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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/39067-8.txt b/39067-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4dfadd3 --- /dev/null +++ b/39067-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11395 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Horace Chase, by Constance Fenimore Woolson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: Horace Chase + +Author: Constance Fenimore Woolson + +Release Date: March 6, 2012 [EBook #39067] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HORACE CHASE *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images available at The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + +HORACE CHASE + +A Novel + +by + +CONSTANCE FENIMORE WOOLSON + +AUTHOR OF "JUPITER LIGHTS" "EAST ANGELS" ETC. + +NEW YORK + +HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS + +1894 + +Copyright, 1894, by HARPER & BROTHERS. + +_All rights reserved._ + + + + +HORACE CHASE + + + +CHAPTER I + + +In a mountain village of North Carolina, in the year 1873, the spring +had opened with its accustomed beauty. But one day there came a pure +cold wind which swept through the high valley at tremendous speed from +dawn to midnight. People who never succumb to mere comfort did not +relight their fires. But to the Franklin family comfort was a goddess, +they would never have thought of calling her "mere"; "delightful" was +their word, and Ruth would probably have said "delicious." The fire in +Mrs. Franklin's parlor, therefore, having been piled with fresh logs at +two o'clock as an offering to this deity, was now, at four, sending out +a ruddy glow. It was a fire which called forth Ruth's highest +approbation when she came in, followed by her dog, Petie Trone, Esq. Not +that Ruth had been facing the blast; she never went out from a sense of +duty, and for her there was no pleasure in doing battle with things that +were disagreeable for the sake merely of conquering them. Ruth had come +from her own room, where there was a fire also, but one not so generous +as this, for here the old-fashioned hearth was broad and deep. The girl +sat down on the rug before the blaze, and then, after a moment, she +stretched herself out at full length there, with her head resting on her +arm thrown back behind it. + +"It's a pity, Ruth, that with all your little ways, you are not little +yourself," remarked Dolly Franklin, the elder sister. "Such a whalelike +creature sprawled on the floor isn't endearing; it looks like something +out of Gulliver." + +"It's always so," observed Mrs. Franklin, drowsily. "It's the oddest +thing in the world--but people never will stay in character; they want +to be something different. Don't you remember that whenever poor Sue +Inness was asked to sing, the wee little creature invariably chanted, +'Here's a health to King Charles,' in as martial a voice as she could +summon? Whereas Lucia Lewis, who is as big as a grenadier, always +warbles softly some such thing as 'Call me pet names, dearest. Call me a +bird.' Bird! Mastodon would do better." + +"Mastodon?" Ruth commented. "It is evident, His Grand, that you have +seen Miss Billy to-day!" + +Ruth was not a whale, in spite of Dolly's assertion. But she was tall, +her shoulders had a marked breadth, and her arms were long. She was very +slender and supple, and this slenderness, together with her small hands +and feet, took away all idea of majesty in connection with her, tall +though she was; one did not think of majesty, but rather of girlish +merriment and girlish activity. And girlish indolence as well. Mrs. +Franklin had once said: "Ruth is either running, or jumping, or doing +something in such haste that she is breathless; or else she is stretched +out at full length on the carpet or the sofa, looking as though she +never intended to move again!" + +The girl had a dark complexion with a rich color, and hair that was +almost black; her face was lighted by blue eyes, with long thick black +lashes which made a dark fringe round the blue. The persons who liked +Ruth thought her beautiful; they asserted that her countenance had in it +something which was captivating. But others replied that though her +friends might call her captivating if they pleased, since that word +denotes merely a personal charm, they had no right to say that she was +beautiful; for as regards beauty, there are well-defined rules, and, +with the exception of her wonderful eyes, the face of the second Miss +Franklin transgressed every one of these canons. Ruth's features were +without doubt irregular. And especially was it true that her mouth was +large. But the lips were exquisitely cut, and the teeth very white. +Regarding her appearance as a whole, there was a fact which had not as +yet been noticed, namely, that no man ever found fault with it; the +criticism came always from feminine lips. And these critics spoke the +truth; but they forgot, or rather they did not see, some of the +compensations. There were people not a few, even in her own small +circle, who did not look with favor upon Ruth Franklin; it was not +merely, so they asserted, that she was heedless and frivolous, caring +only for her own amusement, and sacrificing everything to that, for of +many young persons this could be said; but they maintained in addition +that hers was a disposition in its essence self-indulgent; she was +indolent; she was fond of luxuries; she was even fond of "good +eating"--an odd accusation to be brought against a girl of that age. In +this case also the charges were made by feminine lips. And again it may +be added that while these critics spoke the truth, or part of the truth, +they did not, on the other hand, see some of the compensations. + +"Why do you say '_poor_ Sue Inness,' His Grand?" inquired Dolly, in an +expostulating tone. "Why do people always say '_poor_' so-and-so, of any +one who is dead? It is an alarmingly pitying word; as though the +unfortunate departed must certainly be in a very bad place!" + +"Here is something about the bishop," said Mrs. Franklin, who was +reading a Raleigh newspaper in the intervals of conversation. Her tone +was now animated. "He has been in Washington, and one of his sermons +was--" + +But she was interrupted by her daughters, who united their voices in a +chant as follows: + + "Mother Franklin thinks, + That General Jackson, + Jared the Sixth, + Macaroon custards, + And Bishop Carew, + Are per-_fec_-tion!" + +Mrs. Franklin made no reply to these Gregorian assertions (which she had +often heard before), save the remark, "You have torn your skirt, Ruth." + +"Oh, please don't look at me over your glasses, His Grand. It spoils +your profile so," answered Ruth; for Mrs. Franklin was surveying the +skirt with her head bent forward and her chin drawn sharply in, so that +her eyes could be brought to bear upon the rent over her spectacles. + +She now drew off these aids to vision impatiently. "Whether I look +through them or over them doesn't matter; you and Dolly are never +satisfied. I cannot read the paper without my glasses; do you wish me to +know nothing of the news of the world?" + +"We'll _tell_ you," responded Dolly, going on busily with her knitting. +"For instance, to-day: Genevieve has had _all_ the paint cleaned and +_all_ the windows washed; she is now breathing that righteous atmosphere +of cold, fireless bleakness and soap which she adores. Miss Billy Breeze +has admired everything that she can think of, because admiration is so +uplifting. And she has written another page about the primeval world; +now she--" + +Here the door which led to the entrance-hall was opened with a jerk by +Linda, a plump negro girl, who bounced in, ejaculated "Lady!" in a +congratulatory tone, and then bounced out to act as usher for the +incoming guest. + +"Billy herself, probably," said Mrs. Franklin. "Ruth, are you stretched +out there under the plea that you are not yet fully grown?" + +But Ruth did not deem it necessary to leave her couch for Miss Billy +Breeze. "Hail, Billy!" she said, as the visitor entered. "Mother thinks +that I ought to be seated politely on the sofa; will you please imagine +that I am there?" + +"Oh, certainly," replied Miss Breeze, in a conciliatory tone. Miss +Breeze lived under the impression that the members of this family +quarrelled with each other almost incessantly; when she was present, +therefore, she did her best to smooth over their asperities. "It is +rather good for her, you know," she said reassuringly to Mrs. Franklin; +"for it is a windy day, and Ruth is not robust." Then to Ruth: "Your +mother naturally wishes you to look your best, my dear." + +"Do you, His Grand?" inquired Ruth. "Because if you do, I must certainly +stay where I am, so that I can tuck under me, very neatly, this rip in +my skirt, which Miss Billy has not yet seen. Petie Trone, Esq., shake +hands with the lady." The dog, a small black-and-tan terrier, was +reposing on the rug beside Ruth; upon hearing her command, he trotted +across to the visitor, and offered a tiny paw. + +"Dear little fellow," said Miss Breeze, bending, and shaking it gently. +"His Grand must allow that he looks extremely well?" + +For the circle of friends had ended by accepting the legend (invented by +Ruth) that Mrs. Franklin was Petie Trone's grandmother, or "His Grand." +The only person who still held out against this title was Genevieve, the +daughter-in-law; Mrs. Franklin the younger thought that the name was +ridiculous. Her husband's family seemed to her incomprehensibly silly +about their pets. + +Miss Wilhelmina Breeze was thirty-five; but no one would have thought so +from her fair pink-and-white complexion, and young, innocent eyes. From +her earliest years she had longed to hear herself called "Wilhelmina." +But the longing was almost never gratified; the boyish name given to her +in joke when she was a baby had clung to her with the usual fatal +tenacity. + +"Miss Billy, have you seen mother to-day?" Dolly inquired. + +"Not until now," answered the visitor, surprised. + +"Well, then, have you thought of mastodons?" + +"Certainly I have; and if you yourself, Dolly, would think more +seriously of the whole subject, the primeval world--you would soon be as +fascinated with it as I am. Imagine one of those vast extinct animals, +Dolly, lifting his neck up a hill to nibble the trees on its top!" said +Miss Breeze with enthusiasm. "And birds as large as chapels flying +through the air! Probably they sang, those birds. What sort of voices +do you suppose they had? The cave-lion was twenty-nine feet high. The +horned tryceratops was seventy-five feet long! It elevates the mind even +to think of them." + +"You see, His Grand, that she _has_ thought of mastodons," commented +Dolly. "Your unexpected mention of them, therefore, is plainly the +influence of her mind acting upon yours from a distance--the distance of +the Old North Hotel." + +"Have you really thought of them, dear Mrs. Franklin? And do you believe +there can be such a thing as the conscious--I mean, of course, +_un_conscious--influence of one mind upon another?" inquired Miss Billy, +her face betraying a delighted excitement. + +"No, no; it's only Dolly's nonsense," answered Mrs. Franklin. + +"It's easy to say nonsense, His Grand. But how, then, do you account for +the utterances of my planchette?" demanded Dolly, wagging her head +triumphantly. + +Dolly, the second of Mrs. Franklin's three children, was an invalid. The +Franklins, as a family, were tall and dark, and Dolly was tall and dark +also; her face, owing to the pain which frequently assailed her, was +thin, worn, and wrinkled. She sat in a low easy-chair, and beside her +was her own especial table, which held what she called her "jibs." These +were numerous, for Dolly occupied herself in many ways. She sketched, +she carved little knick-knacks, she played the violin; she made lace, +she worked out chess problems, and she knitted; she also scribbled +rhymes which her family called poetry. The mantel-piece of this parlor +was adorned with a hanging which bore one of her verses, stitched in old +English text, the work of her mother's needle: + + "O Fire! in these dark frozen days + So gracious is thy red, + So warm thy comfort, we forget + The violets are dead." + +The family thought this beautiful. Dolly's verses, her drawing and +wood-carving, her lace-making and chess, were amateurish; her +violin-playing was at times spirited, and that was the utmost that could +be said of it. But her knitting was remarkable. She knitted nothing but +silk stockings, and these, when finished, had a wonderful perfection. +Dolly was accustomed to say of herself that in the heels of her +stockings was to be found the only bit of conscience which she +possessed. + +When she mentioned planchette, her mother frowned. "I do not approve of +such things." + +"Yes, because you are afraid!" chuckled Dolly. + +"Oh, anything that dear Mrs. Franklin does not approve of--" murmured +Miss Billy. + +Mrs. Franklin rose. + +"His Grand is fleeing!" Dolly announced, gleefully. + +"I must make the salad-dressing, mustn't I? Ruth will not touch Zoe's +dressing. Billy, Mr. Chase is to dine with us to-day, informally; don't +you want to stay and help us entertain him?" added the mistress of the +house as she left the room. + +"Dolly," suggested Ruth, from her place on the rug, "set planchette to +work, and make it tell us secrets; make it tell us whether Miss Billy +understands the _true_ character of Achilles Larue!" + +"She does not; I can tell her that without planchette," replied Dolly. +"Only one person in the world has ever fully understood Achilles--had +the strength to do it; and _he_ died!" + +"Yes, I know; I have heard Mr. Larue speak of that one friend," said +Miss Billy, regretfully. "How unfortunate that he lost him!" + +"Yes, baddish. And the term is quite in his own line," commented Dolly. +"With him it is never warm, but warmish; the bluest sky is bluish; a +June day, fairish; a twenty-mile walk, longish. In this way he is not +committed to extravagant statements. When he is dead, he won't be more +than deadish. But he's that now." + +Mrs. Franklin, having made the salad-dressing (when she made it, it was +always perfection), returned to the parlor. "Ruth, go and change your +dress. Take Miss Billy with you, but take her to my room, not yours. For +of course you will stay, Billy?" + +"I don't think I'd better; I'm not dressed for the evening; and I said I +should be back," answered Miss Breeze, hesitatingly. + +"To whom did you say it? To the Old North? Run along," said Mrs. +Franklin, smiling. "If it is shoes you are thinking of, as yours are +muddy, Ruth can lend you a pair." + +"That she cannot," remarked Dolly. "Buy Ruth six pairs of new shoes, and +in six days all will be shabby. But you can have a pair of mine, Miss +Billy." + +When she was left alone with her elder daughter, Mrs. Franklin said: +"Poor Billy! She is always haunted by the idea that she may possibly +meet Achilles Larue here. She certainly will not meet him at the Old +North, for he never goes near the place, in spite of her gentle +invitations. But here there is always a chance, and I never can resist +giving it to her, although in reality it is folly; he has never looked +at her, and he never will." + +"No. But you need not be anxious about her," replied Dolly; "she has the +happy faculty of living in illusions, day after day. She can go on +hopefully admiring Achilles to the last moment of her life, and I dare +say she even thinks that he has a liking for her, little as he shows it. +She has occult reasons for this belief; she would find them in a kick." + +"Goose!" said Mrs. Franklin, dismissing Billy's virginal dreams with the +matron's disillusioned knowledge. "Aren't you going to change your +dress, Dolly?" + +"Why? Am I not tidy as I am? I thought you considered me too tidy?" And +it was true that the elder Miss Franklin was always a personification +of rigid neatness; from the dark hair that shaded her tired face, to the +shoes on her feet, all was severely orderly and severely plain. + +"Oh, go, go!" answered her mother, impatiently. + +Dolly screwed up her mouth, shook her head slowly, and laid her work +aside; then she rose, and with her cane walked towards the door. On her +way she stopped, and, bending, kissed her mother's forehead. "Some of +these days, mother, I shall be beautiful. It will be during one of our +future existences somewhere. It must be so, dear; you have earned it for +me by your loving pity here." Nothing could exceed the tenderness of her +tone as she said this. + +Mrs. Franklin made no response beyond a little toss of her head, as +though repudiating this account of herself. But after Dolly had left the +room, a moisture gathered in the mother's eyes. + +Ruth, meanwhile, had conducted Miss Billy to her own chamber. + +"But Mrs. Franklin said I was to go to _her_ room?" suggested the guest. + +"She doesn't mind; she only meant that Bob is probably here," answered +Ruth, as she opened the windows and threw back the blinds; for the +afternoon was drawing towards its close. + +Miss Billy took off her bonnet, and, after a moment's thought, hung it +by its crown on a peg; in that position it did not seem possible that +even Bob could make a resting-place within it. Bob was young and very +small. He was beautiful or devilish according to one's view of +flying-squirrels. But whether you liked him or whether you hated him, +there was always a certain amount of interest in connection with the +creature, because you could never be sure where he was. Miss Billy, who +was greatly afraid of him, had given a quick look towards the tops of +the windows and doors. There was no squirrel visible. But that was small +comfort; Bob could hide himself behind a curtain-ring when he chose. One +of the blinds came swinging to with a bang, and Ruth, reopening the +window, struggled with it again. "There is Mr. Hill coming along the +back street on Daniel," she said, pausing. "He is beckoning to me! What +can he want? You will find shoes in the closet, Miss Billy, and don't +wait for me; I am going down to speak to him." Away she flew, running +lightly at full speed through the upper hall and down the back stairs, +closely followed by Petie Trone, Esq. + +Miss Billy closed the window and stood there for a moment looking out. +Presently she saw Ruth at the stone wall at the end of the garden. She +also recognized (with disapproving eyes) the unclerical hat of the Rev. +Malachi Hill, who had stopped his horse in the road outside. He was +talking to Ruth, who listened with her chin resting on her hands on the +top of the wall, while the wind roughened her hair wildly, and blew out +her skirts like a balloon. Miss Billy watched her for a while; then, +after making her own preparations for the evening, she seated herself +by the fire to wait. For no one could make Ruth come in one moment +before she chose to do so; it seemed better, therefore, not to call +attention to her absence by returning to the parlor alone, lest Mrs. +Franklin should be made uneasy by knowing that the girl was out, +bareheaded, in the cold wind. Having made her decision (Billy was always +troubled, even upon the smallest occasion, by four or five different +theories as to the best course to pursue), she looked about the room +with the same wonder and gentle dislike which she had often felt before. +The necessary articles of furniture were all set closely back against +the wall, in order that the central space of the large chamber should be +left entirely free. For Ruth did not like little things--small objects +of any kind which required dusting, and which could be easily upset. +Miss Billy, who adored little things, and who lived in a grove of them, +thought the place dreadfully bare. There were no souvenirs; no +photographs of friends in velvet frames; there were no small tables, +brackets, screens, hanging shelves, little chairs, little boxes, little +baskets, fans, and knick-knacks; there was not even a wall-calendar. +With Miss Billy, the removal of the old leaf from her poetical calendar, +and the reading of the new one each morning, was a solemn rite. And when +her glance reached the toilet-table, her non-comprehension reached its +usual climax. The table itself was plain and unadorned, but on its top +was spread out a profuse array of toilet articles, all of ivory or +crystal. That a girl so wholly careless about everything else should +insist upon having so many costly and dainty objects for her personal +use in the privacy of her own room seemed remarkable. "Give Ruth her +bath in scented water, and all these ivory and crystal things to use +when she dresses, and she is perfectly willing to go about in a faded, +torn old skirt, a hat entirely out of fashion, shabby gloves, and +worn-out shoes; in short, looking anyhow!" mused Billy, perplexed. + +Down-stairs Mrs. Franklin was receiving another visitor. After Dolly's +departure, Rinda had made a second irruptive entrance, with the +announcement, "Gen'lem!" and Mr. Anthony Etheridge came in. Etheridge +was a strikingly handsome man, who appeared to be about fifty-eight. He +entered with light step and smiling face, and a flower in his coat. + +"Ah, commodore, when did you return?" said Mrs. Franklin, giving him her +hand. + +"Two hours ago," answered Etheridge, bowing over it gallantly. "You are +looking remarkably well, my dear madam. Hum-ha!" These last syllables +were not distinct; Etheridge often made this little sound, which was not +an ahem; it seemed intended to express merely a general enjoyment of +existence--a sort of overflow of health and vitality. + +"Only two hours ago? You have been all day in that horrible stage, and +yet you have strength to pay visits?" + +"Not visits; _a_ visit. You are alone?" + +"Only for the moment; Dolly and Ruth are dressing. We are expecting some +one to dine with us--a new acquaintance, by-the-way, since you left; a +Mr. Chase." + +"Yes, Horace Chase; I knew he was here. I should like to kick him out!" + +"Why so fierce?" said Mrs. Franklin, going on with her lamplighters. For +the making of lamplighters from old newspapers was one of her pastimes. + +"Of course I am fierce. We don't want fellows of that sort here; he will +upset the whole place! What brought him?" + +"He has not been well, I believe" ("That's one comfort! They never are," +interpolated Etheridge), "and he was advised to try mountain air. In +addition, he is said to be looking into the railroad project." + +"Good heavens! Already? The one solace I got out of the war was the +check it gave to the advance of those horrible rails westward; I have +been in hopes that the locomotives would not get beyond Old Fort in my +time, at any rate. Why, Dora, this strip of mountain country is the most +splendid bit of natural forest, of nature undraped, which exists to-day +between the Atlantic Ocean and the Rockies!" + +"Save your eloquence for Genevieve, commodore." + +"Hum-ha! Mrs. Jared, eh?" + +"Yes; she knew Mr. Chase when he was a little boy; she says she used to +call him Horrie. As soon as she heard that he was here, she revived the +acquaintance; and then she introduced him to us." + +"Does she _like_ him?" asked Etheridge, with annoyance in his tone. + +"I don't know whether she likes him or not; but she is hoping that he +will do something that will increase the value of property here." + +"It is intelligent of Mrs. Jared to be thinking of that already," said +Etheridge, softening a little. "Perhaps if I owned land here, I should +take another view of the subject myself! You too, Dora--you might make +something?" + +"No; we have no land save the garden, and the house is dreadfully +dilapidated. Personally, I may as well confess that I should be glad to +see the railroad arrive; I am mortally tired of that long jolting +stage-drive from Old Fort; it nearly kills me each time I take it. And I +am afraid I don't care for nature undraped so much as you do, commodore; +I think I like draperies." + +"Of course you do! But when you--and by you I mean the nation at +large--when you perceive that your last acre of primitive forest is +forever gone, then you will repent. And you will begin to cultivate +wildness as they do abroad, poor creatures--plant forests and guard 'em +with stone walls and keepers, by Jove! Horace Chase appears here as the +pioneer of spoliation. He may not mean it; he does not come with an axe +on his shoulder exactly; he comes, in fact, with baking-powder; but +that's how it will end. Haven't you heard that it was baking-powder? At +least you have heard of the powder itself--the Bubble? I thought so. +Well, that's where he made his first money--the Bubble Baking-Powder; +and he made a lot of it, too! Now he is in no end of other things. One +of them is steamships; some of the Willoughbys of New York have gone in +with him, and together they have set up a new company, with steamers +running south--the Columbian Line." + +"Yes, Genevieve explained it to us. But as he does not travel with his +steamers round his neck, there remains for us, inland people as we are, +only what he happens to be himself. And that is nothing interesting." + +"Not interesting, eh?" said Etheridge, rather gratified. + +"To my mind he is not. He is ordinary in appearance and manners; he says +'yes, ma'am,' and 'no, ma'am,' to me, as though I were a +great-grandmother! In short, I don't care for him, and it is solely on +Genevieve's account that I have invited him. For she keeps urging me to +do it; she is very anxious to have him like Asheville. He has already +dined with us twice, to meet her. But to-day he comes informally--a +chance invitation given only this morning (and again given solely to +please _her_), when I happened to meet him at the Cottage." + +"How old is the wretch?" + +"I don't know. Forty-four or forty-five." + +"Quite impossible, then, that Mrs. Jared should have known him when he +was a boy; she was not born at that time," commented Etheridge. "What +she means, of course, is that she, as a child herself, called him +'Horrie.'" + +Mrs. Franklin did not answer, and at this moment Dolly came in. + +"Yes, I am well," she said, in reply to the visitor's greeting; "we are +all well, and lazy. The world at large will never be helped much by us, +I fear; we are too contented. Have you ever noticed, commodore, that the +women who sacrifice their lives so nobly to help humanity seldom +sacrifice one small thing, and that is a happy home? Either they do not +possess such an article, or else they have spoiled it by quarrelling +with every individual member of their families." + +"Now, Dolly, no more of your sarcasms. Tell me rather about this new +acquaintance of yours, this bubbling capitalist whom you have invented +and set up in your midst during my unsuspecting absence," said +Etheridge. + +"You need not think, commodore, that you can make me say one word about +him," answered Dolly, solemnly; "for I read in a book only the other day +that a tendency to talk about other persons, instead of one's self, was +a sure sign of advancing age. Young people, the book goes on to say, are +at heart interested in nothing on earth but themselves and their own +affairs; they have not the least curiosity about character or traits in +general. As I wish to be considered young, I have made a vow to talk of +nothing but myself hereafter. Anything you may wish to hear about _me_ +I am ready to tell you." Dolly was now attired in a velvet dress of dark +russet hue, like the color of autumn oak leaves; this tint took the eye +away somewhat from the worn look of her plain thin face. The dress, +however, was eight years old, and the fashion in which it had been made +originally had never been altered. + +"The being interested in nothing but themselves, and their own doings +and feelings, is not confined to young people," said Mrs. Franklin, +laughing. "I have known a goodly number of their elders who were quite +as bad. When these gentry hold forth, by the hour, about their +convictions and their theories, their beliefs and disbeliefs, their +likings and dislikings, their tastes and their principles, their souls, +their minds, and their bodies--if, in despair, you at last, by way of a +change, turn the conversation towards some one else, they become loftily +silent. And they go away and tell everybody, with regret of course, that +you are hopelessly given to gossip! Gossip, in fact, has become very +valuable to me; I keep it on hand, and pour it forth in floods, to drown +those egotists out." + +"When you gossip, then, I shall know that _I_ bore you," said Etheridge, +rising, "I mustn't do so now; I leave you to your Bubble. Mrs. Jared, I +suppose, will be with you this evening? I ask because I had thought of +paying her a how-do-you-do visit, later." + +"Pay it here, commodore," suggested Mrs. Franklin. "Perhaps you would +like to see her 'Horrie' yourself?" + +"Greatly, greatly. I am always glad to meet any of these driving +speculators who come within my reach. For it makes me contented for a +month afterwards--contented with my own small means--to see how yellow +they are! Not a man jack of them who hasn't a skin like guinea gold." +Upon this point the commodore could enlarge safely, for no color could +be fresher and finer than his own. + +After he had gone, Mrs. Franklin said: "Imagine what he has just told +me--that Genevieve could not possibly have known Horace Chase when he +was a boy, because she is far too young!" And then mother and daughter +joined in a merry laugh. + +"It would be fun to tell him that she was forty on her last birthday," +said Dolly. + +"He would never believe you; he would think that you fibbed from +jealousy," answered Mrs. Franklin. "As you are dressed, I may as well go +and make ready myself," she added, rising. "I have been waiting for +Ruth; I cannot imagine what she is about." + +This is what Ruth was about--she was rushing up the back stairs in the +dark, breathless. When she reached her room, she lit the candles +hastily. "You still here, Miss Billy? I supposed you had gone down long +ago." She stirred the fire into a blaze, and knelt to warm her cold +hands. "Such fun! I have made an engagement for us all, this evening. +You can never think what it is. Nothing less than a fancy-dress +procession at the rink for the benefit of the Mission. A man is carrying +costumes across the mountains for some tableaux for a soldiers' monument +at Knoxville; his wagon has broken down, and he is obliged to stay here +until it is mended. Mr. Hill has made use of this for the Mission. Isn't +it a splendid idea? He has been rushing about all the afternoon, and he +has found twenty persons who are willing to appear in fancy dress, and +he himself is to be an Indian chief, in war-paint and feathers." + +"In war-paint and feathers? _Oh!_" + +"Yes. It seems that he has a costume of his own. He had it when he was +an insurance agent, you know, before he entered the ministry; he was +always fond of such things, he says, and the costume is a very handsome +one; when he wore it, he called himself Big Moose." + +"Big Moose! It must be stopped," said Miss Billy, in a horrified voice. +For Miss Billy had the strictest ideas regarding the dignity of the +clergy. + +"On the contrary, I told him that it would be a great attraction, and +that it was his duty to do all he could," declared Ruth, breaking into +one of her intense laughs. Her laugh was not loud, but when it had once +begun it seemed sometimes as if it would never stop. At present, as soon +as she could speak, she announced, "We'll _all_ go." + +"Do not include me," said Miss Billy, with dignity. "I think it +shocking, Ruth. I do indeed." + +"Oh, you'll be there," said Ruth, springing up, and drawing Miss Billy +to her feet. "You'll put on roller-skates yourself, and go wheeling off +first this way, then that way, with Achilles Larue." And, as she said +this, she gleefully forced her visitor across the floor, now in a long +sweep to the right, now to the left, with as close an imitation of +skating as the circumstances permitted. + +While they were thus engaged, Mrs. Franklin opened the door. "What are +you doing? Ruth--not dressed yet?" + +"I'm all ready, His Grand," responded Ruth, running across the room and +pouring water into the basin in a great hurry. "I have only to wash my +hands" (here she dashed lavender into the water); "I'll be down +directly." + +"And we shall all admire you in that torn dress," said her mother. + +"Never mind, I'll pin it up. Nobody will see it at dinner, under the +table. And after dinner my cloak will cover it--for we are all going +out." + +"Going out this windy evening? Never! Are you ready, Billy? And Ruth, +you must come as you are, for Mr. Chase is already here, and Rinda is +bringing in the soup." + +"Never fear, His Grand. I'll come." + +And come she did, two minutes later, just as she was, save that her +wind-roughened hair had been vaguely smoothed, and fastened down hastily +with large hair-pins placed at random. Owing to her hurry, she had a +brilliant color; and seeing, as she entered, the disapproving +expression in her mother's eyes, she was seized with the idea of making, +for her own amusement, a stately sweeping courtesy to Horace Chase; this +she accordingly did, carrying it off very well, with an air of majesty +just tempered at the edges with burlesque. + +Chase, who had risen, watched this salutation with great interest. When +it was over, he felt it incumbent upon him, however, to go through, in +addition, the more commonplace greeting. "How do you do, Miss Ruth?" he +said, extending his hand. And he gave the tips of her fingers (all she +yielded to him) three careful distinct shakes. + +Then they went to dinner. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +The meal which followed was good; for Zoe, the cook, was skilful in her +old-fashioned way. But the dinner service was ordinary; the only wine +was Dry Catawba; Rinda's ideas of waiting, too, were primitive. The +Franklins, however, had learned to wait upon themselves. They had the +habit of remaining long at the table; for, whether they were alone or +whether they had a guest, there was always a soup, there was always a +salad, there were always nuts and fruit, followed by coffee--four +courses, therefore, in addition to the two which the younger Mrs. +Franklin, whose household was managed in a very different way, +considered all that was necessary "for the body." + +"A serious rice pudding, Genevieve, no doubt _is_ enough for the body, +as you call it," Dolly had once said. "But _we_ think of the mind also; +we aim at brilliancy. And no one ever scintillated yet on cod-fish and +stewed prunes!" + +"Mrs. Jared Franklin is well, I hope?" Chase asked, when the last course +was reached. He was not fond of nuts or figs, but he was playing his +part, according to his conception of it, by eating at intervals one +raisin. + +"Quite well; thanks. I have never known her to be ill," replied Dolly. + +"Mr. Chase, I am going to suggest something: as mother and my +sister-in-law are both Mrs. Jared, and as mother has no burning desire +to be called 'old Mrs. Franklin' just yet, why don't you say 'Mrs. G. +B.' when you mean the younger matron?" + +Chase would never have thought of calling either the one or the other a +matron, his idea of the word being the female superintendent of a public +institution. "G. B.--are those her initials?" he said. "Yes, of course; +G. for Genevieve, or Gen, as I used to call her." + +"And B. for Beatrice; isn't that lovely? Our own names, unfortunately, +are very plain--Ruth, Dolly, and Jared; Genevieve has taken pity upon +the Jared, and changed it to Jay. Mother, however, actually likes the +name Jared. She is weak enough to be proud of the fact that there have +been six Jared Franklins in the direct line, from eldest son to father, +going back to colonial days. People are _very_ sorry for this delusion +of hers; they have told her repeatedly that the colonial period was +unimportant. Genevieve, in particular, has often explained to her that +modern times are far more interesting." + +"I guess there isn't much question about that, is there?" said Chase. +"No doubt they did the best they could in those old days. But they +couldn't do much, you see, because they had nothing to work with, no +machinery, no capital, no combinations; they couldn't hear anything +until long after it had happened, and they couldn't go anywhere except +on horseback. I've always been glad _I_ didn't serve my time then. I +guess I should have found it slow." + +"You must find Asheville rather slow?" remarked Dolly. + +"It is more than slow, Miss Franklin; it has stopped entirely. But it +has great natural advantages--I have been surprised to see how many. I +like new enterprises, and I've been thinking about something." Here he +paused and ate one more raisin, balancing it for a moment upon the palm +of his hand before he swallowed it. "I've been thinking of picking up +that railroad at Old Fort and pushing it right through to this place, +and on to Tennessee; a branch, later, to tap South Carolina and Georgia. +That isn't all, however." He paused again. Then with a glance which +rested for a moment on each face, and finally stopped at Mrs. +Franklin's, "What do you say," he added, with an hospitable smile, "to +my making a big watering-place of your hilly little village?" + +"_Asheville_ watered? What next!" said Dolly. + +"The next is that the stock won't be," replied Chase, laughing. "I mean, +the stock of the company that undertakes the affair, if it does +undertake it. You'd better apply for some right off; all of you. Shall I +tell you how the thing strikes me, while you are finishing your nuts? +Well, then, this is about it. The whole South is a hot place in summer, +ladies; from Baltimore down to the end of Florida and Louisiana they +simply swelter from June to October, and always must swelter. If you +will look at a map, you can see for yourselves that the only region +where the people of all this big section can get fresh air during the +heated term, without a long journey for it, is this one line of +mountains, called Alleghanies in the lump, but in reality including the +Blue Ridge, the Cumberlands, your Smokies and Blacks, and others about +here. For a trip to the southern sea-coast isn't much relief; a hot +beach is about the hottest place I know! Now, then, what is the best +point among these mountains? The Alleghanies lie _this_ way." (He made +the Alleghanies with a table-spoon.) "Then _there_ is the Blue Ridge." +(A nut-cracker.) "And here you get your Smokies and so forth." (Almonds +taken hastily from a dish and arranged in a line.) "And I'll just +indicate the Cumberlands with this orange. Very well. Now where are the +highest peaks of these lines? Let us follow the range down. Do we find +them in Pennsylvania? No, sir. Do we find them in Virginia? We do not. +Are they over there among the Cumberlands? Not by a long shot. Where are +they, then? Right here, ladies, at your own door; right here, where I +make a dot this minute." And taking a pencil from his pocket, he made a +small mark on the table-cloth between the spoon and the nut-cracker. "In +this neighborhood," he went on, emphasizing his statement by pointing +his pencil at Miss Billy, "there are thirteen nearly seven thousand +feet high. It seems to me, therefore, that in spite of all the jokes +about talking for buncombe, the talk for Buncombe has not been half tall +enough yet. For this very Buncombe County is bound to be the favorite +watering-place for over twelve millions of people, some day or other." + +"Watering-place?" commented Dolly. "Well, we _have_ the two rivers, the +French Broad and the Swannanoa. But the Swannanoa is small; if the +millions should all drink at once, it would soon go dry." + +"I meant summer resort, Miss Franklin, not watering-place," said Chase, +inwardly entertained by the quickness bordering on the sharp with which +"the sickly one," as he called her, always took him up. "Though there +are sulphur springs near by too: I have been out to look at them. And it +isn't only the Southerners who will come here," he went on. "Northerners +will flock also, when they understand what these mountains are. For, in +comparison with them, the Catskills are a suburb; the White Mountains, +ornamental rock-work; and the Adirondacks, a wood-lot. _Here_ everything +is absolutely wild; you can shoot because there are all sorts of things +_to_ shoot, from bears down. And then there's another point--for I +haven't got to the bottom of the sack yet. This mountain valley of +yours, being 2400 feet above the sea, has a wonderfully pure dry air, +and yet, as it is so far south, it is not cold; its winter climate, +therefore, is as good as its summer, and even better. So here's the +situation: people who live in hot places will come here from June to +October, and people who live in cold places will come from October to +June." He returned the orange and the almonds to their dishes, replaced +the table-spoon and nut-cracker, and then, looking at Mrs. Franklin, he +gave her a cheerful nod. "That's it, ma'am; that's the whole in a +nutshell." + +Ruth gravely offered him an empty almond shell. + +"We'll have something better than that, Miss Ruth--a philopena." And +taking a nut-cracker, he opened several almonds. Finding a double +kernel, he gave her one of the halves. "Now, if I win, I should be much +favored if you would make me something of worsted--a tidy is the name, I +think?" + +Ruth began to laugh. + +"Well, then, a picture-frame of cones." + +And now the other ladies joined in Ruth's merriment. + +"We must decline such rare objects," said Mrs. Franklin. "But we have +our own small resources, Mr. Chase." And, leading the way back to the +parlor, she showed him the mantel-cover with Dolly's verse. + +"Why, that's beautiful, Miss Franklin," said Chase, with sincere +admiration, when he had read the lines. "I didn't know you could write +poetry." + +"Oh yes," answered Dolly. "I think in elegies as a general thing, and I +make sonnets as I dress. Epics are nothing to me, and I turn off +triolets in no time. But I don't publish, Mr. Chase, because I don't +want to be called a _minor_ poet." + +Here Rinda came in like a projectile, carrying a large box clasped in +her arms. "Jess lef'! 'Spress!" she exclaimed excitedly. + +"Express?" repeated Mrs. Franklin, trying to make out the address +without her glasses. "Read it, Ruth." + +Ruth looked at the label, and then broke into another laugh. She had +hardly recovered from the preceding one, and Chase, with amusement, +watched her start off again. But he soon found himself surrounded by +laughers a second time. + +"Why, what's wrong with it?" he asked, seeing that it was the label +which excited their mirth. And in his turn he examined it. "Miss Ruth +Franklin, Lommy Dew, Asheville? That's right, isn't it? Isn't Lommy Dew +the name of your place?" + +Rinda meanwhile, wildly curious, had been opening the box by main force +with the aid of the poker. She now uncovered a huge cluster of hot-house +roses, packed in moss. + +"Flowers? Who could have sent them?" said Mrs. Franklin, surprised. She +had no suspicion of her present guest; her thoughts had turned towards +some of their old friends at the North. But Ruth, happening to catch the +look in Horace Chase's eyes as he glanced for an instant at the +blossoms, not so much admiringly as critically, exclaimed: + +"_You_ sent them, Mr. Chase. How perfectly lovely!" + +"I'm afraid they're not much," Chase answered. "I thought they'd send +more." He had wished to show that he appreciated the invitations to +L'Hommedieu, and as, according to his idea, it was the young lady of the +family to whom it was proper to pay such attentions, he had ordered the +box to be sent to Ruth rather than to Mrs. Franklin or Dolly. + +Ruth's laugh had stopped. She was passionately fond of hot-house +flowers, and now both her hands together could hardly encircle even the +stems alone of these superb tea-roses, whose gorgeous masses filled her +arms as she raised them. With a quick movement she buried her face in +the soft petals. + +"But, I say, what was wrong with this?" asked Chase a second time, as he +again looked at the label. + +"L'Hommedieu is a French name--" began Dolly. + +But Ruth interrupted her: "It is an ugly old French name, Mr. Chase, and +as it is pronounced, in America at least, exactly as you wrote it, I +think it might as well be spelled so, too. At present, however, this is +the way--the silly way." And holding her flowers with her left arm, she +detached her right hand, and scribbled the name on the edge of the +Raleigh paper. + +"Ah!" said Chase, looking at it. "I don't speak French myself. I thought +perhaps it had something to do with dew." And frowning a little, a frown +of attention, he spelled the word over. + +An old negro woman, her head covered with a red kerchief folded like a +turban, now came stiffly in with the coffee-tray, her stiffness being +an angry dignity. It was Zoe, the cook, tired of waiting for Rinda, who, +still in the parlor, was occupied in gazing with friendly interest at +the roses. "Lawdy--ef I ain't clean ferget!" remarked the waitress, +genially, to the company in general. + +"You clar out, good-fer-nutt'n nigger!" muttered the offended cook, in +an undertone to her coadjutor. + +With the tray, or rather behind it, a lady came in. + +"Just in time for coffee, Genevieve," remarked Dolly, cheerfully. + +"Thanks; I do not take it at night," Genevieve answered. + +This was a dialogue often repeated in one form or another, for Dolly +kept it up. The younger Mrs. Franklin did not like evening dinners, and +Dolly even maintained that her sister-in-law thought them wicked. "She +sees a close connection between a late dinner with coffee after it, and +the devil." The Franklins had always dined at the close of the day, for +the elder Jared Franklin, having been the editor of a daily paper, had +found that hour the most convenient one. The editor was gone; his family +had moved from the North to the South, and life for them was changed in +many ways; but his habit of the evening dinner they had never altered. + +The younger Mrs. Franklin greeted Chase cordially. Dolly listened, +hoping to hear her call him "Horrie." But Genevieve contented herself +with giving him her hand, and some frank words of welcome. Genevieve +was always frank. And in all she said and did, also, she was absolutely +sincere. She was a beautiful woman with golden hair, fair skin, regular +features, and ideally lovely eyes; her tall figure was of Juno-like +proportions. Chase admired her, that was evident. But Dolly (who was +noting this) had long ago discovered that men always admired her +sister-in-law. In addition to her beauty, Genevieve had a sweet voice, +and an earnest, half-appealing way of speaking. She was appealing to +Chase now. "There is to be an entertainment at the rink to-night, +Horace, for the benefit of the Mission; won't you go? I hope so. And, +mamma, that is what I have come over for; to tell you about it, and beg +you to go also." She had seated herself beside Chase; but, as she said +these last words, she put out her hand and laid it affectionately on +Mrs. Franklin's shoulder. + +"I believe I am to have the pleasure of spending the evening here?" +Chase answered, making a little bow towards his hostess. + +"But if mamma herself goes to the rink, as I am sure she will, then +won't you accompany her? The Mission and the Colored Home, Horace, +are--" + +But here Chase, like a madman, made a sudden bound, and grasped the top +of Miss Billy Breeze's head. + +Quick as his spring had been, however, Ruth's was quicker. She pulled +his hands away. "Don't hurt him! _Don't!_" + +But the squirrel was not under Chase's fingers; he had already escaped, +and, running down the front of Miss Billy's dress (to her unspeakable +terror), he now made another leap, and landed on Dolly's arm, where Ruth +caught him. + +"What in creation is it?" said Chase, who had followed. "A bird? Or a +mouse?" + +"Mouse!" said Ruth, indignantly. "It's Bob, my dear little +flying-squirrel; I saw him on the cornice, but I thought he would fly to +me. It's amazing that any one can possibly be afraid of the darling," +she added, with a reproachful glance towards Miss Billy, who was still +cowering. "I had him when he was nothing but a baby, Mr. Chase--he had +fallen from his nest--and I have brought him up myself. Now that he is +getting to be a big boy, he naturally likes to fly about a little. He +cannot be always climbing his one little tree in the dining-room. He is +so soft and downy. Look at his bright eyes." Here she opened her hand so +that Chase could see her pet. "Would you like to hold him for a moment?" + +"Oh, I'll look at _you_ holding him," answered Chase. "Hollo! here's +another." For Petie Trone, Esq., his jealousy roused by his mistress's +interest in the squirrel, had come out from under the sofa, and was now +seated on his hind-legs at the edge of her dress, begging. "Wouldn't you +like an owl?" Chase suggested. "Or a 'possum? A 'coon might be tamed, if +caught young." + +Ruth walked away, offended. + +This made him laugh still more as he returned to his place beside +Genevieve. + +"She is only eighteen," murmured the younger Mrs. Franklin, +apologetically. Her words were covered by a rapturous "Gen'lem!" from +Rinda at the door. For Rinda was always perfectly delighted to see +anybody; when, therefore, there were already two or three guests, and +still another appeared, her voice became ecstatic. The new-comer was +Anthony Etheridge. + +"How fortunate!" said Genevieve. "For it makes another for our little +charity party. There is to be an impromptu entertainment at the rink +to-night, commodore, for the benefit of the Mission, and mamma is going, +I hope. Won't you accompany her? Let me introduce Mr. Chase--a very old +friend of mine. Mr. Chase, Commodore Etheridge." + +"Happy to meet you," said Chase, rising in order to shake hands. + +"Gen'lem!" called Rinda again; this time fairly in a yell. + +The last "gen'lem" was a slender man of thirty-five, who came in with +his overcoat on. "Thanks; I did not take it off," he said, in answer to +Mrs. Franklin, "because I knew that you were all going to the"--(here +Ruth gave a deep cough)--"because I thought it possible that you might +be going to the rink to-night," he went on, changing the form of his +sentence, with a slight smile; "and in that case I hoped to accompany +you." + +"Yes," said Genevieve, "mamma is going, Mr. Larue. I only wish I could +go, also." + +The cheeks of Miss Billy Breeze had become flushed with rose-color as +the new-comer entered. Noticing instantly the change he had made in his +sentence when Ruth coughed, she at once divined that the girl had gone, +bareheaded and in the darkness, to his residence during that long +absence before dinner, in order to secure his co-operation in the frolic +of the evening. Ruth had, in fact, done this very thing; for nothing +amused her so much as to watch Billy herself when Larue was present. The +girl was now wicked enough to carry on her joke a little longer. "I am +_so_ sorry, Miss Billy, that you do not care to go," she said, +regretfully. + +Miss Billy passed her handkerchief over her mouth and tried to smile. +But she was, in fact, winking to keep back tears. + +And then Mrs. Franklin, always kind-hearted, came to the rescue. "Did +you tell Ruth that you could not go, Billy? Change your mind, my dear; +change it to please _me_." + +"Oh, if _you_ care about it, dear Mrs. Franklin," murmured Billy, +escaping, and hurrying happily up the stairs to put on her wraps. + +The rink was a large, bare structure of wood, with a circular arena for +roller-skating. This evening the place was lighted, and the gallery was +occupied by the colored band. The members of this band, a new +organization, had volunteered their services with the heartiest +good-will. It was true that they could play (without mistakes) but one +selection, namely, "The lone starry hours give me, love." But they +arranged this difficulty by playing it first, softly; then as a solo on +the cornet; then fortissimo, with drums; by means of these alterations +it lasted bravely throughout the evening. Nearly the whole village was +present; the promenade was crowded, and there were many skaters on the +floor below. The Rev. Malachi Hill, the originator of the entertainment, +was distributing programmes, his face beaming with pleasure as he +surveyed the assemblage. Presently he came to the party from +L'Hommedieu. "Programmes, Mrs. Franklin? Programmes, gentlemen?" He had +written these programmes himself, in his best handwriting. "The +performance will soon begin," he explained. "The procession will skate +round the arena five times, and afterwards most of the characters will +join in a reel--" Here some one called him, and he hastened off. + +Chase, who had received a programme, looked at it in a business-like +way. "Christopher Columbus," he read aloud; "Romeo and Juliet; the +Muses, Calliope, and--and others," he added, glancing down the list. + +His Calliope had rhymed with hope, and a gleam of inward entertainment +showed itself for one instant in the eyes of Etheridge and Larue. Ruth +saw this scintillation; instantly she crossed to Chase's side, as he +still studied the programme, and bending to look at it, said, "Please, +may I see too?" + +"Oh! I thought you had one," said Chase, giving her the sheet of paper. + +"The Muses," read Ruth again, aloud. "Cally-ope," she went on, giving +the word Chase's pronunciation. "And Terp-si-core." She made this name +rhyme with "more." Then, standing beside her new acquaintance, she +glared at the remainder of the party, defiantly. + +Mrs. Franklin was so much overcome by this performance of her daughter's +that she was obliged to turn away to conceal her laughter. + +"What possesses her--the witch!" asked Etheridge, following. + +"It is only because she thinks I don't like him. He has given her those +magnificent roses, and so she intends to stand up for him. I never know +whom she will fancy next. Do look at her now!" + +"I am afraid you have spoiled her," commented Etheridge, but joining in +the mother's laugh himself, as he caught a glimpse of Ruth starting off, +with high-held head and firm step, to walk with Chase round the entire +promenade. + +Owing to this sudden departure, Miss Billy Breeze found herself +unexpectedly alone with Larue. She was so much excited by this state of +things that at first she could hardly speak. How many times, during this +very month, had she arranged with herself exactly what she should say if +such an opportunity should be given her. Her most original ideas, her +most beautiful thoughts (she kept them written out in her diary), +should be summoned to entertain him. The moment had come. And this is +what she actually did say: "Oh!" (giggle), "how pretty it is, isn't it?" +(Giggle.) "Really a most beautiful sight. So interesting to see so many +persons, and all so happy, is it not? I don't know when I've seen +anything lovelier. Yes, indeed--_lovely_. But I hope you won't take +cold, Mr. Larue? Really, now, do be careful. One takes cold so easily; +and then it is sometimes so hard to recover." With despair she heard +herself bringing out these inanities. "I hope you are not in a draught?" +she wandered on. "Colds are _so_ tiresome." + +And now, with a loud burst from the band, the procession issued from an +improvised tent at the end of the building. First came Christopher +Columbus at the head; then Romeo and Juliet; the Muses, three and three; +George Washington and his wife, accompanied by Plato and a shepherdess; +other personages followed, and all were mounted on roller-skates, and +were keeping time to the music as well as they could. Then the rear was +closed by a single American Indian in a complete costume of +copper-colored tights, with tomahawk, war-paint, and feathers. + +This Indian, as he was alone, was conspicuous; and when he skated into +the brighter light, there came from that part of the audience which was +nearest to him, a sound of glee. The sound, however, was instantly +suppressed. But it rose again as he sailed majestically onward, in long +sweeps to the right and the left, his head erect, his tomahawk +brandished; it increased to mirth which could not be stifled. For nature +having given to this brave slender legs, the costume-maker had supplied +a herculean pair of calves, and these appendages had shifted their +position, and were now adorning the front of each limb at the knee, the +chieftain meanwhile remaining unconscious of the accident, and +continuing to perform his part with stateliness at the end of the +skating line. Ruth, with her hands dropping helplessly by her side, +laughed until her mother came to her. Mrs. Franklin herself was laughing +so that she could hardly speak. But Ruth's laughs sometimes were almost +dangerous; they took such complete possession of her. + +"Give her your arm and make her walk up and down," said Mrs. Franklin to +Etheridge. + +And Etheridge took the girl under his charge. + +Chase, who had grinned silently each time the unsuspecting Moose came +into view (for the procession had passed round the arena three times), +now stepped down to the skating-floor as he approached on his fourth +circuit, and stopped him. There was a short conference, and then, amid +peals of mirth, the Moose looked down, and for the first time discovered +the aspect of his knees. Chase signalled to the band to stop. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "this Indian was not aware of his +attractions." (Applause.) + +"But now that he knows what they are, he will take part in the reel +(which he had not intended to do), and he will take part _as he is_! For +the benefit of the Mission, ladies and gentlemen. The hat will be passed +immediately afterwards." Signing to the musicians to go on again, he +conducted the chief to the space which had been left free for the reel, +and then, when the other couples had skated to their places, he led off +with his companion in a sort of quickstep (as he had no skates); and it +is safe to say that North Carolina had never beheld so original a dance +as that which followed (to the inexhaustible "Starry Hours" played as a +jig). Chase and the Indian led and reled. Finally Chase, with his hat +tilted back on his head, and his face extremely solemn, balanced with +his partner, taking so much pains with remarkable fancy steps, which +were immediately imitated by the Indian's embossed legs, that the entire +audience was weak from its continuous mirth. Then removing his hat, +Chase made the rounds, proffering it with cordial invitation to all: +"For the Mission, ladies and gentlemen. For _Big Moose's_ Mission." + +Big Moose, on his way home later (in his clergyman's attire this time), +was so happy that he gave thanks. He would have liked, indeed, to chant +a gloria. For the Mission was very near his heart, and from its +beginning it had been so painfully fettered by poverty that, several +times, he had almost despaired. But now that magic hat had brought to +the struggling little fund more than it had ever dreamed of possessing; +for underneath the dimes and the quarters of Asheville had laid a fat +roll, a veritable Golconda roll of greenbacks. But one person could have +given this roll, namely, the one stranger, Horace Chase. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +Mrs. Franklin was a widow, her husband, Jared Franklin, having died in +1860. Franklin, a handsome, hearty man, who had enjoyed every day of his +life, had owned and edited a well-known newspaper in one of the large +towns on the Hudson River. This paper had brought him in a good income, +which he had spent in his liberal way, year after year. The Franklins +were not extravagant; but they lived generously, and they all had what +they wanted. Their days went on happily, for they were fond of each +other, they had the same sense of humor, and they took life easily, one +and all. But when Jared Franklin died (after a sudden and short +illness), it was found that he at least had taken it too easily; for he +had laid aside nothing, and there were large debts to pay. As he had put +his only son, the younger Jared, into the navy, the newspaper was sold. +But it did not bring in so much as was expected, and the executors were +forced in the end to sell the residence also; when the estate was +finally cleared, the widow found herself left with no home, and, for +income, only the small sum which had come to her from her father, Major +Seymour, of the army. In this condition of things her thoughts turned +towards the South. + +For her mother, Mrs. Seymour, was a Southerner of Huguenot descent, one +of the L'Hommedieu family. And Mrs. Seymour's eldest sister, Miss Dora +L'Hommedieu, had bequeathed to the niece (now Mrs. Franklin), who had +been named after her, all she had to leave. This was not much. But the +queer, obstinate old woman did own two houses, one for the summer among +the mountains of North Carolina, one for the winter in Florida. For she +believed that she owed her remarkable health and longevity to a careful +change of climate twice each year; and, accompanied by an old negress as +cross-grained as herself, she had arrived in turn at each of these +residences for so many seasons that it had seemed as if she would +continue to arrive forever. In 1859, however, her migrations ceased. + +At that date the Franklins were still enjoying their prosperity, and +this legacy of the two ramshackle L'Hommedieu abodes, far away in the +South, was a good deal laughed at by Jared Franklin, who laughed often. +But when, soon afterwards, the blow came, and his widow found herself +homeless and bereft, these houses seemed to beckon to her. They could +not be sold while the war lasted, and even after that great struggle was +over no purchasers appeared. In the meantime they were her own; they +would be a roof, two roofs, over her head; and the milder climate would +be excellent for her invalid daughter Dolly. In addition, their reduced +income would go much further there than here. As soon after the war, +therefore, as it could be arranged, she had made the change, and now for +seven years she had been living in old Dora's abodes, very thankful to +have them. + +Mrs. Franklin herself would have said that they lived in North Carolina; +that their visits to Florida were occasional only. It was true that she +had made every effort to dispose of the Florida place. "For sale--a good +coquina house on the bay," had been a standing advertisement in the St. +Augustine _Press_ year after year. But her hopes had been disappointed, +and as the house still remained hers, she had only once been able to +withstand the temptation of giving Dolly the benefit of the Florida +climate in the winter, little as she could afford the additional +expense; in reality, therefore, they had divided their year much as Miss +L'Hommedieu had divided hers. + +The adjective ramshackle, applied at random by Jared Franklin, had +proved to be appropriate enough as regarded the North Carolina house, +which old Dora had named L'Hommedieu, after herself. L'Hommedieu was a +rambling wooden structure surrounded by verandas; it had been built +originally by a low-country planter who came up to these mountains in +the summer. But old Miss L'Hommedieu had let everything run down; she +had, in truth, no money for repairs. When the place, therefore, came +into the hands of her niece, it was much dilapidated. And in her turn +Mrs. Franklin had done very little in the way of renovation, beyond +stopping the leaks of the roof. Her daughter-in-law, Genevieve, was +distressed by the aspect of everything, both without and within. "You +really ought to have the whole house done over, mamma," she had said +more than once. "If you will watch all the details yourself, it need not +cost so very much: see what I have accomplished at the Cottage. + +"In time, in time," Mrs. Franklin had answered. But in her heart she was +not fond of Genevieve's abode; she preferred the low-ceilinged rooms of +L'Hommedieu, shabby though they might be. These rooms had, in fact, an +air of great cheerfulness. Anthony Etheridge was accustomed to say that +he had never seen anywhere a better collection of easy-chairs. "There +are at least eight with the long seat which holds a man's body +comfortably as far as the knees, as it ought to held; not ending +skimpily half-way between the knee and the hip in the usual miserable +fashion!" Mrs. Franklin had saved three of these chairs from the wreck +of her northern home, and the others had been made, of less expensive +materials, under her own eye. Both she and her husband had by nature a +strong love of ease, and their children had inherited the same +disposition; it could truthfully be said that as a family they made +themselves comfortable, and kept themselves comfortable, all day long. + +They did this at present in the face of obstacles which would have made +some minds forget the very name of comfort. For they were far from their +old home; they were cramped as to money; there was Dolly's suffering to +reckon with; and there was a load of debt. The children, however, were +ignorant in a great measure of this last difficulty; whatever property +there was, belonged to Mrs. Franklin personally, and she kept her cares +to herself. These fresh debts, made after the estate had finally been +cleared, were incurred by the mother's deliberate act--an act of folly +or of beauty, according to the point from which one views it; after her +husband's death she had borrowed money in order to give to her daughter +Dora every possible aid and advantage in her contest with fate--the long +struggle which the girl made to ignore illness, to conquer pain. These +sums had never been repaid, and when the mother thought of them, she was +troubled. But she did not think of them often; when she had succeeded +(with difficulty) in paying the interest each year, she was able to +dismiss the subject from her mind, and return to her old habit of taking +life easily; for neither her father, the army officer, nor her husband, +the liberal-handed editor, had ever taught her with any strictness the +importance of a well-balanced account. Poor Dolly's health had always +been uncertain. But when her childhood was over, her mother's tender +help from minute to minute had kept her up in a determined attempt to +follow the life led by other girls of her age. A mother's love can do +much. But heredity, coming from the past, blind and deaf to all appeal, +does more, and the brave effort failed. The elder Miss Franklin had now +been for years an invalid, and an invalid for whom no improvement could +be expected; sometimes she was able, with the aid of her cane, to take a +walk of a mile's length, or more, and often several weeks would pass in +tolerable comfort; but sooner or later the pain was sure to come on +again, and it was a pain very hard to bear. But although Dolly was an +invalid, she was neither sad nor dull. Both she and her mother were +talkers by nature, and they never seemed to reach the end of their +interest in each other's remarks. Ruth, too, was never tired of +listening and laughing over Dolly's sallies. The whole family, in fact, +had been born gay-hearted, and they were always sufficiently entertained +with their own conversation and their own jokes; on the stormy days, +when they could expect no visitors, they enjoyed life on the whole +rather more than they did when they had guests--though they were fond of +company also. + +One evening, a week after the masquerade at the rink, Mrs. Franklin, +leaning back in her easy-chair with her feet on a footstool, was +peacefully reading a novel, when she was surprised by the entrance of +Miss Breeze; she was surprised because Billy had paid her a visit in the +afternoon. "Yes, I thought I would come in again," began Billy, vaguely. +"I thought perhaps--or rather I thought it would be better--" + +"Take off your bonnet and jacket, won't you?" interposed Ruth. + +"Why, how smart you are, Billy!" remarked Mrs. Franklin, as she noted +her guest's best dress, and the pink ribbon round her throat above the +collar. + +"Yes," began Billy again; "I thought--it seemed better--" + +"Dolly," interrupted Ruth, "get out planchette, and make it write Billy +a love letter!" And she gave her sister a glance which said: "Head her +off! Or she will let it all out." + +Dolly comprehended. She motioned Miss Breeze solemnly to a chair near +her table, and taking the planchette from its box, she arranged the +paper under it. + +"I don't like it! I don't like it!" protested Mrs. Franklin. + +"His Grand, if you don't like it, beat it," said Ruth, jumping up. "Give +it a question too hard to answer. Go to the dining-room and do +something--anything you like. Then planchette shall tell us what it +is--aha!" + +"A good idea," said Mrs. Franklin, significantly. And with her light +step she left the room. The mother was as active as a girl; no one was +ever deterred, therefore, from asking her to rise, or to move about, by +any idea of age. She was tall, with aquiline features, bright dark eyes, +and thick silvery hair. As she was thin, her face showed the lines and +fine wrinkles which at middle age offset a slender waist. But, when she +was animated, these lines disappeared, for at such moments her color +rose, the same beautiful color which Ruth had inherited. + +Dolly sat with her hands on the little heart-shaped board, pondering +what she should say; for her familiar spirit was simply her own quick +invention. But while it would have been easy to mystify Miss Billy, it +was not easy to imagine what her mother, a distinctly hostile element, +might do for the especial purpose of perplexing the medium; for although +Mrs. Franklin knew perfectly well that her daughter invented all of +planchette's replies, she remained nevertheless strongly opposed to even +this pretended occultism. Dolly therefore pondered. But, as she did so, +she was saying to herself that it was useless to ponder, and that she +might as well select something at random, when suddenly there sprang +into her mind a word, a word apropos of nothing at all, and, obeying an +impulse, she wrote it; that is, planchette wrote it under the unseen +propelling power of her long fingers. Then Ruth pushed the board aside, +and they all read the word; it was "grinning." + +"Grinning?" repeated Ruth. "How absurd! Imagine mother grinning!" + +She opened the door, and called, "What did you do, His Grand?" + +"Wishing to expose that very skilful pretender, Miss Dora Franklin, I +did the most unlikely thing I could think of," answered Mrs. Franklin's +voice. "I went to the mirror, and standing in front of it, I grinned at +my own image; grinned like a Cheshire cat." + +Miss Billy looked at Dolly with frightened eyes. Dolly herself was +startled; she crumpled the paper and threw it hastily into the +waste-basket. + +Mrs. Franklin, returning through the hall, was met by Anthony Etheridge, +who had entered without ringing, merely giving a preliminary tap on the +outer door with his walking-stick. Dolly began to talk as soon as they +came in, selecting a subject which had nothing to do with planchette. +For the unconscious knowledge which, of late years, she seemed to +possess, regarding the thoughts in her mother's mind, troubled them +both. + +"Commodore, I have something to tell you. It is for you especially, for +I have long known your secret attachment! From my window, I can see that +field behind the Mackintosh house. Imagine my beholding Maud Muriel +opening the gate this afternoon, crossing to the big bush in the centre, +seating herself behind it, taking a long clay pipe from her pocket, +filling it, lighting it, and smoking it!" + +"No!" exclaimed Etheridge, breaking into a resounding laugh. "Could she +make it go?" + +"Not very well, I think; I took my opera-glass and watched her. Her +face, as she puffed away, was exactly as solemn as it is when she models +her deadly busts." + +"Ho, ho, ho!" roared Etheridge again. "Ladies, excuse me. I have always +thought that girl might be a genius if she could only get drunk! +Perhaps the pipe is a beginning." + +While he was saying this, Horace Chase was ushered in. A moment later +there came another ring, and the Rev. Mr. Hill appeared, followed by +Achilles Larue. + +"Why, I have a party!" said Mrs. Franklin, smiling, as she welcomed the +last comer. + +"Yes, His Grand, it _is_ a party," said Ruth. "Now you may know, since +they are here, and you cannot stop it. I invited them all myself, late +this afternoon; and it is a molasses-candy-pulling; Dolly and I have +arranged it. We did not tell you beforehand, because we knew you would +say it was sticky." + +"Sticky it is," replied Mrs. Franklin. + +"Vilely sticky!" added Etheridge, emphatically. + +"And then we knew, also, that you would say that you could not get up a +supper in so short a time," Ruth went on. "But Zoe has had her sister to +help her, and ever so many nice things are all ready; chicken salad, for +instance; and--listen, His Grand--a long row of macaroon custards, each +cup with _three_ macaroons dissolved in madeira!" And then she intoned +the family chant, Dolly joining in from her easy-chair: + + "Mother Franklin thinks, + That General Jackson, + Jared the Sixth, + Macaroon custards, + And Bishop Carew, + Are per-_fec_-tion!" + +"What does she mean by that?" said Chase to Miss Billy. + +"Oh, it is only one of their jokes; they have so many! Dear Mrs. +Franklin was brought up by her father to admire General Jackson, and +Dolly and Ruth pretend that she thinks he is still at the White House. +And Jared the Sixth means her son, you know. And they say she is fond of +macaroon custards; that is, _fondish_," added Miss Billy, getting in the +"ish" with inward satisfaction. "And she is much attached to Bishop +Carew. But, for that matter, so are we all." + +"A Roman Catholic?" inquired Chase. + +"He is our bishop--the Episcopal Bishop of North Carolina," answered +Miss Breeze, surprised. + +"Oh! I didn't know. I'm a Baptist myself. Or at least my parents were," +explained Chase. + +The kitchen of L'Hommedieu was large and low, with the beams showing +overhead; it had a huge fireplace with an iron crane. This evening a pot +dangled from the crane; it held the boiling molasses, and Zoe, brilliant +in a new scarlet turban in honor of the occasion, was stirring the syrup +with a long-handled spoon. One of the easy-chairs had been brought from +the parlor for Dolly. Malachi Hill seated himself beside her; he seemed +uneasy; he kept his hat in his hand. "I did not know that Mr. Chase was +to be here, Miss Dolly, or I would not have come," he said to his +companion, in an undertone. "I can't think what to make of myself--I'm +becoming a regular cormorant! Strange to say, instead of being satisfied +with all he has given to the Mission, I want more. I keep thinking of +all the good he might do in these mountains if he only knew the facts, +and I have fairly to hold myself in when he is present, to keep from +flattering him and getting further help. Yes, it's as bad as that! +Clergymen, you know, are always accused of paying court to rich men, or +rather to liberal men. For the first time in my life I understand the +danger! It's a dreadful temptation--it is indeed. I really think, Miss +Dolly, that I had better go." + +"No, you needn't; I'll see to you," answered Dolly. "If I notice you +edging up too near him, I'll give a loud ahem. Stay and amuse yourself; +you know you like it." + +And Malachi Hill did like it. In his mission-work he was tirelessly +energetic, self-sacrificing, devoted; on the other hand, he was as fond +of merrymaking as a boy. He pulled the candy with glee, but also with +eager industry, covering platter after platter with his braided sticks. +His only rival in diligence was Chase, who also showed great energy. +Dolly pulled; Mrs. Franklin pulled; even Etheridge helped. Ruth did not +accomplish much, for she stopped too often; but when she did work she +drew out the fragrant strands to a greater length than any one else +attempted, and she made wheels of it, and silhouettes of all the +company, including Mr. Trone. Miss Billy had begun with much interest; +then, seeing that Larue had done nothing beyond arranging the platters +and plates in mathematical order on the table, she stopped, slipped out, +and went up-stairs to wash her hands. When she returned, fortune favored +her; the only vacant seat was one near him, and, after a short +hesitation, she took it. Larue did not speak; he was looking at Ruth, +who was now pulling candy with Horace Chase, drawing out the golden rope +to a yard's length, and throwing the end back to him gayly. + +Finally, when not even the painstaking young missionary could scrape +another drop from the exhausted pot, Dolly, taking her violin, played a +waltz. The uncarpeted floor was tempting, and after all the sticky hands +had been washed, the dancing began--Ruth with Chase, Etheridge with Miss +Billy; then Etheridge with Mrs. Franklin, while Miss Billy returned +quickly to her precious chair. + +"But these dances do not compare with the old ones," said Mrs. Franklin, +when they had paused to let Dolly rest. "There was the mazurka; and the +varsovienne--how pretty that was! La-la-la, la, _la_!" And humming the +tune, she took a step or two lightly. Etheridge, who knew the +varsovienne, joined her. + +"Go on," said Ruth. "I'll whistle it for you." And sitting on the edge +of a table she whistled the tune, while the two dancers circled round +the kitchen, looking extremely well together. + +"Whistling girls, you know," said Chase, warningly. + +He had joined Ruth, and was watching her as she performed her part. She +kept on, undisturbed by his jests, bending her head a little to the +right and to the left in time with the music; her whistling was as clear +as a flute. + +"And then there was the heel-and-toe polka. Surely you remember that, +commodore," pursued Mrs. Franklin, with inward malice. + +For the heel-and-toe was a very ancient memory. It was considered old +when she herself had seen it as a child. + +"Never heard of it in my life," answered Etheridge. "Hum--ha." + +"Oh, I know the heel-and-toe," cried Ruth. "I learned it from mother +ages ago, just for fun. Are you rested, Dolly? Play it, please, and +mother and I will show them." + +Dolly began, and then Mrs. Franklin and Ruth, tall, slender mother, and +tall, slender daughter, each with one arm round the other's waist, and +the remaining arm held curved above the head, danced down the long room +together, taking the steps of the queer Polish dance with charming grace +and precision. + +"Oh, _dear_ Mrs. Franklin, so young and cheerful! So pleasant to see +her, is it not? So lovely! Don't you think so? And dancing is so +interesting in so many ways! Though, of course, there are other +amusements equally to be desired," murmured Miss Billy, incoherently, to +Larue. + +"Now we will have a quadrille, and I will improvise the figures," said +Ruth. "Mother and the commodore; Miss Billy and Mr. Larue; Mr. Chase +with me; and we will take turns in making the fourth couple." + +"Unfortunately, I don't dance," observed Larue. + +"Spoil-sport!" said Ruth, annihilatingly. + +"You got it that time," remarked Chase, condolingly, to the other man. + +"Miss Ruth, I can take the senator's place, if you like," said Malachi +Hill, springing up, good-naturedly. + +Since the termination of the candy-pulling, he had been sitting +contentedly beside Dolly, watching her play, and regaling himself +meanwhile with a stick of the fresh compound, its end carefully +enveloped in a holder of paper. + +"Excellent," said Ruth. "Please take Miss Billy, then." + +Poor Miss Billy, obliged to dance with a misguided clergyman! This time +there was not the excuse of the Mission; it was a real dance. He already +smoked; the next step certainly would be cards and horse-racing! While +she was taking her place, Rinda ushered in a new guest. + +"Maud Muriel--how lucky!" exclaimed Ruth. "You are the very person we +need, for we are trying to get up a quadrille, and have not enough +persons. I know you like to dance?" + +"Yes, I like it very much--for hygienic reasons principally," responded +the new-comer. + +"Please take my place, then," Ruth went on. "This is Mr. Chase, Miss +Maud Mackintosh. Now we will see if our generic geologist and +sensational senator will refuse to dance with _me_." And sinking +suddenly on her knees before Larue, Ruth extended her hands in petition. + +"What is all that she called him, Miss Maud?" inquired Chase, laughing. + +"Miss Mackintosh," said his partner, correctively. "They are only +alliterative adjectives, Mr. Chase, rather indiscriminately applied. +Ruth is apt to be indiscriminate." + +Larue had risen, and Ruth triumphantly led him to his place. He knew +that she was laughing at him; in fact, as he went through the figures +calmly, his partner mimicked him to his face. But he was indifferent +alike to her laughter and her mimicry; what he was noticing was her +beauty. If he had been speaking of her, he would have called her +"prettyish"; but as he was only thinking, he allowed himself to note the +charm of her eyes for the moment, the color in her cheeks and lips. For +he was sure that it was only for the moment. "The coloring is +evanescent," was his mental criticism. "Her beauty will not last. For +she is handsome only when she is happy, and happiness for her means +doing exactly as she pleases, and having her own way unchecked. No woman +can do that forever. By the time she is thirty she may be absolutely +plain." + +Maud Muriel had laid aside her hat and jacket. She possessed a wealth of +beautiful red hair, whose thick mass was combed so tightly back from her +forehead that it made her wink; her much-exposed countenance was not at +all handsome, though her hazel eyes were large, calm, and clear. She was +a spinster of thirty-six--tall and thin, with large bones. And from her +hair to her heels she was abnormally, extraordinarily straight. She +danced with much vigor, scrutinizing Chase, and talking to him in the +intervals between the figures. These intervals, however, were short, for +Ruth improvised with rapidity. Finally she kept them all flying round in +a circle so long that Mrs. Franklin, breathless, signalled that she must +pause. + +"Now we are all hungry," said Ruth. "Zoe, see to the coffee. And, Rinda, +you may make ready here. We won't go to the dining-room, His Grand; it's +much more fun in the kitchen." + +Various inviting dishes were soon arrayed upon a table. And then Ruth, +to pass away the time until the coffee should be ready, began to sing. +All the Franklins sang; Miss Billy had a sweet soprano, Maud Muriel a +resonant contralto, and Malachi Hill a tenor of power; Etheridge, when +he chose, could add bass notes. + + "Hark, the merry merry Christ-Church bells, + One, two, three, four, five, six; + They sound so strong, so wondrous sweet, + And they troll so merrily, merrily." + +Horace Chase took no part in the catch song; he sat looking at the +others. It was the Franklin family who held his attention--the mother +singing with light-hearted animation; Dolly playing her part on her +violin, and singing it also; and Ruth, who, with her hands clasped +behind her head, was carolling like a bird. To Chase's mind it seemed +odd that a woman so old as Mrs. Franklin, a woman with silver hair and +grown-up children, should like to dance and sing. Dolly was certainly a +very "live" invalid! And Ruth--well, Ruth was enchanting. Horace Chase's +nature was always touched by beauty; he was open to its influences, it +had been so from boyhood. What he admired was not regularity of feature, +but simply the seductive sweetness of womanhood. And, young as she was, +Ruth Franklin's face was full of this charm. He looked at her again as +she sat singing the chorus: + + "Hark, the first and second bell, + Ring every day at four and ten"-- + +Then his gaze wandered round the kitchen. From part of the wall the +plastering was gone; it had fallen, and had never been replaced. The +housewives whom he had hitherto known, so he said to himself, would have +preferred to have their walls repaired, and spend less, if necessary, +upon dinners. Suppers, too! (Here he noted the rich array on the kitchen +table.) + +This array was completed presently by the arrival of the coffee, which +filled the room with its fragrant aroma, and the supper was consumed +amid much merriment. When the clock struck twelve, Maud Muriel rose. "I +must be going," she said. "Wilhelmina, I came for you; that is what +brought me. When I learned at the hotel that you were here, I followed +for the purpose of seeing you home." + +"Allow me the pleasure of accompanying you both," said Chase. + +"That is not necessary; I always see to Wilhelmina," answered Miss +Mackintosh, as she put on her hat. + +"Yes; she is so kind," murmured Miss Billy. But Miss Billy in her heart +believed that in some way or other Achilles Larue would yet be her +escort (though he never had been that, or anything else, in all the +years of their acquaintance). He was still in the house, and so was she; +something might happen! + +What happened was that Larue took leave of Mrs. Franklin, and went off +alone. + +Then Billy said to herself: "On the whole, I'm glad he didn't suggest +it. For it is only five minutes' walk to the hotel, and if he had gone +with me it would have counted as a call, and then he needn't have done +anything more for a long time. So I'm glad he did not come. Very." + +"Maud Muriel," demanded Dolly, "why select a _clay_ pipe?" + +"Oh, did you see me?" inquired Miss Mackintosh, composedly. "I use a +clay pipe, Dolly, because it is cleaner; I can always have a new one. +Smoking is said to insure the night's rest, and so I thought it best to +learn it, as my brother's children are singularly active at night. I +have been practising for three weeks, and I generally go to the woods, +where no one can see me. But to-day I did not have time." + +Chase broke into a laugh. Etheridge had emitted another ho, ho, ho! Then +he gave Maud a jovial tap. "My dear young lady, don't go to the woods. +Let _me_ come, with another clay pipe, and be your protector." + +"I have never needed a protector in my life," replied Miss Mackintosh; +"I don't know what that feeling is, commodore. I secrete myself simply +because people might not understand my motives; they might think that I +was secretly given to dissolute courses. Are you ready, Wilhelmina?" + +As the two ladies opened the outer door and stepped forth into the +darkness, Chase, not deterred by the rebuff he had received from the +stalwart virgin, passed her, and offered his arm to the gentler Miss +Billy. And then Malachi Hill, feeling that he must, advanced to offer +himself as escort for the remaining lady. + +"Poor manikin! Do you think I need _you_?" inquired the sculptress +sarcastically, under her breath. + +The young clergyman disappeared. He did not actually run. But he was +round the corner in an astonishingly short space of time. + +Etheridge was the last to take leave. "Well, you made a very merry +party for your bubbling friend," he said to Mrs. Franklin. + +"It wasn't for _him_," she answered. + +"He is not mother's bubbling friend, and he is not Dolly's, either," +said Ruth; "he is mine alone. Mother and Dolly do not in the least +appreciate him." + +"Is he worth much appreciation?" inquired Etheridge, noting her beauty +as Larue had noted it. "How striking she grows!" he thought. And, +forgetting for the moment what they were talking about, he looked at her +as Chase had looked. + +Meanwhile Ruth was answering, girlishly: "Much appreciation? _All_, +commodore--all. Mr. Chase is _splendid_!