"I air here, kid," murmured the dwarf from a dark corner.
"Don't be worrin'," encouraged Tess, softly. "I air begun to love ye, Andy, an' you bet nobody durst touch ye. Whatever ye hear, be mum. Daddy and me'll take care of ye, an' God will too."
Later she left the shanty in deep thought, and by the time she had wended her way to the ragged rocks to meet Frederick Graves, she had uttered many tense little prayers for the suffering dwarf in her attic.
These rocks were a bower of delight to the sentimental girl. It was here in the gloom that in every expression of nature Tess heard Frederick's voice; his clear tones came swiftly on the wings of the wind, in the sonorous clap of the chimes as they spread their chant over the lake.
She was now seated on a broad, grey rock-slab, bending slightly forward, listening for her lover's step.
"Frederick!" she breathed in delight as a tall form loomed from the shadowy path.
In another moment she felt herself gathered into strong arms, and for a while the boy and girl were silent in their mutual happiness. The lakeside was quiet except for the sound of the tumbling waves and the intermittent rumble of a train on the tracks above.
Now and then, far back in the forest, an owl whoo-whooed in croaking tones, and in a nearby tree a family of baby birds twittered continuously in their sleep.
All the daisies in the meadows, all the nodding buttercups in the fields, seemed to be blossoming in Tessibel's heart at one time. She was in Frederick's arms, and the whole world could offer her nothing more.
"Tessibel, my little love," began Frederick, between caresses, "you remember what I begged you to consent to early in the spring?"
Tess made a movement to sit up.
"Ye mean--?" she stammered, confused.
Frederick drew her close.
"I want you to marry me right away," he murmured, entreatingly.
The words were whispered in passionate sighing out of the darkness into her ear. Tess drew back a little.
"Right away?" she repeated, gulping. "What do ye mean by right away, darlin'?... Now?"
Again strong arms evidenced strong affection.
"Yes--now," answered Frederick, earnestly. "You must! You must!... I can't be happy unless you do--Oh, Tessibel! Won't you, Tess?"
Never had anything thrilled her as his halting insistence.
"An' Daddy Skinner--air he to know?" she stammered, chokingly.
"No, no!"
"An'--yer mother?"
"Well, not--not quite yet, dear."
Two slender hands covered a scarlet face, and tears trickled between tense fingers.
"Then I can't!" Tess caught her breath in a sob. "I jest can't! Oh, why couldn't Daddy know--an' yer mother, too?"
Frederick strained her against his breast.
"Because they can't--not yet," he whispered. "Not a soul must know. Just you and I, darling. It'll be all right, dear, and I need you more and more--every day."
The deepening tones in his voice frightened, while they thrilled her.
She pressed him back to look into his eyes, but even through the growing gloom she could see the blue-veined lids were closed.
"Frederick," she murmured, drawing her face backward. "Frederick, let me tell ye somethin'. Everybody had ought to know when a girl gets married.
Oh, they ought to know, so they ought. Daddy Skinner an' yer mother, too."
Then of a sudden she was attacked by a strange tugging in her own heart.
She tried to free herself from his arms, but her resistance only made him the more determined to bend her to his wish. She had always been submissive, and he'd worshiped her for her womanly acquiescence to his will. Trembling fingers forced her face upward and hot lips sought and found hers. She shivered under the strong masculine pressure.
"Now listen to me, my love," he continued between fierce kisses. "Come with me tomorrow night, and we'll get married and--and--"
Tess was trying heroically to hold to the principle she knew was right, even though her heart directed otherwise.
"Not less'n I tell Daddy," she breathed back.
Her low denial served only to lock Frederick's arms more tightly around her.
"You've got to come and you mustn't tell him, either," he urged. "You mustn't!"
Succeeding at last in releasing herself, Tessibel sighed. She wanted to be firm with him, to impress lovingly upon him her reason for refusing him; but when he reached forth and folded her again in his arms, that fine firmness gave way. She burst into wild weeping, holding him close as he held her, trying through broken sobs to tell him what was burdening her heart.
"It air like this, dear," she wailed, dismally. "Oh, I want to marry ye more'n anything, but I've never deceived Daddy a bit in all my life. I never done nothin' less'n I told 'im, and, Oh, I want to tell him, Frederick! I do want to tell 'im!"
Frederick hadn't anticipated this resistance on Tessibel's part.
"Tess," he said, almost angrily, "I wouldn't ask you to do anything wrong." Then softening, he pleaded accusingly, "You don't love me well enough to be my wife."
"It'd be wicked," whispered Tess, falteringly.
"It would be right!" cried Frederick, in quick contradiction. "Tess, you will, you will!"
The red curls shook slowly a mute negation.
"I don't believe you love me at all," groaned Frederick. Then taking a long breath, "You want me to be unhappy, I know you do."
She lay limply in his arms while through the sensitive, honest mind raced all the objections against his desire. There were his powerful friends--his college--his--
"Yer mother--don't want ye to marry me," she cried, suffering.
"I know it," returned Frederick, promptly. "Still a man can't _always_ please his mother. Why, darling, what kind of a world would this be if mothers picked out their sons' wives? A poor place! I can tell you."
"But yer mother air awful good and loves ye just like Daddy loves me,"
argued Tessibel, "an' when ye don't do right, everything goes wrong. If Daddy Skinner ain't to know--"
"Nor anybody else," cut in the boy, growing moody after his sharp retort. "I won't have any one know about it. Tessibel, I want this more than anything else in the world. I love you--I love you, and you love me. Then why not? You do love me, don't you?"