_ CHAPTER XV. THE COMMANDMENT THAT WAS BROKE
I stood close up to the boathouse door and was going to step out, but what the hired man was saying to Bonnie Bell was so nervy I had to stop. Besides, I wanted to hear what she'd say to show him his place.
"From the first minute I saw you," says he, "I couldn't help it. I swore then I'd meet you some day, and sometime----"
"Is this the way?" I heard her say, low.
"It's the only way I have," says he. "If there was a better, don't you think I'd take it? But what chance did I have? I had to make some way; I wouldn't of been any sort of man if I hadn't."
She must just of stood looking at him. I couldn't see.
"I had to find some way to tell you," says he. "What part have I had in this foolish squabble? Was that my fault? I'm only a servant now; but give me a chance to break out of that. Why, when I was out West----"
"Were you out West?" says she, sudden.
"Yes; in the Yellow Bull Valley, among the cowmen--among the real people. You came from that valley yourself."
"Yes, we did," says she; "and we'd far better of stayed there."
"You couldn't of stayed there," says he. "And besides, if you'd stayed there I'd never of met you, or you me."
"Indeed! Was that all my fortune--to meet the servant of my father's enemy?"
"It's all of mine! I'm not your enemy. But suppose now I went to your father and told him--what would he do?"
"He'd maybe kill you," says Bonnie Bell simply; "or else Curly would."
"I wouldn't blame either of them," says he. "I don't want to sneak around. I'm going away again----"
"What made you come back?" she says.
"Because I was sick in my heart. Because I thought I could look over once in a while and see you. But when I came back, here was this cursed fence and I couldn't see you any more. I thought I'd go mad. Maybe I have; I don't know."
"With or without the fence," says Bonnie Bell, "how could our circles cross, yours and mine?"
"Circles!" says he. "Circles! What are circles? I've heard this talk of circles all my life," says he. "I've seen it going on all around me. It's rot--rot! It's my misfortune to find one so far above me."
"My money?" says she, scornful. "I've a lot of it."
He didn't say a word to that for a long time.
"Did you really think that of me for a minute?" says he at last.
"You take it for granted that I've thought of you at all?" says she.
"I wouldn't of dared," says he--and it sounded like the truth, through the door. "Don't class me that way!"
"How can a girl tell?" says she. "Men talk like this to girls----"
"Have they talked to you? Who was it?"
"My social opportunities," says she slow and bitter-like, "seem to be confined to our neighbors' gardener."
"Don't!" says he. "Oh, don't! I don't want to see you hurt, even by your own tongue."
I never'd heard any man hand out any talk of this sort to any girl before. It was right interesting and I was glad I listened.
"How can a girl tell?" says she, like she was talking to herself.
"Shorely she can't tell all at once," he answers. "I'd never ask you to do more than wait. I'd want to go away and stay away till I could come in at your front door and be welcome," says he. "I wouldn't ask you to decide one thing now. But, as for me, I decided everything long ago."
She didn't say nothing.
"As to your money," says he after a while, "listen to me. Look at me--look close. Look into my eyes. Am I not honest? Tell me--if truth like mine can be mistaken for deceit, then what chance has any man on earth?"
She didn't answer, and he goes on like he had stepped up closer--I don't know but what he did.
"Look into my eyes," says he. "Look at me close. Maybe that'll help me some, for shorely you can see how much I----"
"Don't!" says she. "Don't!"
I don't believe she looked into his eyes at all.
"I wouldn't touch you," says he. "I wouldn't touch your hand--I wouldn't touch the hem of your garment. It wouldn't be right. It maybe ain't right for me to think of meeting you again; but it's right this once."
She didn't answer at all. He come to what seemed to trouble him.
"Is it the money?" he says again. "What's money if you've got nothing else?"
"Not much," says she; "not very much."
"I've not coveted it," says he. "It's another commandment I've broke. I've coveted that which was my neighbor's. I've coveted you--no more, so much! If you and I had a shack on the Yellow Bull out there, and forty acres to start with," says he, "out where the sun shines all the time, and the wind is sweet, and the mountains rise up around you----"
"Don't!" says she again. "Don't! Please go away--I can't stand that."
I couldn't stand it neither; so I opened the door. _