第209章 ``TO UNPATHED WATERS, UNDREAMED SHORES''(5)

Her fingers still stitched, her head was bent and I could not see her face,--only the knot of her hair coiled with an art that struck me suddenly.Then she spoke, and her voice was very low.

``I love Polly Ann,'' she said; ``I should like to know her.''

``I wish that you could know her,'' I answered, quickening.

She raised her head, and looked at me with an expression that was not a smile.I could not say what it was, or what it meant.

``I do not think you are stupid,'' she said, in the same tone, ``but I do not believe you know how remarkable your life has been.I can scarcely realize that you have seen all this, have done all this, have felt all this.You are a lawyer, a man of affairs, and yet you could guide me over the hidden paths of half a continent.You know the mountain ranges, the passes, the rivers, the fords, the forest trails, the towns and the men who made them!''

She picked up her sewing and bent over it once more.

``And yet you did not think that this would interest me.''

Perchance it was a subtle summons in her voice I heard that bade me open the flood-gates of my heart,--I know not.I know only that no power on earth could have held me silent then.

``Helene!'' I said, and stopped.My heart beat so wildly that I could hear it.``I do not know why I should dare to think of you, to look up to you--Helene, I love you, I shall love you till I die.I love you with all the strength that is in me, with all my soul.You know it, and if you did not I could hide it no more.As long as I live there will never be another woman in the world for me.I love you.You will forgive me because of the torture I have suffered, because of the pain I shall suffer when I think of you in the years to come.''

Her sewing dropped to her lap--to the floor.She looked at me, and the light which I saw in her eyes flooded my soul with a joy beyond my belief.I trembled with a wonder that benumbed me.I would have got to my feet had she not come to me swiftly, that I might not rise.

She stood above me, I lifted up my arms; she bent to me with a movement that conferred a priceless thing.

``David,'' she said, ``could you not tell that I loved you, that you were he who has been in my mind for so many years, and in my heart since I saw you?''

``I could not tell,'' I said.``I dared not think it.

I--I thought there was another.''

She was seated on the arm of my chair.She drew back her head with a smile trembling on her lips, with a lustre burning in her eyes like a vigil--a vigil for me.

``He reminded me of you,'' she answered.

I was lost in sheer, bewildering happiness.And she who created it, who herself was that happiness, roused me from it.

``What are you thinking?'' she asked.

``I was thinking that a star has fallen,--that I may have a jewel beyond other men,'' I said.

``And a star has risen for me,'' she said, ``that I may have a guide beyond other women.''

``Then it is you who have raised it, Helene.'' I was silent a moment, trying again to bring the matter within my grasp.``Do you mean that you love me, that you will marry me, that you will come back to Kentucky with me and will be content,--you, who have been the companion of a Queen?''

There came an archness into her look that inflamed me the more.

``I, who have been the companion of a Queen, love you, will marry you, will go back to Kentucky with you and be content,'' she repeated.``And yet not I, David, but another woman--a happy woman.You shall be my refuge, my strength, my guide.You will lead me over the mountains and through the wilderness by the paths you know.You will bring me to Polly Ann that I may thank her for the gift of you,--above all other gifts in the world.''

I was silent again.

``Helene,'' I said at last, ``will you give me the miniature?''

``On one condition,'' she replied.

``Yes,'' I said, ``yes.And again yes.What is it?''

``That you will obey me--sometimes.''

``It is a privilege I long for,'' I answered.

``You did not begin with promise,'' she said.

I released her hand, and she drew the ivory from her gown and gave it me.I kissed it.

``I will go to Monsieur Isadore's and get the frame,''

I said.

``When I give you permission,'' said Helene, gently.

I have written this story for her eyes.