"Eh? Ah, well, er-a little enterprise, a scheme, a-er-What station is this we're drawing into?" and this discussion was sidetracked instantly, leaving Eleanor to wonder if Forbes had lost his senses.

She had been home a little more than a week when he asked her to take a walk with him, and had led her a wild scramble to the top of the mountain to the plateau heretofore mentioned, where he unfolded a plan which caused Eleanor to collapse upon a nearby rock and sit looking at him in a bewildered manner. Again and again during the ensuing weeks had they toiled up the mountain, and each time had returned grimy, gratified and garrulous, heads nodding, hands gesticulating and oblivious of any other human being on top of the round world.

Mrs. Carruth watched developments with resignation; Constance with open amus.e.m.e.nt; Mammy with a division between tolerance and contempt-the saving grace in the cause being that Forbes could remotely claim kinship with the Blairsdales. But it was upon Jean that the effect was the funniest. Jean had spent all her life with people older than herself.

There had been no little children in her home, and her interests had naturally centered upon her older sisters and around their affairs. She had a wise little head upon her fourteen-year-old shoulders, and older people would have been somewhat surprised could they have known the "long, long thoughts" which pa.s.sed through it. More than once had she seen Forbes and Eleanor start off and toil up the mountain, and more than once had she been an un.o.bserved follower. She never followed close enough to overhear their conversation; that would have been contrary to her sense of honor. Still, she was determined to know where they went, and, if her eyes could inform her, why they went, and her deductions came nearer the mark than the two would have believed possible.

And so had pa.s.sed the summer days, and now September was at hand, and in a very short time Eleanor would start for Forest Lodge-the school in which she had accepted a position for six months-_not longer_. Forbes'

influence had prevailed.

Early one morning the 'phone rang. Eleanor was wanted.

"I know what it is," cried Jean, who happened to be near it and turned to receive the message: "It's Mr. Forbes, and he wants Eleanor to play Pilgrim's Progress with him again, I'll bet a cookie." The funny one-sided conversation began only to be interrupted by Jean, who exclaimed:

"What makes you think you're talking to Eleanor? Are our voices so alike as all that? Hold the wire while I call her, and don't waste all those nice speeches on me," and with a chuckle Jean turned to call Eleanor.

That afternoon Forbes called for Eleanor, and just as they were about to start upon their pilgrimage Jean came tearing out upon the piazza with two gorgeously colored laundry bags, rose-flowered and highly decorative, which she plumped down upon the piazza.

"Jean!" expostulated Mrs. Carruth. "What in this world?"

"Well, I don't see any sense in playing a game unless you have the 'impurtenances,' as Mammy calls them: it must seem sort of half played.

So I've filled these bags full of newspapers, and if you'll each sling one over your shoulders you'll be sure enough 'pilgrims,' and goodness knows you climb up that mountain often enough to give 'Pilgrim's Progress' to the life!"

Then Jean fled, and so did Eleanor and Forbes.

Panting and hot, in the course of time they reached the summit of the mountain and the plateau, every square foot of which should have been known to them by this time. Seating themselves upon the log, which had done duty many times before, Forbes at once began to unroll a great blueprint which he held at arm's length, and said:

"_Now_, I can show you the tangible evidence of my dreams. You see the plan is this:"

But, alack! the best-_drawn_ plans, etc., and this plan was printed upon the stiffest of architect's paper, and had been rolled tightly for several days: Forbes' fingers were a trifle shaky for some reason; one edge of the outspread roll slipped from them and quick as a flash coiled up upon itself, sweeping his gla.s.ses from his nose and hurling them ten feet away, where they crashed upon a rock and shivered to atoms.

Now, if anyone reading this is solely and entirely dependent upon a pair of gla.s.ses to see anything ten inches beyond her own nose, she will understand how Forbes felt at that particular moment-maybe.