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Nothing could exceed the charm of the early summer, that year, in this +high valley. The amphitheatre of mountains had taken on fresher robes of +green, the air was like champagne; it would have been difficult to say +which river danced more gayly along its course, the foam-flecked French +Broad, its clear water open to the sunshine, or the little Swannanoa, +frolicking through the forest in the shade. + +One morning, a few days after the candy-pulling at L'Hommedieu, even +Maud Muriel was stirred to admiration as she threw open the blinds of +her bedroom at her usual early hour. "No humidity. And great +rarefaction," she said to herself, as she tried the atmosphere with a +tentative snort. Maud Muriel lived with her brother, Thomas Mackintosh; +that is, she had a room under his roof and a seat at his table. But she +did not spend much time at home, rather to the relief of Mrs. Thomas +Mackintosh, an easy-going Southern woman, with several young children, +including an obstreperous pair of twins. Maud Muriel, dismissing the +landscape, took a conscientious sponge-bath, and went down to breakfast. +After breakfast, on her way to her studio, she stopped for a moment to +see Miss Billy. "At any rate, I _walk_ well," she had often thought +with pride. And to-day, as she approached the hotel, she was so straight +that her shoulders tipped backward. + +Miss Billy was staying at the inn. This hotel bore the name "The Old +North State," the loving title given by native North-Carolinians to +their commonwealth--a commonwealth which, in its small long-settled +towns, its old farms, and in the names of its people, shows less change +in a hundred years than any other portion of the Union. The Old North, +as it was called, was a wooden structure painted white, with outside +blinds of green; in front of it extended a row of magnificent +maple-trees. Miss Billy had a small sitting-room on the second floor; +Maud Muriel, paying no attention to the negro servants, went up the +uncarpeted stairway to her friend's apartment, and, as she opened the +door, she caught sight of this friend carefully rolling a waste bit of +string into a small ball. + +"Too late--I saw you," she said. (For Miss Billy had nervously tried to +hide the ball.) "I know you have at least fifty more little wads of the +same sort somewhere, arranged in graded rows! A new ball of string of +the largest size--enough to last a year--costs a dime, Wilhelmina. You +must have a singularly defective sense of proportion to be willing to +give many minutes (for I have even seen you taking out knots!) to a +substance whose value really amounts to about the thousandth part of a +cent! I have stopped on my way to the barn to tell you two things, +Wilhelmina. One is that I do _not_ like your 'Mountain Walk.'" Here she +took a roll of delicately written manuscript, tied with blue ribbons, +from her pocket, and placed it on the table. "It is supposed to be about +trees, isn't it? But you do not describe a single one with the least +accuracy; all you do is to impute to them various allegorical +sentiments, which no tree--a purely vegetable production--_ever_ had." + +"It was only a beginning--leading up to a study of the pre-Adamite +trees, which I hope to make, later," Miss Billy answered. "Ruskin, you +know--" + +"You need not quote Ruskin to me--a man who criticises sculpture without +any practical knowledge whatever of human anatomy; a man who +subordinates correct drawing in a picture to the virtuous state of mind +of the artist! If Ruskin's theory is true, very good persons who visit +the poor and go to church, are, if they dabble in water-colors, or +pen-and-ink sketches, the greatest of artists, because their piety is +sincere. And _vice versa_. The history of art shows that, doesn't it?" +commented Maud, ironically. "I am sorry to see that you sat up so late +last night, Wilhelmina." + +"Why, how do you know?" said Miss Billy, guiltily conscious of midnight +reading. + +"By the deep line between your eyebrows. You must see to that, or you +will be misjudged by scientific minds. For marked, lined, or wrinkled +foreheads indicate criminal tendencies; the statistics of prisons prove +it. To-night put on two pieces of strong sticking-plaster at the +temples, to draw the skin back. The other thing I had to tell you is +that the result of my inquiries of a friend at the North who keeps in +touch with the latest investigations of Liébeault and the Germans, is, +that there may, after all, be something in the subject you mentioned to +me, namely, the possibility of influencing a person, not present, by +means of an effort of will. So we will try it now--for five minutes. Fix +your eyes steadily upon that figure of the carpet, Wilhelmina"--she +indicated a figure with her parasol--"and I will do the same. As subject +we will take my sister-in-law. We will will her to whip the twins. Are +you ready?" She took out her watch. "Begin, then." + +Miss Billy, though secretly disappointed in the choice of subject, tried +hard to fix her mind upon the proposed castigation. But in spite of her +efforts her thoughts would stray to the carpet itself, to the pattern of +the figure, and its reds and greens. + +"Time's up," announced Maud, replacing her watch in the strong +watch-pocket on the outside of her skirt; "I'll tell you whether the +whipping comes off. Do you think it is decent, Wilhelmina, to be +dressing and undressing yourself whenever you wish to know what time it +is?" (For Miss Billy, who tried to follow the fashions to some extent, +was putting her own watch back in her bodice, which she had unbuttoned +for the purpose.) "Woman will never be the equal of man until she has +grasped the conception that the position of her pockets should be +unchangeable," Maud went on. + +"I think I will go with you as far as L'Hommedieu," suggested Billy, +ignoring the subject of the watch-pocket (an old one). "I have some +books to take, so I may as well." She put on her hat, and piled eight +dilapidated paper-covered volumes on her arm. + +"Are you still collecting vapid literature for that feather-headed +woman?" inquired Maud. For Billy went all over Asheville, to every house +she knew, and probed in old closets and bookcases in search of novels +for Mrs. Franklin. For years she had performed this office. When Mrs. +Franklin had finished reading one set of volumes, Billy carried them +back to their owners, and then roamed and foraged for more. + +"If you do go as far as L'Hommedieu, you must stop there definitely; you +must not go on to the barn," Maud Muriel announced, as they went down +the stairs. "For if you do, you will stay. And then I shall be going +back with you, to see to you. And then you will be coming part way back +with me, to talk. And thus we shall be going home with each other all +the rest of the day!" She passed out and crossed the street, doing it in +the face of the leaders of a team of six horses attached to one of the +huge mountain wagons, which are shaped like boats tilted up behind; for +two files of these wagons, heavily loaded, were coming slowly up the +road. Miss Billy started to cross also, but after three or four steps +she turned and hurried back to the curb-stone. Then suddenly she started +a second time, running first in one direction, then in another, and +finally and unexpectedly in a third, so that the drivers of the wagons +nearest to her, and even the very horses themselves, were filled with +perplexity as to the course which she wished to pursue. Miss Billy, +meanwhile, finding herself hemmed in, began to shriek wildly. The +drivers in front stretched their necks round the corners of the canvas +hoods erected, like gigantic Shaker bonnets, over their high-piled +loads, in order to see what was the matter. And the drivers who were +behind stood up and peered forward. But they could make out nothing, +and, as Miss Billy continued her yells, the whole procession, and with +it the entire traffic of the main street, came slowly to a pause. The +pause was not long. The energetic Maud Muriel, jerking up the heads of +two of the leaders, made a dive, caught hold of her frightened friend, +and drew her out by main strength. The horses whom she had thus +attacked, shook themselves. "Hep!" called their driver. "Hep!" called +the other drivers, in various keys. And then, one by one, with a jerk +and a creak, the great wains started on again. + +When the friends reached L'Hommedieu, Billy was still trembling. + +"I'd better take them in for you," said Maud Muriel, referring to the +load of books which Billy was carrying for her companion. They found +Dolly in the parlor, winding silk for her next pair of stockings. "Here +are some volumes which Wilhelmina is bringing to Mrs. Franklin," said +Maud Muriel, depositing the pile on a table. + +"More novels?" said Dolly. "I'm so glad. Thank you, Miss Billy. For +mother really has nothing for to-day. The one she had yesterday was very +dull; she said she was 'worrying' through it. It was a story about +female suffrage--as though any one could care for that!" + +"Care for it or not, it is sure to come," declared Miss Mackintosh. + +"Yes, in A.D. 5000." + +"Sooner, much sooner. _We_ may not see it," pursued Maud Muriel, putting +up her finger impressively. "But, mark my words, our _children_ will." + +Miss Billy listened to this statement with the deepest interest. + +"Well, Maud Muriel--Miss Billy, yourself, and myself as _parents_--that +certainly is a new idea!" Dolly replied. + +Ruth came in. At the same moment Maud Muriel turned to go; and, +unconsciously, Billy made a motion as if about to follow. + +"Wilhelmina, you are to _stay_," said Maud, sternly, as she departed, +straighter than ever. + +"Yes, Miss Billy, please stay," said Ruth. "I want you to go with me to +see Genevieve." + +"Genevieve?" repeated Dolly, surprised. + +"Yes. She has bought another new dress for me, and this time she is +going to fit it herself, she says, so that there may be no more +bagging," answered Ruth, laughing. "I know she intends to _squeeze_ me +up. And so I want Miss Billy to come and say it's dangerous!" + +Ruth was naturally what is called short-waisted; this gave her the long +step which in a tall, slender woman is so enchantingly graceful. +Genevieve did not appreciate grace of this sort. In her opinion Ruth's +waist was too large. If she had been told that it was the waist of Greek +sculpture, the statement would not have altered her criticism; she had +no admiration for Greek sculpture; the few life-sized casts from antique +statues which she had seen had appeared to her highly unpleasant +objects. Her ideas of feminine shape were derived, in fact, from the +season's fashion plates. Her own costumes were always of one unbroken +tint, the same from head to foot. To men's eyes, therefore, her attire +had an air of great simplicity. Women perceived at once that this +unvarying effect was not obtained without much thought, and Genevieve +herself would have been the last to disclaim such attention. For she +believed that it was each woman's duty to dress as becomingly as was +possible, because it increased her attraction; and the greater her +attraction, the greater her influence. If she had been asked, "influence +for what?" she would have replied unhesitatingly, "influence for good!" +Her view of dress, therefore, being a serious one, she was disturbed by +the entire indifference of her husband's family to the subject, both +generally and in detail. She had the most sincere desire to assist them, +to improve them; most of all she longed to improve Ruth (she had given +up Dolly), and more than once she had denied herself something, and +taken the money it would have cost, to buy a new costume for the +heedless girl, who generally ruined the gifts (in her sister-in-law's +opinion) by careless directions, or no directions at all, to the +Asheville dressmaker. + +Ruth bore Miss Billy away. But as they crossed the garden towards the +cottage she said: "I may as well tell you--there will be no fitting. For +Mr. Chase is there; I have just caught a glimpse of him from the upper +window." + +"Then why go now?" inquired Miss Billy, who at heart was much afraid of +Genevieve. + +"To see Mr. Chase, of course. I wish to thank him for my philopena, +which came late last night. Mother and Dolly are not pleased. But _I_ +am, ever so much." She took a morocco case from her pocket, and, opening +it, disclosed a ring of very delicate workmanship, the gold circlet +hardly more than a thread, and enclosing a diamond, not large, but very +pure and bright. + +"Oh-ooh!" said Miss Billy, with deep admiration. + +"Yes; isn't it lovely? Mother and Dolly say that it is too much. But I +have never seen anything in the world yet which I thought too much! I +should like to have ever so many rings, each set with one gem only, but +that gem perfect. And I should like to have twenty or thirty bracelets, +all of odd patterns, to wear on my arms above the elbow. And I should +like close rows of jewels to wear round my throat. And clasps of jewels +for the belt; and shoe-buckles too. I have never had an ornament, except +one dreadful silver thing. Let me see; it's on now!" And feeling under +her sleeve, she drew off a thin silver circlet, and threw it as far as +she could across the grass. + +"Oh, your pretty bracelet!" exclaimed Miss Billy. + +"Pretty? Horrid!" + +Horace Chase had called at the Cottage in answer to a note from +Genevieve, offering to take him to the Colored Home. "As you have shown +so much kindly interest in the Mission, I feel sure that this second +good work of ours will also please you," she wrote. + +"I think I won't go to-day, Gen, if it's all the same to you," said +Chase, when he entered. "For my horses have come and I ought not to +delay any longer about making some arrangements for them." + +"Any other time will do for the Home," answered Genevieve, graciously. +"But can't you stay for a little while, Horace? Let me show you my +house." + +Chase had already seen her parlor, with its velvet carpet, its set of +furniture covered with green, its pictures arranged according to the +size of the frames, with the largest below on a line with the eye, and +the others above in pyramidical gradations, so that the smallest were +near the cornice. At that distance the subjects of the smaller pictures +were more or less indistinguishable; but at least the arrangement of the +frames was full of symmetry. In the second story, at the end of the +house, was "Jay's smoking-room." "Jay likes to smoke; it is a habit he +acquired in the navy; I have therefore fitted up this room on purpose," +said Jay's wife. + +It was a small chamber, with a sloping ceiling, a single window +overlooking the kitchen roof, oil-cloth on the floor, one table, and one +chair. + +"Do put in _two_ chairs," suggested Chase, jocularly. For though he +thought the husband of Genevieve a fortunate man, he could not say that +his smoking-room was a cheerful place. + +"Oh, _I_ never sit here," answered Genevieve. "Now come down and take a +peep at my kitchen, Horace. I have been kneading the bread; there it is +on the table. I prefer to knead it myself, though I hope that in time +Susannah will be able to do it according to my method" (with a glance +towards the negro servant, who returned no answering smile). "And this +is my garden. I can never tell you how glad I am that we have at last a +fixed home of our own, Horrie. No more wandering about! Jay is able to +spend a large part of his summers here, and, later, when he has made a +little more money, he will come for the whole summer--four months. And I +go to Raleigh to be with him in the winter; I am hoping that we can +have a winter home there too, very soon. We are _so_ much more +comfortable in every way than we used to be. And looking at it from +another point of view, it is inexpressibly better for Jay himself to be +out of the navy. It always disturbed me--such a limited life!" + +Jared Franklin, when an ensign, had met Genevieve Gray, fallen in love +with her, and married her, in the short space of three months. He had +remained in the navy throughout the war, and for two years longer; then, +yielding at last to his wife's urgent entreaties, he had resigned. After +his resignation he had been for a time a clerk in Atlanta. Now he was in +business for himself in a small way at Raleigh; it was upon his +establishment there that Genevieve had started this summer home in +Asheville. "Our prospects are much brighter," she went on, cheerfully; +"for at present we have a future. No one has a future in the navy; no +one can make money there. But now there is no reason why Jay should not +succeed, as other men have succeeded; that is what I always tell him. +And I am not thinking only of ourselves, Horrie, as I say that; when Jay +is a rich man, my principal pleasure in it will be the power which we +shall have to give more in charity, to do more in all good works." And +in saying this, Genevieve Franklin was entirely sincere. + +"You must keep me posted about the railroad," she went on, as she led +the way across the garden. + +"Oh yes; if we decide to take hold of it, you shall be admitted into +the ring," answered Chase--"the inside track." + +"I could buy land here beforehand--quietly, you know?" + +"You've got a capital head for business, haven't you, Gen! Better than +any one has at your mother-in-law's, I reckon?" + +"They are not clever in that way; I have always regretted it. But they +are very amiable." + +"Not that Dolly!" + +"Oh, Dolly? My principal feeling for poor Dolly, of course, is simply +pity. This is my little dairy, Horrie; come in. I have been churning +butter this morning." + +Ruth and Miss Billy, finding no one in the house, had followed to the +dairy; and they entered in time to hear this last phrase. + +"She does churning and everything else, Mr. Chase, at three o'clock in +the morning," said Ruth, with great seriousness. + +"Not quite so early," Genevieve corrected. + +The point was not taken up. The younger Mrs. Franklin, a fresh, strong, +equable creature, who woke at dawn as a child wakes, liked an early +breakfast as a child likes it. She found it difficult, therefore, to +understand her mother-in-law's hour of nine, or half-past nine. "But you +lose so much time, mamma," she had remarked during the first weeks of +her own residence at Asheville. + +"Yes," Dolly answered. (It was always Dolly who answered Genevieve; +Dolly delighted in it.) "We _do_ lose it at that end of the morning--the +raw end, Genevieve. But when we are once up, we remain up, available, +fully awake, get-at-able, until midnight; we do not go off and seclude +ourselves impregnably for two hours or so in the middle of the day." For +Dolly was aware that it was her sister-in-law's habit to retire to her +room immediately after her one o'clock dinner, and take a nap; often a +long one. + +"Do you wish to see something pretty, Genevieve?" said Ruth, giving her +the morocco case. "Thank you, Mr. Chase; I have wanted a ring so long; +you can't think how long!" + +"Have you?" said Chase, smiling. + +"Yes. And this is such a beauty." + +"Well, to me it seemed rather small. I wrote to a friend of mine to get +it; it was my partner, in fact, Mr. Willoughby. I told him that it was +for a young lady. That's his taste, I suppose." + +"The taste is perfect," said Miss Billy. For poor Miss Billy, browbeaten +though she was by almost everybody, possessed a very delicate and true +perception in all such matters. + +"I have been _perfectly_ happy ever since it came," Ruth declared, as +she took the ring, slipped it on her finger, and looked at the effect. + +"You make me proud, Miss Ruth." + +"Don't you want to be a little prouder?" and she came up to him +coaxingly. "I am sure Genevieve has been asking you to go with her to +the Colored Home?" This quick guess made Chase laugh. "For it is the +weekly reception day, and all her old women have on their clean turbans. +The Colored Home is excellent, of course, but it won't fly away; +there'll be more clean turbans next week. Meanwhile, _I_ have something +very pressing. I have long wanted Miss Mackintosh to make a bust of +Petie Trone, Esq. And she won't, because she thinks it is frivolous. But +if _you_ will go with me, Mr. Chase, and speak of it as a fine thing to +do, she will be impressed, I know; for she has a sort of concealed +liking for you." Chase made a grimace. "I don't mean anything fiery," +Ruth went on; "it's only a reasonable scientific interest. She is at the +barn now: won't you come? For Petie Trone, Esq., is not a young dog any +longer. He is more than eight years old," concluded the girl, +mournfully. + +Genevieve, who had been greatly struck by the ring, glanced at Chase +with inward despair, as her sister-in-law made this ineffective +conclusion. They had left the dairy, and were standing in the garden, +and her despair renewed itself as, in the brighter light, she noted +Ruth's faded dress, and the battered garden hat, whose half-detached +feather had been temporarily secured with a large white pin. + +But Chase was not looking at the hat. "Of course I'll go," he answered. +"We'll have the little scamp in bronze, if you like. Don't worry about +his age, Miss Ruth; he is so tremendously lively that he will see us all +out yet." + +"Come, then," said Ruth, exultingly. She linked her arm in Miss Billy's. +"You must go, too, Miss Billy, so that you can tell mother that I did +not tease Mr. Chase _too_ hard." + +Maud Muriel's studio was in an unused hay-barn. Here, ranged on rough +shelves, were her "works," as Miss Billy called them--many studies of +arms, and hands, and a dozen finished portrait-busts in clay. The +subjects of the busts appeared to have been selected, one and all, for +their strictly commonplace aspect; they had not even the distinction of +ugliness. There were three old men with ordinary features, and no marked +expression of any kind; there were six middle-aged women, each with the +type of face which one forgets the moment after seeing it; and there +were three uncompromisingly uninteresting little boys. The modelling was +conscientious, and it was evident in each case that the likeness was +faithful. + +"But Petie Trone, Esq., is a _pretty_ dog," objected the sculptress, +when Ruth had made her request, backed up by Chase, who described the +"dogs and animals of all sorts" which he had seen in bronze and marble +in the galleries abroad. No one laughed, as the formal title came out +from Maud's lips, Asheville had long ago accepted the name; Petie Trone, +Esq., was as well known as Mount Pisgah. + +"Don't you like pretty things?" Chase asked, gazing at the busts, and +then at the studies of arms and hands--scraggy arms with sharp elbows +and thin fingers, withered old arms with clawlike phalanges, lean arms +of growing boys with hands like paws, hard-worked arms with distorted +muscles--every and any human arm and hand save a beautiful one. + +"Prettiness is the exception, not the rule," replied Maud, with +decision. "I prefer to model the usual, the average; for in that +direction, and in that only, lies truth." + +"Yes; and I suppose that if I should make a usual cur of Petie Trone, +Esq., cover him with average mud, and beat him so that he would cower +and slink in his poor little tail, _then_ you would do him?" said Ruth, +indignantly. + +"See here, Miss Mackintosh, your principles needn't be upset by one +small dog. Come, do him; not his bust, but the whole of him. A +life-sized statue," added Chase, laughing; "he must be about eleven +inches long! Do him for me," he went on, boldly, looking at her with +secret amusement; for he had never seen such an oaken bearing as that of +this Asheville spinster. + +Maud Muriel did not relax the tension of her muscles; in fact, she could +not. The condition called "clinched," which with most persons is +occasional only, had with her become chronic. Nevertheless, somehow, she +consented. + +"I'll get the darling this minute," cried Ruth, hurrying out. And Chase +followed her. + +"Well, here you are again! What did I tell you?" said the sculptress to +Miss Billy, when they were left alone. + +"I did not mean to come, Maud Muriel. I really did not intend--" Billy +began. + +"What place, Wilhelmina, is _paved_ with good intentions? Now, of +course, we shall be going home with each other all the rest of the day!" +declared the sculptress, good-humoredly. + +Meanwhile, outside, Ruth was suggesting to Horace Chase, coaxingly, that +he should wait until she could find her dog, and bring him to the barn. +"Because if _you_ are not with me, Maud Muriel will be sure to change +her mind!" + +"Not she. She is no more changeable than a telegraph pole. I am afraid I +must leave you now, Miss Ruth; for the men are waiting to see me about +the horses." + +"Whose horses?" + +"Mine." + +"Did you send for them? Oh, _I_ love horses too. Where are they?" + +"At the Old North stables. So you like horses? I'll drive the pair +round, then, in a day or two, to show them to you." And after shaking +hands with her--Chase always shook hands--he went towards the village; +for Maud Muriel's barn was on the outskirts. In figure he was tall, +thin, and muscular. He never appeared to be in haste; all his movements +were leisurely, even his words coming out with deliberation. His voice +was pitched in a low key; his articulation was extremely distinct; +sometimes, when amused, he had a slight humorous drawl. + +Ruth looked after him for a moment. Then she went in search of her dog. + +A little later Anthony Etheridge paid his usual morning visit to the +post-office. On his return, when near his own abode, he met Horace +Chase. + +"A mail in?" inquired Chase, quickly, as he saw the letters. + +"No; they came last night. _I_ am never in a hurry about mails," +answered Etheridge. "You younger fellows have not learned, as I have, +that among every six letters, say, four at least are sure to be more or +less disagreeable. Well, have you decided? Are you coming to my place?" +For Etheridge had rooms in a private house, where he paid for a whole +wing in order that his night's rest should not be disturbed by other +tenants, who might perhaps bring in young children; with his usual +thriftiness, he had offered his lower floor to Chase. + +"Well, no, I guess not; I'm thinking of coming here," Chase answered, +indicating the hotel near by with a backward turn of his thumb. "My +horses are here; they came last night. I'm making some arrangements for +them, now." + +Anthony Etheridge cared more for a good horse than for anything else in +the world. In spite of his title of Commodore, sailing had only a second +place in his list of tastes. He had commanded a holiday squadron only, a +fleet of yachts. Some years before, he had resigned his commandership +in the Northern club. But he was still a commodore, almost in spite of +himself, for he had again been elected, this time by the winter yacht +club of St. Augustine. At the word "horses" his face had lighted up. +"Can I have a look at them?" he said, eagerly. "Did they stand the +journey well?" + +"O. K. They're round in the stable, if you want to come." + +The three horses were beautiful specimens of their kind. "The pair, I +intend to drive; I found that there was nothing in Asheville, and as I'm +going to stay awhile longer (for the air is bringing me right up), I had +to have something," Chase remarked. "The mare is for riding." + +"She looks like a racer?" + +"Well, she _has_ taken one prize. But I shall never race her again; I +don't care about it. I remember when I thought a race just heaven! When +I wasn't more than nineteen, I took a prize with a trotter; 'twas a very +small race, to be sure; but a big thing to me. Not long after that, +there was another prize offered for a well-matched pair, and by that +time I had a pair--temporarily--bays. One of them, however, had a white +spot on his nose. Well, sir, I painted his nose, and won the premium!" +He broke into a laugh. + +"Was that before you invented the Bubble Baking-powder?" inquired +Etheridge. + +In this question, there was a tinge of superciliousness. Chase did not +suspect it; in his estimation, a baking-powder was as good a means as +anything else, the sole important point being its success. But even if +he had perceived the tinge, it would only have amused him; with his +far-stretching plans--plans which extended across a continent--his large +interests and broad ambitions, criticism from this obscure old man would +have seemed comical. Anthony Etheridge was not so obscure a personage as +Chase fancied. But he was not known in the world of business or of +speculation, and he had very little money. This last fact Chase had +immediately divined. For he recognized in Etheridge a man who would +never have denied himself luxury unless forced to do it, a man who would +never have been at Asheville if he could have afforded Newport; the talk +about "nature undraped" was simply an excuse. And he had discovered also +another secret which no one (save Mrs. Franklin) suspected, namely, that +the handsome commodore was in reality far older than his gallant bearing +would seem to indicate. + +"_I_ didn't invent the Bubble," he had said, explanatorily. "I only +bought it. Then the inventor and I ran it together, in a sort of +partnership, as long as he lived. 'Twas as good as a silver mine for a +while. Nothing could stand against it, sir--nothing." + +But Etheridge was not interested in the Bubble. "I should like greatly +to see your mare go," he said. "Here, boy, isn't that track in the field +in pretty fair condition still?" + +"Yes, boss," answered the negro, whom he had addressed. + +"Why not let her go round it, Chase? It will do her good to stretch her +legs this fine morning." + +Here a shadow in the doorway caused them both to turn their heads. It +was Ruth Franklin. + +"Good heavens, Ruth, what are you doing here in the stables?" asked +Etheridge, astonished. + +"I have come to see the horses," replied Ruth, confidently. She +addressed Chase. She had already learned that she could count upon +indulgence from him, no matter what fancies might seize her. + +"Here they are, then," Chase answered. "Come closer. This is Peter, and +that is Piper. And here is the mare, Kentucky Belle. Your friend, the +commodore, was urging me, as you came in, to send Kentucky round a +race-course you have here somewhere." + +"Yes, I know; the old ring," said Ruth. "Oh, please do! Please have a +real race." + +"But there's nothing to run against her, Miss Ruth. The pair are not +racers." + +"You go to Cyrus Jaycox," said Etheridge to the negro, "and ask him +for--for" (he could not remember the name)--"for the colt," he +concluded, in an enraged voice. + +"Fer Tipkinoo, sah? Yassah." + +"Tell him to come himself." + +"Yassah." The negro started off on a run. + +"It's the landlord of the Old North," Etheridge explained. "He has a +promising colt, Tippecanoe" (he brought it out this time sonorously). +"No match, of course, for your mare, Chase. Still, it will make a little +sport." His color had risen; his face was young with anticipation. "Now, +Ruth, go home; you have seen the horses, and that is enough. Your mother +would be much displeased if she knew you were here." + +For answer, Ruth looked at Chase. "I won't be the least trouble," she +said, winningly. + +"Oh, do be! I like trouble--feel all the better for lots of it," he +answered. "Come along with me. And make all the trouble you can!" + +Three little negro boys, highly excited, had already started off to act +as pilots to the field. Ruth put her hand in Chase's arm; for if the +owner of Kentucky Belle wished to have her with him, or at least if he +had the appearance of wishing it, there was less to be said against her +presence. They led the way, therefore. Then came Chase's man with the +mare, Etheridge keeping close to the beautiful beast, and watching her +gait with critical eyes. All the hangers-on of the stable brought up the +rear. The field, where an amateur race had been held during the +preceding year, was not far distant; its course was a small one. Some +minutes later their group was completed by the arrival of Cyrus Jaycox +with his colt, Tippecanoe. + +"But where is Groves?" said Chase to his men. "Groves is the only one of +you who can ride her properly." It turned out, however, that Groves had +gone to bed ill; he had taken a chill on the journey. + +"I didn't observe that he wasn't here," said Chase. (This was because he +had been talking to Ruth.) "We shall have to postpone it, commodore." + +"Let her go round with one of the other men just once, to show her +action," Etheridge urged. + +"Yes, please, please," said Ruth. + +The mare, therefore, went round the course with the groom Cartright, +followed by the Asheville colt, ridden by a little negro boy, who clung +on with grins and goggling eyes. + +"There is Mr. Hill, watching us over the fence," said Ruth. "How +astonished he looks!" And she beckoned to the distant figure. + +Malachi Hill, who had been up the mountain to pay a visit to a family in +bereavement, had recognized them, and stopped his horse in the road to +see what was going on. In response to Ruth's invitation, he found a +gate, opened it by leaning from his saddle, and came across to join +them. As he rode up, Etheridge was urging another round. "If I were not +such a heavy weight, I'd ride the mare myself!" he declared, with +enthusiasm. Cyrus Jaycox offered a second little negro, as jockey. But +Chase preferred to trust Cartright, unfitted though he was. In reality +he consented not on account of the urgency of Etheridge, but solely to +please the girl by his side. + +There was trouble about this second start; the colt, not having been +trained, boggled and balked. Kentucky Belle, on her side, could not +comprehend such awkwardness. "I'll go a few paces with them, just to get +them well off," suggested Malachi Hill. And, touching Daniel with his +whip, he rode forward, coming up behind the other two. + +Mr. Hill's Daniel was the laughing-stock of the irreverent; he was a +very tall, ancient horse, lean and rawboned, with a rat tail. But he +must have had a spark of youthful fire left in him somewhere, or else a +long-thwarted ambition, for he made more than the start which his rider +had intended; breaking into a pounding pace, he went round the entire +course, in spite of the clergyman's efforts to pull him up. The mare, +hearing the thundering sound of his advance behind her, began to go +faster. Old Daniel passed the Asheville colt as though he were nothing +at all; then, stretching out his gaunt head, he went in pursuit of the +steed in front like a mad creature, the dust of the ring rising in +clouds behind him. Nothing could now stop either horse. Cartright was +powerless with Kentucky Belle, and Daniel paid no heed to his rider. +But, the second time round, it was not quite clear whether the clergyman +was trying to stop or not. The third time there was no question--he +would not have stopped for the world; his flushed face showed the +deepest delight. + +Meanwhile people had collected as flies collect round honey; the negroes +who lived in the shanties behind the Old North had come running to the +scene in a body, the big children "toting" the little ones; and down the +lane which led from the main street had rushed all the whites within +call, led by the postmaster himself, a veteran of the Mexican War. After +the fourth round, Kentucky Belle decided to stop of her own accord. She +was, of course, ahead. But not very far behind her, still thundering +along with his rat tail held stiffly out, came old Daniel, in his turn +ahead of Tippecanoe. + +As Daniel drew near, exhausted but still ardent, there rose loud +laughter and cheers. "Good gracious!" murmured the missionary, as he +quickly dismounted, pulled his hat straight, and involuntarily tried to +hide himself between Etheridge and Chase. "What _have_ I done!" + +His perturbation was genuine. "Come along," said Chase, who had been +laughing uproariously himself; "we'll protect you." He gave his arm to +Mr. Hill, and with Ruth (who still kept her hold tightly) on his left, +he made with his two companions a stately progress back to the hotel, +followed by the mare led by Cartright, with Etheridge as body-guard; +then by Cyrus Jaycox, with Tippecanoe; and finally by all the +spectators, who now numbered nearly a hundred. But at the head of the +whole file (Chase insisted upon this) marched old Daniel, led by the +other groom. + +"Go round to the front," called Chase. And round they all went to the +main street, amid the hurrahs of the accompanying crowd, white and +black. At the door of the Old North, Ruth escaped and took refuge +within, accompanied by the troubled clergyman; and a moment later Chase +and Etheridge followed. Ruth had led the way to Miss Billy's +sitting-room. Miss Billy received her guests with wonder; Maud Muriel +was with her (for her prophecy had come true; the two had already begun +the "going home" with each other). + +"We have had the most exciting race, Miss Billy," explained Ruth. "A +real horse-race round the old track out in the field. And Mr. Hill came +in second on Daniel!" + +The eyes of Miss Billy, turning to the clergyman with horror, moved +Chase to fresh laughter. "I say--why not all stay and dine with me?" he +suggested. "To celebrate Daniel's triumph, you know? I am coming here to +stay, so I might as well begin. The dinner hour is two o'clock, and it +is almost that now. We can have a table to ourselves, and perhaps they +can find us some champagne." + +"That will be great fun; _I'll_ stay," said Ruth. "And the commodore +will, I'm sure. Mr. Hill, too." + +"Thanks, no. I must go. Good-day," said the missionary, hastening out. + +Chase pursued him. "Why, you are the hero of the whole thing," he said; +"the man of the hour! We can't bring old Daniel into the dining-room. So +we must have you, Hill." + +"I am sorry to spoil it; but you will have to excuse me," answered the +other man, hurriedly. Then, with an outburst of confidence: "It is +impossible for me to remain where Miss Mackintosh is present. There is +something perfectly awful to me, Mr. Chase, in that woman's eye!" + +"Is that all? Come back; I'll see to her," responded Chase. And see to +her he did. Aided by Etheridge, who liked nothing better than to assail +the sculptress with lovelorn compliments, Chase paid Maud Muriel such +devoted attention that for the moment she forgot poor Hill, or rather +she left him to himself. He was able, therefore, to eat his dinner. But +he still said, mutely, "Good gracious!" and, taking out his +handkerchief, he furtively wiped his brow. + +The Old North had provided for its patrons that day roast beef, spring +chickens, new potatoes, and apple puddings. All the diners at the other +tables asked for "a dish of gravy." A saucer containing gravy was then +brought and placed by the side of each plate. Small hot buscuits were +offered instead of bread, and eaten with the golden mountain butter. +Mrs. Jaycox, stimulated by the liberal order for champagne, sent to +Chase's table the additional splendors of three kinds of fresh cake, +peach preserves, and a glass jug of cream. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +The spring deepened into summer, and July opened. On the 10th, the +sojourners at the Warm Springs, the beautiful pools that well up in the +valley of the French Broad River, were assembled on the veranda of the +rambling wooden hotel, after their six o'clock supper, when they saw two +carriages approaching. "Phew! who can they be?" "What horses!" + +The horses were indeed remarkably handsome--two bays and a +lighter-limbed pair of sorrels; in addition there was a mounted groom. +The housekeeper, who had come out on the veranda, mentioned in a low +tone that a second groom had arrived, three hours earlier, to engage +rooms for the party, and make preparations. "They are to have supper by +themselves, later; we're to do our best. Extras have been ordered, and +they've sent all sorts of supplies. And champagne!" + +"Chase, did you say the name was? That's a hoax. It's General Grant +himself, I reckon, coming along yere like a conqueror in disguise," said +a wag. + +The bays were Horace Chase's Peter and Piper, attached to a two-seated +carriage which was a model as regarded comfort; Anthony Etheridge was +driving, and with him were Mrs. Franklin, Dolly, and Ruth. Horace Chase +himself, in a light vehicle for two, which he called his cart, had the +sorrels. His companion was a gaunt, dark man, who looked as though he +had been ill. This man was Mrs. Franklin's son Jared. + +Franklin had been stricken by that disheartening malady which is formed +by the union of fever and ague. After bearing it for several weeks, and +sending no tidings of his condition to his family (for he considered it +a rather unmasculine ailment), he had journeyed to Asheville with the +last remnants of his strength, and arriving by stage, and finding no one +at the cottage (for it was his wife's day at the Colored Home), he had +come with uncertain steps across the field to L'Hommedieu, entering the +parlor like a yellow spectre, his eyes sunken, his mind slightly +wandering. "Ye-es, here I am," he said, vaguely. "I was coming next +week, you know. But I--I didn't feel well. And so I've--come now." + +His mother had given a cry; then, with an instinctive movement, her tall +figure looking taller than ever, she had rushed forward and clasped her +dazed, fever-stricken son in her arms. + +The mountain air, prompt remedies, and the vigilant nursing of +Genevieve, soon routed the insidious foes. Routed them, that is, for the +moment; for their strength lies in stealthy returns; as Jared said (he +made jokes even at the worst stages), they never know when they are +beaten. But as soon as there was even a truce, their victim, though +still yellow and weak, announced that he must return to his business +immediately. + +"But I thought you spent your summers here, Mr. Franklin?" remarked +Horace Chase, inquiringly. + +"Yes, that is the plan, and I have been here a good deal for the past +three seasons. But this year I can't stay," Jared answered. + +This was said at L'Hommedieu. Ruth was sitting beside her brother on the +sofa, her arm in his. "But you must stay," she protested. "You are not +strong yet; you are not strong at all." She put her other arm across his +breast, as if to keep him. "I shall not let you go!" + +Jared Franklin was tall and broad-shouldered, with dark eyes whose +expression was always sad. In spite of this sadness, he had Dolly's +habit of making jocular remarks. But he had not Dolly's sharpness; where +she was sarcastic, the brother was only ironical. In looks Jared did not +resemble his mother or Dolly. But there was a strong likeness between +his face and Ruth's; they had the same contours, the same mouth. + +While Ruth was protesting, Mrs. Franklin, making no pretence of busying +herself with anything, not even with lamplighters, sat looking at her +son with eyes which seemed to have grown larger, owing to the depth of +love within them. Chase, who had happened to be at L'Hommedieu when +Jared arrived, had never forgotten that rush of the mother--the mother +whose easy indolence he had, up to that moment, condemned. So now he +said, with his slight drawl: "Oh, you want to give the fever another +round of shot before you go back, Mr. Franklin. Why not take a few days +more, and drive with me over the Great Smokies into Tennessee?" And the +result was the party already described. + +The evening before the start, Ruth had come out on the veranda of +L'Hommedieu. Chase and her brother had been smoking there (for Jared had +not shown any deep attachment to his smoking-room), and Dolly, who loved +the aroma of cigars, had seated herself near them. Jared had now +strolled off with his mother, and Genevieve, coming over from the +cottage, had taken her husband's place. As she approached, Chase had +extinguished his cigar and tossed it into the grass; for tobacco smoke +always gave the younger Mrs. Franklin a headache. + +Ruth had walked up to Chase's chair. "No, please don't rise; I am only +looking at you, Mr. Chase. You are so wonderful!" + +"Now don't be _too_ hard on me!" interposed the visitor, humorously. + +"First, you are making my brother take this long drive," Ruth went on; +"the very thing of all others that will do him good--and I could go down +on my knees to you just for that! Then you have sent for that easy +carriage, so that Dolly can go, too. Then you are taking _me_. The +commodore also, who would rather drive Peter and Piper than go to +heaven! I have always wanted to see somebody who could do _everything_. +It must be very nice to have money," she concluded, reflectively. + +"And to do so much good with it," added Genevieve. Genevieve had +insisted that her mother-in-law should take the fourth place in the +carriage; for the drive would be excellent for Mrs. Franklin, who was +far from strong; whereas, for herself, as she was in perfect health, no +change was necessary. Genevieve might have mentioned, also, that she had +had change enough for her whole life, and to spare, during the years +which her husband had spent in the navy; for the younger Mrs. Franklin +did not enjoy varying scenes. A house of her own and everything in it +hers; prearranged occupations, all useful or beneficent, following each +other regularly in an unbroken round; a leading place in the management +of charitable institutions; the writing and despatching of letters, +asking for contributions to these institutions; the general supervision +of the clergy, with an eye to dangerous ritualistic tendencies; the +conscientious endeavor to tell her friends on all occasions what they +ought to do (Genevieve was never angry when they disagreed with her, she +only pitied them. There was, in fact, no one she knew whom she had not +felt herself competent, at one time or another, to pity)--all this gave +her the sense of doing good. And to Genevieve that was more precious +than all else--the feeling that she was doing good. "Ruth is right; it +must be enchanting to have money," she went on. "I have often planned +what I should do myself if I had a fortune. I think I may say that I can +direct, administer; I have never seen or read of any charitable +institution, refuge, hospital, home, asylum, or whatever it may be, +which seemed too large or too complicated for me to undertake. On the +contrary, I know I should like it; I feel that I have that sort of +capacity." Her face kindled as she spoke; her genius (for she had a +genius, that of directorship) was stirring within her. + +"You certainly have one part of the capacity, and that is the +despotism," remarked Dolly, laughing. "The other members of your Board +of Managers for the Colored Home, for instance--Mrs. Baxter, Miss Wynne, +Miss Kent--they haven't a voice in even the smallest matter, poor souls! +You rule them with a rod of iron--all for their good, no doubt." + +"As it is," continued the younger Mrs. Franklin, combating not Dolly's +sarcasms (to which she had paid no attention), but her own sincere +longings--"as it is, I cannot build a hospital at present, though I +don't give up hope for the future. But I can at least give my prayers to +all, and that I do; I never ring a door-bell without offering an inward +petition that something I may say will help those whom I shall see when +I go in." + +"Now that's generous," commented Dolly. "But don't be too unselfish, +Genevieve; think of yourself occasionally; why not pray that something +_they_ may say will be a help to _you_?" + +After the arrival of his party at the Warm Springs, Chase devoted a +half-hour to a brief but exhaustive examination of the site, the pool, +and the buildings. "When we have made a Tyrol of Buncombe, we'll annex +this place as a sort of Baden-Baden," he said. "Thirty-five miles from +Asheville--that will just do. Ever tried the baths, commodore?" + +"You must apply to somebody who has rheumatism, Mr. Chase," answered +Etheridge, loftily. + +"The pool has an abundant supply at a temperature of 104 Fahrenheit," +Chase went on, with the gleam of a smile showing itself in his eyes for +a moment (for the commodore's air of youth always amused him; it was so +determined). "Baden-Baden was one of the prettiest little places I saw +over there, on the other side of the big pond. They've taken lots of +pains to lay out a promenade along a stream, and the stream is about as +big as one from a garden-hose! But here there could be a walk worth +something--along this French Broad." + +They were strolling near the river in the red light of the sunset. +"Their forest that they talk about, their Black Forest, is all guarded +and patrolled," Chase continued; "every tree counted! I don't call that +a forest at all. Now _these_ woods are perfectly wild. Why--they're as +wild as Noah!" + +"Don't you mean old as Noah?" inquired Ruth, laughing. + +"Certainly not," commented Jared. "Noah was extremely wild. And not in +his youth only; in his age as well." + +"The first thing, however, would be the roads," Chase went on. "I never +thought I should have to take a back seat about the United States of +America! But I returned from Europe singing small, I can tell you, about +our roads. Talk about the difficulty of making 'em? Go and look at +Switzerland!" + +"By all means," said Ruth, promptly. "Only tell us how, Mr. Chase. We'll +go at once." She was walking with her brother, her hat dangling by its +elastic cord from her arm. + +Chase came out of his plans. "So you want to see Switzerland, do you?" +he said, in an indulgent tone. + +Ruth lifted her hat, and made with it a gesture which took in the entire +horizon. "I wish to see everything in the world!" Jared took her hat +away from her, put it on her head and secured it, or tried to secure it. +"Will you take me, Jared? I mean some day?" she said, as he bungled with +the cord, endeavoring to get it over her hair. "That's not the way." She +unbuttoned the loop and adjusted it. It was a straw hat (thanks to +Genevieve, a new one), which shaded her face, but left free, behind, the +thick braids which covered her small head from crown to throat. + +"Once, pussy, I might have answered yes. But now I'm not so sure," +replied Jared, rather gloomily. + +"I don't want to go, I wasn't in earnest; I only want to stay where you +are," exclaimed his young sister, her mood changing. "But if only you +had never left the navy! If only you were not tied down in that horrid, +horrid Raleigh!" + +"Is Raleigh so very horrid?" inquired Chase. + +"Any place is horrid that keeps Jared shut up in a warehouse all day," +announced Ruth, indignantly. + +Mrs. Franklin, who was behind with Etheridge, came forward, took Ruth's +arm, and led her back. + +"She is sorry that you left the service?" Chase inquired of the brother. + +Ruth overheard this question. "Jared was always well when he was in the +navy," she called out. "No, His Grand, I _will_ say it: he was always +well, and he was happy too; Dolly has told me so. Now he is never well; +he is growing so thin that I can't bear to see it. And as for +happiness--he is _miserable_!" Her voice broke; she stood still, her +breast heaving. + +Jared strolled on, his hands in the pockets of his flannel coat. "It's +nothing," he said to Chase, who was looking back; "she'll get over it in +a moment. She says whatever comes into her head; we have spoiled her, I +suppose. She was so much younger, you see; the last of my mother's six +children. And the three who came before her had died in infancy, so +there was a great to-do when this one lived." + +Chase glanced back a second time. Ruth, Mrs. Franklin, and Etheridge had +turned, and were going towards the hotel. "She appears to wish that you +had remained in the navy; isn't that rather odd?" he inquired, the idea +in his mind being simply the facilities that existed for seeing this +idolized brother, now that Raleigh was his home instead of the ocean. + +"Odd?" repeated Jared. And his tone had such a strange vibration that +his companion turned and looked at him. + +They continued their walk for an hour longer. When they came back, they +found the commodore seated on the veranda of the cottage which had been +arranged for their use by Chase's courier. Ruth and Mrs. Franklin were +his companions, and Dolly was also there, resting on a sofa which had +been rolled out from the room behind. Chase and Jared lighted cigars; +Etheridge took out a cigarette. + +"Now if we only had Maud Muriel with her long clay pipe!" said Ruth. +There was no trace of trouble left in her voice; she had drawn her chair +close to her brother's, and seated herself contentedly. + +"It's to the pipe you owe the very clever likeness she has made of your +scamp of a dog," remarked Etheridge. "The smoking relaxed her a little, +without her knowing it, and so she didn't confine herself, as she +usually does, to the purely commonplace side." + +"Petie! A _commonplace_ side!" protested Ruth. + +"She now wishes _me_ to sit to her," said Mrs. Franklin; "for my +wrinkles have grown so deep lately that she is sure she can make +something satisfactorily hideous. Oh, I don't mind the wrinkles, Mr. +Chase!" (for Chase had begun to say, "Not at all, ma'am"). "I received +my quietus long ago. When I was not quite forty, there was some question +about a particular dress-maker whom I wished to see at McCreery's. 'Was +she an _old_ woman?' inquired an assistant. 'We have only one _old_ +fitter.' It proved to be the person I meant. She was of my own age. The +same year I asked a young friend about a party which he had attended the +night before. 'Dreadfully dull,' he answered. 'Nobody there but old +frumps.' And the old frumps (as I happened to know) were simply twenty +or thirty of my contemporaries." + +"Yes, it's hard; I have often thought so!" said Etheridge, with +conviction. "Men, you see, have no age. But nothing saves a woman." + +"Yes, one thing--namely, to look like a sheep," replied Mrs. Franklin. +"If a woman wishes her face to remain young, she must cultivate calm, +and even stolidity; she must banish changing expressions; she must give +her facial muscles many hours, daily, of absolute repose. Most of my +wrinkles have been caused by my wretched habit of contorting my poor +thin slave of a face, partly of course to show my intelligence and +appreciation, but really, also, in a large measure from sympathy. I have +smiled unflinchingly at other people's jokes, looked sad for their +griefs, angry for their injuries; I have raised my eyebrows to my hair +over their surprises, and knitted my forehead into knots over their +mysteries; in short, I have never ceased to grimace. However, even to +the sheep-women there comes the fatal moment when their cheeks begin to +look like those of an old baby," she concluded, laughing. + +Dolly, for once untalkative, had not paid attention to this +conversation; the moon had risen, and she had been watching its radiance +descend slowly and make a silver path across the river. It was so +beautiful! And (a rare occurrence with Dolly) it led her to think of +herself. "How I should have enjoyed, enjoyed, _enjoyed_ everything if I +had only been well!" Even the tenderly loving mother could not have +comprehended fully her daughter's heart at that moment. For Mrs. +Franklin had had her part, such as it was, on the stage of human +existence, and had played it. But Dolly's regret was for a life unlived. +"How enchantingly lovely!" she murmured aloud, looking at the moonlit +water. + +"Yes," said Etheridge; "and its greatest beauty is that it's primeval. +Larue, I suppose, would call it primevalish!" + +"I had thought of asking the senator to come along with us," observed +Chase. + +"In a sedan-chair?" inquired Etheridge. "I don't think you know what a +petrified squam-doodle he is!" + +"No, I can't say I do. I only know he's a senator, and we want some +senators. To boom our Tyrol, you know. Generals, too. Cottages might be +put up at pleasant points near Asheville--on Beaucatcher, for +instance--and presented to half a dozen of the best-known Southern +generals? What do you say to that?" + +"Generals as much as you like; but when you and the Willoughbys spread +your nets for senators, do select better specimens than Achilles Larue! +He is only in the place temporarily at best; he'll be kicked out soon. +He succeeded the celebrated old senator who had represented this state +for years, and was as well known here, he and his trunk, as the +mountains themselves. When he resigned, there happened to be no one of +the right sort ready in the political field. Larue was here, he was a +college-bred man, and he had some reputation as an author (he has +written a dreadfully dull book, _The Blue Ridge in the Glacial Period_). +He had a little money, too, and that was in his favor. So they put him +in; and now they wish they hadn't! He has no magnetism, no go; nothing +but his tiresome drawing-copy profile and his good clothes. You say you +don't know what sort of a person he is? He is a decrier, sir; nothing +ever fully pleases him. His opinions on all subjects are so clipped to +the bone, so closely shaved and denuded, that they are like the plucked +chickens, blue and skinny, that one sees for sale at a stall. Achilles +Larue never smokes. On the hottest day Achilles Larue remains clammily +cold. He has no appreciation of a good dinner; he lives on salt mackerel +and digestive crackers. Finally, to sum him up, he is a man, sir, who +can neither ride nor drive--a man who knows nothing whatever about a +horse! What do you suppose he asked me, when I was looking at a +Blue-Grass pacer last year? 'Does he possess endurance?' Yes--actually +those words of a _horse_! 'Does he possess endurance?'" repeated +Etheridge, pursing up his lips and pronouncing the syllables in a +mincing tone. + +"You say he has nothing but his drawing-copy profile and his good +clothes," remarked Dolly. "But he has something more, commodore: the +devotion of Mrs. Kip and Miss Billy Breeze." + +Etheridge looked discomfited. + +"_Two_ ladies?" said Chase. "Why, he's in luck! Bachelor, I suppose?" + +"He is a widower," answered Mrs. Franklin. "His wife happened to have +been a fool. He now believes that all women are idiots." + +"He is a man who has never written, and who never will write, a book +that stands on its own feet, whether good or bad; but only books _about_ +books," grumbled Etheridge. "He has merely the commentator's mind. His +views on the Glacial Period are all borrowed. He can't be original even +about an iceberg!" + +"The ladies I have mentioned think that his originality is his strongest +point," objected Dolly. "He produces great effects by describing some +one in this way, for instance: 'He had small eyes and a grin. He was +remarkably handsome.' This leaves them open-mouthed. But Miss Billy +herself, as she stands, is his greatest effect; she was never outlined +in very vivid hues, and now she has so effaced herself, rubbed herself +out, as it were (from fear lest he should call her 'sensational'), that +she is like a skeleton leaf. She has the greatest desire to be +'delicate,' extremely delicate, in everything that she does; and she +tries to sing, therefore, with so much expression that it's all +expression and very little singing! 'Coarse!'--that is to her the most +terrible word in the whole vocabulary. I asked her once whether her +horned tryceratops, with his seventy-five feet of length, might not have +been a little coarse in his manners." + +"I declare I'll never go to see the woman again; she _is_ such a goose!" +exclaimed Etheridge, angrily. + +Jared laughed. And then his mother laughed also, happy to see him +amused. But at the same time she was thinking: "You may not go to see +Billy. But, dear me! you will come to see _us_ forever and forever!" And +she had a weary vision of Etheridge, entering with his "hum-ha," and his +air of youth, five or six times a week as long as she lived. + +"Commodore," said Dolly, "you may not go to see Miss Breeze. But I am +sure you will come to see _us_, with your cheerful hum-ha, and your +youthful face, as long as we live." + +Mrs. Franklin passed her hand over her forehead. "There it is again!" +she thought. For, strangely often, Dolly would give voice to the very +ideas that were passing through her mother's mind at the moment. At +L'Hommedieu the two would fall into silence sometimes, and remain +silent for a half-hour, one with her embroidery, the other with her +knitting. And then when Dolly spoke at last, it would be of the exact +subject which was in her mother's mind. Mrs. Franklin no longer +exclaimed: "How could you know I was thinking of that!" It happened too +often. She herself never divined Dolly's thoughts. It was Dolly who +divined hers, most of the time unconsciously. + +Meanwhile Etheridge had replied, in a reassuring voice: "Well, Dolly, +I'll do my best; you may count upon _that_." And then Ruth, leaning her +head against her brother's arm so that her face was hidden, laughed +silently. + +From the Warm Springs they drove over the Great Smoky Mountains into +Tennessee. Then returning, making no haste, they climbed slowly up again +among the peaks. At the top of the pass they paused to gaze at the +far-stretching view--Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, +South Carolina, and Georgia; on the west, the Cumberland ranges sloping +towards Chattanooga; in the east, the crowded summits of the Blue Ridge, +their hue an unchanging azure; the Black Mountains with Mitchell, the +Cat-tail Peak, the Balsams, the Hairy Bear, the Big Craggy, Great +Pisgah, the Grandfather, and many more. The brilliant sunshine and the +crystalline atmosphere revealed every detail--the golden and red tints +of the gigantic bald cliffs near them, the foliage of every tree; the +farm-houses like white dots thousands of feet below. Up here at the top +of the pass there were no clearings visible; for long miles in every +direction the forest held unbroken sway, filling the gorges like a leafy +ocean, and sweeping up to the surrounding summits in the darker tints of +the black balsams. The air was filled with delicate wild odors, a +fragrance which is like no other--the breath of a virgin forest. + +"And you want to put a railroad here?" broke out Dolly, suddenly. She +addressed Horace Chase, who had drawn up his sorrels beside the +carriage. + +"Oh no, Miss Dolly; it can't get up so high, you know," he answered, not +comprehending her dislike. "It will have to go through down below; +tunnels." + +"The principal objection I have to your railroad, Chase, is that it will +bring railroad good-byes to this uncorrupted neighborhood," said Jared. +"For there will be, of course, a station. And people will have to go +there to see their friends off. The train will always be late in +starting; then the heretofore sincere Ashevillians will be driven to all +the usual exaggerations and falsities to fill the eternal time; they +will have to repeat the same things over and over, stand first on one +leg and then on the other, and smile until they are absolute clowns. +Meanwhile their departing friends will be obliged to lean out of the +car-windows in return, and repeat inanities and grin, until they too are +perfectly haggard." Jared was now seated beside Etheridge; he had given +up his place in the cart to Ruth for an hour or two. Several times Mrs. +Franklin herself had tried the cart. She was very happy, for Jared had +undoubtedly gained strength; there was a faint color in his cheeks, and +his face looked less worn, his eyes a little less dreary. + +"How I should like to see _all_ the mountains!" exclaimed Ruth, +suddenly, looking at the crowded circle of peaks. + +"Well--I suppose there are some sort of roads?" Chase answered. + +"Put the two pairs together and make a four-in-hand," suggested +Etheridge, eagerly. "Then we might drive down Transylvania way. When I +wasn't more than eighteen I often drove a four-in-hand over +the--the--the range up there where I was born," he concluded, with fresh +inward disgust over the forgotten name. + +"The Green Mountains," said Mrs. Franklin. + +"Not at all. The Catskills," Etheridge answered, curtly. His birthplace +was Rutland, Vermont. But on principle he never acknowledged a forgotten +title. + +"This is the country of the moonshiners, isn't it?" asked Chase, his +keen eyes glancing down a wild gorge. + +"The young lady beside you can tell about that," Etheridge answered. + +Chase turned to Ruth, surprised. The color was leaving her face. "Yes, I +_did_ see; I saw a man shot!" she said, her dark-fringed blue eyes +lifted to his with an awe-struck expression. "It was at Crumb's, the +house where we stayed the first night, you know. I was standing at the +door. A man came running along the road, trying to reach the house. +Behind him, not more than ten feet distant, came another man, also +running. He held a pistol at arm's-length. He fired twice. After the +first shot, the man in front still ran. After the second, he staggered +along for a step or two, and then fell. And the other man disappeared." +These short sentences came out in whispered tones; when she finished, +her face was blanched. + +"You ought not to have seen it. You ought not to have told me," said +Chase, giving an indignant glance towards the carriage; he thought they +should have prevented the narration. + +"Oh, don't be disturbed, Mr. Chase," said Dolly, looking at him from her +cushions with an amused smile. "The balls were extracted, and the man is +now in excellent health. Ruth has a way of turning perfectly white and +then enormously red on all occasions. She was much whiter last week when +it was supposed that Petie Trone, Esq., had inflammation of the lungs." + +And Ruth herself was already laughing again, and the red had returned. + +"It was a revenue detective," explained Mrs. Franklin; "I mean the man +who was shot. The mountaineers have always made whiskey, and they think +that they have a right to make it; they look upon the detectives as +spies." + +But Chase had no sympathy for moonshiners; he was on the side of law and +order. "The government should send up troops," he said. "What else are +they for?" + +"It is not the business of the army to hunt out illicit stills," replied +Jared Franklin, all the ex-officer in his haughty tone. + +"Well, maybe not; you see I'm only a civilian myself," remarked Chase, +in a pacific voice. "Shall we go on?" + +They started down the eastern slope. When the cart was at some distance +in front, Ruth said: "Oh, Mr. Chase, thank you for answering so +good-naturedly. My brother has in reality a sweet temper. But lately he +has been so out of sorts, so unhappy." + +"Yes, I am beginning to understand about that, Miss Ruth; I didn't at +first. It's a great pity. Perhaps something can be done?" + +"No; he can't get back into the navy now," said Ruth, sadly. + +"But a change of some kind might be arranged," answered Chase, touching +the off horse. + +At the base of the mountains they followed the river road again, a rocky +track, sometimes almost in the water, under towering cliffs that rose +steeply, their summits leaning forward a little as though they would +soon topple over. At many points it was a veritable cañon, and the swift +current of the stream foamed so whitely over the scattered rocks of its +bed that it was like the rapids of Niagara. Here and there were bold +islands; the forest on both sides was splendid with the rich tints of +the _Rhododendron maximum_ in full bloom; not patches or single bushes, +but high thickets, a solid wall of blazing color. + +Their stopping-place for the last evening was the farm-house called +Crumb's, where they had also spent the first night of their journey on +their way westward. Crumb's was one of the old farms; the grandfather of +David Crumb had tilled the same acres. It was a pleasant place near the +river, the house comparatively large and comfortable. The Crumbs were +well-to-do in the limited mountain sense of the term, though they had +probably never had a hundred dollars in cash in their lives. Mrs. Crumb, +a lank woman with stooping shoulders and a soft, flat voice, received +them without excitement. Nothing that life had to offer, for good or for +ill, could ever bring excitement again to Portia Crumb. Her four sons +had been killed in battle in Virginia, one after the other, and the +mother lived on patiently. David Crumb was more rebellious against what +he called their "bad luck." Once a week, and sometimes twice, he went to +Asheville, making the journey a pretext for forgetting troubles +according to the ancient way. He was at Asheville now, his wife +explained, "with a load of wood." She did not add that he would probably +return with a load of another sort--namely, a mixture of whiskey and +repentance. The two never spoke of their lost boys; when they talked +together it was always about "the craps." + +Porshy, as her friends called her, having been warned by Chase's courier +that her former guests were returning, had set her supper-table with +care. People stopped at Crumb's perforce; for, save at Warm Springs, +there were no inns in the French Broad Valley. Ruth had been there +often. For the girl, who was a fearless horsewoman, was extravagantly +fond of riding; at one time or another she had ridden almost every horse +in Asheville, including old Daniel himself. Of late years the Crumbs +would have been glad to be relieved of all visitors. But the mountain +farmers of the South are invariably hospitable--hospitable even with +their last slice of corn-bread, their last cup of coffee. Porshy, +therefore, had brought out her best table-cloth (homespun, like her +sheets), her six thin silver teaspoons, her three china teacups and +saucers. "Yes, rale chiny, you bet," she had said, in her gentle, +lifeless voice, when Mrs. Franklin, who knew the tragedy of the house, +was benevolently admiring the painstaking effort. The inevitable hot +biscuits were waiting in a flat pan, together with fried bacon and +potatoes and coffee. Chase's supplies of potted meats, hot-house fruit, +and excellent champagne made the meal an extraordinary combination. The +table was set in the kitchen, which was also the living-room. One end of +the large, low-browed apartment was blocked by the loom, for Portia had +been accustomed to spin, weave, dye, and fashion all the garments worn +by herself and her family. + +As they left the table, the sinking sun sent his horizontal beams +through the open windows in a flood of golden light. "Let us go up to +the terrace," said Ruth. + +The terrace was a plateau on the mountain-side at some distance above; a +winding path led thither through the thick forest. "It is too far," said +Mrs. Franklin. "It is at least a mile from here, and a steep climb all +the way; and, besides, it will soon be dark." + +"Oh, but I want to go immensely, His Grand. Mr. Chase liked it so much +when we were up there on our way out that he says it shall be named +after me. And perhaps they will put up a cottage." + +"Yes, Ruth's Terrace, ma'am. That is the name I propose," said Chase. + +"There will be light enough to go up; and then we can wait there until +the moon rises," continued Ruth. "The moon is full to-night, and the +view will be lovely. You will go, Jared, won't you? Oh, please!" + +She had her way, as usual. Chase and Jared, lighting cigars, prepared to +accompany her. + +"You'll stay here, I suppose, commodore?" said Chase. + +"Stay here! By no means. There is nothing I like better than an evening +stroll," answered Etheridge, heroically. And, lighting a cigarette, he +walked on in advance, swinging his cane with an air of meditative +enjoyment. + +Dolly and Mrs. Franklin, meanwhile, sat beside the small fire which +Portia had made on the broad hearth of her "best room." The fire, of +aromatic "fat-pine" splinters only, without large sticks, had been +kindled more on account of the light than from any need of its warmth; +for the evening, though cool, was not cold. The best room, however, was +large, and the great forest and cliffs outside, and the wild river, made +the little blaze seem cheerful. Portia had been proud of this apartment +in the old days before the war. In one corner there was a bed covered +with a brilliant patch-work quilt; on the mantel-piece there was an old +accordion, and a vase for flowers whose design was a hand holding a +cornucopia; the floor was covered by a rag carpet; and tacked on the +walls in a long row were colored fashion plates from _Godey's Lady's +Book_ for 1858. At ten o'clock Ruth and the commodore came in. But long +after midnight, when the others were asleep, Chase and Jared Franklin +still strolled to and fro along the river road in the moonlight, +talking. The next day they all returned to Asheville. + +At the end of the week, when Jared went back to his business, Chase +accompanied him. "I thought I might as well take a look at that horrid +Raleigh," he said to Ruth, with solemn humor. "You see, I have been +laboring under the impression that it was a very pretty place--a +mistake which evidently wants to be cleared up." + +Ten days later the mud-bespattered Blue Ridge stage came slowly into +Asheville at its accustomed hour. The mail-bags were thrown out, and +then the postmaster, in his shirt-sleeves, with his spectacles on his +nose and his straw hat tilted back on his head, began the distribution +of their contents, assisted (through the open windows) by the usual +group of loungers. This friendly audience had its elbows on the sill. It +made accompanying comments as follows: "Hurry up, you veteran of the +Mexican war!" "That letter ain't for Johnny Monroe. It's for Jem Morse; +I can see the direction from here. Where's your eyes?" "_Six_ for +General Cyarter? Lucky reb, _he_ is!" + +Twenty minutes later Genevieve Franklin entered the parlor of +L'Hommedieu, a flush of deep rose-color in each cheek, her eyes +lustrous. "Mamma, a letter from Jay! It is too good--I cannot tell +you--" Her words came out pantingly, for she had been running; she sat +down with her hand over her breast as if to help herself breathe. + +"From Jared? Oh, where are my glasses?" said Mrs. Franklin, searching +vainly in her pocket and then on the table. "Here, Dolly. Quick! Read +it!" + +And then Dolly, also excited, read Jared's letter aloud. + +Ruth came in in time to hear this sentence: "I am to have charge of +their Charleston office (the office of the Columbian Line), at a salary +of three thousand dollars a year." + +"Who? What? Not Jared? And at _Charleston_?" cried the girl, clapping +her hands. "Oh, how splendid! For it's the water, you know; the +salt-water at last. With the ships coming and going, and the ocean, it +won't be so awfully inland to him, poor fellow, as Raleigh and Atlanta." + +"And the large salary," said Genevieve, still breathless. "_That's_ +Horrie! I have felt sure, from the first, that he would do something for +us. Such an old friend of mine. Dear, dear Horrie!" + +A week later Chase returned. "Yes, he'll get off to Charleston, ma'am, +in a few days," he said to Mrs. Franklin. "When he is settled there, you +must pay him a visit. I guess you'll end by going there to live." + +"Oh, we can't; we have this house, and no house there. If I could only +sell that place in Florida! However, we can stop in Charleston when we +go to Florida this winter. That is, if we go," added the mother, +remembering her load of debts. But she soon forgot it again; she forgot +everything save her joy in the brighter life for her son. "How can I +thank you?" she said to Chase, gratefully. + +"Oh, it's no favor, ma'am. We have always needed a first-class man at +Charleston, and we've never had it; we think ourselves very lucky in +being able to secure Mr. Franklin." + +As he went back to the Old North with Etheridge, whom he had met at +L'Hommedieu (as Mrs. Franklin would have said, "of course!"), Chase +added some further particulars. "You never saw such a mess as he'd made +of it, commodore. He told me--we had a good deal of talk when we took +that French Broad drive--that his business wasn't what he had hoped it +would be when he went into it; that he was afraid it was running down. +Running down? It was at a standstill; six months more, and he would have +been utterly swamped. The truth is, he didn't know how to manage it. How +should he? What does a navy man know about leather? He saw that it was +all wrong, yet he didn't know how to help it; that took the heart out of +him, you see. There was no use in going on with it a day longer; and so +I told him, as soon as I had looked into the thing a little. He has, +therefore, made an arrangement--sold out. And now he is going to take a +place at Charleston--our Columbian Line." + +"To the tune of three thousand dollars a year, I understand?" + +"He'll be worth it to us. A navy officer as agent will be a feather in +our caps. It's a pity he couldn't take command of one of our +steamers--with his hankering for the sea. Our steamer officers wear +uniforms, you know?" + +"Take care that he doesn't knock you down," said Etheridge, dryly. + +"Oh, I haven't suggested it. I see he's cranky," Chase answered. + +When Jared Franklin reached Charleston, he went to the office of the +Columbian Company. It faced a wharf or dock, and from its windows he +could see the broad harbor, the most beautiful port of the South +Atlantic coast. He looked at Fort Sumter, then off towards the low white +beaches of Morris Island; he knew the region well; his ship had lain +outside during the war. Deliciously sweet to him was the salt tang of +the sea; already, miles inland, he had perceived it, and had put his +head out of the car window; the salt marshes had been to him like a +tonic, as the train rushed past. The ocean out there in the east, too, +that was rather better than a clattering street! Words could never +express how he loathed the remembrance of the hides and the leather. A +steamer of the Columbian Line came in. He went on board, contemptuous of +everything, of course, but enjoying that especial species of contempt. +Ascending to the upper deck, he glanced at the rigging and smoke-stacks. +They were not what he approved of; but, oh! the solace of abusing any +sort of rigging outlined against the sky! He went down and looked at the +engines; he spoke to the engineer; he prowled all over the ship, from +stem to stern, his feet enjoying the sensation of something underneath +them that floated. That evening, seated on a bench at the Battery, with +his arms on the railing, he looked out to sea. His beloved old life came +back to him; all his cruises--the Mediterranean ports, Villefranche and +the Bay of Naples; the harbors of China, Rio Janeiro, Alexandria; +tropical islands; the color of the Pacific--while the wash of the water +below sounded in his ears. At last, long after midnight, he rose; he +came back to reality again. "Well, even this is a great windfall. And I +must certainly do the best I can for that long-legged fellow"--so he +said to himself as he went up Meeting Street towards his hotel. He liked +Chase after a fashion; he appreciated his friendliness and his genius +for business. But this was the way he thought of him--"that long-legged +fellow." Chase's fortune made no impression upon him. At heart he had +the sailor's chronic indifference to money-making. But at heart he had +also something else--Genevieve; Genevieve and her principles and plans, +Genevieve and her rules. