It was two rings that the Virginian wrote for when next I heard from him.
After my dark sight of what the Cattle Land could be, I soon had journeyed home by way of Washakie and Rawlins. Steve and Shorty did not leave my memory, nor will they ever, I suppose.
The Virginian had touched the whole thing the day I left him. He had noticed me looking a sort of farewell at the plains and mountains.
“You will come back to it,” he said. “If there was a headstone for every man that once pleasured in his freedom here, yu’d see one most every time yu’ turned your head. It’s a heap sadder than a graveyard--but yu’ love it all the same.”
Sadness had passed from him--from his uppermost mood, at least, when he wrote about the rings. Deep in him was sadness of course, as well as joy. For he had known Steve, and he had covered Shorty with earth. He had looked upon life with a marksman’s eyes, very close; and no one, if he have a heart, can pass through this and not carry sadness in his spirit with him forever. But he seldom shows it openly; it bides within him, enriching his cheerfulness and rendering him of better service to his fellow-men.
It was a commission of cheerfulness that he now gave, being distant from where rings are to be bought. He could not go so far as the East to procure what he had planned. Rings were to be had in Cheyenne, and a still greater choice in Denver; and so far as either of these towns his affairs would have permitted him to travel. But he was set upon having rings from the East. They must come from the best place in the country; nothing short of that was good enough “to fit her finger,” as he said. The wedding ring was a simple matter. Let it be right, that was all: the purest gold that could be used, with her initials and his together graven round the inside, with the day of the month and the year.
The date was now set. It had come so far as this. July third was to be the day. Then for sixty days and nights he was to be a bridegroom, free from his duties at Sunk Creek, free to take his bride wheresoever she might choose to go. And she had chosen.
Those voices of the world had more than angered her; for after the anger a set purpose was left. Her sister should have the chance neither to come nor to stay away. Had her mother even answered the Virginian’s letter, there could have been some relenting. But the poor lady had been inadequate in this, as in all other searching moments of her life: she had sent messages,--kind ones, to be sure,--but only messages. If this had hurt the Virginian, no one knew it in the world, least of all the girl in whose heart it had left a cold, frozen spot. Not a good spirit in which to be married, you will say. No; frozen spots are not good at any time. But Molly’s own nature gave her due punishment. Through all these days of her warm happiness a chill current ran, like those which interrupt the swimmer’s perfect joy. The girl was only half as happy as her lover; but she hid this deep from him,--hid it until that final, fierce hour of reckoning that her nature had with her,--nay, was bound to have with her, before the punishment was lifted, and the frozen spot melted at length from her heart.
So, meanwhile, she made her decree against Bennington. Not Vermont, but Wyoming, should be her wedding place. No world’s voices should be whispering, no world’s eyes should be looking on, when she made her vow to him and received his vow. Those voices should be spoken and that ring put on in this wild Cattle Land, where first she had seen him ride into the flooded river, and lift her ashore upon his horse. It was this open sky which should shine down on them, and this frontier soil upon which their feet should tread. The world should take its turn second.
After a month with him by stream and canyon, a month far deeper into the mountain wilds than ever yet he had been free to take her, a month with sometimes a tent and sometimes the stars above them, and only their horses besides themselves--after such a month as this, she would take him to her mother and to Bennington; and the old aunt over at Dunbarton would look at him, and be once more able to declare that the Starks had always preferred a man who was a man.
And so July third was to be engraved inside the wedding ring. Upon the other ring the Virginian had spent much delicious meditation, all in his secret mind. He had even got the right measure of her finger without her suspecting the reason. But this step was the final one in his plan.
During the time that his thoughts had begun to be busy over the other ring, by a chance he had learned from Mrs. Henry a number of old fancies regarding precious stones. Mrs. Henry often accompanied the Judge in venturesome mountain climbs, and sometimes the steepness of the rocks required her to use her hands for safety. One day when the Virginian went with them to help mark out certain boundary corners, she removed her rings lest they should get scratched; and he, being just behind her, took them during the climb.
