"'His money will gild the Pills and sweeten the Bitters,' said Ethel, with a laugh. 'Mother told me to catch him if I could. We're on the rocks. But pah! I smell turpentine whenever he comes near me.'"
"Oh, Barney!" cried Valancy, wrung with pity for him. She had forgotten all about herself and was filled with compassion for Barney and rage against Ethel Traverse. How dared she?
"Well," - Barney got up and began pacing round the room - "that finished me. Completely. I left civilisation and those accursed dopes behind me and went to the Yukon. For five years I knocked about the world - in all sorts of outlandish places. I earned enough to live on - I wouldn't touch a cent of Dad's money. Then one day I woke up to the fact that I no longer cared a hang about Ethel, one way or another. She was somebody I'd known in another world - that was all. But I had no hankering to go back to the old life. None of that for me. I was free and I meant to keep so. I came to Mistawis - saw Tom MacMurray's island. My first book had been published the year before, and made a hit - I had a bit of money from my royalties. I bought my island. But I kept away from people. I had no faith in anybody. I didn't believe there was such a thing as real friendship or true love in the world - not for me, anyhow - the son of Purple Pills. I used to revel in all the wild yarns they told of me. In fact, I'm afraid I suggested a few of them myself. By mysterious remarks which people interpreted in the light of their own prepossessions.
"Then - you came. I HAD to believe you loved me - really loved ME - not my father's millions. There was no other reason why you should want to marry a penniless devil with my supposed record. And I was sorry for you. Oh, yes, I don't deny I married you because I was sorry for you. And then - I found you the best and jolliest and dearest little pal and chum a fellow ever had. Witty - loyal - sweet. You made me believe again in the reality of friendship and love. The world seemed good again just because you were in it, honey. I'd have been willing to go on forever just as we were. I knew that, the night I came home and saw my homelight shining out from the island for the first time. And knew you were there waiting for me. After being homeless all my life it was beautiful to have a home. To come home hungry at night and know there was a good supper and a cheery fire - and YOU.
"But I didn't realise what you actually meant to me till that moment at the switch. Then it came like a lightning flash. I knew I couldn't live without you - that if I couldn't pull you loose in time I'd have to die with you. I admit it bowled me over - knocked me silly. I couldn't get my bearings for a while. That's why I acted like a mule. But the thought that drove me to the tall timber was the awful one that you were going to die. I'd always hated the thought of it - but I supposed there wasn't any chance for you, so I put it out of my mind. Now I had to face it - you were under sentence of death and I couldn't live without you. When I came home last night I had made up my mind that I'd take you to all the specialists in the world - that something surely could be done for you. I felt sure you couldn't be as bad as Dr. Trent thought, when those moments on the track hadn't even hurt you. And I found your note - and went mad with happiness - and a little terror for fear you didn't care much for me, after all, and had gone away to get rid of me. But now, it's all right, isn't it, darling?"
Was she, Valancy being called "darling"?
"I can't believe you care for me," she said helplessly. "I KNOW you can't. What's the use, Barney? Of course, you're sorry for me - of course you want to do the best you can to straighten out the mess. But it can't be straightened out that way. You couldn't love me - me." She stood up and pointed tragically to the mirror over the mantel. Certainly, not even Allan Tierney could have seen beauty in the woeful, haggard little face reflected there.
Barney didn't look at the mirror. He looked at Valancy as if he would like to snatch her - or beat her.
"Love you! Girl, you're in the very core of my heart. I hold you there like a jewel. Didn't I promise you I'd never tell you a lie? Love you! I love you with all there is of me to love. Heart, soul, brain. Every fibre of body and spirit thrilling to the sweetness of you. There's nobody in the world for me but you, Valancy."
"You're - a good actor, Barney," said Valancy, with a wan little smile.
Barney looked at her.
"So you don't believe me - yet?"
"I - can't."
"Oh - damn!" said Barney violently.
Valancy looked up startled. She had never seen THIS Barney. Scowling! Eyes black with anger. Sneering lips. Dead-white face.
"You don't want to believe it," said Barney in the silk-smooth voice of ultimate rage. "You're tired of me. You want to get out of it - free from me. You're ashamed of the Pills and the Liniment, just as she was. Your Stirling pride can't stomach them. It was all right as long as you thought you hadn't long to live. A good lark - you could put up with me. But a lifetime with old Doc Redfern's son is a different thing. Oh, I understand - perfectly. I've been very dense - but I understand, at last."
Valancy stood up. She stared into his furious face. Then - she suddenly laughed.
"You darling!" she said. "You do mean it! You do really love me! You wouldn't be so enraged if you didn't."
Barney stared at her for a moment. Then he caught her in his arms with the little low laugh of the triumphant lover.
Uncle Benjamin, who had been frozen with horror at the keyhole, suddenly thawed out and tiptoed back to Mrs. Frederick and Cousin Stickles.
"Everything is all right," he announced jubilantly.
Dear little Doss! He would send for his lawyer right away and alter his will again. Doss should be his sole heiress. To her that had should certainly be given.
Mrs. Frederick, returning to her comfortable belief in an overruling Providence, got out the family Bible and made an entry under "Marriages."
CHAPTER XLIII
"But, barney," protested Valancy after a few minutes, "your father - somehow - gave me to understand that you STILL loved HER."
"He would. Dad holds the championship for making blunders. If there's a thing that's better left unsaid you can trust him to say it. But he isn't a bad old soul, Valancy. You'll like him."
"I do, now."
"And his money isn't tainted money. He made it honestly. His medicines are quite harmless. Even his Purple Pills do people whole heaps of good when they believe in them."
"But - I'm not fit for your life," sighed Valancy. "I'm not - clever - or well-educated - or - "
"My life is in Mistawis - and all the wild places of the world. I'm not going to ask you to live the life of a society woman. Of course, we must spend a bit of the time with Dad - he's lonely and old - "
"But not in that big house of his," pleaded Valancy. "I can't live in a palace."
"Can't come down to that after your Blue Castle," grinned Barney. "Don't worry, sweet. I couldn't live in that house myself. It has a white marble stairway with gilt bannisters and looks like a furniture shop with the labels off. Likewise it's the pride of Dad's heart. We'll get a little house somewhere outside of Montreal - in the real country - near enough to see Dad often. I think we'll build one for ourselves. A house you build for yourself is so much nicer than a hand-me-down. But we'll spend our summers in Mistawis. And our autumns travelling. I want you to see the Alhambra - it's the nearest thing to the Blue Castle of your dreams I can think of. And there's an old-world garden in Italy where I want to show you the moon rising over Rome through the dark cypress-trees."
"Will that be any lovelier than the moon rising over Mistawis?"
"Not lovelier. But a different kind of loveliness. There are so many kinds of loveliness. Valancy, before this year you've spent all your life in ugliness. You know nothing of the beauty of the world. We'll climb mountains - hunt for treasures in the bazaars of Samarcand - search out the magic of east and west - run hand in hand to the rim of the world. I want to show you it all - see it again through your eyes. Girl, there are a million things I want to show you - do with you - say to you. It will take a lifetime. And we must see about that picture by Tierney, after all."