They bounded to their feet and inanely rushed for the wrecked gla.s.ses, knowing perfectly well that only bits of scattered crystal lay upon that merciless rock. Eleanor dropped upon her knees and began frantically to gather up the fragments, Forbes towering above her and blinking like an owl which has suddenly been routed out of a hollow tree into the glaring sunshine. A fragment, about two-thirds, of the lense of the right eye still held to the nose-clip. Eleanor pounced upon this, crying:

"Ah, here is a little piece, a very little piece! Do you think you can see with that? See just a little, little bit? Enough to look over the plans? I'll read the specifications to you. I'll do anything, anything to help you, I feel so terribly sorry. Let me be your eyes for just a little while, for I know how disappointed you must be," and there was almost a sob in her voice as she rose to her feet and held the hopeless bit of eyegla.s.s toward him.

He took it, deliberately opened the patent clip and as deliberately snapped it upon his nose, Eleanor watching him as though worlds trembled in the balance.

If half a loaf is better than no bread, I dare say two-thirds of an eyegla.s.s are better than no eyegla.s.s at all; and who in such a vital moment would have dared hint that Forbes looked slightly batty as he c.o.c.ked one eye at the lady before him? Certainly not the lady, who was the very picture of Dolores at that instant. Then Forbes came to the front splendidly. Indeed, he came with a rush and a prompt.i.tude which no one could have foreseen; he made one step forward, and the next instant held the lady in his arms, as his words poured deliciously into the ear so near his lips:

"My eyes! My eyes! You shall be my eyes, my ears, my soul!-yes, my very body and boots. No! no! I don't mean that! Oh, hang it all, what made me say that foolish thing? I mean you _are_ my eyes and my very soul!

Without your inspiration my very mind would be a blank. With you the dreams of my life will be crystallized into beautiful realities. Never, never shall I let you leave me! Never depart from your home until this one we have pictured and planned stands ready to receive you within its walls, to be its cherished, adored light; its inner shrine, at which I shall be the chief worshipper, my G.o.ddess of sweetness, light and intellect! My inspiration to ideals beyond man's conception."

But let us draw down that thick fir bough as a curtain.

Off yonder, upon a moss-covered stone, sat a little figure, hugging his knees and swaying backward and forward in an abandonment of hilarious mirth. At his feet lay a bow, beside him an empty quiver. On his wee nose the wreck of a pair of thick-lensed eyegla.s.ses.

CHAPTER XVIII

HARVEST TIME.

The September days were exceptionally warm ones, but no one seemed to mind them because the evenings were cool. The two pilgrims continued their progress, advancing rapidly and in such a rosy atmosphere that the millennium seemed close at hand. Whatever Homer Forbes' plans were, and as yet only he and Eleanor seemed to know much about them, they evidently met the entire approval of the lady in the question, for she threw herself into the process of perfecting them with an ardor that nearly drove her family frantic. No matter where they turned, they found plans and specifications lying about, and Eleanor's room resembled an architect's drafting-office. Not long after that walk up the mountain there had been a closeted hour's talk with Mrs. Carruth, and when Homer Forbes came out of the library at the end of it he was in such a perturbed state of mind that he nearly fell over Mammy as he rushed through the hall, out of the front door and across the piazza, to vanish down the road and leave the family staring after him; at least, that portion of the family which happened to be seated there. Hard upon his heels followed Mammy, crying:

"Gawd bress ma soul! what Miss Jinny done ter dat man? 'Pears lak he gone plum loony." Then, turning to Mrs. Carruth, who followed not far behind, Mammy continued: "Miss Jinny, is dat man gone cl'ar crazy?"

Mrs. Carruth smiled as she replied:

"They sometimes call it 'a very mid-summer madness,' Mammy, but mid-summer has pa.s.sed, hasn't it? It's not dangerous, however. You would better go upstairs and ask Miss Nornie. I am sure she can tell you more about Mr. Forbes than I can. At all events, she has decided to let him guide her through life, so she must have an abiding faith in him, and I have told him he may do so if she wishes it. By the spring you will have to climb to the top of Mt. Parna.s.sus if you wish to see your Miss Nornie, I think."

