Out Of The Depths Part 21

"I wouldn't blame him even if it was altogether," said Blake.

"Then you will be willing to overlook your past trouble with him?"

"Since you say he has straightened out--yes."

"That's good of you! That's what I expected of you!" exclaimed the girl. "That is he, in the buckboard."

Without a word, Blake started down the car steps.

"Bring him here at once, Tom," said Mrs. Blake.

Her husband went up beside the motionless figure in the buckboard and held out his hand. "Glad to meet you, Ashton," he said with matter-of-fact heartiness. "Jenny wants you to come to her. We're not ready to start, as we were not certain we would be met."

"Miss--Mrs. Blake wishes me to come!" mumbled Ashton.

"Yes," said Blake, gripping the other's hesitatingly extended hand.

Ashton flushed darkly. "But I--I can't leave the horses," he replied.

Blake signed to the porter, who hastened forward. "Hold the lines for this gentleman, Sam."

Ashton reluctantly gave the lines into the mulatto's sallow hands and stepped from the buckboard. His head hung forward as he followed Blake. But at the foot of the steps he removed his sombrero and forced himself to look up. Isobel was smiling down at him encouragingly. He looked from her to Mrs. Blake, his handsome face crimson with shame.

"How do you do, Lafayette?" Mrs. Blake greeted him with quiet cordiality. "This is a pleasant surprise."

"Yes--yes, indeed! I--yes, very!" he stammered, so embarra.s.sed that he would have stuck at the foot of the steps had not Blake started him up with a vigorous boost.

Mrs. Blake gave him her hand. "You look so strong and hearty!" she remarked. "It speaks well for the fare Miss Knowles provides."

"Oh, that credit is due our j.a.p chef," laughed the girl. "I can cut out a cow from the herd better than I can bone a chop. But the b.u.t.ter and eggs and cream that are awaiting you--Which reminds me that we've yet to see It."

"It?" asked Blake.

"Yes, him--the _baby_!"

"Oh, you dear girl!" cooed Mrs. Blake. "Come in and see him."

Isobel followed her into the car. Blake nodded to Ashton. But the younger man shrank away from the door.

"If you'll kindly excuse me," he muttered. "It would remind me too much of--the time when--No, I'd rather not."

"Of course," a.s.sented Blake with ready understanding. "How do you like this country? I went through here once on a railway survey. It's rare good luck--this chance to visit Miss Knowles. Jenny is a little run down, as you see."

"I shall trust that her visit to this locality will soon quite restore her," remarked Ashton.

"It will. The doctors said Maine; I said Colorado. It has done you no end of good. You are looking particularly fine and fit."

"It has helped me--in more ways than one," murmured Ashton.

"Glad to hear you say it!" responded Blake in hearty approval.

Ashton turned from him as Isobel appeared in the doorway, cuddling a l.u.s.ty, rosy-cheeked baby. The mother hovered close behind her.

"Look at him!" jeered Blake with heavily feigned derision. "Did you ever see such a big, fat, lubberly--"

"Yes, look at him, Lafe," said the girl, stepping out into the vestibule. "He is only a yearling, but isn't he just the perfect image of his father?"

Ashton burst into a ringing laugh, but abruptly checked himself at sight of the sober face of the young mother. "I--I beg pardon!" he stammered. "I--she--Miss Knowles--that is what she told me to tell you about him."

"And you didn't play up worth a little bit, Lafe!" complained the girl.

It was Blake's turn to laugh. "You--!" he accused. "Schemed to frame up a case on us did you!"

His wife smiled faintly, not altogether certain that an aspersion had not been cast upon her chuckling son.

"But it's partly true, really," remarked Ashton, peering at the baby's big pale-blue eyes.

Blake burst into a hilarious roar. But Mrs. Blake now beamed upon Ashton. "Then you, too, see the resemblance, Lafayette! Isn't it wonderful, and he so young? His name is Thomas Herbert Vincent Leslie Blake.--Now, my dear, if you please, I shall take him in. We must be preparing to start, if it is so long a drive."

"Do let me hold him until you and Mr. Blake are ready," begged the girl.

"I am not quite sure that--You will be careful not to drop him? He is tremendously strong, and he squirms," dubiously a.s.sented the fond mother. "Come, Tom. We must not keep Miss Knowles waiting."

Blake disappeared with her into the luxuriously furnished car.

"Isn't he a dear?" cooed the girl, clasping the baby to her bosom and kissing his chubby clenched hands. He stared up into her glowing face with his round light-blue eyes. "Thomas Blake!--Tom Blake!" she whispered.

Ashton did not heed the words. He was gazing too intently at the girl and the child. His eyes glistened with a wonderment and longing so exquisitely intense that it was like a pain. The girl sank down in one of the cane chairs and laid the baby on his back. He kicked and gurgled, seized one of his upraised feet and thrust a pink big toe in between his white milk teeth.

"That's more than you can do, Lafe!" challenged the girl.

She glanced up, dimpling with merriment,--met the adoration in his eyes, and looked down, blus.h.i.+ng. He attempted to speak, but the words choked into an incoherent sound like a sob. He jumped from the car and hurried to take the lines from the porter.

CHAPTER XIII

THE OTHER LADY'S HUSBAND

Miss Knowles did not seem to observe Ashton's deflection. She remained wors.h.i.+pfully downbent over the wriggling, chuckling baby until its parents reappeared.

Mrs. Blake had changed to an easy and serviceable dress of plain, strong material. The skirt, cut to walking length, showed that her feet and ankles were protected by a pair of absurdly small laced boots. Her husband had s.h.i.+fted to an equally serviceable costume--flannel s.h.i.+rt, broad-brimmed felt hat, and surveyor's boots.

"Crossing the plains we packed a trunk with what we considered most necessary," said Mrs. Blake, as she took the baby. "It is not a large one, and in addition there is only my satchel and the level and the lunch my maid is putting up for us."

"There is room for more, if you wish," replied Isobel. "But we can send over here for anything you need, any time."