CHAPTER XXIII
WHEREIN ELNORA REACHES A DECISION, AND FRECKLES AND THE ANGEL APPEAR
Well, she came, didn't she?" remarked Mrs. Comstock to Elnora
as they watched the automobile speed down the road. As it turned
the Limberlost corner, Philip arose and waved to them.
"She hasn't got him yet, anyway," said Mrs. Comstock,
taking heart. "What's that on your finger, and what did she
say to you?"
Elnora explained about the ring as she drew it off.
"I have several letters to write, then I am going to change
my dress and walk down toward Aunt Margaret's for a little exercise.
I may meet some of them, and I don't want them to see this ring.
You keep it until Philip comes," said Elnora. "As for
what Miss Carr said to me, many things, two of importance: one,
that I lacked every social requirement necessary for the happiness
of Philip Ammon, and that if I married him I would see inside a
month that he was ashamed of me----"
"Aw, shockins!" scorned Mrs. Comstock. "Go on!"
"The other was that she has been engaged to him for years,
that he belongs to her, and she refuses to give him up. She said
that if he were in her presence one hour, she would have him under
a mysterious thing she calls `her spell' again; if he were where
she could see him for one week, everything would be made up. It
is her opinion that he is suffering from wounded pride, and that
the slightest concession on her part will bring him to his knees
before her."
Mrs. Comstock giggled. "I do hope the boy isn't weak-kneed,"
she said. "I just happened to be passing the west window this
afternoon----"
Elnora laughed. "Nothing save actual knowledge ever would have
made me believe there was a girl in all this world so infatuated
with herself. She speaks casually of her power over men, and boasts
of `bringing a man to his knees' as complacently as I would pick
up a net and say: `I am going to take a butterfly.' She honestly
believes that if Philip were with her a short time she could rekindle
his love for her and awaken in him every particle of the old devotion.
Mother, the girl is honest! She is absolutely sincere! She so believes
in herself and the strength of Phil's love for her, that all her
life she will believe in and brood over that thought, unless she
is taught differently. So long as she thinks that, she will nurse
wrong ideas and pine over her blighted life. She must be taught
that Phil is absolutely free, and yet he will not go to her."
"But how on earth are you proposing to teach her that?"
"The way will open."
"Lookey here, Elnora!" cried Mrs. Comstock. "That
Carr girl is the handsomest dark woman I ever saw. She's got to
the place where she won't stop at anything. Her coming here proves
that. I don't believe there was a thing the matter with that automobile.
I think that was a scheme she fixed up to get Phil where she could
see him alone, as she worked to see you. If you are going deliberately
to put Philip under her influence again, you've got to brace yourself
for the possibility that she may win. A man is a weak mortal, where
a lovely woman is concerned, and he never denied that he loved her
once. You may make yourself downright miserable."
"But mother, if she won, it wouldn't make me half so miserable
as to marry Phil myself, and then read hunger for her in his eyes!
Some one has got to suffer over this. If it proves to be me, I'll
bear it, and you'll never hear a whisper of complaint from me. I
know the real Philip Ammon better in our months of work in the fields
than she knows him in all her years of society engagements. So she
shall have the hour she asked, many, many of them, enough to make
her acknowledge that she is wrong. Now I am going to write my letters
and take my walk."
Elnora threw her arms around her mother and kissed her repeatedly.
"Don't you worry about me," she said. "I will get
along all right, and whatever happens, I always will be your girl
and you my darling mother."
She left two sealed notes on her desk. Then she changed her dress,
packed a small bundle which she dropped with her hat from the window
beside the willow, and softly went down stairs. Mrs. Comstock was
in the garden. Elnora picked up the hat and bundle, hurried down
the road a few rods, then climbed the fence and entered the woods.
She took a diagonal course, and after a long walk reached a road
two miles west and one south. There she straightened her clothing,
put on her hat and a thin dark veil and waited the passing of the
next trolley. She left it at the first town and took a train for
Fort Wayne. She made that point just in time to climb on the evening
train north, as it pulled from the station. It was after midnight
when she left the car at Grand Rapids, and went into the depot to
await the coming of day.
Tired out, she laid her head on her bundle and fell asleep on a
seat in the women's waiting-room. Long after light she was awakened
by the roar and rattle of trains. She washed, re-arranged her hair
and clothing, and went into the general waiting-room to find her
way to the street. She saw him as he entered the door. There was
no mistaking the tall, lithe figure, the bright hair, the lean,
brown-splotched face, the steady gray eyes. He was dressed for travelling,
and carried a light overcoat and a bag. Straight to him Elnora went
speeding.
