"I am beginning to like it very much.At first I thought it very dull, but now I am getting acquainted.""There are few cottagers and summer people here.But in Harniss there is a large colony.Very nice people, I believe.""Yes, I have met some of them.But it was not the summer people Imeant.I am beginning to know the townspeople and to like some of them.I met that delightful old Captain Warren the other day.""He is as good as they make."
"Indeed he is.And I had an interview with another captain, Miss Dean's father, yesterday.We had an interesting encounter.""So I should imagine.Captain Jed! Whew! It MUST have been interesting.""It was.Oh, we were very fierce at first--at least he was, and Ifought for my side as hard as I could.He said Father was a selfish pig for wanting to close the Lane, and I said it was because of its use by the pigs that he wished to close it.""Ha! ha! How did it end?"
"Oh, we agreed to disagree.I respect Captain Dean for his fight;but Father will win, of course.He always does.""He won't win this time, Miss Colton."
"Why not? Oh, I actually forgot I was talking to the head and front of the opposition.So you think he will not win, Mr.Paine?""I am sure of it.He cannot close that Lane until I sell it, and Ishall not sell."
She regarded me thoughtfully, her chin upon her hand.
"It would be odd if he should not, after all," she said."He prides himself on having his own way.It would be strange if he should be beaten down here, after winning so often in New York.
Your mother told me something of your feeling in the matter, Mr.
Paine.Father has offered you a good price for the land, hasn't he?""He has offered me a dozen times what it is worth.""Yes.He does not count money when he has set his heart upon anything.And you refused?""Yes."
"But Nellie Dean says the town also wished to buy and you refused its offer, too.""Yes."
"You don't seem to care for money, either, Mr.Paine.Are all Cape Cod people so unmercenary? Or is it that you all have money enough--...Pardon me.That was impolite.I spoke without thinking.""Oh, never mind.I am not sensitive--on that point, at least.""But I do mind.And I am sorry I said it.And I should like to understand.I see why the townspeople do not want the Lane closed.
But you have not lived here always.Only a few years, so Miss Dean says.She said, too, that that Mr.Taylor, the cashier, was almost the only intimate friend you have made since you came.Others would like to be friendly, but you will not permit them to be.
And, yet for these people, mere acquaintances, you are sacrificing what Father would call a profitable deal.""Not altogether for them.I can't explain my feeling exactly.Iknow only that to sell them out and make money--and heaven knows Ineed money--at their expense seems to me dead wrong.""Then why don't you sell to THEM?"
"I don't know.Unless it was because to refuse your father's offer and accept a lower one seemed a mean trick, too.And I won't be bullied into selling to anyone.I guess that is it, as much as anything.""My! how stubborn you must be."
"I don't know why I have preached this sermon to you, Miss Colton.
your sympathies in the fight are with your father, naturally.""Oh, no, they are not."
I almost dropped the rod.
"Not--with--" I repeated.
"Not altogether.They are with you, just at present.If you had sold--if you had given in to Father, feeling as you do, I should not have any sympathy with you at all.As it is--""As it is?" I asked eagerly--too eagerly.I should have done better to pretend indifference.
"As it is," she answered, lightly, "I respect you as I would any sincere fighter for a losing cause.And I shall probably feel some sympathy for you after the cause is lost.Excuse my breaking in on your sermon, provided it is not finished, but--I think you have a bite, Mr.Paine."I had, very much of a bite.The minnow on my hook had been forgotten and allowed to sink to the bottom, and a big pout had swallowed it, along with the hook and a section of line.I dragged the creature out of the water and performed a surgical operation, resulting in the recovery of my tackle.
"There!" I exclaimed, in disgust."I think I have had enough fishing for one day.Suppose we call it off.Unless you would like to try, Miss Colton."I made the offer by way of a joke.She accepted it instantly.
"May I?" she cried, eagerly."I have been dying to ever since Icame.
"But--but you will get wet."
"No matter.This is an old suit."
It did not look old to my countrified eyes, but I protested no more.There was a rock a little below where we then were, one of the typical glacial boulders of the Cape--lying just at the edge of the water and projecting out into it.I helped her up on to this rock and baited her hook with shrimp.
"Shall I cast for you?" I asked.
"No indeed.I can do it, thank you."
She did, and did it well.Moreover, the line had scarcely straightened out in the water when it was savagely jerked, the pole bent into a half-circle, and out of the foaming eddy beneath its tip leaped the biggest bass I had seen that day, or in that pond on any day.
"By George!" I exclaimed."Can you handle him? Shall I--"She did not look at me, but I received my orders, nevertheless.
"Please don't! Keep away!" she said sharply.
For nearly fifteen minutes she fought that fish, in and out among the pads, keeping the line tight, handling him at least as well as I could have done.I ran for the landing net and, as she brought her captive up beside the rock, reached forward to use it.But she stopped me.
"No," she said, breathlessly, "I want to do this all myself."It took her several more minutes to do it, and she was pretty well splashed, when at last, with the heavy net dragging from one hand and the rod in the other, she sprang down from the rock.Together we bent over the fish.
"A four-pounder, if he is an ounce," said I."I congratulate you, Miss Colton.""Poor thing," she mused."I am almost sorry he did not get away.
