The Man Thou Gavest | Page 6

little
plaid shawl and a checked apron, stood--
"It's the no-count," thought Truedale. Aloud he said, "Nella-Rose!"
With the dropping of the disguise years and dignity were added to the
girl and Truedale, who was always at his worst in the presence of
strange young women, gazed dazedly at the one before him now.
"Perhaps"--he began awkwardly--"you'll sit down. Please do!" He drew
a chair toward her. Nella-Rose sank into it and leaned her bowed head
upon her arms, which she folded on the table. Her shoulders rose and
fell convulsively, and Truedale, looking at her, became hopelessly
wretched.
"I'm a beast and nothing less!" he admitted by way of apology and
excuse. "I--I wish you could forgive me."
Then slowly the head was raised and to Truedale's further consternation
he saw that mirth, not anguish, had caused the shaking of those
deceiving little shoulders.
"Oh! I see--you are laughing!" He tried to be indignant.
"Yes."

"At what?"
"Everything--you!"
"Thank you!" Then, like a response, something heretofore unknown
and unsuspected in Truedale rose and overpowered him. His shyness
and awkwardness melted before the warmth and glow of the
conquering emotion. He got up and sat on the corner of the table
nearest his shabby little guest, and looking straight into her bewitching
eyes he joined her in a long, resounding laugh.
It was surrender, pure and simple.
"And now," he said at last, "you must stay and have a bite. I am about
starved. And you?"
The girl grew sober.
"I'm--I'm always hungry," she admitted softly.
They drew the table close to the roaring fire, leaving doors and
windows open to the crisp, sweet; morning air.
"We'll have a party!" Truedale announced. "I'll step over to Jim's cabin
and bring the best he's got."
When he returned Nella-Rose had placed cups, saucers, and plates on
the table.
"Do you--often have parties?" she asked.
"I never had one before. I'll have them, though, from now on if--if you
will come!"
Truedale paused with his arms full of pitchers and platters of food, and
held the girl with his admiring eyes.
"And you will let me come and see you--you and your sister and your
father? I know all about you. White has explained--everything. He--"

Nella-Rose braced herself against the table and quietly and definitely
outlined their future relations.
"No, you cannot come to see us-all. You don't know Marg. If she
doesn't find things out, there won't be trouble; when she does find
things out there's goin' t' be a right smart lot of trouble brewing!"
This was said with such comical seriousness that Truedale laughed
again, but sobered instantly when he recalled the incident of the white
bantam which Jim had so vividly portrayed.
"But you see," he replied, "I don't want to let you go after this first
party, and never see you again!"
The girl shrugged her shoulders and apparently dismissed the matter.
She sat down and, with charming abandon, began to eat. Presently
Truedale, amused and interested, spoke again:
"It would be very unkind of you not to let me see you."
"I'm--thinking!" Nella-Rose drew her brows together and nibbled a bit
of corn bread meditatively. Then--quite suddenly:
"I'm coming here!"
"You--you mean that?" Truedale flushed.
"Yes. And the big woods--you walk in them?"
"I certainly do."
"Sometimes--I am in the big woods."
"Where--specially?" Truedale was playing this new game with the
foolish skill of the novice.
"There's a Hollow--where--" (Nella-Rose paused) "where the laurel
tangle is like a jungle--"

Truedale broke in: "I know it! There's a little stream running through it,
and--trails."
"Yes!" Nella-Rose leaned back and showed her white teeth alluringly.
"I--I should not--permit this!" For a moment Truedale broke through
the thin ice of delight that was luring him to unknown danger and fell
upon the solid rock of conservatism.
"Why?" The eyes, so tenderly innocent, confronted him appealingly.
"There are nuts there and--and other things! You are just teasing; you'll
let me--show you the way about?"
The girl was all child now and made Truedale ashamed to hold her to
any absurd course that his standards acknowledged but that hers had
never conceived.
"Of course. I'll be glad to have you for a guide. Jim White has no ideas
about nuts and things--he goes to the woods to kill something; he's
there now. I dare say mere are other things in the mountains
besides--prey?"
Nella-Rose nodded.
"Let's sit by the fire!" she suddenly said. "I--I want to tell
you--something, and then I must go."
The lack of shyness and reserve might so easily have become
boldness--but they did not! The girl was like a creature of the wilds
which, knowing no reason for fear, was revelling in heretofore
unsuspected enjoyment. Truedale pulled the couch to the hearth for
Nella-Rose, piled the pillows on one end