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +One afternoon early in September, Miss Billy Breeze, her cheeks pink, +her gentle eyes excited, entered the principal store of Asheville, the +establishment of Messrs. Pinkham & Bebb. "Kid gloves, if you please, Mr. +Bebb. Delicate shades. No. 6." The box of gloves having been produced, +Miss Billy selected quickly twelve pairs. "I will take these. And please +add twelve pairs of white." + +Mr. Bebb was astounded, the order seemed to him reckless. Everybody in +Asheville knew that Miss Billy's income was six hundred dollars a year. +He made up the parcel slowly, in order to give her time to change her +mind. But Miss Billy paid for the twenty-four pairs without a quiver, +and, with the same excited look, took the package and went out. She +walked down the main street to its last houses; she came back on the +other side. Turning to the right, she traversed all the cross-roads in +that direction. When this was done, she re-entered the main street +again, and passed through its entire length a second time. It was +Saturday, the day when the country people came to town. Ten mountaineers +in a row were sitting on their heels in front of the post-office. +Mountain women on horseback, wearing deep sun-bonnets, rode up and down +the street, bartering. Wagons passed along, loaded with peaches heaped +together as though they were potatoes. Miss Billy was now traversing all +the cross-roads to the left. When this was accomplished she came back to +the main street, and began over again. It took about an hour to make the +entire circuit. At half-past five, on her fourth round, still walking +quickly and always with an air of being bound to some especial point, +she met Achilles Larue. "Oh--really--is this _you_, Mr. Larue? Such a +_surprise_ to see you! Lovely day, isn't it? I've been buying gloves." +She opened the package and turned over the gloves hastily. "Light +shades, you see. I--I thought I'd better." + +Larue, slightly lifting his hat, was about to pass on. + +But Miss Billy detained him. "Of course you are interested in the news, +Mr. Larue? Weren't you surprised? I was. I am afraid she is a little too +young for him. I think it is rather better when they are of _about_ the +same age--don't you?" She had no idea that she had been walking, and at +twice her usual speed, for more than four hours. But her slender body +knew; it trembled from fatigue. + +Larue made another move, as if about to continue his course. + +"But do tell me--weren't you surprised?" Billy repeated, hastily. (For, +oh! he _must_ not go so soon.) + +"I don't think I am ever surprised, Miss Breeze." + +Here Anthony Etheridge came by, and stopped. He looked sternly at Miss +Billy. "But what do you _think_ of it, Mr. Larue?" Billy was inquiring. + +"I have not thought of it," Larue responded, coldly. + +"Are you selling gloves?" inquired Etheridge. For the paper having +fallen to the ground, the two dozen pairs were visible, lying in +confusion over Billy's arm. + +"To Mr. Larue?" (Giggle.) "Oh, I couldn't." (Giggle.) "They're only No. +6." For poor Billy had one humble little pride--her pretty hand. + +There was a sound of horses' feet, and Ruth Franklin rode round the +corner, on Kentucky Belle, giving them a gay nod as she passed. Horace +Chase and Malachi Hill were with her, both mounted on beautiful +horses--one black, one chestnut; and at some distance behind followed +Chase's groom. "How _happy_ she looks!" murmured Miss Billy, with an +involuntary sigh. + +"Yes. She has obtained what she likes," commented Larue. "Hers is a +frivolous nature; she requires gayety, change, luxury, and now she will +have them. Her family are very wise to consent. For they have, I +suspect, but little money. Her good looks will soon disappear; at thirty +she will be plain." And this time, decidedly, he walked away. + +Miss Billy, her eyes dimmed by unshed tears, looked after him. "Such +a--such a _worldly_ view of marriage!" she managed to articulate. + +"What can you expect from a fish?" answered Etheridge, secretly glad of +his opportunity. "Achilles Larue is as cold-blooded as a mackerel, and +always was. I don't say he will never marry again; but if he does, the +woman he selects will have to go down on her knees and stay there" (Miss +Billy's eyes looked hopeful); "and bring him, also, a good big sum of +money in her hand." Here, noticing that one of the pairs of gloves had +slipped down so far that it was held by the tips of its fingers only, he +turned away with a sudden "Good-afternoon." For he had had rheumatism +all night in the small of his back; he could walk, but he could not +stoop. + +Miss Billy went home much depressed. The night before, after her usual +devotions and an hour's perusal of _The Blue Ridge in the Glacial +Period_ (she read the volume through regularly once a month), she had +attempted a thought-transferrence. She had, indeed, made many such +experiments since Maud Muriel's explanation of the process. But last +night she had for the first time succeeded in keeping her mind strictly +to the subject; for nearly ten minutes, with her face screwed up by the +intensity of the effort, she had willed continuously, "Like me, +Achilles, like me!" (She was too modest even to _think_ "love" instead +of "like.") "You must! You _shall_!" And now, when at last she had +succeeded in meeting him, this was the result! She put away the gloves +mechanically: she had bought them not from any need, but simply because +she had felt the wish to go out and _do_ something when the exciting +news of Ruth Franklin's engagement had reached her at noon. Stirred as +she already was by her own private experiment of the previous night, the +thought in her heart was: "Well, it isn't extravagance, for light gloves +are always useful. And then in case of--of anything happening to _me_, +they'd be all ready." + +When Anthony Etheridge left her, he went to L'Hommedieu, where he found +Dolly in the parlor with Petie Trone, Esq. Trone's basket had been +established by Ruth under the pedestal which now held his own likeness. +For Chase had kept his word; Maud Muriel's clever work had been +reproduced in bronze. The squirrel also was present; he was climbing up +the window-curtain. "So _you_ have to see to the pets, do you?" remarked +the visitor as he seated himself. He had known of the engagement for +several days; he had already made what he called "the proper speeches" +to Mrs. Franklin and Ruth, and to Chase himself. "I have just seen +her--on Kentucky Belle," he went on. "Well, he will give her everything, +that's one certainty. On the whole, she's a lucky girl." + +"It is Mr. Chase who is lucky," answered Dolly, stiffly. She was +finishing off the toe of a stocking, and did not look up. "I consider +Mr. Chase a miraculously fortunate man." + +"Miraculously? How do you mean? Because she is young? The good-fortune, +as regards that, is for the wife, not the husband; for she will always +be so much his junior that he will have to consider her--he will never +dare to neglect her. Well, Dolly, all Asheville has heard the news this +morning; the town is ringing with it. And it is such an amiable +community that it has immediately given its benediction in the most +optimistic way. Of course, though, there are some who maintain that she +is marrying him for his money." + +Dolly knitted more rapidly. + +"And so she is," Etheridge added. "Though not in their sense, for she +has never reflected, never thought about it, never made a plan. All the +same, it is his wealth, you know, which has fascinated her--his wealth +and his liberality. She has never seen anything like it. No one she +knows has ever done such things--flowers, jewels, journeys, her brother +lifted out of his troubles as if by magic, a future sparkling and +splendid opening before her; no wonder she is dazzled. In addition, she +herself has an ingrained love of ease--" + +Dolly dropped her stocking. "Do you think I intend to sit here and +listen to you?" she demanded, with flashing eyes. + +"Wait, wait," answered Etheridge, putting out his hand as if to explain; +"you don't see what I am driving at, Dolly. As Mrs. Chase, your sister +will have everything she wishes for; all her tastes and fancies +gratified to the full; and that is no small affair! Chase will be fond +of her; in addition, he will be excessively indulgent to her in every +way. With her nature and disposition, her training, too (for you have +spoiled her, all of you), it is really an ideal marriage for the girl, +and that is what I am trying to tell you. You might search the world +over, and you could not find a better one." + +"I don't like it; I never shall like it," answered Dolly, implacably. +"And mother in her heart agrees with me, though she has, somehow, a +higher idea of the man than I have. As for Ruth--Ruth is simply swept +away--" + +"Exactly; swept into her proper sphere," interrupted Etheridge. "Don't +interfere with the process." + +"She doesn't understand--" Dolly began. + +"She understands immensely well what she likes! Give Ruth indulgence, +amusement, pleasure, and she will be kind-hearted, amiable, generous; in +short, good and happy. On the other hand, there might be another story. +Come, I am going to be brutal; I don't know how much money your mother +has; but I suspect very little, with the possibility, perhaps, of less. +And I can't imagine, Dolly, any one more unhappy than your sister would +be, ten years hence, say, if shut up here in Asheville, poor, her good +looks gone, to face a life of dull sameness forever. I think it would +kill her! She is not at all the girl to accept monotony with resignation +or heroism; to settle down to mending and reading, book-clubs and +whist-clubs, puddings and embroidery, gossip and good works." + +Here the house-door opened; Mrs. Franklin and Genevieve came in +together, and entered the parlor. When Dolly heard Genevieve's step, she +rose. Obliged to walk slowly, she could not slip out; but she made a +progress which was almost stately, as, without speaking to her +sister-in-law, or looking at her, she left the room. + +Genevieve, however, required no notice from Dolly. Her face was radiant +with satisfaction. She shook hands with Etheridge warmly. "I have not +seen you since it happened, commodore. I know you are with us in our +pleasure? I know you congratulate us?" + +Etheridge had always thought the younger Mrs. Franklin a beautiful +woman; she reminded him of the Madonna del Granduca at Florence. Now she +held his hand so long, and looked at him with such cordial friendliness, +that he came out with the gallant exclamation, "Chase is the one I +congratulate, by Jove!--on getting such a sister-in-law!" + +"Think of all Ruth will now be able to do--all the good! I seem to see +even my hospital," added Genevieve, gayly. + +"Hum--yes," added Etheridge. Walking away a step or two, he put his +hands in the pockets of his trousers and looked towards his legs +reflectively for a moment, as though surveying the pattern of the +garments--a convenient gesture to which a (slender) man can resort when +he wishes to cover a silence. + +"For dear mamma, too, it is so delightful," continued Genevieve. She had +seated herself, and she now drew her mother-in-law down beside her. +"Ruth will never permit mamma to have another care." + +"Yes--I think I'll just run up and take off my bonnet," said Mrs. +Franklin, disengaging herself. And she left the room. + +Genevieve was not disturbed by this second departure; she was never +disturbed by any of the actions or the speeches of her husband's family. +She did her own duty regarding them regularly and steadily, month after +month; it was part of her rule of conduct. But what they did or said to +her in return was less important. "Ruth is a fortunate girl," she went +on, as she drew off her gloves with careful touches. "And she +appreciates it, commodore--I am glad to tell you that; I have been +talking to her. She is very happy. Horace is such an able and splendidly +successful man--a man whom every one must respect and admire most +warmly." + +"Yes, a clever speculator indeed!" commented Etheridge, ungratefully, +throwing over his drive with the bays. + +"Speculator? Oh no; it is all genuine business; I can assure you of +that," answered Genevieve, seriously. "And now perhaps you can help us a +little. Horace is anxious to have the marriage take place this fall. And +I am on his side. For why, indeed, should they wait? The usual delays +are prudential, or for the purpose of making preparations. But in this +case there are no such conditions; he already has a house in New York, +for he has always preferred home life. Ruth is willing to have it so. +But mamma decidedly, almost obstinately, opposes it." + +"Dolly too, I suppose?" + +"Oh, I never count Dolly; her temper is so uncertain. But it is very +natural that it should be so, and one always excuses her, poor dear! +Couldn't _you_ say a word or two to mamma, commodore? You have known her +so long; I am sure you have influence. But my chief dependence, of +course, is upon Jay. Mamma always yields to Jay." + +"Franklin, then, is pleased with the engagement?" said Etheridge, +walking about the room, taking up books, looking at them vaguely, and +laying them down again. + +"How could he _not_ be! As it happens, however, we have not yet heard +from him, for when our letters reached Charleston he had just started +for New York on one of their steamers; some business errand. But he was +to return by train, and I am expecting to hear from him to-morrow." + +There was a sound outside. "Here they come," said Etheridge, looking +out. + +Genevieve rose quickly to join him at the window. Chase and Malachi Hill +were dismounting. Then Chase lifted Ruth from Kentucky Belle. "Those are +two new horses, you know," explained Genevieve, in a low tone; "Horrie +sent for them. And he lets Mr. Hill ride one of them every day." + +"Yes; _horses_ enough!" grumbled Etheridge, discontentedly. + +Ruth, holding up the skirt of her habit, was coming towards the house, +talking to her two escorts. When she entered the parlor, Genevieve went +forward and put her arm round her. "I know you have enjoyed your ride, +dear?" + +"Of course I have. How do you do, commodore? I have just been planning +another excursion with Horace." (The name came out happily and +securely.) "To Cæsar's Head this time; you to drive the four-in-hand, +and I to ride Kentucky Belle." + +"Yes, that's right; arrange it with him," said Chase. "For I must go; I +have letters to write which can be postponed no longer. You have had +enough of me for to-day, I guess? May I come in to-morrow +afternoon--early?" + +"Come to lunch," said Ruth, giving him her hand. He held it out for a +moment, looking at her with kindly eyes. "You don't know how much I +enjoyed my ride," said the girl, heartily. "It is such a joy to be on +Kentucky Belle; she is so beautiful, and she moves so lightly! It was +the nicest ride I have ever had in my life!" + +This seemed to please Chase. He took leave of the others and went away. + +"I will wait here, if you will allow it, Miss Ruth, until he is out of +sight," said Malachi Hill. "For I may as well confess to you--I have +already told Miss Dolly--that I seem fairly to lose my head when I find +myself with Mr. Chase alone! I am so haunted by the idea of all he could +do for the Church in these mountains that in spite of the generous gifts +he has already made, I keep hankering after more--like a regular +_gorilla_ of covetousness!" + +"I shall have to see that he is never left alone with you," said Ruth, +laughing. + +"There! he has turned the corner. Now _I'll_ go the other way," +continued the missionary, his seriousness unbroken. + +"Mr. Hill is such a _good_ man," remarked Genevieve as she closed the +window. + +"Miss Billy thinks him full of the darkest evil," commented Ruth. "Why +do you shut the window?" + +"You were in a draught. After your ride you must be warm." + +"I'm a precious object, am I?" + +"Yes, dear, you certainly are," replied Genevieve, with all the +seriousness of Malachi Hill. + +"If that simpleton of a Billy could see the parson eat apples, she would +change her opinion about him," remarked Etheridge. "A man who can devour +with relish four, five, and even six, cold raw apples (and the Asheville +apples are sixteen inches round) late in the evening, cores, seeds, and +all, _must_ be virtuous--as virtuous as mutton!" He was looking at Ruth +as he spoke. The girl was leaning back in an easy-chair; Petie Trone, +Esq., had lost no time, he was already established in her lap, and the +squirrel had flown to her shoulder. She had taken off her gauntlets, and +as she lifted her hands to remove her hat, he saw a flash. "Trinkets?" +he said. + +"Oh--you haven't seen it?" She drew off a ring and tossed it across to +him. + +"Take care!" said Genevieve. + +But Etheridge had already caught it. It was a solitaire diamond ring, +the stone of splendid beauty, large, pure, brilliant. + +"It came yesterday," Genevieve explained. Then she folded her +hands--this with Genevieve was always a deliberate motion. "There will +be diamonds--yes. But there will be other things also; surely our dear +Ruth will remember the duties of wealth as well as its pleasures." + +Ruth paid no heed to this; put on her ring again, using the philopena +circlet as a guard; then she said, "Petie Trone, Esq., there will be +just time before dinner for your Saturday scrubbing." + +Half an hour later when she returned, the little dog trotting behind +her, his small body pinned up in a hot towel, Genevieve cried in alarm, +"Where are your rings?" + +"Oh," said Ruth, looking at her hands, "I didn't miss them; they must +have come off in the tub. Since then I have been in my room, dressing." + +"And Rinda may have thrown away the water!" exclaimed her sister-in-law, +rushing up the stairs in breathless haste. + +But Rinda was never in a hurry to perform any of her duties, and the +wooden tub devoted to Mr. Trone still stood in its place. Genevieve, +baring her white arms, plunged both her hands into the water, her heart +beating with anxiety. But the rings, very soapy, were there. + +That evening, at nine o'clock, Mrs. Franklin was galloping through the +latest tale of Anthony Trollope. For she always read a novel with racing +speed to get at the story, skipping every description; then, if she had +been interested, she went back and reperused it in more leisurely +fashion. It was unusual to have a book fresh from the press; the +well-fingered volumes which Miss Billy borrowed for her so industriously +were generally two or three years old. Horace Chase, learning from Ruth +the mother's liking for novels, had sent a note to New York, ordering in +his large way "all the latest articles in fiction;" a package to be sent +to L'Hommedieu once a month. The first parcel had just arrived, and Mrs. +Franklin, opening it, much surprised, had surveyed the gift with mixed +feelings. She was alone; Dolly was upstairs. Ruth, seized with a sudden +fancy for a glass of cream, had gone, with Rinda as protector, to a +house at some distance, where cream was sold; for with Ruth fancies were +so vivid that it always seemed to her absolutely necessary to follow +them instantly. The mother turned over the volumes. "It doesn't make me +like him a bit better!" she said to herself. But her easy-chair was +comfortable; the reading-lamp was burning brightly at her elbow. For +fourteen years novels had been her opiates; she put on her glasses, took +up the Trollope, and began. She had not been reading long, when her +attention suddenly jumped back to the present, owing to a sound outside. +For the window was open, somebody was coming up the path from the gate, +and she recognized--yes, she recognized the step. Letting the book drop, +she ran to the house-door. "Jared! Why--how did you get here? The stage +came in long ago." + +"I drove over from Old Fort," answered her son as he entered. + +"And you did not find Genevieve? She has gone with Mr. Hill to--" + +"I haven't been to the Cottage yet; I came directly here. Where is +Ruth?" + +"Out. But she will be in soon. Dolly isn't well to-night; she has gone +to bed." + +"The coast is clear, then, and we can talk," said Jared. "So much the +better." They were now in the parlor; before seating himself he closed +the door. "I have come up, mother, about this affair of Ruth's. As soon +as I got back to Charleston and read your letters, I started at once. +You have been careless, I fear; but at least I hope that nothing has +been said, that no one knows?" + +"Everybody knows, Jared. At least, everybody in Asheville." + +"Who has told? Chase?" asked Jared, angrily. + +"Oh no; he left that to us. I have said nothing, and Dolly has said +nothing. But--but--" + +"But what?" + +"Genevieve has announced it everywhere," answered Mrs. Franklin, her +inward feeling against her daughter-in-law for once getting the better +of her. + +"I will speak to Genevieve. But she is not the one most in fault, +mother; she could not have announced it unless _you_ had given your +consent. And how came you to do that?" + +"I don't think I have consented. I have been waiting for you." + +"Very well, then; we can act together. Now that _I_ have come, Horace +Chase will find that there's some one on hand to look after you; he will +no longer be able to do as he pleases!" + +"Our difficulty is, Jared, that it is not so much a question of his +doing as he pleases as it is of Ruth's doing as _she_ pleases; she +thinks it is all enchanting; and she is headstrong, you know." + +"Yes. That is the very reason why I think you have been careless, +mother. You were here and I was not; you, therefore, were the one to +act. You should have taken Ruth out of town at once; you should have +taken her north, if necessary, and kept her there; you should have done +this at any sacrifice." + +"It is not so easy--" began his mother. Then she stopped. For she was +living on credit; she owed money everywhere, and there were still ten +days to elapse before any remittances could reach her. But she would +have borne anything, and resorted to everything, rather than let Jared +know this. "It took me so completely by surprise," she said, beginning +again. "I am sure that you yourself had no suspicion of any such +possibility when we took that French Broad drive?" + +"No, I had not. And it enrages me to think how blind I was! He was +laying his plans even then; the whole trip, and all those costly things +he did--that was simply part of it." And leaving his chair, the brother +walked up and down the room, his face darkly flushed with anger. +"Ruth--a child! And he--thirty years older!" + +"Not that, dear. He is thirty-eight; and she was nineteen last week." + +"He looks much more than thirty-eight. But that isn't the point. You +don't seem to see, mother, what makes it so insufferable; he has bribed +her about _me_, bribed her with that place in Charleston; that's the +whole story! She is so happy about that, that she forgets all else." + +"I don't like the idea of an engagement between them any better than you +do, Jared. But I ought to say two things. One is, that I don't believe +he made any plot as to the Charleston place; I think he likes to help +people--" + +"Yes, our family!" interrupted the son, hotly. "No, mother, you don't +understand him in the least. Horace Chase is purely a business man, a +long-headed, driving, money-making fellow; all his ambition (and he has +plenty of it) is along that one line. It's the only line, in fact, which +he thinks important. But the idea of his being a philanthropist would +make any one who has ever had business dealings with him laugh for a +week!" + +"Well, have that as you like. But even if he first gave you the place on +Ruth's account (for he has fallen very much in love with her, there is +no doubt of that), I don't see that he has any need to be a benefactor +in keeping you there. They are no doubt delighted to have you; he says +so himself, in fact. A navy officer, a gentleman--they may well be!" +added Mrs. Franklin, looking for the moment very much like her father, +old Major Seymour, with his aristocratic notions. + +"Why, mother, don't you know that people with that brutal amount of +money--Chaise and the Willoughbys, for instance--don't you know that +they look upon the salaries of army and navy officers simply as genteel +poverty?" said Jared, forgetting for the moment his anger in amusement +over her old-fashioned mistake. + +But he could not have made Mrs. Franklin believe this in ten years of +repetition, much less in ten minutes. "And the other thing I had to +say," she went on, "is that I don't think Ruth is marrying him on _your_ +account solely." + +"Oh yes, she is, though she may not be conscious of it. But when I have +given up the Charleston place, which I shall do to-morrow, then she will +be free again. The moment she sees that she can do _me_ no good, all +will look different to her. I'd rather do anything--sell the Cottage, +and live on a crust all the rest of my days--than have a sister of mine +help me along in that way!" + +His mother watched him as he paced to and fro. He looked ill; there were +hollows at his temples and dark circles under his eyes; his tall figure +had begun to stoop. He was the dearest of all her children; his +incurable, unspoken regrets, his broken life, were like a dagger in her +heart at all times. He would give up his place, and then he would have +nothing; and she, his mother, could not help him with a penny. He would +give up his place and sell the Cottage, and then--Genevieve! It all came +back to that; it would always come back to that--Genevieve! She +swallowed hard to keep down the sob in her throat. "He is very much in +love with her," she repeated, vaguely, in order to say something. + +"Who cares if he is! I almost begin to think you like it, after all?" + +"No, dear, no; neither Dolly nor I like it in the least. But Ruth is not +easy to manage. And Genevieve was sure that you--" + +"This is not Genevieve's affair. It is mine!" thundered Jared. + +His mother jumped up, ran to him, and gave him a kiss. For the moment +she forgot his illness, his uncertain future, her own debts, all her +troubles, in the joy of hearing him at last assert his will against +that of his wife. But it was only for a moment; she knew--knew far +better than he did--that the even-tempered feminine pertinacity would +always in the end have its way. Jared, impulsive, generous, +affectionate, was no match for Genevieve. In a contest of this sort it +is the nobler nature, always, that yields; the self-satisfied, limited +mind has an obstinacy that never gives way. She leaned her head against +her son's breast, and all the bitterness of his marriage came over her +afresh like a flood. + +"Why, mother, what is it?" asked Jared, feeling her tremble. He put his +arm round her, and smoothed her hair tenderly. "Tell me what it is that +troubles you so?" + +The gate swung to. Mrs. Franklin lifted her head. "Ruth is coming," she +whispered. "Say what you like to her. But, under all circumstances, +remember to be kind. I will come back presently." She hurried out. + +Rinda and Ruth entered. Rinda went to the kitchen, and Ruth, after +taking off her hat, came into the parlor, carrying her glass of cream. +"Jared!" She put down the glass on the table, and threw her arms round +her brother's neck. "Oh, I am _so_ glad you have come!" + +"Sit down. Here, by me. I wish to speak to you, Ruth." + +"Yes--about my engagement. It's very good of you to come so soon;" and +she put her hand through his arm in her old affectionate way. + +"I do not call it an engagement when you have neither your mother's +consent nor mine," answered her brother. "Whatever it is, however, you +must make an end of it." + +"An end of it? Why?" + +"Because we all dislike the idea. You are too young to comprehend what +you are doing." + +"I am nineteen; that is not so very young. I comprehend that I am going +to be happy. And I _love_ to be happy! I have never seen any one half so +kind as Mr. Chase. If there is anything I want to do, he arranges it. He +doesn't wait, and hesitate, and consider; he _does_ it. He thinks of +everything; it is perfectly beautiful! Why, Jared--what he did for you, +wasn't that kind?" + +"Exactly. That is what he has bribed you with!" + +"Bribed?" repeated Ruth, surprised, as she saw the indignation in his +eyes. Then comprehending what he meant, she laughed, coloring a little +also. "But I am not marrying him on your account; I am marrying him on +my own. I am marrying because I like it, because I want to. You don't +believe it? Why--look at me." She rose and stood before him. "I am the +happiest girl in the world as I stand here! I should think you could see +it for yourself?" And in truth her face was radiant. "If I have ever had +any dreams of what I should like my life to be (and I have had plenty), +they have all come true," she went on, with her hands behind her, +looking at him reflectively. "Think of all I shall have! And of where I +can go! And of what I can do! Why--there's no end of it!" + +"That is not the way to talk of marriage." + +"How one talks of it is not important. The important point is to be +happy _in_ it, and that I shall be to the full--yes, to the full. His +Grand shall have whatever she likes; and Dolly too. First of all, Dolly +shall have a phaeton, so that she can drive to the woods every day. The +house shall be put in order from top to bottom. And--oh, everything!" + +"Is that the way you talk to _him_?" + +But the sarcasm fell to the ground. "Precisely. Word for word," answered +Ruth, lightly. And he saw that she spoke the truth. + +"He is much too old for you. If there were no other--" + +But Ruth interrupted him with a sort of sweet obstinacy. "That is for me +to judge, isn't it?" + +"He is not at all the person you fancy he is." + +"I don't care what he is generally, what he is to other people; all I +care for is what he is to me. And about that you know nothing; I am the +one to know. He is nicer to me, and he always will be nicer, than +Genevieve has ever been to _you_!" And turning, the girl walked across +the room. + +"If I have been unhappy, that is the very reason I don't want you to +be," answered her brother, after a moment's pause. + +His tone touched her. She ran back to him, and seated herself on his +knee, with her cheek against his. "I didn't mean it, dear; forgive me," +she whispered, softly. "But please don't be cross. You are angry because +you believe I am marrying to help _you_. But you are mistaken; I am +marrying for myself. You might be back in the navy, and mother and Dolly +might have more money, and I should still marry him. It would be because +I want to, because I like him. If you had anything to say against him +personally, it would be different, but you haven't. He is waiting to +tell you about himself, to introduce you to his family (he has only +sisters), and to his partners, the Willoughbys. Your only objections +appear to be that I am marrying him on your account, and I have told you +that I am not; and that he is older than I am, and _that_ I like; and +that he has money, while we are poor. But he gets something in getting +me," she added, in a lighter tone, as she raised her head and looked at +him gayly. "Wait till you see how pretty I shall be in fine clothes." + +The door opened, and Mrs. Franklin came in. + +Ruth rose. "Here is mother. Now I must say the whole. Listen, mother; +and you too, Jared. I intend to marry Horace Chase. If not with your +consent, then without it. If you will not let me be married at home, +then I shall walk out of the house, go to Horace, and the first +clergyman or minister he can find shall marry us. There! I have said it. +But _why_ should you treat me so? Don't make me so dreadfully unhappy." + +She had spoken wilfully, determinedly. But now she was pleading--though +it was pleading to have her own way. Into her beautiful eyes came two +big tears as she gazed at them. Neither Mrs. Franklin nor Jared could +withstand those drops. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +The wedding was over. Pretty little Trinity Church was left alone with +its decorations of flowers and vines, the work of Miss Billy Breeze. +Miss Billy, much excited, was now standing beside Ruth in the parlor at +L'Hommedieu; for Miss Billy and Maud Muriel were the bridesmaids. Maud +Muriel had consented with solemnity. "It is strange that such a man as +Horace Chase, a man of sense and importance, should be taken with a +child like Ruth Franklin," she confided to Miss Billy. "However, I won't +desert him at such a moment. I'll stand by him." She was in reality not +so much bridesmaid as groomsman. + +L'Hommedieu was decked with flowers. It was a warm autumn day, the +windows and doors were open. All Asheville was in attendance, if not in +the house and on the verandas, then gazing over the fence, and waiting +outside the gate. For there were many things to engage its attention. +First, there was Mrs. Franklin, looking very distinguished; then +Genevieve, the most beautiful woman present. Then there was Bishop +Carew, who had come from Wilmington to officiate. All Asheville admired +the bishop--the handsome, kindly, noble old man, full of dignity, full +of sweetness as well; they were proud that he had come to "their" +wedding. For that was the way they thought of it. Even the +negroes--those who had flocked to old Daniel's race--had a sense of +ownership in the affair. + +A third point of interest was the general surprise over Maud. As Ruth +had selected the costumes of her bridesmaids, Miss Mackintosh was +attired for the first time in her life in ample soft draperies. Her +hair, too, arranged by Miss Billy, had no longer the look of the +penitentiary, and the result was that (to the amazement of the town) the +sculptress was almost handsome. + +Anthony Etheridge, much struck by this (and haunted by his old idea), +pressed upon her a glass of punch. + +"Take it," he urged, in a low tone, "take two or three. Then, as soon as +this is over, hurry to your studio and _let yourself go_. You'll do +wonders!" + +Two of Chase's partners were present, Nicholas Willoughby, a +quiet-looking man of fifty-eight, and his nephew Walter of the same +name; Walter was acting as "best man." The elder Willoughby had made use +of the occasion to take a general look at this mountain country, with +reference to Chase's ideas concerning it, in order to make a report to +his brother Richard. For Nicholas and Richard were millionaires many +times over; their business in life was investment. Asheville itself, +meanwhile, hardly comprehended the importance of such an event as the +presence within its borders of a New York capitalist; it knew very +little about New York, still less about capitalists. Mrs. Franklin, +however, possessed a wider knowledge; she understood what was +represented by the name of Willoughby. And it had solaced her +unspeakably also to note that the uncle had a genuine liking for her +future son-in-law. "They have a real regard for him," she said to her +son, in private. "And I myself like him rather better than I once +thought I should." + +Jared had come from Charleston on the preceding day. "Oh, that's far too +guarded, mother," he answered. "The only way for us now is to like +Horace Chase with enthusiasm, to cling to him with the deepest +affection. We must admire unflinchingly everything he says and +everything he does--swallow him whole, as it were; it isn't difficult to +swallow things _whole_! Just watch me." And, in truth, it was Jared's +jocularity that enlivened the reception, and made it so gay; it reached +even Dolly, who (to aid him) became herself a veritable Catherine-wheel +of jokes, so that every one noticed how happy all the Franklins +were--how delighted with the marriage. + +Chase himself appeared well. His rather ordinary face was lighted by an +expression of deep inward happiness which was touching; its set lines +were relaxed; his eyes, which were usually too keen, had a softness that +was new to them. He was very silent; he let his best man talk for him. +Walter Willoughby performed this part admirably; standing beside the +bridegroom, he "supported" him gayly through the two hours which were +given up to the outside friends. + +Ruth looked happy, but not particularly pretty. The excitement had given +her a deep flush; even her throat was red. + +At three o'clock Peter and Piper were brought round to the door; Chase +was to drive his wife over the mountains, through the magnificent +forest, now gorgeous with the tints of autumn, and at Old Fort a special +train was waiting to take them eastward. + +A few more minutes and then they were gone. There was nothing left but +the scattered rice on the ground, and Petie Trone, Esq., barking his +little heart out at the gate. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Early on a moonlit evening in January, 1875, Mr. and Mrs. Horace Chase +were approaching St. Augustine. They had come by steamer up the broad +St. Johns, the beautiful river of Florida, to the lonely little landing +called Tocoi; here they had intrusted themselves to the Atlantic Ocean +Railroad. This railroad undertook to convey travellers across the +peninsula to the sea-coast, fifteen miles distant; and the promise was +kept. But it was kept in a manner so leisurely that more than once +Horace Chase had risen and walked to and fro, as though, somehow, that +would serve to increase the speed. The rolling-stock possessed by the +Atlantic Ocean Railroad at that date consisted of two small street-cars, +one for passengers, one for luggage; Chase's promenade, therefore, +confined as it was to the first car, had a range of about four steps. +"I'm ridiculously fidgety, and that's a fact," he said to his wife, +laughing at himself. "I can be lazy enough in a Pullman, for then I can +either read the papers or go to sleep. But down here there are no papers +to read. And who can sleep in this jolting? I believe I'll ask that +darky to let me drive the mules!" + +"Do," said Ruth. "Then I can be out there with you on the front +platform." + +As there were no other passengers (save Petie Trone, Esq., asleep in his +travelling basket), Abram, the negro driver, gave up the reins with a +grin. Taking his station on the step, he then admonished the volunteer +from time to time as follows: "Dish yere's a bad bit; take keer, boss." +"Jess ahead de rail am splayed out on de lef'. Yank 'em hard to de +right, or we'll sut'ny run off de track. We ginerally _do_ run off de +track 'bout yere." On each side was a dense forest veiled in the gray +long moss. Could that be snow between the two black lines of track +ahead? No snow, however, was possible in this warm atmosphere; it was +but the spectral effect of the moonlight, blanching to an even paler +whiteness the silvery sand which formed the road-bed between the rails. +This sand covered the sleepers to such a depth that the mules could not +step quickly; there was always a pailful of it on each foot to lift and +throw off. They moved on, therefore, in a sluggish trot, the cow-bells +attached to their collars keeping up a regular tink-tank, tink-tank. + +The tableau of her husband driving these spirited steeds struck Ruth as +comical. She was seated on a camp-stool by his side, and presently she +broke into a laugh. "Oh, you do look _so_ funny, Horace! If you could +only see yourself! You, so particular about horses that you won't drive +anything that is not absolutely perfect, there you stand taking the +greatest pains, and watching solemnly every quiver of the ear of those +old mules!" + +They were alone, Abram having gone to the baggage-car to get his tin +horn. "Come, now, are you never going to stop making fun of me?" +inquired Chase. "How do you expect to hit St. Augustine to-night if this +fast express runs off the track?" But in spite of his protest, it was +easy to see that he liked to hear her laugh. + +Abram, coming back, put the horn to his lips and blew a resounding +blast; and presently, round a curve, the half-way station came into +view--namely, a hut of palmetto boughs on the barren, with a bonfire +before it. The negro station-men, beguiling their evening leisure by +dancing on the track to their own singing and the music of a banjo, did +not think it necessary to stop their gyrations until the heads of the +mules actually touched their shoulders. Even then they made no haste in +bringing out the fresh team which was to serve as motive power to St. +Augustine, and Mr. and Mrs. Chase, leaving the car, strolled up and down +near by. The veiled forest had been left behind; the rest of the way lay +over the open pine-barrens. The leaping bonfire, the singing negroes, +and the little train on its elevated snow-like track contrasted with the +wild, lonely, silent, tree-dotted plain, stretching away limitlessly in +the moonlight on all sides. + +"Perhaps Petie Trone, Esq., would like to take a run," said Ruth. +Hastening into the car with her usual heedlessness, she tripped and +nearly fell, Chase, who had followed, catching her arm just in time to +save her. + +"Some of these days, Ruthie, you will break your neck. Why are you +always in such a desperate hurry?" + +"Talk about hurry!" answered Ruth, as she unstrapped the basket and woke +the lazy Mr. Trone. "Who saw the whole of Switzerland in five days? and +found it slow at that?" And then they both laughed. + +After a stretch, Petie Trone decided to make a foray over the barren; +his little black figure was soon out of sight. "Horace, now that we are +here, I wish you would promise to stay. Can't we stay at least until the +middle of March? It's lovely in Florida in the winter," Ruth declared, +as they resumed their walk. + +"Well, I'll stay as long as I can. But I must go to California on +business between this and spring," Chase answered. + +"Why don't you make one of the Willoughbys do that? They never do +anything!" + +"That's all right; I'm the working partner of the firm; it was so +understood from the beginning. The Willoughbys only put in capital; all +but Walter, of course, who hasn't got much. But Walter's a knowing young +chap, who will put in brains. My California business, however, has +nothing to do with the Willoughbys, Ruthie; it's my own private affair, +_that_ is. If I succeed, and I think I shall, it'll about double my +pile. Come, you know you like money." He drew her hand through his arm +and held it. "How many more rings do you want? How many more houses? +How many more French maids and flounces? How many more carriages?" + +"Oh, leave out the carriages, do," interrupted Ruth. "When it comes to +anything connected with a horse, who spends money--you or I?" + +"My one small spree compared to your fifty!" + +"Small!" she repeated. "Wherever we go, whole troops of horses appear by +magic!" Then, after a moment, she let her head rest against his shoulder +as they strolled slowly on. "You are only too good to me," she added, in +another tone. + +"Well, I guess that's about what I want to be," Chase answered, +covering, as he often did, the deep tenderness in his heart with a vein +of jocularity. + +The Atlantic Ocean Railroad's terminal station at St. Augustine +consisted of a platform in the sand and another flaring bonfire. At +half-past six Mrs. Franklin, Dolly, and Anthony Etheridge were waiting +on this platform for the evening train. With them was a fourth +person--Mrs. Lilian Kip. "Oh, I can scarcely wait to see her!" exclaimed +this lady, excitedly. "Will she be the same? But no. Impossible!" + +"She is exactly the same," answered Dolly, who, seated on an empty +dry-goods box, was watching the bonfire. + +"But you must remember that Ruth did not come to Florida last winter +after her marriage. And this summer, when I was in Asheville, she was +abroad. And as none of you came south winter before last--don't you see +that it makes nearly _two_ years since I have seen her?" Mrs. Kip went +on. "In addition, marriage changes a woman's face so--deepens its +expression and makes it so _much_ more beautiful. I am sure, commodore, +that _you_ agree with me there?" And she turned to the only man present. + +"Yes, yes," answered Etheridge, gallantly. In his heart he added: "And +therefore the more marriage the better? Is that what you are thinking +of, you idiot?" + +The presence of Mrs. Kip always tore Etheridge to pieces. He had never +had any intention of marrying, and he certainly had no such intention +now. Yet he could not help admiring this doubly widowed Lilian very +deeply, after a fashion. And he knew, too--jealously and angrily he knew +it--that before long she would inevitably be led to the altar a third +time; so extremely marriageable a woman would never lack for leaders. + +"Ruth is handsomer," remarked Mrs. Franklin; "otherwise she is +unchanged. You will see it for yourself, Lilian, when she comes." + +The mother's tone was placid. All her forebodings had faded away, and +she had watched them disappear with thankful eyes. For Ruth was happy; +there could be no doubt about that. In the year that had passed since +her marriage, she had returned twice to Asheville, and Mrs. Franklin +also had spent a month at her son-in-law's home in New York. On all +these occasions it had been evident that the girl was enjoying greatly +her new life; that she was delightedly, exultantly, and gleefully +contented, and all in a natural way, without analyzing it. She delighted +in the boundless gratification of her taste for personal ease and +luxury; she exulted in all that she was able to do for her own family; +she was full of glee over the amusements, the entertainments, and +especially the change, that surrounded her like a boundless horizon. For +her husband denied her nothing; she had only to choose. He was not what +is known as set in his ways; he had no fixed habits (save the habit of +making money); in everything, therefore, except his business affairs, he +allowed his young wife to arrange their life according to her fancy. +This freedom, this power, and the wealth, had not yet become an old +story to Ruth, and, with the enjoyment which she found in all three, it +seemed as if they never would become that. It had been an immense +delight to her, for instance, to put L'Hommedieu in order for her +mother. A month after her marriage, on returning to Asheville for a +short visit, she had described her plan to Dolly. "And think what fun it +will be, Dolly, to have the whole house done over, not counting each +cent in Genevieve's deadly way, but just _recklessly_! And then to see +her squirm, and say 'surely!' And you and mother must pretend not to +care much about it; you must hardly know what is going on, while they +are actually putting in steam-heaters, and hard-wood floors, and +bath-rooms with porcelain tubs--hurrah!" And, with Petie Trone barking +in her arms, she whirled round in a dance of glee. + +Chase happening to come in at this moment, she immediately repeated to +him all that she had been saying. + +He agreed; then added, with his humorous deliberation, "But you don't +seem to think quite so much of my old school-mate as I supposed you +did?" + +"Sisters-in-law, Mr. Chase, are seldom _very_ devoted friends," +explained Dolly, going on with her embroidery. Dolly always did +something that required her close attention whenever Horace Chase was +present. "How, indeed, can they be? A sister sees one side of her +brother's nature, and sees it correctly; a wife sees another side, and +with equal accuracy. Each honestly believes that the other is entirely +wrong. Their point of view, you see, is so different!" + +The waiting group at the St. Augustine station on this January evening +heard at last the blast of Abram's horn, and presently the train came +in, the mules for the last few yards galloping madly, their tin bells +giving out a clattering peal, and Chase still acting as driver, with +Ruth beside him. Affectionate greetings followed, for all the Franklins +were warmly attached to each other. Mrs. Kip was not a Franklin, but she +was by nature largely affectionate; she was probably the most +affectionate person in Florida. To the present occasion she contributed +several tears of joy. Then she signalled to Juniper, her colored +waiter; for, being not only affectionate, but romantic as well, she had +brought in her phaeton a bridal ornament, a heart three feet high, made +of roses reposing upon myrtle, and this symbol, amid the admiration of +all the bystanders, black and white, was now borne forward in the arms +of Juniper (who, being a slender lad, staggered under its weight). Ruth +laughed and laughed as this edifice was presented to her. But as, amid +her mirth, she had kissed the donor and thanked her very prettily, Mrs. +Kip was satisfied. For Ruth might laugh--Ruth, in fact, always +laughed--but marriage was marriage none the less; the most beautiful +human relation; and it was certainly fit that the first visit of a +happily wedded pair to the land of flowers should be commemorated +florally. Mrs. Kip volunteered to carry her heart to Mrs. Franklin's +residence; she drove away, therefore, Etheridge accompanying her, and +Juniper behind, balancing the structure as well as he could on his +knees, with his arms stretched upward to their fullest extent in order +to grasp its top. + +In a rickety barouche drawn by two lean horses the others followed, +laughing and talking gayly. Chase got on very well with his +mother-in-law; and he supposed, also, that he got on fairly well with +Dolly: he had not divined Dolly's mental attitude towards him, which was +that simply of an armed neutrality. Dolly would have been wildly happy +if, for herself and her mother at least, she could have refused every +cent of his money. This had not been possible. Chase had settled upon +his wife a sum which gave her a large income for her personal use, +independent of all their common expenses; it was upon this income that +Ruth had drawn for the restoration of L'Hommedieu, and also for the +refurnishing of her mother's house at St. Augustine. "I can't be happy, +His Grand, I can't enjoy New York, or our trip to Europe, or anything, +unless I feel certain that you are perfectly comfortable in every way," +she had said during that first visit at home. "All this money is mine; I +am not asked what I do with it, and I never shall be asked; you don't +know Horace if you think he will ever even allude to the subject. He +intends it for my ownest own, and of course he knows what I care the +most for, and that is you and Jared and Dolly. I have always suspected +that something troubled you every now and then, though I didn't know +what. And if it was money, His Grand, you _must_ take some from me, now +that I have it; you must take it, and make your little girl really +happy. For she can't be happy until you do." + +This youngest child really was still, in the mother's eyes, her "baby." +And when the baby, sitting down in her lap, put her arms round her neck +and pleaded so lovingly, the mother yielded. Her debts were now all +paid; it was a secret between herself and Ruth. The disappearance of the +burden was a great relief to the mother, though not so much so as it +would have been to some women; for it was characteristic of Mrs. +Franklin that she had never thought there was anything wrong in being +in debt; she had only thought that it was unfortunate. It would not have +occurred to her, even in her worst anxieties, to reduce sternly her +expenses until they accorded with her means, no matter how low that +might lead her; there was a point, so she believed, beyond which a Mrs. +Franklin could not descend with justice to her children. And justice to +her children was certainly a mother's first duty; justice to creditors +must take a second place. + +To Dolly, unaware of the payment of the debts, the acceptance even of +the restoration of the two houses had been bitter enough; for though the +money came through Ruth's hands, it was nevertheless provided by this +stranger. "If I had only been well, I could have worked and saved mother +from this," she thought. "But I am helpless. Not only that, but a care! +Nobody stops to think how dreary a lot it is to be always a care. And +how hard, hard, never to be able to give, but always to have to accept, +accept, and be thankful!" But Dolly, at heart, had a generous nature; +she would not cloud even by a look her mother's contentment or the +happiness of Ruth. So when Chase said, as the barouche swayed crazily +through the deep mud-hole which for years formed the junction between +the station lane and the main road, "This old rattletrap isn't safe, +ma'am. Is it the best St. Augustine can do? You ought to have something +better!"--when Chase said this to her mother, Dolly even brought forward +a smile. + +The rattletrap followed the long causeway which crossed the salt-marsh +and the San Sebastian River. Entering the town beneath an archway of +foliage, this causeway broadened into a sandy street under huge +pride-of-India trees, whose branches met overhead. Old Miss +L'Hommedieu's winter residence was not far from St. Francis Barracks, at +the south end of the town. It was an old coquina house which rose +directly from a little-travelled roadway. An open space on the other +side of this roadway, and the absence of houses, gave it the air of +being "on the bay," as it was called. Chase had taken, for a term of +years, another house not far distant, which really was on the bay. He +had done this to please Ruth. It was not probable that they should spend +many winters in Florida; but in case they should wish to come +occasionally, it would be convenient to have a house ready. "And when we +don't want it, Jared could stay here now and then," Ruth had suggested. + +"Your brother? I guess he isn't going to be a very easy chap to arrange +for, here or anywhere," Chase had answered, laughing. "We've already +slipped up once pretty well--Charleston, you know." Then, seeing her +face grow troubled, "But he'll take another view of something else I +have in mind," he went on. "If my California project turns out as I +hope, it will be absolutely necessary for me to have a confidential man +to see to the New York part of it--some one whom I can trust. And I +shall be able to convince Franklin that this time, at any rate, instead +of its being a favor to him, it'll be a favor to me. He won't kick at +_that_, I reckon." + +For Jared was now again at Raleigh, working as a clerk for the man who +had bought his former business; he had resigned his Charleston place in +spite of Ruth, in spite even of Genevieve. He had waited until the +wedding was over, in order that Ruth might not be made unhappy at the +moment; and then he had done it. + +Notwithstanding this, his wife had never had so much money in her life +as she had now. For she and Ruth, with the perfectly good conscience +which women have in such matters, had combined together, as it were, to +circumvent secretly the obstinate naval officer. Ruth was warmly +attached to her brother; he was the one person who had been able to +control her when she was a child; his good opinion had been a hundred +times more important to her than that of her mother and Dolly. Now that +she was rich, she was bent upon helping him; and having found that she +could not do it directly, she had turned all her intelligence towards +doing it indirectly, through the capable, the willing Genevieve. Mrs. +Jared Franklin, Junior, had quietly and skilfully bought land in +Asheville (in readiness for the coming railroad); she had an account at +the bank; she had come into the possession of bonds and stock; she had +enlarged her house, and she had also given herself the pleasure (she +called it the benediction) of laying the foundations of an addition to +the Colored Home. As she kept up a private correspondence with Ruth, +she had heard of the proposed place in New York for Jared, the place +where his services would be of value. She was not surprised; it was what +she had been counting upon. Jared's obstinacy would give way, _must_ +give way, before this new opportunity; and in the meanwhile, here at +Asheville, all was going splendidly well. + +Amid these various transactions Jared Franklin's mother had been obliged +to make up her mind as to what her own attitude should be. It had been +to her a relief unspeakable, an overmastering joy, to know that her son +would not, after all, sink to harassing poverty. Soothed by this, lulled +also by the hope that before very long he would of his own accord +consent to give up what was so distasteful to him, she had virtually +condoned the underhand partnership between Ruth and Genevieve, arranging +the matter with her conscience after her own fashion, by simply turning +her head away from the subject entirely. As she had plenty of +imagination, she had ended by really convincing herself that she was not +aware of what was going on, because she had not heard any of the +details. (She had, in fact, refused to hear them.) This left her free to +say to Jared (if necessary) that she had known nothing. But she hoped +that no actual words of this sort would be required. Her temperament, +indeed, had always been largely made up of hope. + +It was true that Jared for the present was still at Raleigh, drudging +away at a very small salary. That, however, would not last forever. And +in the meantime (and this was also extraordinarily agreeable to the +mother) Madame Genevieve was learning that she could not lead her +husband quite so easily as she had supposed she could. In her enjoyment +of this fact, Mrs. Franklin, in certain moods, almost hoped that (as his +affairs were in reality going on so well) her son would continue to hold +out for some time longer. + +The house which Horace Chase had taken at St. Augustine was much larger +than old Miss L'Hommedieu's abode; it was built of coquina, like hers, +but it faced the sea-wall directly, commanding the inlet; from its upper +windows one could see over Anastasia Island opposite, and follow miles +of the blue southern sea. Ruth's French maid, Félicité, had arrived at +this brown mansion the day before, with the heavy luggage; to-night, +however, new-comers were to remain with the mother in the smaller house. + +When the barouche reached Mrs. Franklin's door, Etheridge, Mrs. Kip, and +the heart were already there. "I won't stay now," said Mrs. Kip. "But +may I look in later? Evangeline Taylor is perfectly _wild_ to come." + +When she returned, a little after eight, Chase was still in the +dining-room with Anthony Etheridge, who had dined there. The heart had +been suspended from a stout hook on the parlor wall, and Ruth happened a +moment before to have placed herself under it, when, having discovered +her old guitar in a closet, she had seated herself to tune it. "It's +_so_ sweet, Ruth, your sitting there under my flowers," said the +visitor, tearfully. "And yet, for _me_, such an--such an _association_!" + +"I thought your daughter was coming?" said Mrs. Franklin, peering +towards the door over her glasses. + +"Evangeline Taylor will be here in a moment," answered her mother; "her +governess is bringing her." And presently there entered a tall, a +gigantically tall girl, with a long, solemn, pale face. As she was +barely twelve, she was dressed youthfully in a short school-girl frock +with a blue sash. Advancing, she kissed Ruth; then, retiring to a +corner, she seated herself, arranged her feet in an appropriate pose, +and crossed her hands in her lap. A little later, when no one was +looking, she furtively altered the position of her feet. Then she +changed once or twice the arrangement of her hands. This being settled +at last to her satisfaction, she turned her attention to her features, +trying several different contortions, and finally settling upon a +drawing in of the lips and a slight dilatation of the nostrils. And all +this not in the least from vanity, but simply from an intense personal +conscientiousness. + +"The dear child longed to see you, Ruth. She danced for joy when she +heard you had come," explained the mother. + +"Yes, Evangeline and I have always been great chums," answered Ruth, +good-naturedly. + +The room was brightly lighted, and the light showed that the young +wife's face was more beautiful than ever; the grace of her figure also +was now heightened by all the aids that dress can bestow. Ruth had said +to Jared, jokingly, "Wait till you see how pretty I shall be in fine +clothes!" The fine clothes had been purchased in profusion, and, what +was better, Félicité knew how to adapt them perfectly to her slender +young mistress. + +Mrs. Kip, having paid her tribute to "the association" (she did not say +whether the feeling was connected with Andrew Taylor, her first husband, +or with the equally departed John Kip, her second), now seated herself +beside Ruth, and, with the freedom of old friendship, examined her +costume. "I know you had that made in Paris!" she said. "Simple as it +is, it has a sort of something or other! And, oh, what a beautiful +bracelet! What splendid rings!" + +Ruth wore no ornaments save that on her right wrist was a band of +sapphires, and on her right hand three of the same gems, all the stones +being of great beauty. On her left hand she wore the wedding circlet, +with her engagement-ring and the philopena guard over it. In answer to +the exclamation, she had taken off the jewels and tossed them all into +Mrs. Kip's lap. Mrs. Kip looked at them, her red lips open. + +To some persons, Lilian Kip seemed beautiful, in spite of the fact that +the outline of her features, from certain points of view, was almost +grotesque; she had a short nose, a wide mouth, a broad face, and a +receding chin. Her dark-brown eyes were neither large nor bright, but +they had a soft, dove-like expression; her curling hair was of a +mahogany-red tint, and she had the exquisitely beautiful skin which +sometimes accompanies hair of this hue; her cheeks really had the +coloring of peaches and cream; her lips were like strawberries; her +neck, arms, and hands were as fair as the inner petals of a tea-rose. +With the exception of her imperfect facial outlines, she was as +faultlessly modelled as a Venus. A short Venus, it is true, and a +well-fed one; still a Venus. No one would ever have imagined her to be +the mother of that light-house of a daughter; it was necessary to recall +the fact that the height of the late Andrew Taylor had been six feet +four inches. Andrew Taylor having married Lilian Howard when she was but +seventeen, Lilian Kip, in spite of two husbands and her embarrassingly +overtopping child, found herself even now but thirty. + +She had put Ruth's rings on her hands and the bracelet on her wrist; now +she surveyed the effect with her head on one side, consideringly. While +she was thus engaged, Mrs. Franklin's little negro boy, Samp, ushered in +another visitor--Walter Willoughby. + +"Welcome to Florida, Mrs. Chase," he said, as he shook hands with Ruth. +"As you are an old resident, however, it's really your husband whom I +have come to greet; he is here, isn't he?" + +"Yes; he is in the dining-room with Commodore Etheridge," Ruth +answered. "Will you go out?" For it was literally out; the old house was +built in the Spanish fashion round an interior court, and to reach the +dining-room one traversed a long veranda. + +"Thanks; I'll wait here," Walter answered. In reality he would have +preferred to go and have a cigar with Chase. But as he had not seen his +partner's wife since she returned from Europe, it was only courtesy as +well as good policy to remain where he was. For Mrs. Chase was a power. +She was a power because her husband would always wish to please her; +this desire would come next to his money-making, and would even, in +Walter's opinion (in case there should ever be a contest between the two +influences), "run in close!" + +Mrs. Kip had hastily divested herself of the jewels, and replaced them +on Ruth's wrist and hands, with many caressing touches. "Aren't they +_lovely_?" she said to Walter. + +"That little one, the guard, was _my_ selection," he replied, indicating +the philopena circlet. + +"And not this also?" said Ruth, touching her engagement ring. + +"No; that was my uncle Richard's choice; Chase wrote to _him_ the second +time, not to me," Walter answered. "I'm afraid he didn't like my taste." +He laughed; then turned to another subject. "You were playing the guitar +when I came in, Mrs. Chase; won't you sing something?" + +"I neither play nor sing in a civilized way," Ruth answered. "None of +us do. In music we are all awful barbarians." + +"How can you say so," protested Mrs. Kip, "when, as a family, you are +_so_ musical?" Then, summoning to her eyes an expression of great +intelligence, she added: "And I should know that you were, all of you, +from your thick eyebrows and very thick hair. You have heard of that +theory, haven't you, Mr. Willoughby? That all true musicians have very +thick hair?" + +"Also murderers; I mean the women--the murderesses," remarked Dolly. + +"Oh, Dolly, what ideas you do have! Who would ever think of associating +murderesses with music? Music is _so_ uplifting," protested the rosy +widow. + +"We should take care that it is not too much so," Dolly answered. "Lots +of us are ridiculously uplifted. We know one thing perhaps, and like it. +But we remain flatly ignorant about almost everything else. In a busy +world this would do no harm, if we could only be conscious of it. But +no; on we go, deeply conceited about the one thing we know and like, and +loftily severe as to the ignorance of other persons concerning it. It +doesn't occur to us that upon other subjects save our own, we ourselves +are presenting precisely the same spectacle. A Beethoven, when it comes +to pictures, may find something very taking in a daub representing a +plump child with a skipping-rope, and the legend: 'See me jump!' A +painter of the highest power may think 'The Sweet By-and-By' on the +cornet the acme of musical expression. A distinguished sculptor may +appreciate on the stage only negro minstrels or a tenth-rate farce. A +great historian may see nothing to choose, in the way of beauty, between +a fine etching and a chromo. It is well known that the most celebrated, +and deservedly celebrated, scientific man of our day devours regularly +the weakest fiction that we have. And people who love the best classical +music and can endure nothing else, have no idea, very often, whether +they belong to the mammalia or the crustacea, or whether the Cologne +cathedral is Doric or late Tudor." + +"Carry it a little further, Miss Franklin," said Walter Willoughby; "it +has often been noted that criminals delight in the most sentimental +tales." + +"That isn't the same thing," Dolly answered. "However, to take up your +idea, Mr. Willoughby, it is certainly true that it is often the good +women who read with the most breathless interest the newspaper reports +of crimes." + +"Oh no!" exclaimed Mrs. Kip. + +"Yes, they do, Lilian," Dolly responded. "And when it comes to tales, +they like dreadful events, with plenty of moral reflections thrown in; +the moral reflections make it all right. A plain narrative of an even +much less degree of evil, given impartially, and without a word of +comment by the author--_that_ seems to them the unpardonable thing." + +"Well, and isn't it?" said Mrs. Kip. "Shouldn't people be +_taught_--_counselled_?" + +"And it's for the sake of the counsel that they read such stories?" +inquired Dolly. + +During this conversation, Chase, in the dining-room, had risen and given +a stretch, with his long arms out horizontally. He was beginning to feel +bored by the talk of Anthony Etheridge, "the ancient swell," as he +called him. In addition, he had a vision of finishing this second cigar +in a comfortable chair in the parlor (for Mrs. Franklin had no objection +to cigar smoke), with Ruth near by; for it always amused him to hear his +wife laugh and talk. The commodore, meanwhile, having assigned to +himself from the day of the wedding the task of "helping to civilize the +Bubble," never lost an opportunity to tell him stories from his own more +cultivated experience--"stories that will give him ideas, and, by Jove! +phrases, too. He needs 'em!" He had risen also. But he now detained his +companion until he had finished what he was saying. "So there you have +the reason, Mr. Chase, why _I_ didn't marry. I simply couldn't endure +the idea of an old woman's face opposite mine at table year after year; +for our women grow old so soon! Now you, sir, have shown the highest +wisdom in this respect. I congratulate you." + +"I don't know about that," answered Chase, as he turned towards the +door. "Ruth will have an old man's face opposite _her_ before very long, +won't she?" + +"Not at all, my good friend; not at all. Men have no age. At least, +they _need_ not have it," answered Etheridge, bringing forward with +joviality his favorite axiom. + +Cordial greetings took place between Chase and Walter Willoughby. "Your +uncles weren't sure you would still be here," Chase remarked. "They +thought perhaps you wouldn't stay." + +"I shall stay awhile--outstay you, probably," answered Walter, smiling. +"I can't imagine that you'll stand it long." + +"Doing nothing, you mean? Well, it's true I have never loafed _much_," +Chase admitted. + +"You loafed all summer in Europe," the younger man replied, and his +voice had almost an intonation of complaint. He perceived this himself, +and smiled a little over it. + +"So that was loafing, was it," commented Ruth, in a musing +tone--"catching trains and coaches on a full run, seeing three or four +cantons, half a dozen towns, two passes, and several ranges of mountains +every day?" + +All laughed, and Mrs. Kip said: "Did you rush along at that rate? That +was baddish. There's no hurry _here_; that's one good thing. The laziest +place! We must get up a boat-ride soon, Ruth. Boat-drive, I mean." + +Mrs. Franklin meanwhile, rising to get something, knocked over +accidentally the lamplighters which she had just completed, and Chase, +who saw it, jumped up to help her collect them. + +"Why, how many you have made!" he said, gallantly. + +She was not pleased by this innocent speech; she had no desire to be +patted on the back, as it were, about her curled strips of paper; she +curled them to please herself. She made no reply, save that her nose +looked unusually aquiline. + +"Yes, mother is tremendously industrious in lamplighters," remarked +Dolly. "Her only grief is that she cannot send them to the Indian +missions. You can send _almost_ everything to the Indian missions; but +somehow lamplighters fill no void." + +"Do you mean the new mission we are to have here--the Indians at the +fort?" asked Walter Willoughby. "They are having a big dance to-night." + +Ruth looked up. + +"Should you like to see it?" he went on, instantly taking advantage of +an opportunity to please her. "Nothing easier. We could watch it quite +comfortably, you know, from the ramparts." + +"I should like it ever so much! Let us go at once, before it is over!" +exclaimed Ruth, eagerly. + +"Ruth! Ruth!" said her mother. "After travelling all day, Mr. Chase may +be tired." + +"Not at all, ma'am," said Chase. "I don't take much stock in Indians +myself," he went on, to his wife. "Do you really want to go?" + +"Oh yes, Horace. Please." + +"And the commodore will go with _me_," said Mrs. Kip, turning her soft +eyes towards Etheridge, who went down before the glance like a house of +cards. + +"But we must take Evangeline Taylor home first," said Mrs. Kip. "We'll +go round by way of Andalusia, commodore. It would never do to let her +see an Indian dance at _her_ age," she added, affectionately, lifting +her hand high to pat her daughter's aerial cheek. "It would make her +tremble like a babe." + +"Oh, _did_ you hear her 'baddish'!" said Dolly, as, a few minutes later, +they went up the steps that led to the sea-wall, Chase and Walter +Willoughby, Ruth and herself. "And did you hear her 'boat-drive'? She +has become so densely confused by hearing Achilles Larue inveigh against +the use of 'ride' for 'drive' that now she thinks everything must be +drive." + +Chase and Walter Willoughby smiled; but not unkindly. There are some +things which the Dolly Franklins of the world are incapable, with all +their cleverness, of comprehending; one of them is the attraction of a +sweet fool. + +The sea-wall of St. Augustine stretches, with its smooth granite coping, +along the entire front of the old town, nearly a mile in length. On the +land side its top is but four or five feet above the roadway; towards +the water it presents a high, dark, wet surface, against which comes the +wash of the ocean, or rather of the inlet; for the harbor is protected +by a long, low island lying outside. It is this island, called +Anastasia, that has the ocean beach. The walk on top of the wall is +just wide enough for two. Walter Willoughby led the way with Dolly, and +Chase and his wife followed, a short distance behind. + +Walter thought Miss Franklin tiresome. With the impatience of a young +fellow, he did not care for her clever talk. He was interested in clever +men; in woman he admired other qualities. He had spent ten days in +Asheville during the preceding summer in connection with Chase's plans +for investment there, and he had been often at L'Hommedieu during his +stay; but he had found Genevieve more attractive than Dolly--Genevieve +and Mrs. Kip. For Mrs. Kip, since her second widowhood, had spent her +summers at Asheville, for the sake of "the mountain atmosphere;" ("which +means Achilles atmosphere," Mrs. Franklin declared). This evening Walter +had felt a distinct sense of annoyance when Dolly had announced her +intention of going with them to see the Indian dance, for this would +arrange their party in twos. He had no desire for a tête-à-tête with +Dolly, and neither did he care for a tête-à-tête with Ruth; his idea had +been to accompany Mr. and Mrs. Chase as a third. However, he made the +best of it; Walter always did that. He had the happy faculty of getting +all the enjoyment possible out of the present, whatever it might be. +Postponing, therefore, to the next day his plan for making himself +agreeable to the Chases, he led the way gayly enough to the fort. + +Fort San Marco is the most imposing ancient structure which the United +States can show. Begun in the seventeenth century, when Florida was a +province of Spain, it has turrets, ramparts, and bastions, a portcullis +and barbacan, a moat and drawbridge. Its water-battery, where once stood +the Spanish cannon, looks out to sea. Having outlived its use as a +fortification, it was now sheltering temporarily a band of Indians from +the far West, most of whom had been sentenced to imprisonment for crime. +With the captives had come their families, for this imprisonment was to +serve also as an experiment; the red men were to be instructed, +influenced, helped. At present the education had not had time to +progress far. + +The large square interior court, open to the sky, was to-night lighted +by torches of pine, which were thrust into the iron rings that had +served the Spaniards for the same purpose long before. The Indians, +adorned with paint and feathers, were going through their wild +evolutions, now moving round a large circle in a strange squatting +attitude, now bounding aloft. Their dark faces, either from their actual +feelings or from the simulated ferocity appropriate to a war-dance, were +very savage, and with their half-naked bodies, their whoops and yells, +they made a picture that was terribly realistic to the whites who looked +on from the ramparts above, for it needed but little imagination to +fancy a _bona fide_ attack--the surprise of the lonely frontier +farm-house, with the following massacre and dreadful shrieks. + +Ruth, half frightened, clung to her husband's arm. Mrs. Kip, after a +while, began to sob a little. + +"I'm _thinking_--of the _wo-women_ they have probably _scalped_ on the +_pla-ains_" she said to Etheridge. + +"What?" he asked, unable to hear. + +"Never mind; we'll _convert_ them," she went on, drying her eyes +hopefully. For a Sunday-school was to be established at the fort, and +she had already promised to take a class. + +But Dolly was on the side of the Indians. "The crimes for which these +poor creatures are imprisoned here are nothing but virtues upside down," +she shouted. "They killed white men? Of course they did. Haven't the +white men stolen all their land?" + +"But we're going to _Christianize_ them," yelled Mrs. Kip, in reply. +They were obliged to yell, amid the deafening noise of the dance and the +whoopings below. + +Ruth had a humorous remark ready, when suddenly her husband, to Walter's +amusement, put his hand over her lips. She looked up at him, laughing. +She understood. + +"Funniest thing in the world," he had once said to her, "but the more +noise there is, the more incessantly women _will_ talk. Ever noticed? +They are capable of carrying on a shrieking conversation in the cars all +day long." + +The atmosphere grew dense with the smoke from the pitch-pine torches, +and suddenly, ten minutes later, Dolly fainted. This in itself was not +alarming; with Dolly it happened not infrequently. But under the present +circumstances it was awkward. + +"Why did you let her come? I was amazed when I saw her here," said +Etheridge, testily. + +For Etheridge was dead tired. He hated the Indians; he detested the +choking smoke; he loathed open ramparts at this time of night. Ruth and +Mrs. Franklin had themselves been surprised by Dolly's desire to see the +dance. But they always encouraged any wish of hers to go anywhere; such +inclinations were so few. + +Walter Willoughby, meanwhile, prompt as ever, had already found a +vehicle--namely, the phaeton of Captain March, the army officer in +charge of the Indians; it was waiting outside to take Mrs. March back to +the Magnolia Hotel. "The captain lends it with pleasure; as soon, +therefore, as Miss Franklin is able, I can drive her home," suggested +Walter. + +But Chase, who knew through his wife some of the secrets of Dolly's +suffering, feared lest she might now be attacked by pain; he would not +trust her to a careless young fellow like Walter. "I'll take her +myself," he said. "And Ruth, you can come back with the others, along +the sea-wall." + +Dolly, who had recovered consciousness, protested against this +arrangement. But her voice was only a whisper; Chase, paying no +attention to it, lifted her and helped her down to the phaeton. He was +certainly the one to do it, so he thought; his wife's sister was his +sister as well. It was a pity that she was not rather more amiable. But +that made no difference regarding one's duty towards her. + +The others also left the ramparts, and started homeward, following the +sea-wall. + +This granite pathway is not straight; it curves a little here and there, +adapting itself to the line of the shore. To-night it glittered in the +moonlight. It was high tide, and the water also glittered as it came +lapping against the stones waveringly, so that the granite somehow +seemed to waver, too. Etheridge was last, behind Mrs. Kip. He did not +wish to make her dizzy by walking beside her, he said. Suddenly he +descended. On the land side. + +Mrs. Kip, hearing the thud of his jump, turned her head, surprised. And +then the commodore (though he was still staggering) held out his hand, +saying, "We get off here, of course; it is much our nearest way. That's +the reason I stepped down," he carelessly added. + +Mrs. Kip had intended to follow the wall as far as the Basin. But she +always instinctively obeyed directions given in a masculine voice. If +there were two masculine voices, she obeyed the younger. In this case +the younger man did not speak. She acquiesced, therefore, in the elder's +sharp "Come!" For poor Etheridge had been so jarred by his fall that his +voice had become for the moment falsetto. + +Mrs. Chase and Walter Willoughby, thus deserted, continued on their way +alone. + +It was a beautiful night. The moon lighted the water so brilliantly that +the flash of the light-house on Anastasia seemed superfluous; the dark +fort loomed up in massive outlines; a narrow black boat was coming +across from the island, and, as there was a breeze, the two Minorcans it +carried had put up a rag of a sail, which shone like silver. "How fast +they go!" said Ruth. + +"Would you like to sail home?" asked Walter. He did not wait for her +answer, for, quick at divination, he had caught the wish in her voice. +He hailed the Minorcans; they brought their boat up to the next flight +of water-steps; in two minutes from the time she had first spoken, Ruth, +much amused by this unexpected adventure, was sailing down the inlet. +"Oh, how wet! I didn't think of that," Walter had exclaimed as he saw +the water in the bottom of the boat; and with a quick movement he had +divested himself of his coat, and made a seat of it for her in the +driest place. She had had no time to object, they were already off; she +must sit down, and sit still, for their tottlish craft was only a +dugout. Walter, squatting opposite, made jocular remarks about his +appearance as he sat there in his shirt-sleeves. + +It was never difficult for Ruth to laugh, and presently, as the water +gained on her companion in spite of all his efforts, she gave way to +mirth. She laughed so long that Walter began to feel that he knew her +better, that he even knew her well. He laughed himself. But he also took +the greatest pains at the same time to guard her pretty dress from +injury. + +The breeze and the tide were both in their favor; they glided rapidly +past the bathing-house, the Plaza, the Basin, and the old mansion which +Chase had taken. Then Walter directed the Minorcans towards another +flight of water-steps. "Here we are," he said. "And in half the time it +would have taken us if we had walked. We have come like a shot." + +He took her to her mother's door. Then, pretty wet, with his ruined coat +over his arm, he walked back along the sea-wall to the St. Augustine +Hotel. