XXII: LEE, TOO, IS CONFESSED
As, in the seclusion of Lee's bedroom that night, she and the widow satside by side, talking at each other in the wide mirror while makingtheir night toilets, a "movie-man" would have given his head toreproduce the scene with its witcheries in the way of unbound hair,filmy white, glimpses of polished shoulders. But in his absence thesemay be left where they belong--behind the secure guard of Lee's oakendoor. Sufficient for the present is their conversation.
"So we've engaged ourself, have we?" As with Gordon, Mrs. Mills wentstraight to the bat.
"Why--" Pausing with comb and one yellow curl held in midair, Lee lookedher utter surprise at the smiling face in the glass. "Mary Mills!_whoever_ told you?"
"This and these would be enough." The widow touched the girl's palecheeks and shadowed eyes. "But I caught your young man, coming in, andmade him confess. So we got mad--because he kissed another girl, andtook it out of him by engaging ourself on the spot? Oh, you littlefool!"
Dropping the curl, Lee straightened and stiffened till she looked in thefilmy nightrobe like a cold and classic marble. "If it had been Phyllisor Phoebe Lovell, or any other nice girl, I wouldn't have cared. But--apeona."
"Well, what of it?" Assured, now, of the truth of her surmises, thewidow went confidently forward. "She's mighty pretty."
"But a _peona_! And you know _her_."
"Yes, and I know _him_--better than you do. Now look here, my dear--"Followed a little lecture on the creature, Man, that showed she hadprofited by her married experience. "A man is a _man_ and there's nosense in trying to have him anything else. When a girl loves, sheexcludes, for the time at least, all others from her life. But aman--while he may love one girl with all his strength, he can still seebeauty in others. Nature made him that way and we have simply got tostand for it. Now if Gordon had been ten years older, I'd have allowedyou real reason. After thirty a man's kisses mean something. But atGordon's age they are thistledown and light as air, belong to vanityrather than love. A young fellow is so proud of having kissed a prettygirl that he swells up like a turkey gobbler and struts in hisself-esteem without thought for anything else. Then, you, yourself, aremostly to blame. Why--"
Next a little lecture on the sin of flirting, with appropriate personalapplications which were, however, interrupted by the person. "_You_didn't flirt with _him_, of course."
"Goodness, child! don't bite me! I couldn't see the poor boy crushedinto the face of the earth. Now listen." After detailing Gordon'sconfession, of the injured pride, anger, pique that he had tried tosolace in Felicia's smiles, she concluded, "But you--after driving himto desperation go and make the vital mistake of your life."
"And you think that was the way of it? That he didn't really _mean_anything?"
"Didn't he tell me so himself?"
"Well--" she pondered, looking at the widow in the glass, then suddenlycollapsed on the other's warm shoulder. "Oh, I'm so glad! I--I _hate_him!"
The widow, being a woman, quite understood these contradictions. "Ofcourse you do." She gently fondled the fair head. "How much?"
The head rose in order to execute a vehement nod. "I hate him so muchI--I could just _kill_ any other girl that tried to take him!" With awild sob the face burrowed again into the soft shoulder.
"Well, they'll try, all right."
The head rose again, startled eyes, big and brown, staring from theglass. "Do you--really think so?"
"What do you expect--a nice boy like that to mope and pine for the restof his life with ten million girls of marriageable age running loose inthe United States? What brought him here, anyway--bolting to escape onegirl's noose. Take my advice and rope him quick."
"But I'm promised, now, to Ramon."
"Call it off."
"Oh no." Sitting up straight, she shook her head. "I cannot ruin hislife."
"Hum!" The widow coughed. "You cannot ruin his life? So you intend tobless it by devoting to his service affections that belong to another?Also to cut him off from the greatest thing in the world--the real loveof some other woman? Ruin his life, indeed? Lee, I always credited youwith a little sense."
"There is something in that." She snatched at the hope. "The best thingis to tell him I don't love him and leave it to him to decide."
