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Page 6
"I think most girls whom I have known would have made much more fuss
than you did," said James. "You never screamed."
"I never did scream in my life," said the girl. "I don't think I could.
I don't know how. I think if I did scream, I should certainly faint."
James stopped and opened his medicine-case. "I think you had better take
just a swallow of brandy," said he.
The girl thrust back the bottle which he offered her with high disdain.
"Brandy," said she, "just because I have been frightened a little! I
should be ashamed of myself if I did such a thing. I am ashamed now for
almost fainting away, but I should never forgive myself if I took brandy
because of it. If I haven't nerve enough to keep straight without
brandy, I should be a pretty poor specimen of a girl." She looked at him
indignantly, and James saw what he had not seen before (he had been so
engrossed with the strangeness of the situation), that she was a
beautiful girl with a singular type of beauty. She was very small, but
she gave the impression of intense springiness and wiriness. Although
she was thin, no one could have called her delicate. She looked as much
alive as a flame, with nerves on the surface from head to heel. Her eyes
were blue, not large, but full of light, her hair, which tossed around
her face in a soft fluff, was ash-blonde. Brown was the last color,
theoretically, which she should have worn, but it suited her. The ash
and brown, the two neutral tints, served to bring out the blue fire of
her eyes and the intense red of her lips. However, her beauty lay not so
much in her regular features as in the wonderful flame-like quality
which animated them, and which they assumed when she spoke or listened.
In repose, her face was as neutral as a rock or dead leaf. It was
neither beautiful nor otherwise. When it was animated, it was as if the
rock gave out silver lights of mica and rosy crystal under strong light,
and as if the dead leaf leapt into flame. James thought her much
prettier than any of his sisters or their friends, but he was led quite
unknowingly into this opinion, because of his own position as her
protector. That made him realize his own male gorgeousness and strength,
and he really saw the girl with such complacency instead of himself.
They walked along, and all at once he stopped short. Something occurred
to him, which, strange to say, had not occurred before. He was not in
the least cowardly. He was brave almost to foolhardiness. All at once
it occurred to him that he ought to follow the man.
"Good Lord!" said he and stopped.
"What is the matter?" asked the girl.
"Why, I must follow that man. He is a suspicious character. He ought not
to be left at large."
"I suppose you don't care if you leave me alone," said the girl
accusingly.
James stared at her doubtfully. There was that view of the situation.
"I am going to see my friend Annie Lipton, who lives in Westover. There
is half a mile of lonely road before I get there. That man, for all I
know, may be keeping sight of us in the woods over there. While you are
going back to chase him, he may come up with me. Well, run along if you
want to. I am not afraid." But the girl's lips quivered, and she paled
again.
James glanced at the stretch of road ahead. There was not a house in
sight. Woods were on one side, on the other was a rolling expanse of
meadowland covered with dried last year's grass, like coarse
oakum-colored hair.
"I think I had better keep on with you," James said.
"You can do exactly as you choose," the girl replied defiantly, but
tremulously. "I am not in the least dependent upon men to escort me. I
wander miles around by myself. This is the first time I have seemed to
be in the slightest danger. I dare say there was no danger this time,
only he came up behind like a cat, and--"
"He didn't say anything?"
"No, he didn't speak. He only tried to make me turn my head, so he could
see my face, and directly it seemed to me that I must die rather than
let him. He was trying to make me turn my head. I think maybe he was an
insane man."
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