"Oh, I was just starting to find you!" she cried.
"Thank you!" he said.
"You are going away?" she panted.
"Not if I am needed. I have a few minutes. Can you be telling
me briefly?"
"I am the Limberlost girl to whom your wife gave the dress
for Commencement last spring, and both of you sent lovely gifts.
There is a reason, a very good reason, why I must be hidden for
a time, and I came straight to you--as if I had a right."
"You have!" answered Freckles. "Any boy or girl who
ever suffered one pang in the Limberlost has a claim to the best
drop of blood in my heart. You needn't be telling me anything more.
The Angel is at our cottage on Mackinac. You shall tell her and
play with the babies while you want shelter. This way!"
They breakfasted in a luxurious car, talked over the swamp, the
work of the Bird Woman; Elnora told of her nature lectures in the
schools, and soon they were good friends. In the evening they left
the train at Mackinaw City and crossed the Straits by boat. Sheets
of white moonlight flooded the water and paved a molten path across
the breast of it straight to the face of the moon.
The island lay a dark spot on the silver surface, its tall trees
sharply outlined on the summit, and a million lights blinked around
the shore. The night guns boomed from the white fort and a dark
sentinel paced the ramparts above the little city tucked down close
to the water. A great tenor summering in the north came out on the
upper deck of the big boat, and baring his head, faced the moon
and sang: "Oh, the moon shines bright on my old Kentucky home!"
Elnora thought of the Limberlost, of Philip, and her mother, and
almost choked with the sobs that would arise in her throat. On the
dock a woman of exquisite beauty swept into the arms of Terence
O'More.
"Oh, Freckles!" she cried. "You've been gone a month!"
"Four days, Angel, only four days by the clock," remonstrated
Freckles. "Where are the children?"
"Asleep! Thank goodness! I'm worn to a thread. I never saw
such inventive, active children. I can't keep track of them!"
"I have brought you help," said Freckles. "Here is
the Limberlost girl in whom the Bird Woman is interested. Miss Comstock
needs a rest before beginning her school work for next year, so
she came to us."
"You dear thing! How good of you!" cried the Angel. "We
shall be so happy to have you!"
In her room that night, in a beautiful cottage furnished with every
luxury, Elnora lifted a tired face to the Angel.
"Of course, you understand there is something back of this?"
she said. "I must tell you."
"Yes," agreed the Angel. "Tell me! If you get it
out of your system, you will stand a better chance of sleeping."
Elnora stood brushing the copper-bright masses of her hair as she
talked. When she finished the Angel was almost hysterical.
"You insane creature!" she cried. "How crazy of you
to leave him to her! I know both of them. I have met them often.
She may be able to make good her boast. But it is perfectly splendid
of you! And, after all, really it is the only way. I can see that.
I think it is what I should have done myself, or tried to do. I
don't know that I could have done it! When I think of walking away
and leaving Freckles with a woman he once loved, to let her see
if she can make him love her again, oh, it gives me a graveyard
heart. No, I never could have done it! You are bigger than I ever
was. I should have turned coward, sure."
"I am a coward," admitted Elnora. "I am soul-sick!
I am afraid I shall lose my senses before this is over. I didn't
want to come! I wanted to stay, to go straight into his arms, to
bind myself with his ring, to love him with all my heart. It wasn't
my fault that I came. There was something inside that just pushed
me. She is beautiful----"
"I quite agree with you!"
"You can imagine how fascinating she can be. She used no arts
on me. Her purpose was to cower me. She found she could not do that,
but she did a thing which helped her more: she proved that she was
honest, perfectly sincere in what she thought. She believes that
if she merely beckons to Philip, he will go to her. So I am giving
her the opportunity to learn from him what he will do. She never
will believe it from any one else. When she is satisfied, I shall
be also."
"But, child! Suppose she wins him back!"
"That is the supposition with which I shall eat and sleep for
the coming few weeks. Would one dare ask for a peep at the babies
before going to bed?"
"Now, you are perfect!" announced the Angel. "I never
should have liked you all I can, if you had been content to go to
sleep in this house without asking to see the babies. Come this
way. We named the first boy for his father, of course, and the girl
for Aunt Alice. The next boy is named for my father, and the baby
for the Bird Woman. After this we are going to branch out."
Elnora began to laugh.
"Oh, I suspect there will be quite a number of them,"
said the Angel serenely. "I am told the more there are the
less trouble they make. The big ones take care of the little ones.
We want a large family. This is our start."
