BETWEEN THE ELDERBERRY BUSHES

“No.”

The word came from Ransom.  He had reached the end of his patience and was determined to have it out with this man on the spot.

“Come into my room,” said he.  “If you doubt her, you doubt me; and in the present stress of my affairs this demands an immediate explanation.”

“I have no time to enter your room, and I cannot linger here any longer talking on a subject which at the present moment is not clear to either of us,” was the resolute if not quite affable reply.  “Later, when my conclusions are made, I will see you again.  Now I am going to eat and refresh myself.  Don’t follow me; it will do you no good.”

He turned to descend.  Ransom had an impulse to seize him by his twisted throat and drag from him the secret which his impassive features refused to give up.  But Ransom was no fool and, stepping back out of the way of temptation, he allowed him to escape without further parley.

Then he went to his room.  But, after an hour or two spent with his own thoughts, his restlessness became so great that he sought the gossips below for relief.  He found them all clustered about Hazen, who was reeling off stories by the mile.  This was unendurable to him and he was striding off, when Hazen burst away from his listeners and, joining Ransom, whispered in his ear: 

“I saw her go by the window just now on her way up-street.  What can she find there to interest her?  Where is she going?”

“I don’t know.  She doesn’t consult me as to her movements.  Probably she has gone for a walk.  She looks as if she needs it.”

“So do you,” was the unexpected retort given by Hazen, as he stepped back to rejoin his associates.

Ransom paused, watching him askance in doubt of the suggestion, in doubt of the man, in doubt of himself.  Then he yielded to an impulse stronger than any doubt and slipped out into the highway, where he turned, as she had turned, up-street.

But not without a struggle.  He hated himself for his puppet-like acceptance of the hint given him by a man he both distrusted and disliked.  He felt his dignity impaired and his self-confidence shaken, yet he went on, following the high road eagerly and watching with wary eye for the first glimpse of the slight figure which was beginning to make every scene alive to him.

It had rained heavily and persistently the last time he came this way, but to-day the sun was shining with a full radiance, and the trees stretching away on either side of the road were green with the tender tracery of early leafage; a joy-compelling sight which may have accounted for the elasticity of his step as he ascended one small hill after another in the wake of a fluttering skirt.