ethan laid aside his paddle and mopped his face with his handkerchief. the canoe, left to its own devices, poked its nose against the meadow bank and allowed its stern to float slowly around in the languid current. he gazed across the fields over which the heat-waves danced and shimmered and addressed himself to his cigarette case.
meadow along the bank
“providence,” he said, “showed great wisdom when it arranged that the pilgrims should land on the coast of massachusetts. ‘from what i’ve seen of these folks and what i’ve heard about them,’ says providence, ‘i don’t believe they’re going to be much of an acquisition to the new[58] world. but i’ll give ’em a fair show. i’ll see that they land at plymouth and if they can survive a massachusetts winter and a massachusetts summer i’ll have nothing more to say. those of them alive a year from now will be entitled to prizes in the endurance test and will have qualified to become hardy pioneers and build up the country.’”
he mopped his face again, lighted a cigarette and took up his paddle.
“one would think that this state might show moderation at some season of the year,” he added disgustedly. “but not content with her old fashioned winters, backward springs and early falls she has to try and wrest the hot weather blue ribbon from arizona! no wonder they say a bostonian isn’t contented in heaven; doubtless he finds the[59] weather frightfully equable and monotonous!”
he righted the canoe and went on, with a glance at the sky above the hills.
“we’re probably in for a jolly good thunder-storm this afternoon,” he muttered.
more river
by the time he had reached the entrance to the brook his forehead was again beaded with perspiration and his thin negligée shirt showed a disposition to cling to his shoulders. it was one of those intensely hot and exceedingly humid days which the early summer so often visits upon new england. even the birds seemed to feel the heat and instead of singing and darting about across the shadowed stream were content to flutter and chirp drowsily amidst the branches. the hum of the insects held a lethargic[60] tone that somehow, like a locust’s clatter in august, seemed to increase the heat. ethan went slowly up the winding stream with divided opinions on the subject of his own sanity. to sit in a canoe in the broiling sun on a morning like this merely to talk to a girl was rank idiocy, he told himself. then he recalled her eyes, her tantalizing little laugh, the soft tones of her voice, the provocative ghost of a smile that so often trembled about her red lips, and owned that she was worth it. after he had slipped under the stone footbridge it suddenly occurred to him that perhaps the girl would object quite as strongly as he to making a martyr of herself in the interests of polite conversation! perhaps she wouldn’t come at all! in which case he would have had his journey for naught—and possibly a sunstroke[61] thrown in! the more he considered that possibility the more reasonable it became, until, when he had shot the canoe into the little pond, and saw that the bank was empty of aught save a pair of the swans who were stretching their wings in the sunlight, he was not surprised.
“she certainly has more sense than i have,” he muttered.
not a breath of air stirred the leaves of the encircling fringe of trees. the little lake was like an artist’s palette set with all the tender greens and pinks and whites and yellows of summer.
“i hope you like my pool?” inquired a voice.
“i hope you like my pool?” inquired a voice.
ethan turned from his survey of the scene and saw that the girl was standing under the shade of a willow a little distance up the slope. she was all in[62] white, as yesterday, but a broad-brimmed hat of soft white straw hid her hair and threw a shadow over her face. ethan raised his own less picturesque panama and bowed.
“it’s looking fine to-day, i think,” he answered. “perhaps just a little bit ornate, though. there’s such a thing as over-decorating even a lotus pool.”
he turned the bow of the canoe toward the bank, swung it skilfully and stepped ashore. the girl watched him silently. when he had pulled the nose of the craft onto the grass and dropped his paddle he walked toward her. a little flush crept into her cheeks, but her eyes met his calmly.
“this is all dreadfully wrong, you know,” she said gravely. he stopped a few feet away and fanned himself with his hat.
[63]
“yes, very warm, isn’t it?” he agreed affably.
“in the first place,” she went on severely, “you are trespassing.”
“i beg your pardon?” he asked as though he had not comprehended.
“i said you are trespassing.”
“oh! yes, of course. well, really, you couldn’t expect me to sit out there in that hot sun, could you now? i—i have a rather delicate constitution.”
“but you were trespassing before! coming up here only makes it worse.”
“better, i call it,” he answered, turning to look back unregretfully at the pool.
“and then—then it is equally wrong for me to stay here and talk to you.”
“oh come now!” he objected. “nymphs in my day were not so conventional!”
[64]
“so i shall leave you,” she continued, unheeding and turning away.
“then i shall go with you.”
“you wouldn’t dare!” she cried.
“why not? really, miss clytie, i am fairly respectable and i know of no reason why you shouldn’t be seen in my company. i have never done murder and never stolen less than a million dollars at a time. to be sure, i hope to become a practising attorney in the course of a year or so, but as yet my honor is unsullied.”
she hesitated, her eyes turned in the direction of the house.
