WHEREIN ELNORA REACHES A DECISION,AND FRECKLES AND THE ANGEL APPEARWell,she came,didn't she?"remarked Mrs.Comstock to Elnora as they watched the automobile speed down the road.As it turned the Limberlost corner,Philip arose and waved to them.
"She hasn't got him yet,anyway,"said Mrs.Comstock,taking heart."What's that on your finger,and what did she say to you?"Elnora explained about the ring as she drew it off.
"I have several letters to write,then I am going to change my dress and walk down toward Aunt Margaret's for a little exercise.I may meet some of them,and I don't want them to see this ring.You keep it until Philip comes,"said Elnora."As for what Miss Carr said to me,many things,two of importance:one,that I lacked every social requirement necessary for the happiness of Philip Ammon,and that if I married him I would see inside a month that he was ashamed of me----""Aw,shockins!"scorned Mrs.Comstock."Go on!""The other was that she has been engaged to him for years,that he belongs to her,and she refuses to give him up.She said that if he were in her presence one hour,she would have him under a mysterious thing she calls `her spell'again;if he were where she could see him for one week,everything would be made up.It is her opinion that he is suffering from wounded pride,and that the slightest concession on her part will bring him to his knees before her."Mrs.Comstock giggled."I do hope the boy isn't weak-kneed,"she said."I just happened to be passing the west window this afternoon----"Elnora laughed."Nothing save actual knowledge ever would have made me believe there was a girl in all this world so infatuated with herself.She speaks casually of her power over men,and boasts of `bringing a man to his knees'as complacently as I would pick up a net and say:
`I am going to take a butterfly.'She honestly believes that if Philip were with her a short time she could rekindle his love for her and awaken in him every particle of the old devotion.Mother,the girl is honest!She is absolutely sincere!She so believes in herself and the strength of Phil's love for her,that all her life she will believe in and brood over that thought,unless she is taught differently.So long as she thinks that,she will nurse wrong ideas and pine over her blighted life.She must be taught that Phil is absolutely free,and yet he will not go to her.""But how on earth are you proposing to teach her that?""The way will open."
"Lookey here,Elnora!"cried Mrs.Comstock."That Carr girl is the handsomest dark woman I ever saw.She's got to the place where she won't stop at anything.Her coming here proves that.I don't believe there was a thing the matter with that automobile.I think that was a scheme she fixed up to get Phil where she could see him alone,as she worked to see you.If you are going deliberately to put Philip under her influence again,you've got to brace yourself for the possibility that she may win.
A man is a weak mortal,where a lovely woman is concerned,and he never denied that he loved her once.You may make yourself downright miserable.""But mother,if she won,it wouldn't make me half so miserable as to marry Phil myself,and then read hunger for her in his eyes!Some one has got to suffer over this.
If it proves to be me,I'll bear it,and you'll never hear a whisper of complaint from me.I know the real Philip Ammon better in our months of work in the fields than she knows him in all her years of society engagements.
So she shall have the hour she asked,many,many of them,enough to make her acknowledge that she is wrong.
Now I am going to write my letters and take my walk."Elnora threw her arms around her mother and kissed her repeatedly."Don't you worry about me,"she said.
"I will get along all right,and whatever happens,I always will be your girl and you my darling mother."She left two sealed notes on her desk.Then she changed her dress,packed a small bundle which she dropped with her hat from the window beside the willow,and softly went down stairs.Mrs.Comstock was in the garden.Elnora picked up the hat and bundle,hurried down the road a few rods,then climbed the fence and entered the woods.She took a diagonal course,and after a long walk reached a road two miles west and one south.
There she straightened her clothing,put on her hat and a thin dark veil and waited the passing of the next trolley.
She left it at the first town and took a train for Fort Wayne.
She made that point just in time to climb on the evening train north,as it pulled from the station.It was after midnight when she left the car at Grand Rapids,and went into the depot to await the coming of day.
Tired out,she laid her head on her bundle and fell asleep on a seat in the women's waiting-room.Long after light she was awakened by the roar and rattle of trains.She washed,re-arranged her hair and clothing,and went into the general waiting-room to find her way to the street.She saw him as he entered the door.There was no mistaking the tall,lithe figure,the bright hair,the lean,brown-splotched face,the steady gray eyes.He was dressed for travelling,and carried a light overcoat and a bag.Straight to him Elnora went speeding.
"Oh,I was just starting to find you!"she cried.
"Thank you!"he said.
"You are going away?"she panted.
