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I was facing Silverthorn as I spoke, but felt impelled to turn quickly and include Vibbard in the question. They were both silent. It was plain, after a moment, that they really didn't know which one of them had first thought of this compact. "Wasn't it you?" queried Silverthorn, musingly, of his comrade.
"Why, each of you should propose in form, for the other. Then Miss Winwood would have to take the difficulty into her own hands." "Ha, ha!" laughed Vibbard. "That's a good idea. But suppose she don't care for either of us?" "Very well. I don't see that in that case she would be worse off than yourselves, for neither of you seems to care for her." "Oh yes, we do!" exclaimed Silverthorn, instantly.
And the fighter goes on, to wed with victory, while his brother lies dead far behind cheated of his bride. Vibbard offered himself to Ida the next day. It was a strange and distressful wooing; but she could not deny that, in a way unknown to herself till now, she had loved Vibbard from the beginning, more than his friend.
They laughed, and Vibbard blurted out, with a queer, boyish grimace: "It's me. She don't like me. Hey, Thorny?" "It's nearer the truth," returned his friend, "to say that you're so bashful you don't give her half a chance to make known what she does think of you." "Oh, time enough time enough," said Vibbard, good-humoredly.
"Do you mean to say," he asked, "that you would break your bargain, if it had been made with any one besides me?" Vibbard drew himself up proudly. "No, sir!" he declared, in a cold tone. "I keep my word whenever I have given it." Silverthorn uttered an oath under his breath. "If you mean to keep your word, why don't you do it without blustering?
As they were going, he hurried back, leaving his friend out of ear-shot, and explained himself, "You see, Vibbard has an idea that I shall never succeed in life, financially, that is, and so he wants to fasten this agreement on me, to prevent pride or anything making me back out, you know, by and by.
So then I said I had made up my mind any way, as things stood, to return you your money. I forgive me, Bill, but it was not treachery to you only justice to all I asked her if she would wish to marry me as I was, poor and without a future." "And she " asked Vibbard, trembling. "What did she say?" Silverthorn let the pocket-book fall, and buried his face in his hands.
Vibbard amused himself as well as he could with the books and drawings in the room; then he sat down, looked all about the place, and sighed: "Poor fellow! he can be more comfortable now." Before long the tea hour came. Thorny had not returned, and he took the meal alone, watching the sunset out of the window.
At the moment when this happened, Silverthorn, who, while waiting for another train to arrive, had come back to the house in search of Ida, passed on into a little orchard on a slope, just beyond, which overlooked a bend in the road: from there he saw Ida give Vibbard the lilac spray. At first he scarcely knew his old friend, and the sight struck him with a jealous pang he had never felt before.
I was a little piqued, and inquired: "Well, how do you get on toward being in a position to pay him?" But I regretted my thrust. Silverthorn's face fell, and he could make no reply. "Is there no prospect of success with those machines you were talking of last year?" I asked more kindly. "No," said he, sadly. "I'm afraid not. I shall never succeed. It all depends on Vibbard, now.
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