“besides,” he added hastily, “i was going to tell you what i know about you.”
“then,” she answered reluctantly, “i’ll stay—a minute.”
“thank you. and shall we be comfortable during that minute? ‘come,[65] let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings.’”
she shook her head.
“please!” he begged. “you will never be able to stand during all i have to tell you. besides, you forget my delicate physique; i have been repeatedly warned against over-exertion.”
she sank gracefully to the grass in a billowing of white muslin, smiling and frowning at once as though annoyed by his persistence, yet too amiable to refuse. all of which produced its effect, ethan realizing that she was doing him a great favor and becoming duly grateful. he followed her example, seating himself on the turf in front of her, paying, however, less attention to the disposition of his feet. unconsciously his hand sought a[66] pocket, then dropped away again. she laughed softly.
ethan and clytie on the bank
“please do,” she said.
“you’re sure you don’t mind?”
“not at all,” she answered. so he produced his cigarette case and then his match-box and finally blew a breath of gray smoke toward the motionless branches overhead.
“feel better?” she asked sympathetically.
“much, thank you.”
“then you may begin.”
“begin——?”
“tell me what you know about me.”
“oh! to be sure. well, let me see. in the first place, your name is laura devereux. i am right?”
she smiled mockingly.
“i haven’t agreed to tell you that.”
“oh! but i know i am. i haven’t[67] asked any questions, for that would have been taking an unfair advantage, i fancy. but i happened to overhear yesterday afternoon at the inn that a family by the name of devereux had taken the larches. and, as i have been in riverdell before, i know where the larches is—are—. would you say is or are?”
“i am only a listener.”
“then i shall say am, to be on the safe side; i know where the larches am. you are living at the larches.”
“no, i—i am merely staying there.”
“for the summer; exactly. that’s what i meant. when you are at home you live in boston. i won’t tell you how i discovered that, but it was quite fairly.”
“do i—are you sure i am a bostonian?”
[68]
“hm! now that you mention it—i am not. perhaps your family moved to boston from somewhere else?”
“yes?”
“from—let me see! pennsylvania? but no, you don’t talk like a pennsylvanian. maryland? no again. where, please?”
“but i haven’t acknowledged the correctness of any of your premises yet,” she objected.
“but you don’t dare tell me i’m wrong,” he challenged.
“at least, i am not going to tell you so,” she answered.
“that is as good as an admission!”
“very well,” she replied serenely. “and now that you know so much about me—that is all, by the way?”
“so far,” he replied.
[69]
“then don’t you think i ought to know something about you?”
“i am flattered that you care to.” he laid a hand over his heart and bowed profoundly.
ethan
“my curiosity is of the idlest imaginable,” she responded cruelly.
“i regret that bow,” he said. “however, i shall tell you anyhow. i am like the prestidigitateur in that i have nothing to conceal. and,” he added ruefully, “mighty little to reveal. my name is parmley, surnamed ethan. i am holding nothing back there, for i have no middle name. it has been a custom in our family since the days of the disreputable old norman robber from whom we are descended to exclude middle names. i was born in this same commonwealth of massachusetts of well-to-do and honest parents, both of whom have[70] been dead for some years. i was an only child. pray, miss devereux, consider——”
“if you don’t mind,” she interrupted, “i’d rather you didn’t call me that. i haven’t owned to it, you know.”
“pardon me! i was about to ask you, miss clytie, to consider that fact when weighing my faults. as a child i was intensely interesting; i have gathered as much from my mother. i passed successfully through the measles, mumps, scarlet fever and whooping-cough. i also had the postage-stamp, bird-egg and autograph manias. later i wriggled my way through a preparatory school—a sort of hot-house for tender young snobs—and later managed, by the skin of my teeth and a condition or two, to enter college. as it has been the custom[71] for the parmleys to go to harvard, i went there too. i am boring you frightfully?”
“no.”
“i succeeded in completing a four-year course in five. some chaps do it in three, but i didn’t want to appear arrogant. i took it leisurely and finished in five. then, as there had never been a lawyer in the family, i decided to study law. i entered the harvard law school and graduated a few weeks ago. i am now spending a hard-earned vacation. in september i am to enter a law firm in providence as a sort of dignified office-boy.
“i am the possessor of some worldly wealth, not a great deal, but enough for one of my simple tastes. i am even a member of the landed gentry, since i own a piece of land with a house on it. i also own an automobile, and it is[72] that i have to thank for this pleasant meeting.”
she smiled a question.
