第131章

"No, I did not," he answered."But I guess that's so.I guess it's so.

Great Jakes! Think of me perhaps being sort of kin to fellows just like that.Some way, you couldn't help liking him.He was always making big breaks and bellowing out `The Wake! The Wake!' in season and out of season; but the way he got there--just got there!"He was oddly in sympathy with "the early savages here," and as understandingly put himself into their places as he had put himself into Galton's.His New York comprehension of their berserker furies was apparently without limit.Strong partizan as he was of the last of the English, however, he admitted that William of Normandy had "got in some good work, though it wasn't square.""He was a big man," he ended."If he hadn't been the kind he was Idon't know how I should have stood it when the Hereward fellow knelt down before him, and put his hands between his and swore to be his man.That's the way the book said it.I tell you that must have been tough--tough as hell!"From "Good-bye, Sweetheart" to "Hereward the Last of the English" was a far cry, but he had gathered a curious collection of ideas by the way, and with characteristic everyday reasoning had linked them to his own experiences.

"The women in the Hereward book made me think of Lady Joan," he remarked, suddenly.

"Torfreda? " the duke asked.

He nodded quite seriously.

"She had ways that reminded me of her, and I kept thinking they must both have had the same look in their eyes--sort of fierce and hungry.

Torfreda had black hair and was a winner as to looks; but people were afraid of her and called her a witch.Hereward went mad over her and she went mad over him.That part of it was 'way out of sight, it was so fine.She helped him with his fights and told him what to do, and tried to keep him from drinking and bragging.Whatever he did, she never stopped being crazy about him.She mended his men's clothes, and took care of their wounds, and lived in the forest with him when he was driven out.""That sounds rather like Miss Hutchinson," his host suggested, "though the parallel between a Harlem flat and an English forest in the eleventh century is not exact.""I thought that, too," Tembarom admitted."Ann would have done the same things, but she'd have done them in her way.If that fellow had taken his wife's advice, he wouldn't have ended with his head sticking on a spear.""Another lady, if I remember rightly," said the duke.

"He left her, the fool! " Tembarom answered."And there's where Icouldn't get away from seeing Lady Joan; Jem Temple Barholm didn't go off with another woman, but what Torfreda went through, this one has gone through, and she's going through it yet.She can't dress herself in sackcloth, and cut off her hair, and hide herself away with a bunch of nuns, as the other one did.She has to stay and stick it out, however bad it is.That's a darned sight worse.The day after I'd finished the book, I couldn't keep my eyes off her.I tried to stop it, but it was no use.I kept hearing that Torfreda one screaming out, `Lost! Lost! Lost!' It was all in her face.""But, my good fellow," protested the duke, despite feeling a touch of the thrill again, "unfortunately, she would not suspect you of looking at her because you were recalling Torfreda and Hereward the Wake.Men stare at her for another reason.""That's what I know about half as well again as I know anything else,"answered Tembarom.He added, with a deliberation holding its own meaning, "That's what I'm coming to."The duke waited.What was it he was coming to?

"Reading that novel put me wise to things in a new way.She's been wiping her feet on me hard for a good while, and I sort of made up my mind I'd got to let her until I was sure where I was.I won't say Ididn't mind it, but I could stand it.But that night she caught me looking at her, the way she looked back at me made me see all of a sudden that it would be easier for her if I told her straight that she was mistaken.""That she is mistaken in thinking--?"

"What she does think.She wouldn't have thought it if the old lady hadn't been driving her mad by hammering it in.She'd have hated me all right, and I don't blame her when I think of how poor Jem was treated; but she wouldn't have thought that every time I tried to be decent and friendly to her I was butting in and making a sick fool of myself.She's got to stay where her mother keeps her, and she's got to listen to her.Oh, hell! She's got to be told!"The duke set the tips of his fingers together.

"How would you do it?" he inquired.

"Just straight," replied T.Tembarom."There's no other way."From the old worldling broke forth an involuntary low laugh, which was a sort of cackle.So this was what he was coming to.

"I cannot think of any devious method," he said, "which would make it less than a delicate thing to do.A beautiful young woman, whose host you are, has flouted you furiously for weeks, under the impression that you are offensively in love with her.You propose to tell her that her judgment has betrayed her, and that, as you say, `There's nothing doing.'""Not a darned thing, and never has been," said T.Tembarom.He looked quite grave and not at all embarrassed.He plainly did not see it as a situation to be regarded with humor.

"If she will listen--" the duke began.

"Oh, she'll listen," put in Tembarom."I'll make her."His was a self-contradicting countenance, the duke reflected, as he took him in with a somewhat long look.One did not usually see a face built up of boyishness and maturity, simpleness which was baffling, and a good nature which could be hard.At the moment, it was both of these last at one and the same time.

"I know something of Lady Joan and I know something of you," he said, "but I don't exactly foresee what will happen.I will not say that Ishould not like to be present."

"There'll be nobody present but just me and her," Tembarom answered.