"Your father said you were here, child," Young said in a low voice. "May I sit down?"
Tess acquiesced by a nod of her head, and he settled himself comfortably on the rock. Crouching down on the other side of her, Pete put his head in the girl's lap. Her hands rested upon his broad back, while the man played with him, pulling and poking his heavy jowls and hanging lips, and the dog uttered delighted growls at the attention.
"I'm afraid my little girl hasn't been quite well of late," Young began presently.
The red-brown eyes fell and a flushed, lovely face bent beneath a shower of bronze curls.
"Has she?" he queried again, with tender sympathy.
Lower and lower bent the auburn head until the man could no longer see the troubled face.
"I knew there was something wrong with my little pupil," said he softly. "Now tell me about it."
"I can't," whispered Tessibel. "I ain't able."
Oh, if she only could! At that moment it seemed that all of her troubles would take wing if this thoughtful, solemn-eyed friend shared the burden of her heart. When she lifted her face again and repeated, "I can't tell," Deforrest Young placed his fingers under her chin and kept his eyes steadily upon her until the transparent lids drooped and the long lashes rested on her cheeks.
"Is it something you'll tell me some time?" he asked.
Tessibel shuddered, and made no reply, although there was a slight negative shake of her head.
"Then I'll ask you another question, Tess dear," insisted Young. "Isn't there something I can do to help you?"
Tessibel shook her head, a violent blush suffusing her face. Tears gathered thickly in the brown eyes. To see her thus was agony.... His great love sought to share and bear her suffering, yet he could not force her confidence.
"I'm going to exact one promise from you," he continued, much moved.
"I'll be awful glad to promise what I can," she murmured humbly.
"Then it's this." Compassion for her abject misery was expressed in the very tones of his deep voice. "If at any time in the future you need me ... for anything, no matter what, will you--will you come to me and tell me? Will you let me help you?"
Impetuous appreciation of his sincerity caused Tess to touch his arm.
"Nobody were ever so good to me in all the world," she said brokenly.
Never had Deforrest Young so keenly desired the right to care for her as he did then. The impulse to take her in his arms, to tell her, as he had once, that he loved her, almost unnerved him; but he could not. Tess seemed of late to have grown away from him, to be no longer the light-hearted child she had been, even in that dark time when her father was in prison.