第2章

"Jinny," he said, tenderly stroking the bedclothes as he spoke, "this yer's what's the matter.Thar is a stranger down stairs,--a stranger to you, lovey, but a man ez I've knowed a long time.He's been here about an hour; and he'll be here ontil fower o'clock, when the up-stage passes.Now I wants ye, Jinny dear, to get up and come down stairs, and kinder help me pass the time with him.

It's no use, Jinny," he went on, gently raising his hand to deprecate any interruption, "it's no use! He won't go to bed; he won't play keerds; whiskey don't take no effect on him.Ever since I knowed him, he was the most onsatisfactory critter to hev round"--"What do you have him round for, then?" interrupted Miss Jinny sharply.

Mr.McClosky's eyes fell."Ef he hedn't kem out of his way to-night to do me a good turn, I wouldn't ask ye, Jinny.I wouldn't, so help me! But I thought, ez I couldn't do any thing with him, you might come down, and sorter fetch him, Jinny, as you did the others."Miss Jenny shrugged her pretty shoulders.

"Is he old, or young?"

"He's young enough, Jinny; but he knows a power of things.""What does he do?"

"Not much, I reckon.He's got money in the mill at Four Forks.He travels round a good deal.I've heard, Jinny that he's a poet--writes them rhymes, you know." Mr.McClosky here appealed submissively but directly to his daughter.He remembered that she had frequently been in receipt of printed elegaic couplets known as "mottoes," containing enclosures equally saccharine.

Miss Jenny slightly curled her pretty lip.She had that fine contempt for the illusions of fancy which belongs to the perfectly healthy young animal.

"Not," continued Mr.McClosky, rubbing his head reflectively, "not ez I'd advise ye, Jinny, to say any thing to him about poetry.It ain't twenty minutes ago ez I did.I set the whiskey afore him in the parlor.I wound up the music-box, and set it goin'.Then Isez to him, sociable-like and free, 'Jest consider yourself in your own house, and repeat what you allow to be your finest production,'

and he raged.That man, Jinny, jest raged! Thar's no end of the names he called me.You see, Jinny," continued Mr.McClosky apologetically, "he's known me a long time."But his daughter had already dismissed the question with her usual directness."I'll be down in a few moments, father," she said after a pause, "but don't say any thing to him about it--don't say I was abed."Mr.McClosky's face beamed."You was allers a good girl, Jinny,"he said, dropping on one knee the better to imprint a respectful kiss on her forehead.But Jenny caught him by the wrists, and for a moment held him captive."Father," said she, trying to fix his shy eyes with the clear, steady glance of her own, "all the girls that were there to-night had some one with them.Mame Robinson had her aunt; Lucy Rance had her mother; Kate Pierson had her sister--all, except me, had some other woman.Father dear," her lip trembled just a little, "I wish mother hadn't died when I was so small.I wish there was some other woman in the family besides me.

I ain't lonely with you, father dear; but if there was only some one, you know, when the time comes for John and me"--Her voice here suddenly gave out, but not her brave eyes, that were still fixed earnestly upon his face.Mr.McClosky, apparently tracing out a pattern on the bedquilt, essayed words of comfort.

"Thar ain't one of them gals ez you've named, Jinny, ez could do what you've done with a whole Noah's ark of relations, at their backs! Thar ain't 'one ez wouldn't sacrifice her nearest relation to make the strike that you hev.Ez to mothers, maybe, my dear you're doin' better without one." He rose suddenly, and walked toward the door.When he reached it, he turned, and, in his old deprecating manner, said, "Don't be long, Jinny," smiled, and vanished from the head downward, his canvas slippers asserting themselves resolutely to the last.

When Mr.McClosky reached his parlor again, his troublesome guest was not there.The decanter stood on the table untouched; three or four books lay upon the floor; a number of photographic views of the Sierras were scattered over the sofa; two sofa-pillows, a newspaper, and a Mexican blanket, lay on the carpet, as if the late occupant of the room had tried to read in a recumbent position.AFrench window opening upon a veranda, which never before in the history of the house had been unfastened, now betrayed by its waving lace curtain the way that the fugitive had escaped.Mr.

McClosky heaved a sigh of despair.He looked at the gorgeous carpet purchased in Sacramento at a fabulous price, at the crimson satin and rosewood furniture unparalleled in the history of Tuolumne, at the massively-framed pictures on the walls, and looked beyond it, through the open window, to the reckless man, who, fleeing these sybaritic allurements, was smoking a cigar upon the moonlit road.This room, which had so often awed the youth of Tuolumne into filial respect, was evidently a failure.It remained to be seen if the "Rose" herself had lost her fragrance."I reckon Jinny will fetch him yet," said Mr.McClosky with parental faith.