later, he heard them both laughing long before he came into view, and on

as deep a bass as she could summon. "I had no idea how great and important a ma

him, almost as easily as she had teased the sturdy

s opinion," he argued, "and therefor

ckens and Dumas-he didn't pronounce it that way, either-and even fall back upon Shakespeare, in dark and dour hours. No, I am positive that Mr. Morgan docs not approve of such fiction. He confided to me that he finds more entertainment, of a winter's nig

sed for a moment at the edge of the close-cropped lawn which rolled back to

u are doing, Mr. O'Mara?" she asked. "And did I do wrong in mentioning

hould have been

e? After listening to him one is almost compelled to believ

ied in her sweater pockets, st

ccepted my invitation for Friday. May I expect you? I didn't tell you, but Archie-Archiba

bara found that she could not read an inch behind those grave gray eyes. She found his quiet countenance as unreadable as that of the utmost stranger might have been. And while she waited, not entirely certain how displeased

ething had gone from her voice and left it conventionally impersonal. "She's ri

two at the roadside. Stephen O'Mara met for a moment the level, me

our morning canter, Bobs

nted. With the reins looped over her elbow she faced the man in blue flannel and cordu

ment might have been overbrusk had it not been for the modulat

p of which corroborated the suggestion of wi

anything, was a trifle too wide, and her wide-set eyes were tip-tilted in an almost Oriental slant. Her utter lack of hypocrisy, her unsparing arraignment of fundamental motives-her own and those of all with whom she came in contact-often resulted in calmly direct comments whic

ered as edged steel, did not cut through the veneer of some custom or other and expose the crooked grain beneath. Barbara did not know just why she cared so deeply for Miriam Burrell-we scarcely ever realize that such a regard can be

am," she said, "and how did you know him, pray? I've

he fall of the Roman Empire, wasn't it, Mr. O'Mara? Weren't they dragging me in at the wheel o

bara felt smaller and more

Bobs," she commented. "But you will have time to co

which still felt the pressure

gs break badly," he told her simply. "If I can"-an

her head with

s-come if you can. I have heard, Mr. O'Mara, that you have once or twice fought your way out of the dark

the driveway, the horse Ragtime muzzling the woolly white sweater and following like a dog. But he wasn't thinking of Miriam Burrell or of Garry Devereau, while he waited for Caleb and Dexter

ite figure which hesitated on the threshold; but the night-light was still burning upon the

leep," she faltered

half blankly, at the dark-eyed fa

-up knees were bookless. "Yes, I'm reading. I'm having

y gesture and Barbar

off the ligh

napped t

unschooled, half-grown girl to-day that it has perplexed and worried me! From the moment when I first recognized him a

r your poise?" came back the unco

nd I have poise. I am not a child. But looking back now, I can't quite account for all my-shall I call it cordiality? Do

d Miriam, unen

petition of such a slight. I wouldn't want him to feel that way, but it was there just the same, even in the way he received the invitation to my party. It was on the tip of my tongue to

those others would be a lot more worth asking, if they had to work, too. I wish every man had to-work-hard; had to work until body and brain were numb with it!" Her voice

ed herself u

she reproved, "that Archie Wickersham or

"-and she seemed to be arguing with herself-"but

wake a long t

my brain has been so quick to catch a thought or supplement one. Have you ever wonder

t that is in us' is far, far too decently unexciting for daily diet. And

the bitterness of that reply. Just once aga

ngagement to Archibald Wickersham was to

ave?" Miriam cris

ught he might be interested. You don't see

ake. Once she smiled a little, for such perplexities which, of themselves, must work out inevitably. When dawn