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +Two weeks later Mrs. Kip gave an afternoon party for the Indians. +Captain March had not been struck by her idea that the sight of "a +lady's quiet home" would have a soothing effect upon these children of +the plains. Mrs. Kip had invited the whole band, but the captain had +sent only a carefully selected half-dozen in charge of the interpreter. +And he had also added, uninvited, several soldiers from the small force +at his disposal. Mrs. Kip was sure that these soldiers were present +"merely for form." There are various kinds of form. Captain March, +having confided to the colonel who commanded at the other end of the +sea-wall, that he could answer for the decorum of his six "unless the +young ladies get hold of them," a further detachment of men had arrived +from St. Francis Barracks; for the colonel was aware that the party was +to be largely feminine. The festivities, therefore, went on with double +brilliancy, owing to the many uniforms visible under the trees. + +These trees were magnificent. Mrs. Kip occupied, as tenant, the old +Buckingham Smith place, which she had named Andalusia. Here, in addition +to the majestic live-oaks, were date-palms, palmettoes, magnolias, +crape-myrtles, figs, and bananas, hedges of Spanish-bayonet, and a +half-mile of orange walks, which resembled tunnels through a +glossy-green foliage, the daylight at each end looking like a far-away +yellow spot. All this superb vegetation rose, strangely enough to +Northern eyes, from a silver-white soil. It was a beautiful day, warm +and bright. Above, the sky seemed very near; it closed down over the +flat land like a soft blue cover. The air was full of fragrance, for +both here and in the neighboring grove of Dr. Carrington the +orange-trees were in bloom. Andalusia was near the San Sebastian border +of the town, and to reach it on foot one was obliged to toil through a +lane so deep in sand that it was practically bottomless. + +There was no toil, however, for Mrs. Horace Chase; on the day of the +party she arrived at Andalusia in a phaeton drawn by two pretty ponies. +She was driving, for the ponies were hers. Her husband was beside her, +and, in the little seat behind, Walter Willoughby had perched himself. +It was a very early party, having begun with a dinner for the Indians at +one o'clock; Mr. and Mrs. Chase arrived at half-past two. Dressed in +white, Mrs. Kip was hovering round her dark-skinned guests. When she +could not think of anything else to do, she shook hands with them; she +had already been through this ceremony eight times. "If I could only +speak to them in their own tongue!" she said, yearningly. And the long +sentences, expressive of friendship, which she begged the interpreter to +translate to them, would have filled a volume. The interpreter, a very +intelligent young man, obeyed all her requests with much politeness. +"Tell them that we _love_ them," said Mrs. Kip. "Tell them that we think +of their _souls_." + +The interpreter bowed; then he translated as follows: "The white squaw +says that you have had enough to eat, and more than enough; and she +hopes that you won't make pigs of yourselves if anything else is +offered--especially Drowning Raven!" + +The Chases and Walter Willoughby had come to the Indian party for a +particular purpose, or rather Walter had asked the assistance of the +other two in carrying out a purpose of his own, which was to make Mrs. +Kip give them a ball. For Andalusia possessed a capital room for +dancing. The room was, in fact, an old gymnasium--a one-story building +near the house. Mrs. Kip was in the habit of lending this gymnasium for +tableaux and Sunday-school festivals; to-day it had served as a +dining-room for the Indians. Walter declared that with the aid of flags +and flowers the gymnasium would make an excellent ball-room; and as the +regimental band had arrived at St. Francis Barracks that morning for a +short stay, the mistress of Andalusia must be attacked at once. + +"We'll go to her Indian party, and compliment her out of her shoes," he +suggested. "You, Mrs. Chase, must be struck with her dress. I shall +simply make love to her. And let me see--what can you do?" he went on, +addressing Chase. "I have it; you can admire her chiefs." + +"Dirty lot!" Chase answered. "I'd rather admire the hostess." + +But the six Indians were not at all dirty; they had never been half so +clean since they were born; they fairly shone with soap and ablutions. +Dressed in trousers and calico shirts, with moccasins on their feet, and +their black hair carefully anointed, they walked, stood, or sat in a +straight row all together, according to the strongly emphasized +instructions which they had received before setting out. Two old +warriors, one of them the gluttonous Drowning Raven reproved by the +interpreter, grinned affably at everything. The others preserved the +dignified Indian impassiveness. + +Soon after his arrival, Walter, who had paid his greetings upon +entering, returned to his fair hostess. "I hear you have a rose-tree +that is a wonder, Mrs. Kip; where is it?" + +Mrs. Kip began to explain. "Go through the first orange-walk. Then turn +to the right. Then--" + +"I am afraid I can't remember. Take me there yourself," said Walter, +calmly. + +"Oh, I ought to be here, I think. People are still coming, you know," +answered the lady. Then, as he did not withdraw his order, "Well," she +said, assentingly. + +They were absent twenty minutes. + +When they returned, the soft brown eyes of the widow had a partly +pleased, partly deprecatory expression. Another young man in love with +her! What could she do to prevent these occurrences? + +Walter, meanwhile, had returned to Mr. and Mrs. Chase. "It's all right," +he said to Ruth. "The ball will come off to-morrow night. Impromptu." + +"Well, you _have_ got cheek!" commented Chase. + +Mrs. Kip herself soon came up. "Ruth, dear, do you know that the +artillery band is only to stay a short time? My gymnasium has a capital +floor; what do you say to an impromptu dance there to-morrow night? I've +just thought of it; it's my own idea entirely." + +"Now what made her lug in that unnecessary lie at the end?" inquired +Chase, in a reasoning tone, when their hostess, after a few minutes more +of conversation, had returned to her duties. "It's of no importance to +anybody whose idea it was. That's what I call taking trouble for +nothing!" + +"If you believe your lie, it's no longer a lie," answered Walter; "and +she believes hers. A quarter of a minute after a thing has happened, a +woman can often succeed in convincing herself that it happened not +_quite_ in that way, but in another. Then she tells it in _her_ way +forever after." + +Chase gave a yawn. "Well, haven't you had about enough of this fool +business?" he said to his wife, using the words humorously. + +"I am ready to go whenever you like," she answered. For if he allowed +her to arrange their days as she pleased, she, on her side, always +yielded to his wishes whenever he expressed them. + +"I'll go and see if the ponies have come," he suggested, and he made his +way towards the gate. + +"You don't give us a very nice character," Ruth went on to Walter. + +"About fibs, do you mean? I only said that you ladies have very powerful +beliefs. Proof is nothing to you; faith is all. There is another odd +fact connected with the subject, Mrs. Chase, and that is that an +absolutely veracious woman, one who tells the exact, bare, cold truth on +all occasions and nothing more; who never exaggerates or is tempted to +exaggerate, by even a hair's-breadth--who is never conscious that she is +coloring things too rosily--such a woman is somehow a very uninteresting +person to men! I can't explain it, and it doesn't seem just. But it's +so. Women of that sort (for they exist--a few of them) move through life +very admirably; but quite without masculine adorers." Then he stopped +himself. "I'm not here, however, to discuss problems with her," he +thought. "Several hours more of daylight; let me see, what can I suggest +next to amuse her?" + +This young man--he was twenty-seven--had had an intention in seeking St. +Augustine at this time; he wished to become well acquainted, if possible +intimate, with the enterprising member of his uncle's firm. He had some +money, but not much. His father, the elder Walter, had been the one +black sheep of the Willoughby flock, the one spendthrift of that +prudent family circle. After the death of the prodigal, Richard and +Nicholas had befriended the son; the younger Walter was a graduate of +Columbia; he had spent eighteen months in Europe; and when not at +college or abroad, he had lived with his rich uncles. But this did not +satisfy him, he was intensely ambitious; the other Willoughbys had no +suspicion of the reach of this nephew's plans. For his ambitions +extended in half a dozen different directions, whereas what might have +been called the family idea had moved always along one line. Walter had +more taste than his uncles; he knew a good picture when he saw it; he +liked good architecture; he admired a well-bound book. But these things +were subordinate; his first wish was to be rich; that was the +stepping-stone to all the rest. As his uncles had children, he could not +expect to be their heir; but he had the advantage of the name and the +relationship, and they had already done much by making him, nominally at +least, a junior partner in this new (comparatively new) firm--a firm +which was, however, but one of their interests. The very first time that +Walter had met the Chase of Willoughby & Chase he had made up his mind +that this was the person he needed, the person to give him a lift. +Richard and Nicholas were too cautious, too conservative, for daring +enterprises, for outside speculations; in addition, they had no need to +turn to things of that sort. Their nephew, however, was in a hurry, and +here, ready to his hand, appeared a man of resources; a man who had +made one fortune in a baking-powder, another by the bold purchase of +three-quarters of an uncertain silver mine, a third by speculation on a +large scale in lumber, while a fourth was now in progress, founded (more +regularly) in steamers. At present also there was a rumor that he had +something new on foot, something in California; Walter had an ardent +desire to be admitted to a part in this Californian enterprise, whatever +it might be. But Chase's trip to Europe had delayed any progress he +might have hoped for in this direction, just as it had delayed the +carrying out of the Asheville speculation. The Chases had returned to +New York in November. But immediately (for it had seemed immediately to +the impatient junior partner) Chase had been hurried off again, this +time to Florida, by his silly wife. Walter did not really mean that Ruth +was silly; he thought her pretty and amiable. But as she was gay, +restless, fond of change, she had interfered (unconsciously of course) +with his plans and his hopes for nearly a year; to call her silly, +therefore, was, in comparison, a mild revenge. "What under heaven is the +use of her dragging poor Chase 'away down South to the land of the +cotton,' when she has already kept him a whole summer wandering about +Europe," he had said to himself, discomfited, when he first heard of the +proposed Florida journey. The next day an idea came to him: "Why +shouldn't I go also? Chase will be sure to bore himself to death down +there, with nothing in the world to do. And then I shall be on hand to +help him through the eternal sunshiny days! In addition, I may as well +try to make myself agreeable to his gadding wife; for, whether she knows +it as yet or not, it is evident that _she_ rules the roost." He +followed, therefore. But as he came straight to Florida, and as Mr. and +Mrs. Chase had stopped _en route_ at Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, +Charleston, and Savannah, Walter had been in St. Augustine nearly two +weeks before they arrived. + +So far, all had turned out as he had hoped it would. This was not +surprising; for young Willoughby was, not merely in manner, but also in +reality, a good-natured, agreeable fellow, full of life, fond of +amusement. He was ambitious, it is true. But he was as far as possible +from being a drudging money-maker. He meant to carry out his plans, but +he also meant to enjoy life as he went along. He had noticed, even as +far back as the time of the wedding, that the girl whom Horace Chase was +to marry had in her temperament both indolence and activity; now one of +these moods predominated, now the other. As soon, therefore, as Mr. and +Mrs. Chase were established in their St. Augustine house, he let himself +go. Whenever the young wife's mood for activity appeared to be +uppermost, he opened a door for it; he proposed an excursion, an +entertainment of some sort. Already, under his leadership, they had +sailed down the Matanzas River (as the inlet is called) to see the old +Spanish lookout; they had rowed up Moultrie Creek; they had sent horses +across to Anastasia Island and had galloped for miles southward down the +hard ocean beach. They had explored the barrens; they had had a +bear-hunt; they had camped out; they had caught sharks. On these +occasions they had always been a party of at least four, and often of +seven, when Mrs. Franklin and Dolly, Mrs. Kip and Commodore Etheridge +joined in the excursion. Dolly in particular had surprised everybody by +her unexpected strength; she had accompanied them whenever it had been +possible. When it was not, she had urged her mother to take the vacant +place. "Do go, His Grand, so that you can tell me about it. For it does +amuse me so!" + +Walter's latest inspiration, the ball at Andalusia, having been +arranged, he now suggested that they should slip out unobserved and +finish the afternoon with a sail. "I noticed the _Owl and the Pussycat_ +moored at the pier as we came by," he said. "If she is still there, Paul +Archer is at the club, probably, and I can easily borrow her." + +"Anything to get away from these Apaches," Chase answered. "And I'm a +good deal afraid, too, of that Evangeline Taylor! She has asked me three +times, with such a voice from the tombs, if I feel well to-day, that she +has turned me stiff." + +"Why on earth does that girl make such _awful_ face?" inquired Walter. + +Ruth gave way to laughter. "I can never make you two believe it, but it +is really her deep sense of duty. She thinks that she ought to look +earnest, or intelligent, or grateful, or whatever it may be, and so she +constantly tries new ways to do it." + +"What way is it when she glares at a fellow's collar for fifteen minutes +steadily," said Walter; "at close range?" + +"She _never_ did!" protested Ruth. + +"Yes--in the tea-room; _my_ collar. And every now and then she gave a +ghastly smile." + +"She didn't know it was your collar; she was simply fixing her eyes upon +a point in space, as less embarrassing than looking about. And she +smiled because she thought she ought to, as it is a party." + +"A point in space! My collar!" grumbled Walter. + +At the gate they looked back for a moment. The guests, nearly a hundred +in number, had gathered in a semicircle under a live-oak; they were +gazing with fresh interest at the Indians, who had been drawn up before +them. The six redskins were still in as close a row as though they had +been handcuffed together; the serious spinsters had failed entirely in +their attempts to break the rank, and have a gentle word with one or two +of them, apart. The Rev. Mr. Harrison, who was to make an address, now +advanced and began to speak; the listeners at the gate could hear his +voice, though they were too far off to catch the words. The voice would +go on for a minute or two, and pause. Then would follow the more +staccato accents of the interpreter. + +"The horse-joke comes in, Walter, when that interpreter begins," said +Chase. "Who knows what he is saying?" + +The interpreter, however, made a very good speech. It was, perhaps, less +spiritual than Mr. Harrison's. + +It turned out afterwards that the thing which had made the deepest +impression upon the Apaches was not the "lady's quiet home," nor the +Sunday-school teachers, nor the cabinet-organ, nor even the dinner; it +was the extraordinary length of "the young-squaw-with-her-head-in-the-sky," +as they designated Evangeline Taylor. + +Ruth drove her ponies down to the Basin. The little yacht called the +_Owl and the Pussycat_ was still moored at the pier; but Paul Archer, +her owner, was not at the club, as Walter had supposed; he had gone to +the Florida House to call upon some friends. Commodore Etheridge was in +the club-room; he was forcing himself to stay away from Andalusia, for +he had an alarming vision of its mistress, dressed in white, with the +sunshine lighting up her sea-shell complexion and bringing out, +amorously, the rich tints of her hair. Delighted to have something to +do, he immediately took charge of Walter. + +"Write a line, Mr. Willoughby; write a line on your card, and our porter +shall take it to the Florida House at once. In the meanwhile Mr. and +Mrs. Chase can wait here. Not a bad place to wait in, Mrs. Chase? +Simple, you see. Close to nature. And nature's great restorer" (for two +of the club-men were asleep). + +The room was close to restorers of all sorts, for the land front was let +to a druggist. The house stood on the wooden pier facing the little +Plaza, across whose grassy space the old Spanish cathedral and the more +modern Episcopal church eyed each other without rancour. The Plaza's +third side was occupied by the post-office, which had once been the +residence of the Spanish governor. + +The club-room was a large, pleasant apartment, with windows and verandas +overlooking the water. There was a general straightening up of lounging +attitudes when Mrs. Chase came in. Etheridge had already introduced +Horace Chase to everybody at the club, and Chase, in his turn, had +introduced almost everybody to his wife. The club, to a man, admired +Mrs. Chase; while she waited, therefore, she held a little court. The +commodore, meanwhile, kindly took upon himself, as usual, the duty of +entertaining the Bubble. + +"Mr. Willoughby need not have gone to the Florida House in person; our +porter could perfectly well have taken a note, as I suggested. Capital +fellow, our porter; I never come South, Mr. Chase, without being struck +afresh with the excellence of the negroes as servants; they are the best +in the world; they're born for it!" + +"That's all right, if they're willing," Chase answered. "But not to +force 'em, you know. That slave-market in the Plaza, now--" + +"Oh Lord! Slave-market! Have _you_ got hold of that story too?" +interposed Etheridge, irritably. "It was never anything but a +fish-market in its life! But I'm tired of explaining it; that, and the +full-length skeleton hanging by its neck in an iron cage in the +underground dungeon at the fort--if they're not true, they ought to be; +that's what people appear to think! '_Si non ee veero, ee ben +trovatoro_,' as the Italians say. And speaking of the fort, I suppose +you have been to that ridiculous Indian party at Andalusia to-day? Mrs. +Kip must have looked grotesque, out-of-doors? In white too, I dare say?" + +"Grotesque? Why, she's pretty," answered Chase. + +"Not to my eye," responded Etheridge, determinedly. "She has the facial +outlines of a frog. Do you know the real reason why I didn't marry? I +couldn't endure, sir, the prospect of an old woman's face opposite mine +at table year after year. For our women grow old so soon--" + +As he brought this out, a dim remembrance of having said it to Horace +Chase before came into his mind. Had he, or had he not? Chase's face +betrayed nothing. If he had, what the devil did the fellow mean by not +answering naturally, "Yes, you told me?" Could it be possible that he, +Anthony Etheridge, had fallen into a habit of repeating?--So that people +were accustomed--? He went off and pretended to look at a file of +porpoises, who were going out to sea in a long line, like so many fat +dark wheels rolling through the water. + +Chase, left alone, took up a newspaper. But almost immediately he threw +it down, saying, "Well, I didn't expect to see _you_ here!" + +The person whom he addressed was a stranger, who came in at this moment, +brought by a member of the club. He shook hands with Chase, and they +talked together for a while. Then Chase crossed the room, and, smiling a +little as he noted the semicircle round his wife, he asked her to come +out and walk up and down the pier while they waited for Willoughby. Once +outside, he said: + +"Ruthie, I want to have a talk with Patterson, that man you saw come in +just now. I'm not very keen about sailing, anyhow. Will you let me off +this time?" + +"Oh yes; I don't care about going," Ruth answered. + +"You needn't give it up because I do," said her husband, kindly; "you +like to sail. Take the ancient swell in my place. He will be delighted +to go, for it will make him appear so young. Just Ruth, Anthony, and +Walter--three gay little chums together!" + +As Chase had predicted, the commodore professed himself "enchanted." He +went off smilingly in Paul Archer's yacht, whose device of an owl and +pussycat confounded the practically minded, while to the initiated--the +admirers of those immortal honey-mooners who "ate with a runcible +spoon"--it gave delight; a glee which was increased by the delicate +pea-green hue of the pretty little craft. + +But in spite of his enchantment, the commodore soon brought the boat +back. He had taken the helm, and, when he had shown himself and his +young companions to everybody on the sea-wall; when he had dashed past +the old fort; and then, putting about, had gone beating across the inlet +to the barracks, he turned the prow towards the yacht club again. It was +the hour for his afternoon whist, and he never let anything interfere +with that. + +The excursion, therefore, had been a short one, and, as Walter walked +home with Mrs. Chase, she lingered a little. "It's too early to go in," +she declared. As they passed the second pier, a dilapidated construction +with its flooring gone, she espied a boat she knew. "There is the +_Shearwater_ just coming in. I am sure Mr. Kean would lend it to us. +Don't you want to go out again?" + +The _Shearwater_ was an odd little craft, flat on the water, with a +long, pointed, covered prow and one large sail. Ruth knew it well, for +Mr. Kean was an old friend of the Franklin's, and, in former winters, he +had often taken her out. + +"My object certainly is to please her," Walter said to himself. "But she +_does_ keep one busy. Well, here goes!" + +Mr. Kean lent his boat, and presently they were off again. + +"Take me as far as the old light-house," Ruth suggested. + +"Easy enough going; but the getting back will be another matter," +Walter answered. "We should have to tack." + +"I like tacking. I insist upon the light-house," Mrs. Chase replied, +gayly. + +The little boat glided rapidly past the town and San Marco; then turned +towards the sea. For the old light-house, an ancient Spanish beacon, was +on the ocean side of Anastasia. + +"We can see it now. Isn't this far enough?" Walter asked, after a while. + +"No; take me to the very door; I've made a vow to go," Ruth declared. + +"But at this rate we shall never get back. And when we do, your husband, +powerfully hungry for his delayed dinner, will be sharpening the +carving-knife on the sea-wall!" + +"He is more likely to be sharpening pencils at the Magnolia. He is sure +to be late himself; in fact, he told me so; for he has business matters +to talk over with that Mr. Patterson." + +Walter had not known, until now, the name of the person who had carried +off Chase; he had supposed that it was some ordinary acquaintance; he +had no idea that it was the Chicago man whose name he had heard +mentioned in connection with Chase's California interests. "David +Patterson, of Chicago?" he asked. "Is he going to stay?" + +"No; he leaves to-morrow morning, I believe," replied Ruth, in an +uninterested tone. + +"And here I am, sailing all over creation with this insatiable girl, +when, if I had remained at the club, perhaps Chase would have introduced +me; perhaps I might even have been with them now at the Magnolia," +Walter reflected, with intense annoyance. + +At last she allowed him to put about. The sun was sinking out of sight. +Presently the after-glow gave a second daylight of deep gold. Down in +the south the dark line of the dense forest rose like a range of hills. +The perfume from the orange groves floated seaward and filled the air. + +"I used to believe that I liked riding better than anything," remarked +Ruth. "But ever since that little rush we had together in the dugout--do +you remember? the night we arrived?--ever since then, somehow, sailing +has seemed more delicious! For one thing, it's lazier." + +They were seated opposite each other in the small open space, Walter +holding the helm with one hand, while with the other he managed the +sail, and Ruth leaning back against the miniature deck. Presently she +began to sing, softly, Schubert's music set to Shakespeare's words: + + "'Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings, + And Phoebus 'gins arise--'" + +"Not the lark already?" asked Walter. + +He was exerting all his skill, but their progress was slow; the +_Shearwater_ crossed and recrossed, crossed and recrossed, gaining but a +few feet in each transit. + + "'Arise! arise! + My lady sweet, arise!'" + +sang Ruth. + +"Do you think I could get a rise out of those Minorcans?" suggested her +companion, indicating a fishing-boat at a little distance. "Perhaps they +could lend me some oars. I was a great fool to come out without them!" + +"Oh, don't get oars; that would spoil it. The tide has turned, and the +wind is dying down; we can float slowly in. Everything is exactly right, +and I am perfectly happy!" + +Walter, his mind haunted by that vision of Chase and Patterson at the +Magnolia, did not at first take in what she had said. Then, a minute or +two afterwards, her phrase returned to him, and he smiled; it seemed so +naïve. "It's delightful, in a discontented world, to hear you say that, +Mrs. Chase. Is it generally, or in particular, that you are so blissful? +St. Augustine? or life as a whole?" + +"Both," replied Ruth, promptly. "For I have everything I like--and I +like so many things! And everybody does whatever I want them to do. Why, +you yourself, Mr. Willoughby! Because I love to dance, you have arranged +that ball for to-morrow night. And when I asked you to take me out this +second time in the _Shearwater_, you did it at once." + +"Ah, my lady, with your blue eyes and dark lashes, you little know why!" +thought Walter, with an inward laugh. + +At last he got the boat up to the dilapidated pier again. It was long +after dark. He took her to her door, and left her; she must explain her +late arrival in her own way. Women, fortunately, are excellent at +explanations. + +But Chase was not there. + +Twenty minutes afterwards he came in, late in his turn. "You didn't have +dinner, Ruthie? I'm sorry you waited; I was detained." + +"I was very late myself," Ruth answered. + +"Even now I can't stay," Chase went on, hurriedly; "I came back to tell +you, and to get a few things. I am going up to Savannah with Patterson +for three or four days, on business. We are to have a special--a mule +special--this evening, and hit a steamer. You'd better have your mother +to stay with you while I'm away." + +"Yes. To-morrow." + +"She could come to-night, couldn't she?" + +"Yes; but it's late; I won't make her turn out to-night. With seven +servants in the house, I am not afraid," Ruth answered. + +"I only thought you might be lonely?" + +"I'll sing all my songs to Petie Trone, Esq." + +He laughed and kissed her. + +"You must come back soon," she said. + +When he had gone she went up-stairs and changed her dress for a long, +loose costume of pale pink tint, covered with lace; then, returning, she +rang for dinner. Here, as in New York, there was a housekeeper, who +relieved the young wife of all care. The dinner, in spite of the long +postponement, was excellent; it was also dainty, for the housekeeper had +learned Mrs. Chase's tastes. Mrs. Chase enjoyed it. She drank a glass of +wine, and dallied over the sweets and the fruit. Afterwards, in the +softly lighted drawing-room, she amused herself by singing half a dozen +songs. Petie Trone, Esq., the supposed audience, was not fond of music, +though the songs were sweet; he slinked out, and going softly up the +stairs, deposited himself of his own accord in his basket behind the +cheval-glass in the dressing-room. At eleven his mistress came up; she +let Félicité undress her, and brush with skilful touch the long, thick +mass of her hair. When the maid had gone, she read a little, leaning +back in an easy-chair, with a shaded lamp beside her; then, letting the +novel slip down on her lap, she sat there, looking about the room. Miss +Billy Breeze had marvelled over the luxurious toilet table at +L'Hommedieu; here the whole room was like that table. Presently its +occupant put out her hand, and drew towards her a small stand which held +her jewel-box. For she already had jewels, as Chase liked to buy them +for her. He would have covered his wife with diamonds if Mrs. Franklin +had not said (during that first visit at Asheville after the marriage), +"Ruth is too young to wear diamonds, Mr. Chase; don't you think so?" +Chase did not think so; but he had deferred to her opinion--at least, he +supposed himself to be deferring to it when he bought only rubies and +sapphires and pearls. His wife now turned over these ornaments. She put +on the pearl necklace; then she took it off, and held it against her +cheek. But she did not spend as much time as usual over the jewels. +Often she entertained herself with them for an hour; it had been one of +her husband's amusements to watch her. To-night, putting the case aside, +she strolled to the window, opened it and looked out. The stars were +shining brilliantly overhead; she could hear the soft lapping of the +water against the sea-wall. From Anastasia came at intervals the flash +of the light-house. "I was over there at sunset," she said to herself as +she watched the gleam. Then closing the window, she walked idly to and +fro, with her hands clasped behind her. "How happy I am!" she thought; +or rather she did not think it, she felt it. She had no desire to sleep; +the door of the bedroom stood open behind her, but she did not go in. +She sat down on the divan, and let her head fall back among the +cushions: "Everything is perfect--perfect. How delightful it is to +live!" + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +Two days after the Indian party at Andalusia, the excursion which Mrs. +Kip had called a "boat-drive" came off. Horace Chase was still absent; +he had telegraphed to his wife that he could not return before the last +of the week. As all the preparations had been made, the excursion was +not postponed on his account. Nor was there any reason why it should be. +It was not given in honor of his wife, especially; Ruth, after sixteen +months of marriage, could hardly be called a bride. In addition, the +little winter colony had learned that an hour or two of their leisurely +pleasure-making was about as much as this man of affairs could enjoy +(some persons said "could endure"); after that his face was apt to +betray a vague boredom, although it was evident that (with his usual +careful politeness) he was trying to conceal it. + +Walter Willoughby, meanwhile, was making the best of an annoying +situation. He had lost the chance of being introduced to David +Patterson, and with it the opportunity of learning something definite, +at last, about Chase's Californian interests, and this seemed to him a +great misfortune. But there was no use in moaning over it; the course to +follow was not still further to lose the five days of Chase's absence +in sulking, but to employ them in the only profitable way that was left +open (small profit, but better than nothing)--namely, in cementing still +further a friendly feeling between himself and Chase's wife, that +butterfly young wife who had been the cause of so many of his +disappointments. "Every little helps, I suppose," he said to himself, +philosophically. "And as the thing she likes best, apparently, is to go +and keep going, why, I'll take her own pace and outrace her--the little +gad-about!" For, to Walter's eyes, Ruth appeared very young; mentally +unformed as yet, child-like. His adjective "little" could, in truth, +only be applied to her in this sense, for in actual inches Mrs. Chase +was almost as tall as he was. Walter was of medium height, robust and +compact. He had a well-shaped, well-poised head, which joined his strong +neck behind with no hollow and scarcely a curve. His thick, dark hair +was kept very short; but, with his full temples and facial outlines, +this curt fashion became him well. He was not called handsome, though +his features were clearly cut and firm. His gray eyes were ordinarily +rather cold. But when he was animated--and he was usually very +animated--young Willoughby looked full of life. He was fond of pleasure, +fond of amusement. But this did not prevent his possessing, underneath +the surface, a resolute will, which he could enforce against himself as +well as against others. He intended to enjoy life. And as, according to +his idea, there could be no lasting enjoyment without freedom from the +pinch of anxiety about material things, he also intended to get +money--first of all to get money. "For a few years, while one is young, +to have small means doesn't so much matter," he had told himself. "But +when one reaches middle age, or passes it, then, if one has children, +care inevitably steps in. There are anxieties, of course, which cannot +be prevented. But this particular one can be--with a certain amount of +energy, and also of resolute self-control in the beginning. The +'have-a-good-time-while-you-are-young' policy doesn't compensate for +having a bad time when you are old, in my opinion. And it's care that +makes one old!" + +Horace Chase had left St. Augustine on Monday. The next evening, at Mrs. +Kip's impromptu ball in the gymnasium, the junior partner of Willoughby, +Chase, & Company devoted his time to Mrs. Chase with much skill. His +attentions remained unobtrusive; he did not dance with her often. The +latter, indeed, would not have been possible in any case; for Mrs. Chase +was surrounded, from first to last, by all that St. Augustine could +offer. Graceful as she was in all her movements, Ruth's dancing was +particularly charming. And it was also striking; for, sinuous, lithe, +soon excited, she danced because she loved it, danced with unconscious +abandon. That night, her slender figure in the white ball dress, that +floated backward in the rapid motion, her happy face with the starry +eyes and beautiful color coming and going--this made a picture which +those who were present remembered long. At ten o'clock she had begun to +dance; at two, when many persons were taking leave, she was still on the +floor; with her circle of admirers, it was now Mrs. Chase who was +keeping up the ball. Her mother, who was staying with her during her +husband's absence, had accompanied her to Andalusia. But there was no +need to ask whether Mrs. Franklin was tired; Mrs. Franklin was never +tired in scenes of gayety; she was as well entertained as her daughter. +Walter had danced but twice with Mrs. Chase during the four hours. But +always between her dances he had been on hand. If she had a fancy for +spending a few moments on the veranda, he had her white cloak ready; if +she wished for an ice, it appeared by magic; if there was any one she +did not care to dance with, she could always say that she was engaged to +Mr. Willoughby. It was in this way, in fact, that Mr. Willoughby had +obtained his two dances. The last dance, however, was all his own. It +was three o'clock; even the most good-natured chaperons had collected +their charges, and the music had ceased. "How sorry I am! I do so long +for just one waltz more," said Ruth. + +She spoke to her mother, but Walter overheard the words. He went across +to the musicians (in reality he bribed them); then returning, he said: +"I've arranged it, Mrs. Chase. You are to have that one waltz more." A +few of the young people, tempted by the revived strains, threw aside +their wraps and joined them, but practically they had the floor to +themselves. Walter was an expert dancer, skilful and strong; he bore his +partner down the long room, guiding her so securely that she was not +obliged to think of their course; she could leave that entirely to him, +and give herself up to the enjoyment of the motion. As they returned +towards the music for the third time, she supposed that he would stop. +But he did not; he swept her down again, and in shorter circles that +made her, light as she was on her feet, a little giddy. "Isn't this +enough?" she asked. But apparently he did not hear her. The floor began +to spin. "Please stop," she murmured, her eyes half closing from the +increasing dizziness. But her partner kept on until he felt that she was +faltering; then, with a final bewildering whirl, he deposited her safely +on a bench, and stood beside her, laughing a little. + +There was no one near them; Mrs. Franklin, Mrs. Kip, and the few who +still remained, were at the other end of the room. Ruth, after a moment, +began to laugh also, while she pressed her hands over her eyes to help +herself see more clearly. "What possessed you?" she said. "Another +instant and I should certainly have fallen; I couldn't see a thing!" + +"No, you wouldn't have fallen, Mrs. Chase; I could have held you up +under any circumstances. But I wanted to make you for once acknowledge +that we are not all so lethargic as you constantly accuse us of being." + +"Accuse?" said Ruth, surprised. She was still panting. + +"Yes, you accuse the whole world; you do nothing _but_ accuse. You are +never preoccupied yourself, and so preoccupation in others seems to you +stupidity. You are never tired; so the rest of us strike you as owlish +and lazy." + +"Oh, but I'm often lazy myself," protested Ruth. + +"Precisely. No doubt when you go in for being lazy at all, you carry it +further than any poor, dull, reasonable man would ever dream of doing," +Walter went on. "I dare say you are capable of lying motionless on a +sofa, with a novel, for ten hours at a stretch!" + +"Ten hours? That's nothing. Ten days," answered Ruth. "I have spent ten +days at L'Hommedieu in that way many a time; Maud Muriel used to call it +'lucid stupor.'" + +"Lucid?" said Walter, doubtfully. "Do you think you can walk?" he went +on, as her mirth still continued. "Because the music really has stopped +this time, and I see your mother's eyes turning this way. Your laughs +are perfectly beautiful, of course. But do they leave you your walking +powers?" + +The musicians, seeing them rise, began suddenly to play again (for his +bribe had been a generous one), and he took her back to her mother in a +rapid _deux temps_. + +"Splendid! I like dancing better than anything else in the world," Ruth +declared. + +"I thought it was sailing? However, whatever it is, please make use of +me often, Mrs. Chase. When I've nothing to do I become terribly +low-spirited: for my uncles are bent upon marrying me!" + +"Have they selected any special person?" inquired Mrs. Franklin, +laughing, as he helped her to put on her cloak. + +"I think they have their eye on a widow, a widow of thirty-seven with a +fortune," answered Walter, with exaggerated gloom. + +"Will she have you?" + +"Never in the world!" Walter declared; "that's just it! Why, therefore, +should my uncles force me forward--such a tender flower as I am--to +certain defeat? It is on that account that I have run away. I have come +to hide in Florida--under your protection, Mrs. Chase." + +The meeting-place for the water-party the next day was St. Francis +Barracks--the long, brown structure with pointed gables and deep shady +verandas, which stood on the site of an old Spanish monastery, at the +south end of the sea-wall. The troops stationed at St. Francis that +winter belonged to the First Artillery; to-day the colonel and his +family, the captain and his wife, and the two handsome lieutenants took +part in the excursion; there were fifty people in all, and many yachts, +from the big _Seminole_ down to the little _Shearwater_. Walter had _The +Owl and the Pussycat_, and with him embarked Mrs. Franklin with her two +daughters, Miss Franklin and Mrs. Chase; Mrs. Lilian Kip; and Commodore +Etheridge. At two o'clock the little fleet sped gayly down the Matanzas. + +"Matanzas, Sebastian, St. Augustine," said Walter; "these names are all +in character. It's an awful misfortune for your husband's budding summer +resort in the North Carolina mountains, Mrs. Chase, that its name +happens to be Asheville, after that stupid custom of tacking the French +'ville' to some man's name; (for I take it that Ashe is a name, and not +cinders). In this case, the first settlers were more than usually +asinine; for they had the beautiful Indian 'Swannanoa' ready to their +hands." + +"Oh, but first settlers have no love for Indian names," commented Dolly. +"How can they have? The Indians and the great forest--these are their +enemies. To me there is something touching in our Higgsvilles and +Slatervilles. I see the first log cabins in the little clearing; then a +short, stump-bedecked street; then two or three streets and a +court-house. The Higgs or the Slater was their best man, their leader, +the one they looked up to. In North Carolina alone there are one hundred +and ten towns or villages with names ending in 'ville.'" + +"North Carolina? Oh yes, I dare say!" remarked Etheridge. + +"And two hundred and forty-one in New York," added Dolly. + +"Well, we make up for it in other ways," said Mrs. Franklin. "If the men +name the towns, the women name the children; I have known mothers to +produce simply from their own imaginations such titles as Merilla, and +Idelusia, for their daughters. I once knew a girl who had even been +baptized Damask Rose." + +"What did they call her for short?" inquired Walter. + +"Oh, Mr. _Willoughby!_" said Lilian Kip, shocked. + +"Damask's mother was trying to solace herself with names, I fancy," Mrs. +Franklin went on, "because by the terms of her husband's will (she was a +widow), she forfeited all she had if she married again." + +"How outrageous?" exclaimed Mrs. Kip, bristling into vehemence. "If a +woman has been a good wife to one man, is that any reason why she should +be denied the _privilege_ of being a good wife to another?" + +"Privilege?" repeated Dolly. + +"Surely there is no greater one," said Mrs. Kip, with a sigh. "Love is +so beautiful! And it is such a benefit! The more one loves, the better, +I think. And the more _persons_ one loves, the more sweet and generous +one's nature becomes. If any one has been bereaved, I am always _so_ +glad to hear that they are in love again. Even if the love is +unreturned" (here she gave a little swallow), "I still think it in +itself the greatest blessing we have; and the most improving." + +After a friendly race towards the south, the fleet turned and came back; +the company disembarked and walked across the narrow breadth of +Anastasia Island to the ocean beach, where, at the Spanish light-house, +the collation was to be served later in the day. The old beacon stood, +at high tide, almost in the water; for, in two hundred years, the ocean +had encroached largely upon the shore. Its square stone tower, which had +been topped in the Spanish days with an iron grating and a bonfire, now +displayed a revolving light, which flashed and then faded, flashed and +faded, signalling out to sea the harbor of St. Augustine. Under the +tower stood a coquina house for the keeper, and the whole was fortified, +having a defensive wall, with angles and loop-holes. Nothing could have +been more beautiful than the soft sapphire tint of the ocean, whose long +rollers, coming smoothly in, broke with a musical wash upon the broad +white beach which, firm as a pavement, stretched towards the south in +long curves. Not a ship was in sight. Overhead sailed an eagle. "Oh, why +did we land so soon?" said Ruth, regretfully. "We might have stayed out +two hours longer. For we are not to have the supper--or is it the +dinner?--at any rate, it's chowder--until sunset." + +"We can go out again, if you like," said Walter. + +Here Etheridge came up. The implacably clear light which comes from a +broad expanse of sea was revealing every minute line in Mrs. Franklin's +delicate face. "How wrinkled she looks!" was his self-congratulatory +thought. "Even fifteen years ago she was finished--done!" Then he +added, aloud: "I think I'll accompany you, if you _are_ going out again. +The afternoon promises to be endlessly long here, with nothing to do but +gawp for sea-beans, or squawk poetry!" This strenuous description of +some of the amusements already in progress on the beach showed that, in +the commodore's plans, something had gone wrong. + +"Are you really going, commodore?" asked Mrs. Franklin. "Then I'll put +Ruth in your charge." + +"Put me in it, too," said Dolly. "I should much rather sail than sit +here." + +"Oh no, Dolly. You never can take that walk to the landing a second time +so soon," said the mother. + +And so it proved. Dolly started. But, after a few steps, she had to give +it up. "I should think _you_ would like to go, His Grand?" she +suggested. + +"I can't. I have promised to see to the chowder," answered Mrs. +Franklin. "Sailing and sea-beans and poetry are all very well. But I +have noticed that every one grows gloomy when the chowder is bad!" + +Etheridge, Ruth, and Walter Willoughby, therefore, recrossed the island +and embarked. The commodore took the helm. + +"What boat is that ahead of us?" asked Walter. "Some of our people? Has +any one else deserted the sea-beans?" + +"I dare say," replied Etheridge, carelessly. + +The commodore could manage a boat extremely well; the _Owl and the +Pussycat_ flew after that sail ahead, in a line as straight as a +plummet. + +"Why, it's Mrs. Kip," said Ruth, as they drew nearer. She had recognized +the gypsy hat in the other boat. + +"Yes, with Albert Tillotson," added Walter. + +"What, that donkey?" inquired Etheridge, with well-feigned surprise (and +an anger that required no feigning). "He can no more manage a boat than +I can manage a comet! Poor Mrs. Kip is in actual danger of her life. The +idea of that Tom Noddy of a Tillotson daring to take her out! I must run +this boat up alongside, Mr. Willoughby, and get on board immediately. +Common humanity requires it." + +"The commodore's common humanity is uncommonly like jealousy," said +Walter to Ruth when the _Owl_ had dropped behind again after this +manoeuvre had been successfully executed. "He is a clever old fellow! +Of course he knew she was out, and he came with us on purpose. We'll +keep near them, Mrs. Chase, and watch their faces; it will be as good as +a play." + +To his surprise, Ruth, who was generally so ready to laugh, did not pay +heed to this. "I am glad he has gone," she said; "for now we need not +talk--just sail and sail! Let us go over so far--straight down towards +the south." Her eyes had a dreamy expression which was new to him. + +"What next!" thought her companion. He glanced furtively at his watch. +"I can keep on for half an hour more, I suppose." + +But when, at the end of that time, he put about, Ruth, who had scarcely +spoken, straightened herself (she had been lying back indolently, with +one hand behind her head), and watched the turning prow with regret. +"_Must_ we go back so soon? Why?" + +"To look for sea-beans," answered Walter. "Are you aware, Mrs. Chase, of +the awful significance of that New England phrase of condemnation, 'You +don't know beans'? It will be said that _I_ don't know if I take you any +farther. For the tide will soon turn, and the wind is already against +us." + +But his tasks were not yet at an end; another idea soon took possession +of his companion's imagination. + +"How wild Anastasia looks from here! I have never landed at this point. +Can't we land now, just for a few moments? It would be such fun." + +"Won't it be more than fun, Mrs. Horace? A wild-goose--? Forgive the +pun." + +On Anastasia there are ancient trails running north and south. Ruth, +discovering one of these paths, followed it inland. "I wish we could +meet something, I wish we could have an adventure!" she said. "There are +bears over here; and there are alligators too at the pools. Perhaps this +trail leads to a pool?" The surmise was correct; the path soon brought +them within sight of a dark-looking pond, partly covered with lily +leaves. Ruth, who was first (for the old Indian trail was so narrow that +they could not walk side by side), turned back suddenly. "There really +_is_ an alligator," she whispered. "He is half in and half out of the +water. I am going to run round through the thicket, so as to have a +nearer view of him." And hurrying with noiseless steps along the trail, +she turned into the forest. + +He followed. "Don't be foolhardy," he urged. For she seemed to him so +fearless that there was no telling what she might do. + +But when they reached the opposite side of the pool no alligator was +visible, and Ruth, seating herself in the loop of a vine, which formed a +natural swing, laughed her merriest. + +"You are an excellent actress," he said. "I really believed that you had +seen the creature." + +"And if I had? They don't attack people; they are great cowards." + +"I have an admirable air of being more timid than she is!" he thought, +annoyed. + +They returned towards the shore along a low ridge. On their way he saw +something cross this ridge about thirty feet ahead of them--a slender +dark line. He ran forward and looked down (for the ridge was four feet +high). + +"Come quickly!" he called back to Ruth. "Your alligator was a base +invention. But here is something real. He is hardly more than an +infant," he continued, his eyes still fixed on the lower slope. "But he +is of the blood royal, I can tell by the shape of his neck. I'll get a +long branch, Mrs. Chase, and then, as you like adventures, you can see +him strike." Where they stood, they were safe, for the snake (it was a +young rattlesnake) would not come up the ascent; when he moved, he would +glide the other way into the thicket. Hastily cutting a long wand from a +bush, he gave it to her. "Touch him," he directed; "on the body, not on +the head. Then you will see him coil!" He himself kept his eyes +meanwhile on the snake; he did not look at her. But the wand did not +descend. "Make haste," he urged, "or he will be off!" + +The wand came down slowly, paused, and then touched the reptile, who +instantly coiled himself, reared his flat head, and struck at it with +his fangs exposed. Walter, excited and interested, waited to see him +strike again. But there was no opportunity, for the wand itself was +dropping. He turned. Ruth, her face covered with her hands, was +shuddering convulsively. + +"The snake has gone," he said, reassuringly; "he went off like a shot +into the thicket, he is a quarter of a mile away by this time." For he +was alarmed by the violence of the tremor that had taken possession of +her. + +In spite of her tremor, she began to run; she hurried like a wild +creature along the ridge until she came to a broad open space of white +sand, over which no dark object could approach unseen; here she sank +down, sobbing aloud. + +He was at his wits' end. Why should a girl, who apparently had no fear +of bears or alligators, be frightened out of her senses by one small +snake? + +"Supposing she should faint--that Dolly is always fainting! What on +earth could I do?" he thought. + +Ruth, however, did not faint. But she sobbed and sobbed as if she could +not stop. + +"It's just like her laughing," thought Walter, in despair. "Dear Mrs. +Chase," he said aloud, "I am distracted to see how I have made you +suffer. These Florida snakes do very little harm, unless one happens to +step on them unawares. I did not imagine, I did not dream, that the mere +sight--But that makes no difference; I shall never forgive myself; +never!" + +Ruth looked up, catching her breath. "It was so dreadful!" she murmured, +brokenly. "Did you see its--its mouth?" She was so white that even her +lips were colorless; her blue eyes were dilated strangely. + +He grew more and more alarmed. Apparently she saw it, for she tried to +control herself; and, after two or three minutes, she succeeded. "You +must not mind if I happen to look rather pale," she said, timidly. "I am +sometimes very pale for a moment or two. And then I get dreadfully red +in the same way. Dolly often speaks of it. But it doesn't mean anything. +I can go now," she added, still timidly. + +"She thinks I am vexed," he said to himself, surprised. He was not +vexed; on the contrary, in her pallor and this new shyness she was more +interesting to him than she had ever been before. As he knew that they +ought to be on their way back, he accepted her offer to start, in spite +of her white cheeks. But her steps were so weak, and she still trembled +so convulsively, that he drew her hand through his arm and held it. +Giving her in this way all the help he could, he took her towards the +shore, choosing a route through open spaces, so that there should be no +vision of any gliding thing in the underbrush near by. When they were +off again, crossing the Matanzas on a long tack, she was still very +pallid. "I haven't been clever," he thought. "At present she is unnerved +by fright. But by to-morrow it will be anger, and she will say that it +was my fault." While thinking of this, he talked on various subjects. +But it was a monologue; for a long time Ruth made no answer. Then +suddenly the color came rushing back to her cheeks. "_Please_ don't +tell--don't tell any one how dreadfully frightened I was," she pleaded. + +"I never tell anything; I have no talent for narrative," he answered, +much relieved to see the returning red. "But I am dreadfully cut up and +wretched about that fright I was stupid enough to give you. I wish I +could make you forget it, Mrs. Chase; forget it forever." + +"On the contrary, I am afraid I shall remember it forever," Ruth +answered. Then she added, still timidly, "But you were so kind--It won't +be _all_ unpleasant." + +"What a school-girl it is!" thought Walter. "And above all things, what +a creature of extremes! She must lead Horace Chase a life! However, she +is certainly seductively lovely." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +At the end of this week Horace Chase returned. And the next morning he +paid a visit to his mother-in-law. He still used his "ma'am" when +talking to her; she still called him "Mr. Chase." In mentioning him to +others, she sometimes succeeded in bringing out a "Horace." But when the +tall, grave-looking business man was before her in person, she never got +beyond the more formal title. + +"My trip to Savannah, ma'am, was connected with business," Chase began, +after he had gone through his usual elaborate inquiries about her health +and "the health of Miss Dolly." "One of my friends, David Patterson by +name, and myself, have been engaged for some time in arranging a new +enterprise in which we are about to embark in California. Matters are +now sufficiently advanced for me to mention that about May next we shall +need a confidential man in New York to attend to the Eastern part of it. +It is highly important to me, ma'am, to have for that position some one +I know, some one I can trust. Mr. Patterson will go himself to +California, and remain there, probably, a year or more. Meanwhile I, at +the East, shall need just the right man under me; for _I_ have other +things to see to; I cannot give all my time to this new concern. Do you +think, ma'am, that Mr. Franklin could be induced to take this place? +Under the circumstances, I should esteem it a favor." And here he made +Jared's mother a little bow. + +"You are very kind," answered Mrs. Franklin. Having refused to know +anything of the correspondence between Ruth and Genevieve, she had had +until now no knowledge of the proposed New York place. "Jared's present +position is certainly most wretched drudgery," she went on; "far beneath +his abilities--which are really great." + +"Just so. And what should you recommend, ma'am, as the best way to open +the subject? Shall I take a run up to Raleigh? Or shall I drop him a +line? Perhaps you yourself would like to write?" + +The mother reflected. "If I do," she thought, "Jared will fancy that I +have begged the place for him. If Ruth writes, he will be sure of it. If +Mr. Chase writes, Jared will answer within the hour--a letter full of +jokes and friendliness, but--declining. If Chase goes to Raleigh in +person, Jared will decline verbally, and with even more unassailable +good-humor. No, there is only one person in the world who could perhaps +make him yield, and that person is Genevieve!" At this thought, her +face, which always showed like a barometer her inward feelings, changed +so markedly that her son-in-law hastened to interpose. "Don't bother +about the ways and means, ma'am; I guess I can fix it all right." He +spoke in a confident tone, in order to reassure her; for he had a liking +for the "limber old lady," as he mentally called her. His confidence, +however, was in a large measure assumed; where business matters were in +question, the "offishness," as he termed it, of this ex-naval officer +had seemed to him such a queer trait that he hardly knew how to grapple +with it. + +"I was only thinking that my daughter-in-law would perhaps be the best +person to speak to Jared," replied Mrs. Franklin at last. (The words +came out with an effort.) + +"Gen? So she would; she is very clear-headed. But if she is to be the +one, I must first let her know just what the place is, and all about it, +and how can that be done, ma'am? Wouldn't Mr. Franklin see my letter?" + +"No. For she isn't in Raleigh with her husband; she is at Asheville." + +"Why, how's that?" inquired Chase, who had seen, from the first, Jared's +deep attachment to his wife. + +"How indeed!" thought the mother. Her lips quivered. She compressed them +in order to conceal it. The satisfaction which she had, for a time, felt +in the idea that Genevieve was learning, at last, that she could not +always control her husband--this had now vanished in the sense of her +son's long and dreary solitude. For the wife had not been in Raleigh +during the entire winter; Jared had been left to endure existence as +best he could in his comfortless boarding-house. "My daughter-in-law has +been very closely occupied at Asheville," she explained, after a moment. +"They are improving their house there, you know, and she can superintend +work of that sort remarkably well." + +"That's so," said Chase, agreeingly. + +"She is also much interested in a new wing for the Colored Home," +pursued Mrs. Franklin; and this time a little of her deep inward +bitterness showed itself in her tone. + +"Gen's pretty cute!" thought Chase. "She's not only feathering her own +nest up there in Asheville, but at the same time she is starving out +that wrong-headed husband of hers." Then he went on aloud: "Well, ma'am, +if it's to be Mrs. Jared who is to attend to the matter for me, I guess +I'll wait until I can put the whole thing before her in a nutshell, with +the details arranged. That will be pretty soon now--as soon as I come +back from California. For I must go to California myself before long." + +"Are you going to take Ruth? How I shall miss her!" said the mother, +dispiritedly. + +"We shall not be gone a great while--only five or six weeks. On second +thoughts, why shouldn't you come along, ma'am?--come along with us? I +guess I could fix it so as you'd be pretty comfortable." + +"You are very kind. But I could not leave Dolly." + +"Of course not. I didn't mean that, ma'am; I meant that Miss Dolly +should come along too. That French woman of Ruth's--Felicity--she's +capital when travelling. Or we could have a trained nurse? They have +very attractive nurses now, ma'am; real ladies; and good-looking too, +and sprightly." + +"You are always thoughtful," answered Mrs. Franklin, amused by this +description. "But it is impossible. Dolly can travel for two or three +days, if we take great precautions; but a longer time makes her ill. +Ruth is coming to lunch, isn't she? With Malachi? I am so glad you +brought him; he doesn't have many holidays." + +"Well, ma'am, he was there in Savannah, buying a bell, or, rather, +getting prices. A church bell, as I understood. He'd about got through, +and was going back to Asheville, when I suggested to him to come along +down to St. Augustine for three or four days. 'Come and look up your +wandering flock'--that is what I remarked to him. For you know, ma'am, +that with yourself and Miss Dolly, the commodore and Mrs. Kip, you make +four--four of his sheep in Florida; including Miss Evangeline Taylor, +four sheep and a first-prize lamb." + +Mrs. Franklin smiled. But she felt herself called upon to explain a +little. "We are not of his flock, exactly; Mr. Hill has a mission +charge. But though he is not our rector, we are all much attached to +him." + +"He's a capital little fellow, and works hard; I've great respect for +him. But somehow, ma'am, he's taken a queer way lately of stopping short +when he is talking. Almost as though he had choked!" + +"So he has--choked himself off," answered Mrs. Franklin, breaking into a +laugh. "When with you, he is constantly tempted to ask for money for the +Mission, he says. He knows, however, that the clergy are always accused +of paying court to rich men for begging purposes, and he is determined +to be an exception. But he finds it uncommonly difficult." + +"How much does he want?" inquired Chase. Then he paused. "Perhaps his +notions take the form of a church?" he went on. "I've been thinking a +little of building a church, ma'am. You see, my mother was a great +church-goer; she found her principal comfort in it. I've been very far +from steady myself, I'm sorry to say; I haven't done much credit to her +bringing-up. And so I've thought that I'd put up a church some day, as a +sort of memory of her. Because, if she'd lived, she would have liked +that better than anything else." + +"Do you mean an Episcopal church?" inquired Mrs. Franklin, touched by +these words. + +"Well, she was a Baptist herself," Chase replied. "So perhaps I have +rather a prejudice in favor of that denomination. But I'm not set upon +it; I should think it might be built so as to be suitable for all +persuasions. At any rate, I guess Hill and I could hit it off together +somehow." + +Here Dolly came in, and a moment afterwards Ruth appeared with the Rev. +Malachi Hill. Dolly greeted the young missionary with cordiality. "How +is Asheville?" she inquired. "How is Maud Muriel?" + +Malachi's radiant face changed. "She is the same. When I see her coming, +I do everything I can to keep out of the way. But sometimes there is no +corner to turn, or no house to go into, and I _have_ to pass her. And +then I know just how she will say it!" And, tightening his lips, he +brought out a low "Manikin!" + +"Brace up," said Dolly. "You must look back at her and look her down; +make her falter." + +"Oh, falter!" repeated poor Malachi, hopelessly. + +Another guest now appeared--Mrs. Kip. For Mrs. Franklin had invited them +all to lunch before the jessamine hunt, which had been appointed for +that afternoon. As it happened, Mrs. Kip's first question also was, "How +is Miss Mackintosh?" + +"Unchanged. At least, she treats _me_ with the same contumely," answered +the clergyman. + +"If you indulge yourself with such words as 'contumely,' Mr. Hill, +people will call you affected," said Dolly, in humorous warning. + +"Now, Dolly, don't say that," interposed Mrs. Kip. "For unusual words +are full of dignity. I don't know what I wouldn't give if _I_ could +bring in, just naturally and easily, when I am talking, such a word, for +instance, as jejune! And for clergymen it is especially distinguished. +Though there is _one_ clerical word, Mr. Hill, that I do think might be +altered, and that is closet. Why should we always be told to meditate in +our closets? Generally there is no room for a chair; so all one can +think of is people sitting on the floor among the shoes." + +Every one laughed. Mrs. Kip, however, had made her remark in perfect +good faith. + +The entrance of Walter Willoughby completed the party, and lunch was +announced. When the meal was over, and they came back to the parlor, +they found Félicité in waiting with Petie Trone, Esq. Félicité, a French +woman with a trim waist and large eyes, always looked as though she +would like to be wicked. In reality, however, she was harmless, for one +insatiable ambition within her swallowed up all else, namely, the +ambition not to be middle-aged. As she was forty-eight, the struggle +took all her time. "I bring to madame le petit trône for his promenade," +she said, as, after a respectful salutation to the company, she detached +the leader from the dog's collar. + +"Must that fat little wretch go with us?" Chase inquired, after the maid +had departed. + +For answer, Ruth took up Mr. Trone and deposited him on her husband's +knee. "Yes; and you are to see to him." + +"Is the squirrel down here too?" inquired Walter. "I haven't seen him." + +"Robert the Squirrel--" began Chase, with his hands in his trousers +pockets; then he paused. "That's just like Robert the Devil, isn't it? I +mean an opera, ma'am, of that name that they were giving in New York +last winter," he explained to Mrs. Franklin, so that she should not +think he was swearing. + +"Robert the Devil will do excellently well as a nickname for Bob," said +Dolly. "It's the best he has had." + +"Well, at any rate, Robert the Squirrel isn't here," Chase went on. "He +boards with Mr. Hill for the winter, Walter; special terms made for +nuts. And, by-the-way, Hill, you haven't mentioned Larue; how is the +senator? I'm keeping my eye on him for future use in booming our resort, +you know. The Governor of North Carolina remarking to the Governor of +South Carolina--you've heard that story? Well, sir, what we propose now +is to have the _senator_ from North Carolina remark to the senator from +South Carolina (and to all the other senators thrown in) that Asheville +is bound to be the Lone Star of mountain resorts south of the +Catskills." + +Lilian Kip's heart had given a jump at Larue's name; to carry it off, +she took up a new novel which was lying on the table. (For Chase's order +had been a perennial one: "all the latest articles in fiction," pursued +Mrs. Franklin hotly, month after month.) "Oh, I am sure you don't like +_this_," said Lilian, when she had read the title. + +"I have only just begun it," answered Mrs. Franklin. "But why shouldn't +I like it? It is said to be original and amusing." + +"It is not _at all_ the book I should wish to put into the hands of +Evangeline Taylor," replied Mrs. Kip, with decision. + +"The one unfailing test of the American mother for the entire literature +of the world!" commented Dolly. + +The search for the first jessamine was in those days one of the regular +amusements of a St. Augustine winter. Where St. George Street ends, +beyond the two pomegranate-topped pillars of the old city gate, Mrs. +Franklin's party came upon the other members of the searching +expedition, and they all walked on together along the shell road. On the +right, Fort San Marco loomed up, with the figures of several Indians on +its top outlined against the sky. Beyond shone the white sand-hills of +the North Beach. At the end of the road the searchers entered a long +range of park-like glades; here the yellow jessamine, the loveliest wild +flower of the Florida spring, unfolds its tendrils as it clambers over +the trees and thickets, lighting up their evergreen foliage with its +bell-shaped flowers. Dolly and Mrs. Franklin had accompanied the party +in a phaeton. "I think I can drive everywhere, even without a road, as +the ground is so level and open," Dolly suggested. "But you must serve +as guide, Ruth. Please keep us in sight." + +But after a while Ruth forgot this injunction. Mrs. Franklin, always +interested in whatever was going on, had already disappeared, searching +for the jessamine with the eagerness of a girl. Dolly, finding herself +thus deserted, stopped. But her brother-in-law, who had had his eye on +her pony from the beginning, soon appeared. "What, alone?" he said, +coming up. + +Upon seeing him, Dolly cleared her brow. "I don't mind it; the glades +are so pretty." + +Chase examined the glades; but without any marked admiration in his +glance. + +"Where is Ruth?" Dolly went on. + +"Just round the corner--I mean on the other side of that thicket. Walter +has found some of the vine they are all hunting for, and she's in a +great jubilation over it; she wanted to find it ahead of that Mr. Kean, +who always gets it first." + +"Please tell her to bring me a spray of it. As soon as she can." + +Assuring himself that the pony felt no curiosity about the absence of a +road under his feet, Chase, with his leisurely step, went in search of +his wife. He found her catching jessamine, which Walter, who had climbed +into a wild-plum tree, was throwing down. She had already adorned +herself with the blossoms, and when she saw her husband approaching she +went to meet him, and wound a spray round his hat. + +"Your sister wants some; she told me to tell you. She's back there a +little way--on the left," said Chase. "Hullo! here comes a wounded +hero;" for Petie Trone, Esq., had appeared, limping dolefully. "Never +mind; I'll see to the little porpoise if you want to go to Dolly." He +stooped and took up the dog with gentle touch. "He has probably been +interviewing some prickly-pears." + +When Ruth had gone, Walter's interest in the jessamine vanished. He +swung himself down to the ground. "Mrs. Chase has been telling me that +you are thinking of going to California very soon?" he said, +inquiringly. + +"Yes; I guess we shall get off next week," Chase answered, examining +Trone's little paws. + +"I am going to be very bold," Walter went on. "I am going to ask you to +take me with you." + +Chase's features did not move, but his whole expression altered; the +half-humorous look which his face always wore when, in the company of +his young wife, he was "taking things easy," as he called it, gave place +in a flash to the cool reticence of the man of business. "Take you?" he +inquired, briefly. "Why?" + +And then Willoughby, in the plainest and most direct words (a directness +which was not, however, without the eloquence that comes from an intense +desire), explained his wish to be admitted to a part, however small, in +the California scheme. He allowed himself no reserves; he told the whole +story of his father's spendthrift propensities, and his own small means +in consequence. "I have a fixed determination to make money, Mr. Chase. +I dare say you have thought me idle; but I should not have idled if I +had had at any time the right thing to go into. Work? There is literally +no amount of work that I should shrink from, if it led towards the +fortune upon which I am bent. I can, and I will, work as hard as ever +you yourself have worked." + +"I'm afraid you're looking for a soft snap," said Chase, shifting Mr. +Trone to his left arm, and putting his right hand into his trousers +pocket, where he jingled a bunch of keys vaguely. + +"If you will let me come in, even by a little edge only, I am sure you +won't regret it," Walter went on. "Can't you recall, by looking back, +your own determination to succeed, and how far it carried you, how +strong it made you? Well, that is the way I feel to-day! You ought to be +able to comprehend me. You've been over the same road." + +"The same road!" repeated Chase, ironically. "Let's size it up a little. +I was taken out of school before I was fourteen--when my father died. +From that day I had not only to earn every crumb of bread I ate, but +help to earn the bread of my sisters too. Before I was eighteen I had +worked at half a dozen different things, and always at the rate of +thirteen or fourteen hours a day. By the time I was twenty I was old; I +had already lived a long and hard life. Now your side: A good home; +every luxury; school; college; Europe!" + +"You think that because I have been through Columbia, and because I once +had a yacht (the yacht was in reality my uncle's), I shall never make a +good business man," replied Walter. "Unfortunately, I have no means of +proving to you the contrary, unless you will give me the chance I ask +for. I don't pretend, of course, to have anything like your talents; +they are your own, and unapproached. But I do say that I have ability; I +_feel_ that I have." + +"It's sizzling, is it?" commented Chase. "Why don't you put it into the +business you're in already, then; the steamship firm of Willoughby, +Chase, & Co.? Boom that; put on steam, and boom it for all you're worth; +your uncles and I will see you through. You say you only want a chance; +why on earth don't you take the one that lies before you? If you wish to +convince me you know something, _that's_ the way." + +"The steamship concern is too slow for me; I have looked into it, and I +know. I might work at it for ten years, and with the small share I have +in it I should not be very rich," Walter answered. "I'm in a hurry! I am +willing to give everything on my side--all my time and my strength and +my brains; but I want something good on the other." + +"Now you're shouting!" + +"The steamship firm is routine--regular; that isn't the way you made +_your_ money," Walter went on. + +"My way is open to everybody. It isn't covered by any patent that I know +of," remarked Chase, in his dry tones. + +"Yes, it is," answered Walter, immediately taking him up. "Or rather it +was; the Bubble Baking-Powder was very tightly patented." + +Chase grinned a little over this sally. But he was not moved towards the +least concession, and Walter saw that he was not; he therefore played +his last card. "I have a great deal of influence with my uncles, I +think; especially with my uncle Nicholas." + +"Put your money on Nicholas Willoughby, and you're safe, every time," +remarked Chase, in a general way. + +"I don't know whether you and Patterson care for more capital in +developing your California scheme?" Walter went on. "But if you do, I +could probably help you to some." + +Chase looked at him. The younger man's eyes met his, bright as steel. + +The millionaire walked over to a block of coquina, which had once formed +part of a Spanish house; here he seated himself, established Petie Trone +comfortably on his knee, and lifting his hand, tilted back still farther +on his head his jessamine-decked hat. "You've been blowing about being +able to work, Walter. But we can get plenty of hard workers without +letting 'em into the ring. And you've been talking about being sharp. +Sharp you may be. But I rather guess that when it comes to _that_, Dave +Patterson and I don't need any help. Capital, however, is another +matter; it's always another matter. By enlarging our scheme at its +present stage by a third (which we could do easily if your uncle +Nicholas came in), we should make a much bigger pile." + +There was no second block of coquina; Walter remained standing. But his +compact figure looked sturdy and firm as he stood there beside the other +man. "I could not go to my uncle without knowing what I am to tell him," +he remarked, after a moment. + +"Certainly not!" Chase answered. Then, after further reflection (this +time Walter did not break the silence), he said: "Well, see here; I may +as well state at the outset that unless your uncle will come in to a +pretty big tune, we don't want him at all; 'twouldn't pay us; we'd +prefer to play it alone. Now your uncles don't strike me as men who +would be willing to take risks. You say you have influence with 'em, or +rather with Nick. But I've got no proof of that. Of course it's +possible; Nick has brought you up; he's got no son--only girls; perhaps +he'd be willing to do for you what he'd do for a son of his own; perhaps +he really would take a risk, to give you a first-class start. But I +repeat that I've no proof of your having the least influence with him. +What's more, I've a healthy amount of doubt about it! Oh, I dare say +_you_ believe you've got a pull; you're straight as far as that goes. My +notion is simply that you're mistaken, that you're barking up the wrong +tree; Nicholas ain't that sort! However, as it happens to be the moment +when we _could_ enlarge (and double the profits), I'll give you my +terms. You have convinced me at least of one thing, and that is that +you're very sharp set yourself as to money-making; you want tremendously +to catch on. And it's _that_ I'm going to take as my security. In this +way. In order to learn whether your uncle Nicholas, to oblige _you_, is +willing to come in with Patterson and myself in this affair, you must +first know what the affair is (as you very justly remarked); I must +therefore tell you the whole scheme--show all my hand. Now, then, if I +do this, and your uncle _doesn't_ take it up, then not only you don't +get in yourself, but if I see the slightest indication that my +confidence has been abused, I sell out of that steamship firm instanter, +and, as I'm virtually the firm, you know what that will mean! And the +one other property you have--that stock--you'll be surprised to see how +it'll go down to next to nothing on the street. 'Twon't hurt _me_, you +know. As for you, you'll deserve it all, and more, too, for having been +a dunderhead!" + +"I accept the terms," answered Willoughby. "Under the circumstances, +they're not even hard. If I fail, I _am_ a dunderhead!--I shall be the +first to say it. But I sha'n't fail." (Even at this moment, though he +was intensely absorbed, his eye was struck by the contrast between the +keen, hard expression of Horace Chase's face and his flower-decked hat; +between the dry tones of his voice and the care with which he still held +his wife's little dog, who at this instant, after a long yawn, +affectionately licked the hand that held him, ringing by the motion the +three small silver bells with which his young mistress had adorned his +collar.) "If I am to go to California with you next week, I have no time +to lose," he went on, promptly. "For I must first go to New York, of +course, to see my uncle." + +"Well, rather!" interpolated Chase. + +"Couldn't you tell me now whatever I have to know?" Walter continued. +"This is as good a place as any. We might walk off towards that house on +the right, near the shore; there is no danger of there being any +jessamine _there_." + +Here Ruth appeared. "Haven't you found any more?" she asked, surprised. +"Mr. Willoughby, you pretended to be so much interested! As for you, +Horace, where is your spirit? I thought you liked to be first in +everything?" + +"First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen," +quoted Chase. "Here--you'd better put your monkey in the phaeton," he +went on, passing over Mr. Trone. "He has a little rheumatism in his paw. +But you must try to bear it." His voice had again its humorous tones; +the penetrating look in his eyes had vanished. His wife standing there, +adorned with jessamine, her face looking child-like as she stroked her +dog, seemed to change the man of a moment before into an entirely +different being. In reality it did not do this; but it brought out +another part of his nature, and a part equally strong. Ruth had taken +off her gloves; the gems which her husband had given her flashed on her +hands as she lifted Mr. Trone to her shoulder and laid her cheek against +his little black head. "We are going for a short walk, Willoughby and +I," Chase said--"over towards that house on the shore. We'll be back +soon." + +"That house is Dalton's," answered Ruth, looking in that direction. +"Mrs. Dalton makes the loveliest baskets, Horace; won't you get me one? +They are always a little one-sided, and that makes them much more +original, you know, than those that are for sale in town." + +"Oh, it makes them more original, does it?" repeated Chase. + +When he returned, an hour later, he brought the basket. + +Walter Willoughby started that night for New York. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +Seven weeks after she had searched for the first jessamine, Ruth Chase +was again at St. Augustine. But in the meanwhile she had made a long +journey, having accompanied her husband to California. Chase had +unexpectedly come back to Florida, to see David Patterson. When he +reached New York on his return from the West, and learned that Patterson +had been stricken down by illness at Palatka, he decided that the best +thing he could do would be to go to Palatka himself immediately. + +Ruth was delighted. "That means St. Augustine for me, doesn't it? Mother +and Dolly are still there. Oh, I _am_ so glad!" + +"Why, Ruthie, do you care so much about it as all that? Why didn't you +say so before?" said Chase, looking up from his letters. "Then I could +have taken you down there in any case. Whereas now it's only this +accident of Patterson's being laid up that has made me decide to go. You +must _tell_ me what you want, always. It's the only way we can possibly +get along," he concluded, with mock severity. + +Ruth gazed at the fire; for in New York, at the end of March, it was +still cold. "I love St. Augustine. I was _so_ happy there this winter," +she said, musingly. + +"Shall I build you a house near the sea-wall?" inquired her husband, +gathering up his letters and telegrams. As he left the room, he paused +beside her long enough to pass his hand fondly over her hair. + +It was arranged that Walter Willoughby, who had returned with them from +California, should also accompany them southward. For there were certain +details of the Western enterprise which Patterson understood better than +any one else did, as he had devoted his attention to them for six +months; it now became important that these details should be explained +to the younger man, in the (possible) case of Patterson's being laid up +for some time longer. After one day in New York, therefore, Chase and +his wife and young Willoughby started for the land of flowers. At +Savannah a telegram met them: "Horace Chase, Pulaski House, Savannah. +Come alone. Patterson." + +"When he's sick, he is always tremendously scared," commented Chase. "I +suppose we shall have to humor him. But I'll soon stir him up, and make +him feel better, Walter, and then I'll wire for you to come over at +once. Probably within twenty-four hours." After taking his wife to St. +Augustine, he crossed to Palatka alone. Walter was to wait at St. +Augustine for further directions. + +The young New-Yorker agreed to everything. He was in excellent spirits; +throughout the whole Californian expedition he had, in truth, been +living in a state of inward excitement, though his face showed nothing +of it. For his uncle had consented, and he (Walter) had got his foot +into the stirrup at last. The ride might be breakneck, and it might be +hard; but at least it would not be long, and it would end at the +wished-for goal. Between two such riders as Patterson and Horace Chase +(Horace Chase especially; best of all, Horace Chase!), he could not fall +behind; they would sweep him along between them; he should come in +abreast. A closer acquaintance with Chase had only increased his +admiration for the man's extraordinary mind. "If ever there was a genius +for directing big combinations, here's one with a vengeance!" he said to +himself. + +On the second day after Chase's departure for Palatka, Ruth and her +mother, in the late afternoon, drove across the Sebastian River by way +of the red bridge, and thence to the barrens. These great tree-dotted +Florida prairies possess a charm for far-sighted eyes; their broad, +unfenced, unguarded expanses, stretching away on all sides, carpeted +with flowers and ferns, and the fans of the dwarf-palmetto, have an air +of freedom that is alluring. Walter Willoughby accompanied the two +ladies, perched in the little seat behind. He had, in fact, nothing else +to do, as Chase had as yet sent no telegram. + +They drove first to the Ponce de Leon spring. And Ruth made them drink: +"so that we shall always be young!" + +Leaving the spring, they drove to another part of the barren. Here the +violets grew so thickly that they made the ground blue. "I must have +some," said Ruth, joyously. And leaving her mother comfortably leaning +back in the phaeton under her white umbrella, she jumped out and began +to gather the flowers with her usual haste and impetuosity. "Why don't +you come and help?" she said to Walter. "You're terribly lazy. Tie the +ponies to that tree, and set to work." + +Walter obeyed. But he only gathered eight violets; then he stopped, and +stood fanning himself with his straw hat. "It is very warm," he said. +"Won't you let me get pitcher-plants instead? There are ever so many +over there. They are so large that eight of them will make a splendid +show." Daily companionship for seven weeks had made him feel thoroughly +at his ease with her. He had forgiven her for those old delays which she +had unknowingly caused in his plans; he now associated her with his +good-fortune, with his high hopes. She had been in the gayest spirits +throughout their stay in California, and this, too, had chimed in with +his mood. + +"Pitcher-plants!" said Ruth. "Horrid, murdering things! Let them alone." +But they strolled that way to look at them; and then they walked on +towards a ridge, where she was sure that they should find calopogon. +Beyond the ridge there was a clear pool, whose amber-colored water +rested on a bed of silver sand; along one side rose the tall, delicate +plumes of the _Osmunda regalis_. "Isn't it lovely?" said Ruth. "I don't +believe there is anything more beautiful in all Florida!" + +"Yes, one thing," thought Walter, "and that is Ruth Chase." For Ruth's +beauty had deepened richly during the past half-year. It was not Walter +alone who had noticed the change, every one spoke of it. At present his +eyes could not but note it once more, as she stood there in her white +dress under the ferns. + +Then suddenly his thoughts were diverted in another direction. "I'm sure +that's for me!" he exclaimed. For he had discerned in the distance a +little negro boy on horseback. "He is bringing me my telegram at last--I +mean the one from your husband, Mrs. Chase, which I have been expecting +for two days. The stupid is following the road. I wonder if I couldn't +make him see me from here, so as to gain time?" And taking off his hat, +he waved it high in the air. But the child kept on his course. "Perhaps +I can make him hear," said Walter. He shouted, whistled, called. But all +to no purpose. "We might as well go back towards the phaeton," he +suggested. And they started. + +"What will the telegram be?" said Ruth, arranging her violets as she +walked on. "Have you any idea?" + +"A very clear one; it will tell me to arrive at Palatka as soon as +possible." + +"And, from Palatka, do you go back to New York?" + +"Yes; immediately." + +"We shall be in New York, too, by the middle of April. You are to stay +in New York, aren't you?" + +"Yes. It is to be my post in the game which will end, we trust, in your +husband's piling up still higher his great fortune, while _I_ shall have +laid very solidly the foundation of mine. Good! that boy sees me at +last." For the little negro, suddenly leaving the road, was galloping +directly towards them over the barren, his bare feet flapping the flanks +of his horse to increase its speed. Walter ran forward to meet him, took +the telegram, tore open the envelope, and read the message within. Then, +after rewarding the messenger (who went back to town in joyful +opulence), he returned to Ruth. + +"Palatka?" she said, as he came up. + +"No. Something entirely different. And very unexpected. I am to go to +California; I am to start to-morrow morning. And I am to stay +there--live there. It will be for a year or two, I suppose; at any rate, +until this new campaign of your husband's planning has been fought out +and won--as won it surely will be. For Patterson, it seems, won't be +able to go at present, and I am to take his place. Later, he hopes to be +on the spot. But even then I am to remain, they tell me. My instructions +will be here to-night by letter." He felt, inwardly, a great sense of +triumph that he was considered competent--already considered +competent--to take charge of the more important post. And as he put the +telegram in his pocket, the anticipation of success came to him like a +breeze charged with perfume; his pulses had a firm, quick beat; the +future--a future of his own choosing--unrolled itself brightly before +him. + +Ruth had made no reply. After a moment her silence struck him--struck +him even in his preoccupation--and he turned to look at her. + +Her face had a strange, stiffened aspect, as though her breathing had +suddenly been arrested. + +"Are you ill?" he asked, alarmed. + +"Oh no; I am only tired. Where is the phaeton? I have lost sight of it." + +"Over there; don't you see your mother's white parasol?" + +"Let us go back to her. But no--not just yet. I'll wait a moment or two, +as I'm so tired." And, turning her back to him, she sat down on a fallen +pine-tree, and rested her head on her hand. + +"I can bring the phaeton over here?" Walter suggested. "There is no +road, but the ground is smooth." + +She shook her head. + +After a moment he began to talk; partly to fill the pause, partly to +give expression to the thoughts that occupied his own mind--occupied it +so fully that he did not give close heed to her. She was suddenly tired. +Well, that was nothing unusual; it was always something sudden; +generally a sudden gayety. At any rate, she could rest there comfortably +until she felt able to go on. "It's very odd to me to think that +to-morrow I shall be on my way to California again," he began. "That's +what I get by being the poor one of the company, Mrs. Chase! Your +husband, and Patterson, and my uncle, they sit comfortably at home; but +they send _me_ from pillar to post without the least scruple. I don't +mind the going. But the staying--that's a change indeed. To live in +California--I have had a good many ideas in my mind, but I confess I +have never had that." He laughed. But it was easy to see that the idea +pleased him greatly. + +Ruth turned. Her eyes met his. And then, startled, amazed, the young man +read in their depths something that was to him an intense surprise. + +At the same moment she rose. "I can go now. Mother will be wondering +where I am," she said. + +He accompanied her in silence, his mind in a whirl. She said a few words +on ordinary subjects. Every now and then her voice came near failing +entirely, and she paused. But she always began again. Just before she +reached the phaeton she took a gray gauze veil from her pocket, and tied +it hastily across her face under her broad-brimmed hat. Mrs. Franklin +was waiting for them in lazy tranquillity. While Walter untied the +ponies, Ruth took the small seat behind. "Just for a change," she +explained. Walter, therefore, in her vacant place, drove them back to +town. Having taken Mrs. Franklin home, he left Ruth at her own door. "As +I'm off early to-morrow morning, Mrs. Chase, I'll bid you good-by now," +he said, as the waiting servant came forward to the ponies' heads. She +gave him her hand. He could not see her face distinctly through that +baffling gray veil. + +That evening at eleven o'clock he passed the house again; he was taking +a farewell stroll on the sea-wall. As he went by, he saw that there was +a light in the drawing-room. "She has not gone to bed," he thought. He +jumped down from the wall, crossed the road, and, going up the steps, +put his hand on the bell-knob. But a sudden temptation took possession +of him, and, instead of ringing, he opened the door. "If her mother is +with her, I'll pretend that I found it ajar," he said to himself. But +there were no voices, all was still. His step had made no sound on the +thick rugs, and, advancing, he drew aside a curtain. On a couch in a +corner of the drawing-room was Ruth Chase, alone, her face hidden in her +hands. + +She started to her feet as he came in. "After all, Mrs. Chase, I found +that I wanted more of a good-by--" he began. And then, a second time, in +her eyes he read the astonishing, bewildering story. "She is still +unconscious of what it is," he thought. "If I go away at once--at once +and forever--no harm is done. And that is what I shall do." This was his +intention, and he knew that he should follow it. The very certainty, +however, made him allow himself a moment or two of delay. For how +beautiful she was, and how deeply she loved him! He could not help +offering, as it were, a tribute to both; it seemed to him that he would +be a boor not to do so. And then, before he knew it, he had gone +further. "You see how it is with me," he began. "You see that I love +you; I myself did not know it until now." (What was this he was telling +her? And somehow, for the moment, it was true!) "Don't think that I do +not understand," he went on. "I understand all--all--" While he was +uttering these words he met her eyes again. And then he felt that he was +losing his head. "What am I doing? I'm not an abject fool!" he managed +to say to himself, mutely--mutely but violently. And he left the house. + +It took all his strength to do it. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +Horace Chase, meanwhile, had arrived at Palatka, and opened the +discussion with David Patterson which ended in the decision to despatch +young Willoughby to California without delay. Having sent these +instructions, he remained at Palatka two days longer, his intention +being to cross, on the third day, to St. Augustine, get his wife and go +back to New York, stopping on the way at Raleigh in order to see Jared. +Always prompt, as soon as the question of the representative in +California was settled, his thoughts had turned towards his +brother-in-law; the proper moment had now arrived for fulfilling his +promises concerning him. But in answer to this note to Ruth, mentioning +this plan, there had come a long epistle from Mrs. Franklin. Ruth, she +wrote, wanted to go north by sea; it was a sudden fancy that had come to +her. Her wish was to go by the _Dictator_ to Charleston, and there +change for the larger steamer. "As Dolly and I intend to start towards +L'Hommedieu next week, Ruth's idea is that we could go together as far +as Charleston; for the rest of the way, Félicité could look after her. +You need not therefore take the trouble to come to St. Augustine at all, +she says; you can go directly from Palatka to Raleigh. All this sounds +a little self-willed. But, my dear Mr. Chase, if we spoiled her more or +less in the beginning, you must acknowledge that _you_ have carried on +the process! In the eighteen months that have passed since your +marriage, have you ever refused compliance with even one of her whims? I +think not. On the contrary, I fear you encourage them; you always seem +to me to be waiting, with an inward laugh, to see what on earth she will +suggest next!" Thus wrote the mother in a joking strain. Then, turning +to the subject which was more important to her, she filled three sheets +with her joyful anticipations concerning her son. "Insist upon his +resigning his present place on the spot," she urged; "take no denial. +Make him go _with_ you to New York. _Then_ you will be sure of him." + +"The old lady seems to think he will be a great acquisition," said Chase +to himself, humorously. + +Her statement that he had, from the first, allowed his wife to follow +her fancies unchecked was a true one. It amused him to do this, amused +him to watch an idea dawn, and then, in a few minutes, take such entire +possession of her that it shook her hard--only to leave her and vanish +with equal suddenness. The element of the unexpected in her was a +constant entertainment to him. Her heedlessness, her feminine +indifference to logic, to the inevitable sequences of cause and +effect--this, too, had given him many a moment of mirth. If her face had +been less lovely, these characteristics would have worn, perhaps, +another aspect. But in that case Horace Chase would not have been their +judge; for it was this alluring beauty (unconsciously alluring) which +had attracted him, which had made him fall in love with her. He was a +man whose life, up to the time of his engagement to Ruth, had been +irregular. But, though irregular, it had not been uncontrolled; he had +always been able to say, "Thus far; no farther!" But though her beauty +had been the first lure, he was now profoundly attached to his wife; his +pride in her was profound, his greatest pleasure was to make her happy. + +"By sea to New York, is it?" he said to himself, as his eyes hastily +glanced through the remainder of Mrs. Franklin's long letter (that is, +the three sheets about Jared). "Well, she is a capital sailor, that's +one comfort. Let's see; which of our steamers will she hit at +Charleston?" + +He was not annoyed because Ruth had not written, herself; Ruth did not +like to write letters. But it was a surprise to him that she should, of +her own accord, relinquish an opportunity to see her brother. "I reckon +she is counting upon my taking him up to New York with me, so that +she'll see him on the dock waiting for her when her steamer comes in," +he thought. "I guess she knows, too, that I'm likely to succeed better +with Jared when _she's_ out of the business entirely. Franklin isn't +going to be boosted by his sister--that's been his fixed notion all +along. He doesn't suspect that his sister's nowhere in the matter +compared with his wife; his whole position of being independent of _me_, +and all that, has been so undermined and honeycombed by Gen, that, in +reality, his sticking it out there at Raleigh is a farce! But he doesn't +know it. It's lucky he don't!" + + * * * * * + +Ruth had her way, as usual. Chase went northward from Palatka to +Savannah, where he had business; thence he was to go to Raleigh. His +wife, meanwhile, remained in St. Augustine for one week longer, and her +mother and sister, closing their own home, spent the time with her. + +Their last day came; they were to leave St. Augustine on the morrow. +Early in the afternoon, Ruth disappeared. When they were beginning to +wonder where she was, Félicité brought them a note. Mrs. Franklin read +it, and laughed. "She has gone for a sail; by herself!" + +"She might have told us. We could have gone with her," said Dolly, +irritably. "I don't like her being alone." + +"Oh, she is safe enough, as far as that goes," answered the mother, +comfortably. "She has taken old Donato, who, in spite of his seventy +years, is an excellent sailor; and he has, too, a very good boat." + +Dolly went to the window. "You are not in the least thinking of Ruth, +mother! You are thinking of Jared; you are thinking that if he takes +that place in New York, we must somehow get up there to see him this +summer; and you are planning to go to that boarding-house on Staten +Island that the commodore told you about." + +Mrs. Franklin, who really was thinking of Staten Island, rolled a +lamplighter the wrong way. "It is happening oftener and oftener!" she +said to herself. "Is she going to die?" And she glanced towards her +invalid daughter with the old pang of loving pity quickened for the +moment to trepidation. + +Dolly's back was turned; she was gazing down the inlet. The house, which +was formerly the residence of General Worth, the Military Governor of +Florida, commanded an uninterrupted view of the Matanzas north and +south, and, over the low line of Anastasia Island, even the smallest +sail going towards the ocean was visible. But in spite of this long +expanse of water, Dolly could not see old Donato's boat. "His Grand +suspects nothing! Are mothers always so blind?" she thought. "So secure? +But she shall never know anything through _me_--dear old Grand! Ruth has +of course gone to say good-bye to the places which are associated in her +mind with that hateful Willoughby. If I could only have known it, I +would have kept her from it at any price. These long hours alone which +she covets so--they are the worst things, the worst!" + +Ruth's boat was far out of sight; at this moment she was landing on +Anastasia at the point where she had disembarked with Walter on the day +of the excursion. Telling the old Minorcan to wait for her, she sought +for the little Carib trail, and followed it inland to the pool. Here +she spent half an hour, seated in the loop of the vine where she had sat +before. Then, rising, she slowly retraced their former course along the +low ridge. + +Since Walter's departure--he had left St. Augustine at dawn after that +strange evening visit--Ruth had been the prey of two moods, tossed from +one to the other helplessly; for the feelings which these moods by turn +excited were so strong that she had had no volition of her own--she had +been powerless against them. One of these mental states (the one that +possessed her now) was joy. The other was aching pain. + +For her fate had come upon her, as it was sure from the first to come. +And it found her defenceless; those who should have foreseen it had +neither guarded her against it, nor trained her so that she could guard +herself. She had no conception of life--no one had ever given her such a +conception--as a lesson in self-control; from her childhood all her +wishes had been granted. It is true that these wishes had been simple. +But that was because she had known no other standard; the degree of +indulgence (and of self-indulgence) was as great as if they had been +extravagant. If her disposition as a girl had been selfish, it was +unconscious selfishness; for her mother, her elder sister, and her +brother had never required anything from her save that she should be +happy. With her joyous nature, life had always been delightful to her, +and her marriage had only made it more delightful. For Horace Chase, +unconsciously, had adopted the habit that the family had always had; +they never expected Ruth to take responsibility, to be serious, and, in +the same way, he never expected it. And he loved to see her contented, +just as they had loved it. There was some excuse for them all in the +fact that Ruth's contentment was a very charming thing--it was so +natural and exuberant. + +And, on her side, this girl had married Horace Chase first of all +because she liked him. What he had done for her brother, and his +wealth--these two influences had come only second, and would not have +sufficed without the first; her affection (for it was affection) had +been won by his kindness to herself. Since their marriage his lavish +generosity had pleased her, and gratified her imagination. But his +delicate consideration for her--this girl nineteen years younger than +himself--and his unselfishness, these she had not appreciated; she +supposed that husbands were, as a matter of course, like that. As it +happened, she had not a single girl friend who had married, from whose +face (if not from whose words also) she might have divined other ways. +Thus she had lived on, accepting everything in her easy, epicurean +fashion, until into her life had come love--this love for Walter +Willoughby. + +Walter devoting himself to Mrs. Chase for his own purposes, had never +had the slightest intention of falling in love with her; in truth, such +a catastrophe (it would have seemed to him nothing less) would have +marred all his plans. He had wished only to amuse her. And, in the +beginning, it had been in truth his gay spirits which had attracted +Ruth, for she possessed gay spirits herself. She had been unaware of the +nature of the feeling which was taking possession of her; her +realization went no further than that life was now much more +interesting; and, with her rich capacity for enjoyment, she had grasped +this new pleasure eagerly. It was this which had made her beauty so much +more rich and vivid. It was this which had caused her to exclaim, "How +delightful it is to live!" If obstacles had interfered, the pain of +separation might have opened her eyes, at an earlier period, to the +nature of her attachment. But, owing to the circumstances of the case, +the junior partner had been with Mr. and Mrs. Chase almost daily ever +since their return from Europe. That announcement, therefore, out on the +barrens--his own announcement--of his departure the next morning, and +for an indefinite stay, had come upon her like the chill of sudden +death. And then in the evening, while she was still benumbed and +pulseless, had followed his strange, short visit, and the wild thrill of +joy in her heart over his declaration of his own love for her. For he +had said it, he had said it! + +These two conflicting tides--the pain of his absence and the joy of his +love--had held entire possession of her ever since. But passionate +though her nature was, in matters of feeling it was deeply reticent as +well, and no one had noticed any change in her save Dolly, Dolly who had +divined something from her sister's new desire to be alone. Never before +had Ruth wished to be alone; but now she went off for long walks by +herself; and this plan for returning to New York by sea--that was simply +the same thing. From the moment of Ruth's engagement, Dolly had been +haunted by a terrible fear. Disliking Horace Chase herself, she did not +believe that he would be able to keep forever a supreme place in his +wife's heart. And then? Would Ruth be content to live on, as so many +wives live, with this supreme place unoccupied? It was her dread of +this, a dread which had suddenly become personified, that had made her +form one of almost all the excursions of this Florida winter; she had +gone whenever she was able, and often when she was unable--at least, she +would be present, she would mount guard. + +But in spite of her guardianship, something had evidently happened. What +was it? Was this desire of Ruth's to be alone a good sign or a bad sign? +Did it come from happiness or unhappiness? "If it is unhappiness, she +will throw it off," Dolly told herself. "She hates suffering. She will +manage, somehow, to rid herself of it." Thus she tried to reassure +herself. + +Ruth gave not only the afternoon but the evening to her pilgrimage; she +visited all the places where she had been with Walter. When the twilight +had deepened to night, she came back to town, and, still accompanied by +Donato, she went to the old fort, and out the shell road; finally she +paid a visit to Andalusia. A bright moon was shining; over the low land +blew a perfumed breeze. Andalusia was deserted, Mrs. Kip had gone to +North Carolina. Bribing Uncle Jack, the venerable ex-slave who lived in +a little cabin under the bananas near the gate, Ruth went in, and +leaving her body-guard, the old fisherman, resting on a bench, she +wandered alone among the flowers. "You see that I love you. I myself did +not know it until now"--this was the talisman which was making her so +happy; two brief phrases uttered on the spur of the moment, phrases +preceded by nothing, followed by nothing. It was a proof of the +simplicity of her nature, its unconsciousness of half-motives, +half-meanings, that she should think these few words so conclusive. But +to her they were final. Direct herself, she supposed that others were +the same. She did not go beyond her talisman; she did not reason about +it, or plan. In fact, she did not think at all; she only felt--felt each +syllable take a treasure in her heart, and brooded over it happily. And +as she wandered to and fro in the moonlight, it was as well that Walter +did not see her. He did not love her--no. He had no wish to love her; it +would have interfered with all his plans. But if he had beheld her now, +he would have succumbed--succumbed, at least, for the moment, as he had +done before. He was not there, however. And he had no intention of +being there, of being anywhere near Horace Chase's wife for a long time +to come. "I'll keep out of _that_!" he had said to himself, +determinedly. + +It was midnight when at last Ruth returned home, coming into the +drawing-room like a vision, in her white dress, with her arms full of +flowers. + +"Well, have you had enough of prowling?" asked her mother, sleepily. "I +must say that it appears to agree with you!" + +Even Dolly was reassured by her sister's radiant eyes. + +But later, when Félicité had left her mistress, then, if Dolly could +have opened the locked door, her comfort would have vanished; for the +other mood had now taken possession, and lying prone on a couch, with +her face hidden, Ruth was battling with her grief. + +Pain was so new to her, sorrow so new! Incapable of enduring (this was +what Dolly had hoped), many times during the last ten days she had +revolted against her suffering, and to-night she was revolting anew. "I +_will_ not care for him; it makes me too wretched!" Leaving the couch, +she strode angrily to and fro. The three windows of the large room--it +was her dressing-room--stood open to the warm sea-air; she had put out +the candles, but the moonlight, entering in a flood, reflected her white +figure in the long mirrors as she came and went. Félicité had braided +her hair for the night, but the strands had become loosened, and the +thick, waving mass flowed over her shoulders. "I will not think of him; +I will _not_!" And to emphasize it, she struck her clinched hand with +all her force on the stone window-seat. "It is cut. I'm glad! It will +make me remember that I am _not_ to think of him." She was intensely in +earnest in her resolve, and, to help herself towards other thoughts, she +began to look feverishly at the landscape outside, as though it was +absolutely necessary that she should now resee and recount each point +and line. "There is the top of the light-house--and there is the +ocean--and there are the bushes near the quarry." She leaned out of the +window so as to see farther. "There is the North Beach; there is the +fort and the lookout tower." Thus for a few minutes her weary mind +followed the guidance of her will. "There is the bathing-house. And +there is the dock and the club-house; and there is the Basin. Down there +on the right is Fish Island. How lovely it all is! I wish I could stay +here forever. But even to-morrow night I shall be gone; I shall be on +the _Dictator_. And then will come Charleston. And then New York." (Her +mind had now escaped again.) "And then the days--and the months--and the +_years_ without him! Oh, what shall I do? What shall I do?" And the pain +descending, sharper than ever, she sank down, and with her arms on the +window-seat and her face on her arms, and cried and cried--cried so long +that at last her shoulders fell forward stoopingly, and her whole +slender frame lost its strength, and drooped against the window-sill +like a broken reed. Her despair held no plan for trying to see Walter, +her destiny seemed to her fixed; her revolts had not been against that +destiny, but against her pain. But something was upon her now which was +stronger than herself, stronger than her love of ease, stronger than her +dread of suffering. Dolly knew her well. But there were some depths +which even Dolly did not know. + +Dawn found her still there, her hands and feet cold, her face white; she +had wept herself out--there were no more tears left. The sun came up; +she watched it mechanically. "Félicité mustn't find me here," she +thought. She dragged herself to her feet; all her muscles were stiff. +Then going to the bedroom, she fell into a troubled sleep. + +It would be too much to say that during the entire night her mind had +not once turned towards her husband. She had thought of him now and +then, much as she had thought of her mother; as, for instance--would her +mother see any change in her face the next morning, after this night of +tears? Would her husband see any at New York when he arrived? Whenever +she remembered either one of them, she felt a sincere desire not to make +them unhappy. But this was momentary; during most of the night the +emotions that belonged to her nature swept over her with such force that +she had no power, no will, to think of anything save herself. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +Horace Chase, following the suggestion of Mrs. Franklin (a suggestion +which had come in reality from Ruth), travelled northward to Raleigh +from Palatka without crossing to St. Augustine. He went "straight +through," as he called it; when he was alone he always went straight +through. He was no more particular as to where he slept than he was as +to what he ate. Reaching Raleigh in the evening, he went in search of +his brother-in-law. He had not sent word that he was coming. "I won't +give him time to trot out all his objections beforehand," he had said to +himself. He intended to make an attempt to arrange the matter with Jared +without calling in the aid of Genevieve. "If I fail, there'll always be +time to bring her on the scene. If I succeed, it'll take her down a bit; +and that won't hurt her!" he thought, with an inward smile. + +Ruth's "horrid Raleigh" looked very pretty as he walked through its +lighted streets. The boarding-house where Jared had passed the winter +proved to be an old mansion, which, in its day, had possessed claims to +dignity; it was large, with two wings running backward, and the main +building had a high pointed roof with dormer-windows. The front was +even with the street; but the street itself was rural, with its two long +lines of magnificent trees, which formed the divisions (otherwise rather +vague) between the sidewalks and the broad expanse of the sandy roadway. +Chase's knock was answered by a little negro boy, whose head did not +reach the door-knob. "Mas' Franklin? Yassah. He's done gone out. Be in +soon, I reckon," he added, hopefully. + +Chase, after a moment's reflection, decided to go in and wait. + +"Show you in de parlo,' or right up in his own room, boss?" demanded the +infant, anxiously. "Dere's a party in de parlo'." This statement was +confirmed by the sound of music from within. + +"A party, is there? I guess I'll go up, then," said Chase. + +The child started up the stairs. His legs were so short that he had to +mount to each step with both feet, one after the other, before he could +climb to the next. These legs and feet and his arms were bare; the rest +of his small, plump person was clad in a little jacket and very short +breeches of pink calico. There were two long flights of stairs, and a +shorter flight to the attic; the pink breeches had the air of climbing +an Alp. Presently Chase took up the little toiler, candle and all. + +"You can tell me which way to go," he said. "What's your name?" + +"Pliny Abraham, sah." + +"Do you like Mr. Franklin?" + +"Mas' Franklin is de bes' body in dishyer house!" declared Pliny +Abraham, shrilly. + +"The best what?" + +"De bes' body. We'se got twenty-five bodies now, boss. Sometimes dere's +twenty-eight." + +"Oh, you mean boarders?" + +"Yassah. Bodies." + +Jared's room was in the attic. Pliny Abraham, who had been intensely +serious, began to grin as his bearer, after putting him down, placed a +dime in each of his little pink pockets; then he dashed out of the room, +his black legs disappearing so suddenly that Chase had the curiosity to +follow to the top of the stairs and look over. Pliny had evidently slid +down the banisters; for he was already embarked on the broader rail of +the flight below. + +Twenty minutes later there was a step on the stair; the door opened, and +Jared Franklin came in. + +"They didn't tell you I was here?" said Chase, as they shook hands. + +"No. Mrs. Nightingale is usually very attentive; too much so, in fact; +she's a bother!" Jared answered. "To-night, however, there's a party +down below, and she has the supper on her mind." + +"Is Pliny Abraham to serve it?" + +"You've seen him, have you?" said Jared, who was now lighting a lamp. +"Confounded smell--petroleum!" And he threw up the sash of the window. + +"I'm on my way up to New York, and I came across from Goldsborough on +purpose to see you, Franklin, on a matter of business," Chase began. +"Ruth isn't with me this time; she took a notion to go north by sea. +Your mother and sister, I expect, will be seeing her off to-morrow from +Charleston; then, after a little rest for Miss Dolly, they're to go to +L'Hommedieu." + +"They'll stop here, won't they?" asked Jared, who was standing at the +window in order to get air which was untainted by the odor of the lamp. + +"Perhaps," Chase answered. He knew that Dolly and her mother believed +that by the time they should reach Raleigh, Jared would have already +left. "Well, the gist of the matter, Franklin, is about this," he went +on. And then, tilting his chair back so that his long legs should have +more room, and with his thumbs in the pockets of his waistcoat, he began +deliberately to lie. + +For in the short space of time which had elapsed since his eyes first +rested upon Ruth's brother, he had entirely altered his plan. His +well-arranged arguments and explanations about the place in New York in +connection with his California scheme--all these he had abandoned; +something must be invented which would require no argument at all, +something which should attract Jared so strongly that he would of his +own accord accept it on the spot, and start northward the next morning. +"Once in New York, in our big house there, with Gen (for I shall +telegraph her to come on) and Ruth and the best doctors, perhaps the +poor chap can be persuaded to give up, and take a good long rest," he +thought. + +For he had been greatly shocked by the change in Jared's appearance. +When he had last seen him, the naval officer had been gaunt; but now he +was wasted. His eyes had always been sad; but now they were deeply +sunken, with dark hollows under them and over them. "He looks _bad_," +Chase said to himself, emphatically. "This sort of life's been too much +for him, and Gen's got a good deal to answer for!" The only ornament of +the whitewashed wall was a large photograph of the wife; her handsome +face, with its regular outlines and calm eyes, presided serenely over +the attic room of the lonely husband. + +To have to contrive something new, plausible, and effective, in two +minutes' time, might have baffled most men. But Horace Chase had never +had a mind of routine, he had always been a free lance; original +conceptions and the boldest daring, accompanied by an extraordinary +personal sagacity, had formed his especial sort of genius--a genius +which had already made him, at thirty-nine, a millionaire many times +over. His invention, therefore, when he unrolled it, had an air of +perfect veracity. It had to do with a steamer, which (so he represented) +a man whom he knew had bought, in connection with what might be called, +perhaps, a branch of his own California scheme, although a branch with +which he himself had nothing whatever to do. This man needed an +experienced officer to take the steamer immediately from San Francisco +to the Sandwich Islands, and thence on a cruise to various other islands +in the South Pacific. "The payment, to a navy man like you, ought to be +pretty good. But I can't say what the exact figure will be," he went on, +warily, "because I'm not in it myself, you see. He's a good deal of a +skinflint" (here he coolly borrowed a name for the occasion, the name of +a capitalist well known in New York); "but he's sound. It's a _bona +fide_ operation; I can at least vouch for that. The steamer is +first-class, and you can pick out your own crew. There'll be a man +aboard to see to the trading part of it; all _you've_ got to do is to +sail the ship." And in his driest and most practical voice he went on +enumerating the details. + +Jared knew that his brother-in-law had more than once been engaged in +outside speculations on a large scale; his acquaintance, therefore, with +kindred spirits, men who bought ocean steamers and sent them on cruises, +did not surprise him. The plan attracted him; he turned it over in his +mind to see if there were any reasons why he should not accept it. There +seemed to be none. To begin with, Horace Chase had nothing to do with +it; he should not be indebted to _him_ for anything save the chance. In +addition, it would not be an easy berth, with plenty to get and little +to do, like the place at Charleston; on the contrary, a long voyage of +this sort would call out all he knew. And certainly he was sick of his +present life--deathly sick! + +Chase had said to himself: "Fellows who go down so low--and he's at the +end of _his_ rope; that's plain--go up again like rockets sometimes, +just give 'em a chance." + +Jared, however, showed no resemblance to a rocket. He agreed, after a +while, to "undertake the job," as Chase called it, and he agreed, also, +to start the next morning with his brother-in-law for New York, where +the final arrangements were to be made; but his assent was given +mechanically, and his voice sounded weak, as though, physically, he had +very little strength. Mentally there was more stir. "I shall be deuced +glad to be on salt-water again," he said. "I dare say _you_ think it's a +very limited life," he went on (and in the phrase there lurked something +scornful). + +"Well," answered Chase, with his slight drawl, "that depends upon what a +man wants, what he sets out to do." He put his hands down in the pockets +of his trousers, and looked at the lamp reflectively; then he +transferred his gaze to Jared. "I guess you've got a notion, Franklin, +that I care for nothing but money? And that's where you make a mistake. +For 'tain't the money; it's the making it. Making it (that is, in large +sums) is the best sort of a game. If you win, there's nothing like it. +It's sport, _that_ is! It's fun! To get down to the bed-rock of the +subject, it's the power. Yes, sir, that's it--the power! The knowing +you've got it, and that other men know it too, and feel your hand on the +reins! For a big pile is something more than a pile; it's a proof that +a man's got brains. (I mean, of course, if he has made it himself; I'm +not talking now about fortunes that are inherited, or are simply rolled +up by a rise in real estate.) As to the money taken alone, of course +it's a good thing to have, and I'm going on making more as long as I +can; I like it, and I know how. But about the disposing of it" (here he +took his hands out of his pockets and folded his arms), "I don't mind +telling you that I've got other ideas. My family--if I have a +family--will be provided for. After that, I've a notion that I may set +aside a certain sum for scientific research (I understand that's the +term). I don't know much about science myself; but I've always felt a +sort of general interest in it, somehow." + +"Oh, you intend to be a benefactor, do you?" said Jared, ironically. "I +hope, at least, that your endowment won't be open to everybody. It's +only fair to tell you that, in _my_ opinion, one of the worst evils of +our country to-day is this universal education--education of all classes +indiscriminately." + +Chase looked at him for a moment in silence. Then, with a quiet dignity +which was new to the other man, he answered, "I don't think I understand +you." + +"Oh yes, you do," responded Jared, with a little laugh. But he felt +somewhat ashamed of his speech, and he bore it off by saying, "Are you +going to found a new institution? Or leave it in a lump to Harvard?" + +"I haven't got as far as that yet. I thought perhaps Ruth might like to +choose," Chase answered, his voice softening a little as he pronounced +his wife's name. + +"Ruth? Much _she_ knows about it!" said the brother, amused. In his +heart he was thinking, "Well, at any rate, he isn't one of the blowers, +and that's a consolation! He is going to 'plank down' handsomely for +'scientific research.' (I wonder if he thinks they'll research another +baking-powder!) But he isn't going to shout about it. The fact is that +this is the first time I have ever heard him speak of himself, and his +own ideas. What he said just now about making money, that's his credo, +evidently. Pretty dry one! But, for such a fellow as he is, natural +enough, I suppose." + +Chase's credo, if such it was, was ended; he showed no disposition to +speak further of himself; on the contrary, he turned the conversation +towards his companion. For as the minutes had passed, more and more +Jared seemed to him ill--profoundly changed. "I'm afraid, Franklin, that +your health isn't altogether first-class nowadays?" he said, +tentatively. + +"Oh, I'm well enough, except that just now there's some sort of an +intermittent fever hanging about me. But it's very slight, and it only +appears occasionally; I dare say it will leave me as soon as I'm fairly +out of this hole of a place," Jared answered, in a dull tone. + +"He must be mighty glad to get away, and yet he doesn't rally worth a +cent," thought Chase, with inward concern. "I say," he went on, aloud, +"as there's a party in the house, why not come along down to the hotel +and sleep there? I'm going to have some sort of a lunch when I go back; +you might keep me company?" + +Jared, however, made a gesture of repugnance. "I couldn't eat; I've no +appetite. The party doesn't trouble me--I'll go to bed. There'll be +plenty to do in the morning, if we are to catch that nine o'clock +train." + +Chase therefore took leave, and Jared accompanied him down to the street +door. Dancing was going on in the parlors on each side of the hall, and +the two, as they passed, caught a glimpse of pretty girls in white, with +flowers in their hair. After making an early appointment for the next +day, Chase said good-night, and turned down the tree-shaded street +towards his hotel. + +His step was never a hurried one; he had not, therefore, gone far when a +person, who had left the house two minutes after his own departure, +succeeded in overtaking him. "If you please--will you stop a moment?" +said this person. She was panting, for she had been running. + +Chase turned; by the light from a street-lamp, which reached them +flickeringly through the foliage, he saw a woman. Her face was in the +shadow, but a large flower, poised stiffly on the top of her head, +caught the light and gleamed whitely. + +"I am Mrs. Nightingale," she began. "Mr. Franklin, the gentleman you +called awn this evenin', is a member of my family. And I've been right +anxious about Mr. Franklin; I'm thankful somebody has come who knows +him. For indeed, sir, he's more sick than he likes to acknowledge. I've +been watchin' for you to come down; but when I saw _he_ was with you, I +had to wait until he'd gone up again; then I slipped out and ran after +you." + +"I've been noticing that he looked bad, ma'am," Chase answered. + +"Oh, sir, somebody ought to be with him; he has fever at night, and when +it comes awn, he's out of his head. I've sat up myself three nights +lately to keep watch. He locks his do'; but there's an empty room next +to his where I stay, so that if he comes out I can see that he gets no +harm." + +"He walks about, then?" + +"In his own room--yes, sir; an' he talks, an' raves." + +"Couldn't you have managed to have him see a doctor, ma'am?" + +"I've done my best, but he won't hear of it. You see, it only comes awn +every third night or so, an' he has no idea himself how bad it is. In +the mawnin' it's gone, an' then all he says is that the breakfast is +bad. He goes to his business every day regular, though he looks so +po'ly. And he doesn't eat enough to keep a fly alive." + +Chase reflected. "I'll have a doctor go with us on the sly to-morrow," +he thought, "and I'll engage a whole sleeper at Weldon to go through to +New York. I'll wire to Gen to start at once; she needn't be more than a +day behind us if she hurries." Then he went on, aloud: "Do you think he +is likely to be feverish to-night, ma'am?" + +"I hope not, sir, as last night was bad." + +"I guess it will be better, then, not to wake him up and force a doctor +upon him now, as he told me he was going to bed. I intend to take him +north with me to-morrow morning, ma'am, and in the meantime--that little +room you spoke of next to his--_I'll_ occupy it to-night, if you'll let +me? I'll just go down to the hotel and get my bag, and be back soon. I'm +his brother-in-law," Chase continued, shaking hands with her, "and we're +all much obliged, ma'am, for what you've done; it was mighty kind--the +keeping watch at night." + +He went to his hotel, made a hasty supper, and returned, bag in hand, +before the half-hour was out. Mrs. Nightingale ushered him down one of +the long wings to her own apartment at the end, a comfortless, crowded +little chamber, full of relics of the war--her husband's sword and +uniform (he was shot at Gettysburg); his portrait; the portrait of her +brother, also among the slain; photographs of their graves; funeral +wreaths and flags. + +"Excuse my bringin' you here, sir; it's the only place I have. Mr. +Franklin hasn't gone to bed yet; I slipped up a moment ago to see, and +there was a light under his do'. I'm afraid it would attract his +attention if you should go up now, sir, for he knows that the next room +is unoccupied." + +"_You've_ occupied it, ma'am. But I guess you know how to step pretty +soft," Chase answered, gallantly. For now that he saw this good +Samaritan in a brighter light, he appreciated the depth of her charity. +The mistress of the boarding-house was the personification of chronic +fatigue; her dim eyes, her worn face, her stooping figure, and the +enlarged knuckles and bones of her hands, all told of hard toil and +care. Her thin hair was re-enforced behind by huge palpably false braids +of another shade, and the preposterous edifice, carried over the top of +the head, was adorned, in honor of the party, by the large white +camellia, placed exactly in the centre--"like a locomotive head-light," +Chase thought--which had attracted his notice in the street. But in +spite of her grotesque coiffure, no one with a heart could laugh at her. +The goodness in her faded face was so genuine and beautiful that +inwardly he saluted it. "She's the kind that'll never be rested _this_ +side the grave," he said to himself. + +Left alone in her poor little temple of memories, he went to the window +and looked out. It was midnight, and the waning moon--the same moon +which had been full when Ruth made her happy pilgrimage at St. +Augustine--was now rising in its diminished form; diminished though it +was, it gave out light enough to show the Northerner that the old house +had at the back, across both stories, covered verandas--"galleries," +Mrs. Nightingale called them. Above, the pointed roof of the main +building towered up dark against the star-decked sky, and from one of +its dormer-windows came a broad gleam of light. "That's Jared's room," +thought Chase. "He is writing to Gen, telling her all about it; sick as +he is, he sat up to do it. Meanwhile _she_ was comfortably asleep at +ten." + +At last, when Jared had finally gone to bed, Mrs. Nightingale (who made +no more sound than a mouse) led the way up to the attic. Chase followed +her, shoeless, treading as cautiously as he could, and established +himself in the empty room with his door open, and a lighted candle in +the hall outside. By two o'clock the party down-stairs was over; the +house sank into silence. + +There had been no sound from Jared. "He's all right; I shall get him +safely off to-morrow," thought the watcher, with satisfaction. "At New +York, if he's well enough to talk, I shall have to invent another yarn +about that steamer. But probably the doctors will tell him on the spot +that he isn't able to undertake it. So that'll be the end of _that_." + +His motionless position ended by cramping him; the chair was hard; each +muscle of both legs seemed to have a separate twitch. "I might as well +lie down on the bed," he thought; "there, at least, I can stretch out." + +He was awakened by a sound; startled, he sat up, listening. Jared, in +the next room, was talking. The words could not be distinguished; the +tone of the voice was strange. Then the floor vibrated; Jared had risen, +and was walking about. His voice grew louder. Chase noiselessly went +into the hall, and stood listening at the door. There was no light +within, and he ventured to turn the handle. But the bolt was fast. A +white figure now stole up the stairs and joined him; it was Mrs. +Nightingale, wrapped in a shawl. "Oh, I heard him 'way from my room! He +has never been so bad as this before," she whispered. + +Chase had always been aware that the naval officer disliked him; that +is, that he had greatly disliked the idea of his sister's marriage. "If +he sees me now, when he is out of his head, will it make him more +violent? Would it be better to have a stranger go in first?--the +doctor?"--these were the questions that occupied his mind while Mrs. +Nightingale was whispering her frightened remark. + +From the room now came a wild cry. That decided him. "I am going to +burst in the lock," he said to his companion, hurriedly. "Call up some +one to help me hold him, if necessary." His muscular frame was strong; +setting his shoulder against the door, after two or three efforts he +broke it open. + +But the light from the candle outside showed that the room was empty, +and, turning, he ran at full speed down the three flights of stairs, +passing white-robed, frightened groups (for the whole house was now +astir), and, unlocking the back door, he dashed into the court-yard +behind, his face full of dread. But there was no lifeless heap on the +ground. Then, hastily, he looked up. + +Dawn was well advanced, though the sun had not yet risen; the clear, +pure light showed that nothing was lying on the roof of the upper +gallery, as he had feared would be the case. At the same instant, his +eyes caught sight of a moving object above; coming up the steep slope of +the roof from the front side, at first only the head visible, then the +shoulders, and finally the whole body, outlined against the violet sky, +appeared Jared Franklin. He was partly dressed, and he was talking to +himself; when he reached the apex of the roof he paused, brandishing his +arms with a wild gesture, and swaying unsteadily. + +Several persons were now in the court-yard; men had hurried out. Two +women joined them, and looked up. But when they saw the swaying figure +above, they ran back to the shelter of the hall, veiling their eyes and +shuddering. In a few moments all the women in the house had gathered in +this lower hall, frightened and tearful. + +Chase, meanwhile, outside, was pulling off his socks. "Get ladders," he +said, quickly, to the other men. "I'm going up. I'll try to hold him." + +"Oh, how _can_ you get there?" asked Mrs. Nightingale, sobbing. + +"The same way he did," Chase answered, as he ran up the stairs. + +The men remonstrated. Two of them hurried after him. But he was ahead, +and, mounting to the sill of Jared's window, he stepped outside. Then, +not allowing himself to look at anything but the apex directly above +him, he walked slowly and evenly towards it up the steep incline, his +head and shoulders bent forward, his bare feet clinging to the +moss-grown shingles, while at intervals he touched with the tips of his +fingers the shingles that faced him, as a means of steadying himself. + +Down in the court-yard no word was now spoken. But the gazers drew their +breath audibly. Jared appeared to be unaware of any one below; his eyes, +though wide open, did not see the man who was approaching. Chase +perceived this, as soon as he himself had reached the top, and he +instantly took advantage of it; he moved straight towards Jared on his +hands and knees along the line of the ridge-pole. When he had come +within reach, he let himself slip down a few inches to a chimney that +was near; then, putting his left arm round this chimney as a support, he +stretched the right upward, and with a sudden grasp seized the other +man, throwing him down and pinning him with one and the same motion. +Jared fell on his back, half across the ridge, with his head hanging +over one slope and his legs and feet over the other; it was this +position which enabled Chase to hold him down. The madman (his frenzy +came from a violent form of inflammation of the brain) struggled +desperately. His strength seemed so prodigious that to the watchers +below it appeared impossible that the rescuer could save him, or even +save himself. The steep roof had no parapet; and the cruel pavement +below was stone; the two bodies, grappled in a death-clutch, must go +down together. + +"Oh, _pray_! Pray to God!" called a woman's voice from the court below. + +She spoke to Chase. But at that moment nothing in him could be spared +from his own immense effort; not only all the powers of his body, but of +his heart and mind and soul as well, were concentrated upon the one +thing he had to do. He accomplished it; feeling his arm growing weak, he +made a tremendous and final attempt to jam down still harder the breast +he grasped, and the blow (for it amounted to a blow) reduced Jared to +unconsciousness; his hands fell back, his ravings ceased. His strength +had been merely the fictitious force of fever; in reality he was weak. + +The ladders came. Both men were saved. + +"Come, now, if the roof had been only three inches above the ground--how +then?" Chase said, impatiently, as, after the visit of a doctor and the +arrival of two nurses, he came down for a hasty breakfast in Mrs. +Nightingale's dining-room, where the boarders began to shake hands with +him, enthusiastically. "The thing itself was simple enough; all that was +necessary was to act as though it _was_ only three inches." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +A week later, early in the evening, a four-horse stage was coming slowly +down the last mile or two of road above the little North Carolina +village of Old Fort at the eastern base of the Blue Ridge. It was a +creaking, crazy vehicle, thickly encrusted with red clay. But as it had +pounded all the way from Asheville by the abominable mountain-road, no +doubt it had cause to be vociferous and tarnished. Above, the stars were +shining brightly; and the forest also appeared to be starlit, owing to +the myriads of fire-flies that gleamed like sparks against the dark +trees. + +A man who was coming up the road hailed the stage as it approached. +"Hello! Is Mr. Hill inside? The Rev. Mr. Hill of Asheville?" + +"Yes," answered a voice from the back seat of the vehicle, and a head +appeared at the window. "What--Mr. Chase? Is that you?" And, opening the +door, Malachi Hill, with his bag in his hand, jumped out. + +"I came up the road, thinking I might meet you," Horace Chase explained. +"Let's walk; there's something I want to talk over." They went on +together, leaving the stage behind. "I've got a new idea," Chase began. +"What do you say to going up to New York to get my wife? I had intended +to go for her myself, as you know, starting from here to-night, as soon +as I had put the other ladies in your charge, to take back to Asheville. +But Mrs. Franklin looks pretty bad; and Dolly--she might have one of her +attacks. And, take it altogether, I've begun to feel that it's my +business to go with 'em all the way. For it's a long drive over the +mountains at best, and though the night's fine so far, there's no moon, +and the road is always awful. I have four men from Raleigh along--the +undertaker (who is a damn fool, always talking), and his assistants; and +so there'll be four teams--a wagon, the two carriages, and the hearse. I +guess I know the most about horses, and if you can fix it so as to take +my place, I'll see 'em through." + +"Certainly. I am anxious to help in any way you think best," answered +Malachi. "I wish I could start at once! But the stage is so late +to-night that, of course, the train has gone?" + +"That's just it--I kept it," Chase answered; "I knew one of us would +want to take it. You'll have to wait over at Salisbury in the usual +stupid way. But as Ruth can't be here in time for the funeral, it's not +of vital importance. The only thing that riles me is that, owing to that +confounded useless wait, you can't be on the dock to meet her when her +steamer comes in at New York; you won't be able to get there in time. +There'll be people, of course--I've telegraphed. But no one she knows +as well as she knows you." + +Reaching the village, they walked quickly towards the railroad and +finished their talk as they stood beside the waiting train. There was no +station, the rails simply came to an end in the main street. A small +frame structure, which bore the inscription "Blue Ridge Hotel," faced +the end of the rails. + +"He's in there," said Chase, in a low tone, indicating a lighted window +of this house; "that room on the ground-floor. And the old lady--she is +sitting there beside him. She is quiet, she doesn't say anything. But +she just sits there." + +"Mrs. Jared and Miss Dolly are with her, aren't they?" said the young +clergyman. + +"Well, Dolly is keeping Gen in the other room across the hall as much as +she _can_. For Dolly tells me that her mother likes best to sit there +alone. Women, you know, about their sons--sometimes they're queer!" +remarked Chase. + +"The mother's love--yes," Malachi answered, his voice uncertain for a +moment. He swallowed. "There isn't a man who doesn't feel, sooner or +later, after it has gone, that he hasn't prized it half enough--that it +was the best thing he had! It was brain-fever, wasn't it?" he went on, +hurriedly, to cover his emotion. For he, too, had been an only son. + +"Yes, and bad. He was raving; he knocked down one of the doctors. After +the fever left him, it was just possible, they told me, that he might +have pulled through, if he had only been stronger. But he was played out +to begin with; I discovered that myself as soon as I reached Raleigh. +Gen got there in time to see him. But the old lady was too late; and +pretty hard lines for her! She kept telegraphing from different stations +as she and Dolly hurried up from Charleston; and I did my best to +hearten her by messages that met her here and there; but she missed it. +By only half an hour. When I saw that it had come--that he was sinking +and she wouldn't find him alive--I went out and just cursed, cursed the +luck! For Gen had his last words, and everything. And his poor old +mother had nothing at all." + +Here the conductor came up. + +"Ready?" said Chase. "All right, here's your through ticket, Hill--the +one I bought for myself. And inside the envelope is a memorandum, with +the number and street of our house in New York, and other items. I'm no +end obliged to you for going." They shook hands cordially. "When you +come back, don't let my wife travel straight through," added the +husband. "Make her stop over and sleep." + +"I'll do my best," answered Hill, as the train started. In deference to +the mourning party which it had brought westward, there was no whistle, +no ringing of the bell; the locomotive moved quietly away, and the +clergyman, standing on the rear platform, holding on by the handle of +the door, watched as long as he could see it the lighted window of the +room where lay all that was mortal of Jared Franklin. + +An hour later the funeral procession started up the mountain. First, +there was a wagon, with the undertaker and his three assistants. Then +followed the large, heavy hearse drawn by four horses. Next came a +carriage containing Mrs. Franklin and Dolly; and, finally, a second +carriage for Genevieve and Horace Chase. + +"Poor mamma is sadly changed," commented Genevieve to her companion. +"She insisted upon being left alone with the remains at the hotel, you +know; and now she wishes her carriage to be as near the hearse as +possible. Fortunately, these things are very unimportant to me, Horace. +I do not feel, as they do, that Jay is _here_. My husband has gone--gone +to a better world. He knew that he was going; he said good-bye to me so +tenderly. He was always so--_so_ kind." And covering her face, Genevieve +gave way to tears. + +"Yes, he thought the world and all of you, Gen. There's no doubt about +that," Chase answered. + +He did full justice to the sobbing woman by his side. He was more just +to her than her husband's family had ever been, or ever could be; he had +known her as a child, and he comprehended that according to her nature +and according to her unyielding beliefs as to what was best, she had +tried to be a good wife. In addition (as he was a man himself), he +thought that it was to her credit that her husband had always been fond +of her, that he had remained devoted to her to the last. "That doesn't +go for nothing!" he said to himself. + +The ascent began. The carriages plunged into holes and lurched out of +them; they jolted across bits of corduroy; now and then, when the track +followed a gorge, they forded a brook. The curves were slippery, owing +to the red clay. Then, without warning, in the midst of mud would come +an unexpected sharp grind of the wheels over an exposed ledge of bare +rock. Before midnight clouds had obscured the stars and it grew very +dark. But the lamps on the carriages burned brightly, and a negro was +sent on in advance carrying a pitch-pine torch. + +In the middle of the night, at the top of the pass, there was a halt. +Chase had made Genevieve comfortable with cushions and shawls, and soon +after their second start she fell asleep. Perceiving this, he drew up +the window on her side, and then, opening the carriage-door softly, he +got out; it was easy to do it, as all the horses were walking. Making a +detour through the underbrush, so that he should not be seen by Mrs. +Franklin and Dolly in case they were awake, he appeared by the side of +the hearse. + +"Don't stop," he said to the driver, in a low tone; "I'm going to get up +there beside you." He climbed up and took the reins. "I'll drive the +rest of the way, or at least as far as the outskirts of the town. For +between here and there are all the worst places. You go on and join that +fellow in front. You might carry a second torch; you'll find some in the +wagon." + +The driver of the hearse, an Asheville negro, who knew Chase, gave up +his seat gladly. There were bad holes ahead, and there was a newly +mended place which was a little uncertain; he would not have minded +taking the stage over that place (none of the Blue Ridge drivers minded +taking the stage anywhere), but he was superstitious about a hearse. +"Fo' de Lawd, I'm glad to be red of it!" he confided to the other negro, +as they went on together in advance with their flaring torches. "It +slips an' slews when dey ain't no 'casion! Sump'n mighty quare 'bout it, +I tell you _dat_!" + +Presently the plateau came to an end, and the descent began. Rain was +now falling. The four vehicles moved slowly on, winding down the zigzags +very cautiously in the darkness, slipping and swaying as they went. + +After half an hour of this progress, the torch-bearers in front came +hurrying back to give warning that the rain had loosened the temporary +repairs of the mended place, so that its edge had given away; for about +one hundred and forty yards, therefore, the track was dangerously narrow +and undefended, with the sheer precipice on one side and the high cliff +on the other; in addition, the roadway slanted towards this verge, and +the clay was very slippery. + +Chase immediately sent word back to the drivers of the carriages behind +to advance as slowly as was possible, but not to stop, for that might +waken the ladies; then, jumping down from the hearse, and leaving one of +the negroes in charge of his team, he hurried forward to make a personal +inspection. The broken shelf, without its parapet, certainly looked +precarious; so much so that the driver of the wagon, when he came up, +hesitated. Chase, ordering him down, took his place, and drove the wagon +across himself. Whereupon the verbose undertaker began to thank him. + +"Don't worry; I didn't do it for _you_" answered Chase, grimly. "If +you'd gone over, you'd have carried away more of the track; that was +all." Going back, he resumed his place on the hearse. Then speaking to +his horses, he guided them on to the shelf. Here he stood, in order to +see more clearly, the men on the far side watching him breathlessly, and +trying meanwhile (at a safe distance) to aid him as much as they could, +by holding their torches high. The ponderous hearse began to slip by its +own weight towards the verge. Then, with strong hand, Chase sent his +team sharply towards the cliff that towered above them, and kept them +grinding against it as they advanced, the two on the inside fairly +rubbing the rock, until, by main strength, the four together had dragged +their load away. But in a minute or two it began over again. It happened +not once merely, but four times. And, the last time, the hind wheels +slipped so far, in spite of Chase's efforts, that it seemed as if they +would inevitably go over, and drag the struggling horses with them. But +Chase was as bold a driver as he was speculator. How he inspired them, +the horror-stricken watchers could not discover; but the four bays, +bounding sharply round together, sprang in a heap, as it were, at the +rocky wall on the left, the leaders rearing, the others on top of them; +and by this wild leap, the wheels (one of them was already over) were +violently jerked away. It was done at last; the dark, ponderous car +stood in safety on the other side, and the spectators, breathing again, +rubbed down the wet horses. Then Horace Chase went back on foot, and, in +turn, drove the two carriages across. Through these last two transits +not a word was spoken by any one; he mounted soundlessly, so that +Genevieve slept on undisturbed, and Mrs. Franklin and Dolly, unaware of +the danger or of the new hand on the reins, continued to gaze vaguely at +the darkness outside, their thoughts pursuing their own course. Finally, +leaving one of the negroes on guard to warn other travellers of the +wash-out and its perils, Chase resumed his place on the hearse, and the +four vehicles continued their slow progress down the mountain. + +After a while, the first vague clearness preceding dawn appeared; the +rain ceased. Happening to turn his head fifteen minutes later, he was +startled to see, in the dim light, the figure of a woman beside the +hearse. It was Mrs. Franklin. The road was now smoother, and she walked +steadily on, keeping up with the walk of the horses. As the light grew +clearer, she saw who the driver was, and her eyes met his with +recognition. But her rigid face seemed to have no power for further +expression; it was set in lines that could not alter. Chase, on his +side, bowed gravely, taking off his hat; and he did not put it on again, +he left it on the seat by his side. He made no attempt to stop her, to +persuade her to return to her carriage; he recognized the presence of +one of those moods which, when they take possession of a woman, no power +on earth can alter. + +As they came to the first outlying houses of Asheville, he gave up his +place to the negro driver, and getting down on the other side of the +hearse, away from Mrs. Franklin, he went back for a moment to Dolly. +"You must let her do it! _Don't_ try to prevent her," Dolly said, +imperatively, in a low tone, the instant she saw him at the carriage +door. + +"I'm not thinking of preventing her," Chase answered. Waiting until the +second carriage passed, he looked in; Genevieve was still asleep. Then, +still bareheaded, he joined Mrs. Franklin, and, without speaking, walked +beside her up the long, gradual ascent which leads into the town. + +The sun now appeared above the mountains; early risers coming to their +windows saw the dreary file pass--the wagon and the two carriages, heavy +with mud; the hearse with four horses, and the mother walking beside +it. As they reached the main street, Chase spoke. "The Cottage?" + +"No; home," Mrs. Franklin answered. As the hearse turned into the +driveway of L'Hommedieu, she passed it, and, going on in advance, opened +the house door; here, waving away old Zoe and Rinda, who came hurrying +to meet her, she waited on the threshold until the men had lifted out +the coffin; then, leading the way to the sitting-room, she pointed to +the centre of the floor. + +"Oh, not to _our_ house?" Genevieve whispered, as she alighted, her eyes +full of tears. + +But Dolly, to whom she spoke, limped in without answering, and Mrs. +Franklin paid no more heed to her daughter-in-law, who had followed her, +than as though she did not exist. Genevieve, quivering from her grief, +turned to Horace Chase. + +He put his arm round her, and led her from the sitting-room. "Give way +to her, Gen," he said, in a low tone. "She isn't well--don't you see it? +She isn't herself; she has been walking beside that hearse for the last +hour! Let her do whatever she likes; it's her only comfort. And now I am +going to take you straight home, and you must go to bed; if you don't, +you won't be able to get through the rest--and you wouldn't like that. +I'll come over at noon and arrange with you about the funeral; to-morrow +morning will be the best time, won't it?" And half leading, half +carrying her, for Genevieve was now crying helplessly, he took her +home. + +When he came back, Dolly was in the hall, waiting for him. + +There was no one in the sitting-room save Mrs. Franklin; he could see +her through the half-open door. She was sitting beside the coffin, with +her head against it, and one arm laid over its top. Her dress was +stained with mud; she had not taken off her bonnet; her gloves were +still on. Dolly closed the door, and shut out the sight. + +"You ought to see to her; she must be worn out," Chase said, +expostulatingly. + +"I'll do what I can," Dolly answered. "But mother has now no desire to +live--that will be the difficulty. She loves Ruth, and she loves me. But +not in the same way. Her father, her husband, and her son--these have +been mother's life. And now that the last has gone, the last of the +three men she adored, she doesn't care to stay. That is what she is +thinking now, as she sits there." + +"Come, you can't possibly know what she is thinking," Chase answered, +impatiently. + +"I always know what is in mother's mind; I wish I didn't!" said Dolly, +her features working convulsively for a moment. Then she controlled +herself. "I am sorry you came all the way back with us, Mr. Chase. It +wasn't necessary as far as _we_ were concerned. We could have crossed +the mountain perfectly well without you. But Ruth--that is another +affair, and I wish you had gone for her yourself, instead of sending Mr. +Hill! You must be prepared to see Ruth greatly changed. I should not be +surprised if she should arrive much broken, and even ill. She was very +fond of Jared. She will be overwhelmed--" Here, feeling that she was +saying too much, the elder sister abruptly disappeared. + +Chase, left alone, went out to see to the horses. The men were waiting +at the gate, the carriages and the hearse were drawn up at a little +distance; the undertaker and his assistants were standing in the garden. +"Get your breakfast at the hotel; I'll send for you presently," he said +to the latter. Then he paid the other men, and dismissed them. "You go +and tell whoever has charge, to have that bad bit of road put in order +to-day," he directed. "Tell them to send up a hundred hands, if +necessary. I'll pay the extra." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +The morning after the funeral, Chase, upon coming down to breakfast, +found Mrs. Franklin already in the sitting-room. She had not taken the +trouble to put on the new mourning garb which had been hastily made for +her; her attire was a brown dress which she had worn in Florida. She sat +motionless in her easy-chair, with her arms folded, her feet on a +footstool, and her face had the same stony look which had not varied +since she was told, upon her arrival at Raleigh, that her son was dead. + +"Well, ma'am, I hope you have slept?" Chase asked, as he extended his +hand. + +She gave him hers lifelessly. + +"Yes; I believe so." + +"Ruth will soon be here now," her son-in-law went on, as he seated +himself. "I told Hill not to let her travel straight through, for it +would only tire her; and she needs to keep well, ma'am, so as to be of +use to you. I'm going to drive over to Old Fort to-day, starting +late--about six o'clock, I guess. I've calculated that if Ruth spent a +night in New York (as she probably did, waiting for Hill to get there), +and if she stops over one night on the way, she would reach Old Fort +to-morrow noon. Then I'll bring her right on to L'Hommedieu." + +"Yes, bring her. And let her stay." + +"As long as ever you like, ma'am. I can't hold on long myself just now, +but I'll leave her with you, and come for her later. I am thinking of +taking a house at Newport for the summer; I hope that you and Miss Dolly +will feel like spending some time there with Ruth? Say August and +September?" + +"I shall travel no more. Leave her with me; it won't be for long." + +"You must cheer up, ma'am--for your daughters' sake." + +"Ruth has you," Mrs. Franklin responded. "And _you_ are good." Her tone +remained lifeless. But it was evident that her words were sincere; that +a vague sense of justice had made her rouse herself long enough to utter +the commendation. + +"That's a mistake. I've never laid claim to anything of _that_ sort," +Chase answered rather curtly, his face growing red. + +"When I say '_good_' I mean that you will be good to Ruth," said the +mother; "it is the only sort of goodness I care for! At present you +don't like Dolly. But Dolly is so absolutely devoted to her sister that +you will end by accepting her, faults and all; you won't mind her little +hostilities. I can therefore trust them both to you--I do so with +confidence," she added. And, with her set face unchanged, she made him a +little bow. + +"Why talk that way, ma'am? We hope to have you with us many years +longer," Chase answered. "A green old age is a very fine thing to see." +(He thought rather well of that phrase.) "My grandmother--she stuck it +out to ninety-eight, and I hope you'll do the same." + +"Probably she wished to live. I have no such desire. As I sat here +beside my son the morning we arrived, I knew that I longed to go, too. I +want to be with him--and with my husband--and my dear father. My life +here has now come to its end, for _they_ were my life." + +"That queer Dolly knew!" thought Chase. "But perhaps they've talked +about it?" He asked this question aloud. "Have you told your daughter +that, ma'am?" + +"Told my poor Dolly? Of course not. Please go to breakfast, Mr. Chase; I +am sure it is ready." Chase went to the dining-room. A moment later +Dolly came in to pour out the coffee. + +"Is there anything I can do for you this morning?" Chase asked, as he +took a piece of Zoe's hot corn-bread. "I am going to drive over to Old +Fort this afternoon, and wait there for Ruth, for I've calculated the +trains, and I reckon that she and Hill will reach there to-morrow." + +Dolly looked at him for a moment. Then she said: "You have a great deal +of influence with Genevieve; perhaps you could make her understand that +for the present it is better that she should not try to see mother. Tell +her that mother is much more broken than she was yesterday; tell her +that she is very nervous; tell her, in short, anything you please, +provided it keeps her away!" Dolly added, suddenly giving up her long +effort to hide her bitter dislike. + +Chase glanced at her, and said nothing; he ate his corn-bread, and +finished his first cup of coffee in silence. Then, as she poured out the +second, he said: "Well, she might keep away entirely? She might leave +Asheville? She has a brother in St. Louis, and she likes the place, I +know; I've heard her say so. If her property here could be taken off her +hands--at a good valuation--and if a well-arranged, well-furnished house +could be provided for her there, near her brother, I guess she'd go. I +even guess she'd go pretty quick," he added; "she'd be a long sight +happier there than here." For though he had no especial affection for +Genevieve, he at least liked her better than he liked Dolly. + +Dolly, however, was indifferent to his liking or his disliking. "_Oh!_" +she said, her gaze growing vague in the intensity of her wish, "if it +could only be done!" Then her brow contracted, she pushed her plate +away. "But we cannot possibly be so much indebted to you--I mean so much +_more_ indebted." + +"You needn't count yourself in, if it worries you," Chase answered with +his deliberate utterance. "For I should be doing it principally for +Ruth, you know. When she comes, the first thing she'll want to do, of +course, is to make her mother comfortable. And if Gen's clearing out, +root and branch, will help that, I rather guess Ruth can fix it." + +"You mean that _you_ can." + +"Well, we're one; I don't think that even _you_ can quite break that up +yet," Chase answered, ironically. Then he went on in a gentler tone: "I +want to do everything I can for your mother. She has always been very +kind to me." + +And Dolly was perfectly well aware that, as he looked at her (looked at +her yellow, scowling face), his feeling for her had become simply pity, +pity for the sickly old maid whom no one could possibly please--not even +her sweet young sister. + +Soon after breakfast Chase went to the Cottage. Genevieve received him +gratefully. Her cheeks were pale; her eyes showed the traces of the +tears of the previous day, the day of the funeral. + +Her visitor remained two hours. Then he rose, saying, "Well, I must see +about horses if I am to get to Old Fort to-night. I shall tell Ruth +about this new plan of ours, Gen. She'll be sure to like it; she'll +enjoy going to St. Louis to see you; we'll both come often. And you'll +be glad of a change yourself. The other house, too, is likely to be shut +up. For, though they don't say so yet, I guess the old lady and Dolly +will end by spending most of their time with Ruth, in New York." + +"I must go over and see mamma at once," answered Genevieve. "I must have +her opinion, first of all. I shall ask mamma's advice more than ever +now, Horace; it will be my pleasure as well as my duty. For Jay was very +fond of his mother; he often told me--" Her voice quivered, and she +stopped. + +"Now, Gen, listen to me," said Chase, taking her hand. "Don't go over +there at all to-day. And, when you go to-morrow, and later, don't try to +see the old lady; wait till she asks for you. For she is all unhinged; +I've just come from there, and I know. She is very nervous, and +everything upsets her. It won't do either of you any good to meet at +present; it would only be a trial to you both. And Dolly says so, too. +Promise me that you'll take care of yourself; promise me especially that +you won't leave the house at all to-day, but stay quietly at home and +rest." + +Genevieve promised. But after he had gone, the sense of duty that was a +part of her nature led her to reconsider her determination. That her +husband should have been laid in his grave only twenty-four hours +before, and that she, the widow, should not see his bereaved mother +through the whole day, when their houses stood side by side; that they +should not mingle their tears, and their prayers also, while their +sorrow was still so new and so poignant--this seemed to her wrong. In +addition, it seemed hardly decent. The mother was ill and broken? So +much the more, then, was it her duty to go to her. At four o'clock, +therefore, she put on her bonnet and its long crape veil, and her black +mantle, and crossed the meadow towards L'Hommedieu. + +Mrs. Franklin was still sitting in the easy-chair with her arms folded, +as she had sat in the morning when Chase came in. The only difference +was that now a newspaper lay across her lap; she had hastily taken it +from the table, and spread it over her knees, when she recognized her +daughter-in-law's step on the veranda. + +Genevieve came in. She was startled at first by the sight of the brown +dress, which happened to have red tints as well as brown in its fabric. +But it was only another cross to bear; her husband's family had always +given her so many! "I hope you slept last night, mamma?" she said, +bending to kiss Mrs. Franklin's forehead. + +"Yes, I believe so," the elder woman answered, mechanically, as she had +answered Chase. She was now indefinitely the elder. Between the wife of +forty, and the slender, graceful, vivacious mother of fifty-eight, there +had been but the difference of one short generation. But now the mother +might have been any age; her shoulders were bent, her skin looked +withered, and all the outlines of her face were set and sharpened. + +Genevieve took off her crape mantle, folding it (with her habitual +carefulness) before she laid it on a chair. "You must let me see to your +mourning, mamma," she said, as she thus busied herself. "I suppose your +new dress doesn't fit you? It was made so hastily. I shall be sitting +quietly at home for the present, day after day, and it will occupy me +and take my thoughts from myself to have some sewing to do. And I know +how to cut crape to advantage also, for I was in mourning so long when +I was a girl." + +Mrs. Franklin made no reply. + +Her daughter-in-law, seating herself beside her, stroked back her gray +hair. "You look so tired! And I am afraid Dolly is tired out also, as +she isn't with you?" + +"I sent her to bed half an hour ago; for I am afraid one of her attacks +is coming on," Mrs. Franklin answered, her lips compressing themselves +as she endured the caress. Genevieve's touch was gentle. But Mrs. +Franklin did not like to have her hair stroked. + +"Poor Dolly! But, surely, it is not surprising. I must see her before I +go back. But shall I go back, mamma? As you are alone, wouldn't it be +better for me to stay with you for the rest of the day? I could read to +you; I should love to do it. It seems providential that my dear copy of +_Quiet Hours_ should have come back from Philadelphia only yesterday; I +had sent it to Philadelphia, you know, to be rebound. But there have +been greater providences still; for instance, how I was able to get to +Raleigh in time to see our dear one. For the stage had gone when +Horace's telegram came, and Mr. Bebb's having arranged, by a mere +chance, to drive to Old Fort with that pair of fast horses at the very +_moment_ I wished to start--surely that was providential? But you look +so white; do let me get you some tea? Or, better still, won't you go to +bed? I should so love to undress you, and bathe your face with cologne." + +Mrs. Franklin shook her head; through her whole life she had detested +cologne. On the top of her dumb despair, on the top of her profound +enmity, rose again (a consciousness sickening to herself) all the petty +old irritations against this woman; against her "providential"; her +_Quiet Hours_; her "surely"; her "cutting crape to advantage"; and even +her "cologne." She closed her eyes so that at least she need not _see_ +her. + +"I have had a letter from my sister," Genevieve went on. "I brought it +with me, thinking that you might like to hear it, for it is so +_beautifully_ expressed. As you don't care to lie down, I'll read it to +you now. My sister reminds me, mamma, that in the midst of my grief I +ought to remember that I have had one great blessing--a blessing not +granted to all wives; and that is, that from the first moment of our +engagement to his last breath, dear Jay was perfectly devoted to me; he +never looked--he never cared to look--at any one else!" + +Mrs. Franklin refolded her arms; her hands, laid over her elbows, +tightened on her sleeves. + +Genevieve began to read the letter. But when she came to the passage she +had quoted, the tears began to fall. "I won't go on," she said, as she +wiped them away. "For we must not dwell upon our griefs--don't you think +so, mamma? Not _purposely_ remind ourselves of them; surely that is +unwise. I have already arranged to give away Jay's clothes, for +instance--give them to persons who really need them. For as long as they +are in the house I can't help cr-crying whenever I see them." Her voice +broke, and she stopped; her effort at self-control, both here and at +home, was sincere. + +She replaced the letter in her pocket. And as she did so, the crape of +her sleeve, catching on the edge of the newspaper which lay over Mrs. +Franklin's knees, drew it so far to one side that it fell to the floor. +And there, revealed on the mother's lap, lay a little heap: a package of +letters in a school-boy hand; a battered top, and one or two other toys; +a baby's white robe yellow with age; some curls of soft hair, and a +little pair of baby shoes. + +"Oh, mamma, are you letting yourself brood over these things? Surely it +is not wise? Let me put them away." + +But Mrs. Franklin, gathering her poor treasures from Genevieve's touch, +placed them herself in her secretary, which she locked. Then she began +to walk to and fro across the broad room--to and fro, to and fro, her +step feverishly quick. + +After a minute, Genevieve followed her. "Mamma, try to be resigned. Try +to be calm." + +Mrs. Franklin stopped. She faced round upon her daughter-in-law. "You +dare to offer advice to me, you barren woman? You tell me to be +resigned? What do _you_ know of a mother's love for her son--you who +have never borne a child? You can comprehend neither my love nor my +grief. Providential, is it, that you reached Raleigh in time? Providence +is a strange thing if it assists _you_. For you have killed your +husband--killed him as certainly as though you had given him slow +poison. You broke up his life--the only life he loved; you never rested +until you had forced him out of the navy. And then, your greed for money +made you urge him incessantly to go into business--into business for +himself, which he knew nothing about. You gave him no peace; you drove +him on; your determination to have all the things _you_ care for--a +house of your own and a garden; chairs and tables; handsome clothes; +money for _charities_" (impossible to describe the bitterness of this +last phrase)--"these have been far more important to you than anything +else--than his own happiness, or his own welfare. And, lately, your +process of murder has gone on faster. For he has been very ill all +winter (I know it _now_!) and you have not been near him; you have +stayed here month after month, buying land with Ruth's money, filling +your pockets and telling him nothing of it, adding to your house, and +saying to yourself comfortably meanwhile that this wise course of yours +would in the end bring him round to your views. It _has_ brought him +round--to his death! His life for years has been wretched, and you were +the cause of the misery. For it was his feeling of being out of his +place, his gradual discouragement, his sense of failure, that finally +broke down his health. If he had never seen _you_, he might have lived +to be an old man, filling with honor the position he was fitted for. +Now, at thirty-nine, he is dead. He was faithful to you, you say? He +was. And it is my greatest regret! I do not wish ever to see your face +again. For he was the joy of my life, and you were the curse of his. +Go!" + +These sentences, poured out in clear, vibrating tones, had filled +Genevieve with horror. And something that was almost fear followed as +the mother, coming nearer, her eyes blazing in her death-like face, +emphasized her last words by stretching out her arm with a gesture that +was fiercely grand--the grandeur of her bereavement and her despair. + +Genevieve escaped to the hall. Then, after waiting for a moment +uncertainly, she hurried home. + +When the sound of her footsteps had died away, Mrs. Franklin went to the +secretary and took out again the dress and the top, the little shoes and +the baby-curls; seating herself, she began to rearrange them. But her +hands only moved for a moment or two. Then her head sank back, her eyes +closed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +As it happened, Horace Chase was the next person who entered the parlor. +He was touched when he saw the old-looking figure, with the pathetic +little heap in its lap. But when he perceived that the figure was +unconscious, he was much alarmed; summoning help, he sent hastily for a +doctor. After being removed to her own room, Mrs. Franklin was extremely +restless; she moved her head incessantly from side to side on the +pillow, and she seemed to be half blind; her mind wandered, and her +voice, as she spoke incoherently, was very weak. Then suddenly she sank +into a lethargic slumber. The doctor waited to see in what condition she +would waken; for there were symptoms he did not like. Miss Billy, +meanwhile, was installed as nurse. + +Mrs. Kip, Maud Muriel, and Miss Billy had visited this house of mourning +many times since the arrival of the funeral procession two days before, +with the mother walking beside the coffin of her son. And now that this +poor mother was stricken down, they all came again, anxious to be of +use. Chase, who had always liked her gentle ways, selected Miss Billy. + +Dolly knew nothing of her mother's prostration; for her pain (her old +enemy), having been deadened by an opiate, she was sleeping. In order +that she should not suspect what had happened, Miss Billy did not show +herself at all in Dolly's room; Rinda, who was accustomed to this +service, was established there on a pallet, ready to answer if called. + +Chase had decided that he would wait for the doctor's report before +starting on his drive across the mountain; it would be satisfactory to +have something definite to tell Ruth. It was uncertain when that report +would come. But as he intended to set out, in spite of the darkness, the +first moment that it was possible, there was no use in going to bed. +Alone in the parlor, therefore, he first read through all the newspapers +he could find. Then, opening the window, he smoked a cigar or two. +Finally, his mind reverted, as it usually did when he was alone, to +business; drawing a chair to the table, he took out some memoranda and +sat down. Midnight passed. One o'clock came. Two o'clock. He still sat +there, absorbed. Mrs. Franklin's reading-lamp, burning brightly beside +him, lighted up his hard, keen face. For it looked hard now, with its +three deeply set lines, one on each side of the mouth, and one between +the eyes; and the eyes themselves were hard and sharp. But though the +business letter he was engaged upon was a masterpiece of shrewdness (as +those who received it would not fail to discover sooner or later), and +though it dealt with large interests that were important, the faintest +sound upstairs would have instantly caught the attention of its writer. +On a chair beside him were railroad time-tables, and a sheet of +commercial note-paper with two lines of figures jotted down in orderly +rows side by side; these represented the two probabilities regarding the +trains which his wife might take--their hours of departure and their +connections. He had received no telegrams, and this had surprised him. +"What can the little chap be about?" he had more than once thought. His +adjective "little" was not depreciatory; Malachi Hill was, in fact, +short. In addition, his fresh, pink-tinged complexion and bright blue +eyes gave him a boyish air. To Horace Chase, who was over six feet in +height, and whose dark face looked ten years older than it really was, +the young missionary (whom he sincerely liked) seemed juvenile; his +youthful appearance, in fact, combined with his unmistakable "grit" (as +Chase called it), had been the thing which had first attracted the +notice of the millionaire. + +A little before three there was a sound. But it was not from upstairs, +it was outside; steps were coming up the path from the gate. The man in +the parlor went into the hall; and as he did so, to his surprise the +house-door opened and his wife came in. + +Behind her there was a momentary vision of Malachi Hill. The clergyman, +however, did not enter; upon seeing Horace Chase, he closed the door +quietly and went away. + +Ruth's face, even to the lips, was so white that her husband hastily +put his arm round her; then he drew her into the sitting-room, closing +the door behind them. + +"Where is he?" Ruth had asked, or rather, her lips formed the words. +"Didn't you _wait_ for me?" + +"My darling, he was buried yesterday," Chase answered, sitting down and +drawing her into his arms. "Didn't Hill tell you?" + +"Yes, but I didn't believe it. I thought you would wait for me; I +thought you would _know_ that I wanted to see him." + +"No one saw him after we left Raleigh, dear. The coffin was not opened +again." + +"If I had been here, mother would have--_mother_ would have--" + +"It was your mother who arranged everything," Chase explained gently, as +with careful touch he took off her hat, and then her gloves; her hands +were icy, and he held them in his to warm them. + +"Where _is_ mother? And Dolly? Weren't they expecting me? Didn't they +_know_ I would come?" + +"Your mother is sick upstairs. No, don't get up--you can't see her now; +she is asleep, and mustn't be disturbed. But the first moment she wakes +up the doctor is to let me know, and then you shall go to her right +away. Miss Breeze is up there keeping watch. Dolly has broken down, too. +But Dolly's case is no worse than it has often been before, and you'd +better let her sleep while she can. And now, will you stay here with me, +Ruthie, till the doctor comes? Or would you rather go to bed? If you'll +go, I promise to tell you the minute your mother wakes." He put his hand +on her head protectingly, and kissed her cheek. Her face was cold. Her +whole frame had trembled incessantly from the moment of her entrance. +"My darling little girl, how tired you are!" + +"Tell me everything--everything about Jared," Ruth demanded, feverishly. + +Though she was so white, it was evident that she had not shed tears; her +eyes were bright, her lips were parched. Her husband, with his +rough-and-ready knowledge of women, knew that it would be better for her +to "have her cry out," as he would have phrased it; it would quiet her +excitement and subdue her so that she would sleep. As she could not eat, +he gave her a spoonful of brandy from his own flask, and wrapped her +cold feet in his travelling-shawl; then, putting her on the sofa, he sat +down beside her, and, holding her tenderly in his arms, he told her the +story of Jared's last hours. + +His account was truthful, save that he softened the details. In his +narrative Mrs. Nightingale's shabby house became homelike and +comfortable, and Jared's bare attic a pleasant place; Mrs. Nightingale +herself (here there was no need for exaggeration) was an angel of +kindness. He dwelt upon Jared's having agreed to go with him to New +York. "I had planned to start at nine o'clock the next morning, Ruthie, +having a doctor along without his knowing it; and I had ordered a +private car--a Pullman sleeper--to go through to New York; once there, I +thought you could make him take a good long rest. That kind woman had +been sitting up at night in the room next to his. So I fixed that by +taking the same room myself. I didn't undress, but I guess I fell +asleep; and I woke up hearing him talking. And then he walked about the +room, and he even climbed out on the roof; but we soon got him back all +right. Everything possible was done, dear; the best doctor in Raleigh, +and a nurse--two of 'em. But it was no use. It was brain-fever, or +inflammation of the brain rather, and after it had left him he was too +weak to rally. They thought everything of him at Raleigh; your mother +wanted him brought here, and when we went to the depot, everybody who +had ever known him turned out, so that there was a long procession; and +all the ladies of his boarding-house brought flowers. At Old Fort, I had +intended to let Hill (I had wired to him to meet us there) take charge +of them across the mountains, for I wanted to go to New York to get +_you_. But the night was dark, and the road is always so bad that I +thought, on the whole, you'd rather have me stay with your mother. And +she has been tolerably well, too, until this afternoon, when she had an +attack of some sort. But I guess it's only that she is overtired; the +doctor will probably come down and tell us so before long." + +"I _wanted_ to see him," repeated Ruth, her eyes still dry and bright. +"It was very little to do for me, I think. If I could have just taken +his poor hand once--even if it _was_ dead! Everybody else got there in +time to speak to him, to say good-by." + +"No; your mother didn't get there," Chase explained. + +"She didn't get there? And Genevieve _did?