第6章

Instead, therefore, of spurring forward to join them, he lingered a little until they passed out of sight, and until he was joined by a companion from behind.Him, too, he purposely delayed.They were walking slowly, breathing their mustangs, when his companion suddenly uttered a cry of alarm, and sprang from his horse.For on the trail before them lay the young lawyer quite unconscious, with his riderless steed nipping the young leaves of the underbrush.He was evidently stunned by a fall, although across his face was a livid welt which might have been caused by collision with the small elastic limb of a sapling, or a blow from a riding-whip; happily the last idea was only in Peter's mind.As they lifted him up he came slowly to consciousness.He was bewildered and dazed at first, but as he began to speak the color came back freshly to his face.He could not conceive, he stammered, what had happened.He was riding with Miss Atherly, and he supposed his horse had slipped upon some withered pine needles and thrown him! A spasm of pain crossed his face suddenly, and he lifted his hand to the top of his head.Was he hurt THERE? No, but perhaps his hair, which was flowing and curly, had caught in the branches--like Absalom's! He tried to smile, and even begged them to assist him to his horse that he might follow his fair companion, who would be wondering where he was; but Peter, satisfied that he had received no serious injury, hurriedly enjoined him to stay, while he himself would follow his sister.Putting spurs to his horse, he succeeded, in spite of the slippery trail, in overtaking her near the summit.At the sound of his horse's hoofs she wheeled quickly, came dashing furiously towards him, and only pulled up at the sound of his voice.But she had not time to change her first attitude and expression, which was something which perplexed and alarmed him.

Her long lithe figure was half crouching, half clinging to the horse's back, her loosened hair flying over her shoulders, her dark eyes gleaming with an odd nymph-like mischief.Her white teeth flashed as she recognized him, but her laugh was still mocking and uncanny.He took refuge in indignation.

"What has happened?" he said sharply.

"The fool tried to kiss me!" she said simply."And I--I--let out at him--like mother!"Nevertheless, she gave him one of those shy, timid glances he had noticed before, and began coiling something around her fingers, with a suggestion of coy embarrassment, indescribably inconsistent with her previous masculine independence.

"You might have killed him," said Peter angrily.

"Perhaps I might! OUGHT I have killed him, Peter?" she said anxiously, yet with the same winning, timid smile.If she had not been his sister, he would have thought her quite handsome.

"As it is," he said impetuously, "you have made a frightful scandal here.""HE won't say anything about it--will he?" she inquired shyly, still twisting the something around her finger.

Peter did not reply; perhaps the young lawyer really loved her and would keep her secret! But he was vexed, and there was something maniacal in her twisting fingers."What have you got there?" he said sharply.

She shook the object in the air before her with a laugh."Only a lock of his hair," she said gayly; "but I didn't CUT it off!""Throw it away, and come here!" he said angrily.

But she only tucked the little blond curl into her waist belt and shook her head.He urged his horse forward, but she turned and fled, laughing as he pursued her.Being the better rider she could easily evade him whenever he got too near, and in this way they eventually reached the town and their house long before their companions.But she was far enough ahead of her brother to be able to dismount and hide her trophy with childish glee before he arrived.

She was right in believing that her unfortunate cavalier would make no revelation of her conduct, and his catastrophe passed as an accident.But Peter could not disguise the fact that much of his unpopularity was shared by his sister.The matrons of Atherly believed that she was "fast," and remembered more distinctly than ever the evil habits of her mother.That she would, in the due course of time, "take to drink," they never doubted.Her dancing was considered outrageous in its unfettered freedom, and her extraordinary powers of endurance were looked upon as "masculine"by the weaker girls whose partners she took from them.She reciprocally looked down upon them, and made no secret of her contempt for their small refinements and fancies.She affected only the society of men, and even treated them with a familiarity that was both fearless and scornful.Peter saw that it was useless to face the opposition; Miss Atherly did not seem to encourage the renewal of the young lawyer's attentions, although it was evident that he was still attracted by her, nor did she seem to invite advances from others.He must go away--and he would have to take her with him.It seemed ridiculous that a woman of thirty, of masculine character, should require a chaperon in a brother of equal age; but Peter knew the singular blending of childlike ignorance with this Amazonian quality.He had made his arrangements for an absence from Atherly of three or four years, and they departed together.The young fair-haired lawyer came to the stage-coach office to see them off.Peter could detect no sentiment in his sister's familiar farewell of her unfortunate suitor.At New York, however, it was arranged that "Jinny" should stay with some friends whom they had made en route, and that, if she wished, she could come to Europe later, and join him in London.

Thus relieved of one, Peter Atherly of Atherly started on his cherished quest of his other and more remote relations.