"Whar _dat_ place at?" demanded Mammy, while Hadyn gave a low whistle, and Constance cried, "What did I tell you, Mumsey?" as Jean jumped up and down in her excitement.

"You had better go upstairs and ask Miss Nornie, Mammy," and straightway Mammy whirled about and started upstairs to Eleanor's room, where she found her buried neck-deep in a pile of drafting papers, triangles, compa.s.ses and pencils; though just what she was drawing plans for Mammy could not guess. When questioned of late Eleanor had given negative, abstracted replies which more than once nearly convulsed her hearers, and upon one occasion she had brought consternation upon the family by emptying a br.i.m.m.i.n.g washbowl of water into her sc.r.a.p-basket instead of her slop-jar. Evidently the sc.r.a.p-basket had figured more prominently in her thoughts of late than had her washbowl.

As Mammy appeared at the door Eleanor was bending over a great blueprint plan which she had spread upon the floor. It was a tremendous affair, fully two by four feet, and Eleanor was down upon her knees, hands outspread and locks flying, too absorbed to be aware of Mammy's presence.

"Peripatos, peristyle penetralia," murmured the engrossed one, tracing with a slender forefinger the lines upon her plan, then repeating, "Penetralia, penetralia. How interesting."

"What in de name o' man is you jabberin' about, anyway, Miss Nornie?"

Eleanor came to an upright position with a start, crying:

"Goodness, Mammy, how you startled me!"

"Yo' better had git up f'om dat floor 'stid o' bendin' ober dat sky-blue sheet o' paper what done look lak it got Chinee writin' an' drawin' on it. Yo' face make out de res' ob de colors fer de hull 'Merican flag: red, white an' blue alltergedder. 'Taint no kynd ob a day fer ter be bendin' ober lak yo' is. Nex' t'ing yo' know yo' gwine git rush o' blood ter de haid, an' dat's bad, I tells yo'! Wha' yo' gwine do wid all dat blue stuff, anyway? Yo' ain' tell me one single t'ing 'bout it, an' I ain' know wha' 'tis. An' I wants fer ter know, too, if yo' gwine be home ter lunch ter day." Mammy's sharp eye scrutinized the rosy face before her.

"O, you needn't bother about me, Mammy. Mr. Forbes will be over shortly and we are going for a tramp."

"Tromp! tromp!" echoed Mammy. "Tromp on sich a hot day as dis hyar wid de fermom'ter jist nach.e.l.ly climbin' cl'ar out er sight? Is you done gone silly, yo' an' dat Perfesser Fo'bes? Yo' stay ter home in dis cool house what I done darken up fer ter keep out de sizzlin', billin' heat.

It fa'r scoch de very skin off yo' body. Don' yo' let dat man drag yo'

up dat mountain on sich a day, I tells yo'."

"Oh, we don't mind it, and the woods are so cool. Just put up one of your delicious little luncheons for us, and we'll be more than supplied."

"Cool in de woods! Yis, when yo' gits to em, but yo's got right smart ter walk fo' yo' comes ter dem, an' I ain' pinin' fer no sich 'xertion on such a frazzlin'-out day. But I reckons I jist better save ma' bref dan spend it a-talkin'. Yo' lunch gwine be ready fo' yo' when yo' ready fo' it; but what I wants ter know now is, what all _dat_ meanin'," and Mammy pointed again to the big blueprint.

Eleanor was not given to emotion but there come times in every life when one's emotions are more easily played upon than at others. The past week had held such moments for Eleanor. Of all Mammy's children Eleanor had been the least demonstrative. She rarely caressed the old woman as Constance and Jean did. Now, however, she bounded to her feet and, rushing to Mammy, cried:

"Oh, Mammy! Mammy! Do you believe in dreams? Don't you think they come true sometimes?"

"A heap o' times!" interjected Mammy.

Eleanor sighed ecstatically. I _knew_ you would say so, Mammy. "And _ours_ will, won't it?"

"Who 'ours?'" demanded Mammy, her lips pursed up, and distrust in her eyes.