Nedra

  CHAPTER XXIX

  _THE OTHER SURRENDER_

  The first few days and nights after this episode found Ridgewaydespairing and unhappy, but as time removed the sting from defeat, hishopes began to flounder to the surface again, growing into a resolution,strong and arrogant. He devoted himself to her tenderly, thoughtfully,unreservedly. There was something subtle in his gallantry, somethingfascinating in his good humor, something in everything he did thatattracted her more than it had before. She only knew that she was happywhen with him and that he was unlike any man she had known.

  There were times when she imagined that he was indifferent to the shockhis pride had received at her hands, and at such times she was puzzledto find herself piqued and annoyed. A little gnawing pain kept her awakewith these intermittent fears.

  She became expert in the art of making garments from the woven grass.Her wardrobe contained some remarkable gowns, and his was enlarged bythe addition of "Sunday trousers" and a set of shirt blouses. They woresandals instead of shoes. Each had a pair of stockings, worn at the timeof the wreck, but they were held in sacred disuse against the hoped-forday of deliverance.

  One day, late in September, after the sun had banished the mists fromthe air and the dampness from the ground by a clear day's process, theywandered down between the gateposts to the beach where they had firstlanded with Pootoo. The sun was sinking toward the water-line and theysat wistfully watching it pass into the sea. For nearly five months theyhad lived with the savages, for the greater portion not unhappily, butalways with the expectation that some day a vessel would come to takethem back to civilization.

  "It has not been so unpleasant, after all, has it?" she asked. "We havebeen far more comfortable than we could have prayed for."

  "I should enjoy seeing a white man once in a while, though, and I'd givemy head for this morning's Chicago newspaper," he answeredrather glumly.

  "I have been happier on this island than I ever was in my life. Isn't itstrange? Isn't it queer that we have not gone mad with despair? But I,for one, have not suffered a single pang, except over the death of ourloved ones."

  "Lord Huntingford included," maliciously.

  "That is unkind, Hugh. I am ashamed to say it, but I want to forget thathe ever lived."

  "You will have plenty of time to forget all you ever knew before we die.We'll spend the rest of our days in that nigger village back there. IfI should die first I suppose you'd forget me in a week or so. It--"

  "Why, Hugh! You know better than that! Why do you say such disagreeablethings?"

  "I'm not worth remembering very long," he said lamely. She smiled andsaid the statement threw a different light on the question. Whereupon hedid not know whether to laugh or scowl.

  "This dear old island," she cried, looking toward the great rockslovingly. "Really, I should be sorry to leave it."

  "When the ship comes, I'll go back to America, and you may remain hereif you like and be the only Izor in the business." He said it in jest,but she looked at him solemnly for a moment and then turned her eyes outto sea. She was reclining on her side, her hand supporting her head, herelbow in the sand. He sat five feet away, digging holes in the sand withan odd little walking stick. One of her sandalled feet protruded frombeneath the hem of her garment, showing ever so little of the bare,white, fascinating ankle.

  "I should despise the place if I had to live here a day without you,"she said simply.

  "What do you mean?" She did not answer at once. When she did, it wasearnestly and without the least embarrassment.

  "Can't I make you understand how much you are to me?" she asked withouta blush. "You are the best, the noblest man I've ever known. I like youso well that I do not know how I could live if I did not have you totalk to, if I could not see you and be with you. Do you know what I didlast night?"

  He could only shake his head and tremble with the joy of feeling oncemore that she loved him and did not understand.

  "I prayed that we might never be taken from the island," she saidhurriedly, as if expecting him to condemn her for the wish. He rolledover on his back, closed his eyes, and tried to control a joyous,leaping heart. "It was so foolish, you know, to pray for that, but I'vebeen so contented and happy here, Hugh. Of course, I don't expect we areto live here always. They will find us some day." He opened his eyes andhazarded a glance at his face. She smiled and said, "I'm afraidthey will."

  There was but the space of five feet between them. How he kept frombounding to her side and clasping her in his arms he never knew; he wasin a daze of delight. So certain of her love was he now that, throughsome inexplicable impulse, he closed his eyes again and waited to hearmore of the delicious confession.

