DIDN'Tyou tell me?"
"Mrs. Coffin--"
"John--you won't mind my callin' you John. I'm old enough, pretty nigh,to be your mother, and I've come to feel almost as if I was. John,you've got to stay here with me. You can't go to that house. You can'tgo to her."
"Mrs. Coffin, what are you saying? Do you know--Have you--"
"Yes, I know all about it. I know about the meetin's in the pines andall. Oh, why didn't you trust me and tell me? If you had, all would havebeen SO much better!"
He looked at her in utter amazement. The blood rushed to his face.
"You know THAT?" he whispered.
"Yes, I know."
"Did she tell--"
"No, nobody told. That is, only a little. I got a hint and I suspicionedsomethin' afore. The rest I saw with my own eyes."
He was now white, but his jaw shot forward and his teeth closed.
"If you do know," he said, "you must realize that my place is with her.Now, when she is in trouble--"
"Would you want to make that trouble greater? More than she could bear?"
"I think I might help her to bear it. Mrs. Coffin, you have been mytruest friend, but one, in Trumet. You HAVE been like a mother to me.But I have thought this out to the end and I shall go through with it.It is my affair--and hers. If my own mother were alive and spoke as youdo, I should still go through with it. It is right, it is my life. I'mnot ashamed of anything I've done. I'm proud. I'm proud of her. Andhumble only when I think how unworthy I am to be her husband. I supposeyou are fearful of what my congregation will say. Well, I've thought ofthat, too, and thought it through. Whatever they say and whatever theydo will make no difference. Do you suppose I will let THEM keep me fromher? Please open that door."
He was very tragic and handsome--and young, as he stood there. The tearsoverflowed the housekeeper's eyes as she looked at him. If her own lovestory had not been broken off at its beginning, if she had not thrownher life away, she might have had a son like that. She would have givenall that the years had in store for her, given it gladly, to have beenable to open the door and bid him go. But she was firm.
"It ain't the congregation, John," she said. "Nor Trumet, nor yourministry. That means more'n you think it does, now; but it ain't that.You mustn't go to her because--well, because she don't want you to."
"Doesn't want me? I know better." He laughed in supreme scorn.
"She doesn't want you, John. She wouldn't see you if you went. She wouldsend you away again, sure, sartin sure. She would. And if you didn'tgo when she sent you, you wouldn't be the man I hope you are. John, youmustn't see Grace again. She ain't yours. She belongs to some one else."
"Some one else!" He repeated the words in a whisper. "Some one ELSE?Why, Mrs. Coffin, you must be crazy! If you expect me to--"
"Hush! hush! I ain't crazy, though there's times when I wonder I ain't.John, you and Grace have known each other for a few months, that'sall. You've been attracted to her because she was pretty and educatedand--and sweet; and she's liked you because you were about the onlyyoung person who could understand her and--and all that. And so you'vebeen meetin' and have come to believe--you have, anyway--that 'twassomethin' more than likin'. But you neither of you have stopped to thinkthat a marriage between you two was as impossible as anything could be.And, besides, there's another man. A man she's known all her life andloved and respected--"
"Stop, Mrs. Coffin! stop this wicked nonsense. I won't hear it."
"John, Grace Van Horne is goin' to marry Cap'n Nat Hammond. There!that's the livin' truth."
In his absolute confidence and faith he had again started for the door.Now he wheeled and stared at her. She nodded solemnly.
"It's the truth," she repeated. "She and Nat are promised to each other.Cap'n Eben, on his deathbed, asked Dr. Parker and me to be witnesses tothe engagement. Now you see why you mustn't go nigh her again."
He did not answer. Instead, he stood silently staring. She steppedforward and laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Set down, John," she said. "Set down and let me tell you about it. Yes,yes, you must. If I tell you, you'll understand better. There! there!don't you interrupt me yet and don't you look that way. Do set down."
She led him over to the rocking-chair and gently forced him into it.He obeyed, although with no apparent realization of what he was doing.Still with her hand on his shoulder she went on speaking. She told himof her visit to the Hammond tavern, saying nothing of Mr. Pepper'scall nor of her own experience in the grove. She told of Captain Eben'sseizure, of what the doctor said, and of the old Come-Outer's return toconsciousness. Then she described the scene in the sick room and how Natand Grace had plighted troth. He listened, at first stunned and stolid,then with growing impatience.
"So you see," she said. "It's settled; they're engaged, and Dr. Parkerwill tell everybody of the engagement this very mornin'. It wa'n't anygreat surprise to me. Those two have been brought up together; 'twas thenatural thing that was almost bound to happen. Eben's heart was set onit for years. And she'll have a good husband, John, that I know. Andshe'll do her best to make him happy. He's a good man and--"
The minister sprang to his feet.
"A good man!" he cried furiously. "A good man! One who will make use ofa dying father to drive a girl into--Stand aside, Mrs. Coffin!"
"John, you mustn't speak that way of Nat Hammond. He ain't the kind todrive a girl against her will. And Grace is not one to be driven."
"Are you blind? Can't you see? Why, only yesterday, she--Do you think Ishall permit such a wicked crime as that to--"
"Ss-sh! No, it ain't wicked, it's right. Right and best for everybody,for her especial. Yesterday she might have forgot for a minute. Butthink, just think what would have happened if she cared for you."
"But she does! I know she does. Mrs. Coffin, stand away from that door."
"No, John; if you go out of that door now, to go to her, you'll have togo by main strength. You shan't wreck yourself and that girl if I canhelp it. Be a man."
The pair looked at each other. Keziah was determined, but so, evidently,was he. She realized, with a sinking heart, that her words had madeabsolutely no impression. He did not attempt to pass, but he slowlyshook his head.
"Mrs. Coffin," he said, "perhaps you believe you're doing right. Ihope--yes, I'll give you credit for that belief. But I KNOW I am rightand I shall go to her. Such a--a BARGAIN as that you have just told meof is no more to be regarded than--"
"John, I beg you--"
"NO."
"Then go. Go this minute and break her heart and ruin her life and spoilher good name in this village where she's lived since she was eightyears old. Go! be selfish. I suppose that's part of a man's make-up. Go!Never mind her. Go!"
"I do 'mind' her, as you call it. I AM thinking of her."
"No, you're not. It's yourself."
"If it was myself--and God knows it is the only happiness on earth forme--if it was only myself, and I really thought she wished me to stayaway, I'd stay, I'd stay, though I'd pray to die before this hour wasover."
"I know, I know. I've prayed to die myself afore now, but I'm here yet;and so will you be. We can't die so easy."
"But I know--"
"Do you suppose SHE would come to YOU if she knew it would be yourruin?"
He hesitated. The last time they met, ages before--no, only the previousafternoon--she had told him it was his happiness and his future onlythat she thought of. He choked and drew his hand across his eyes.
"Mrs. Coffin," he said, "you tell me it will be her ruin. YOU tell meso. You SAY she doesn't want me. I tell you that the only thing thatwill keep me from her is hearing that from her own lips. When she tellsme to leave her I will, and not before."
"She'll tell you, John; she'll tell you. I know you must despise me,pretty nigh. I cal'late you think I'm a worldly old woman, carin'nothin' for your feelin's. Maybe I've talked pretty hard in the last fewminutes, but I haven't meant to be hard. To be honest, I didn't thinkyou'd listen to me. I expected
you'd insist on seein' her yourself.Well, then, go and see her, if you must, though what will come of itcan only be more trouble, for you run the risk of folks knowin' it andbeginnin' to wonder. And I know Grace. She's made up her mind and won'tchange it. But I do ask you this:
Keziah Coffin Page 36