第13章

Whatever feverish excitement might have raged within, all his habitual calm returned as he stepped upon the piazza.With the instinct of long habit, he turned and faced the battery of eyes with the same cold indifference with which he had for years encountered the half-hidden sneers of men and the half-frightened admiration of women.Only one person stepped forward to welcome him.Oddly enough, it was Dick Hamilton, perhaps the only one present, who by birth, education, and position, might have satisfied the most fastidious social critic.Happily for Mr.

Oakhurst's reputation, he was also a very rich banker and social leader."Do you know who that is you spoke to?" asked young Parker with an alarmed expression."Yes," replied Hamilton with characteristic effrontery."The man you lost a thousand dollars to last week.I only know him SOCIALLY." "But isn't he a gambler?"queried the youngest Miss Smith."He is," replied Hamilton; "but Iwish, my dear young lady, that we all played as open and honest a game as our friend yonder, and were as willing as he is to abide by its fortunes."But Mr.Oakhurst was happily out of hearing of this colloquy, and was even then lounging listlessly yet watchfully along the upper hall.Suddenly he heard a light footstep behind him, and then his name called in a familiar voice that drew the blood quickly to his heart.He turned, and she stood before him.

But how transformed! If I have hesitated to describe the hollow-eyed cripple, the quaintly-dressed artisan's wife, a few pages ago, what shall I do with this graceful, shapely, elegantly-attired gentlewoman into whom she has been merged within these two months?

In good faith she was very pretty.You and I, my dear madam, would have been quick to see that those charming dimples were misplaced for true beauty, and too fixed in their quality for honest mirthfulness; that the delicate lines around these aquiline nostrils were cruel and selfish; that the sweet virginal surprise of these lovely eyes were as apt to be opened on her plate as upon the gallant speeches of her dinner partner; that her sympathetic color came and went more with her own spirits than yours.But you and I are not in love with her, dear madam, and Mr.Oakhurst is.

And, even in the folds of her Parisian gown, I am afraid this poor fellow saw the same subtle strokes of purity that he had seen in her homespun robe.And then there was the delightful revelation that she could walk, and that she had dear little feet of her own in the tiniest slippers of her French shoemaker, with such preposterous blue bows, and Chappell's own stamp--Rue de something or other, Paris--on the narrow sole.

He ran toward her with a heightened color and outstretched hands.

But she whipped her own behind her, glanced rapidly up and down the long hall, and stood looking at him with a half-audacious, half-mischievous admiration, in utter contrast to her old reserve.

"I've a great mind not to shake hands with you at all.You passed me just now on the piazza without speaking; and I ran after you, as I suppose many another poor woman has done."Mr.Oakhurst stammered that she was so changed.

"The more reason why you should know me.Who changed me? You.

You have re-created me.You found a helpless, crippled, sick, poverty-stricken woman, with one dress to her back, and that her own make, and you gave her life, health, strength, and fortune.

You did; and you know it, sir.How do you like your work?" She caught the side-seams of her gown in either hand, and dropped him a playful courtesy.Then, with a sudden, relenting gesture, she gave him both her hands.

Outrageous as this speech was, and unfeminine as I trust every fair reader will deem it, I fear it pleased Mr.Oakhurst.Not but that he was accustomed to a certain frank female admiration; but then it was of the coulisse, and not of the cloister, with which he always persisted in associating Mrs.Decker.To be addressed in this way by an invalid Puritan, a sick saint with the austerity of suffering still clothing her, a woman who had a Bible on the dressing-table, who went to church three times a day, and was devoted to her husband, completely bowled him over.He still held her hands as she went on,--"Why didn't you come before? What were you doing in Marysville, in San Jose, in Oakland? You see I have followed you.I saw you as you came down the canyon, and knew you at once.I saw your letter to Joseph, and knew you were coming.Why didn't you write to me?

You will some time!--Good-evening, Mr.Hamilton."She had withdrawn her hands, but not until Hamilton, ascending the staircase, was nearly abreast of them.He raised his hat to her with well-bred composure, nodded familiarly to Oakhurst, and passed on.When he had gone, Mrs.Decker lifted her eyes to Mr.Oakhurst.

"Some day I shall ask a great favor of you."

Mr.Oakhurst begged that it should be now.

"No, not until you know me better.Then, some day, I shall want you to--kill that man!"She laughed such a pleasant little ringing laugh, such a display of dimples,--albeit a little fixed in the corners of her mouth,--such an innocent light in her brown eyes, and such a lovely color in her cheeks, that Mr.Oakhurst (who seldom laughed) was fain to laugh too.It was as if a lamb had proposed to a fox a foray into a neighboring sheepfold.

A few evenings after this, Mrs.Decker arose from a charmed circle of her admirers on the hotel piazza, excused herself for a few moments, laughingly declined an escort, and ran over to her little cottage--one of her husband's creation--across the road.Perhaps from the sudden and unwonted exercise in her still convalescent state, she breathed hurriedly and feverishly as she entered her boudoir, and once or twice placed her hand upon her breast.She was startled on turning up the light to find her husband lying on the sofa.