CHAPTER IX
She waited to announce her decision till Asaph should call again. Thentill Asaph should call again. Then she told him what she had decided,but not why. He suspected every other reason except the truth. He wasalways a quick, hard fighter, and now Deborah had to endure what Josiehad endured all her life. He denounced her, threatened her, cajoledher, pleaded with her, but Josie's ghost chaperoned the two, forbade thebanns, seemed to whisper, "His bad temper was what ruined my beauty."
The next day in the store Asaph looked wretched. Deborah grew the moredesirable for her denial. He had thought that he had but to ask her;and now she refused his beseeching. He paused before her counter andbegged her to reconsider.
He called at her home every evening. He went to her mother and imploredher aid. The poor old soul could hardly believe her ears when she heardthat Deborah was not only desired, but difficult. She promised Asaphthat Deborah would yield, and he went away happy.
There was a weird conflict in the forsaken house that night. The oldpictures nearly fell off the walls at the sight of the stupefied mothertrying to compel that lifelong virgin to the altar. Mrs. Larrabeepointed out that there would never be another chance. The A.G.&St.P.Ry.was in the receiver's hands. They would starve if Deborah lost her job.
Deborah's only answer was that she would go to Crawford's. Her mothercould not shake her decision, and hobbled off to bed in senile dismay.She had always been asking what the world was coming to, and now it wasthere. Deborah's heart was a whirlpool of indecision. Asaph's gloomappalled her, his evident need of her was his one unanswerable argument.He had given her her start in life. How could she desert his store, howcould she refuse him his prayer? But how could she take Josie's place,kidnap Josie's children? Why was such a puzzle forced upon her, whereevery decision was cruel to some one, treacherous to something?
The turmoil made such a din in her soul that she could hardly transactthe business at her counter. As she stood one morning asking a startledshopper if a bolt of maroon taffeta matched a clipping of magenta satin,she saw Newton Meldrum enter the store. As he went by to the office hesaw her, lifted his hat, held it in air while he gazed, then went on.
It occurred to Deborah that he could help her. She could lay the casebefore him, and he would give her an impartial decision. She waited forhim, and when he left the office she beckoned to him and asked him shylyif he would take supper with her and her mother.
"You bet I will!" he said, and stared at her so curiously that sheflashed red.
Through the supper, too, he stared at her so hard that she buttered herthumb instead of her salt-rising biscuit. Afterward she led him to theparlor and closed the door on her mother. This was in itself anepoch-making deed. Then she said to Newt: "Better light the longestcigar you have, for I have a long story to tell you. Got a match?"
He had, but he said he hadn't. She fetched one, and was so confusedthat she lighted it for him. Her hand trembled till he had to steady itwith his own big fingers, and he stared at her instead of at the match,whose flickering rays lighted her face eerily.
When she had him settled in a chair-the best patent rocker it was-shetold him her story. There is no surer test of character than theproblem a mind extracts from a difficulty. As Meldrum watched thissimple, starved soul stating its bewilderment he saw that her oneconcern was what she should do to be truest to other souls. There wasno question of her own advantage.
He studied her earnestly, and his eyes were veiled with a kind of smokeof their own behind the scarf of tobacco-fumes. When she had finishedshe raised her eyes to his in meek appeal and murmured, "And now whatought I to do?"
He gazed at her a long while before he answered, "Do you want to go toCrawford's?"
"Well, I'd get more money and I'd get to see New York, but I don't liketo leave Asaph. He says he needs me."
"Do you-do you want to marry Asaph?"
"Oh no! I-I like him awfully much, but I-I'm kind of afraid of him, too.But he says he needs me; and Josie's children need me, he says."
"But do you-l-love Asaph?"
"Oh no! not the kind of love, that is, that you read about. No, I'mkind of afraid of him. But I'm not expecting the kind of love you readabout. I'm wondering what I ought to do?"
"And you want me to decide?"
"If you only would."
"Why do you leave it to me, of all people?"
"Because you're such a fine man; you know so much. I have more-morerespect for you than for anybody else I know."
"You have!"
"Oh yes! Oh yes, indeed!"
"And you'll do what I tell you to?"
"Ye-yes, I will."
"Promise?"
"I promise."
"Give me your hand on it."
He rose and stood before her and put forth that great palm of his, andshe set her slim white fingers in it. And then there must have been anearthquake or something, for suddenly she was swept to her feet and shewas enveloped in his big arms and crushed against him, and his big mouthwas pressed so fiercely to hers that she could not breathe.
She was so frightened that her heart seemed to break. And then she knewnothing till she found herself in the patent rocker, with him kneelingat her side, pleading with her to forgive him for the brute he was.
She was very weak and very much afraid of him and entirely bewildered.She wanted to run away, but he would not let her rise. The only thingthat eased her was his saying over and over again, "You are the mostbeautiful thing in this world."
She had to laugh at that, and she heard herself saying, "Why, NewtMeldrum, one of us must be crazy!"
"I am-crazy with love of you."
"But to call me beautiful-poor old Debby!"
"You are beautiful; you're the handsomest woman I know."
"Me-with my white hair!"
"White roses. I don't know what's happened to you. You're not thewoman I talked to at Asaph's, at all. You're like a girl-with silverhair-only you've got a woman's big heart, and you haven't theselfishness of the young, but that kind of wonderful sadness thatsweetens a soul more than anything else."
Meldrum was as much amazed as Deborah was at hearing such rhapsodiesfrom his matter-of-fact soul.
Her comment was prosaic enough. She fell back and sighed. "Well, Iguess both of us must be crazy."
"I guess we are." He laughed boyishly. "We'd better get married andkeep the insanity in one family."
"Get married!" she echoed, still befuddled. "And after you telling mewhat you did!"
"Yes, but I didn't know the Lord was at work on a masterpiece likeyou-girl, woman, grandmother, child, beauty, brains-all in one."
Deborah was as exhausted by the shock as if she had been stunned bylightning. She was tired out with the first kiss an impassioned man hadever pressed upon her lips, the first bone-threatening hug an ursinelover had ever inflicted upon her wicker ribs.
She was more afraid of Newt Meldrum than she had been of Asaph. Butwhen she told him she would think it over he declined to wait. Helaughed at her pleas. She had promised to abide by his decision, and hehad decided that she should go neither to Asaph's nor to Crawford's, butto New York-not as any old buyer, either, except of things for her ownbeautiful body and some hats for that fleecy white hair of hers. Andshe should live in New York, take her mother there if she wanted, andclose up this house after they had been married in it.
She had been shaking her head to all these things and dismissing themgently as the ravings of a delirious boy. But now she said: "Oh, Icould never be married in this town."
"And why not?"
"Oh, I don't know. I just couldn't."
She was still afraid that people would laugh at her, but more afraidthat they would think she was trying to flaunt her triumph over them-thetriumph of marrying the great Newton Meldrum. She could bear thelaughter; she was used to the town's ridicule. But she could not endureto be triumphing over anybody.
M
eldrum did not fret over her motives; he simply nodded.
"All right; then we'll be married in New York. How soon can you start?"
She stared at him, this amazing man. "How soon? Why, I haven't said I'dmarry you yet! I'll have to think it over."
He laughed and crushed her in his arms and would not let her breathetill she breathed "Yes." He was the most amazing man. But, then, menwere all so amazing when you got to know them. They must have all gonecrazy at once, though.
THE END
The Last Rose of Summer Page 9