But Anna did not answer. Sorrow had broken her on its wheel. Where
was the justice of it? Why should he go forth to seek his
happiness--and find it--and she cower in shame through all the years to
come?
Dave saw that she had forgotten his presence; she stood there in the
gathering night with wild, unseeing eyes. Memory had turned back the
hands of the clock till it pointed out that fatal hour on another
golden afternoon in autumn, and Sanderson, the hero of the hour, had
come to her with the marks of battle still upon him, and as the crowd
gave away for him, right and left, he had said: "I could not help
winning with your eyes on me."
Oh, the lying dishonor of it! It was not jealousy that prompted her,
for a moment, to go to Kate and tell her all. What right had such
vultures as he to be received, smiled upon, courted, caressed? If
there was justice on earth, his sin should have been branded on him,
that other women might take warning.
Dave knew that her thoughts had flown miles wide of him, and his
unselfishness told him that it would be kindness to go into the house
and leave her to herself, which he did with a heavy heart and many
misgivings.
Hi Holler had none of Dave's sensitiveness. He saw Anna standing by
the gate, and being a loquacious soul, who saw no advantage in silence,
if there was a fellow creature to talk to; he came up grinning: "Say,
Anna, I wonder if me and you was both thinkin' about the same thing--I
was thinkin' as I seen Sanderson and Kate passing that I certainly
would enjoy a piece o' weddin' cake, don't care whose it was."
"No, Hi," Anna said, being careful to restrain any bitterness of tone,
"I certainly was not wishing for a wedding cake."
"I certainly do like wedding cake, Anna, but then, I like everything to
eat. Some folks don't like one thing, some folks don't like another.
Difference between them an' me is, I like everything."
Anna laughed in spite of herself.
"Yes, since I like everything, and I like it all the time, why, I ain't
more than swallowed the last buckwheat for breakfast, than I am ready
for dinner. You don't s'pose I'm sick or anything, do you, Anna?"
"I don't think the symptoms sound alarming, Hi."
"Well, you take a load off my mind, Anna, cause I was getting scared
about myself." Seeing the empty water-pail, Hi refilled it and carried
it in the house for Anna. Dave was not the only one in that household
who was miserable, owing to Cupid's unaccountable antics. Professor
Sterling, the well-paying summer boarder, continued to remain with the
Bartletts, though summer, the happy season during which the rustic may
square his grudge with the city man within his gates, had long since
passed.