She entered a dark room and held aloft a candle. She went to the
side of a small white iron bed in which lay a boy of eight and another
of three. They were perfectly formed, rosy children, the elder a
replica of his mother, the other very like. Then they came to a
cradle where a baby girl of almost two slept soundly, and made a
picture.
"But just see here!" said the Angel. She threw the light
on a sleeping girl of six. A mass of red curls swept the pillow.
Line and feature the face was that of Freckles. Without asking,
Elnora knew the colour and expression of the closed eyes. The Angel
handed Elnora the candle, and stooping, straightened the child's
body. She ran her fingers through the bright curls, and lightly
touched the aristocratic little nose.
"The supply of freckles holds out in my family, you see!"
she said. "Both of the girls will have them, and the second
boy a few."
She stood an instant longer, then bending, ran her hand caressingly
down a rosy bare leg, while she kissed the babyish red mouth. There
had been some reason for touching all of them, the kiss fell on
the lips which were like Freckles's.
To Elnora she said a tender good-night, whispering brave words of
encouragement and making plans to fill the days to come. Then she
went away. An hour later there was a light tap on the girl's door.
"Come!" she called as she lay staring into the dark.
The Angel felt her way to the bedside, sat down and took Elnora's
hands.
"I just had to come back to you," she said. "I have
been telling Freckles, and he is almost hurting himself with laughing.
I didn't think it was funny, but he does. He thinks it's the funniest
thing that ever happened. He says that to run away from Mr. Ammon,
when you had made him no promise at all, when he wasn't sure of
you, won't send him home to her; it will set him hunting you! He
says if you had combined the wisdom of Solomon, Socrates, and all
the remainder of the wise men, you couldn't have chosen any course
that would have sealed him to you so surely. He feels that now Mr.
Ammon will perfectly hate her for coming down there and driving
you away. And you went to give her the chance she wanted. Oh, Elnora!
It is becoming funny! I see it, too!"
The Angel rocked on the bedside. Elnora faced the dark in silence.
"Forgive me," gulped the Angel. "I didn't mean to
laugh. I didn't think it was funny, until all at once it came to
me. Oh, dear! Elnora, it <i is> funny! I've got to laugh!"
"Maybe it is," admitted Elnora "to others; but it
isn't very funny to me. And it won't be to Philip, or to mother."
That was very true. Mrs. Comstock had been slightly prepared for
stringent action of some kind, by what Elnora had said. The mother
instantly had guessed where the girl would go, but nothing was said
to Philip. That would have been to invalidate Elnora's test in the
beginning, and Mrs. Comstock knew her child well enough to know
that she never would marry Philip unless she felt it right that
she should. The only way was to find out, and Elnora had gone to
seek the information. There was nothing to do but wait until she
came back, and her mother was not in the least uneasy but that the
girl would return brave and self-reliant, as always.
Philip Ammon hurried back to the Limberlost, strong in the hope
that now he might take Elnora into his arms and receive her promise
to become his wife. His first shock of disappointment came when
he found her gone. In talking with Mrs. Comstock he learned that
Edith Carr had made an opportunity to speak with Elnora alone. He
hastened down the road to meet her, coming back alone, an agitated
man. Then search revealed the notes. His read:
DEAR PHILIP:
I find that I am never going to be able to answer your question
of this afternoon fairly to all of us, when you are with me. So
I am going away a few weeks to think over matters alone. I shall
not tell you, or even mother, where I am going, but I shall be safe,
well cared for, and happy. Please go back home and live among your
friends, just as you always have done, and on or before the first
of September, I will write you where I am, and what I have decided.
Please do not blame Edith Carr for this, and do not avoid her. I
hope you will call on her and be friends. I think she is very sorry,
and covets your friendship at least. Until September, then, as ever,
ELNORA.
Mrs. Comstock's note was much the same. Philip was ill with disappointment.
In the arbour he laid his head on the table, among the implements
of Elnora's loved work, and gulped down dry sobs he could not restrain.
Mrs. Comstock never had liked him so well. Her hand involuntarily
crept toward his dark head, then she drew back. Elnora would not
want her to do anything whatever to influence him.
"What am I going to do to convince Edith Carr that I do not
love her, and Elnora that I am hers?" he demanded.
"I guess you have to figure that out yourself," said Mrs.
Comstock. "I'd be glad to help you if I could, but it seems
to be up to you."
Philip sat a long time in silence. "Well, I have decided!"
he said abruptly. "Are you perfectly sure Elnora had plenty
of money and a safe place to go?"