“i left boston bright and early monday morning with farrell. farrell calls himself a chauffeur, in proof of which he displays a license and a badge. if it wasn’t for that license and that badge i’d never suspect it. farrell’s principal duty seems to be to hand me wrenches and screw-drivers and things when i lie on my back in the road and take a worm’s-eye view of the machine. all went as nice as you please until we reached a spot some two miles north of this charming hamlet. there things happened. i won’t weary you with a detailed list of the casualties. suffice it to say that i walked into riverdell and farrell followed an hour later leaning luxuriously back in the car and watching[73] that the tow-rope didn’t snap. i ate a supplementary breakfast at the inn while farrell entertained the blacksmith, and then, having nothing better to do, i dropped the canoe into the water and paddled downstream. ever since i stole my first apple forbidden territory has possessed an unholy fascination for me, and that is why, perhaps, i roamed up the brook and stumbled, as it were, into arcady.”
roadside inn
“what color is your machine?” she asked.
“exceedingly blue.”
“and—isn’t it almost repaired?”
“er—almost, yes.”
“it is taking a long while, seems to me.”
“well, its malady was grave. i think it had tonsillitis, judging from the sounds it made.”
[74]
“indeed? but it seemed to go very well.”
“i beg your pardon?”
“i said that it seemed to go very well.”
“you have seen it?”
“yes, it passed the house yesterday at about two o’clock.”
“there are a great many blue cars in the world,” he defended.
“has it returned yet?” she asked, unheeding.
“no. the fact is, i was on my way to stillhaven to visit friends there, so i sent the car on for them to use. i have observed that, failing my presence, the car does fairly well for my friends.”
big blue touring car
“what a pessimist! and you are staying in riverdell?”
“for a few days, yes; at the roadside.”
[75]
“riverdell should feel flattered to find that you prefer it to stillhaven as a summer resort.” she gathered her skirts together with one hand and started to rise. ethan jumped to his feet and enjoyed the intoxicating felicity of feeling her hand in his.
ethan assists clytie
“thank you,” she murmured, smoothing her gown. then, with a return of that provoking, mocking little smile, “would it be a terrible blow to your vanity,” she asked, “if i were to tell you that your guesses are all wrong?”
“terrible,” he answered anxiously.
“then i won’t tell you,” she said soothingly.
“but—but—they’re not wrong, are they?”
“‘where ignorance is bliss——’” she murmured.
[76]
“but i’d rather know! tell me the worst, please!”
she shook her head smilingly.
“good-bye,” she said.
“aren’t you going to let me see you again?” he asked dolefully. again she shook her head.
“i have had the offer of a new pool,” she said, “one with all modern improvements, and i think i shall move.”
“but—now, look here, it isn’t fair! what am i to do? it’s evident you’ve never spent a holiday in riverdell, or else you’d appreciate my plight. there’s nothing to do save paddle around on that idiotic little river. and every time i’m afraid the water will leak out when i’m not watching it and leave me high and dry. if only for charity, please let me come here and see you now and then—just for a[77] moment! i’ll be very good, really; i’ll even agree to stay in the canoe and frizzle before your eyes!”
“you speak,” she answered perplexedly, “as though i had invited you to come to riverdell, or at least as though i were to blame for your remaining here!”
he resisted the words that sprang to his lips.
“i beg your pardon then. i wouldn’t for the world imply anything so absolutely criminal. but i am here and i am bored; and surely you haven’t so many excitements, so many engagements in the mornings but that you can spend a few moments communing with nature here at the pool? of course, i don’t recommend myself as an excitement; perhaps i’m more of a narcotic; but i’ll do anything in my power to amuse you! i’ll—i’ll even[78] tell you fairy stories or sing to you; and i’ve never done either in my life!”
“that is indeed an inducement then,” she laughed. “but—good-bye.”
“you won’t?”
“do you think it likely?” she asked a trifle haughtily.
“not when you look like that,” he answered dismally.
“good-bye,” she said again, moving away.
“good morning,” he answered. his eyes were on the ground where she had been sitting. he took a step forward. from there he watched her pass up the slope under the trees. at the last she turned back and looked regretfully at the pool shimmering in the noontide heat.
“i shall be sorry to leave it,” she[79] said softly, yet distinctly. “perhaps—i shall change my mind.”
then she went on, passing from shadow to sunlight, until the trees hid her. when she was quite out of sight ethan lighted a cigarette, smiling the while. then he flicked aside the charred match, lifted his left foot, stooped and picked up a little white wad which, as he gently shook it out, became a dainty white handkerchief. he looked at it, held it to his nose, touched it to his lips, folded it carefully and clumsily and placed it in his pocket. then he turned toward the pool and the canoe.
the pool
“she’s a coquette,” he muttered, “an arrant coquette. but—but she’s simply—ripping!”
