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Page 59
Florence declared she could not stop another moment. Her friends would be
alarmed about her; she must go at once. My mother urged her to remain all
night. But she could not think of it; and, while she was arranging her
wraps, my mother beckoned me into the entry.
"Roy," she said, decisively, "Florence should not go home alone!"
"I can't help it!" said I, doggedly. "I guess nothing will devour her on
the journey."
"My son!" she exclaimed, with just severity, "I cannot permit you to
speak in that way of one whom I so highly respect! It is ungentlemanly!
Your father is absent, the servant is busy, and Florence has a full
half-mile to walk. You will attend her home!"
My limbs trembled under me. I should have darted from the back door, and
left my mother's favorite to shift for herself; but my austere relative
had kept a firm hold of my arm, and, without further parley, drew me back
to the parlor.
"If you must go, dear," she said to Florence, "I will not urge you. Roy
will walk home with you."
Florence opened wide her blue eyes in evident astonishment; and, as for
me, the whole creation was in a whirl! The room went round and round like
a top--I was obliged to grasp the back of a chair to keep from falling--I
was penetrated with speechless dismay.
"Roy! Florence is waiting!" said my unrelenting mother.
There was no appeal. To use a vulgar, but expressive phrase, I was "in
for it;" and, nerved by a sort of desperate courage, which sometimes
comes to the aid of the weak in great extremities, I flung open the door,
blundered down the steps, and out into the street. Florence followed
leisurely behind, shut the gate after her, and fastened the latch. How I
envied her her provoking coolness!
We went on; she one side of the road--I the other, and about three yards
in advance of her. By-and-bye, when we had proceeded in utter silence for
a quarter of a mile, my companion said, demurely:
"Roy, you can get over the fence, and go in the field; and I will keep
the road."
The little jade was quizzing me. I could not endure her ridicule, so
forthwith I made a sort of flying leap to her side of the street,
spattering the mud in every direction as I alighted beside her. I had
just begun to think how much better the footing was on that sidewalk than
the one I had just left, when I heard somebody whistling, and, looking
up, I saw Will Richardson, a mutual acquaintance, approaching. The cold
perspiration started to my brow--how could I endure to be seen going home
with a girl? I could not! No, never! The idea was out of the question!
I flew to the wall, sprang over, and threw myself down behind a pile of
stones.
I heard Will and Florence laughing together in a vastly amused way--and
then she took his arm, and off they went! I shook my clenched hand after
them; at that moment, I think I could have cudgeled Will without
compunction.
The ridiculous story of my adventure got wind; no doubt Will spread it,
and I was the laughing stock of the village. My mother gave me a sound
berating, and my staid, punctilious father administered the severest
rebuke of all--he said I was a disgrace to my ancestors.
I managed to live through it, though, and a few months later entered
college. I will not linger on the days spent with my Alma Mater; the
history of the scrapes which my mischief-loving fellow students got me
into during those four years, would fill three volumes of octavo.
At the end of the prescribed time, I graduated with the highest honors,
for I had always been a most determined bookworm; and, with my diploma in
my pocket, I returned home.
My friends were rejoiced to see me, they said; aunt Alice informed me
that I had improved wonderfully in manners, as well as looks; she thought
me decidedly handsome, she said, which remark, I privately concluded, was
the most sensible of any I had ever heard her make.
The day following my arrival at home, my mother spoke of Florence. I
had been longing to ask about her, but dared not hazard the question.
My mother thought that I ought to call on the Hay family, we had always
been intimate, she said, and it would be no more than courteous for me
to surprise them with my presence.
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