Chapter XIX

The Three Gifts and Their Meanings

The next day, Aaron King—­too distracted to paint—­idled all the afternoon in the glade.  But the girl did not come.  When it was dark, he returned to camp; telling himself that she would never come again; that his rude yielding to the lure of her wild beauty had rightly broken forever the charm of their intimacy—­and he cursed himself—­as many a man has cursed—­for that momentary lack of self-control.

But the following afternoon, as the artist worked,—­bent upon quickly finishing his picture of the place that seemed now to reproach him with its sweet atmosphere of sacred purity,—­he heard, as he had heard that first day, the low music of her voice blending with the music of the mountain stream.  Scarce daring to move, he sat as though absorbed in his work—­listening with all his heart, for some sound of her approach, other than the melody of her song that grew more and more distinct.  At last, he knew that she was standing just the other side of the willows, beyond the little spring.  He felt her hidden eyes upon him, but dared not look that way—­feeling sure that if he betrayed himself in too eager haste she would vanish.  Bending forward toward his canvas, he made show of giving close attention to his work and waited.

For some minutes, she remained concealed; singing low, as though to try him with temptation.  Then, all at once,—­as the painter, with poised brush, glanced from his canvas to the scene,—­she stood in full view beside the spring; her graceful, brown-clad figure framed by the willow’s green.  Her arms were filled with wild flowers that she had gathered from the mountainside—­from nook and glade and glen.

“If you will not seek me, there is no use to hide,” she called, still holding her place on the other side of the spring, and regarding him seriously; and the man felt under her words, and saw in her wide, blue eyes a troubled question.

“I sought you all the way to your home,” he said, gently, “but you would not let me come near.”

“I was frightened,” she returned, not lowering her eyes but regarding him steadily with that questioning appeal.

“I am sorry,”—­he said,—­“won’t you forgive me?  I will never frighten you so again.  I did not mean to do it.”

“Why,” she answered, “I have to forgive myself as well as you.  You see, I frightened myself quite as much as you frightened me.  I can’t feel that you were really to blame—­any more than I. I have tried, but I can’t—­so I came back.  Only, I—­I must never dance for you again, must I?”

The man could not answer.

As though fully reassured, and quite satisfied to take his answer for granted, she sprang over the tiny stream at her feet, and came to him across the glade, holding out her arms full of blossoms.  “See,” she said with a smile, “I have brought you the last one of the three gifts.”  Gracefully, she knelt and placed the flowers on the ground, beside his box of colors.