第37章
"You shall read it,of course,"she said scornfully,"for it will be your text for the conversation you will have with him.Will you please take your hand from the lock and open the door?"Wynn mechanically opened the door.The young girl flew up-stairs.In a very few moments she returned with two notes:one contained a few lines of formal invitation to Dunn;the other read as follows:
"DEAR MR.DORMAN,--My father will tell you how deeply I regret that our recent botanical excursions in the Carquinez Woods have been a source of serious misapprehensions to those who had a claim to my consideration,and that I shall be obliged to discontinue them for the future.At the same time he wishes me to express my gratitude for your valuable instruction and assistance in that pleasing study,even though approaching events may compel me to relinquish it for other duties.May I beg you to accept the inclosed ring as a slight recognition of my obligations to you?
"Your grateful pupil,"NELLIE WYNN."
When he had finished reading the letter,she handed him a ring,which he took mechanically.He raised his eyes to hers with perfectly genuine admiration."You're a good girl,Nellie,"he said,and,in a moment of parental forgetfulness,unconsciously advanced his lips towards her cheek.But she drew back in time to recall him to a sense of that human weakness.
"I suppose I'll have time for a nap yet,"she said,as a gentle hint to her embarrassed parent.He nodded and turned towards the door.
"If I were you,"she continued,repressing a yawn,"I'd manage to be seen on good terms with Low at the hotel;so perhaps you need not give the letter to him until the last thing.Good-by."The sitting-room door opened and closed behind her as she slipped up-stairs,and her father,without the formality of leave-taking,quietly let himself out by the front door.
When he drove into the high road again,however,an overlooked possibility threatened for a moment to indefinitely postpone his amiable intentions regarding Low.The hotel was at the further end of the settlement towards the Carquinez Woods,and as Wynn had nearly reached it he was recalled to himself by the sounds of hoofs and wheels rapidly approaching from the direction of the Excelsior turnpike.Wynn made no doubt it was the sheriff and Brace.To avoid recognition at that moment,he whipped up his horse,intending to keep the lead until he could turn into the first cross-road.But the coming travelers had the fleetest horse,and finding it impossible to distance them he drove close to the ditch,pulling up suddenly as the strange vehicle was abreast of him,and forcing them to pass him at full speed,with the result already chronicled.When they had vanished in the darkness,Mr.Wynn,with a heart overflowing with Christian thankfulness and universal benevolence,wheeled round,and drove back to the hotel he had already passed.To pull up at the veranda with a stentorian shout,to thump loudly at the deserted bar,to hilariously beat the panels of the landlord's door,and commit a jocose assault and battery upon that half-dresssed and half-awakened man,was eminently characteristic of Wynn,and part of his amiable plans that morning.
"Something to wash this wood smoke from my throat,Brother Carter,and about as much again to prop open your eyes,"he said,dragging Carter before the bar,"and glasses round for as many of the boys as are up and stirring after a hard-working Christian's rest.How goes the honest publican's trade,and who have we here?""Thar's Judge Robinson and two lawyers from Sacramento,Dick Curson over from Yolo,"said Carter,"and that ar young Injin yarb doctor from the Carquinez Woods.I reckon he's jist up--Inoticed a light under his door as I passed."
"He's my man for a friendly chat before breakfast,"said Wynn.
"You needn't come up.I'll find the way.I don't want a light;I reckon my eyes ain't as bright nor as young as his,but they'll see almost as far in the dark--he!he!"And,nodding to Brother Carter,he strode along the passage,and with no other introduction than a playful and preliminary "Boo!"burst into one of the rooms.
Low,who by the light of a single candle was bending over the plates of a large quarto,merely raised his eyes and looked at the intruder.
The young man's natural imperturbability,always exasperating to Wynn,seemed accented that morning by contrast with his own over-acted animation.
"Ah ha!--wasting the midnight oil instead of imbibing the morning dews,"said Father Wynn archly,illustrating his metaphor with a movement of his hand to his lips."What have we here?""An anonymous gift,"replied Low simply,recognizing the father of Nellie by rising from his chair."It's a volume I've longed to possess,but never could afford to buy.I cannot imagine who sent it to me."Wynn was for a moment startled by the thought that this recipient of valuable gifts might have influential friends.But a glance at the bare room,which looked like a camp,and the strange,unconventional garb of its occupant,restored his former convictions.There might be a promise of intelligence,but scarcely of prosperity,in the figure before him.
"Ah!We must not forget that we are watched over in the night season,"he said,laying his hand on Low's shoulder,with an illustration of celestial guardianship that would have been impious but for its palpable grotesqueness."No,sir,we know not what a day may bring forth."Unfortunately,Low's practical mind did not go beyond a mere human interpretation.It was enough,however,to put a new light in his eye and a faint color in his cheek.
"Could it have been Miss Nellie?"he asked,with half-boyish hesitation.
Mr.Wynn was too much of a Christian not to bow before what appeared to him the purely providential interposition of this suggestion.Seizing it and Low at the same moment,he playfully forced him down again in his chair.