The Treasure of Hidden Valley. Emerson Willis George

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      To the credit of Allen Miller, he never hesitated or wavered in his generosity to anyone he counted as a true and worthy friend. That very evening Mrs. Miller departed for Quincy, to offer in person more discreetly than a letter could offer any financial assistance that might be required to meet present emergencies, and at the same time convey sympathy to the husband and daughter in their sad bereavement.

      “Lois, my dear,” the banker had said to his wife, “remain a few days with them if necessary. Make them comfortable, no matter what the expense. If they had means they wouldn’t need us, but now – well, no difference about the why and wherefore – you just go and comfort and help them materially and substantially.”

      It was in such a deed as this that the true nobility of Allen Miller’s character shone forth like a star of the brightest magnitude – a star guaranteeing forgiveness of all his blunders and stupid attempts to curb the impulsive and proud spirit of Roderick War-field Yet sympathy for Gail and her father in no way condoned their poverty to his judgment as a man of finance or reinstated the girl as an eligible match for the young man. He would have been glad of tidings of Roderick – to have him home again and the offensive matrimonial condition he had attached to his offer of an appointment in the bank finally eliminated.

      But there was no news, and meanwhile his wife had returned from her mission, to report that the Holdens, while sincerely grateful, had declined all offers of assistance. As Mrs. Miller described, it was the girl herself who had declared, with the light of quiet self-reliance in her eyes, that by working the ranch in Wyoming as she proposed to work it there would be ample provision for her father’s little luxuries and her own simple needs.

      So Allen Miller put Gail Holden out of mind. But he had many secret heartaches over his rupture with Roderick, and every little stack of mail matter laid upon his desk was eagerly turned over in the hope that at last the wanderer’s whereabouts would be disclosed.

      CHAPTER IV – THE COLLEGE WIDOW

      STELLA RAIN belonged to one of the first families of Galesburg. Their beautiful home, an old style Southern mansion, painted white with green shutters, was just across from the college campus ground. It was the usual fate of seniors about to pass out of Knox College to be in love, avowedly or secretly, with this fair “college widow.” She was petite of form and face, and had a beautiful smile that radiated cheerfulness to the scores of college boys. There was a merry-come-on twinkle in her eyes that set the hearts of the young farmer lad students and the city chaps as well, in tumultuous riot. Beneath it all she was kind of heart, and it was this innate consideration for others that caused her to introduce all the new boys and the old ones too, as they came to college year after year, to Galesburg’s fairest girls. She was ready to fit in anywhere – a true “college widow” in the broadest sense of the term. Her parents were wealthy and she had no greater ambition than to be a queen among the college boys. Those who knew her best said that she would live and die a spinster because of her inability to select someone from among the hundreds of her admirers. Others said she had had a serious affair of the heart when quite young. But that was several years before Roderick Warfield had come upon the scene and been in due course smitten by her charms. How badly smitten he only now fully realized when, after nearly a year of absence, he found himself once again tête-à-tête with her in the old familiar drawing-room of her home.

      There had been an hour of pleasant desultory conversation, the exchange of reminiscences and of little sympathetic confidences, a subtly growing tension in the situation which she had somewhat abruptly broken by going to the piano and dashing off a brilliant Hungarian rhapsody.

      “And so you are determined to go West?” she inquired as she rose to select from the cabinet another sheet of music.

      “Yes,” replied Roderick, “I’m going far West. I am going after a fortune.”

      “How courageous you are,” she replied, glancing at him over her shoulder with merry, twinkling eyes, as if she were proud of his ambition.

      “Stella,” said Roderick, as she returned to the piano, where he was now standing.

      “Yes?” said she, looking up encouragingly.

      “Why; you see, Stella – you don’t mind me telling you – well, Stella, if I find the lost gold mine – ”

      “If you find what?” she exclaimed.

      “Oh, I mean,” said Roderick in confusion, “I mean if I find a fortune. Don’t you know, if I get rich out in that western country – ”

      “And I hope and believe you will,” broke in Stella, vivaciously.

      “Yes – I say, if I do succeed, may I come back for you – yes, marry you, and will you go out there with me to live?”

      “Oh, Roderick, are you jesting now? You are just one of these mischievous college boys trying to touch the heart of the little college widow.” She laughed gaily at him, as if full of disbelief.

      “No,” protested Roderick, “I am sincere.”

      Stella Rain looked at him a moment in admiration. He was tall and strong – a veritable athlete. His face was oval and yet there was a square-jawed effect in its moulding. His eyes were dark and luminous and frank, and wore a look of matureness, of determined purpose, she had never seen there before. Finally she asked: “Do you know, Roderick, how old I am?”

      As Roderick looked at her he saw there was plaintive regret in her dark sincere eyes. There was no merry-come-on in them now; at last she was serious.

      “Why, no,” said Roderick, “I don’t know how old you are and I don’t care. I only know that you appeal to me more than any other woman I have ever met, and all the boys like, you, and I love you, and I want you for my wife.”

      “Sit down here by my side,” said Stella. “Let me talk to you in great frankness.”

      Roderick seated himself by her side and reaching over took one of her hands in his. He fondled it with appreciation – it was small, delicate and tapering.

      “Roderick,” she said, “my heart was given to a college boy when I was only eighteen years old. He went away to his home in an eastern state, and then he forgot me and married the girl he had gone to school with as a little boy – during the red apple period of their lives. It pleased his family better and perhaps it was better; and it will not please your family, Roderick, if you marry me.”

      “My family be hanged,” said Roderick with emphasis. “I have just had a quarrel with my uncle, Allen Miller, and I am alone in the world. I have no family. If you become my wife, why, we’ll – . we’ll be a family to ourselves.”

      Stella smiled sadly and said: “You enthusiastic boy. How old are you, Roderick?”

      “I am twenty-four and getting older every day.” They both laughed and Stella sighed and said: “Oh, dear, how the years are running against us – I mean running against me. No, no,” she said, half to herself, “it never can be – it is impossible.”

      “What,” said Roderick, rising to his feet, and at the same moment she also stood before him – “What’s impossible? Is it impossible for you to love me?”

      “No, not that,” said Stella, and he noticed tears in her eyes. “No, Roderick,” and she stood before him holding both his hands in hers – “Listen,” she said, “listen!”

      “I am all attention,” said Roderick.

      “I СКАЧАТЬ