"Ah!" she sighed, the elderly man, his grandchild, and his apple well-forgotten.

"Do you think it was a prophecy?" he asked.

"What do _you_ think?" she breathed. "That was really what I asked you before."

"I think," he said slowly, "that I'm in danger of forgetting that my 'hidden treasure' is the most important thing in the world."

"In great danger?" The words were not vocal.

He moved close to her; their eyes met again, with increased eagerness, and held fast; she was trembling, visibly; and her lips--parted with her tumultuous breathing--were not far from his.

"Isn't any man in great danger," he said, "if he falls in love with you?"

"Well?"

CHAPTER SEVEN

Toward four o'clock that afternoon, a very thin, fair young man shakily heaved himself into a hammock under the trees in that broad backyard wherein, as Valentine Corliss had yesterday noticed, the last iron monarch of the herd, with unabated arrogance, had entered domestic service as a clothes-prop. The young man, who was of delicate appearance and unhumanly pale, stretched himself at full length on his back, closed his eyes, moaned feebly, cursed the heat in a stricken whisper. Then, as a locust directly overhead violently shattered the silence, and seemed like to continue the outrage forever, the shaken lounger stopped his ears with his fingers and addressed the insect in old Saxon.

A white jacketed mulatto came from the house bearing something on a silver tray.

"Julip, Mist' Vilas?" he said sympathetically.

Ray Vilas rustily manoeuvred into a sitting position; and, with eyes still closed, made shift to accept the julep in both hands, drained half of it, opened his eyes, and thanked the cup-bearer feebly, in a voice and accent reminiscent of the melodious South.

"And I wonder," he added, "if you can tell me----"

"I'm Miz William Lindley's house-man, Joe Vaxdens," said the mulatto, in the tone of an indulgent nurse. "You in Miz Lindley's backyard right now, sittin' in a hammick."

"I seem to gather almost that much for myself," returned the patient. "But I should like to know how I got here."

"Jes' come out the front door an' walk' aroun' the house an' set down. Mist' Richard had to go downtown; tole me not to wake you; but I heerd you splashin' in the bath an' you tole me you din'

want no breakfuss----"

"Yes, Joe, I'm aware of what's occurred since I woke," said Vilas, and, throwing away the straws, finished the julep at one draught.

"What I want to know is how I happened to be here at Mr.

Lindley's."

"Mist' Richard brought you las' night, suh. I don' know where he got you, but I heered a considerable thrashum aroun', up an' down the house, an' so I come help him git you to bed in one vem spare-rooms." Joe chuckled ingratiatingly. "Lord name! You cert'n'y wasn't askin' fer no _bed_!"

He took the gla.s.s, and the young man reclined again in the hammock, a hot blush vanquishing his pallor. "Was I--was I very bad, Joe?"

"Oh, you was all _right_," Joe hastened to rea.s.sure him. "You was jes' on'y a little bit tight."

"Did it really seem only a little?" the other asked hopefully.

"Yessuh," said Joe promptly. "Nothin' at all. You jes' wanted to rare roun' little bit. Mist' Richard took gun away from you----"

"What?"

"Oh, I tole him you wasn' goin' use it!" Joe laughed. "But you so wile be din' know what you do. You cert'n'y was drunkes' man _I_ see in _long_ while," he said admiringly. "You pert near had us bofe wore out 'fore you give up, an' Mist' Richard an' me, we _use'_ to han'lin' drunk.u.m man, too--use' to have big times week-in, week-out 'ith Mist' Will--at's Mist' Richard's brother, you know, suh, what died o' whiskey." He laughed again in high good-humour. "You cert'n'y laid it all over any vem ole times we had 'ith Mist' Will!"

Mr. Vilas shifted his position in the hammock uneasily; Joe's honest intentions to be of cheer to the sufferer were not wholly successful.

"I tole Mist' Richard," the kindly servitor continued, "it was a mighty good thing his ma gone up Norf endurin' the hot spell.

Sence Mist' Will die she can't hardly bear to see drunk.u.m man aroun' the house. Mist' Richard hardly ever tech nothin' himself no more. You goin' feel better, suh, out in the f'esh air," he concluded, comfortingly as he moved away.

"Joe!"

"Yessuh."

Mr. Vilas pulled himself upright for a moment. "What use in the world do you reckon one julep is to me?"

"Mist' Richard say to give you one drink ef you ask' for it, suh,"

answered Joe, looking troubled.

"Well, you've told me enough now about last night to make any man hang himself, and I'm beginning to remember enough more----"

"Pshaw, Mist' Vilas," the coloured man interrupted, deprecatingly, "you din' broke nothin'! You on'y had couple gla.s.s' wine too much.

You din' make no trouble at all; jes' went right off to bed. You ought seen some vem ole times me an Mist' Richard use to have 'ith Mist' Will----"

"Joe!"

"Yessuh."

"I want three more juleps and I want them right away."

The troubled expression upon the coloured man's face deepened.

"Mist' Richard say jes' one, suh," he said reluctantly. "I'm afraid----"

"Joe."

"Yessuh."

"I don't know," said Ray Vilas slowly, "whether or not you ever heard that I was born and raised in Kentucky."

"Yessuh," returned Joe humbly. "I heerd so."

"Well, then," said the young man in a quiet voice, "you go and get me three juleps. I'll settle it with Mr. Richard."

"Yessuh."

But it was with a fifth of these renovators that Lindley found his guest occupied, an hour later, while upon a small table nearby a sixth, untouched, awaited disposal beside an emptied coffee-cup.

Also, Mr. Vilas was smoking a cigarette with unshadowed pleasure; his eye was bright, his expression care-free; and he was sitting up in the hammock, swinging cheerfully, and singing the "Ma.r.s.eillaise." Richard approached through the yard, coming from the street without entering the house; and anxiety was manifest in the glance he threw at the green-topped gla.s.s upon the table, and in his greeting.

"Hail, gloom!" returned Mr. Vilas, cordially, and, observing the anxious glance, he swiftly removed the untouched goblet from the table to his own immediate possession. "Two simultaneous juleps will enhance the higher welfare," he explained airily. "Sir, your Mr. Varden was induced to place a somewhat larger order with us than he protested to be your intention. Trusting you to exonerate him from all so-and-so and that these few words, etcetera!" He depleted the elder gla.s.s of its liquor, waved it in the air, cried, "Health, host!" and set it upon the table. "I believe I do not err in a.s.suming my cup-bearer's name to be Varden, although he himself, in his simple Americo-Africanism, is pleased to pluralize it. Do I fret you, host?"