CHAPTER XIII—THE FIRST KISS

WHY didn’t you ask him yesterday?” cried Sallie, as she entered the parlour the next morning.

“Darling, I was scared out of my wits. We got crossways on some questions we were discussing, and he snorted at me once, and every time I tried to screw up my courage to speak, a lump got in my throat and I gave it up. I thought I’d wait a day or two until he should be in a better humour.”

“He’s gone away to-day,” she said with disappointment.

“I’m glad of it, I ’ll write him a letter.”

“If you had asked him yesterday it would have been all right. He told me so when he left this morning, with a very tender tremor in his voice.”

“But it will be all right, sweetheart, when I write.”

“I wanted my ring,” she whispered.

“You shall have it,” he said, as he seized her hand and led her to a seat.

“Have you got it with you?” she asked with excitement. “Let me see it quick.”

He drew the little box from his pocket, withdrew the ring, concealing it in his hand, slipped it on her finger and kissed it. She threw her hand up into the light to see it.

“Oh! it is glorious! It’s the big green diamond Hiddenite I saw at the Exposition! It is the most beautiful stone I ever saw, and the only one of its kind in size and colour in the world. Professor Hidden told me so. I tried to get Papa to buy it for me. But he laughed at me, and said it was childish extravagance. Charlie dear, how could you get it?”

“That’s a little secret. But there are to be no secrets between us any more. I had a little hoard saved from my mother’s estate for the greatest need of my life. I confess my extravagance.”

“You are a matchless lover. I’m the proudest and happiest girl that breathes.”

“Nothing is too good for you, I wish I could make a greater sacrifice.”

“Wait, till I show it to Mama,” and she flew to her mother’s room. She returned immediately, looking at the ring and kissing it.

“Couldn’t show it to her, she had company,” she said. “Allan is talking to her.”

“Let’s get out of the house, dear. I hate that man like a rattlesnake.”

“Don’t be silly, I never cared a snap for him.”

“I know you didn’t, but there is a poison about him that taints the air for me. Get your horse and let’s go to our place at the old mill.”

They soon reached the spot, and with a laugh she sprang upon the rock and took her seat against the tree.

“Now, dear, humour this whim of mine. I’ve grown superstitious since you’ve made me happy. I have a presentiment of evil because that man was in the house. I am going to take the ring off and put it on your hand again out here where only the eyes of our birds will see, and the river we love will hear.”

“That will be nicer. I somehow feel that my life is built on this dear old rock,” she answered soberly.

He took the ring off her finger, dipped it in the white foam of the river, kissed it, and placed it on her hand.

“Now the spell is broken, isn’t it?” she cried, holding it out in the sunlight a moment to catch the flash of its green diamond depth.

“I’ve another token for you. This, you will not even show to your mother or father.” She bent low over a tiny package he unfolded.

“This is the first medal I won at college,” he continued—“the first victory of my life. It was the force that determined my character. It gave me an inflexible will. I worked at a tremendous disadvantage. Others were two years ahead of me in study for the contest. I locked myself up in my room day and night for ten months, and took just enough food and sleep for strength to work. I worked seventeen hours a day, except Sundays, for ten months without an hour of play. I won it brilliantly. Every line cut on its gold surface stands for a thousand aches of my body. Every little pearl set in it, grew in a pain of that struggle which set its seal on my inmost life. I came out of those ten months a man. I have never known the whims of a boy since.”

“And you engraved something on the back to me!”

“Yes, can’t you read it?”

“My eyes are dim,” she whispered.

“It is this—In the hand of manhood’s tenderest love I bring to thee my boyhood’s brightest dream. I was a man when I woke, but I have never lived till you taught me. Keep this as a pledge of eternal love. It’s the only little trinket I ever possessed. The world will see our ring. Don’t let them see this. It is the seal of your sovereignty of my soul in life, in death, and beyond. Will you make me this eternal pledge?”

“Unto the uttermost!” she murmured.

“Unto the uttermost!” he solemnly echoed.

“And now, what can I say or do for you when you show me in this spirit of prodigal sacrifice how dear I am in your eyes?”

“Those words from your lips are enough,” he declared.

“I ’ll give you more. I’m going to give you just a little bit of myself. I haven’t asked Mama, but we are engaged now—come closer.”

She placed her beautiful arms around his neck and pressed her lips upon his in the first rapturous kiss of love.

“No,—no more. It is enough,” she protested.