“I have not, indeed, mother,” he replied.
“Not ill? Why, my dear boy, your face is haggard and worn, and there are lines upon it that ought not to have been there for years. Rex,” she said, drawing him down on the sofa beside her, and holding his strong white hands tightly clasped in her own, “I do not want to tease you or bring up an unpleasant subject, but I had so hoped, my boy, you would not come alone. I have hoped and prayed, morning and night, you would bring home a bride, and that bride would be––Pluma Hurlhurst.”
Rex staggered from her arms with a groan. He meant to tell her the whole truth, but the words seemed to fail him.
“Mother,” he said, turning toward her a face white with anguish, “in Heaven’s name, never mention love or marriage to me again or I shall go mad. I shall never bring a bride here.”
“He has had a quarrel with Pluma,” she thought.
“Rex,” she said, placing her hands on his shoulders and looking down into his face, “tell me, has Pluma Hurlhurst refused you? Tell me what is the matter, Rex. I am your mother, and I have the right to know. The one dream of my life has been to see Pluma your wife; I can not give up that 94 hope. If it is a quarrel it can be easily adjusted; ‘true love never runs smooth,’ you know.”
“It is not that, mother,” said Rex, wearily bowing his head on his hands.
Then something like the truth seemed to dawn upon her.
“My son,” she said, in a slight tone of irritation, “Pluma wrote me of that little occurrence at the lawn fête. Surely you are not in love with that girl you were so foolishly attentive to––the overseer’s niece, I believe it was. I can not, I will not, believe a son of mine could so far forget his pride as to indulge in such mad, reckless folly. Remember, Rexford,” she cried, in a voice fairly trembling with suppressed rage, “I could never forgive such an act of recklessness. She should never come here, I warn you.”
“Mother,” said Rex, raising his head proudly, and meeting the flashing scorn of her eyes unflinchingly, “you must not speak so; I––can not listen to it.”