The Hermit of Sawmill Mountain [pp. 152-162]

1The Hermit of Sawmill Mountain.
his gentle mother had followed her life-love
to the grave.
"You need not come home, dearest
Charlie," the letter concluded, "for I will
settle everything and come to you. I am
quite a famous business woman. There is
nothing to keep us apart now, and I can
trust you"
All that was good in Charles Sydney's
nature came to the surface at the receipt of
that letter. He would be true to Agnes,
cost what it might. Full of his good resolution, he went to La Roblar. Claudia greeted him lovingly, as was her wont, clinging to
him and moving before him with the lithe
grace of a lioness. One long look into the
passionate depths of her eyes, and his tongue
and his heart failed him. Did she know,
with the intuition of her sex, that something had gone wrong with her lover? She
did not question him; she only pressed the
gleaming wine upon him, and he drank and
was silent.
Of course he cursed himself, returning to
his lonely home that night, for his weakness
-as he always cursed himself when not
under the influence of drink. Bat at least
he would write to Agnes, tell her the truth,
and throw himself upon her generosity.
That much he could and would do; but he
did not do it. It was an unpleasant task
at best, and from day to day he postponed
it.
There came a time when it was too late.
A telegram was brought from San Buenaventura, his post-office, couched in these
words:
"I start today. Will travel as far as Sant, Barbara with the Winters. AGNES."
Sydney made a hurried mental calculation.
In just ten days time he was to be married
in the Mission Church at San Buenaventura.
Counting for the delays incident to traveland he knew that the Winters would probably travel very slowly-Agnes would reach
Santa Barbara in, say, twelve days. That
would be two days after his marriage. He
and Claudia were to take Santa Barbara in
on their wedding trip to San Francisco.
They could change their plans easily enough
to meet Agnes. Then he would introduce
Claudia as his wifef and let the women settle
it between them. That, he reflected philo sophically, would be the easiest way to get
it over. Of course Agnes would be surprised
-but she would get over that. She never
was much of a girl for making a scene, any way.
He spoke to Claudia about the change that
night, telling her he desired to introduce
some Eastern friends who were coming out.
Of course she acquiesced, and then the subject dropped. Claudia had no time to make
inquiries as to who these "friends" were,
and Sydney chose to smoke his pipe and
congratulate himself upon the easy road
which had opened out of his difficulties.
III.
THE Concord wagon running by night be
tween Santa Barbara and San Buenaventura
rattled to the front door of the principal
hotel in the latter place with a great noise
and clatter at sharp midnight. Only one
passenger, a lady, dusty and travel-stained,
alighted. She was received by the nightclerk, and shown at once to her room. The
clerk was new at the business, and so forgot
to request her to register-an omission for
which, afterwards, she came to be most devoutly thankful. In the hurry of business in
the morning, this oversight was not noticed
in time to remedy it, and to the hotel books
she came to be known only as "the lady in
No. 7." She had a valise, certainly, but it
was taken by request to her room. Her
trunk, through the exigencies of stage travel,
she had been compelled to leave in Santa
Barbara.
Agnes Denton, for the solitary arrival at
the hotel was none other, found very little
sleep visit her couch that night. Her surroundings were so strange, she had seen so
much of novelty lately, that it was no great
wonder. And then, she was just a little bit
put out that Charlie had not met her at the
stage. "I would not let him arrive alone
and unwelcomed in a strange town," she
thought. "Poor fellow; I suppose he grew
1885.]
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