But he released her almost immediately, and Tessibel sank back, sighing. She was no longer nervously eager to divulge her secret. She waited almost mechanically, as one waits for an advancing joy--as a hungry man watches abundant preparation for the appeasing of his hunger. Hearing him groan, she turned troubled eyes up to his.
"Daddy always says for to tell bad things quick!"
But this only served to call forth another deep breath of misery. After a lapse of what seemed ages to the waiting girl, Frederick gathered courage, and began, "Tess, I've told you how very ill my mother is, haven't I?"
"Yes, an' I air awful sorry, dearie," she murmured.
The compassion he aroused subdued her voice to a whisper.
"And she's asked me to do something for her and I've--got to do it, Tessibel," faltered Frederick.
"Sure ye have," Tess agreed.
"I didn't decide to do it, honey,"--Frederick was avoiding the vital part--"until I saw how I could not let it make any difference to us. It won't make any difference, dear heart!"
And Tess, already living in some distant day with full heart and full arms, breathed.
"No, darlin', no difference to us.... 'Course not!"
"Oh, I'm glad, so glad to hear you say that!" said Frederick, relief in his voice. "It won't be so dreadful, my sweet, if you trust me. And it won't be long--perhaps a year, perhaps two years--"
Tessibel's muscles grew suddenly rigid.
"Years, ye say?" she repeated, stupefied. "What years? Why years?"
The resigned and submissive Tess changed instantly to an intense, resolute woman, with compelling, fear-clouded eyes. Frederick, alarmed, hastened to explain.
"You remember Madelene Waldstricker, don't you?"
Did she remember Madelene Waldstricker? Would she ever forget that one night when he had treated her, his own wife, as though she were a stranger?
"Sure, I remember 'er," she admitted, flushing. "What about 'er?"
Before replying, Frederick snatched her hand and kissed it.
"My mother.... Oh, Tessibel, it'll be all right--" He paused, then finished despairingly, "My mother wants me to marry her!"
Tess caught the picture his words suggested; then recoiled as if death in monstrous guise had appeared before her, open-armed. Incredulous horror leapt alive in her eyes. He had said, "My mother wants me to marry Madelene Waldstricker." But even though his mother had demanded it, he couldn't! He wouldn't.... But he'd said he must!
Tess clenched her hands until the nails pressed into the flesh of her palms. Her throat refused to yield a speaking voice, but something screamed aloud within her as if a giant hand had clutched and torn her soul.