“I see you’re looking at my topaz,” she had said, as he returned them. “If I could have chosen, it would have been a ruby. But I was born in November.”
He did not understand her in the least, but her words awakened exceeding interest in him; and they had descended some five miles of mountain before he spoke again. Then he became ingenious, for he had half worked out what Mrs. Henry’s meaning must be; but he must make quite sure. Therefore, according to his wild, shy nature, he became ingenious.
“Men wear rings,” he began. “Some of the men on the ranch do. I don’t see any harm in a man’s wearin’ a ring. But I never have.”
“Well,” said the lady, not yet suspecting that he was undertaking to circumvent her, “probably those men have sweethearts.”
“No, ma’am. Not sweethearts worth wearin’ rings for--in two cases, anyway. They won ’em at cyards. And they like to see ’em shine. I never saw a man wear a topaz.”
Mrs. Henry did not have any further remark to make.
“I was born in January myself,” pursued the Virginian, very thoughtfully.
Then the lady gave him one look, and without further process of mind perceived exactly what he was driving at.
“That’s very extravagant for rings,” said she. “January is diamonds.”
“Diamonds,” murmured the Virginian, more and more thoughtfully. “Well, it don’t matter, for I’d not wear a ring. And November is--what did yu’ say, ma’am?”
“Topaz.”
“Yes. Well, jewels are cert’nly pretty things. In the Spanish Missions yu’ll see large ones now and again. And they’re not glass, I think. And so they have got some jewel that kind of belongs to each month right around the twelve?”
“Yes,” said Mrs. Henry, smiling. “One for each month. But the opal is what you want.”
He looked at her, and began to blush.
“October is the opal,” she added, and she laughed outright, for Miss Wood’s birthday was on the fifteenth of that month.
The Virginian smiled guiltily at her through his crimson.
“I’ve no doubt you can beat around the bush very well with men,” said Mrs. Henry. “But it’s perfectly transparent with us--in matters of sentiment, at least.”
“Well, I am sorry,” he presently said. “I don’t want to give her an opal. I have no superstition, but I don’t want to give her an opal. If her mother did, or anybody like that, why, all right. But not from me. D’ yu’ understand, ma’am?”
Mrs. Henry did understand this subtle trait in the wild man, and she rejoiced to be able to give him immediate reassurance concerning opals.
“Don’t worry about that,” she said. “The opal is said to bring ill luck, but not when it is your own month stone. Then it is supposed to be not only deprived of evil influence, but to possess peculiarly fortunate power. Let it be an opal ring.”
Then he asked her boldly various questions, and she showed him her rings, and gave him advice about the setting. There was no special custom, she told him, ruling such rings as this he desired to bestow. The gem might be the lady’s favorite or the lover’s favorite; and to choose the lady’s month stone was very well indeed.
Very well indeed, the Virginian thought. But not quite well enough for him. His mind now busied itself with this lore concerning jewels, and soon his sentiment had suggested something which he forthwith carried out.
When the ring was achieved, it was an opal, but set with four small embracing diamonds. Thus was her month stone joined with his, that their luck and their love might be inseparably clasped.
He found the size of her finger one day when winter had departed, and the early grass was green. He made a ring of twisted grass for her, while she held her hand for him to bind it. He made another for himself. Then, after each had worn their grass ring for a while, he begged her to exchange. He did not send his token away from him, but most carefully measured it. Thus the ring fitted her well, and the lustrous flame within the opal thrilled his heart each time he saw it. For now June was near its end; and that other plain gold ring, which, for safe keeping, he cherished suspended round his neck day and night, seemed to burn with an inward glow that was deeper than the opal’s.
So in due course arrived the second of July. Molly’s punishment had got as far as this: she longed for her mother to be near her at this time; but it was too late.
