第84章

The spring, when they traveled back to the north, was so perceptibly nearer that the fugitive soft days strayed in advance at intervals that were briefer.They chose one for their journey, and its clear sunshine and hints at faint greenness were so exhilarating to Miss Alicia that she was a companion to make any journey an affair to rank with holidays and adventures.The strange luxury of traveling in a reserved first-class carriage, of being made timid by no sense of unfitness of dress or luggage, would have filled her with grateful rapture; but Rose, journeying with Pearson a few coaches behind, appeared at the carriage window at every important station to say, "Is there anything I may do for you, ma'am?" And there really never was anything she could do, because Mr.Temple Barholm remembered everything which could make her comfort perfect.In the moods of one who searches the prospect for suggestions as to pleasure he can give to himself by delighting a dear child, he had found and bought for her a most elegant little dressing-bag, with the neatest of plain-gold fittings beautifully initialed.It reposed upon the cushioned seat near her, and made her heart beat every time she caught sight of it anew.How wonderful it would be if poor dear, darling mama could look down and see everything and really know what happiness had been vouchsafed to her unworthy child!

Having a vivid recollection of the journey made with Mr.Palford, Tembarom felt that his whole world had changed for him.The landscape had altered its aspect.Miss Alicia pointed out bits of freshening grass, was sure of the breaking of brown leaf-buds, and more than once breathlessly suspected a primrose in a sheltered hedge corner.Acountry-bred woman, with country-bred keenness of eye and a country-bred sense of the seasons' change, she saw so much that he had never known that she began to make him see also.Bare trees would be thick-leaved nesting-places, hedges would be white with hawthorn, and hold blue eggs and chirps and songs.Skylarks would spring out of the fields and soar into the sky, dropping crystal chains of joyous trills.The cottage gardens would be full of flowers, there would be poppies gleaming scarlet in the corn, and in buttercup-time all the green grass would be a sheet of shining gold.

"When it all happens I shall be like a little East-Sider taken for a day in the country.I shall be asking questions at every step,"Tembarom said."Temple Barholm must be pretty fine then.""It is so lovely," said Miss Alicia, turning to him almost solemnly, "that sometimes it makes one really lose one's breath."He looked out of the window with sudden wistfulness.

"I wish Ann--" he began and then, seeing the repressed question in her eyes, made up his mind.

He told her about Little Ann.He did not use very many words, but she knew a great deal when he had finished.And her spinster soul was thrilled.Neither she nor poor Emily had ever had an admirer, and it was not considered refined for unsought females to discuss "such subjects." Domestic delirium over the joy of an engagement in families in which daughters were a drug she had seen.It was indeed inevitable that there should be more rejoicing over one Miss Timson who had strayed from the fold into the haven of marriage than over the ninety-nine Misses Timson who remained behind.But she had never known intimately any one who was in love-- really in love.Mr.Temple Barholm must be.When he spoke of Little Ann he flushed shyly and his eyes looked so touching and nice.His voice sounded different, and though of course his odd New York expressions were always rather puzzling, she felt as though she saw things she had had no previous knowledge of--things which thrilled her.

"She must be a very--very nice girl," she ventured at length."I am afraid I have never been into old Mrs.Hutchinson's cottage.She is quite comfortably off in her way, and does not need parish care.Iwish I had seen Miss Hutchinson."

"I wish she had seen you," was Tembarom's answer.

Miss Alicia reflected.

"She must be very clever to have such--sensible views," she remarked.

If he had remained in New York, and there had been no question of his inheriting Temple Barholm, the marriage would have been most suitable.

But however "superior" she might be, a vision of old Mrs.Hutchinson's granddaughter as the wife of Mr.Temple Barholm, and of noisy old Mr.

Hutchinson as his father-in-law was a staggering thing.

"You think they were sensible?" asked Tembarom."Well, she never did anything that wasn't.So I guess they were.And what she says GOES.Iwanted you to know, anyhow.I wouldn't like you not to know.I'm too fond of you, Miss Alicia." And he put his hand round her neat glove and squeezed it.The tears of course came into her tender eyes.

Emotion of any sort always expressed itself in her in this early-Victorian manner.

"This Lady Joan girl," he said suddenly not long afterward, "isn't she the kind that I'm to get used to--the kind in the pictorial magazine Ann talked about? I bought one at the news-stand at the depot before we started.I wanted to get on to the pictures and see what they did to me."He found the paper among his belongings and regarded it with the expression of a serious explorer.It opened at a page of illustrations of slim goddesses in court dresses.By actual measurement, if regarded according to scale, each was about ten feet high; but their long lines, combining themselves with court trains, waving plumes, and falling veils, produced an awe-inspiring effect.Tembarom gazed at them in absorbed silence.

"Is she something like any of these?" he inquired finally.

Miss Alicia looked through her glasses.

"Far more beautiful, I believe," she answered."These are only fashion-plates, and I have heard that she is a most striking girl.""A beaut' from Beautsville!" he said."So that's what I'm up against!

I wonder how much use that kind of a girl would have for me."He gave a good deal of attention to the paper before he laid it aside.