_ I know it by your face. Let +me go to mother--poor mother! Let me go to her, and _never_ leave her +again." + +"You shall go the instant she wakes; you shall stay with her as long as +you like," Chase answered, drawing her down again, and putting his cheek +against her head as it lay on his breast. "There is nothing in the world +I wouldn't do for your mother; you have only to choose. And for Dolly, +too. You shall stay with them; or they can go with you; or anything you +think best, my poor little girl." + +Ruth still trembled, and no tears came to her relief. + +Her cry, "And Genevieve _did?_" had struck him. "How they all hate her?" +he thought. + +He had seen Genevieve since Mrs. Franklin's attack; he had gone over for +a moment to tell her what had happened. + +Genevieve, when driven from L'Hommedieu, had taken refuge in her own +room at the Cottage; here, behind her locked door, she had spent a long +hour in examining herself searchingly, examining her whole married life. +Her hands had trembled as she looked over her diaries, and as she +turned the pages of her "Questions for the Conscience." But with all her +efforts she could not discern any point where she had failed. Finally, +at the end of the examination, she summed the matter up more calmly: "It +_was_ best for Jared to be out of the navy; he was forming habits there +that I understood better than his mother. And I _know_ that I am not +avaricious. I know that I have always tried to do what was best for him, +that I have tried to elevate him and help him in every way. I have +worked hard--hard. I have never ceased to work. It is all a falsehood, +or, rather, it is a delusion; for she is, she _must_ be, insane." Having +reached this conclusion (with Genevieve conclusions were final), she put +away her diaries and went down-stairs to tea. When Chase came in and +told what had happened, she said, with the utmost pity, "I am _not_ +surprised! When she comes out of it, I fear you will find, Horace, that +her mind is affected. But surely it is natural. Mamma's mind--poor, dear +mamma!--never was very strong; and, in this great grief which has +overwhelmed us all, it has given way. We must make every allowance for +her." She told him nothing of her terrible half-hour at L'Hommedieu. She +never told any one. Silence was the only proper course--a pitying +silence over Jay's poor mother, his crazed mother. + +Ruth had paid no heed to her husband's soothing words, his promise to do +everything that he possibly could for her mother and Dolly. "What did +Jared say? You were with him before he was ill. Tell me everything, +everything!" + +He tried to satisfy her. Then he attempted to draw her thoughts in +another direction. "How did you get here so soon, Ruthie? I told Hill to +make you stop over and sleep." + +"Sleep!" repeated Ruth. "I only thought of one thing, and that was to +get here in time to see him." She left the sofa. "You ought to have +waited for me. It would have been better if you had. _Jared_ was the one +I cared for. One look at his face, even if he _was_ dead. Where did they +put him when they brought him home? For I know mother had him here, here +and not at the Cottage. It was in this room, wasn't it? In the centre of +the floor?" She walked to the middle of the room and stood there. +"_Jared_ could have helped me," she said, miserably. "Why did they take +my _brother_--the one person I had!" + +The door opened and the doctor entered. "_You_ here, Mrs. Chase? I +didn't know you had come." He hesitated. + +"What is it?" said Ruth, going to him. "Tell me! _Tell_ me." + +The doctor glanced at Chase. + +Chase came up, and took his wife's hand protectingly. "You may as well +tell her." + +"It is a stroke of paralysis," explained the doctor, gravely. + +"But she'll _know_ me?" cried Ruth in an agony of tears. + +"She _may_. You can go up if you like." + +But the mother saw nothing, heard nothing on earth again. She might live +for years. But she did not know her own child. + +Chase came at last, and took his wife away. + +"Oh, be good to me, Horace, or I shall die! I think I _am_ dying now," +she added in sudden terror. + +She clung to him in alarm. His immense kindness was now her refuge. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +In spite of all there was to see that afternoon, Dolly Franklin had +chosen to remain at home; she sat alone in the drawing-room, adding +silken rows to her stocking of the moment. Wherever Ruth was, that was +now Dolly's home; since Mrs. Franklin's death, two years before, Dolly +had lived with her sister. The mother had survived her son but a month. +Her soul seemed to have departed with the first stroke of the benumbing +malady; there was nothing but the breathing left. At the end of a few +weeks, even the breathing ceased. Since then, L'Hommedieu had been +closed, save for a short time each spring. Horace Chase had bought a +cottage at Newport, and his wife and Dolly had divided their time +between Newport and New York. This winter, however, Chase had reopened +his Florida house, the old Worth place, at St. Augustine; for Ruth's +health appeared to be growing delicate; at least she had a dread of the +cold, of the icy winds, and the snow. + +"Well, we'll go back to the land of the alligators," said Chase; "we'll +live on sweet potatoes and the little oysters that grow round loose. You +seem to have forgotten that you own a shanty down there, Ruthie?" + +At first Ruth opposed this idea. Then suddenly she changed her mind. +"No, I'll go. I want to sail, and sail!" + +"So do I," said Dolly. "But why shouldn't we try new waters? The Bay of +Naples, for instance? Mr. Chase, if you cannot go over at present, you +could come for us, you know, whenever it was convenient?" Dolly expended +upon her idea all the eloquence she possessed. + +But Horace Chase never liked to have his wife beyond the reach of a +railroad. He himself often made long, rapid journeys without her. But he +was unwilling to have her "on the other side of the ferry," as he called +it, unless he could accompany her; and at present there were important +business interests which held him at home. As Ruth also paid small heed +to Dolly's brilliant (and wholly imaginary) pictures of Capri, Ischia, +and Sorrento, the elder sister had been forced (though with deep inward +reluctance) to yield; since December, therefore, they had all been +occupying the pleasant old mansion that faced the sea-wall. + +To-day, four o'clock came, and passed. Five o'clock came, and passed; +and Dolly still sat there alone. At last she put down her knitting, and, +taking her cane, limped upstairs and peeped into her sister's +dressing-room. Ruth, who was lying on the lounge with her face hidden, +appeared to be asleep. Dolly, therefore, closed the door noiselessly and +limped down again. Outside the weather was ideally lovely. The +beautiful floral arch which had been erected in the morning still filled +the air with its fragrance, though the tea-roses of which it was +composed were now beginning to droop. St. Augustine, or rather the +visitors from the North, who at this season filled the little Spanish +town, had set up this blossoming greeting in honor of a traveller who +was expected by the afternoon train. This traveller had now arrived; he +had passed through the floral gateway in the landau which was bringing +him from the station. The arch bore as its legend: "The Ancient City +welcomes the great Soldier." The quiet-looking man in the landau was +named Grant. + +At length Dolly had a visitor; Mrs. Kip was shown in. A moment later the +Reverend Malachi Hill appeared, his face looking flushed, as though he +had been in great haste. Mrs. Kip's eyes had a conscious expression when +she saw him. She tried to cover it by saying, enthusiastically, "How +_well_ you do look, Mr. Hill! You look so fresh; really _classic_." + +The outline of the clergyman's features was not the one usually +associated with this adjective. But Mrs. Kip was not a purist; it was +classic enough, in her opinion, to have bright blue eyes and golden +hair; the accidental line of the nose and mouth was less important. + +"Yes, my recovery is now complete," Malachi answered; "I must go back to +my work in a day or two. But I wish it hadn't been measles, you know. +Such a ridiculous malady!" + +"Oh, don't say that; measles are so sweet, so domestic. They make one +think of dear little children; and lemons," said Mrs. Kip, +imaginatively. "And then, when they are getting well, all sorts of +toys!" + +While she was speaking, Anthony Etheridge entered. And he, too, looked +as if he had been making haste. "What, Dolly, neither you nor Ruth out +on this great occasion? Are you a bit of a copperhead?" + +"No," Dolly answered. "I haven't spirit enough. _My_ only spirit is in a +lamp; I have been making flaxseed tea and hot lemonade for Ruth, who has +a cold." + +"Does she swallow your messes?" Etheridge asked. + +"Never. But I like to fuss over them, and measure them out, and _stir_ +them up!" + +"Just as I do for Evangeline Taylor," remarked Mrs. Kip, affectionately. + +"Lilian, isn't Evangeline long enough without that Taylor?" Dolly +suggested. "I have always meant to ask you." + +"I do it as a remembrance of her father," replied Lilian, with solemnity +"For I myself am a Taylor no longer; _I_ am a Kip." + +"Oh, is that it? And if you should marry again, what then could you do +(as there is no second Evangeline) for your present name?" Dolly +inquired, gravely. + +"I have thought of that," answered the widow. "And I have decided that +I shall keep it. It shall precede any new name I may take; I should make +it a condition." + +"You are warned, gentlemen," commented Dolly. + +Etheridge for an instant looked alarmed. Then, as he saw that Malachi +had reddened violently, he grew savage. "Kip-Hill? Kip-Larue? +Kip-Willoughby?" he repeated, as if trying them. "Walter Willoughby, +however, is very poor dependence for you, Mrs. Lilian; for he is +evidently here in the train of the Barclays. He arrived with them +yesterday, and he tells me he is going up the Ocklawaha; I happen to +know that the Barclays are taking that trip, also." + +Walter Willoughby's name had rendered Mrs. Kip visibly conscious a +second time. The commodore's allusion to "the Barclays," and to Walter's +being "in their train," had made no impression upon her. They were +presumably ladies; but Lilian's mind was never troubled by the +attractions of other women, she was never jealous. One reason for this +immunity lay in the fact that she was always so actively engaged in the +occupation of loving that she had no time for jealousy; another was that +she had in her heart a soft conviction, modest but fixed, regarding the +power of her own charms. As excuse for her, it may be mentioned that the +conviction was not due to imagination, it was a certainty forced upon +her by actual fact; from her earliest girlhood men had been constantly +falling in love with her, and apparently they were going to continue it +indefinitely. But though not jealous herself, she sympathized deeply +with the pain which this tormenting feeling gave to others, and, on the +present occasion, she feared that Malachi might be suffering from the +mention of Walter Willoughby's name, and that of Achilles Larue, in +connection with her own; she therefore began to talk quickly, as a +diversion to another subject. "Oh, do you know, as I came here this +afternoon I was reminded of something I have often meant to ask you--ask +all of you, and I'll say it now, as it's in my mind. Don't you know that +sign one so often sees everywhere--'Job Printing'? There is one in +Charlotte Street, and it was seeing it there just now as I passed that +made me think of it again. I suppose it must be some especial kind of +printing that they have named after Job? But it has always seemed to me +so odd, because there was, of course, no printing at all, until some +time after Job was dead? Or do you suppose it means that printers have +to be so _very_ patient (with the bad handwriting that comes to them), +that they name _themselves_ after Job?" + +Dolly put down her knitting. "Lilian, come here and let me kiss you. You +are too enchanting!" + +Mrs. Kip kissed Dolly with amiability. She already knew--she could not +help knowing--that she was too enchanting. But it was not often a +woman's voice that mentioned the fact. "It is late, I must go," she +said. "Mr. Hill, if you--if you want those roses for Mrs. Chase's +bouquet, this is the best time to gather them." + +Malachi Hill found his hat with alacrity, and they went out together. +And then Etheridge took refuge in general objurgations. "I'm dead sick +of Florida, Dolly! It's so monotonous. So flat, and deep in sand. No +driving is possible. One of the best drives I ever had in my life was in +a sleigh; right up the Green Mountains. The snow was over the tops of +the fences, and the air clear as a bell!" + +"Do the Green Mountains interest the little turtle-dove who has just +gone out?" Dolly inquired. + +"Little turtle-fool! She makes eyes at every young idiot who comes +along." + +"Oh no, she only coos. It's her natural language. I won't answer as to +Achilles Larue, commodore, for that is a long-standing passion; she +began to admire his fur-lined overcoat, his neat shoes, his 'ish,' and +his mystic coldness within a month after the departure of her second +dear one. But as to her other flames, I think you could cut them out in +her affections if you would give your mind to it seriously; yes, even +the contemporary Willoughby. But you'll never give your mind to it, +you're a dog in the manger! You have no intention of marrying her +yourself. Yet you don't want any one else to marry her. Isn't it +tremendously appropriate that she happens to own an orange-grove? +Orange-blossoms always ready." + +"Contemporary?" Etheridge repeated, going back to the word that had +startled him. + +"Yes. Haven't you noticed how vividly contemporary young fellows of +Walter's type are? They have no fixed habits; for fixed habits are +founded in retrospect, and they never indulge in retrospect. Anything +that happened last week seems to them old; last year, antediluvian. They +live in the moment, with an outlook only towards the future. This makes +them very 'actual' wooers. As my brother-in-law would phrase it, they +are 'all there!'" + +"Nonsense!" said Etheridge. But as he went home to his own quarters (to +take a nap so as to be fresh for the evening), he turned over in his +thoughts that word "contemporary!" And he made up his mind that from +that hour he would mention no event which had occurred more than one +year before; he would tell no story which dated back beyond the same +period of time; he would read only the younger authors (whom he loathed +without exception); he would not permit himself to prefer any particular +walking-stick, any especial chair. At the club he would play euchre +instead of whist; and if there was any other even more confoundedly +modern and vulgar game, he would play that. Habits, indeed? Stuff and +nonsense! + +Left alone, Dolly went upstairs a second time. But Ruth's door was now +locked. The elder sister came back therefore to the drawing-room. Her +face was anxious. + +She banished the expression, however, when she heard her +brother-in-law's step in the hall; a moment later Horace Chase entered, +his hands full of letters, and newspapers piled on his arm; he had come +from the post-office, where the afternoon mail had just been +distributed. "Where is Ruth? Still asleep?" he asked. + +"I think not; I heard Félicité's voice speaking to her just now, when I +was upstairs," Dolly answered. + +"They're taking another look at that new frock," Chase suggested, +jocosely, as he seated himself to reread his correspondence (for he had +already glanced through each letter in the street). "Where is Hill?" he +went on rather vaguely, his attention already attracted by something in +the first of these communications. + +"He came in, after the welcoming ceremonies, red in the face from +chasing Mrs. Kip. And the commodore appeared a moment later, also +breathless, and in search of her. But Malachi was selected to walk home +with the fair creature. And then the commodore trampled on Florida, and +talked of the Green Mountains." + +Dolly's tone was good-natured. But beneath this good-nature Chase +fancied that there was jealousy. "Eh--what's that you say?" he +responded, bringing out his words slowly, while he bestowed one more +thought upon the page he was reading before he gave her his full +attention. "The little Kip? Well, Dolly, she is a very sweet little +woman, isn't she?" he went on, reasonably, as if trying to open her eyes +gently to a fact that was undeniable. "But I didn't know that Hill had +a fancy in that quarter. If he has, we must lend him a hand." + +For Chase had a decided liking for Malachi; the way the young clergyman +had carried through that rapid journey to New York and back, after Jared +Franklin's death, had won his regard and admiration. Malachi had not +stopped at Salisbury; his train went no farther, but he had succeeded in +getting a locomotive, by means of which, travelling on all night, he had +made a connection and reached New York in time after all to meet Ruth's +steamer. As it came in, there he was on the dock, dishevelled and +hungry, but there. + +And then when Ruth, frenzied by the tidings he brought (for it really +seemed to him almost frenzy), had insisted upon starting on her journey +to L'Hommedieu without an instant's delay, he had taken her, with +Félicité, southward again as rapidly as the trains could carry them. His +money was exhausted, but he did not stop; he travelled on credit, +pledging his watch; it was because he had no money that he had not +telegraphed. At Old Fort he procured a horse and light wagon, also on +trust, and though he had already spent four nights without sleep, he did +not stop, but drove Ruth across the mountains in the darkness on a sharp +trot, with the utmost skill and daring, leaving Félicité to follow by +stage. The sum which Chase had placed in the envelope with the ticket +had been intended merely for his own expenses; the additional amount +which was now required for Ruth and her maid soon exhausted it, +together with all that he had with him of his own. Ruth's state of +tension--for she was dumb, white, and strange--had filled him with the +deepest apprehension; she did not think of money, and he could not bear +to speak to her of it. Such a contingency had not occurred to Chase, who +knew that his wife had with her more money than the cost of half a dozen +such journeys; for her purse was always not only full, but over-full; it +was one of his pleasures to keep it so. When, afterwards, he learned the +facts (from Ruth herself, upon questioning her), he went off, found +Malachi, and gave him what he called "a good big grip" of the hand. +"You're a trump, Hill, and can be banked on every time!" Since then he +had been Malachi's friend and advocate on all occasions, even to the +present one of endeavoring to moderate the supposed jealousy of his +sister-in-law regarding Lilian Kip. + +After this kindly meant attempt of his, Dolly did not again interrupt +him; she left him to finish his letters, while she went on with her +knitting in silence. + +Mrs. Franklin's prophecy, that Chase would end by liking Dolly for +herself, had not as yet come true. Ruth's husband accepted the presence +of his wife's sister under his roof; as she was an invalid, he would not +have been contented to have her elsewhere. Dolly's life now moved on +amid ease and comfort; she had her own attendant, who was partly a +lady's-maid, partly a nurse; she had her own phaeton, and, when in New +York, her own coupé. If she was to live with Ruth at all, there was, +indeed, no other way; she could not do her own sister the injustice of +remaining a contrast, a jarring note by her side. Chase was invariably +kind to Dolly. Nevertheless Dolly knew that her especial combination of +ill-health and sarcasm seemed to him incongruous; she could detect in +his mind the thought that it was odd that a woman so sickly, with the +added misfortune of a plain face, should not at least try to be amiable, +since it was the only rôle she could properly fill. Her little +hostilities, as her mother had called them, were now necessarily +quiescent. But she had the conviction that, even if they had remained +active, her tall brother-in-law would not have minded them; he would +have taken, probably, a jocular view of them; and of herself as well. + +When the last letter was finished, and she saw her companion begin on +his newspapers, she spoke again: "I don't think Ruth ought to go to that +reception to-night; she is not well enough." + +"Why, I thought it was nothing but a very slight cold," Chase said, +turning round, surprised. "She mustn't think of going if she's sick. She +_wants_ to go; she telegraphed for that dress." + +"Yes; last week. But that was before--before she felt ill. If she goes +now, it will be only because _you_ care for it." + +"Oh, shucks! _I_ care for it! What do I care for that sort of thing? +I'll go and tell her to give the whole right up." He rose, leaving his +newspapers on the floor (Chase always wanted his newspapers on the +floor, and not on a table), and went towards the door. But, at the same +instant, Ruth herself came in. "I was just going up to tell you, Ruthie, +that I guess we won't turn out to-night after all--I mean to that show +at the Barracks. I reckon they can manage without us?" + +"Oh, but I want to see it," said Ruth. "If you are tired, I can go with +Mrs. Kip." + +"Well, who's running this family, anyway?" Chase demanded, going back to +his seat, not ill-pleased, however, that Dolly should see that her +information concerning her sister was less accurate than his own. But +his care regarding everything that was connected with his wife made him +add, "You'll give it up if I want you to, Ruthie?" + +"You don't. It's Dolly!" Ruth declared. "Dolly-Dulcinea, I have changed +my mind. I did not want to go this morning; I did not want to go this +noon. But, at half-past five o'clock precisely, I knew that I must go or +perish! Nothing shall keep me away." And, gayly waving her hand to her +sister, she went into the music-room, which opened from the larger +apartment, and, seating herself at the piano, began to play. + +Chase returned to his reading; his only comment to Dolly was, "She seems +to _look_ pretty well." And it was true that Ruth looked not only well, +but brilliant. After a while they heard her begin to sing: + + "My short and happy day is done; + The long and dreary night comes on; + And at my door the Pale Horse stands, + To carry me to unknown lands. + + "His whinny shrill, his pawing hoof, + Sound dreadful as a gathering storm; + And I must leave this sheltering roof, + And joys of life so soft and warm." + +"_Don't_ sing that!" called Dolly, sharply. + +"Why not let her do as she likes?" suggested Chase, in the conciliatory +tone he often adopted with Dolly. To him all songs were the same; he +could not tell one from the other. + +At this moment Malachi Hill entered, with his arms full of roses. "Long +stalks?" said Ruth, hurrying to meet him. "Lovely! Now you shall help me +make my posy. What shall I bring home for you in my pocket, Mr. Hill? +Ice-cream?" + +"Well, the truth is I am thinking of going myself," answered Malachi, +coloring a little. "It has been mentioned to me that I ought to go--as a +representative of the clergy. It is not in the least a ball, they tell +me; it is a reception--a reception to General Grant. The young people +may perhaps dance a little; but not until after the general's +departure." + +"Capital idea," said Chase, adding a fourth to his pile of perused +sheets on the floor. "And don't go back on us, Hill, by proposing to +escort some one else. Ruth wants to make an impression on the general, +and, three abreast, perhaps we can do it." + +Suddenly Ruth went to her sister. "Dolly, you must go too. Now don't say +a word. You can go early and have a good seat; and as to dress, you can +wear your opera-cloak." + +"Oh no--" began Dolly. + +But Ruth stopped her. "You must. I want you to _see_ me there." + +"Well, who's conceited, I'd like to know?" commented Chase, as he read +on. + +But Ruth's face wore no expression of conceit; its expression was that +of determination. With infinite relief Dolly saw this. "I'll go," she +said, comprehending Ruth's wish. + +The reception was given by a West Point comrade of General Grant's, who +happened to be spending the winter in Florida. As he had left the army +many years before, he was now a civilian, and the participation of St. +Francis Barracks in the affair was therefore accidental, not official. +For the civilian, being a man of wealth, had erected for the occasion a +temporary hall or ball-room, and had connected it by a covered passage +with the apartments of his brother, who was an artillery officer, +stationed that winter at this old Spanish post. At ten o'clock, this +improvised hall presented a gay appearance, owing to the flowers with +which it was profusely decorated, to the full dress of the ladies, and +to the uniforms; for the army had been reinforced by a contingent from +the navy, as two vessels belonging to the Coast Survey were in port. + +The reticent personage to whom all this homage was offered looked as if +he would like to get rid of it on any terms. He had commanded great +armies, he had won great battles, and that seemed to him easy enough. +But to stand and have his hand shaken--this was an ordeal! + +A lane had been kept open through the centre of the long room in order +to facilitate the presentations. At half-past ten, coming in his turn up +this avenue, the tall figure of Horace Chase could be seen; his wife was +with him, and they were preceded by the Rev. Malachi Hill. Chase, +inwardly amused by the ceremony, advanced towards Grant with his face +very solemn. But for the moment no one looked at him; all eyes were +turned towards the figure by his side. + +Half an hour earlier, as he sat alone in his drawing-room, waiting (and +reading another newspaper to pass away the time), Ruth had come to him. +As he heard her enter, he had looked up with a smile. Then his face +altered a little. + +"What! no diamonds?" he said. + +Ruth wore the new dress about which he had joked, but no ornaments save +a string of pearls. + +"It shall be just as you like," she answered, in a steady voice. + +"Oh no, Ruthie; just as _you_ like." + +He admired diamonds, and now that she was nearly twenty-three, he had +said to himself that even her mother, if she had lived, would no longer +have objected to her wearing them. He had therefore bought for her +recently a superb necklace, bracelets, and other ornaments, and he had +pleased himself with the thought that for this official occasion they +would be entirely appropriate. Ruth, reading his disappointment in his +eyes, went out, and returned a few minutes later adorned with all his +gifts to the very last stone. And now, as she came up the lane in the +centre of the crowded room, the gems gleamed and flashed, gleamed on her +neck, on her arms, in her hair, and in the filmy lace of her dress. +Always tall, she had grown more womanly, and she could therefore bear +the splendor. To-night, in addition, her own face was striking, for her +color had returned, and her extraordinarily beautiful eyes were at their +best--lustrous and profound. It had always been said of Ruth that her +beauty came and went. To-night it had certainly come, and to such a +degree that it spurred Etheridge to the exclamation, in an undertone: + +"Too many diamonds. But, by George, she shines them down!" + +After the presentation was over Chase stepped aside, and, with his wife, +joined Dolly. Dolly had a very good place; draped in her opera-cloak, +which was made of a rich Oriental fabric, she looked odd, ugly, and +distinguished. + +"Everybody is here except the Barclays," Etheridge announced. "There +can't be a soul left in any of the hotels. And all the negroes in town +are on the sea-wall outside, ready to hurrah when the great man drives +away." + +"Here's Walter. He is coming this way--he is looking for _us_," said +Chase. "How are you, Walter?" + +"Mrs. Chase! Delighted to meet you again," said Willoughby, shaking +hands with Ruth with the utmost cordiality. + +"My sister is here also," Ruth answered, moving aside so that he could +see Dolly. And then Walter greeted Miss Franklin with the same extreme +heartiness. + +"Bless my soul, what enthusiasm!" commented Etheridge. "One would +suppose that you had not met for years." + +"And we haven't," said Ruth, surveying Walter, coolly. "Mr. Willoughby +has changed. He has a sort of Chinese air." + +"Willoughby has been living in California for two years, commodore; +didn't you know that?" Chase explained, inwardly enjoying his wife's +sally. "_I've_ been to California four times since then. But as he +hasn't been east, the ladies have lost sight of him." + +"Are you returning to the Pacific?" Etheridge inquired of the younger +man, "so as to look more Chinese still?" + +"The Celestial air I have already caught will have to do," Walter +answered, laughing. "California is a wonderfully fascinating country. +But I am not going back; the business which took me there is concluded." + +Horace Chase smiled, detecting the triumph under these words. For his +Pacific-coast enterprise had been highly successful, and Walter had +carried out his part of it with great energy and intelligence, and had +profited accordingly. That particular partnership was now dissolved. + +When the dancing began, Ruth declined her invitations. "It isn't +necessary to stay any longer, is it?" Dolly suggested in a low tone. +"The carriage is probably waiting." + +Here Chase, who had left them twenty minutes before, came up. "I've been +seeing the general off," he said. "Well--he appeared middling glad to +go! No dancing, Ruthie?" For he always remembered the things that amused +his wife, and dancing, he knew, was high on her list. + +And then, with that overtouch which it is so often the fate of an elder +sister to bestow, Dolly said, "I really think she had better not try it. +She is not thoroughly strong yet--after her cold." + +This second assertion of a knowledge superior to his own annoyed Chase. +And Ruth perceived it. "I am perfectly well," she answered. And, +accepting the next invitation, she began to dance. She danced with +everybody. Walter Willoughby had his turn with the rest. + +A week later, Chase, coming home at sunset, looked into the +drawing-room. His wife was not there, and he went upstairs in search of +her. He found her in her dressing-room, with a work-basket by her side. +"Well! I've never seen you _sew_ before," he declared, amused by this +new industry. + +"I've had letters that make it necessary for me to go north, Ruthie. +You'll be all right here, with Dolly, won't you?" He had seated himself, +and was now glancing over a letter. + +"Don't go," said Ruth, abruptly. And she went on sewing with her +unnecessarily strong stitches; her mother had been wont to say of her +that, if she sewed at all, the results were like iron. + +Petie Trone, Esq., aged but still pretty, had been reposing on the +lounge by her side. But the moment Chase seated himself, the little +patriarch had jumped down, gone over, and climbed confidently up to his +knees, where, after turning round three times, he had finally settled +himself curled up like a black ball, with his nose on his tail. + +"Oh, I must," Chase answered. "There's something I've got to attend to." +And he continued to study the letter. + +"Take me with you, then," said Ruth, going on with her rocklike seam. + +"What's that? Take you?" her husband responded, still absorbed. "Not +this time, I guess. For I'm going straight through to Chicago. It would +tire you." + +"No; I should like it; I don't want to stay here." She put down her +work; going to one of the tables, she stood there with her back towards +him, turning things over, but hardly as though she perceived what they +were. Chase finished his letter. Then, as he replaced it in his pocket, +he saw that she had risen, and, depositing Mr. Trone on the lounge, he +went to her and put his arm round her shoulders. + +"I'd take you if I could, Ruthie," he said, indulgently, beginning a +reasonable argument with her. "But my getting to Chicago by a certain +date is imperative, and to do it I've got to catch to-night's train and +go through, and that would be too hard travelling for you. Besides, you +would lose all the benefit of your Southern winter if you should hurry +north now, while it is still so cold; that is always a mistake--to go +north too early. Your winter here has done you lots of good, and that's +a great pleasure to me. I want to be proud of you next summer at +Newport, you know." And he pinched her cheek. + +Ruth turned and looked at him. "_Are_ you proud of me?" + +"Oh no!" answered Chase, laughing. "Not at all!" Then, after a moment, +he went on, his tone altering. "I like to work a big deal through; I'm +more or less proud of that, I reckon. But down below everything else, +Ruthie, I guess my biggest pride is just--_you_." He was a man without +any grace in speech. But certain tones of his voice had an eloquence of +their own. + +Ruth straightened herself. "I will do what you wish. I will stay +here--as you prefer it. And you must keep on being proud of me. You must +be proud of me always, _always_." + +This made her husband laugh a second time. "It's a conceit that's come +to stay, Mrs. Chase. You may put your money on it!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +As he walked down the sea-wall to his hotel after the Grant reception, +Walter Willoughby said to himself that Mrs. Chase's coldness was the +very thing he desired, the thing he had been hoping for, devoutly, for +more than two years. The assertion was true. But though he had hoped, he +had hardly expected that her indifference would have become so complete. +If he did not exactly enjoy it, it had at least the advantage of leaving +him perfectly free. For purposes of his own (purposes which had nothing +to do with her), he had found it convenient to come to Florida this +winter. And now that St. Augustine was reached, these same private +purposes made him desire to remain there rather longer than he had at +first intended. After the Grant reception he told himself with relief +that there was now no reason, "no reason on earth," why he should not +stay as long as it suited him to do so. He therefore remained. He joined +in the amusements of the little winter-colony, the riding, driving, +sailing, walking, and fishing parties that filled the lovely days. Under +these conditions two weeks went by. Horace Chase had not as yet +returned; he was engaged in one of those bold enterprises of a +speculative nature which he called "a little operation;" occasionally +he planned and carried through one of these campaigns alone. + +On the last night of this second week Ruth came into her sister's room. +It was one o'clock, but Dolly was awake; the moonlight, penetrating the +dark curtains, showed her who it was. "Is that you, Ruth?" + +"Yes," Ruth answered. "Dolly, I want to go away." + +Dolly raised herself, quickly. "Whenever you like," she answered. "We +can go to-morrow morning by the first train; they can pack one trunk, +and the rest can be sent after us. I shall be quite well enough to go." +For Dolly had been in bed all day, suffering severely; it was the only +day for two weeks which she had not spent, hour by hour, with her +sister. "You will have had a telegram from Mr. Chase," she went on; "we +can say that as explanation." + +Ruth turned away. She left the details to her sister. + +"Oh, don't go off and shut yourself up. Stay here with me," pleaded +Dolly, entreatingly. + +"I'd rather be alone," Ruth began. But her voice broke. "No, I'm afraid! +I _will_ stay here. But you mustn't talk to me, Dolly." + +"Not a word," Dolly responded; "if you will tell me, first, where you +have been?" + +"Oh, only at Andalusia, as you know," Ruth answered, in the same +exhausted tone. "It isn't very late; every one stayed till after +twelve. And I came home as I went; that is, with Colonel and Mrs. +Atherton; they left me just now at the door." + +"Alone?" + +"No; with Walter Willoughby. But he did not come in; he only stood there +on the steps with me for a moment; that's all." While Ruth was saying +this, she had taken off her hat and gloves; then, in the dim light, +Dolly saw her sink down on the divan, and lie there, motionless. The +elder sister crept towards her on the outside of the bed (for the divan +was across its foot), and covered her carefully with a warm shawl; then, +faithful to her promise, she returned to her place in silence. And +neither of them spoke again. + +On the divan Ruth was not fighting a battle; she had given up, she was +fleeing. + +When, two years before, absorbed in her love for Walter, she had +insisted upon that long, solitary voyage northward from Charleston, so +that she could give herself up uninterruptedly to her own thoughts, +alone with them and the blue sea, the tidings which had met her at New +York as she landed--the tidings of her brother's death--had come upon +her almost like a blinding shaft of lightning. It was as if she, too, +had died. And she found her life again only partially, as she went +southward in the rushing trains, as she crossed the mountains in the +wagon, and arrived by night at dimly lighted L'Hommedieu. Sleepless +through both journeys--the voyage northward and the return by +land--worn out by the intense emotions which, in turn, had swept over +her, she had reached her mother's door at last so exhausted that her +vital powers had sunk low. Then it was that the gentle care of the man +who knew nothing of the truth had saved her--saved her from the +dangerous tension of her own excitement, and, later, from a death-like +faintness which, if prolonged, would have been her end. For when she +beheld the changed, drawn, unconscious face of her mother, that "mother" +who had seemed to her as much a fixed part of her life as her own +breath, her heart had failed her, failed not merely in the common +meaning of the phrase, but actually; its pulsations grew so weak that a +great dread seized her--the instinctive shrinking of her whole young +being from the touch of death. In her terror, she had fled to her +husband, she had taken refuge in his boundless kindness. "Oh, I am +dying, Horace; I _must_ be dying! Save me!" was her frightened cry. + +For she was essentially feminine. In her character, the womanhood, the +sweet, pure, physical womanhood, had a strong part; it had not been +refined away by over-development of the mental powers, or reduced to a +subordinate position by ascetic surroundings. It remained, therefore, +what nature had made it. And it gave her a great charm. But its presence +left small place for the more masculine qualities, for stoical fortitude +and courage; she could not face fear; she could not stand alone; and +she had always, besides, the need to be cherished and protected, to be +held dear, very dear. + +This return to her husband was sincere as far as it carried her. From +one point of view, it might be said that she had never left him. For her +love for Walter had contained no plan; and her girlish affection for +Horace Chase remained what it always had been, though the deeper +feelings were now awake underneath. + +Time passed; the days grew slowly to months, and the months at last +became a long year, and then two. Little by little she fell back into +her old ways; she laughed at Dolly's sallies, she talked and jested with +her husband. She sometimes asked herself whether those buried feelings +would ever rise and take possession of her again. But Walter remained +absent--that was the thing that saved her. A personal presence was with +her always a powerful influence. But an absence was equally powerful in +its quieting effect; it produced temporarily more or less oblivion. She +had never been able to live on memories. And she had a great desire at +all times to be happy. And, therefore, to a certain degree, she did +become happy again; she amused herself with fair success at Newport and +New York. + +And then Walter had re-entered the circle of her life. And by a fatality +this had come to her at St. Augustine. On the morning of the day of the +Grant reception, she had suddenly learned that he was in town. And she +knew (it came like a wave over her) that she dreaded the meeting. + +There had been no spoken confidences between the sisters. But Dolly had +instantly extended all the protection that was in her power, and even +more; for she had braved the displeasure of her brother-in-law by +maintaining that his wife was ill, and that she (Dolly) knew more of the +illness than he did. And then, suddenly, this elder sister was put in +the wrong. For Ruth herself appeared, declaring gayly that she was well, +perfectly well. The gayety was assumed. But the declaration that she was +well was a truthful one; she was not only well, but her heart was +beating with excitement. For the idea had taken possession of her that +this was the very opportunity she needed to prove to herself (and to +Dolly also) that she was changed, that she was calm and indifferent. And +it would be a triumph also to show this indifference to Walter. Her +acts, her words, her every intonation should make this clear to him; +delightfully, coldly, brilliantly clear! + +Yet, into this very courage had come, as an opposing force, that vague +premonition which had made her suddenly begin to sing "The Stirrup Cup." + +But a mood of renewed gayety had followed; she had entered the +improvised ball-room with pulses beating high, sure that all was well. + +Before the evening was over she knew that all was ill; she knew that at +the bottom of everything what had made her go thither was simply the +desire to see Walter Willoughby once more. + +When, a few days later, her husband told her that he was going north, +with one of her sudden impulses she said, "Take me with you." He had not +consented. And she knew that she was glad that he had not. Certain tones +of his voice, however, when he spoke of his pride in her, had touched +her deeply; into her remembrance came the thought of all he had done for +her mother, all he had done for Jared, and she strengthened herself +anew: she would go through with it and he should know nothing; he should +remain proud of her always, always. + +But this was not a woman who could go on unmoved seeing daily the man +she loved; those buried feelings rose again to the surface, and she was +powerless to resist them. All she could do (and this required a constant +effort) was to keep her cold manner unaltered. + +Walter, meanwhile, was not paying much heed to Mrs. Chase. At the Grant +reception, he had been piqued by her sarcasms; he had smarted under the +surprise which her laughing coolness and gayety gave him. But this +vexation soon faded; it was, after all, nothing compared with the great +desire which he had at this particular moment to find himself entirely +free from entanglements of that nature. He was therefore glad of her +coldness. He continued to see her often; in that small society they +could not help but meet. And occasionally he asked himself if there was +nothing underneath this glittering frost? No least little scrap left of +her feeling of two years before? But, engrossed as he was with his own +projects, this curiosity remained dormant until suddenly these projects +went astray; they encountered an obstacle which for the time being made +it impossible for him to pursue them further. This happened at the end +of his second week in St. Augustine. Foiled, and more or less irritated, +and having also for the moment nothing else to do, he felt in the mood +to solace himself a little with the temporary entertainment of finding +out (of course in ways that would be unobserved by others) whether there +was or was not anything left of the caprice which the millionaire's +pretty wife had certainly felt for him when he was in Florida before. + +For that was his idea of it--a caprice. He saw only one side of Ruth's +nature; to him she seemed a thoughtless, spoiled young creature, highly +impressionable, but all on the surface; no feeling would last long with +her or be very deep, though for the moment it might carry her away. + +What he did was so little, during this process of finding out, and what +he said was so even less, that if related it would not have made a +narrative, it would have been nothing to tell. But the woman he was +studying was now like a harp: the lightest touch of his hand on the +strings drew out the music. And when, therefore, upon that last night, +taking advantage of the few moments he had with her alone at her door, +after her friends from the Barracks had passed on--when he then said a +word or two, to her it was fatal. His phrase meant in reality nothing; +it was tentative only. But Ruth had no suspicion of this; her own love +was direct, uncomplicated, and overmastering; she supposed that his was +the same. She looked at him dumbly; then she turned, entering the house +with rapid step and hurrying up the stairs, leaving the sleepy servant +who came forward to meet her to close the door. Fatal had his words been +to her; fatally sweet! + +The two sisters left St. Augustine the next morning; in the evening they +were far down the St. John's River on their way to Savannah. They sat +together near the bow of the steamer, watching in silence the windings +of the magnificent stream; the moonlight was so bright that they could +see the silvery long-moss draping the live-oaks on shore, and, in the +tops of signal cypresses, bare and gaunt, the huge nests of the +fish-hawks, like fortifications. + +"Poor Chase! covering her with diamonds, and giving her everything; +while _I_ can turn her round my finger!" Walter said to himself when he +heard they had gone. + +On the day of his wife's departure--that sudden departure from St. +Augustine of which he as yet knew nothing, Horace Chase, in Chicago, was +bringing to a close his "little operation"; by six o'clock, four +long-headed men had discovered that they had been tremendously +out-generalled. Later in the evening, three of these men happened to be +standing together in a corridor of one of the Chicago hotels, when the +successful operator, who was staying in the house, came by chance +through the same brightly lighted passage-way. + +"I guess you think, Chase, that you've got the laugh on us," said one of +the group. "But just wait a month or two; we'll make you walk!" + +"Oh, the devil!" answered Chase, passing on. + +"He's as hard as flint!" said the second of the discomfited trio, who, +depressed by his losses (which to him meant ruin), had a lump in his +throat. "There isn't such a thing as an ounce of feeling in Horace +Chase's _whole_ composition, damn him!" + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +His little campaign over, Horace Chase made his preparations for +returning to Florida. These consisted in hastily throwing into a valise +the few things which he had brought with him, and ringing the bell to +have a carriage called so that he could catch the midnight train. As he +was stepping into this carriage, a telegram was handed to him. "Hold on +a minute," he called to the driver, as he opened it. "We are on our way +to Savannah," he read. "You will find us at the Scriven House. Ruth not +well." And the signature was "Dora Franklin." "Drive on," he called a +second time, and as the carriage rolled towards the station he said to +himself, "That Dolly! Always trying to make out that Ruth's sick. I +guess it's only that she's tired of Florida. She wanted to leave when +_I_ came north; asked me to take her." + +But when he reached Savannah, he found his wife if not ill, at least +much altered; she was white and silent, she scarcely spoke; she sat hour +after hour with her eyes on a book, though the pages were not turned. +"She isn't well," Dolly explained again. + +"Then we must have in the doctors," Chase answered, decisively. "I'll +get the best advice from New York immediately; I'll wire at once." + +"Don't; it would only bother her," objected Dolly. "They can do no more +for her than we can, for it is nothing but lack of strength. Take her up +to L'Hommedieu, and let her stay there all summer; that will be the best +thing for her, by far." + +"That's the question; will it?" remarked Chase to himself, reflectively. + +"Do I know her, or do I not?" urged Dolly. "I have been with her ever +since she was born. Trust me, at least where _she_ is concerned; for she +is all I have left in the world, and I understand her every breath." + +"Of course I know you think no end of her," Chase answered. But he was +not satisfied; he went to Ruth herself. "Ruthie, you needn't go to +Newport this summer, if you're tired of it; you can go anywhere you +like, short of Europe (for I can't quite get abroad this year). There +are all sorts of first-rate places, I hear, along the coast of Maine." + +"I don't care where I go," Ruth answered, dully, "except that I want to +be far away from--from the tiresome people we usually see." + +"Well, that means far away from Newport, doesn't it? We've been there +for two summers," Chase answered, helping her (as he thought) to find +out what she really wanted. "Would you like to go up the lakes--to +Mackinac and Marquette?" + +"No, L'Hommedieu would do, perhaps." + +"Yes, Dolly's plan. Are you doing it for _her_?" + +"Oh," said Ruth, with weary truthfulness, "don't you know that I never +do things for Dolly, but that it's always Dolly who does things for me?" + +Her husband took her to L'Hommedieu. + +She seemed glad to be there; she wandered about and looked at her +mother's things; she opened her mother's secretary and used it; she sat +in her mother's easy-chair, and read her books. There was no jarring +element at hand; Genevieve, beneficent, much admired, and well off, had +been living for two years in St. Louis; her North Carolina cottage was +now occupied by Mrs. Kip. + +Chase had the inspiration of sending for Kentucky Belle, and after a +while Ruth began to ride. This did her more good than anything else; +every day she was out for hours among the mountains with her husband, +and often with the additional escort of Malachi Hill. + +One morning they made an expedition to the wild gorge where the squirrel +had received his freedom two years before; Ruth dismounted, and walked +about under the trees, looking up into the foliage. + +"He's booming; he's got what _he_ likes," said Chase--"your Robert the +Squirrel; or Robert the Devil, as Dolly called him." + +"Oh, I don't want him back," Ruth answered; "I am glad he is free. Every +one ought to be free," she went on, musingly, as though stating a new +truth which she had just discovered. + +"I came out nearly every week, Mrs. Chase, during the first six months, +with nuts for him," said Malachi, comfortingly. "I used to bring at +least a quart, and I put them in a particular place. Well--they were +always gone." + +As they came down a flank of the mountain overlooking the village, Chase +surveyed the valley with critical eyes. "If we really decide to take +this thing up at last--Nick and Richard Willoughby, and myself, and one +or two more--my own idea would be to have a grand combine of all the +advantages possible," he began. "In the United States we don't do this +thing up half so completely as they do abroad. Over there, if they have +mountains--as in Switzerland, for instance--they don't trust to that +alone, they don't leave people to sit and stare at 'em all day; they add +other attractions. They have boys with horns, where there happen to be +echoes; they illuminate the waterfalls; girls dressed up in costumes +milk cows in arbors; and men with flowers and other things stuck in +their hats, yodel and sing. All sorts of carved things, too, are +constantly offered for sale, such as salad-forks, paper-cutters, and +cuckoo clocks. Then, if it isn't mountains, but springs, they always +have the very best music they can get, to make the water go down. It +would be a smart thing to have the sulphur near here brought into town +in pipes to a sort of park, where we could have a casino with a hall for +dancing, and a restaurant where you could always get a first-class meal. +And, outside, a stand for the band. And then in the park there ought to +be, without fail, long rows of bright little stores for the ladies--like +those at Baden-Baden, Ruthie? No large articles sold, but a great +variety of small things. Ladies always like that; they can drink the +water, listen to the music, and yet go shopping too, and buy all sorts +of little knick-knacks to take home as presents; it would be extremely +popular. The North Carolina garnets and amethysts could be sold; and +specimens of the mica and gold and the native pink marble could be +exhibited. Then those Cherokee Indians out Qualla way might be +encouraged to come to the park with their baskets and bead-work to sell. +And there must be, of course, a museum of curiosities, stuffed animals, +and mummies, and such things. There's a museum opposite that lion cut in +the rock at Lucerne Hill--I guess you've heard of it? It attracts more +interest than the lion himself; I've watched, and I know; ten out of +twelve of the people who come there, look two minutes at the lion, and +give ten at least to the museum. Then it wouldn't be a half-bad idea to +get hold of an eminent doctor; we might make him a present of half a +mountain as an inducement. Larue, by the way, won't be of much use to +our boom, now that he isn't a senator any longer. Did they kick him out, +Hill, or freeze him out?" + +"Well--he resigned," answered Malachi, diplomatically. "You see, they +wanted the present senator--a man who has far more magnetism." + +"Larue never _was_ 'in it'; I saw that from the first," Chase +commented. "Well, then, in addition, there must, of course, be a +hospital in the town, so that the ladies can get up fairs for it each +year at the height of the season; they find the _greatest_ interest in +fairs; I've often noticed it. Then I should give _my_ vote for a good +race-course. And, finally, all the churches ought to be put in tip-top +condition--painted and papered and made more attractive. But that, Hill, +we'll leave to you." + +Malachi laughed. He admired Horace Chase greatly, but he had long ago +despaired of making him pay heed to certain distinctions. "I think I +won't meddle with the other churches if you will only help along ours," +he answered; "our Church school here, and my mountain missions." + +"All right; we'll boom them all," said Chase, liberally. "There might be +a statue of Daniel Boom in the park, near the casino," he went on in a +considering tone; "he lived near here for some time. Though, come to +think of it, his name was Boone, wasn't it?--just missed being +appropriate! Well, at any rate, we can have a statue of Colonel David +Vance, and of Dr. Mitchell, who is buried on Mitchell's Peak. And of +David L. Swain." + +"Have you any especial sculptor in view?" inquired Malachi, who was not +without a slight knowledge of art. + +"No. But we could get a good marble-cutter to take a contract for the +lot; that would be the easiest way, I reckon." + +Malachi could not help being glad, revengefully glad, that at least +there was no mention of Maud Muriel. Only the day before the sculptress +had greeted him with her low-breathed "Manikin!" as he came upon her in +a narrow winding lane which he had incautiously entered. A man may be as +dauntless as possible (so he told himself), but that does not help him +when his assailant is a person whom he cannot knock down--"a striding, +scornful, sculping spinster!" "She had better look out!" he had thought, +angrily, as he passed on. + +His morning ride over, Chase took a fresh horse after lunch, and went +down to Crumb's. Nicholas Willoughby, struck by the wildness and beauty +of these North Carolina mountains, had built a cottage on the high +plateau above Crumb's, the plateau which Chase had named "Ruth's +Terrace" several years before. During the preceding summer, Nicholas had +occupied this house (which he called The Lodge) for a month or more. +This year, having lent it to some friends for August and September, he +had asked Chase to see that all was in order before their arrival. + +While Chase was off upon this errand, Ruth and Dolly were to go for a +drive along the Swannanoa. But first Dolly stopped at Miss Mackintosh's +barn; her latest work was on exhibition there. This was nothing less +than a colossal study in clay of the sculptress's own back from the nape +of the neck to the waist; Dolly, who had already had a view of this +masterpiece, was now bringing Ruth to see it, with the hope that it +would make her laugh. It did. Her old mirth came back for several +minutes as she gazed at the rigidly faithful copy of Maud Muriel's +shoulder-blades, her broad, gaunt shoulders, and the endless line of +conscientiously done vertebræ adorning her spine. + +Mrs. Kip was there, also looking. "Maud Muriel, how could you _see_ your +back?" she inquired. + +"Hand-glass," replied the sculptress, briefly. + +"Well, to me it looks hardly proper," commented Mrs. Kip; "it's +so--_exposed_. And then, without any head or arms, it seems so +mutilated; like some awful thing from a battle-field! I don't think it's +necessary for lady artists to study anatomy, Maud Muriel; it isn't +expected of them; it doesn't seem quite feminine. Why don't you carve +angels? They _have_ no anatomy, and, of course, they need none. Angels, +little children, and flowers--I think those are the most appropriate +subjects for _lady_ artists, both in sculpture and in painting." Then, +seeing Maud Muriel begin to snort (as Dolly called the dilation of the +sculptress's nostrils when she was angry), Mrs. Kip hurried on, changing +the subject as she went. "But sculpture certainly agrees with you, +Maudie dear. I really think your splendid hair grows thicker and +thicker! You could always earn your living (if you had occasion) by just +having yourself photographed, back-view, with your hair down, and a +placard--'Results of Barry's Tricopherus.' Barry would give _anything_ +to get you." + +Maud Muriel was not without humor, after her curt fashion. "Well, +Lilian," she answered, "_you_ might be 'Results of Packer's Granulated +Food,' I'm sure. You look exactly like one of the prize health-babies." + +"Oh no!" cried Mrs. Kip, in terror, "I'm not at _all_ well, Maud Muriel. +Don't tell me so, or I shall be ill directly! Neither Evangeline Taylor +nor I are in the _least_ robust; we are _both_ pulmonic." + +At this moment Evangeline herself appeared at the door, accompanied by +her inseparable Miss Green, a personage who was the pride of Mrs. Kip's +existence. This was not for what she was, but for her title: "Evangeline +Taylor and her governess"--this to Mrs. Kip seemed almost royal. She now +hurried forward to meet her child, and, taking her arm, led her away +from the torso to the far end of the barn, where two new busts were +standing on a table, one of them the likeness of a short-nosed, +belligerent boy, and the other of a dreary, sickly woman. "Come and look +at these _sweet_ things, darling." + +And then Ruth broke into a second laugh. + +"Mrs. Chase," said Maud Muriel, suddenly, "I wish _you_ would sit to +me." + +"No. Ask her husband to sit," suggested Dolly. "You know you like to do +men best, Maud Muriel." + +"Well, generally speaking, the outlines of a man's face are more +distinct," the sculptress admitted. "And yet, Dolly, it doesn't always +follow. For, generally speaking, women--" + +"Maud Muriel, I am _never_ generally speaking, but always particularly," +Dolly declared. "Do Mr. Chase. He will come like a shot if you will +smoke your pipe; he has been dying to see you do it for three years." + +"I have given up the pipe; I have cigars now," explained Maud, gravely. +"But I do not smoke here; I take a walk with a cigar on dark nights--" + +"Sh! Don't talk about it now," interrupted Mrs. Kip, warningly. For +Evangeline Taylor, having extracted all she could from the "sweet +things," was coming towards them. There was a good deal to come. Her +height was now six feet and an inch. Her long, rigid face wore an +expression which she intended to be one of deep interest in the works of +art displayed before her; but as she was more shy than ever, her eyes, +as she approached the group, had a suppressed nervous gleam which, with +her strange facial tension, made her look half-mad. + +"Dear child!" said the mother, fondly, as Ruth, to whom the poor young +giant was passionately devoted, made her happy by taking her off and +talking to her kindly, apart. "She has the true Taylor eyes. So +profound! And yet so dove-like!" Here the head of Achilles Larue +appeared at the open door, and Lilian abandoned the Taylor eyes to +whisper quickly, "Oh, Maud Muriel, do cover that dreadful thing up!" + +"Cover it up? Why--it is what he has come to see," answered the intrepid +Maud. + +The ex-senator inspected the torso. "Most praise-worthy, Miss +Mackintosh. And, in execution, quite--quite fairish. Though you have +perhaps exaggerated the anatomical effect--the salient appearance of the +bones?" + +"Not at all. They are an exact reproduction from life," answered Maud, +with dignity. + +Lilian Kip, still apprehensive as to the influence of the torso upon a +young mind, sent her daughter home to play "battledoor and shuttlecock, +dear" (Evangeline played "battledoor and shuttlecock, dear," every +afternoon for an hour with her governess, to acquire "grace of +carriage"); Larue was now talking to Ruth, and Lilian, after some +hesitation, walked across the barn and seated herself on a bench at its +far end (the only seat in that resolute place); from this point she +gazed and gazed at Larue. He was as correct as ever--from his straight +nose to his finger-tips; from his smooth, short hair, parted in the +middle, to his long, slender foot with its high in-step. Dolly, tired of +standing, came after a while and sat down on the bench beside the widow. +They heard Achilles say, "No; I decided not to go." Then, a few minutes +later, came another "No; I decided not to do that." + +"All his decisions are _not_ to do things," commented Dolly, in an +undertone. "When he dies, it can be put on his tombstone: 'He was a verb +in the passive voice, conjugated negatively.' Why, what's the matter, +Lilian?" + +"It's nothing--I am only a little agitated. I will tell you about it +some time," answered Mrs. Kip, squeezing Dolly's hand. Ruth, tired of +the senator, looked across at Dolly. Dolly joined her, and they took +leave. + +Maud Muriel followed them to the door. "I _should_ like to do your head, +Ruth." + +"No; you are to do Mr. Chase's," Dolly called back from the phaeton. +"She has been in love with your husband from the first," she went on to +her sister, as she turned her pony's head towards the Swannanoa. And +then Ruth laughed a third time. + +But though Dolly thus made sport, in her heart there was a pang. She +knew--no one better--that her sister's face had changed greatly during +the past three months. Now that his wife was well again, Chase himself +noticed nothing. And to the little circle of North Carolina friends Ruth +was dear; they were very slow to observe anything that was unfavorable +to those they cared for. To-day, however, Maud Muriel's unerring scent +for ugliness had put her (though unconsciously) upon the track, and, for +the first time in all their acquaintance, she had asked Ruth to sit to +her. It was but a scent as yet; Ruth was still lovely. But the elder +sister could see, as in a vision, that with several years more, under +the blight of hidden suffering, her beauty might disappear entirely; her +divine blue eyes alone could not save her if her color should fade, if +the sweet expression of her mouth should alter to confirmed +unhappiness, if her face should grow so thin that its irregular +outlines would become apparent. + +Two hours later there was a tap at Miss Billy Breeze's door, at the Old +North Hotel. + +"Come in," said Miss Billy. "Oh, is it you, Lilian? I am glad to see +you. I haven't been out this afternoon, as it seemed a little coolish!" + +Mrs. Kip looked excited. "Coolish, Billy?" she repeated, standing still +in the centre of the room. "Ish? _Ish?_ And I, too, have said it; I +don't pretend to deny it. But it is over at last, and I am free! I have +been--been different for some time. But I did not know _how_ different +until this very afternoon. I met him at Maud Muriel's barn, soon after +two. And I sat there, and looked at him and _looked_ at him. And +suddenly it came across me that _perhaps_ after all I didn't care +_quite_ so much for him. I was so nervous that I could scarcely speak, +but I did manage to ask him to take a little stroll with me. For you see +I wanted to be perfectly _sure_. And as he walked along beside me, +putting down his feet in that precise sort of way he does, and every now +and then saying 'ish'--like a great light in the dark, like a falling +off of _chains_, I knew that it was at last at an end--that he had +ceased to be all the world to me. And it was such an _enormous_ relief +that when I came back, if there had been a circus or a menagerie in +town, I give you my word I should certainly have gone to it--as a +celebration! And then, Billy, I thought of _you_. And I made up my mind +that I would come right straight over here and ask you--_Is_ he worth +it? What has Achilles Larue ever done for either of us, Billy, but just +snub, snub, snub? and crush, crush, crush? If you could only feel what a +joy it is to have that tiresome old ache gone! And to just _know_ that +he is hateful!" And Lilian, much agitated, took Billy's hand in hers. + +But Billy, dim and pale, drew herself away. "You do him great injustice, +Lilian. But he has never expected the ordinary mind to comprehend him. +Your intentions, of course, are good, and I am obliged to you for them. +But I am not like you; to me it is a pleasure, and always will be, as +well as a constant education, to go on admiring the greatest man I have +ever known!" + +"Whether he looks at you or not?" demanded Lilian. + +"Whether he looks at me or not," answered Billy, firmly. + +"If you had ever been _married_, Wilhelmina, you would know that you +could not go on forever living on _shadows_!" declared the widow as she +took leave. "Shadows may be all very well. But we are human, after all, +and we need _realities_." Having decided upon a new reality, her step +was so joyous that Horace Chase, coming home from his long ride to +Crumb's, hardly recognized her, as he passed her in the twilight. At +L'Hommedieu he found no one in the sitting-room but Dolly. "Ruth is +resting after our drive," explained the elder sister. "I took her first +to the barn to see Maud Muriel's torso, and that made her laugh +tremendously. Well, is The Lodge in order?" + +"Yes, it's all right; Nick's friends can come along as soon as they +like," Chase answered. + +"And are none of the Willoughbys to be there this summer?" Dolly went +on. + +"No; Nick has gone to Carlsbad--he isn't well. And Richard is off +yachting. Walter has taken a cottage at Newport." + +Dolly already knew this latter fact. But she wished to hear it again. + +Rinda now appeared, ushering in Malachi Hill. The young clergyman was so +unusually erect that he seemed tall; his face was flushed, and his eyes +had a triumphant expression. He looked first at Dolly, then at Chase. +"I've done it!" he announced, dashing his clerical hat down upon the +sofa. "That Miss Mackintosh has called me 'Manikin' once too often. She +did it again just now--in the alley behind your house. And I up and +kissed her!" + +"You didn't," said Chase, breaking into a roaring laugh. + +"Yes; I did. For three whole years and more, Mr. Chase, that woman has +treated me with perfectly outrageous contempt. She has seemed to think +that I was nothing at all, that I wasn't a man; she has walked on me, +stamped on me, shoved me right and left, and even kicked me, as it were. +I have felt that I couldn't stand it _much_ longer. And I have tried to +think of a way to take her down. Suddenly, just now, it came to me that +nothing on earth would take her down quite so much as that. And so when +she came out with her accustomed epithet, I just gave her a hurl, and +did it! It is true I'm a clergyman, and I have acted as though I had +kept on being only an insurance agent. But a man is a man after all, in +spite of the cloth," concluded Malachi, belligerently. + +"Oh, don't apologize," said Dolly. "It's too delicious!" And then she +and Horace Chase, for once of the same mind, laughed until they were +exhausted. + +Meanwhile the sculptress had appeared in Miss Billy's sitting-room. She +came in without knocking, her footfall much more quiet than usual. +"Wilhelmina, how old are you?" she demanded, after she had carefully +closed the door. + +"Why--you know. I am thirty-nine," Billy answered, putting down with +tender touch the book she was reading (_The Blue Ridge in the Glacial +Period_). + +"And I am forty," pursued Maud, meditatively. "It is never too late to +add to one's knowledge, Wilhelmina, if the knowledge is accurate; that +is, if it is observed from life. And I have stopped in for a moment, on +my way home, to mention something which _is_ so observed. You know all +the talk and fuss there is in poetry, Wilhelmina, about kisses (I mean +when given by a man)? I am now in a position to tell you, from actual +experience, what they amount to." She came nearer, and lowered her +voice. "They are _very far indeed_ from being what is described. There +is nothing in them. Nothing whatever!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +Horace Chase spent the whole summer at L'Hommedieu, without any journeys +or absences. His wife rode with him several times a week; she drove out +with Dolly in the phaeton; she led her usual life. Usual, that is, to a +certain extent; for, personally, she was listless, and the change in her +looks was growing so much more marked that at last every one, save her +husband, noticed it. When September came, Chase went to New York on +business. He was absent two weeks. When he returned he found his wife +lying on the sofa. She left the sofa for a chair when he came in; but, +after the first day, she no longer made this effort; she remained on the +couch, hour after hour, with her eyes closed. Once or twice, when her +husband urged it, she rode out with him. But her figure drooped so, as +she sat in the saddle, that he did not ask her to go again. He began to +feel vaguely uneasy. She seemed well; but her silence and her pallor +troubled him. As she herself was impenetrable--sweet, gentle, and +dumb--he was finally driven to speak to Dolly. + +"You say she seems well," Dolly answered. "But that is just the trouble; +she seems so, but she is not. What she needs, in my opinion, is a +complete change--a change of scene and air and associations of all +kinds. Take her abroad for five or six years, and arrange your own +affairs so that you can stay there with her." + +"Five or six years? That's a large order; that's _living_ over there," +Chase said, surprised. + +"Yes," answered Dolly, "that is what I mean. Live there for a while." +Then she made what was to her a supreme sacrifice: "_I_ will stay here. +I won't try to go." This was a bribe. She knew that her brother-in-law +found her constant presence irksome. + +"Of course I wouldn't hesitate if I thought it would set her up," said +Chase. "I'll see what she says about it." + +"If you consult her, that will be the end of the whole thing," answered +Dolly; "you will never go, and neither will she. For she will feel that +you would be sure to dislike it. You ought to arrange it without one +syllable to her, and then _do_ it. And if I were you, I wouldn't +postpone it too long." + +"What do you talk that way for?" said Chase, angrily. "You have no right +to keep anything from me if you _know_ anything. What do you think's the +matter with her, that you take that tone?" + +"I think she is dying," Dolly answered, stolidly. "Slowly, of course; it +might require three or four years more at the present rate of progress. +If nothing is done to stop it, by next year it would be called nervous +prostration, perhaps. And then, the year after, consumption." + +Chase sprang up. "How dare you sit there and talk to me of her dying?" +he exclaimed, hotly. "What the hell do you mean?" + +Dolly preserved her composure unbroken. "She has never been very strong. +Nobody can know with absolute accuracy, Mr. Chase; but at least I am +telling you exactly what I think." + +"I'll take her abroad at once. I'll live over there forever if it will +do any good," Chase answered, turning to go out in order to hide his +emotion. + +"Remember, if you tell her about it beforehand, she will refuse to go," +Dolly called after him. + +Always prompt, that same afternoon Chase started northward. He was on +his way to New York, with the intention of arranging his affairs so that +he could leave them for several years. It would be a heavy piece of +work. But work never daunted him. The very first moment that it was +possible he intended to return to L'Hommedieu, take his wife, and go +abroad by the next steamer, allowing her not one hour for demur. In the +meanwhile, she was to know nothing of the project; it was to take her by +surprise, according to Dolly's idea. + +Dolly spent the time of his absence in trying to amuse her sister, or at +least in trying to occupy her and fill the long days. These days, out of +doors, were heavenly in their beauty; the atmosphere of paradise, as we +imagine paradise, was now lent to earth for a time; a fringe of it lay +over the valley of the French Broad. The sunshine was a golden haze; the +hue of the mountains was like violet velvet; there was no wind, the air +was perfectly still; in all directions the forest was glowing and +flaming with the indescribably gorgeous tints of the American autumn. +For a time Ruth had seemed a little stronger; she had taken two or three +drives in the phaeton. Then her listlessness came back with double +force. One afternoon Dolly found her lying with her head on her arm +(like a flower half-broken from its stalk, poor Dolly thought). But the +elder sister began bravely, with a laugh. "Well, it's out, Ruth. It is +announced to-day, and everybody knows it. I mean the engagement of +Malachi and the fair Lilian. But somebody ought really to speak to them, +it is a public matter; it ought to be in the hands of a Society for the +Prevention of Cruelty to the Future. Think of her profile, and then of +his, and imagine, if you can, a combination of the two let loose upon an +innocent world!" + +Ruth smiled a little, but the smile was faint. She lay for some minutes +longer with closed eyes, and then, wearily, she sat up. "Oh, I am so +tired of this room! I believe I'll go out, after all. Please call +Félicité, and order the phaeton." + +"A drive? That is a good idea, as it is such a divine afternoon," said +Dolly. "I will go with you." + +"Oh no--with your lame arm." (For rheumatism had been bothering Dolly +all day.) "If you are afraid to have me go alone, I can take Félicité." + +"Very well," said Dolly, who thwarted Ruth now in nothing. "May I sit +here while you dress?" + +"If you like," answered Ruth, her voice dull and languid. + +Dolly pretended to knit, and she made jokes about the approaching +nuptials. "It is to come off during Christmas week, they say. The bishop +is to be here, but he will only pronounce the benediction, for Lilian +prefers to have Mr. Arlington perform the ceremony. You see, she is +accustomed to Mr. Arlington; she usually has him for her marriages, you +know." But in Dolly's heart, as she talked, there were no jokes. For as +Félicité dressed Ruth, the elder sister could not help seeing how wasted +was the slender figure. And when the skilful hand of the Frenchwoman +brushed and braided the thick hair, the hollows at the temples were +conspicuous. Félicité, making no remark about it, shaded these hollows +with little waving locks. But Ruth, putting up her hands impatiently, +pushed the locks all back. + +When she returned from her drive two hours later, the sun was setting. +She entered the parlor with rapid step, her arms full of branches of +bright leaves which she had gathered. Their tints were less bright than +her cheeks, and her eyes had a radiance that was startling. + +Dolly looked at her, alarmed, though (faithful to her rule) she made no +comment. "Can it be fever?" she thought. But this was not fever. + +Ruth decorated the room with her branches. She said nothing of +importance, only a vague word or two about the sunshine, and the beauty +of the brilliant forest; but she hummed to herself, and finally broke +into a song, as with the same rapid step she went upstairs to her room. + +A few moments later Miss Billy Breeze was shown in. "I couldn't help +stopping for a moment, Dolly, because I am so perfectly delighted to see +that dear Ruth is _so_ much better; she passed me a little while ago in +her phaeton, looking really brilliant! Her old self again. After all, +the mountain air _has_ done her good. I was so glad that (I don't mind +telling you)--I went right home and knelt down and thanked God," said +the good little woman, with the tears welling up in her pretty eyes. + +Miss Billy stayed nearly half an hour. Just before she went away she +said (after twenty minutes of excited talk about Lilian and Malachi), +"Oh, I saw Mr. Willoughby in the street this afternoon; he had ridden up +from The Lodge, so Mr. Bebb told me. I didn't know he was staying +there?" + +"Why, has he come back from Carlsbad?" asked Dolly, surprised. + +"Oh, I don't mean Mr. Nicholas Willoughby," answered Billy, "I mean +Walter; the nephew, you know. The one who was groomsman at Ruth's +wedding." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +Ruth had seen Walter. It was this which had given her that new life. +Tired of Félicité's "flapping way of driving," as she called it, she had +left the phaeton for a few moments, and was sitting by herself in the +forest, with her elbow on her knee and her chin resting on the palm of +her hand; her eyes, vaguely fixed on a red bush near by, had an +indescribably weary expression. Her figure was out of sight from the +place where the phaeton and the maid were waiting; her face was turned +in the other direction. In this direction there was at some distance a +second road, and along this track she saw presently a man approaching on +horseback. Suddenly she recognized him. It was Walter Willoughby. He +slackened his speed for a moment to say a word or two to a farmer who +was on his way to Asheville with a load of wood; then, touching his +horse with his whip, he rode on at a brisk pace, and in a moment more +was out of sight. + +Ruth had started to her feet. But the distance was too great for her to +call to him. Straight as the flight of an arrow she ran towards the +wagon, which was pursuing its way, the horses walking slowly, the wheels +giving out a regular "scrunch, scrunch." + +"The gentleman who spoke to you just now--do you know where he is +staying?" + +"Down to Crumb's; leastways that new house they've built on the mountain +'bove there. He 'lowed I might bring him down some peaches! But +_peaches_ is out long ago," replied the man. Ruth returned home. She +went through the evening in a dream, listening to Dolly's remarks +without much answer; then, earlier than usual, she sought her own room. +She fell asleep instantly, and her sleep was so profound that Dolly, who +stole softly to the door at midnight and again at one o'clock, to see if +all was well, went back to her room greatly cheered. For this was the +best night's rest which Ruth had had for months. The elder sister, +relieved and comforted, soon sank into slumber herself. + +Ruth's tranquil rest came simply from freedom, from the end of the long +struggle which had been consuming her strength and her life. The sudden +vision of the man she loved, his actual presence before her, had broken +down her last barrier; it had given way silently, as a dam against which +deep water has long pressed yields sometimes without a sound when the +flood rises but one inch higher. She slept because she was going to him, +and she knew that she was going. + +She had been vaguely aware that she could not see Walter again with any +security. It was this which had made her take refuge in her mother's old +home in the mountains, far away from him and from all chance of meeting +him. She could not trust herself, but she could flee. And she had fled. +This, however, was the limit of her force; her will had not the power to +sustain her, to keep her from lassitude and despair; and thus she had +drooped and faded until to her sister had come that terrible fear that +the end would really be death. When Walter appeared, she was powerless +to resist further, she went to him as the needle turns to the pole. Her +love led her like a despot, and it was sweet to her to be thus led. Her +action was utterly uncalculating; the loss of her home was as nothing to +her; the loss of her good-repute, nothing; her husband, her sister, the +whole world--all were alike forgotten. She had but one thought, one +idea--to go to him. + +She woke an hour before dawn; it was the time she had fixed upon. She +left her bed and dressed herself, using the brilliant moonlight as her +candle; with soft, quick steps she stole down the stairs to the kitchen, +and taking a key which was hanging from a nail by the fireplace, she let +herself out. The big watch-dog, Turk, came to meet her, wagging his +tail. She went to the stable, unlocked the door, and leaving it open for +the sake of the light, she saddled Kentucky Belle. Then she led the +gentle creature down the garden to a gate at its end which opened upon +the back street. Closing this gate behind her so that Turk should not +follow, she mounted and rode away. + +The village was absolutely silent; each moonlit street seemed more still +than the last. When the outskirts were left behind, she turned her +horse towards the high bridle-path, whose general course was the same as +that of the road along the river below, the road which led to the Warm +Springs, passing on its way the farm of David Crumb. + +As she did these things, one after the other, she neither thought nor +reasoned; her action was instinctive. And the ride was a revel of joy; +her cheeks were flushed with rose, her eyes were brilliant, her pulses +were beating with a force and health which they had not known for +months; she sang to herself little snatches of songs, vaguely, but +gayly. + +The dawn grew golden, the sun came up. The air was perfectly still and +softly hazy. Every now and then a red leaf floated gently down from its +branch to the ground; the footfalls of Kentucky Belle were muffled in +these fallen leaves. + +The bridle-path, winding along the flanks of the mountain, was longer +than the straighter road below. It was eight o'clock before it brought +her in sight of Crumb's. "I must leave Kentucky Belle in good hands," +she thought. A steep track led down to the farm. The mare followed it +cautiously, and brought her to Portia's door. "Can your husband take +care of my horse for an hour or two?" she asked, smiling, as Portia came +out. "Is he at home?" + +"He's at home. But he ain't workin' to-day," Mrs. Crumb replied; "he's +ailin' a little. But _I'll_ see to yer mare." + +Ruth dismounted; patting Kentucky Belle, she put her cheek for a moment +against the beautiful creature's head. "Good-bye," she whispered. "I am +going for a walk," she said to Portia. + +"Take a snack of sump'n' nerrer to eat first?" Portia suggested. + +But Ruth shook her head; she was already off. She went down the river +road as though she intended to take her walk in that direction. But as +soon as the bend concealed her from Portia's view she turned into the +forest. The only footpath to the terrace, "Ruth's Terrace," where +Nicholas Willoughby had built his cottage, was the one which led up from +Crumb's; Ruth's idea was that she should soon reach this track. But +somehow she missed it; she gave up the search, and, turning, went +straight up the mountain. This slope also was covered with the fallen +leaves, a carpet of red and gold. She climbed lightly, joyously, pulling +herself up the steepest places by the trunks of the smaller trees. Her +color brightened. Taking some of the leaves, she twisted their stalks +round the buttons of her habit so as to make a red-and-gold trimming. + +When she reached the summit she knew where she was, for she could now +see the cliffs on the other side of the French Broad. They told her that +she had gone too far to the left; and, turning, this time in the right +direction, she made her way through the forest along the plateau, +keeping close to its verge as a guide. As the chimneys of the Lodge came +into view, she reminded herself that she wished to see Walter +first--Walter himself, and not the servants. She had already paid +several visits to The Lodge; she knew the place well. A good +carriage-road led to it through a ravine which opened three miles below +Crumb's; Nicholas Willoughby had constructed this new ascent. But he had +not built any fences or walls, and she could therefore approach without +being seen by keeping among the trees. At the side there was a thicket, +which almost touched one end of the veranda; she stole into this +thicket, and noiselessly made her way towards the house. When she +reached the nearest point which she could attain unseen, she paused; her +idea was to wait here until Walter should come out. + +For he would be sure to come before long. The veranda was always the +sitting-room; it commanded that wide view of the mountains far and near +which had caused Nicholas Willoughby, at the cost of much money and +trouble, to perch his cottage just here. The friends to whom he had lent +The Lodge had left it ten days before, as Ruth knew. A man and his wife +were always in charge, but when they were alone the front of the house +was kept closed. To-day the windows were all open, a rising breeze +swayed the curtains to and fro, and there were numerous other signs of +Walter's presence; on the veranda were several easy-chairs and a lounge, +besides a table with books and papers. And wasn't that the hat he had +worn when she saw him talking to the farmer the day before? Yes, it was +the same. "What time can it be?" she thought. She had not her watch +with her--the costly diamond-decked toy which Horace Chase had given +her; she had left it with her rings on the toilet-table at L'Hommedieu. +Her wedding-ring was there also. But this was not from any plan about +it; she always took off her rings at night. She had simply forgotten to +put them on. + +After ten minutes of waiting her heart gave a leap--she heard Walter's +voice within the house. "That is a woman answering. He is talking to the +housekeeper," she said to herself. + +But presently there seemed to be three voices. "It is another servant," +she thought. Then, before she had time to recognize that the intonations +were not those of the mountain women (who were the only resource as +servants in this remote spot), Walter Willoughby himself came into view, +pushing aside the curtains of one of the long windows that opened on the +veranda. + +But before Ruth could detach herself from the branches that surrounded +her, he had drawn back again to make room for some one else, and a lady +came out. He followed this lady; he took his seat familiarly upon the +lounge where she had placed herself. It was Marion Barclay, the +handsome, inanimate girl who, with her father and mother, had spent some +weeks at St. Augustine during the preceding winter. + +Marion was no longer inanimate. The fault of her finely chiselled face +had been its coldness; but there was no coldness now as Walter +Willoughby took her hand and pressed it to his lips. + +At this moment Mrs. Barclay, Marion's mother, appeared. "Well, Darby and +Joan," she said, smiling, as she established herself in the most +comfortable chair. + +Mrs. Barclay had favored Walter's suit from the first. It was her +husband who had opposed it. Christopher Barclay had, in fact, opposed it +so strongly that at St. Augustine he had dismissed young Willoughby with +a very decided negative. It was while held at bay by this curt refusal +that young Willoughby had entertained himself for a time by a fresh +study of Mrs. Horace Chase. + +This, however, had been but a brief diversion; he had never had the +least intention of giving up Marion, and he had renewed his suit at +Newport as soon as the summer opened. This time he had been more +successful, and finally he had succeeded in winning Christopher Barclay +to the belief that he would know how to manage his daughter's fortune, +as, from the first, he had won Mrs. Barclay to the conviction that he +would know how to manage her daughter's heart. Marion herself meanwhile +had never had the slightest doubt as to either the one or the other. The +engagement was still very new. As Mr. Barclay had investments at +Chattanooga to look after, the little party of four had taken these +beautiful October days for an excursion to Tennessee. Mrs. Barclay had +heard that one of the elder Willoughbys had built a cottage "not far +from the Great Smoky Mountains," and as the paradisiacal weather +continued, with the forests all aglow and the sky a mixture of blue and +gold, she suggested that they should go over from Chattanooga and take a +look at it. Walter had therefore arranged it. From the Warm Springs he +himself had ridden on in advance, in order to have the house opened; +this was the moment when he had made his brief visit to Asheville for +the purpose of ordering supplies. The Barclays were to come no farther +eastward than The Lodge; they were to return in a day or two to Warm +Springs, and thence back to Chattanooga. Even if he had known that Ruth +Chase was at L'Hommedieu, Walter would not have been deterred from +pleasing Mrs. Barclay by any thought of her vicinity; but, as it +happened, he supposed that she was in New York. For a recent letter from +Nicholas Willoughby had mentioned that Chase himself was there, and that +he was going abroad with his wife for several years, sailing by the next +Wednesday's Cunarder. + +"Darby and Joan?" Walter had repeated, in answer to Mrs. Barclay's +remark. "That is exactly what I am after, mother. Come, let us settle +the matter now on the spot--the _bona fide_ Darby-and-Joan-ness. When +shall it begin?" + +"'Mother'!" commented Mrs. Barclay, laughing. "You have not lost much in +your life through timidity, Walter; I venture to say that." + +"Nothing whatever," Walter replied, promptly. "Shall we arrange it for +next month? I have always said I should select November for my wedding, +to see how my wife bears bad weather." + +"No, no. Not quite so soon as that," answered Mrs. Barclay. "But early +in the year perhaps," she went on, consentingly, as she looked at her +daughter's happy blushing face. + +Ruth heard every word; the veranda was not four yards distant; through +the crevices in the foliage she could see them all distinctly. + +She had immediately recognized the Barclays. Anthony Etheridge's speech +about Walter's being in their train came back to her, and other mentions +of their name as well. But this was mechanical merely; what held her, +what transfixed her, was Walter's own countenance. Marion Barclay, Mrs. +Barclay, all the rumors that Etheridge could collect, these would have +been nothing to her if it had not been for that--for Walter's face. + +And Walter was, in truth, very happy. Marion was everything that he +wished his wife to be: she was accomplished and statuesque; to those she +liked she could be charming; her features had the distinction which he +had always been determined that his wife should possess. He was not +marrying her for her fortune, though he was very glad she had that, +also. He was much in love with her, and it was this which Ruth had +perceived--perceived beyond a doubt. + +For ten minutes she stood there motionless, her eyes resting upon him. +Then, feeling a death-like chill coming, she had just sense enough, just +life enough left, to move backward noiselessly through the smooth leaves +until she had reached the open forest beyond. As a whole life passes +before the eyes of a drowning man, in the same way she saw as in a +vision her long mistake, and her one idea was to get to some spot where +he could not see her, where he would never find her, before she sank +down. She glanced over her shoulder; yes, the thicket concealed her in +that direction. Then she looked towards the verge; her hurrying steps +took her thither. Sitting down on the edge, she let herself slip over, +holding on by a little sapling. It broke and gave way. And then the +figure in the dark riding-habit, which was still adorned gayly with the +bright leaves, disappeared. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +Dolly Franklin woke soon after dawn. A moment later she stole to Ruth's +door and listened. There was no sound within, and, hoping that the +tranquil slumber still continued, the elder sister turned the +door-handle and looked in. + +The window-curtains were drawn widely aside, as Ruth had arranged them +several hours before, in order to let in the moonlight; the clear +sunshine showed that the bed was tenantless, the room empty. Dolly +entered quickly, closing the door behind her. But there was no letter +bearing her name fastened to the pin-cushion or placed conspicuously on +the mantel-piece, as she had feared. The rings, watch, and purse lying +on the toilet-table next attracted her attention; she placed them in a +drawer and locked it, putting the key in her pocket. Then, with her +heart throbbing, she looked to see what clothes had been taken. "The +riding-habit and hat. She has gone to The Lodge! She has found out in +some way that he is staying there. Probably she is on Kentucky Belle." + +After making sure that there were no other betrayals in Ruth's deserted +room, the elder sister returned to her own apartment and rang for her +English maid, Diana Pollikett. Diana was not yet up. As soon as +possible she came hurrying in, afraid that Miss Franklin was ill. "Call +Félicité," ordered Dolly. Then when the two returned together, the +sallow Frenchwoman muffled in a pink shawl, Dolly said: "Mrs. Chase has +gone off for an early ride. I dare say that she thought it would be +amusing to take me by surprise." And she laughed. But that there was +anger underneath her laugh was very evident. "Félicité, go down and see +if I am not right," she went on. "I think you will find that her horse +is gone." + +Her acting was so perfect--the feigned mirth, with the deep annoyance +visible beneath it--that the two maids were secretly much entertained; +Mrs. Chase's escapade and her sharp-eyed sister's discomfiture were in +three minutes known to everybody in the house. "Your mademoiselle, she +tr'ry to keep _my_ young madame a _leetle_ too tight," commented +Félicité in confidence to Miss Pollikett. + +Dolly, having set her story going, went through the form of eating her +breakfast. Then, as soon as she could, without seeming to be in too +great haste, she drove off in her own phaeton, playing to the end her +part of suppressed vexation. + +She was on her way to The Lodge. It was a long drive, and the road was +rough; the gait of her old pony was never more than slow; but she had +not dared to take a faster horse, lest the unusual act should excite +surprise. "Oh, Prosper, _do_ go on!" she kept saying, pleadingly, to +the pony. But with all her effort it was two o'clock before she reached +Crumb's, Prosper's jog-trot being hardly faster than a walk. + +As the farm-house at last came into sight, she brushed away her tears of +despair and summoned a smile. "My sister is here, or she has been here, +hasn't she?" she said, confidently, to Mrs. Crumb, who, at the sound of +the wheels, had come to the door. + +"Yes, she's been yere. She's gone for a walk," Portia answered. "She +left her mare; but she wouldn't stop to eat anything, though she must +have quit town mortial early." + +"Oh, she had breakfast before she started," lied Dolly, carelessly. "And +I have brought lunch with me; we are to eat it together. But I am very +late in getting here, my fat old pony is so slow! Which way has she +gone?" + +"Straight down the road," replied Portia. "An' when you find her, I +reckon you'd both better be thinkin' of gettin' todes home befo' long. +For the fine weather's about broke; there's a change comin'." + +"Down the road--yes," thought Dolly. "But as soon as she was out of +sight she went straight up the mountain! Oh, if I could only do it too! +It is _so_ much shorter." But as she feared her weak ankle might fail, +all she could do was to drive up by the new road, the road which +Nicholas Willoughby had built through the ravine below. She went on, +therefore; there were still three miles to cover before this new road +turned off. + +It was the only well-made carriage-track in the county. First it +followed the ravine, crossing and recrossing the brook at its bottom; +then, leaving the gorge behind, it wound up the remainder of the ascent +in long zigzags like those of the Alpine passes. The breeze, which had +stirred the curtains of The Lodge when Ruth was standing in the thicket, +had now grown into a wind, and clouds were gathering. But Dolly noticed +nothing. Reaching the new road at last, she began the ascent. + +When about a third of the way up, she thought she heard the sound of +wheels coming down. The zigzag next above hers was fringed with trees, +so that she could see nothing, but presently she distinguished the trot +of two horses. Was it Ruth with Walter Willoughby? Were they already +taking flight? Fiercely Dolly turned her phaeton straight across the +road to block the way. "She shall never pass me. I will drag her from +him!" The bend of the zigzag was at some distance; she waited, +motionless, listening to the wheels above as they came nearer and +nearer. Then round the curve into view swept a pair of horses and a +light carriage. The top of the carriage was down; she could see that it +held four persons; on the back seat was a portly man with gray hair, and +with him a comfortable-looking elderly lady; in front was a tall, +fair-haired girl, and by her side--Walter Willoughby. + +In the first glance Dolly had recognized Walter's companions. And the +radiant face of Marion Barclay, so changed, so happy, told her all. She +drew her pony straight, and, turning out a little so as to make room, +she passed them with a bow, and even with a smile. + +Walter seemed astonished to see her there. But he had time to do no more +than return her salutation, for he was driving at a sharp pace, and the +descent was steep. He looked back. But her pony was going steadily up +the zigzag, and presently turning the bend the phaeton disappeared. + +"This road leads only to The Lodge; I cannot imagine why Miss Franklin +is going there now," he commented. "Or what she is doing here in any +case, so far from L'Hommedieu." + +"L'Hommedieu? What is that? Oh yes, I remember; Anthony Etheridge told +me that the Franklins had a place with that name (Huguenot, isn't it?) +in the North Carolina mountains somewhere," remarked Mrs. Barclay. "What +has become, by-the-way, of the pretty sister who married your uncle's +partner, Horace Chase? She wasn't in Newport this summer. Is she +abroad?" + +"No. But she is going soon," Walter answered. "My last letter from my +uncle mentioned that Chase was in New York, and that he had taken +passage for himself and his wife in the Cunarder of next Wednesday." + +"Dear me! those clouds certainly look threatening," commented Mrs. +Barclay, forgetting the Chases, as a treeless space in front gave her +for a moment a wider view of the sky. + +It was this change in the weather which had altered their plans. +Nicholas Willoughby's mountain perch, though an ideal spot when the sky +was blue, would be dreary enough in a long autumn storm; the Barclays +and their prospective son-in-law were therefore hastening back to the +lowlands. + +Dolly reached the summit. And as the road brought her nearer to The +Lodge, she was assailed by sinister forebodings. The first enormous +relief which had filled her heart as she read the story told by the +carriage, was now darkened by dread of another sort. If Ruth too had +seen Marion, if Ruth too had comprehended all--where was she? From the +untroubled countenances of the descending party, Dolly was certain that +they, at least, had had no glimpse of Ruth; no, not even Walter. Dolly +believed that men were capable of every brutality. But Walter's +expression, when he returned her bow, had not been that of assumed +unconsciousness, or assumed anything; there was no mistaking it--he was +happy and contented; he looked as though he were enjoying the rapid +motion and his own skilful driving, but very decidedly also as though +all the rest of his attention was given to the girl by his side. "He has +not even seen her! And he cares nothing for her; it is all a mistake! +Now let me only find her and get her home, and no one shall _ever_ +know!" Dolly had said to herself with inexpressible relief. But then had +followed fear: _could_ she find her? + +When the chimneys of The Lodge came into sight she drove her pony into +the woods and tied him to a tree. Then she approached the house +cautiously, going through the forest and searching the carpet of fallen +leaves, trying to discover the imprint of footsteps. "If she came here +(and I _know_ she did), is there any place from which, herself +concealed, she could have had a glimpse of Marion? That thicket, +perhaps? It stretches almost to the veranda." And limping to this copse, +Dolly examined its outer edge closely, inch by inch. She found two +places where there was a track; evidently some one had entered at one of +the points, and penetrated to a certain distance; then had come out in a +straight line, backward. Dolly entered the thicket herself and followed +this track. It brought her to a spot whence she had a clear view of the +veranda. All signs of occupation were already gone; the chairs and +tables had been carried in, the windows had been closed and barred. "If +she stood here and saw them, and then if she moved backward and got +herself out," thought Dolly, "where did she go next?" When freed from +the thicket, she knelt down and looked along the surface of the ground, +her eyes on a level with it; she had seen the negroes find small +articles in that way--a button, or even a pin. After changing her place +two or three times, she thought she discerned a faint indication of +footsteps, and she followed this possible trail, keeping at some +distance from it at one side so that it should not be effaced, and every +now and then stooping to get another view of it, horizontally. For the +signs were so slight that it was difficult to see them--nothing but a +few leaves pressed down a little more than the others, here and there. +The trail led her to the edge of the plateau. And here at last was +something more definite--flattened herbage, and a small sapling bent +over the verge and broken, as though some one had borne a weight upon +it. "She let herself slip over the edge," thought Dolly. "She is down +there in the woods somewhere. Oh, how shall I find her!" + +The October afternoon would be drawing to its close before long, and +this evening there would be no twilight, for black clouds were covering +the sky, and the wind was beginning to sway the boughs of the trees +above. In spite of her lameness, Dolly let herself down over the edge. +There was no time to lose; she must find her sister before dark. + +The slope below was steep; she tried to check her sliding descent, but +she did not succeed in stopping herself until her clothes had been torn +and her body a good deal bruised. When at last her slide was arrested, +she began to search the ground for a second trail. But if there had been +one, the leaves obscured it; not only were they coming down in showers +from above, but the wind every now and then scooped up armfuls of those +already fallen, and whirled them round and round in eddying spirals. +Keeping the peeled sapling above her as her guide, Dolly began to +descend, going first to the right for several yards, then to the left, +and pausing at the end of each zigzag to examine the forest beyond. With +her crippled ankle her progress was slow. She lost sight, after a while, +of the sapling. But as she had what is called the sense of locality, she +was still able to keep pretty near the imaginary line which she was +trying to follow. For her theory was that Ruth had gone straight down; +that, once out of sight from that house, she had let herself go. Light +though she was on her feet, she must have ended by falling, and then, if +there was a second ledge below--"But I won't think of that!" Dolly said +to herself, desperately. + +She was now so far from the house that she knew she could not be heard. +She therefore began to call "Ruth! Ruth!" But there was no reply. "I +will count, and every time I reach a hundred I will call. Oh why, just +this one day, should it grow dark so early, after weeks of the clearest +twilight?" Drops began to fall, and finally the rain came down in +torrents. She crouched beside a large tree, using its trunk as a +protection as much as she could. Her hat and jacket were soon wet +through, but she did not think of herself, she thought only of +Ruth--Ruth, who had been fading for months--Ruth, out in this storm. +"But I'll find her and take her back. And no one shall ever know," +thought the elder sister, determinedly. + +After what seemed a long time the rain grew less dense. The instant she +could see her way Dolly resumed her search. The ground was now wet, and +her skirts were soon stained as she moved haltingly back and forth, +holding on by the trees. "Ruth! Ruth?" At the end of half an hour, when +it was quite dark, she came to a hollow lined with bushes. She +hesitated, but her determination to make her search thorough over every +inch of the ground caused her to let herself down into it by sense of +feeling, holding on as well as she could by the bushes. + +And there at the bottom was the body of her sister. + +"O God, _don't_ let her be dead!" she cried, aloud. Drying the palm of +her hand, she unbuttoned the soaked riding-habit and felt for the heart. +At first there seemed to be no beating. Then she thought she perceived a +faint throb, but she could not be sure; perhaps it was only her intense +wish transferred to the place. Ruth's hat was gone, her hair and her +cold face were soaked. "If I could only _see_ her! Poor, poor little +girl!" said Dolly, sobbing aloud. + +Presently it began to rain again with great violence; and then Dolly, in +a rage, seated herself on the soaked ground at the bottom of the hollow, +took her sister's lifeless form in her arms, and held it close. "She is +_not_ dead, for she isn't heavy; she is light. If she had been dead I +_couldn't_ have lifted her." She dried Ruth's face. She began to chafe +her temples and breast. After half an hour she thought she perceived +more warmth, and her cramped arm redoubled its effort. The rain was +coming down in sheets, but she did not mind it now, for she felt a +breath, a sigh. "Ruth, do you know me? It is Dolly; no one but Dolly." + +Ruth's eyes opened, though Dolly could not see them. Then she said, +"Dolly, he loves some one else." That was all; she did not speak again. + +The storm kept on, and they sat there together, motionless. Ruth's +clothes were so wet that they were like lead. At length the black cloud +from which that especial deluge had come moved away, and fitful +moonlight shone out. Now came the anxious moment: would Ruth be able to +walk? + +At first it seemed as if she could not even rise, her whole body was so +stiff. She was also extremely weak; she had eaten nothing since the +night before, and the new life which had inspired her was utterly gone. +But Dolly, somehow, made herself firm as iron; standing, she lifted her +sister to her feet and held her upright until, little by little, she +regained breath enough to take one or two steps. Then slowly they +climbed from the hollow. With many pauses they went down the mountain; +from this point, fortunately, its slope was not quite so steep. How she +did it Dolly never knew, but the moment came at last when she saw a +lighted window, and made her way towards it. And the final moment also +came when she arrived at a door. Her arm was still supporting her pale +young sister, who leaned against her. Ruth had not spoken; she had moved +automatically; her senses were half torpid. + +The lighted window was that of Portia Crumb. Portia had not gone to bed. +But she was not sitting up on their account; she supposed that they had +found shelter at one of several small houses that were scattered along +the river road in the direction which they had taken. She was sitting up +in order to minister to her "Dave." David Crumb's fits of drunkenness +generally lasted through two days. When he came to himself, his first +demand was for coffee, and his wife, who never could resist secretly +sympathizing a little with the relief which her surly husband was able +to obtain for a time from the grief which gnawed incessantly at her own +poor heart--his wife always remained within call to give him whatever he +needed. And, oddly enough, these vigils had become almost precious to +Portia. For occasionally at these moments David of his own accord would +talk of his lost boys--the only times he ever mentioned them or +permitted his wife to do so. And now and then he would allow her to read +her Bible to him, and even to sing a hymn perhaps, to which he would +contribute in snatches a growling repentant bass. + +Portia's coffee-pot now stood on the hot coals of her kitchen fireplace; +she had been occupying the time in spinning, and in chanting softly to +herself, as the rain poured down outside: + +[Illustration: musical notation: + +Je -_ru_ -sa-lem, my hap-py _home_, Name ev-er de-ar tu + +_me_, When _shell_ my la-ber-rs hev an end? Thy + +joys when shell I see ? Thy-y joys when _shell-el_ I see?] + +Then, hearing some one at the outer door, she had come to open it. + +"Good Lors! Miss Dolly! Here!--lemme help you! Bring her right into the +kitchen, an' put her down on the mat clost to the fire till I get her +wet close off!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +HORACE CHASE, having by hard work arranged his far-stretching affairs so +that he could leave them, reached L'Hommedieu late in the evening of the +day of Ruth's flight. He had not telegraphed that he was coming; his +plan was to have his wife well on her way to New York and the Liverpool +steamer almost before she knew it. She had always been fond of the +unexpected; this fondness would perhaps serve him now. When he reached +the old house, to which his money had given a new freshness, there was +no one to meet him but Dolly's Diana. Diana, in her moderate, unexcited +way, began to tell him what had happened. But she was soon re-enforced +by Félicité, whose ideas (regarding the same events) were far more +theoretic. + +"Miss Franklin had a lunch prepared, and took it with her," Diana went +on. + +"Eet ended in a peekneek," interrupted Félicité. "The leaf was so red, +and the time so beautiful, monsieur; no clouds, and the sky of a blue! +Then suddenlee the rain ees come. No doubt they have entered in a house +to wait till morning." + +"Which road did my wife take?" inquired Chase, his tone anxious. + +"Ah, monsieur, no one _see_ herr, she go so early. Eet was herr joke--to +escape a leetle from herr sistare, if eet is permit to say eet; pardon." + +"Which way, then, did Miss Franklin go?" continued Chase, impatiently. + +Both women pointed towards the left. "She went _down_ the street. _That_ +way." + +"Down the street? That's no good. What I want to know is which road she +took after leaving town?" + +But naturally neither Félicité nor Miss Pollikett could answer this +question; they had not followed the phaeton. + +Chase rang the bell, and sent for one of the stablemen. "Let Pompey and +Zip go and ask at all the last houses (where the three roads that can be +reached from the end of this street turn off) whether any one noticed +Miss Franklin drive past this morning? They all know her pony and trap. +Tell Pompey to step lively, and if the people have gone to bed, he must +knock 'em up." + +The two negroes returned in less than fifteen minutes; they had found +the trace without trouble: Miss Franklin had taken the river road +towards Warm Springs. + +"Saddle my horse," said Chase; "and you, Jeff, as soon as I have +started, put the pair in the light carriage and drive down to Crumb's. +Have the lamps in good order and burning brightly, and see that the +curtains are buttoned down so as to keep the inside dry. Felicity, put +in shawls and whatever's necessary; the ladies are no doubt under cover +somewhere; but they may have got wet before reaching it. Perhaps one of +you had better go along?" he added, looking at the two women +reflectively, as if deciding which one would be best. + +"Yes, sir; I can be ready in a moment," said Diana, going out. + +"Ah! for _two_ there is not enough place," murmured Félicité, relieved. + +Chase ate a few mouthfuls of something while his horse was being +saddled; then, less than half an hour after his arrival, he was off +again. It was very dark, but he did not slacken his speed for that, nor +for the rough, stony ascents and descents, nor for the places where the +now swollen river had overflowed the track. The distance which Dolly's +slow old pony had taken five hours to traverse, this hard rider covered +in less than half the time. At one o'clock he reached Crumb's. It was +the first house in that direction after the village and its outskirts +had been left behind. Along the mile or two beyond it, farther towards +the west, were three smaller houses, and at one of the four he hoped to +find his wife. As he drew near Crumb's, he saw that the windows were +lighted. "They're here!" he said to himself, with a long breath of +relief. As he rode up to the porch, Portia, who had heard his horse's +footsteps, looked out. + +"They're here?" he asked. + +"Yes," answered Portia, "they be." + +"And all right?" + +"I reckon so, by this time. Mis' Chase, she was pretty well beat when +she first come; but she's asleep now, an' restin' well. And Miss Dolly, +she's asleep too." + +Chase dismounted. "Can my horse be put up? Just call some one, will +you?" + +"Well, Isrul Porter, who works here, has gone home," answered Mrs. +Crumb. "Arter Mis' Chase and Miss Dolly got yere, I sent Isrul arter +their pony, what they'd lef' in the woods more'n two miles off, an' he +'lowed, Isrul did, that he'd take him home with him for the night when +he found him, bekase the Porters's house is nearer than our'n to the +place where he was lef'. An' Dave, he ain't workin' ter-day; he's ailin' +a little. But _I_ kin see to yer hoss." + +"Show a light and I'll do it myself," Chase answered, amused at the idea +of his leaving such work to a woman. + +Portia returned to the kitchen, and came back with a burning brand of +pitch-pine, which gave out a bright flare. Carrying this as a torch, she +led the way to the stable, Chase following with the horse. "Your mare, +she's in yere erready," said the farmer's wife, pointing to Kentucky +Belle. + +Then, as they went back to the house by the light of the flaring brand, +she asked whether she should go up and wake Ruth. + +"Yes, and I'll go along; which room is it? Hold on, though; are you sure +my wife's asleep?" + +"When I went up the minute before you come, she was, an' Miss Dolly +too." + +"Well, then, I guess I won't disturb 'em just yet," said Chase, and he +went with Portia to her kitchen, where she brought forward her +rocking-chair for his use. "What time did they get here?" he inquired. + +Portia, seating herself on a three-legged stool, told what she knew. As +she was finishing her story there came a growl from the dark end of the +long room, the end where the loom stood. "It's only Dave wakin' up," she +explained, and she hastened towards her husband. But as she did so he +roared "Coffee!" in impatient tones, and, hurrying back, she knelt down +and blew up the fire. "I'm comin', Dave; it's all ready," she called. +Then as she continued to work the bellows quickly she went on in a low +voice to Chase: "He'll stay awake now fer an hour or two. An' he'll be +talkin', an' takin' on, p'raps. Mebbe you'd ruther set in the best room +for a whilst? There's a fire; an' the stairs mount right up from there +to the room where yer wife's asleep, so you kin go up whenever you like. +Relse you might lay down yourself, without disturbin' 'em at all till +mawnin'. There's a good bed in the best room; none better." + +"Coffee!" demanded the farmer a second time, and Portia quickly took the +cup, which stood waiting with sugar and cream already in it, and lifting +her pot from the coals, poured out the odorous beverage, the strong +coffee of Rio. Though she had an intense desire to be left alone with +"Dave," now that his precious waking-time had come, her inborn sense of +hospitality would never have permitted her to suggest that her guest +should leave her, if she had not believed with all her heart that her +best room was really a bower of beauty; she even had the feeling that +she ought to urge it a little, lest he should be unwilling to "use it +common." Chase, perceiving that she wished him to go, went softly out, +and, entering the bower, closed the door behind him. The fire was low. +He put on some pitch-pine splinters, and added wood; for, in spite of +his water-proof coat (which was now hanging before the fireplace in the +kitchen), his clothes were damp. He lifted the logs carefully, so as not +to waken the sleepers above; then he sat down and stretched out his legs +to the blaze. In spite of Portia's assertion that his wife was "all +right," he was very uneasy; he could scarcely keep himself from stealing +up to get a look at her. But sleeplessness had been for so long one of +her troubles that he knew it was far wiser to let her rest as long as +she could. One thought pleased him; it had pleased him since the moment +he heard it: her stealing off for a ride at dawn simply to tease Dolly. +That certainly looked as if she must be much stronger than she had been +when he left her. It was an escapade worthy of the days when she had +been the frolicking Ruth Franklin. On the other hand loomed up the +results of this freak of hers, namely, her having been out so long in +the storm. Portia's expression, "pretty well beat when she first +come"--that was not encouraging. Thus he weighed the possibilities, +sitting there with his chair tilted back, his eyes fixed on the reviving +flame. He knew that he could not sleep until he had seen her. Portia's +"best bed," therefore, did not tempt him. In addition, he wished to wait +for the carriage, in order to contrive some sort of shelter for it, and +to assist in putting up the horses, since there was no one else to do +it. After a while, with his hands clasped behind his head, he moved his +chair a little and looked vaguely round the room. Everything was the +same as when he had paid his former visit there during the excursion +which he had made over the Great Smoky Mountains with the Franklins and +poor Jared. The red patch-work quilt was spread smoothly over the bed; +the accordion was on the mantel-piece, flanked by the vase whose design +was a pudgy hand holding a cornucopia; on the wall was the long row of +smirking fashion-plates. This means of entertainment, however, was soon +exhausted, and after a while he took some memoranda from his pocket, +and, bending forward towards the fire, began to look them over. + +He had been thus engaged for nearly half an hour when a door opened +behind him, and Dolly Franklin came in. + +She had no idea that he was there. The bedroom above, whose flight of +steep stairs she had just descended, possessed windows only towards the +river; and the second-story floors of the old house were so thick that +no sound from below could penetrate them. She had not therefore heard +Chase ride up on the other side; she had not distinguished any sounds in +the kitchen. + +He jumped up when he saw her. "I'm _mighty_ glad you've come down, +Dolly. I've been afraid to disturb her. Is she awake?" + +Dolly closed the door behind her. "No; she is sleeping soundly. I +wouldn't go up just now if I were you. A good sleep is what she needs +most of all." + +"All right; I'll wait. But how in the world came she to be out so long +in the rain, and you too? That's the part I don't understand." + +Dolly's heart had stood still when she saw her brother-in-law. "I'll sit +here for a while," she suggested, in order to gain time. "Will you +please pull forward that chair--the one in the corner? I had no idea you +were here. I only came down for the pillows from this bed; they are +better than those upstairs." While she was getting out these words her +quick mind had flown back to L'Hommedieu, and to the impression which +she had left behind her there, carefully arranged and left as +explanation of their absence. The explanation had been intended for any +of their friends who might happen to come to the house during the day. +But it would do equally well for Horace Chase, and Félicité could be +safely trusted to have repeated it to him within five minutes after his +unexpected arrival! For Félicité was not fond of Miss Dora Franklin. The +idea that her young mistress had gone off for a ride at daylight would +be an immense delight to the Frenchwoman, not for the expedition itself +(such amusements in a country so "sauvage" being beyond her +comprehension), but for the annoyance to mademoiselle--mademoiselle +whose watchfulness over everything that concerned her sister (even her +sister's maid) was so insupportably oppressive. Their start, therefore, +Dolly reflected, both Ruth's at dawn and her own a little later, was +probably in a measure accounted for in Horace Chase's mind. But as +regarded the hours in the rain, what could she invent about that? For +Portia had evidently described Ruth's exhaustion and their wet clothes. +She had seated herself by the fire; arrayed in one of the shapeless +dresses of her hostess, with her hair braided and hanging down her back, +her plain face looked plainer than ever. Worn out though she was, she +had not been asleep even for a moment; she had been sitting by the +bedside watching her sister. Ruth had lain motionless, with her head +thrown back lifelessly, her breathing scarcely perceptible. Whenever +Portia had peeped in (and the farmer's wife had stolen softly up the +stairs three times) Dolly had pretended to be asleep; and she knew that +Portia would think that Ruth also was sleeping. But Ruth was not asleep. +And Dolly's mind was filled with apprehension. What would follow this +apathy? + +"As I understand it, Ruthie took a notion to go off for a ride at +daybreak," Horace Chase began, "and then, after breakfast, you followed +her. How did you know which way she went? I suppose you asked. But she +left her mare here as early as half-past eight this morning, the woman +of the house tells me, and you yourself got here at two; what happened +afterwards? How came you to stay out in the rain? Unless you got lost, I +don't see what you were about." + +"We _were_ lost for a while," answered Dolly, who had now arranged her +legend. "But that was afterwards. Our staying out was my fault, or, +rather, my misfortune." She put out her feet and warmed them calmly. +"After I drove on from here, I didn't find Ruth for some time. When at +last I came upon her, we took our lunch together, and then I tied the +pony to a tree and we strolled off through the woods, picking up the +colored leaves. Suddenly I had one of my attacks. And it must have been +a pretty bad one, for it lasted a long time. How long I don't know; but +when I came to myself it was dark. Ruth, of course, couldn't carry me, +poor child. And she wouldn't leave me. So there we stayed in the rain. +And when finally I was able to move, it took us ages to get here, for +not only was I obliged to walk slowly, but it was so dark that we +couldn't find the road. I am all right now. But meanwhile _she_ is +dreadfully used up." + +Here, from the kitchen, came the sound of Portia's gentle voice: + + "When _shell_ these eyes thy heavenly walls + An' peerly gates behold? + Thy buildin's with salvation strong, + An' streets of shinin' gold? + An'-an' streets of shi-i-_nin_' gold!" + +"Crumb has arrived at his religious stage, and his wife is celebrating," +commented Dolly. "He goes through them all in regular succession every +time he is drunk. Obstinacy. Savagery. Lethargy. And then, finally, +Repentance, for he isn't one of those unimportant just persons who need +none." + +Chase glanced at her with inward disfavor; cynicism in a woman was +extremely unpleasant to him. His mental comment, after she had explained +their adventures, had been: "Well, if _Dolly_ had let the whole job +alone, none of this would have happened; Ruth would have had her lark +out and come home all right, and that would have been the end of it. But +Dolly must needs have _her_ finger in the pie, and out she goes. Then of +course she gets sick, and the end is that instead of her seeing to Ruth, +Ruth has to see to her." But he kept these reflections to himself. He +brought forward instead the idea that was important to him: "Isn't it a +pretty good sign she's better, that she _wanted_ to go off for a ride in +that way? It's like the things she used to do when I first knew her. +Don't you remember how she stayed out so long that cold, windy night +without her hat, talking with Malachi Hill over the back fence about his +Big Moose masquerade? And how she even went on, bareheaded and in the +dark, half across the village to find Achilles Larue and get him to +come, so that she could tease Miss Billy?" He gave a short laugh over +the remembrance. "I cannot help thinking, Dolly, that she isn't half as +sick as you made out; in fact, I've never thought she was, though I've +more or less fallen in with your idea of giving her a change. I _had_ +made arrangements to start for New York to-morrow morning, so as to hit +the Cunarder of Wednesday. But, as things have turned out, I don't know +that we need pull up stakes so completely, after all. She's evidently +better." + +For one instant Dolly thought. Then she spoke: "No, carry out your plan. +Take her away to-morrow morning just as you intended. Even if she _is_ +somewhat stronger (though I think you'll find that she isn't), she needs +a change." She said this decidedly. But the decision was for her own +sake; it was an effort to make herself believe, by the sound of the +spoken words, that this course would still be possible. "It _shall_ be +possible," she resolved in her own mind. + +"Well, I guess I won't decide till I see her," Chase answered. "Perhaps +she's awake by this time?" + +Dolly got up quickly. "I will go and see; my step is lighter than yours. +If I do not come back, that will mean that she is still asleep, and that +I think it best not to disturb her. The moment she does wake, however, +I will come and call you. Will that do?" + +"All right," said Chase, briefly, a second time. He did not especially +enjoy the prospect of several years in Europe. But at least it would be +agreeable to have his wife to himself, with no Dolly to meddle and +dictate. + +After she had gone, he sat expectant for nearly fifteen minutes. But she +did not return; Ruth evidently had not wakened. He rose, gave a stretch, +and, going to the window, raised the curtain and looked out. The rain +was pouring down; there was no sign of the carriage; it was so dark that +he could not see even the nearest trees. Dropping the curtain again, he +walked about the room for a while. Then he started to go to the kitchen, +to see how his wet coat was coming on; but remembering Portia's vigil +(which nothing could have induced him to break in upon, now that he +understood its nature), he stopped. He looked at all the simpering +ladies of the fashion-plates, ladies whose bodies were formed on the +model which seems to be peculiar to such publications, and to exist only +for them; he lifted the vase and inspected it a third time; he even +tried the accordion softly. Finally he sat down by the fire, and, taking +out his memoranda again, he went back to business calculations. + +Dolly had gone swiftly up the stairs and along the entry which led to +the bedroom. Ruth was lying just as she had left her, with her eyes +shut, her head thrown back. Dolly closed the door and locked it; then +she came and leaned over her. + +"Ruth, do you hear me?" + +"Yes," answered Ruth, mechanically. + +Dolly sat down by the side of the bed and drew her sister towards her. + +"I have something to tell you," she whispered. "Your husband is +down-stairs." + +Ruth did not start. After a moment she opened her eyes and turned them +slowly towards her sister. + +"He came home unexpectedly," Dolly went on, in the same low tone. "He +reached L'Hommedieu this evening, and when they told him that we had not +returned he had inquiries made as to the road we had taken, and came +down here himself on horseback. At L'Hommedieu, Ruth, they think that +you slipped out at dawn for a ride, just to play me a trick, because I +have watched you so closely about your health lately that you were out +of all patience. I let them think this; or, rather, I made them think +it. And they have repeated it to your husband, who accepts it just as +they did. The only thing he could not understand was why we stayed out +so long in the storm, for Portia had evidently told him how late it was +when we came in, and how exhausted you looked. So I have just said that +after I found you we had our lunch together, and then, after tying the +pony to a tree, we strolled through the woods, picking up the colored +leaves. Suddenly one of my attacks came on, and it was a bad attack; I +was unconscious for a long time. You wouldn't leave me; and so there we +had to stay in the rain. When at last I could walk I had to come slowly. +And we couldn't find the road for a long while--it was so dark. All this +seems to him perfectly natural, Ruth; he suspects nothing. The only +point he is troubled about is your health--how that will come out after +the exposure. He is sitting by the fire down-stairs waiting for you to +wake, for I told him you were asleep. And here is something supremely +fortunate: his plan is to take you off to New York to-morrow morning, to +hit the Wednesday's Cunard steamer for Liverpool. He has had this idea +for some weeks--the idea of going abroad. That was the reason he went +away--to make ready. He didn't tell you about it, because he thought he +would take you by surprise. And he still hopes to sail on Wednesday, +provided you are well enough, it isn't to be a flying trip this time; he +is willing to stay over there for years if you like. Now, Ruth, listen +to me. You _must_ go. You need make no effort of any kind; just let +yourself slip on from day to day, passively. There is nothing difficult +about that. If there were, I should not ask you to do it, for I know you +could never play a part. But here there is no part; you need do no more +than you always have done. That has never been much, for from the first +the devotion has been on his side, not on yours, and he will expect no +more. Now try to sleep a little, and then at sunrise I will let him come +up. When he comes you needn't talk; you can say you are too tired to +talk. He is so uneasy about your health that he will fall in with +anything. Don't think about it any more. The whole thing's settled." + +Suiting her actions to her words, Dolly rearranged the coverlet over her +sister, and then, rising, she began to make a screen before the fire +with two chairs and a blanket, so that its light should not fall across +the bed. While she was thus engaged she heard a sound, and, turning her +head, she saw that Ruth was getting up. + +"What is it?" she said, going to her. "Do you want anything?" + +"Where are my clothes?" Ruth asked. She was sitting on the edge of the +bed, her bare feet resting on the rag mat by its side. + +"Portia is drying them. She left some of her things on that chair for +you. But don't get up now; the night isn't anywhere near over." + +Ruth went to the chair where lay the garments, coarse but clean; she +unbuttoned her night-gown (also one of Portia's). Then her strength +failed, and she sank down on the chair. "Come back to bed," said Dolly, +urgently. + +Ruth let her head rest on the chair-back for a moment or two. Then she +said: "I won't try to dress; I don't feel strong enough. But please get +me some stockings and shoes, and a shawl. That will be enough." + +"Are you tired of the bed? I can make you comfortable in that chair by +the fire, then," Dolly answered. "Here are stockings. And shoes, +too--Portia's. But I'm afraid they will drop off!" Kneeling down, she +drew on the stockings, and then Ruth, rising, stepped into the shoes. +Dolly went to spread a blanket over the chair, and while she was thus +engaged Ruth, seeing a homespun dress of Portia's hanging from a peg, +took it and put it on over her night-gown. + +"You need not have done that," commented Dolly; "here is a second +blanket to wrap you up in." + +But Ruth was going towards the door. Dolly hurried after her and caught +her arm. "You are not going down? What for?" + +"I don't know," answered Ruth, vaguely. Then, with quickened breath, she +added, "Yes, I _do_ know; I am going to tell--tell what I did." She was +panting a little; Dolly could hear the sound. + +The elder sister held her tightly. But Ruth did not struggle, she stood +passive. "What are you going to tell?" Dolly asked, sternly. "What _is_ +there to tell? You took a ride; you walked in the forest; you stood in a +thicket; you came back. That is all. No one saw you; no one on earth +knows anything more. And there _was_ nothing more, save in thought. Your +thoughts are your own affair, you are not required to tell them; it +would be a strange world indeed if we had to tell all our thoughts! In +your _acts_ as it has turned out, there has been nothing wrong. Leave it +so, then. Let it rest." + +Ruth did not reply. But in her clouded eyes Dolly thought she read +refusal. "Ruth, let me judge for you," she pleaded. "Could I possibly +advise you to do anything that was not your best course? Your very best? +If you force an account of your inward feelings upon your husband--who +does not ask for them or want them--you destroy his happiness, you make +him wretched. Don't you care for that? If I have never liked him--and I +may as well confess that I never have--at least I know his devotion to +you. If you tell, therefore, tell so unnecessarily, it will be a great +cruelty. Think of all he did for mother! Of all he did and tried to do +for Jared!" + +Two tears welled up in Ruth's eyes. But she did not speak. + +"And then there is another thing," Dolly went on. "If he knows the +truth, all the good in him will be changed to bitterness. And, besides, +he will be very harsh to you, Ruth; he will be brutal; and he will even +think that it is right that he should be so. For those are the ideas +of--of some people about wives who go wrong." To the woman who had +married Horace Chase Dolly could say no more. But if she had spoken out +all that was in her heart, her phrase would have been, "For those are +the ideas of common people about wives who go wrong." (For to Dolly, +Horace Chase's commonness--or what seemed to her commonness--had always +been the insupportable thing.) But what she was saying now about her +dread of his possible brutality was not in the least a fiction invented +to influence Ruth; she had in reality the greatest possible dread of it. + +Ruth, however, seemed either to have no fears at all, or else she was +all fear--fear that had reached the stage of torpor. + +"Think of _this_, too," urged Dolly, finally. "If you tell, have you the +slightest idea that your husband will be able to keep himself from +breaking off instantly all relations with the Willoughbys--with the +uncles as well as the nephew? And do you want Walter Willoughby to +suspect--as he certainly would suspect--the cause? Do you wish this +young fellow who has merely played with you, who from the beginning has +amused himself at your expense, and, no doubt, laughed at you over and +over again--do you wish him to have a fresh joke at the sight of your +imbittered husband's jealousy? Is he to tell the whole story to Marion +Barclay? And have _her_ laughing also at your hopeless passion for +him?--at the way you have thrown yourself at his head? If you are +silent, not only will your husband be saved from all his wretchedness, +but Walter Willoughby will have no story to tell!" + +For answer, Ruth gave a moan of physical weakness; she did not try to +free herself from her sister's hold; she stood motionless, her figure +drooping, her eyes closed. "Dolly," she murmured, "if you keep on +opposing me--and my strength won't hold out very long--you will end by +preventing it, preventing my telling. But there is something you won't +be able to prevent: I am so tired that I want to die! And I shouldn't +be afraid of _that_; I mean, finding a way." + +Dolly's hands dropped. + +And then Ruth, after a moment more of delay, pushed back the bolt, +passed along the entry, and began to go down the dark stairs. She went +slowly, a step at a time. A step; then a hesitation; then another step. +Finally she reached the bottom, and opened the door. + +Her descent had been noiseless; it was not until her hand touched the +latch that Chase turned his head. When he saw her, he sprang up. "_You_, +Ruthie!" he exclaimed, delightedly, as she entered, followed, after a +moment, by the frightened, wretched Dolly. "Are you well enough to be +up?" He put his arm round her and kissed her. "Come to the fire." + +But Ruth drew herself away; she moved off to a little distance. "Wait; I +have something to tell you," she answered. + +"At any rate, sit down," Chase responded, bringing the best arm-chair +and placing it before her. He had had a long experience regarding her +changing caprices; he never disputed them. + +But she did not seat herself; she only leaned on the back of the chair, +her hands grasping its top. "I did not take that ride this morning for +the reason you think," she began. "I was going to Walter Willoughby; I +knew he was at The Lodge." + +"Well, then, I wish you hadn't," replied Chase. He looked annoyed, but +not angry. "Fellows like Walter are conceited enough without that sort +of thing. If you wanted to see him, you could have sent a note, asking +him to come to L'Hommedieu. Or Dolly could have written it for you; that +would have been the best way. But don't stand there; sit down." + +Ruth took a fresh grasp of the chair. "You do not comprehend," she said, +her voice showing how little strength she had. But though she was weak +physically, there was no nervousness; she was perfectly calm. "You do +not comprehend. I was going to him because I loved him, Horace. I have +loved him for a long time. I loved him so that I _had_ to go!" + +As she said this her husband's face changed--changed in a way that was +pitiful to see. He looked stunned, stricken. + +"I did not mean to," Ruth went on. "I did not know what it was at first. +And then--it was too late. I thought he loved me; I was sure of it. And +so--I went to him." + +Dolly, hurrying forward, laid her hand restrainingly on Chase's wrist. +"He didn't see her, no one saw her. And she did no harm, no harm +whatever." + +But Chase shook Dolly off with a motion of his shoulder. Ruth, too, paid +no heed to her sister; she looked straight at her husband, not +defiantly, but drearily; she went on with her tale almost mechanically, +and with the same desperate calmness as before. "So I went to him; I +left my horse here, and went up through the woods. But he had Marion +Barclay there; I saw her. And I saw his face, the expression of his +face, as he talked to her; it is Marion he loves!" + +"I could have told you that. At least I could have told you that he has +been trying to get that girl for a long time," said Chase, bitterly. +"But there was nothing in that to hold him back as regards _you_. And it +hasn't held him back; it hasn't prevented him from--But he shall answer +for this! Answer to _me_." The rage in his face was deep; his eyes +gleamed; his hands were clinched. Dolly turned cold. "He will _kill_ +Walter," she thought. "Oh, what will he do to Ruth?" + +Ruth had left her chair; she came and stood before her husband. "He +isn't to blame, Horace. I would tell you if he were; I should like to +see Marion Barclay suffer! But if you go to him, he will only laugh at +you, and with reason; for he has never cared for me, and he has never +even pretended to care; I see that now. It is _I_ who have been in love +with _him_. It began that first winter we spent in Florida," she went +on. She had returned to her place behind the chair, and her eyes were +again fixed upon her husband's face. "And when he told me, suddenly, +that he was going to California, going for years, I could not breathe. +Then, when Jared died, and mother died, and you were so good to me, I +tried to forget him. But as soon as I saw him again I knew that it was +of no use--no sort of use!" + +"You'll never make me believe that _he_ did nothing all this time," said +Chase, savagely. "That he didn't profit--that he didn't take +advantage--" + +But Ruth shook her head. "No. Perhaps he amused himself a little. Once +or twice he said a few words. But that was all. And even this was called +out by me--by _my_ love. Left to himself, he always drew back, he always +stopped. But _I_--I never did! You must believe me about this--I mean +about its having been _my_ doing. How can I make you believe it? If I +say that by my mother's memory, by Jared's, what I have told you is +true, will you believe it then? Very well; I _do_ say so." Exhausted, +she put her face down upon her hands on the top of the chair-back. + +The firelight, which was now brilliant, had revealed her clearly. Her +figure in the homespun dress looked wasted; in her face there was now no +beauty, the irregularity of its outlines was conspicuous, the bright +color was gone, the eyes were dull and dead. + +Something in her bowed head touched Chase keenly. A memory of her as she +was when he married her came before him, the radiant young creature who +had given herself to him so willingly and so joyously. + +"Ruthie, we'll forget it," he said, in a changed voice. "I was too old +for you, I am afraid. I ought not to have asked you to marry me. But +it's done now, past mending, and we must make the best of it. But we'll +begin all over again, my poor little girl." For his wife had always +seemed to him a child, an impulsive, lovely child; a little spoiled, no +doubt, but enchantingly sweet and dear. Her affection for him, as far as +it went, had been sincere; he had comprehended that from the beginning. +And alluring though she was to him in her young beauty, he would not +have married her without it; her consent, even her willing consent, +would not have been enough. And now it seemed to him that he could go +back to that girlish liking, that he could foster it and draw it out. He +had not protected her from her own fancies, he had not guarded her or +guided her. Now he would make her more a part of his life; he would no +longer think of her as a child. + +He had come to her as he spoke. This time she did not draw herself away; +but, looking at him with the same fixed gaze, she went on. She had been +speaking slowly, but now her words came pouring forth in a flood as +though she felt that it was the only way in which she could get them +spoken at all; each brief phrase was hurried out with a quick pant. + +"Oh, you don't understand. You think it was a fancy. But it wasn't, it +wasn't; I _loved_ him! I was going to stay with him forever. I would +have gone to the ends of the earth with him. I would never have asked a +question. I hadn't the least hesitation; you mustn't think that I had. I +sang to myself as I rode out here, I was so happy and glad. I didn't +care what became of you; I didn't even think of you. If he had been +alone at The Lodge, I should have gone straight into his arms. And you +might have come in, and I shouldn't have minded; I shouldn't even have +known you were there! From the moment I started, you were nothing to +me--nothing; you didn't exist! I am as guilty as a woman can be. I had +every intention, every inclination. What was lacking was _his_ will; but +never mine! It was only twelve hours ago. I haven't changed in that +time. The only change is that now I know he doesn't care for _me_. I +would have accepted anything--yes, anything. It was only twelve hours +ago, and if he _had_ been alone at The Lodge, whether he really loved me +or not, he would not have--turned me out." + +"No; damn him!" answered Chase. + +"And _I_ should have been glad to stay," Ruth concluded, inflexibly. + +Her husband turned away. It was a strong man's anguish. He sat down by +the fire, his face covered by his hands. + +Into the pause there now came again the strains of Portia's hymn in the +kitchen--that verse about "the peerly gates" which she was hopefully +singing a second time to Dave. Then, in the silence that followed, the +room seemed filled with the rushing sound of the rain. + +Ruth had remained motionless. "I shall never be any better," she went on +with the same desperation; "I wish you to understand me just as I really +am. I might even do it a second time; I don't know. You may make +whatever arrangements you like about me; I agree to all in advance. And +now--I'll go." Turning, she went towards the door of the stairway, the +pale Dolly joining her in silence. + +Then Horace Chase got up. His face showed how profoundly he had +suffered; it was changed, changed for life. "After all this that you've +told me, Ruth, I don't press myself upon you--I never shall again; I +_couldn't;_ that's ended. You haven't got any father or mother, and +you're very young yet; so I shall have to see to you for the present. +But it can be done from a distance, and that's the way I'll fix it. You +mustn't think I don't feel this thing because I don't say much. It just +about kills me! But as to condemning, coming down on you out and out, I +don't do it, I haven't got the cheek! Who am I that I should dare to? +Have I been so faultless myself that I have any right to judge _you?_" +And as he said this, his rugged face had, for the moment, an expression +that was striking in its beauty; its mixture of sorrow, honesty, and +grandeur. + +Ruth gazed at him. Then she gave an inarticulate entreating cry, and ran +to him. + +But she was so weak that she fell, and Dolly rushed forward. + +Horace Chase put Dolly aside--put her aside forever. He lifted his wife +in his arms, and silently bent his head over hers as it lay on his +breast. + +THE END + + * * * * * + +BY CONSTANCE F. WOOLSON. + +JUPITER LIGHTS. 16mo, Cloth, $1 25. + +EAST ANGELS. 16mo, Cloth, $1 25. + +ANNE. Illustrated. 16mo, Cloth, $1 25. + +FOR THE MAJOR. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00. + +CASTLE NOWHERE. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00. + +RODMAN THE KEEPER. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00. + +There is a certain bright cheerfulness in Miss Woolson's writing which +invests all her characters with lovable qualities.--_Jewish Advocate_, +N. Y. + +Miss Woolson is among our few successful writers of interesting magazine +stories, and her skill and power are perceptible in the delineation of +her heroines no less than in the suggestive pictures of local +life.--_Jewish Messenger_, N. Y. + +Constance Fenimore Woolson may easily become the novelist +laureate.--_Boston Globe._ + +Miss Woolson has a graceful fancy, a ready wit, a polished style, and +conspicuous dramatic power; while her skill in the development of a +story is very remarkable.--_London Life._ + +Miss Woolson never once follows the beaten track of the orthodox +novelist, but strikes a new and richly-loaded vein, which so far is all +her own; and thus we feel, on reading one of her works, a fresh +sensation, and we put down the book with a sigh to think our pleasant +task of reading it is finished. The author's lines must have fallen to +her in very pleasant places; or she has, perhaps, within herself the +wealth of womanly love and tenderness she pours so freely into all she +writes. Such books as hers do much to elevate the moral tone of the +day--a quality sadly wanting in novels of the time.--_Whitehall Review_, +London. + +PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. + +==>_The above works sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the +United States, Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price._ + + * * * * * + +BY MARIA LOUISE POOL. + +THE TWO SALOMES. A Novel. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 25. + +A work of notable power and artistic feeling.--_Literary World_, Boston. + +The character conceptions of the story are all good and well wrought +out, the situations are all logical and expressive, and the interest in +the problem keeps fresh till the close of the book.--_Providence +Journal._ + +KATHARINE NORTH. A Novel. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 25. + +"Katharine North" is, from an artistic and literary standpoint, Miss +Pool's best work, and will take high rank among the novels of the year. +The story is an intensely interesting one, and is most skilfully +constructed.--_Boston Traveller._ + +MRS. KEATS BRADFORD. A Novel. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 25. + +Miss Pool's novels have the characteristic qualities of American life. +They have an indigenous flavor. The author is on her own ground, +instinct with American feeling and purpose.--_N. Y. Tribune._ + +ROWENY IN BOSTON. A Novel. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 25. + +Is a surprisingly good story.... It is a very delicately drawn story in +all particulars. It is sensitive in the matter of ideas and of phrase. +Its characters make a delightful company. It is excellent art and rare +entertainment.--_N. Y. Sun._ + +DALLY. A Novel. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 25; Paper, 50 cents. + +There is not a lay figure in the book; all are flesh and blood +creations.... The humor of "Dally" is grateful to the sense; it is +provided in abundance, together with touches of pathos, an inseparable +concomitant.--_Philadelphia Ledger._ + +PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. + +==>_The above works are for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent by_ +HARPER & BROTHERS, _postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, +Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price._ + + * * * * * + +BY JAMES M. LUDLOW. + +THE CAPTAIN OF THE JANIZARIES. A Tale of the Times of Scanderbeg and the +Fall of Constantinople. 16mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 50; Paper, 50 cents. + +Strong in its central historical character, abounding in incident, rapid +and stirring in action, animated and often brilliant in +style.--_Christian Union_, N. Y. + +Something new and striking interests us in almost every chapter. The +peasantry of the Balkans, the training and government of the Janizaries, +the interior of Christian and Moslem camps, the horrors of raids and +battles, the violence of the Sultan, the tricks of spies, the exploits +of heroes, engage Mr. Ludlow's fluent pen.--_N. Y. Tribune._ + +A KING OF TYRE. A Tale of the Times of Ezra and Nehemiah. 16mo, Cloth, +Ornamental, $1 00. + +It is altogether a fresh and enjoyable tale, strong in its situations +and stirring in its actions.--_Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette._ + +The picture of the life and manners of that far-away period is carefully +and artistically drawn, the plot is full of interest, and the whole +treatment of the subject is strikingly original, and there is a dramatic +intensity in the story which will at once remind the reader of +"Ben-Hur."--_Boston Traveller._ + +THAT ANGELIC WOMAN. A Novel. 16mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 00. + +The plot is skilfully drawn, the whole story shows dramatic power, and +the conclusion will satisfy those readers who prefer a happy ending of +an exciting tale.--_Observer_, N. Y. + +Dramatic, vivid in scene and action, it has many truthful touches, and +is written with the easy clearness and quick movement familiar to Dr. +Ludlow's readers.--_Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette._ + +PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. + +==>_The above works are for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent by +the publishers, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, +Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price._ + + * * * * * + +THE PRINCE OF INDIA; + +Or, Why Constantinople Fell. By LEW. WALLACE, Author of "Ben-Hur," "The +Boyhood of Christ," etc. Two Volumes. 16mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $2 50; +Half Leather, $4 00; Three-quarter Leather, $5 00; Three-quarter Calf, +$6 00; Three-quarter Crushed Levant, $8 00. (_In a Box._) + +General Wallace has achieved the (literary) impossible. He has struck +the bull's-eye twice in succession. After his phenomenal hit with +"Ben-Hur" he has given us, in "The Prince of India," another book which +no man will say shows the least falling off.... It is a great +book.--_N.Y. Tribune._ + +A great story. It has power and fire. We believe that it will be read +and re-read.--_N.Y. Sun._ + +For boldness of conception this romance is unique of its kind. The +amount of research shown is immense. The mere _mise en scène_ necessary +for the proper presentation of the Byzantine period alone involves a +life-long study.... There are incidents innumerable in this romance, and +all are worked up with dramatic effect.--_N.Y. Times._ + +Its human interest is so vivid that it is one of those historical novels +laid down reluctantly, only with the last page, with the feeling that +one turns away from men and women with whom for a while he lived and +moved.... A masterly and great and absorbing work of fiction.... +Dignity, a superb conjunction of historical and imaginative material, +the movement of a strong river of fancy, an unfailing quality of human +interest, fill it overflowingly.--_N.Y. Mail and Express._ + +In invention, in the power to make mind-impressions, in thrilling +interest, "The Prince of India" is not inferior to "Ben-Hur." The visit +to the grave of Hiram, King of Tyre, with which the story opens, at once +arouses the reader's keenest interest, which culminates in the closing +pages of the second volume with the downfall of Constantinople.--_Philadelphia +Inquirer._ + +PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. + +==>_For sale by all booksellers, or will be sent by mail, postage +prepaid, to any part of the United States, Canada, or Mexico, on receipt +of the price._ + + * * * * * + +The following typographical error was corrected by the etext +transcriber: + +Two woman joined them=>Two women joined them + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Horace Chase, by Constance Fenimore Woolson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HORACE CHASE *** + +***** This file should be named 39067-8.txt or 39067-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/0/6/39067/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images available at The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: Horace Chase + +Author: Constance Fenimore Woolson + +Release Date: March 6, 2012 [EBook #39067] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HORACE CHASE *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images available at The Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<p class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="300" height="462" alt="image of the book's cover" title="image of the book's cover" /> +</p> + +<h1>HORACE CHASE</h1> + +<p class="eng">A Novel</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="c">by<br /> +CONSTANCE FENIMORE WOOLSON<br /> +<small>AUTHOR OF "JUPITER LIGHTS" "EAST ANGELS" ETC.</small><br /> +NEW YORK<br /> +HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS<br /> +1894</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="c"><small>Copyright, 1894, by H<small>ARPER</small> & B<small>rothers</small>.<br /> +——<br /> +<i>All rights reserved.</i></small></p> + +<p><a name="page_001" id="page_001"></a></p> + +<h1>HORACE CHASE</h1> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<p class="c"><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>II, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>III, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>IV, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>V, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>VI, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>VII, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>VIII, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>IX, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>X, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>XI, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b>XII, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><b>XIII, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b>XIV, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b>XV, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><b>XVI, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><b>XVII, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><b>XVIII, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><b>XIX, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><b>XX, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><b>XXI, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><b>XXII, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><b>XXIII, </b></a> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><b>XXIV</b></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<p>I<small>N</small> a mountain village of North Carolina, in the year 1873, the spring +had opened with its accustomed beauty. But one day there came a pure +cold wind which swept through the high valley at tremendous speed from +dawn to midnight. People who never succumb to mere comfort did not +relight their fires. But to the Franklin family comfort was a goddess, +they would never have thought of calling her "mere"; "delightful" was +their word, and Ruth would probably have said "delicious." The fire in +Mrs. Franklin's parlor, therefore, having been piled with fresh logs at +two o'clock as an offering to this deity, was now, at four, sending out +a ruddy glow. It was a fire which called forth Ruth's highest +approbation when she came in, followed by her dog, Petie Trone, Esq. Not +that Ruth had been facing the blast; she never went out from a sense of +duty, and for her there was no pleasure in doing battle with things that +were disagreeable for the sake merely of conquering them. Ruth had come +from her<a name="page_002" id="page_002"></a> own room, where there was a fire also, but one not so generous +as this, for here the old-fashioned hearth was broad and deep. The girl +sat down on the rug before the blaze, and then, after a moment, she +stretched herself out at full length there, with her head resting on her +arm thrown back behind it.