Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 21, 2025
Then suddenly he saw that it was Vibbard, and would have rushed down the slope to welcome him. But like a detaining hand upon him, the remembrance of his foolish quarrel with Ida held him back. He slunk away secretly through the orchard, into the woods, and hurried to meet Vibbard at a point below the house, where Ida would have left him. He was not disappointed.
Vibbard looked at them with a bewildered, shadowy sort of pleasure; but all at once he saw that Silverthorn held Ida's hand in his and had laid his other hand on her shoulder. A frightful tumult of feeling assailed him. The small, carved serpents on his stick seemed suddenly to drive their fangs into his own palm, as he clutched the handle tighter. For an instant he hesitated and hoped.
"I don't know," returned Vibbard; then, as if so much subtilty annoyed him: "What difference does it make, anyway? Can't you draw an agreement for us, Ferguson?" But I was really so much interested in getting at their minds through this channel, that I couldn't comply at once.
With a troubled impulse, Ida drew her hand away from his, and snatched the blossoms out of her hair, meaning to throw them away. Then she hesitated, seeing her rudeness. Vibbard, who had not understood the movement, said with a tone of delight: "Won't you give them to me? Do you remember how you wore them in your hair one day, years ago?"
"Yes, we care a great deal," insisted Vibbard. They both grew so very earnest over this that I didn't dare to continue the subject, and it was left in greater mystery than before. At last the time of graduation came, and the two friends parted to pursue their separate ways.
Vibbard enlarged upon this: it was a curious habit they had fallen into, of each waiting for the other to explain what should more properly have been explained by himself. "Thorny's father, you know," said Vibbard, "was a great machinist, and so they had acquaintances around at mills in different parts of the State.
After I had been graduated, and had entered the Law School, Silverthorn and Vibbard came to my room one day, on a singular errand, which though I did not guess it then was to influence their lives for many a year afterward. "Ferguson," began Bill, rather shyly, when they had seated themselves, "I suppose you know enough of law, by this time, to draw up a paper."
"Ah, Thorny," continued Vibbard, unconsciously, "it's queer to look back to that time when we were trying to persuade each other to make love to her! Do you know that since I've been away, she's never once gone out of my mind?" "Is that so?" returned his comrade, with a strained and cloudy effort to appear lightly interested. "Yes," said the other, warming to his theme.
John was a hard reader, and Bill a lazy one. John was thin and graceful, with something pensive yet free and vivid in his nature; Bill was robust, prosaic and conventional. There was an air of neglect and a prospective sense of worldly failure about Silverthorn, but you would at once have singled out Vibbard as being well cared for, and adapted to push his way.
But after their little tiff they tried to recover their spirits and succeeded in keeping up a sham kind of gayety. Arrived at Silverthorn's lodging, they completed their business; Vibbard handing over a check, and receiving in exchange Silverthorn's copy of the agreement with a receipt in due form. "How long can you stay, Bill?" asked Silverthorn, more cheerfully, when this was over.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking