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Here Tess had come to him that long ago night he'd married her. Every familiar spot stung him with bitter memories of the squatter girl. He went slowly down and stopped under a great tree opposite the house where he'd formerly lived. Young had the place now, and Tess lived there and his boy. Ebenezer's insinuations hurt him. His jealousy of Deforrest revived.
"Sure," mumbled the Squatter, "an' she air finer'n silk." Tessibel hugged her father again, fluttered a kiss from the tips of her fingers to the little man above, and repeating her usual admonition to them, not to talk aloud, she started for Young's with palpitating heart. Deforrest met her as she ascended the front porch. Smiling he took her hand.
When Deforrest Young opened the door and walked in, his face was wreathed in smiles. "Well, hello, everybody," he cried heartily. "It's an awful night." Ebenezer rose and extended his hand. "So 'tis," he agreed. Helen went forward quickly and helped slip the snow-covered coat from Deforrest's shoulders. At the same time she lifted her lips for a kiss.
"But you're not sorry you're coming with me, are you, dear?" he chided gently, and Helen lifted her head with a glad cry. "Oh, no, no, darling!... I'm the happiest woman in the world!" "And I'll keep you so," replied Ebenezer, in earnest. "I was thinking, though," observed Helen, after a moment, "that Deforrest might come with us if he hasn't made other arrangements."
In the awful minute after the torturing words had fallen from the other man's lips, Deforrest Young felt as if he must tear the lie from the speaker's throat. For it was a lie! God! What a lie! A lie told against Heaven's best the best girl in all the world. Without a word, he reached for his overcoat. "What're you going to do?" demanded Ebenezer, a little perturbed.
"I suppose there's no use trying to hide him any longer?" continued Deforrest, turning back to the officer. "No, I reckon not, Mr. Young.... Where's the dwarf, Professor?" "Upstairs. I'll call him," replied the lawyer.... Then glancing at the girl, "You go and get him, Tess." "Let me git 'im, sheriff," Sandy thrust in. "I'd like the job, sir. Eh?" "Mebbe I better myself. It's my duty to take him."
In the silence that followed, Pete, as though conscious that all was not well with his adored mistress, rose on his haunches, and tried to kiss her face. The dog's sympathy was sweet. She wanted Frederick so badly! Oh, she thought, if she dared ask Deforrest. She would! She could not bear another night of this uncertainty, this suspense. "I air wishin' to ask ye somethin'," she stammered.
For three long days she had managed somehow to uphold the dear, dying father. No word had come from Deforrest Young, and Tess felt sure he had returned twenty-four hours before. Perhaps Waldstricker had robbed her of her dearest friend. Bitterly pained, the girl realized what the loss would mean to her.
Waldstricker summoned the servant, and while the dishes were being removed, Ebenezer sat and glowered from Frederick, white and distrait, to his wife, who was explaining to Madelene the way she'd made the salad dressing. When the servant had gone, Waldstricker began again. "I'm out of patience with Deforrest!
To know she was his wife, married to him, so that none could separate them, would make his absences from Tessibel much easier to bear. He had in the past feared Deforrest Young. Now that fear was being set at rest. He never had worried that Sandy Letts would win Tess any more than he had been apprehensive of Ben Letts before the drowning of the squatter.
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