He was trying to loose the wire rib-joint from Dennie's hair,which the dampness was rolling in soft little ringlets about her forehead and neck.
Half-consciously,he remembered the same outline of rippling hair,as it had looked in the glow of the October camp fire down in the Kickapoo Corral when she was telling the old legend of Swift Elk and The Fawn of the Morning Light.She smiled up at him consolingly.
Dennie was level-headed,and life was always worth living where she was.
"I'll be your rain beau."He took her arm to assist her down the steps.
So courteous was his action,she might have been a lady of rank instead of old Bond Saxon's daughter carrying her own weight of a sorrow greater than Lagonda Ledge dreamed of.
As the two walked slowly homeward under the dripping shelter of the trees,Vincent Burgess felt a sense of comfort and pleasure out of all keeping for a man in love elsewhere.
Victor Burleigh watched them from the shadow of the portico column.
"I believe Trench is right.He insists that Burgess likes Dennie,or that he is mean enough to deceive Dennie into liking him.
A man like that ought to be killed--a scholar,and a rich man,and Dennie such a brave little poor girl with a kind,weak-kneed,old father on her heart.Norrie ought to know this,but who am I to say a word?""Victor Burleigh,won't you release the fair princess from the tower?"a girl's voice called.
Vic turned to see Elinor framed in the half-way window of the south turret.
And in that dripping shadowy light,no frame could want a rarer picture.
"I've fallen into the pit and am far on the road to perdition,"Elinor said."I hurried down this way from choir practice and Uncle Lloyd's gone and left the lower door locked.
It thundered so,and Dennie didn't come into the study,and nobody heard my screams.But if I perish,I perish,"she added with mock resignation.
"If you'll let up on perishing for half a minute,Rapunzel,I'll to the rescue,"Vic cried,"if I have to climb the dome and knock the per aspera out of the State Seal and come down through the hole,per astra ad aspera."And then he rushed off to find an unlocked exit to the building.