第37章

Like many other apparently trivial acts in an uneventful life, it was decisive.As she expected, she met two or three of her late applauders, whom, she fancied, looked sheepish and embarrassed; she met, also, her companions looking for her in some alarm, who really appeared astonished at her escort, and, she fancied, a trifle envious of her evident success.I fear that Miss Arnot, in response to their anxious inquiries, did not state entirely the truth, but, without actual assertion, led them to believe that she had, at a very early stage of the proceeding, completely subjugated this weak-minded giant, and had brought him triumphantly to her feet.From telling this story two or three times, she got finally to believing that she had some foundation for it, then to a vague sort of desire that it would eventually prove to be true, and then to an equally vague yearning to hasten that consummation.That it would redound to any satisfaction of the "Fool" she did not stop to doubt.That it would cure him of his folly she was quite confident.

Indeed, there are very few of us, men or women, who do not believe that even a hopeless love for ourselves is more conducive to the salvation of the lover than a requited affection for another.

The criticism of Five Forks was, as the reader may imagine, swift and conclusive.When it was found out that Miss Arnot was not the "Hag" masquerading as a young and pretty girl, to the ultimate deception of Five Forks in general, and the "Fool" in particular, it was at once decided that nothing but the speedy union of the "Fool" and the "pretty school-marm" was consistent with ordinary common sense.The singular good-fortune of Hawkins was quite in accordance with the theory of his luck as propounded by the camp.

That, after the "Hag" failed to make her appearance, he should "strike a lead" in his own house, without the trouble of "prospectin'," seemed to these casuists as a wonderful but inevitable law.To add to these fateful probabilities, Miss Arnot fell, and sprained her ankle, in the ascent of Mount Lincoln, and was confined for some weeks to the hotel after her companions had departed.During this period, Hawkins was civilly but grotesquely attentive.When, after a reasonable time had elapsed, there still appeared to be no immediate prospect of the occupancy of the new house, public opinion experienced a singular change in regard to its theories of Mr.Hawkins's conduct.The "Hag" was looked upon as a saint-like and long-suffering martyr to the weaknesses and inconsistency of the "Fool." That, after erecting this new house at her request, he had suddenly "gone back" on her; that his celibacy was the result of a long habit of weak proposal and subsequent shameless rejection; and that he was now trying his hand on the helpless schoolmarm, was perfectly plain to Five Forks.

That he should be frustrated in his attempts at any cost was equally plain.Miss Milly suddenly found herself invested with a rude chivalry that would have been amusing, had it not been at times embarrassing; that would have been impertinent, but for the almost superstitious respect with which it was proffered.Every day somebody from Five Forks rode out to inquire the health of the fair patient."Hez Hawkins bin over yer to-day?" queried Tom Flynn, with artful ease and indifference, as he leaned over Miss Milly's easy-chair on the veranda.Miss Milly, with a faint pink flush on her cheek, was constrained to answer, "No." "Well, he sorter sprained his foot agin a rock yesterday," continued Flynn with shameless untruthfulness."You mus'n't think any thing o'

that, Miss Arnot.He'll be over yer to-morrer; and meantime he told me to hand this yer bookay with his re-gards, and this yer specimen." And Mr.Flynn laid down the flowers he had picked en route against such an emergency, and presented respectfully a piece of quartz and gold, which he had taken that morning from his own sluice-box."You mus'n't mind Hawkins's ways, Miss Milly," said another sympathizing miner."There ain't a better man in camp than that theer Cy Hawkins--but he don't understand the ways o' the world with wimen.He hasn't mixed as much with society as the rest of us," he added, with an elaborate Chesterfieldian ease of manner;"but he means well." Meanwhile a few other sympathetic tunnelmen were impressing upon Mr.Hawkins the necessity of the greatest attention to the invalid."It won't do, Hawkins," they explained, "to let that there gal go back to San Francisco and say, that, when she was sick and alone, the only man in Five Forks under whose roof she had rested, and at whose table she had sat" (this was considered a natural but pardonable exaggeration of rhetoric) "ever threw off on her; and it sha'n't be done.It ain't the square thing to Five Forks." And then the "Fool" would rush away to the valley, and be received by Miss Milly with a certain reserve of manner that finally disappeared in a flush of color, some increased vivacity, and a pardonable coquetry.And so the days passed.Miss Milly grew better in health, and more troubled in mind; and Mr.

Hawkins became more and more embarrassed; and Five Forks smiled, and rubbed its hands, and waited for the approaching denoument.

And then it came--but not, perhaps, in the manner that Five Forks had imagined.