“Yesterday,” Rex repeated, with a feeling that yesterday was a great way off. “Were you here?”
“Why, yes,” Sam answered. “You see, I’d been to Bemis’ about some hayseed, just as I have to-day, and on my way back I was so hot and dead tired that I lay down under that tree behind that clump of bushes and fell asleep. When I waked up you was lookin’ in the well for all you was worth, and she was goin’ up to you careful-like, just as I went up to Lottie when I catched her at it and looked over her shoulder before she knew I was there. My, how she screeched—Lottie, I mean—not you. I didn’t mean to peek, only I happened to be here and watched Miss Burdick and see you jump when she bent over you and the glass fell into the well as if you was scared.”
“But—but—Miss Burdick was sitting where we are,” Rex stammered, and Sam, who suspected nothing, continued:
“Maybe she was at first, but when I seen her she was tip-toe-in’ up to you, who couldn’t hear her, the ground is so soft and the pine-needles so thick, and I s’pose you was thinkin’ of something else.”
“And looked over my shoulder?” Rex asked next, every faculty now on the alert as he began to see the trick played upon him.
“Why, yes,” Sam said, thinking Mr. Travers rather forgetful. “You saw her, didn’t you? and that’s what made you drop the glass, while she jumped back and put on her hat, which she had took off, and, when you reeled as if you was goin’ to fall she sprang forward again and grabbed you, don’t you know?”
“Yes, yes,” Rex said. “I know, but I didn’t see you.”
“Of course not,” Sam replied. “I didn’t want you to think I was spyin’ on you, because I wasn’t, and I kep’ still and you and she sat on the bench awhile, and you seemed kinder upset and faint.”
“Yes, and I—I think I am now, the day is so hot and my head so bad,” Rex said. “Tell me again just what you saw.”
Sam looked at him in some surprise, wondering if he were a little off, but he repeated the story again, apologizing profusely because he was there a spectator of the scene, which he described very fully, interspersing his remarks with “Don’t you remember?” and “Don’t you know?” while Rex kept saying, “Yes, yes, go on,” till he had a very lucid idea of what had taken place in the grove the previous day. It was not a phantom he saw in the glass, the half face whose one eye had left the stone by the well and was dancing up and down before him with a persistency which made him dizzy. It was Irene herself playing a trick upon him and offering no explanation when she saw how it had affected him. What was her object? Not a mere joke, or she would have confessed it, and if it were a joke it certainly was not worthy of her, he thought, and there began to creep over him a great revulsion of feeling toward her and he was glad he had not sent the letter. He must wait a while and think it over. He was very tired and very warm and very sick, he said to himself at last, as he sat half blinded with the pain in his head and the nausea at his stomach. He knew Sam was still talking to him, but he did not comprehend all he was saying. He had not, however, lost a word where Irene was concerned, and could see her stealing up behind him, while he was too absorbed to hear her. He could see, too, the half face in the mirror and the eye looking at him with something like a mocking smile in its blue depths, but aside from that he did not pay much attention to Sam’s talk till he spoke of taking Irene to the station and how badly she felt about her brother.