  "Then we shall leave the prettiest land in the world, a land where showand pomp are not to be found, where nature reigns without the touch ofsham, and go back to a world where all is deceit, mockery, display. Ilove everything on this island," she cried ecstatically. He saidnothing, so she continued: "I may be an exile forever, but I feel richerinstead of poorer away off here in this unknown paradise. How gloriousit is to be one's self absolutely, at all times and in all places,without a thought of what the world may say. Here I am free, I am a partof nature."

  "Do you think you know yourself fully?" he asked as quietly as he could.

  "Know myself?" she laughed. "Like a book."

  "Could you love this island if you were here alone?"

  "Well, I--suppose--not," she said, calculatively. "It would not be thesame, you know."

  "Don't you know why you feel as you do about this God-forsaken land,Tennys Huntingford?" he demanded, suddenly drawing very near to her, hisburning eyes bent upon hers. "Don't you know why you are happy here?"She was confused and disturbed by his manner. That same peculiar flutterof the heart she had felt weeks ago on the little knoll attackedher sharply.

  "I--I--I'm sure--I am happy just because I am, I dare say," shefaltered, conscious of an imperative inclination to lower her eyes, butstrangely unable to do so.

  "You love this island because you love me," he whispered in her ear.

  "No, no! It is not that! Please don't be foolish again, Hugh. You willmake me very unhappy."

  "But you do love me. You love me, and you do not know it," he said,thrilled with exultation. She looked at him wonderingly, a halfscornful, half dubious smile flitting over her face.

  "I will try to be patient with you. Don't you think I know my own mind?"she asked.

  "No; you do not," he said vigorously. "Let me ask you a few questions,and I beg of you, for your own sake and mine, to answer them withoutequivocation. I'll prove to you that you love me."

  "Who is to be the judge?" she asked merrily. She trembled and turnedcold as he took her hand in his and--she was not merry.

  "First, is there another man in the world that you would rather havehere? Answer, dear." The blood mounted to her cheek at the term ofendearment.

  "Not one," she answered firmly, trying to smile.

  "Have you never thought--be honest, now--that you don't want to leavethe island because it would mean our separation?"

  "Yes, but--but it would be the same with anybody else if I cared forhim," she exclaimed quickly.

  "But there is no one else, is there?" She looked at him helplessly."Answer!"

  "Oh, Hugh, I--it would not be right for me to encourage you by answeringthat. Please let us go back to the village," she pleaded.

  "Well, I know there is no one else. Tell me that you don't want to leaveme because we should drift apart in the big world," he persisted.

  "I had thought of that," she said so low that he could barely hear.

  "You have prayed that Grace may be alive. What would it mean to you ifshe should be alive and we should be reunited?"

  "I--I don't know," she muttered blankly.

  "Would you be willing and happy to give me up to her?"

  "I never thought of that," she said. Then a terror leaped to her eyesand her breast heaved as with pain. "Oh, Hugh, what would that
mean tome? I could not give you up--I could not!" she cried, clasping his handfeverishly in both of hers.

  "Would you be glad to see us married, to see us living together, to seechildren come to us? Would you be happy if I forgot you in my love forher?" he went on remorselessly, yet delightedly.

  "You couldn't forget me," she whispered, faint and trembling now. "Youdon't mean to say I never could be near you again!" There was dismay inher face and a sob in her voice.

  "Oh, occasionally, but in a very formal way."

  "I believe I should die," she cried, unable to restrain herself.

  "You admit then that you want me for yourself only," he said.

  "Yes, yes I do, Hugh! I want you every minute of my life!"

  "Now you are beginning to know what love is," he breathed in her ear.His eager arm stole slowly around her shoulders and, as she felt herselfbeing drawn close to him irresistibly, a sweet wonder overwhelmed her.The awakening had come. With singing heart she lifted her hands to hischeeks, bewitched by the new spell, holding his face off from her ownwhile she looked long and yearningly into his eyes. A soft flush creptover her brow and down her neck, her eyes wavered and melted intomirrors of love, her lips parted, but she could not speak. The clasptightened, his face came nearer, his words sounded like music in herenchanted ears.

  "Have I proved that you love me, darling?" "I never knew till now--Inever knew till now," she whispered.

  Their lips met, their eyes closed, and the world was far, far away fromthe little stretch of sand.