Five small fingers touched his lips.
"Nothing is serious now," came the interruption, "not now that I know you love me. It's all I want in the world to make me supremely happy,"
and she sighed.
Frederick shuddered. Why, he hadn't told her he loved her! He was as far from loving her at that moment as the very stranger on the street.
"But it's something you must know," he thrust in desperately.
"I know what it is," averred the girl smiling. "I know all about it....
It's just money, that horrid old money your mother borrowed of brother and me.... But what does money matter? I've lots of it, bunches of it, and more than enough for us all, and so has Ebenezer."
Frederick shook himself impatiently. She must listen while he explained the impossibility of their ever being anything to each other.
"I couldn't take--"
"I'm not asking you to take anything but me," laughed the girl. "Just me, see? There, dearest! Now don't talk of anything disagreeable tonight. I just want to be happy."
And like a contented, purring kitten, she once more settled herself against him. Somehow Frederick couldn't tell her of Tessibel just then.
The right moment had come and gone. In the morning he would! By the light of the day it would be easier. Then he would explain everything to her and his mother.
"Put your arms around me," whispered Madelene.
Thrusting Tessibel from his mind, he drew the little figure close into his arms.
"Kiss me," she breathed, and two hours later, when Frederick Graves shut his bedroom door, he had promised to marry Madelene Waldstricker.
CHAPTER XI
FREDERICK INTIMIDATED
Confused and angry with himself and Madelene, Frederick crossed the room slowly.
What an awful mess! Married to Tessibel and engaged to marry Madelene!
His mother sick and head over heels in debt to the Waldstrickers! The situation was becoming more complicated by the hour. He sat down by the open window to think. The simple thing, and what he really wanted to do, was to announce his marriage and let himself and the others take the consequences. He didn't intend to give up Tess, and for a few minutes his memory was alive with all the suffering of his brave young wife during the past two years. What she had done for his sister Teola made him shudder with grief. There was no other woman in the world like Tess, and the sweetness of his intimate experiences since his marriage touched him to tears.
"I won't give her up," he groaned aloud, "whatever happens, I'll stand by Tess. She's worth all the rest--I love her better than life itself.
In the morning I'll tell mother and Madelene the truth."
But no sooner had he reached this conclusion, than the many embarrassing consequences his confession entailed presented themselves. He could hear his mother's querulous complaints. She hated Tess, blaming the little squatter girl for the trouble which had made her an invalid and taken her husband from her. Would he be compelled to choose between his affection for his mother and his love for Tess? No, surely not that!
Yet there was Madelene! How could he face her, after all that had happened. He bitterly regretted his weakness in permitting the girl to avow her love for him, in engaging himself to her.
And worst of all, that harrowing debt! He groaned at the thought of it.
Madelene had told him, "Your mother won't have to worry any more, dear.
We can send her away for a nice, long rest, and when Professor Young's lease is up, we'll fix the lake place for a summer home."
"If I could marry Madelene," he thought, "the debts--"
He got up, lighted a cigarette, his fingers shaking so he almost dropped the match. He couldn't marry Madelene!
Yet to acknowledge his relation to the squatter girl meant a certain and final break with the Waldstrickers, the financial ruin of himself and his mother.
Even at that cost, he must do it. Tessibel was his wife, his dear little wife. He had promised to make a home for her. But how? Could they get along at all, and what would he do with her impossible father? As his mother had said, he had no ability to earn anything. Bitter tears of discouragement filled his eyes.
Suddenly, a thought found its way into his brain and seemed to clear the situation completely.
"If I could explain it to Tess," he whispered, "and she would consent, everything would be easy. I know she'd help me!"
Again and again, and from many different angles, the argument repeated itself.
He lay wakeful in bed, his mind a confused jumble of diversified thoughts, in which his mother, then Tess, and again the Waldstrickers demanded his attention and sought to influence him. Worn out, at length he fell into a troubled sleep.
He was late in rising the next morning. When he finally went into his mother's room, he found Madelene seated by the invalid's side, holding her hand. Frederick knew by the expression on their faces, that the girl had confided to his mother the agreement made in the drawing room the evening before. Smiling a little uncertainly, he crossed the room.
"Good morning, mater! Good morning, Madelene!" said he.
Madelene smiled shyly, stood up and moved a little away. Frederick bent over his mother, who kissed him and murmured, "I'm so pleased and happy."
He straightened up and took Madelene's outstretched hand, very much inclined to tell them both then how impossible it was for him to carry out his engagement. But his mother, ostentatiously turning on her pillow, cried laughingly.
"Don't mind me, children, dear!... Kiss your sweetheart, if you want to, Frederick!"
Snuggling to his side, Madelene threw her arms around his neck, and whispered,
"You do love me, dear, don't you?"
Smiling into her eyes, he kissed her.
"Of course I do," he lied promptly. "Don't you know it, little girl?"
After breakfast, Mrs. Graves summoned them to her room again. Relieved of her pressing anxieties, and excited by the sudden fruition of her cherished plans, she looked and acted much better. She talked gaily to the young people of their future, laughed at the girl's blushes, and chaffed her son about his coming responsibilities.
"Frederick," she suddenly said more soberly. "I think you should go right away now and see Ebenezer, and ask him properly for Madelene's hand."
Feeling that such a course would commit him irrevocably, the boy hesitated.
"Don't be afraid, Fred dear," Madelene broke in. "I know Eb likes you, and," blushingly, "I think he will not be much surprised, either."
If he could only summon courage enough to tell Madelene before they met her brother! Perhaps if he could get the girl alone he might.
"Come along with me," he said spontaneously. "We'll go together."
"Then wait until I get my hat," and she danced away, the happiest girl in Ithaca.