Part 44 (1/2)
”I-I think she did.”
”You bet she did! She'd let you see it if she didn't. So _that's_ what smoothed the way for us! I couldn't make it out. You certainly are a little witch, Jennie!”
”It isn't as smooth as all that.” Springing to her feet, she turned her back on him, moving away toward the window. ”Oh, Bob, I wish I didn't have to tell you. You're so good and kind, and I've been so”-it came out with a burst of confession, her arms outstretched, her hands spread palms upward-”I've been so awful! When you know-”
”Wait!” He seized her by the shoulders with the force which calms emotion from sheer fright. ”Wait, Jennie! I know what you're going to tell me.”
”Oh, but you can't.”
”It's-it's something about Wray, isn't it?”
She nodded dumbly.
”Then we'll put it off. Do you see? That isn't what I came back for. I came back about Teddy, and we must see that through before we think of ourselves. All that'll keep-”
”It won't keep if we go and live together.”
”Then we won't go and live together-not till we see how it's to be done.
That's just a detail. In comparison with Teddy, it doesn't matter one way or another. We'll come to it by and by. All we've got to think of now is that there's a boy whose life is hanging by a thread-”
”Yes; but I don't want you to be mixed up in it. I want to-to save you from-from the sacrifice-and-and the disgrace.”
He stood back from her with a hard little laugh.
”Good G.o.d! Jennie, I wonder if you have the faintest idea of what love is! You can't have. Do you suppose it matters to me what I'm mixed up in so long as it's something that touches you? Listen! Let me explain to you what love is like when it's the kind I feel for you. I”-he braced himself in order to bring out the words forcibly-”I don't care what Wray is to you or what you are to Wray-not yet. I put that away from me till I've gone with you through the things you've got to meet. They'll not be easy for you, but I want to make them as easy as I can. No one can do it but me, because no one cares for you as I do.”
”Oh, I know that.”
”Then, if you know it, Jennie, don't force anything else on me when I'm doing my best not to think of it. Let me just love you as well as I know how till we do the things that are right in front of us. After that, if there's a reason why I should hand you over to Wray, or to anybody else, you can tell me, and I'll-”
Pansy's scrambling to attention and a sound on the stairs arrested his words as well as Jennie's rising tears.
”Momma's coming down,” the girl whispered, hurriedly. ”She wants to see you. Don't forget that you're not to mind anything she says.”
To Bob, the moment was one of awed surprise, for the commanding, black-robed figure differed from all his preconceptions, as far as he had any, of Jennie's mother. Advancing rapidly into the room, she took his right hand in hers, laying her left on his head as if in benediction.
”So you're my Jennie's husband. I hope you're a good man, for you've found a good woman. Be loving to each other. The time is coming when love is all that will survive. Let me look at you.”
He stood off, smiling, while she made her inspection.
”Love is all there is, anyhow, don't you think, Mrs. Follett?”
”Yes; but it gets no chance in this world.”
”Or it is the only thing that does get a chance?”
”It may be the only thing that does get a chance, but that chance is small. There's no hope for the world. Don't think there is, because you'll be disappointed. Each time your disappointment is worse than the last, till you end in despair.”
It was the strain Jennie felt obliged to interrupt.