"And he'll do it, have no fear!" The widow tossed her head. "Ramon'snice, but he cannot rise above his race, and you know very well there'sneither reason nor justice nor the instinct of fairness in it. Fancy aMexican giving up a girl because she loves another! He'd resent even thesuggestion, take his revenge after marriage."
The gleam of hope had died. She sighed. "I can try."
"Oh, you little fool!" In her irritation the widow bestowed a smart slapon the girl's shoulder. But she spoiled the moral effect the next secondby gathering her in her arms. "Don't you know that up in the Statesgirls take on a new beau every Saturday night and break the engagementthe following Sunday?"
But the precedent produced only a second envious sigh. "I wish _I_ coulddo it. I guess I wasn't brought up right."
"'Tisn't training; it's heredity. You're your father over again; will goyour own way. I wash my hands of you."
That charitable process known as "washing one's hands of anybody" was,however, the last thing Mrs. Mills was capable of. The assertion simplymarked a change of plan which, rising early next morning, sheinaugurated when she caught Bull on his way to the stables.
Though he had sat next to her during the long pleasant evening thatfollowed supper last night, the others' presence had debarred privatecommunications. Content to hear her voice running with Lee's in happychatter--so content, indeed, that he forgot for the time being theimpending trouble--Bull had smoked furiously in the dusk till theyretired to bed.
He listened, now, in silence while the widow told of Lee's engagement.But the sudden lowering of his black brows was far more dangerous thanany threat. She laid her hand on his arm in sudden alarm.
"Easy, my friend. Don't be too quick. She isn't married yet, and won'tbe--if you leave it to me."
More powerful than the plea was her gentle pressure. Apart from certainaccidental contacts, before mentioned, which had caused him suchpleasurable embarrassment, it was the first time she had actuallytouched him. Big, burly, black giant that he was, he still trembled likea school-girl; trembled so violently that she felt it and dropped bothher hand and her eyes. Transferring the embarrassment to herself, thathelped him mightily. He was the first to break a confused but happysilence.
"What do you want me to do?"
"Nothing, just now, except to let Gordon ride with me a piece of the wayhome."
It was impossible to overlook his sudden disappointment. Withcharacteristic frankness she did not wait for him to tell it. "I'drather have you; there are so many things I want to consult you about.Dear me!" Her little vexed face was very comforting; it expressed suchsincere feeling. "These young folks certainly do make one a lot oftrouble. Betty wanted you _so_ badly at my party--and so did I; but wejust had to ask Gordon to help Lee out. But I'm going to settle thisbusiness right quick. And when it is all over--you will come and make usa real visit, won't you?"
Wouldn't he? His nod and effulgent grin expressed happiness in theprospect beyond the powers of his slow tongue. Satisfied, she proceeded.
"So let me have him this once. Lee is going to ride a few miles with us,and before she comes back--"
But the matter of her communication is covered by her talk with Gordon,whom she caught coming out of the bunk-house five minutes later.
"I argued with her half the night," she told him, walking along at hisside. "Goodness me, young man, you don't know what you are up against!Such obstinacy! Lucky for you that it is balanced by a sweet temper andstrong sense of justice. All I gained was her promise to beg off fromRamon. She plans to go over and see him some time this week, and if shedoes--well, with Isabel loving her to death, the old man tendering sageadvice, and Ramon passionately pleading his cause, they'll have her tothe priest and marrie
d before she has time to think. She mustn't go."
"But if she is so obstinate--" Gordon began.
"I'll take care of that. I shall call on Ramon on the way home andexplain the true state of his lady's heart. Of course he'll raise Cainand probably damn me for a black-hearted liar, but I can stand it. Thepoint is--he will come right over here. In the mean time you must getbusy. A declaration in hand is worth two suspected, and though I'vehinted very strongly that you are not altogether indifferent to hersweet self, it will make Ramon's task ten times harder if she hears itfrom your lips. Now listen!"
The rest was plot, dark and devious. Lee had promised to ride with her afew miles on the homeward journey, and Bull would detail him, Gordon,for her escort. Coming back, he would have all the time in the world.