"Absolutely!" answered Mrs. Comstock. "She has been
taking care of herself ever since she was born, and she always has
come out all right, so far; I'll stake all I'm worth on it, that
she always will. I don't know where she is, but I'm not going to
worry about her safety."
"I can't help worrying!" cried Philip. "I can think
of fifty things that may happen to her when she thinks she is safe.
This is distracting! First, I am going to run up to see my father.
Then, I'll let you know what we have decided. Is there anything
I can do for you?"
"Nothing!" said Mrs. Comstock.
But the desire to do something for him was so strong with her she
scarcely could keep her lips closed or her hands quiet. She longed
to tell him what Edith Carr had said, how it had affected Elnora,
and to comfort him as she felt she could. But loyalty to the girl
held her. If Elnora truly felt that she could not decide until Edith
Carr was convinced, then Edith Carr would have to yield or triumph.
It rested with Philip. So Mrs. Comstock kept silent, while Philip
took the night limited, a bitterly disappointed man.
By noon the next day he was in his father's offices. They had a
long conference, but did not arrive at much until the elder Ammon
suggested sending for Polly. Anything that might have happened could
be explained after Polly had told of the private conference between
Edith and Elnora.
"Talk about lovely woman!" cried Philip Ammon. "One
would think that after such a dose as Edith gave me, she would be
satisfied to let me go my way, but no! Not caring for me enough
herself to save me from public disgrace, she must now pursue me
to keep any other woman from loving me. I call that too much! I
am going to see her, and I want you to go with me, father."
"Very well," said Mr. Ammon, "I will go."
When Edith Carr came into her reception-room that afternoon, gowned
for conquest, she expected only Philip, and him penitent. She came
hurrying toward him, smiling, radiant, ready to use every allurement
she possessed, and paused in dismay when she saw his cold face and
his father. "Why, Phil!" she cried. "When did you
come home?"
"I am not at home," answered Philip. "I merely ran
up to see my father on business, and to inquire of you what it was
you said to Miss Comstock yesterday that caused her to disappear
before I could return to the Limberlost."
"Miss Comstock disappear! Impossible!" cried Edith Carr.
"Where could she go?"
"I thought perhaps you could answer that, since it was through
you that she went."
"Phil, I haven't the faintest idea where she is," said
the girl gently.
"But you know perfectly why she went! Kindly tell me that."
"Let me see you alone, and I will."
"Here and now, or not at all."
"Phil!"
"What did you say to the girl I love?"
Then Edith Carr stretched out her arms.
"Phil, I am the girl you love!" she cried. "All your
life you have loved me. Surely it cannot be all gone in a few weeks
of misunderstanding. I was jealous of her! I did not want you to
leave me an instant that night for any other girl living. That was
the moth I was representing. Every one knew it! I wanted you to
bring it to me. When you did not, I knew instantly it had been for
her that you worked last summer, she who suggested my dress, she
who had power to take you from me, when I wanted you most. The thought
drove me mad, and I said and did those insane things. Phil, I beg
your pardon! I ask your forgiveness. Yesterday she said that you
had told her of me at once. She vowed both of you had been true
to me and Phil, I couldn't look into her eyes and not see that it
was the truth. Oh, Phil, if you understood how I have suffered you
would forgive me. Phil, I never knew how much I cared for you! I
will do anything--anything!"
"Then tell me what you said to Elnora yesterday that drove
her, alone and friendless, into the night, heaven knows where!"
"You have no thought for any one save her?"
"Yes," said Philip. "I have. Because I once loved
you, and believed in you, my heart aches for you. I will gladly
forgive anything you ask. I will do anything you want, except to
resume our former relations. That is impossible. It is hopeless
and useless to ask it."
"You truly mean that!"
"Yes."
"Then find out from her what I said!"
"Come, father," said Philip, rising.
"You were going to show Miss Comstock's letter to Edith!"
suggested Mr. Ammon.
"I have not the slightest interest in Miss Comstock's letter,"
said Edith Carr.
"You are not even interested in the fact that she says you
are not responsible for her going, and that I am to call on you
and be friends with you?"
"That is interesting, indeed!" sneered Miss Carr.
She took the letter, read and returned it.
"She has done what she could for my cause, it seems,"
she said coldly. "How very generous of her! Do you propose
calling out Pinkertons and instituting a general search?"
"No," replied Philip. "I simply propose to go back
to the Limberlost and live with her mother, until Elnora becomes
convinced that I am not courting you, and never shall be. Then,
perhaps, she will come home to us. Good-bye. Good luck to you always!"