Up the Hill and Over eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 381 pages of information about Up the Hill and Over.

Up the Hill and Over eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 381 pages of information about Up the Hill and Over.

“Rest doesn’t mean idleness.  I should die of loafing.  As a matter of fact since coming here I have rested as I have not rested for a year.  Look at me!  Can’t you see it?  Or is the renovation not yet visible to the naked eye?  Great Scott!  I don’t need to vegetate in order to rest, do I?”

“No.”  Another pause ensued during which the gimlet eyes of the professor were busy.  Then he seemed suddenly to leap to the heart of the matter.

“And—­Lorna?” He asked crisply.

It was the other’s turn to be silent.  He flushed, looked embarrassed, and drummed with his fingers upon the table.

“Of course I have no right to ask,” added Willits primly.

“Yes, you have, old man.  Every right.  But I knew you had come to ask that question and I didn’t like it.  The answer is not a flattering one—­to me.  Nor is it what you expected.  To be brief, Lorna won’t have me.  Refused me—­flat!”

Blank surprise portrayed itself upon the professor’s face.

“The devil she did!”

“Confess now!” said Callandar, smiling.  “You thought I was the one to blame?  There was retributive justice in your eye, don’t deny it!”

“But, I don’t understand!  I thought—­I was sure—­”

“I know.  But she doesn’t!  Not in that way.  As a sister—­”

“That’s enough!  I—­Accept my apology.  I feel very sorry, Henry.”

Again that look of embarrassment and guilt upon the doctor’s face.

“No.  Don’t feel sorry!  See here, let’s be frank about the whole thing.  It was a mistake, from the very beginning, a mistake.  Miss Sinnet, Lorna, is a girl in a thousand.  But—­I did not care for her as a man should care for the woman he makes his wife.  Nor did she care for me—­wait, I’m not denying that there was a chance.  We were very congenial.  She might have cared if—­if I had cared more greatly.”

“Henry Callandar!  Are you a cad?”

“No.  Merely a man speaking the exact truth.  I thought I might risk it, with you.  Lorna Sinnet is not a woman to give her love and take a half-love in return.  She was more clear-sighted than you or I. We should both have been very miserable.”

Elliott Willits sighed.  He was a very sensible man.  He prided himself upon being devoid of sentiment, but even the most sensible of men, entirely devoid of sentiment, do not like to see their well laid plans go wrong.

“Well,” he said, “I was mistaken.  Let us say no more about it.”

Callandar’s eyes softened, melted into misty grey.  He laid his arm affectionately over the other’s thin shoulders.  “Only this,” he said.  “That no man ever had a better friend!  I know you, old Button-Moulder.  I know your ambition to make of me a ’shining button on the vest of the world!’ You thought that Lorna might help.  But I failed you there.  I’m sorry.  That was really the bitterness of the whole thing—–­to fail you!”

“You owe me nothing,” gruffly.

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Up the Hill and Over from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.