CHAPTER XII
FATHER AND CHILD--THE OLD STORY
"Come here, Tessie."
"Yes, dad."
"Sit down, girlie."
"Let me kneel, here. There, like that, then you can't be very cross, Iknow. Let me put my arms around your neck, and I know your lecture won'tbe very serious."
"Kiss me."
"There."
"And now I want to talk to you, seriously, Tessie."
"I knew you did, dad; you had such a long face. What have I done?"
"Nothing yet, girlie. It's to prevent your doing something that I fearyou will be sorry for all your life that I am talking to you now."
"Yes, dad."
"Gerald Danvers has been here nearly a month. He's in love withyou--that's plain to be seen. There's no blame to himself for that. Youare a very pretty girl."
"Dad!"
"That's so. That don't matter much; and if you are only flirting thatwouldn't matter much, either. But the point is--are you? Do you feelthat you love him, Tessie?"
She was playing with the seal at the end of his watch-chain, and hereyes were cast down as she answered:
"He's the nicest man round these parts, dad."
"To look at, Tessie--yes. I admit that. He's got the city polish on him.It's a question if that's good though. The bit of veneer on an articleof furniture doesn't make the wood beneath any better quality."
"No, but the farm hands, dad! And then at Oakville who is there to talkto?"
"Maybe not polished people, Tessie."
"No, dad, and that's it. Don't think I'm blaming you, dear old daddie,but you see the years you sent me away to boarding-school made a changein me. The girls--I met people of a different class. One must talk, youknow, dad, and there isn't a soul for miles round that has an ideabeyond the crops."
"I see--I see."
"Don't think I'm finding fault, daddie--not for a moment. I am as happyas possible at the dear old farm. I was born here, and I should like todie here. But one likes to exchange ideas, dad. You might, for instance,circle ten miles round the farm and you would not meet one soul whocould tell you what poetry meant."
"And this man, Danvers, he talks well?"
"He is a gentleman, dad."
"Without a dollar to call his own."
"Dad! is he any the less a gentleman for that?"
"The world thinks so, Tessie."
"Let it, dad, I don't; and I know you don't. A man's a man for allthat."
"But a poor man, Tessie--in a double sense. I am really sorry to hearyou say this."
"What have I said, dad?"
"Nothing, girlie, nothing. But I can read you. You like Danvers?"
She was playing with the charm on the chain again as she answered:
"I don't dislike him, dad."
The old man sighed.
"I have heard you yourself say, dad, that you liked him."
"Ah! but there's a difference in my and your liking. When a woman beginsby liking a man, she generally ends up by loving him."
No answer.
"Danvers was sent out to me, Tessie, with a letter of introduction. Youread it. By the next mail another letter came. I opened it myself, as Ihave done all letters since Josh went away. It was from the writer ofthe letter of introduction."
"Another, dad?"
"No. He repeated that he would be glad if I would do all I could forDanvers, but, above all, I was to make him work, and work hard. That hislife up, he had never done a stroke of work, that he had always lived onhis friends, that his friends had provided him with an outfit and paidhis passage money, and hoped that in a new country, where he had not asingle friend, he would be forced to work--work for his living."
"Poor fellow!"
"Tessie!"
"Well, dad, isn't he a poor fellow? Fancy, thousands of miles from afriend, and, as you say, without a dollar of his own. Am I wrong, dad,to sympathize with, and say of him 'poor fellow'?"
The old man stifled a groan.
He was acting badly. He felt that. He was trying to paint this man inrepulsive colors, and was but exciting a tender feeling! He was puttinghis foot into it deeper every step he took.
It is curious how persistently parents force their children into themarriages they are so anxious not to bring about.
Bespatter her lover to a girl, and straightway the girl loves him themore. Call him everything black you can lay your tongue to, and the girlwill be framing pretty speeches for future use--to make up to him forit.
"Tessie, think, my girl, you are happy now because you have everythingyou can reasonably want. Just picture to yourself what your life wouldbe married to a centless man."
"But, dad, why should you think he will always be poor?"
"All his life, Tessie, he has been living on other people."
"But he may reform, dad. You said he was doing the work better than Joshhad done it."
"New brooms sweep clean."
"And in a new country, dad, perhaps he has turned over a new leaf."
"Supposing he has, Tessie, what is his future? If he left here, he mightget a job as a store clerk; what can he expect to be better? A storeclerk with perhaps a dozen dollars a week."
"You are hard on him, dad."
"Come, Tessie, have I been? But for the fact that Josh is away on aholiday, what could I have done with him? There is not an ounce of farmwork in him. They send such men out from the mother country--God knowswhat for--when we want only muscle, strength, and grit."
"He has been useful, dad."
"Useful! And when Josh comes back, what then? I have told him it is onlya temporary job, and perhaps that is the reason."
"For what, dad?"
"His making love to you."
"Dad!"
"Oh, I know the world, Tessie, better than you do. He thinks you are apretty girl, and that if he can make you love him, he is in for a softthing."
"Oh, dad, you are unjust."
"I would to God he had never come here."
"Dad!"
"It is true. Marry? Of course you'll marry. It's a woman's mission inlife. I can't say I have seen the man yet that I think worthy of you,but that is neither here nor there. But I did think you would fall intothe hands of a man who had a bit of land of his own to walk on, and aroof of his own to cover him----"
"You are bitter, dad."
"I feel so, girlie. You are so bound up heart and soul in my heart andsoul that what affects you affects me. I want to see you happy."
"I know that, dad."
"Tell me, he has not spoken to you of love yet?"
"Not--with his lips, dad--yet."
Then the old man groaned aloud. He knew it was hopeless to talk.
He prayed for the return of Josh that he might have a reasonable excusefor packing off Danvers.
And Josh--all that was left of him--after the inquest had been buried inthe city cemetery.