</p> + +<p>"It's a pity, Ruth, that with all your little ways, you are not little +yourself," remarked Dolly Franklin, the elder sister. "Such a whalelike +creature sprawled on the floor isn't endearing; it looks like something +out of Gulliver."</p> + +<p>"It's always so," observed Mrs. Franklin, drowsily. "It's the oddest +thing in the world—but people never will stay in character; they want +to be something different. Don't you remember that whenever poor Sue +Inness was asked to sing, the wee little creature invariably chanted, +'Here's a health to King Charles,' in as martial a voice as she could +summon? Whereas Lucia Lewis, who is as big as a grenadier, always +warbles softly some such thing as 'Call me pet names, dearest. Call me a +bird.' Bird! Mastodon would do better."</p> + +<p>"Mastodon?" Ruth commented. "It is evident, His Grand, that you have +seen Miss Billy to-day!"</p> + +<p>Ruth was not a whale, in spite of Dolly's assertion. But she was tall, +her shoulders had a marked breadth, and her arms were long. She was very +slender and supple, and this slenderness, together with her small hands +and feet, took away all idea of majesty in connection with her, tall +though she was; one<a name="page_003" id="page_003"></a> did not think of majesty, but rather of girlish +merriment and girlish activity. And girlish indolence as well. Mrs. +Franklin had once said: "Ruth is either running, or jumping, or doing +something in such haste that she is breathless; or else she is stretched +out at full length on the carpet or the sofa, looking as though she +never intended to move again!"</p> + +<p>The girl had a dark complexion with a rich color, and hair that was +almost black; her face was lighted by blue eyes, with long thick black +lashes which made a dark fringe round the blue. The persons who liked +Ruth thought her beautiful; they asserted that her countenance had in it +something which was captivating. But others replied that though her +friends might call her captivating if they pleased, since that word +denotes merely a personal charm, they had no right to say that she was +beautiful; for as regards beauty, there are well-defined rules, and, +with the exception of her wonderful eyes, the face of the second Miss +Franklin transgressed every one of these canons. Ruth's features were +without doubt irregular. And especially was it true that her mouth was +large. But the lips were exquisitely cut, and the teeth very white. +Regarding her appearance as a whole, there was a fact which had not as +yet been noticed, namely, that no man ever found fault with it; the +criticism came always from feminine lips. And these critics spoke the +truth; but they forgot, or rather they did not see, some of the +compensations. There were people not a few, even in her own small +circle, who did not look<a name="page_004" id="page_004"></a> with favor upon Ruth Franklin; it was not +merely, so they asserted, that she was heedless and frivolous, caring +only for her own amusement, and sacrificing everything to that, for of +many young persons this could be said; but they maintained in addition +that hers was a disposition in its essence self-indulgent; she was +indolent; she was fond of luxuries; she was even fond of "good +eating"—an odd accusation to be brought against a girl of that age. In +this case also the charges were made by feminine lips. And again it may +be added that while these critics spoke the truth, or part of the truth, +they did not, on the other hand, see some of the compensations.</p> + +<p>"Why do you say '<i>poor</i> Sue Inness,' His Grand?" inquired Dolly, in an +expostulating tone. "Why do people always say '<i>poor</i>' so-and-so, of any +one who is dead? It is an alarmingly pitying word; as though the +unfortunate departed must certainly be in a very bad place!"</p> + +<p>"Here is something about the bishop," said Mrs. Franklin, who was +reading a Raleigh newspaper in the intervals of conversation. Her tone +was now animated. "He has been in Washington, and one of his sermons +was—"</p> + +<p>But she was interrupted by her daughters, who united their voices in a +chant as follows:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Mother Franklin thinks,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">That General Jackson,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">Jared the Sixth,<a name="page_005" id="page_005"></a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">Macaroon custards,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">And Bishop Carew,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">Are per-<i>fec</i>-tion!"</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>Mrs. Franklin made no reply to these Gregorian assertions (which she had +often heard before), save the remark, "You have torn your skirt, Ruth."</p> + +<p>"Oh, please don't look at me over your glasses, His Grand. It spoils +your profile so," answered Ruth; for Mrs. Franklin was surveying the +skirt with her head bent forward and her chin drawn sharply in, so that +her eyes could be brought to bear upon the rent over her spectacles.</p> + +<p>She now drew off these aids to vision impatiently. "Whether I look +through them or over them doesn't matter; you and Dolly are never +satisfied. I cannot read the paper without my glasses; do you wish me to +know nothing of the news of the world?"</p> + +<p>"We'll <i>tell</i> you," responded Dolly, going on busily with her knitting. +"For instance, to-day: Genevieve has had <i>all</i> the paint cleaned and +<i>all</i> the windows washed; she is now breathing that righteous atmosphere +of cold, fireless bleakness and soap which she adores. Miss Billy Breeze +has admired everything that she can think of, because admiration is so +uplifting. And she has written another page about the primeval world; +now she—"</p> + +<p>Here the door which led to the entrance-hall was opened with a jerk by +Linda, a plump negro girl, who bounced in, ejaculated "Lady!" in a +congratulatory<a name="page_006" id="page_006"></a> tone, and then bounced out to act as usher for the +incoming guest.</p> + +<p>"Billy herself, probably," said Mrs. Franklin. "Ruth, are you stretched +out there under the plea that you are not yet fully grown?"</p> + +<p>But Ruth did not deem it necessary to leave her couch for Miss Billy +Breeze. "Hail, Billy!" she said, as the visitor entered. "Mother thinks +that I ought to be seated politely on the sofa; will you please imagine +that I am there?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, certainly," replied Miss Breeze, in a conciliatory tone. Miss +Breeze lived under the impression that the members of this family +quarrelled with each other almost incessantly; when she was present, +therefore, she did her best to smooth over their asperities. "It is +rather good for her, you know," she said reassuringly to Mrs. Franklin; +"for it is a windy day, and Ruth is not robust." Then to Ruth: "Your +mother naturally wishes you to look your best, my dear."</p> + +<p>"Do you, His Grand?" inquired Ruth. "Because if you do, I must certainly +stay where I am, so that I can tuck under me, very neatly, this rip in +my skirt, which Miss Billy has not yet seen. Petie Trone, Esq., shake +hands with the lady." The dog, a small black-and-tan terrier, was +reposing on the rug beside Ruth; upon hearing her command, he trotted +across to the visitor, and offered a tiny paw.</p> + +<p>"Dear little fellow," said Miss Breeze, bending,<a name="page_007" id="page_007"></a> and shaking it gently. +"His Grand must allow that he looks extremely well?"</p> + +<p>For the circle of friends had ended by accepting the legend (invented by +Ruth) that Mrs. Franklin was Petie Trone's grandmother, or "His Grand." +The only person who still held out against this title was Genevieve, the +daughter-in-law; Mrs. Franklin the younger thought that the name was +ridiculous. Her husband's family seemed to her incomprehensibly silly +about their pets.</p> + +<p>Miss Wilhelmina Breeze was thirty-five; but no one would have thought so +from her fair pink-and-white complexion, and young, innocent eyes. From +her earliest years she had longed to hear herself called "Wilhelmina." +But the longing was almost never gratified; the boyish name given to her +in joke when she was a baby had clung to her with the usual fatal +tenacity.</p> + +<p>"Miss Billy, have you seen mother to-day?" Dolly inquired.</p> + +<p>"Not until now," answered the visitor, surprised.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, have you thought of mastodons?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly I have; and if you yourself, Dolly, would think more +seriously of the whole subject, the primeval world—you would soon be as +fascinated with it as I am. Imagine one of those vast extinct animals, +Dolly, lifting his neck up a hill to nibble the trees on its top!" said +Miss Breeze with enthusiasm. "And birds as large as chapels flying +through the air! Probably they sang, those birds. What<a name="page_008" id="page_008"></a> sort of voices +do you suppose they had? The cave-lion was twenty-nine feet high. The +horned tryceratops was seventy-five feet long! It elevates the mind even +to think of them."</p> + +<p>"You see, His Grand, that she <i>has</i> thought of mastodons," commented +Dolly. "Your unexpected mention of them, therefore, is plainly the +influence of her mind acting upon yours from a distance—the distance of +the Old North Hotel."</p> + +<p>"Have you really thought of them, dear Mrs. Franklin? And do you believe +there can be such a thing as the conscious—I mean, of course, +<i>un</i>conscious—influence of one mind upon another?" inquired Miss Billy, +her face betraying a delighted excitement.</p> + +<p>"No, no; it's only Dolly's nonsense," answered Mrs. Franklin.</p> + +<p>"It's easy to say nonsense, His Grand. But how, then, do you account for +the utterances of my planchette?" demanded Dolly, wagging her head +triumphantly.</p> + +<p>Dolly, the second of Mrs. Franklin's three children, was an invalid. The +Franklins, as a family, were tall and dark, and Dolly was tall and dark +also; her face, owing to the pain which frequently assailed her, was +thin, worn, and wrinkled. She sat in a low easy-chair, and beside her +was her own especial table, which held what she called her "jibs." These +were numerous, for Dolly occupied herself in many ways. She sketched, +she carved little knick-knacks,<a name="page_009" id="page_009"></a> she played the violin; she made lace, +she worked out chess problems, and she knitted; she also scribbled +rhymes which her family called poetry. The mantel-piece of this parlor +was adorned with a hanging which bore one of her verses, stitched in old +English text, the work of her mother's needle:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"O Fire! in these dark frozen days</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">So gracious is thy red,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">So warm thy comfort, we forget</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The violets are dead."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>The family thought this beautiful. Dolly's verses, her drawing and +wood-carving, her lace-making and chess, were amateurish; her +violin-playing was at times spirited, and that was the utmost that could +be said of it. But her knitting was remarkable. She knitted nothing but +silk stockings, and these, when finished, had a wonderful perfection. +Dolly was accustomed to say of herself that in the heels of her +stockings was to be found the only bit of conscience which she +possessed.</p> + +<p>When she mentioned planchette, her mother frowned. "I do not approve of +such things."</p> + +<p>"Yes, because you are afraid!" chuckled Dolly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, anything that dear Mrs. Franklin does not approve of—" murmured +Miss Billy.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Franklin rose.</p> + +<p>"His Grand is fleeing!" Dolly announced, gleefully.</p> + +<p>"I must make the salad-dressing, mustn't I? Ruth<a name="page_010" id="page_010"></a> will not touch Zoe's +dressing. Billy, Mr. Chase is to dine with us to-day, informally; don't +you want to stay and help us entertain him?" added the mistress of the +house as she left the room.</p> + +<p>"Dolly," suggested Ruth, from her place on the rug, "set planchette to +work, and make it tell us secrets; make it tell us whether Miss Billy +understands the <i>true</i> character of Achilles Larue!"</p> + +<p>"She does not; I can tell her that without planchette," replied Dolly. +"Only one person in the world has ever fully understood Achilles—had +the strength to do it; and <i>he</i> died!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know; I have heard Mr. Larue speak of that one friend," said +Miss Billy, regretfully. "How unfortunate that he lost him!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, baddish. And the term is quite in his own line," commented Dolly. +"With him it is never warm, but warmish; the bluest sky is bluish; a +June day, fairish; a twenty-mile walk, longish. In this way he is not +committed to extravagant statements. When he is dead, he won't be more +than deadish. But he's that now."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Franklin, having made the salad-dressing (when she made it, it was +always perfection), returned to the parlor. "Ruth, go and change your +dress. Take Miss Billy with you, but take her to my room, not yours. For +of course you will stay, Billy?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think I'd better; I'm not dressed for the evening; and I said I +should be back," answered Miss Breeze, hesitatingly.<a name="page_011" id="page_011"></a></p> + +<p>"To whom did you say it? To the Old North? Run along," said Mrs. +Franklin, smiling. "If it is shoes you are thinking of, as yours are +muddy, Ruth can lend you a pair."</p> + +<p>"That she cannot," remarked Dolly. "Buy Ruth six pairs of new shoes, and +in six days all will be shabby. But you can have a pair of mine, Miss +Billy."</p> + +<p>When she was left alone with her elder daughter, Mrs. Franklin said: +"Poor Billy! She is always haunted by the idea that she may possibly +meet Achilles Larue here. She certainly will not meet him at the Old +North, for he never goes near the place, in spite of her gentle +invitations. But here there is always a chance, and I never can resist +giving it to her, although in reality it is folly; he has never looked +at her, and he never will."</p> + +<p>"No. But you need not be anxious about her," replied Dolly; "she has the +happy faculty of living in illusions, day after day. She can go on +hopefully admiring Achilles to the last moment of her life, and I dare +say she even thinks that he has a liking for her, little as he shows it. +She has occult reasons for this belief; she would find them in a kick."</p> + +<p>"Goose!" said Mrs. Franklin, dismissing Billy's virginal dreams with the +matron's disillusioned knowledge. "Aren't you going to change your +dress, Dolly?"</p> + +<p>"Why? Am I not tidy as I am? I thought you considered me too tidy?" And +it was true that the<a name="page_012" id="page_012"></a> elder Miss Franklin was always a personification +of rigid neatness; from the dark hair that shaded her tired face, to the +shoes on her feet, all was severely orderly and severely plain.</p> + +<p>"Oh, go, go!" answered her mother, impatiently.</p> + +<p>Dolly screwed up her mouth, shook her head slowly, and laid her work +aside; then she rose, and with her cane walked towards the door. On her +way she stopped, and, bending, kissed her mother's forehead. "Some of +these days, mother, I shall be beautiful. It will be during one of our +future existences somewhere. It must be so, dear; you have earned it for +me by your loving pity here." Nothing could exceed the tenderness of her +tone as she said this.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Franklin made no response beyond a little toss of her head, as +though repudiating this account of herself. But after Dolly had left the +room, a moisture gathered in the mother's eyes.</p> + +<p>Ruth, meanwhile, had conducted Miss Billy to her own chamber.</p> + +<p>"But Mrs. Franklin said I was to go to <i>her</i> room?" suggested the guest.</p> + +<p>"She doesn't mind; she only meant that Bob is probably here," answered +Ruth, as she opened the windows and threw back the blinds; for the +afternoon was drawing towards its close.</p> + +<p>Miss Billy took off her bonnet, and, after a moment's thought, hung it +by its crown on a peg; in that position it did not seem possible that +even Bob<a name="page_013" id="page_013"></a> could make a resting-place within it. Bob was young and very +small. He was beautiful or devilish according to one's view of +flying-squirrels. But whether you liked him or whether you hated him, +there was always a certain amount of interest in connection with the +creature, because you could never be sure where he was. Miss Billy, who +was greatly afraid of him, had given a quick look towards the tops of +the windows and doors. There was no squirrel visible. But that was small +comfort; Bob could hide himself behind a curtain-ring when he chose. One +of the blinds came swinging to with a bang, and Ruth, reopening the +window, struggled with it again. "There is Mr. Hill coming along the +back street on Daniel," she said, pausing. "He is beckoning to me! What +can he want? You will find shoes in the closet, Miss Billy, and don't +wait for me; I am going down to speak to him." Away she flew, running +lightly at full speed through the upper hall and down the back stairs, +closely followed by Petie Trone, Esq.</p> + +<p>Miss Billy closed the window and stood there for a moment looking out. +Presently she saw Ruth at the stone wall at the end of the garden. She +also recognized (with disapproving eyes) the unclerical hat of the Rev. +Malachi Hill, who had stopped his horse in the road outside. He was +talking to Ruth, who listened with her chin resting on her hands on the +top of the wall, while the wind roughened her hair wildly, and blew out +her skirts like a balloon. Miss Billy watched her for a while; then, +after making<a name="page_014" id="page_014"></a> her own preparations for the evening, she seated herself +by the fire to wait. For no one could make Ruth come in one moment +before she chose to do so; it seemed better, therefore, not to call +attention to her absence by returning to the parlor alone, lest Mrs. +Franklin should be made uneasy by knowing that the girl was out, +bareheaded, in the cold wind. Having made her decision (Billy was always +troubled, even upon the smallest occasion, by four or five different +theories as to the best course to pursue), she looked about the room +with the same wonder and gentle dislike which she had often felt before. +The necessary articles of furniture were all set closely back against +the wall, in order that the central space of the large chamber should be +left entirely free. For Ruth did not like little things—small objects +of any kind which required dusting, and which could be easily upset. +Miss Billy, who adored little things, and who lived in a grove of them, +thought the place dreadfully bare. There were no souvenirs; no +photographs of friends in velvet frames; there were no small tables, +brackets, screens, hanging shelves, little chairs, little boxes, little +baskets, fans, and knick-knacks; there was not even a wall-calendar. +With Miss Billy, the removal of the old leaf from her poetical calendar, +and the reading of the new one each morning, was a solemn rite. And when +her glance reached the toilet-table, her non-comprehension reached its +usual climax. The table itself was plain and unadorned, but on its top +was spread out a profuse<a name="page_015" id="page_015"></a> array of toilet articles, all of ivory or +crystal. That a girl so wholly careless about everything else should +insist upon having so many costly and dainty objects for her personal +use in the privacy of her own room seemed remarkable. "Give Ruth her +bath in scented water, and all these ivory and crystal things to use +when she dresses, and she is perfectly willing to go about in a faded, +torn old skirt, a hat entirely out of fashion, shabby gloves, and +worn-out shoes; in short, looking anyhow!" mused Billy, perplexed.</p> + +<p>Down-stairs Mrs. Franklin was receiving another visitor. After Dolly's +departure, Rinda had made a second irruptive entrance, with the +announcement, "Gen'lem!" and Mr. Anthony Etheridge came in. Etheridge +was a strikingly handsome man, who appeared to be about fifty-eight. He +entered with light step and smiling face, and a flower in his coat.</p> + +<p>"Ah, commodore, when did you return?" said Mrs. Franklin, giving him her +hand.</p> + +<p>"Two hours ago," answered Etheridge, bowing over it gallantly. "You are +looking remarkably well, my dear madam. Hum-ha!" These last syllables +were not distinct; Etheridge often made this little sound, which was not +an ahem; it seemed intended to express merely a general enjoyment of +existence—a sort of overflow of health and vitality.</p> + +<p>"Only two hours ago? You have been all day in that horrible stage, and +yet you have strength to pay visits?"</p> + +<p>"Not visits; <i>a</i> visit. You are alone?"<a name="page_016" id="page_016"></a></p> + +<p>"Only for the moment; Dolly and Ruth are dressing. We are expecting some +one to dine with us—a new acquaintance, by-the-way, since you left; a +Mr. Chase."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Horace Chase; I knew he was here. I should like to kick him out!"</p> + +<p>"Why so fierce?" said Mrs. Franklin, going on with her lamplighters. For +the making of lamplighters from old newspapers was one of her pastimes.</p> + +<p>"Of course I am fierce. We don't want fellows of that sort here; he will +upset the whole place! What brought him?"</p> + +<p>"He has not been well, I believe" ("That's one comfort! They never are," +interpolated Etheridge), "and he was advised to try mountain air. In +addition, he is said to be looking into the railroad project."</p> + +<p>"Good heavens! Already? The one solace I got out of the war was the +check it gave to the advance of those horrible rails westward; I have +been in hopes that the locomotives would not get beyond Old Fort in my +time, at any rate. Why, Dora, this strip of mountain country is the most +splendid bit of natural forest, of nature undraped, which exists to-day +between the Atlantic Ocean and the Rockies!"</p> + +<p>"Save your eloquence for Genevieve, commodore."</p> + +<p>"Hum-ha! Mrs. Jared, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; she knew Mr. Chase when he was a little boy; she says she used to +call him Horrie. As soon<a name="page_017" id="page_017"></a> as she heard that he was here, she revived the +acquaintance; and then she introduced him to us."</p> + +<p>"Does she <i>like</i> him?" asked Etheridge, with annoyance in his tone.</p> + +<p>"I don't know whether she likes him or not; but she is hoping that he +will do something that will increase the value of property here."</p> + +<p>"It is intelligent of Mrs. Jared to be thinking of that already," said +Etheridge, softening a little. "Perhaps if I owned land here, I should +take another view of the subject myself! You too, Dora—you might make +something?"</p> + +<p>"No; we have no land save the garden, and the house is dreadfully +dilapidated. Personally, I may as well confess that I should be glad to +see the railroad arrive; I am mortally tired of that long jolting +stage-drive from Old Fort; it nearly kills me each time I take it. And I +am afraid I don't care for nature undraped so much as you do, commodore; +I think I like draperies."</p> + +<p>"Of course you do! But when you—and by you I mean the nation at +large—when you perceive that your last acre of primitive forest is +forever gone, then you will repent. And you will begin to cultivate +wildness as they do abroad, poor creatures—plant forests and guard 'em +with stone walls and keepers, by Jove! Horace Chase appears here as the +pioneer of spoliation. He may not mean it; he does not come with an axe +on his shoulder exactly; he comes, in fact, with baking-powder; but +that's how it will end.<a name="page_018" id="page_018"></a> Haven't you heard that it was baking-powder? At +least you have heard of the powder itself—the Bubble? I thought so. +Well, that's where he made his first money—the Bubble Baking-Powder; +and he made a lot of it, too! Now he is in no end of other things. One +of them is steamships; some of the Willoughbys of New York have gone in +with him, and together they have set up a new company, with steamers +running south—the Columbian Line."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Genevieve explained it to us. But as he does not travel with his +steamers round his neck, there remains for us, inland people as we are, +only what he happens to be himself. And that is nothing interesting."</p> + +<p>"Not interesting, eh?" said Etheridge, rather gratified.</p> + +<p>"To my mind he is not. He is ordinary in appearance and manners; he says +'yes, ma'am,' and 'no, ma'am,' to me, as though I were a +great-grandmother! In short, I don't care for him, and it is solely on +Genevieve's account that I have invited him. For she keeps urging me to +do it; she is very anxious to have him like Asheville. He has already +dined with us twice, to meet her. But to-day he comes informally—a +chance invitation given only this morning (and again given solely to +please <i>her</i>), when I happened to meet him at the Cottage."</p> + +<p>"How old is the wretch?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. Forty-four or forty-five."</p> + +<p>"Quite impossible, then, that Mrs. Jared should<a name="page_019" id="page_019"></a> have known him when he +was a boy; she was not born at that time," commented Etheridge. "What +she means, of course, is that she, as a child herself, called him +'Horrie.'"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Franklin did not answer, and at this moment Dolly came in.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am well," she said, in reply to the visitor's greeting; "we are +all well, and lazy. The world at large will never be helped much by us, +I fear; we are too contented. Have you ever noticed, commodore, that the +women who sacrifice their lives so nobly to help humanity seldom +sacrifice one small thing, and that is a happy home? Either they do not +possess such an article, or else they have spoiled it by quarrelling +with every individual member of their families."</p> + +<p>"Now, Dolly, no more of your sarcasms. Tell me rather about this new +acquaintance of yours, this bubbling capitalist whom you have invented +and set up in your midst during my unsuspecting absence," said +Etheridge.</p> + +<p>"You need not think, commodore, that you can make me say one word about +him," answered Dolly, solemnly; "for I read in a book only the other day +that a tendency to talk about other persons, instead of one's self, was +a sure sign of advancing age. Young people, the book goes on to say, are +at heart interested in nothing on earth but themselves and their own +affairs; they have not the least curiosity about character or traits in +general. As I wish to be considered young, I have made a vow to talk of +nothing but myself<a name="page_020" id="page_020"></a> hereafter. Anything you may wish to hear about <i>me</i> +I am ready to tell you." Dolly was now attired in a velvet dress of dark +russet hue, like the color of autumn oak leaves; this tint took the eye +away somewhat from the worn look of her plain thin face. The dress, +however, was eight years old, and the fashion in which it had been made +originally had never been altered.</p> + +<p>"The being interested in nothing but themselves, and their own doings +and feelings, is not confined to young people," said Mrs. Franklin, +laughing. "I have known a goodly number of their elders who were quite +as bad. When these gentry hold forth, by the hour, about their +convictions and their theories, their beliefs and disbeliefs, their +likings and dislikings, their tastes and their principles, their souls, +their minds, and their bodies—if, in despair, you at last, by way of a +change, turn the conversation towards some one else, they become loftily +silent. And they go away and tell everybody, with regret of course, that +you are hopelessly given to gossip! Gossip, in fact, has become very +valuable to me; I keep it on hand, and pour it forth in floods, to drown +those egotists out."</p> + +<p>"When you gossip, then, I shall know that <i>I</i> bore you," said Etheridge, +rising, "I mustn't do so now; I leave you to your Bubble. Mrs. Jared, I +suppose, will be with you this evening? I ask because I had thought of +paying her a how-do-you-do visit, later."</p> + +<p>"Pay it here, commodore," suggested Mrs. Franklin.<a name="page_021" id="page_021"></a> "Perhaps you would +like to see her 'Horrie' yourself?"</p> + +<p>"Greatly, greatly. I am always glad to meet any of these driving +speculators who come within my reach. For it makes me contented for a +month afterwards—contented with my own small means—to see how yellow +they are! Not a man jack of them who hasn't a skin like guinea gold." +Upon this point the commodore could enlarge safely, for no color could +be fresher and finer than his own.</p> + +<p>After he had gone, Mrs. Franklin said: "Imagine what he has just told +me—that Genevieve could not possibly have known Horace Chase when he +was a boy, because she is far too young!" And then mother and daughter +joined in a merry laugh.</p> + +<p>"It would be fun to tell him that she was forty on her last birthday," +said Dolly.</p> + +<p>"He would never believe you; he would think that you fibbed from +jealousy," answered Mrs. Franklin. "As you are dressed, I may as well go +and make ready myself," she added, rising. "I have been waiting for +Ruth; I cannot imagine what she is about."</p> + +<p>This is what Ruth was about—she was rushing up the back stairs in the +dark, breathless. When she reached her room, she lit the candles +hastily. "You still here, Miss Billy? I supposed you had gone down long +ago." She stirred the fire into a blaze, and knelt to warm her cold +hands. "Such fun! I have made an engagement for us all, this evening. +You can never think what it is. Nothing less than a fancy-<a name="page_022" id="page_022"></a>dress +procession at the rink for the benefit of the Mission. A man is carrying +costumes across the mountains for some tableaux for a soldiers' monument +at Knoxville; his wagon has broken down, and he is obliged to stay here +until it is mended. Mr. Hill has made use of this for the Mission. Isn't +it a splendid idea? He has been rushing about all the afternoon, and he +has found twenty persons who are willing to appear in fancy dress, and +he himself is to be an Indian chief, in war-paint and feathers."</p> + +<p>"In war-paint and feathers? <i>Oh!</i>"</p> + +<p>"Yes. It seems that he has a costume of his own. He had it when he was +an insurance agent, you know, before he entered the ministry; he was +always fond of such things, he says, and the costume is a very handsome +one; when he wore it, he called himself Big Moose."</p> + +<p>"Big Moose! It must be stopped," said Miss Billy, in a horrified voice. +For Miss Billy had the strictest ideas regarding the dignity of the +clergy.</p> + +<p>"On the contrary, I told him that it would be a great attraction, and +that it was his duty to do all he could," declared Ruth, breaking into +one of her intense laughs. Her laugh was not loud, but when it had once +begun it seemed sometimes as if it would never stop. At present, as soon +as she could speak, she announced, "We'll <i>all</i> go."</p> + +<p>"Do not include me," said Miss Billy, with dignity. "I think it +shocking, Ruth. I do indeed."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you'll be there," said Ruth, springing up,<a name="page_023" id="page_023"></a> and drawing Miss Billy +to her feet. "You'll put on roller-skates yourself, and go wheeling off +first this way, then that way, with Achilles Larue." And, as she said +this, she gleefully forced her visitor across the floor, now in a long +sweep to the right, now to the left, with as close an imitation of +skating as the circumstances permitted.</p> + +<p>While they were thus engaged, Mrs. Franklin opened the door. "What are +you doing? Ruth—not dressed yet?"</p> + +<p>"I'm all ready, His Grand," responded Ruth, running across the room and +pouring water into the basin in a great hurry. "I have only to wash my +hands" (here she dashed lavender into the water); "I'll be down +directly."</p> + +<p>"And we shall all admire you in that torn dress," said her mother.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, I'll pin it up. Nobody will see it at dinner, under the +table. And after dinner my cloak will cover it—for we are all going +out."</p> + +<p>"Going out this windy evening? Never! Are you ready, Billy? And Ruth, +you must come as you are, for Mr. Chase is already here, and Rinda is +bringing in the soup."</p> + +<p>"Never fear, His Grand. I'll come."</p> + +<p>And come she did, two minutes later, just as she was, save that her +wind-roughened hair had been vaguely smoothed, and fastened down hastily +with large hair-pins placed at random. Owing to her hurry, she had a +brilliant color; and seeing, as she entered,<a name="page_024" id="page_024"></a> the disapproving +expression in her mother's eyes, she was seized with the idea of making, +for her own amusement, a stately sweeping courtesy to Horace Chase; this +she accordingly did, carrying it off very well, with an air of majesty +just tempered at the edges with burlesque.</p> + +<p>Chase, who had risen, watched this salutation with great interest. When +it was over, he felt it incumbent upon him, however, to go through, in +addition, the more commonplace greeting. "How do you do, Miss Ruth?" he +said, extending his hand. And he gave the tips of her fingers (all she +yielded to him) three careful distinct shakes.</p> + +<p>Then they went to dinner.<a name="page_025" id="page_025"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<p>T<small>HE</small> meal which followed was good; for Zoe, the cook, was skilful in her +old-fashioned way. But the dinner service was ordinary; the only wine +was Dry Catawba; Rinda's ideas of waiting, too, were primitive. The +Franklins, however, had learned to wait upon themselves. They had the +habit of remaining long at the table; for, whether they were alone or +whether they had a guest, there was always a soup, there was always a +salad, there were always nuts and fruit, followed by coffee—four +courses, therefore, in addition to the two which the younger Mrs. +Franklin, whose household was managed in a very different way, +considered all that was necessary "for the body."</p> + +<p>"A serious rice pudding, Genevieve, no doubt <i>is</i> enough for the body, +as you call it," Dolly had once said. "But <i>we</i> think of the mind also; +we aim at brilliancy. And no one ever scintillated yet on cod-fish and +stewed prunes!"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Jared Franklin is well, I hope?" Chase asked, when the last course +was reached. He was not fond of nuts or figs, but he was playing his +part, according to his conception of it, by eating at intervals one +raisin.<a name="page_026" id="page_026"></a></p> + +<p>"Quite well; thanks. I have never known her to be ill," replied Dolly.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Chase, I am going to suggest something: as mother and my +sister-in-law are both Mrs. Jared, and as mother has no burning desire +to be called 'old Mrs. Franklin' just yet, why don't you say 'Mrs. G. +B.' when you mean the younger matron?"</p> + +<p>Chase would never have thought of calling either the one or the other a +matron, his idea of the word being the female superintendent of a public +institution. "G. B.—are those her initials?" he said. "Yes, of course; +G. for Genevieve, or Gen, as I used to call her."</p> + +<p>"And B. for Beatrice; isn't that lovely? Our own names, unfortunately, +are very plain—Ruth, Dolly, and Jared; Genevieve has taken pity upon +the Jared, and changed it to Jay. Mother, however, actually likes the +name Jared. She is weak enough to be proud of the fact that there have +been six Jared Franklins in the direct line, from eldest son to father, +going back to colonial days. People are <i>very</i> sorry for this delusion +of hers; they have told her repeatedly that the colonial period was +unimportant. Genevieve, in particular, has often explained to her that +modern times are far more interesting."</p> + +<p>"I guess there isn't much question about that, is there?" said Chase. +"No doubt they did the best they could in those old days. But they +couldn't do much, you see, because they had nothing to work with, no +machinery, no capital, no combinations;<a name="page_027" id="page_027"></a> they couldn't hear anything +until long after it had happened, and they couldn't go anywhere except +on horseback. I've always been glad <i>I</i> didn't serve my time then. I +guess I should have found it slow."</p> + +<p>"You must find Asheville rather slow?" remarked Dolly.</p> + +<p>"It is more than slow, Miss Franklin; it has stopped entirely. But it +has great natural advantages—I have been surprised to see how many. I +like new enterprises, and I've been thinking about something." Here he +paused and ate one more raisin, balancing it for a moment upon the palm +of his hand before he swallowed it. "I've been thinking of picking up +that railroad at Old Fort and pushing it right through to this place, +and on to Tennessee; a branch, later, to tap South Carolina and Georgia. +That isn't all, however." He paused again. Then with a glance which +rested for a moment on each face, and finally stopped at Mrs. +Franklin's, "What do you say," he added, with an hospitable smile, "to +my making a big watering-place of your hilly little village?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Asheville</i> watered? What next!" said Dolly.</p> + +<p>"The next is that the stock won't be," replied Chase, laughing. "I mean, +the stock of the company that undertakes the affair, if it does +undertake it. You'd better apply for some right off; all of you. Shall I +tell you how the thing strikes me, while you are finishing your nuts? +Well, then, this is about it. The whole South is a hot place in summer,<a name="page_028" id="page_028"></a> +ladies; from Baltimore down to the end of Florida and Louisiana they +simply swelter from June to October, and always must swelter. If you +will look at a map, you can see for yourselves that the only region +where the people of all this big section can get fresh air during the +heated term, without a long journey for it, is this one line of +mountains, called Alleghanies in the lump, but in reality including the +Blue Ridge, the Cumberlands, your Smokies and Blacks, and others about +here. For a trip to the southern sea-coast isn't much relief; a hot +beach is about the hottest place I know! Now, then, what is the best +point among these mountains? The Alleghanies lie <i>this</i> way." (He made +the Alleghanies with a table-spoon.) "Then <i>there</i> is the Blue Ridge." +(A nut-cracker.) "And here you get your Smokies and so forth." (Almonds +taken hastily from a dish and arranged in a line.) "And I'll just +indicate the Cumberlands with this orange. Very well. Now where are the +highest peaks of these lines? Let us follow the range down. Do we find +them in Pennsylvania? No, sir. Do we find them in Virginia? We do not. +Are they over there among the Cumberlands? Not by a long shot. Where are +they, then? Right here, ladies, at your own door; right here, where I +make a dot this minute." And taking a pencil from his pocket, he made a +small mark on the table-cloth between the spoon and the nut-cracker. "In +this neighborhood," he went on, emphasizing his statement by pointing +his pencil at Miss Billy,<a name="page_029" id="page_029"></a> "there are thirteen nearly seven thousand +feet high. It seems to me, therefore, that in spite of all the jokes +about talking for buncombe, the talk for Buncombe has not been half tall +enough yet. For this very Buncombe County is bound to be the favorite +watering-place for over twelve millions of people, some day or other."</p> + +<p>"Watering-place?" commented Dolly. "Well, we <i>have</i> the two rivers, the +French Broad and the Swannanoa. But the Swannanoa is small; if the +millions should all drink at once, it would soon go dry."</p> + +<p>"I meant summer resort, Miss Franklin, not watering-place," said Chase, +inwardly entertained by the quickness bordering on the sharp with which +"the sickly one," as he called her, always took him up. "Though there +are sulphur springs near by too: I have been out to look at them. And it +isn't only the Southerners who will come here," he went on. "Northerners +will flock also, when they understand what these mountains are. For, in +comparison with them, the Catskills are a suburb; the White Mountains, +ornamental rock-work; and the Adirondacks, a wood-lot. <i>Here</i> everything +is absolutely wild; you can shoot because there are all sorts of things +<i>to</i> shoot, from bears down. And then there's another point—for I +haven't got to the bottom of the sack yet. This mountain valley of +yours, being 2400 feet above the sea, has a wonderfully pure dry air, +and yet, as it is so far south, it is not cold; its winter climate, +therefore, is as good as its summer, and even<a name="page_030" id="page_030"></a> better. So here's the +situation: people who live in hot places will come here from June to +October, and people who live in cold places will come from October to +June." He returned the orange and the almonds to their dishes, replaced +the table-spoon and nut-cracker, and then, looking at Mrs. Franklin, he +gave her a cheerful nod. "That's it, ma'am; that's the whole in a +nutshell."</p> + +<p>Ruth gravely offered him an empty almond shell.</p> + +<p>"We'll have something better than that, Miss Ruth—a philopena." And +taking a nut-cracker, he opened several almonds. Finding a double +kernel, he gave her one of the halves. "Now, if I win, I should be much +favored if you would make me something of worsted—a tidy is the name, I +think?"</p> + +<p>Ruth began to laugh.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, a picture-frame of cones."</p> + +<p>And now the other ladies joined in Ruth's merriment.</p> + +<p>"We must decline such rare objects," said Mrs. Franklin. "But we have +our own small resources, Mr. Chase." And, leading the way back to the +parlor, she showed him the mantel-cover with Dolly's verse.</p> + +<p>"Why, that's beautiful, Miss Franklin," said Chase, with sincere +admiration, when he had read the lines. "I didn't know you could write +poetry."</p> + +<p>"Oh yes," answered Dolly. "I think in elegies as a general thing, and I +make sonnets as I dress. Epics are nothing to me, and I turn off +triolets in no<a name="page_031" id="page_031"></a> time. But I don't publish, Mr. Chase, because I don't +want to be called a <i>minor</i> poet."</p> + +<p>Here Rinda came in like a projectile, carrying a large box clasped in +her arms. "Jess lef'! 'Spress!" she exclaimed excitedly.</p> + +<p>"Express?" repeated Mrs. Franklin, trying to make out the address +without her glasses. "Read it, Ruth."</p> + +<p>Ruth looked at the label, and then broke into another laugh. She had +hardly recovered from the preceding one, and Chase, with amusement, +watched her start off again. But he soon found himself surrounded by +laughers a second time.</p> + +<p>"Why, what's wrong with it?" he asked, seeing that it was the label +which excited their mirth. And in his turn he examined it. "Miss Ruth +Franklin, Lommy Dew, Asheville? That's right, isn't it? Isn't Lommy Dew +the name of your place?"</p> + +<p>Rinda meanwhile, wildly curious, had been opening the box by main force +with the aid of the poker. She now uncovered a huge cluster of hot-house +roses, packed in moss.</p> + +<p>"Flowers? Who could have sent them?" said Mrs. Franklin, surprised. She +had no suspicion of her present guest; her thoughts had turned towards +some of their old friends at the North. But Ruth, happening to catch the +look in Horace Chase's eyes as he glanced for an instant at the +blossoms, not so much admiringly as critically, exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> sent them, Mr. Chase. How perfectly lovely!"<a name="page_032" id="page_032"></a></p> + +<p>"I'm afraid they're not much," Chase answered. "I thought they'd send +more." He had wished to show that he appreciated the invitations to +L'Hommedieu, and as, according to his idea, it was the young lady of the +family to whom it was proper to pay such attentions, he had ordered the +box to be sent to Ruth rather than to Mrs. Franklin or Dolly.</p> + +<p>Ruth's laugh had stopped. She was passionately fond of hot-house +flowers, and now both her hands together could hardly encircle even the +stems alone of these superb tea-roses, whose gorgeous masses filled her +arms as she raised them. With a quick movement she buried her face in +the soft petals.</p> + +<p>"But, I say, what was wrong with this?" asked Chase a second time, as he +again looked at the label.</p> + +<p>"L'Hommedieu is a French name—" began Dolly.</p> + +<p>But Ruth interrupted her: "It is an ugly old French name, Mr. Chase, and +as it is pronounced, in America at least, exactly as you wrote it, I +think it might as well be spelled so, too. At present, however, this is +the way—the silly way." And holding her flowers with her left arm, she +detached her right hand, and scribbled the name on the edge of the +Raleigh paper.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Chase, looking at it. "I don't speak French myself. I thought +perhaps it had something to do with dew." And frowning a little, a frown +of attention, he spelled the word over.</p> + +<p>An old negro woman, her head covered with a red kerchief folded like a +turban, now came stiffly in<a name="page_033" id="page_033"></a> with the coffee-tray, her stiffness being +an angry dignity. It was Zoe, the cook, tired of waiting for Rinda, who, +still in the parlor, was occupied in gazing with friendly interest at +the roses. "Lawdy—ef I ain't clean ferget!" remarked the waitress, +genially, to the company in general.</p> + +<p>"You clar out, good-fer-nutt'n nigger!" muttered the offended cook, in +an undertone to her coadjutor.</p> + +<p>With the tray, or rather behind it, a lady came in.</p> + +<p>"Just in time for coffee, Genevieve," remarked Dolly, cheerfully.</p> + +<p>"Thanks; I do not take it at night," Genevieve answered.</p> + +<p>This was a dialogue often repeated in one form or another, for Dolly +kept it up. The younger Mrs. Franklin did not like evening dinners, and +Dolly even maintained that her sister-in-law thought them wicked. "She +sees a close connection between a late dinner with coffee after it, and +the devil." The Franklins had always dined at the close of the day, for +the elder Jared Franklin, having been the editor of a daily paper, had +found that hour the most convenient one. The editor was gone; his family +had moved from the North to the South, and life for them was changed in +many ways; but his habit of the evening dinner they had never altered.</p> + +<p>The younger Mrs. Franklin greeted Chase cordially. Dolly listened, +hoping to hear her call him "Horrie." But Genevieve contented herself +with giving him her hand, and some frank words of welcome. Genevieve<a name="page_034" id="page_034"></a> +was always frank. And in all she said and did, also, she was absolutely +sincere. She was a beautiful woman with golden hair, fair skin, regular +features, and ideally lovely eyes; her tall figure was of Juno-like +proportions. Chase admired her, that was evident. But Dolly (who was +noting this) had long ago discovered that men always admired her +sister-in-law. In addition to her beauty, Genevieve had a sweet voice, +and an earnest, half-appealing way of speaking. She was appealing to +Chase now. "There is to be an entertainment at the rink to-night, +Horace, for the benefit of the Mission; won't you go? I hope so. And, +mamma, that is what I have come over for; to tell you about it, and beg +you to go also." She had seated herself beside Chase; but, as she said +these last words, she put out her hand and laid it affectionately on +Mrs. Franklin's shoulder.</p> + +<p>"I believe I am to have the pleasure of spending the evening here?" +Chase answered, making a little bow towards his hostess.</p> + +<p>"But if mamma herself goes to the rink, as I am sure she will, then +won't you accompany her? The Mission and the Colored Home, Horace, +are—"</p> + +<p>But here Chase, like a madman, made a sudden bound, and grasped the top +of Miss Billy Breeze's head.</p> + +<p>Quick as his spring had been, however, Ruth's was quicker. She pulled +his hands away. "Don't hurt him! <i>Don't!</i>"</p> + +<p>But the squirrel was not under Chase's fingers; he<a name="page_035" id="page_035"></a> had already escaped, +and, running down the front of Miss Billy's dress (to her unspeakable +terror), he now made another leap, and landed on Dolly's arm, where Ruth +caught him.</p> + +<p>"What in creation is it?" said Chase, who had followed. "A bird? Or a +mouse?"</p> + +<p>"Mouse!" said Ruth, indignantly. "It's Bob, my dear little +flying-squirrel; I saw him on the cornice, but I thought he would fly to +me. It's amazing that any one can possibly be afraid of the darling," +she added, with a reproachful glance towards Miss Billy, who was still +cowering. "I had him when he was nothing but a baby, Mr. Chase—he had +fallen from his nest—and I have brought him up myself. Now that he is +getting to be a big boy, he naturally likes to fly about a little. He +cannot be always climbing his one little tree in the dining-room. He is +so soft and downy. Look at his bright eyes." Here she opened her hand so +that Chase could see her pet. "Would you like to hold him for a moment?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll look at <i>you</i> holding him," answered Chase. "Hollo! here's +another." For Petie Trone, Esq., his jealousy roused by his mistress's +interest in the squirrel, had come out from under the sofa, and was now +seated on his hind-legs at the edge of her dress, begging. "Wouldn't you +like an owl?" Chase suggested. "Or a 'possum? A 'coon might be tamed, if +caught young."</p> + +<p>Ruth walked away, offended.<a name="page_036" id="page_036"></a></p> + +<p>This made him laugh still more as he returned to his place beside +Genevieve.</p> + +<p>"She is only eighteen," murmured the younger Mrs. Franklin, +apologetically. Her words were covered by a rapturous "Gen'lem!" from +Rinda at the door. For Rinda was always perfectly delighted to see +anybody; when, therefore, there were already two or three guests, and +still another appeared, her voice became ecstatic. The new-comer was +Anthony Etheridge.</p> + +<p>"How fortunate!" said Genevieve. "For it makes another for our little +charity party. There is to be an impromptu entertainment at the rink +to-night, commodore, for the benefit of the Mission, and mamma is going, +I hope. Won't you accompany her? Let me introduce Mr. Chase—a very old +friend of mine. Mr. Chase, Commodore Etheridge."</p> + +<p>"Happy to meet you," said Chase, rising in order to shake hands.</p> + +<p>"Gen'lem!" called Rinda again; this time fairly in a yell.</p> + +<p>The last "gen'lem" was a slender man of thirty-five, who came in with +his overcoat on. "Thanks; I did not take it off," he said, in answer to +Mrs. Franklin, "because I knew that you were all going to the"—(here +Ruth gave a deep cough)—"because I thought it possible that you might +be going to the rink to-night," he went on, changing the form of his +sentence, with a slight smile; "and in that case I hoped to accompany +you."<a name="page_037" id="page_037"></a></p> + +<p>"Yes," said Genevieve, "mamma is going, Mr. Larue. I only wish I could +go, also."</p> + +<p>The cheeks of Miss Billy Breeze had become flushed with rose-color as +the new-comer entered. Noticing instantly the change he had made in his +sentence when Ruth coughed, she at once divined that the girl had gone, +bareheaded and in the darkness, to his residence during that long +absence before dinner, in order to secure his co-operation in the frolic +of the evening. Ruth had, in fact, done this very thing; for nothing +amused her so much as to watch Billy herself when Larue was present. The +girl was now wicked enough to carry on her joke a little longer. "I am +<i>so</i> sorry, Miss Billy, that you do not care to go," she said, +regretfully.</p> + +<p>Miss Billy passed her handkerchief over her mouth and tried to smile. +But she was, in fact, winking to keep back tears.</p> + +<p>And then Mrs. Franklin, always kind-hearted, came to the rescue. "Did +you tell Ruth that you could not go, Billy? Change your mind, my dear; +change it to please <i>me</i>."</p> + +<p>"Oh, if <i>you</i> care about it, dear Mrs. Franklin," murmured Billy, +escaping, and hurrying happily up the stairs to put on her wraps.</p> + +<p>The rink was a large, bare structure of wood, with a circular arena for +roller-skating. This evening the place was lighted, and the gallery was +occupied by the colored band. The members of this band, a new +organization, had volunteered their services with the<a name="page_038" id="page_038"></a> heartiest +good-will. It was true that they could play (without mistakes) but one +selection, namely, "The lone starry hours give me, love." But they +arranged this difficulty by playing it first, softly; then as a solo on +the cornet; then fortissimo, with drums; by means of these alterations +it lasted bravely throughout the evening. Nearly the whole village was +present; the promenade was crowded, and there were many skaters on the +floor below. The Rev. Malachi Hill, the originator of the entertainment, +was distributing programmes, his face beaming with pleasure as he +surveyed the assemblage. Presently he came to the party from +L'Hommedieu. "Programmes, Mrs. Franklin? Programmes, gentlemen?" He had +written these programmes himself, in his best handwriting. "The +performance will soon begin," he explained. "The procession will skate +round the arena five times, and afterwards most of the characters will +join in a reel—" Here some one called him, and he hastened off.</p> + +<p>Chase, who had received a programme, looked at it in a business-like +way. "Christopher Columbus," he read aloud; "Romeo and Juliet; the +Muses, Calliope, and—and others," he added, glancing down the list.</p> + +<p>His Calliope had rhymed with hope, and a gleam of inward entertainment +showed itself for one instant in the eyes of Etheridge and Larue. Ruth +saw this scintillation; instantly she crossed to Chase's side, as he +still studied the programme, and bending to look at it, said, "Please, +may I see too?"<a name="page_039" id="page_039"></a></p> + +<p>"Oh! I thought you had one," said Chase, giving her the sheet of paper.</p> + +<p>"The Muses," read Ruth again, aloud. "Cally-ope," she went on, giving +the word Chase's pronunciation. "And Terp-si-core." She made this name +rhyme with "more." Then, standing beside her new acquaintance, she +glared at the remainder of the party, defiantly.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Franklin was so much overcome by this performance of her daughter's +that she was obliged to turn away to conceal her laughter.</p> + +<p>"What possesses her—the witch!" asked Etheridge, following.</p> + +<p>"It is only because she thinks I don't like him. He has given her those +magnificent roses, and so she intends to stand up for him. I never know +whom she will fancy next. Do look at her now!"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid you have spoiled her," commented Etheridge, but joining in +the mother's laugh himself, as he caught a glimpse of Ruth starting off, +with high-held head and firm step, to walk with Chase round the entire +promenade.</p> + +<p>Owing to this sudden departure, Miss Billy Breeze found herself +unexpectedly alone with Larue. She was so much excited by this state of +things that at first she could hardly speak. How many times, during this +very month, had she arranged with herself exactly what she should say if +such an opportunity should be given her. Her most original ideas, her +most beautiful thoughts (she kept them written out<a name="page_040" id="page_040"></a> in her diary), +should be summoned to entertain him. The moment had come. And this is +what she actually did say: "Oh!" (giggle), "how pretty it is, isn't it?" +(Giggle.) "Really a most beautiful sight. So interesting to see so many +persons, and all so happy, is it not? I don't know when I've seen +anything lovelier. Yes, indeed—<i>lovely</i>. But I hope you won't take +cold, Mr. Larue? Really, now, do be careful. One takes cold so easily; +and then it is sometimes so hard to recover." With despair she heard +herself bringing out these inanities. "I hope you are not in a draught?" +she wandered on. "Colds are <i>so</i> tiresome."</p> + +<p>And now, with a loud burst from the band, the procession issued from an +improvised tent at the end of the building. First came Christopher +Columbus at the head; then Romeo and Juliet; the Muses, three and three; +George Washington and his wife, accompanied by Plato and a shepherdess; +other personages followed, and all were mounted on roller-skates, and +were keeping time to the music as well as they could. Then the rear was +closed by a single American Indian in a complete costume of +copper-colored tights, with tomahawk, war-paint, and feathers.</p> + +<p>This Indian, as he was alone, was conspicuous; and when he skated into +the brighter light, there came from that part of the audience which was +nearest to him, a sound of glee. The sound, however, was instantly +suppressed. But it rose again<a name="page_041" id="page_041"></a> as he sailed majestically onward, in long +sweeps to the right and the left, his head erect, his tomahawk +brandished; it increased to mirth which could not be stifled. For nature +having given to this brave slender legs, the costume-maker had supplied +a herculean pair of calves, and these appendages had shifted their +position, and were now adorning the front of each limb at the knee, the +chieftain meanwhile remaining unconscious of the accident, and +continuing to perform his part with stateliness at the end of the +skating line. Ruth, with her hands dropping helplessly by her side, +laughed until her mother came to her. Mrs. Franklin herself was laughing +so that she could hardly speak. But Ruth's laughs sometimes were almost +dangerous; they took such complete possession of her.</p> + +<p>"Give her your arm and make her walk up and down," said Mrs. Franklin to +Etheridge.</p> + +<p>And Etheridge took the girl under his charge.</p> + +<p>Chase, who had grinned silently each time the unsuspecting Moose came +into view (for the procession had passed round the arena three times), +now stepped down to the skating-floor as he approached on his fourth +circuit, and stopped him. There was a short conference, and then, amid +peals of mirth, the Moose looked down, and for the first time discovered +the aspect of his knees. Chase signalled to the band to stop.</p> + +<p>"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "this Indian was not aware of his +attractions." (Applause.)<a name="page_042" id="page_042"></a></p> + +<p>"But now that he knows what they are, he will take part in the reel +(which he had not intended to do), and he will take part <i>as he is</i>! For +the benefit of the Mission, ladies and gentlemen. The hat will be passed +immediately afterwards." Signing to the musicians to go on again, he +conducted the chief to the space which had been left free for the reel, +and then, when the other couples had skated to their places, he led off +with his companion in a sort of quickstep (as he had no skates); and it +is safe to say that North Carolina had never beheld so original a dance +as that which followed (to the inexhaustible "Starry Hours" played as a +jig). Chase and the Indian led and reled. Finally Chase, with his hat +tilted back on his head, and his face extremely solemn, balanced with +his partner, taking so much pains with remarkable fancy steps, which +were immediately imitated by the Indian's embossed legs, that the entire +audience was weak from its continuous mirth. Then removing his hat, +Chase made the rounds, proffering it with cordial invitation to all: +"For the Mission, ladies and gentlemen. For <i>Big Moose's</i> Mission."</p> + +<p>Big Moose, on his way home later (in his clergyman's attire this time), +was so happy that he gave thanks. He would have liked, indeed, to chant +a gloria. For the Mission was very near his heart, and from its +beginning it had been so painfully fettered by poverty that, several +times, he had almost despaired. But now that magic hat had brought to<a name="page_043" id="page_043"></a> +the struggling little fund more than it had ever dreamed of possessing; +for underneath the dimes and the quarters of Asheville had laid a fat +roll, a veritable Golconda roll of greenbacks. But one person could have +given this roll, namely, the one stranger, Horace Chase.<a name="page_044" id="page_044"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<p>M<small>RS</small>. F<small>RANKLIN</small> was a widow, her husband, Jared Franklin, having died in +1860. Franklin, a handsome, hearty man, who had enjoyed every day of his +life, had owned and edited a well-known newspaper in one of the large +towns on the Hudson River. This paper had brought him in a good income, +which he had spent in his liberal way, year after year. The Franklins +were not extravagant; but they lived generously, and they all had what +they wanted. Their days went on happily, for they were fond of each +other, they had the same sense of humor, and they took life easily, one +and all. But when Jared Franklin died (after a sudden and short +illness), it was found that he at least had taken it too easily; for he +had laid aside nothing, and there were large debts to pay. As he had put +his only son, the younger Jared, into the navy, the newspaper was sold. +But it did not bring in so much as was expected, and the executors were +forced in the end to sell the residence also; when the estate was +finally cleared, the widow found herself left with no home, and, for +income, only the small sum which had come to her from her father, Major +Seymour, of the army. In this condition of things her thoughts turned +towards the South.<a name="page_045" id="page_045"></a></p> + +<p>For her mother, Mrs. Seymour, was a Southerner of Huguenot descent, one +of the L'Hommedieu family. And Mrs. Seymour's eldest sister, Miss Dora +L'Hommedieu, had bequeathed to the niece (now Mrs. Franklin), who had +been named after her, all she had to leave. This was not much. But the +queer, obstinate old woman did own two houses, one for the summer among +the mountains of North Carolina, one for the winter in Florida. For she +believed that she owed her remarkable health and longevity to a careful +change of climate twice each year; and, accompanied by an old negress as +cross-grained as herself, she had arrived in turn at each of these +residences for so many seasons that it had seemed as if she would +continue to arrive forever. In 1859, however, her migrations ceased.</p> + +<p>At that date the Franklins were still enjoying their prosperity, and +this legacy of the two ramshackle L'Hommedieu abodes, far away in the +South, was a good deal laughed at by Jared Franklin, who laughed often. +But when, soon afterwards, the blow came, and his widow found herself +homeless and bereft, these houses seemed to beckon to her. They could +not be sold while the war lasted, and even after that great struggle was +over no purchasers appeared. In the meantime they were her own; they +would be a roof, two roofs, over her head; and the milder climate would +be excellent for her invalid daughter Dolly. In addition, their reduced +income would go much further there than here. As soon after the<a name="page_046" id="page_046"></a> war, +therefore, as it could be arranged, she had made the change, and now for +seven years she had been living in old Dora's abodes, very thankful to +have them.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Franklin herself would have said that they lived in North Carolina; +that their visits to Florida were occasional only. It was true that she +had made every effort to dispose of the Florida place. "For sale—a good +coquina house on the bay," had been a standing advertisement in the St. +Augustine <i>Press</i> year after year. But her hopes had been disappointed, +and as the house still remained hers, she had only once been able to +withstand the temptation of giving Dolly the benefit of the Florida +climate in the winter, little as she could afford the additional +expense; in reality, therefore, they had divided their year much as Miss +L'Hommedieu had divided hers.</p> + +<p>The adjective ramshackle, applied at random by Jared Franklin, had +proved to be appropriate enough as regarded the North Carolina house, +which old Dora had named L'Hommedieu, after herself. L'Hommedieu was a +rambling wooden structure surrounded by verandas; it had been built +originally by a low-country planter who came up to these mountains in +the summer. But old Miss L'Hommedieu had let everything run down; she +had, in truth, no money for repairs. When the place, therefore, came +into the hands of her niece, it was much dilapidated. And in her turn +Mrs. Franklin had done very little in the way of renovation, beyond +stopping the leaks<a name="page_047" id="page_047"></a> of the roof. Her daughter-in-law, Genevieve, was +distressed by the aspect of everything, both without and within. "You +really ought to have the whole house done over, mamma," she had said +more than once. "If you will watch all the details yourself, it need not +cost so very much: see what I have accomplished at the Cottage.</p> + +<p>"In time, in time," Mrs. Franklin had answered. But in her heart she was +not fond of Genevieve's abode; she preferred the low-ceilinged rooms of +L'Hommedieu, shabby though they might be. These rooms had, in fact, an +air of great cheerfulness. Anthony Etheridge was accustomed to say that +he had never seen anywhere a better collection of easy-chairs. "There +are at least eight with the long seat which holds a man's body +comfortably as far as the knees, as it ought to held; not ending +skimpily half-way between the knee and the hip in the usual miserable +fashion!" Mrs. Franklin had saved three of these chairs from the wreck +of her northern home, and the others had been made, of less expensive +materials, under her own eye. Both she and her husband had by nature a +strong love of ease, and their children had inherited the same +disposition; it could truthfully be said that as a family they made +themselves comfortable, and kept themselves comfortable, all day long.</p> + +<p>They did this at present in the face of obstacles which would have made +some minds forget the very name of comfort. For they were far from their +old<a name="page_048" id="page_048"></a> home; they were cramped as to money; there was Dolly's suffering to +reckon with; and there was a load of debt. The children, however, were +ignorant in a great measure of this last difficulty; whatever property +there was, belonged to Mrs. Franklin personally, and she kept her cares +to herself. These fresh debts, made after the estate had finally been +cleared, were incurred by the mother's deliberate act—an act of folly +or of beauty, according to the point from which one views it; after her +husband's death she had borrowed money in order to give to her daughter +Dora every possible aid and advantage in her contest with fate—the long +struggle which the girl made to ignore illness, to conquer pain. These +sums had never been repaid, and when the mother thought of them, she was +troubled. But she did not think of them often; when she had succeeded +(with difficulty) in paying the interest each year, she was able to +dismiss the subject from her mind, and return to her old habit of taking +life easily; for neither her father, the army officer, nor her husband, +the liberal-handed editor, had ever taught her with any strictness the +importance of a well-balanced account. Poor Dolly's health had always +been uncertain. But when her childhood was over, her mother's tender +help from minute to minute had kept her up in a determined attempt to +follow the life led by other girls of her age. A mother's love can do +much. But heredity, coming from the past, blind and deaf to all appeal, +does more, and the brave effort failed. The elder Miss<a name="page_049" id="page_049"></a> Franklin had now +been for years an invalid, and an invalid for whom no improvement could +be expected; sometimes she was able, with the aid of her cane, to take a +walk of a mile's length, or more, and often several weeks would pass in +tolerable comfort; but sooner or later the pain was sure to come on +again, and it was a pain very hard to bear. But although Dolly was an +invalid, she was neither sad nor dull. Both she and her mother were +talkers by nature, and they never seemed to reach the end of their +interest in each other's remarks. Ruth, too, was never tired of +listening and laughing over Dolly's sallies. The whole family, in fact, +had been born gay-hearted, and they were always sufficiently entertained +with their own conversation and their own jokes; on the stormy days, +when they could expect no visitors, they enjoyed life on the whole +rather more than they did when they had guests—though they were fond of +company also.</p> + +<p>One evening, a week after the masquerade at the rink, Mrs. Franklin, +leaning back in her easy-chair with her feet on a footstool, was +peacefully reading a novel, when she was surprised by the entrance of +Miss Breeze; she was surprised because Billy had paid her a visit in the +afternoon. "Yes, I thought I would come in again," began Billy, vaguely. +"I thought perhaps—or rather I thought it would be better—"</p> + +<p>"Take off your bonnet and jacket, won't you?" interposed Ruth.<a name="page_050" id="page_050"></a></p> + +<p>"Why, how smart you are, Billy!" remarked Mrs. Franklin, as she noted +her guest's best dress, and the pink ribbon round her throat above the +collar.</p> + +<p>"Yes," began Billy again; "I thought—it seemed better—"</p> + +<p>"Dolly," interrupted Ruth, "get out planchette, and make it write Billy +a love letter!" And she gave her sister a glance which said: "Head her +off! Or she will let it all out."</p> + +<p>Dolly comprehended. She motioned Miss Breeze solemnly to a chair near +her table, and taking the planchette from its box, she arranged the +paper under it.</p> + +<p>"I don't like it! I don't like it!" protested Mrs. Franklin.</p> + +<p>"His Grand, if you don't like it, beat it," said Ruth, jumping up. "Give +it a question too hard to answer. Go to the dining-room and do +something—anything you like. Then planchette shall tell us what it +is—aha!"</p> + +<p>"A good idea," said Mrs. Franklin, significantly. And with her light +step she left the room. The mother was as active as a girl; no one was +ever deterred, therefore, from asking her to rise, or to move about, by +any idea of age. She was tall, with aquiline features, bright dark eyes, +and thick silvery hair. As she was thin, her face showed the lines and +fine wrinkles which at middle age offset a slender waist. But, when she +was animated, these lines disappeared, for at such moments her color<a name="page_051" id="page_051"></a> +rose, the same beautiful color which Ruth had inherited.</p> + +<p>Dolly sat with her hands on the little heart-shaped board, pondering +what she should say; for her familiar spirit was simply her own quick +invention. But while it would have been easy to mystify Miss Billy, it +was not easy to imagine what her mother, a distinctly hostile element, +might do for the especial purpose of perplexing the medium; for although +Mrs. Franklin knew perfectly well that her daughter invented all of +planchette's replies, she remained nevertheless strongly opposed to even +this pretended occultism. Dolly therefore pondered. But, as she did so, +she was saying to herself that it was useless to ponder, and that she +might as well select something at random, when suddenly there sprang +into her mind a word, a word apropos of nothing at all, and, obeying an +impulse, she wrote it; that is, planchette wrote it under the unseen +propelling power of her long fingers. Then Ruth pushed the board aside, +and they all read the word; it was "grinning."</p> + +<p>"Grinning?" repeated Ruth. "How absurd! Imagine mother grinning!"</p> + +<p>She opened the door, and called, "What did you do, His Grand?"</p> + +<p>"Wishing to expose that very skilful pretender, Miss Dora Franklin, I +did the most unlikely thing I could think of," answered Mrs. Franklin's +voice. "I went to the mirror, and standing in front of it, I<a name="page_052" id="page_052"></a> grinned at +my own image; grinned like a Cheshire cat."</p> + +<p>Miss Billy looked at Dolly with frightened eyes. Dolly herself was +startled; she crumpled the paper and threw it hastily into the +waste-basket.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Franklin, returning through the hall, was met by Anthony Etheridge, +who had entered without ringing, merely giving a preliminary tap on the +outer door with his walking-stick. Dolly began to talk as soon as they +came in, selecting a subject which had nothing to do with planchette. +For the unconscious knowledge which, of late years, she seemed to +possess, regarding the thoughts in her mother's mind, troubled them +both.</p> + +<p>"Commodore, I have something to tell you. It is for you especially, for +I have long known your secret attachment! From my window, I can see that +field behind the Mackintosh house. Imagine my beholding Maud Muriel +opening the gate this afternoon, crossing to the big bush in the centre, +seating herself behind it, taking a long clay pipe from her pocket, +filling it, lighting it, and smoking it!"</p> + +<p>"No!" exclaimed Etheridge, breaking into a resounding laugh. "Could she +make it go?"</p> + +<p>"Not very well, I think; I took my opera-glass and watched her. Her +face, as she puffed away, was exactly as solemn as it is when she models +her deadly busts."</p> + +<p>"Ho, ho, ho!" roared Etheridge again. "Ladies, excuse me. I have always +thought that girl might<a name="page_053" id="page_053"></a> be a genius if she could only get drunk! +Perhaps the pipe is a beginning."</p> + +<p>While he was saying this, Horace Chase was ushered in. A moment later +there came another ring, and the Rev. Mr. Hill appeared, followed by +Achilles Larue.</p> + +<p>"Why, I have a party!" said Mrs. Franklin, smiling, as she welcomed the +last comer.</p> + +<p>"Yes, His Grand, it <i>is</i> a party," said Ruth. "Now you may know, since +they are here, and you cannot stop it. I invited them all myself, late +this afternoon; and it is a molasses-candy-pulling; Dolly and I have +arranged it. We did not tell you beforehand, because we knew you would +say it was sticky."</p> + +<p>"Sticky it is," replied Mrs. Franklin.</p> + +<p>"Vilely sticky!" added Etheridge, emphatically.</p> + +<p>"And then we knew, also, that you would say that you could not get up a +supper in so short a time," Ruth went on. "But Zoe has had her sister to +help her, and ever so many nice things are all ready; chicken salad, for +instance; and—listen, His Grand—a long row of macaroon custards, each +cup with <i>three</i> macaroons dissolved in madeira!" And then she intoned + .ning in from her easy-chair:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Mother Franklin thinks,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">That General Jackson,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Jared the Sixth,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Macaroon custards,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">And Bishop Carew,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Are per-<i>fec</i>-tion!"</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p><a name="page_054" id="page_054"></a></p> + +<p>"What does she mean by that?" said Chase to Miss Billy.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it is only one of their jokes; they have so many! Dear Mrs. +Franklin was brought up by her father to admire General Jackson, and +Dolly and Ruth pretend that she thinks he is still at the White House. +And Jared the Sixth means her son, you know. And they say she is fond of +macaroon custards; that is, <i>fondish</i>," added Miss Billy, getting in the +"ish" with inward satisfaction. "And she is much attached to Bishop +Carew. But, for that matter, so are we all."</p> + +<p>"A Roman Catholic?" inquired Chase.</p> + +<p>"He is our bishop—the Episcopal Bishop of North Carolina," answered +Miss Breeze, surprised.</p> + +<p>"Oh! I didn't know. I'm a Baptist myself. Or at least my parents were," +explained Chase.</p> + +<p>The kitchen of L'Hommedieu was large and low, with the beams showing +overhead; it had a huge fireplace with an iron crane. This evening a pot +dangled from the crane; it held the boiling molasses, and Zoe, brilliant +in a new scarlet turban in honor of the occasion, was stirring the syrup +with a long-handled spoon. One of the easy-chairs had been brought from +the parlor for Dolly. Malachi Hill seated himself beside her; he seemed +uneasy; he kept his hat in his hand. "I did not know that Mr. Chase was +to be here, Miss Dolly, or I would not have come," he said to his +companion, in an undertone. "I can't think what to make of myself—I'm<a name="page_055" id="page_055"></a> +becoming a regular cormorant! Strange to say, instead of being satisfied +with all he has given to the Mission, I want more. I keep thinking of +all the good he might do in these mountains if he only knew the facts, +and I have fairly to hold myself in when he is present, to keep from +flattering him and getting further help. Yes, it's as bad as that! +Clergymen, you know, are always accused of paying court to rich men, or +rather to liberal men. For the first time in my life I understand the +danger! It's a dreadful temptation—it is indeed. I really think, Miss +Dolly, that I had better go."</p> + +<p>"No, you needn't; I'll see to you," answered Dolly. "If I notice you +edging up too near him, I'll give a loud ahem. Stay and amuse yourself; +you know you like it."</p> + +<p>And Malachi Hill did like it. In his mission-work he was tirelessly +energetic, self-sacrificing, devoted; on the other hand, he was as fond +of merrymaking as a boy. He pulled the candy with glee, but also with +eager industry, covering platter after platter with his braided sticks. +His only rival in diligence was Chase, who also showed great energy. +Dolly pulled; Mrs. Franklin pulled; even Etheridge helped. Ruth did not +accomplish much, for she stopped too often; but when she did work she +drew out the fragrant strands to a greater length than any one else +attempted, and she made wheels of it, and silhouettes of all the +company, including Mr. Trone. Miss Billy had begun with much interest; +then, seeing<a name="page_056" id="page_056"></a> that Larue had done nothing beyond arranging the platters +and plates in mathematical order on the table, she stopped, slipped out, +and went up-stairs to wash her hands. When she returned, fortune favored +her; the only vacant seat was one near him, and, after a short +hesitation, she took it. Larue did not speak; he was looking at Ruth, +who was now pulling candy with Horace Chase, drawing out the golden rope +to a yard's length, and throwing the end back to him gayly.</p> + +<p>Finally, when not even the painstaking young missionary could scrape +another drop from the exhausted pot, Dolly, taking her violin, played a +waltz. The uncarpeted floor was tempting, and after all the sticky hands +had been washed, the dancing began—Ruth with Chase, Etheridge with Miss +Billy; then Etheridge with Mrs. Franklin, while Miss Billy returned +quickly to her precious chair.</p> + +<p>"But these dances do not compare with the old ones," said Mrs. Franklin, +when they had paused to let Dolly rest. "There was the mazurka; and the +varsovienne—how pretty that was! La-la-la, la, <i>la</i>!" And humming the +tune, she took a step or two lightly. Etheridge, who knew the +varsovienne, joined her.</p> + +<p>"Go on," said Ruth. "I'll whistle it for you." And sitting on the edge +of a table she whistled the tune, while the two dancers circled round +the kitchen, looking extremely well together.</p> + +<p>"Whistling girls, you know," said Chase, warningly.<a name="page_057" id="page_057"></a></p> + +<p>He had joined Ruth, and was watching her as she performed her part. She +kept on, undisturbed by his jests, bending her head a little to the +right and to the left in time with the music; her whistling was as clear +as a flute.</p> + +<p>"And then there was the heel-and-toe polka. Surely you remember that, +commodore," pursued Mrs. Franklin, with inward malice.</p> + +<p>For the heel-and-toe was a very ancient memory. It was considered old +when she herself had seen it as a child.</p> + +<p>"Never heard of it in my life," answered Etheridge. "Hum—ha."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know the heel-and-toe," cried Ruth. "I learned it from mother +ages ago, just for fun. Are you rested, Dolly? Play it, please, and +mother and I will show them."</p> + +<p>Dolly began, and then Mrs. Franklin and Ruth, tall, slender mother, and +tall, slender daughter, each with one arm round the other's waist, and +the remaining arm held curved above the head, danced down the long room +together, taking the steps of the queer Polish dance with charming grace +and precision.</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>dear</i> Mrs. Franklin, so young and cheerful! So pleasant to see +her, is it not? So lovely! Don't you think so? And dancing is so +interesting in so many ways! Though, of course, there are other +amusements equally to be desired," murmured Miss Billy, incoherently, to +Larue.<a name="page_058" id="page_058"></a></p> + +<p>"Now we will have a quadrille, and I will improvise the figures," said +Ruth. "Mother and the commodore; Miss Billy and Mr. Larue; Mr. Chase +with me; and we will take turns in making the fourth couple."</p> + +<p>"Unfortunately, I don't dance," observed Larue.</p> + +<p>"Spoil-sport!" said Ruth, annihilatingly.</p> + +<p>"You got it that time," remarked Chase, condolingly, to the other man.</p> + +<p>"Miss Ruth, I can take the senator's place, if you like," said Malachi +Hill, springing up, good-naturedly.</p> + +<p>Since the termination of the candy-pulling, he had been sitting +contentedly beside Dolly, watching her play, and regaling himself +meanwhile with a stick of the fresh compound, its end carefully +enveloped in a holder of paper.</p> + +<p>"Excellent," said Ruth. "Please take Miss Billy, then."</p> + +<p>Poor Miss Billy, obliged to dance with a misguided clergyman! This time +there was not the excuse of the Mission; it was a real dance. He already +smoked; the next step certainly would be cards and horse-racing! While +she was taking her place, Rinda ushered in a new guest.</p> + +<p>"Maud Muriel—how lucky!" exclaimed Ruth. "You are the very person we +need, for we are trying to get up a quadrille, and have not enough +persons. I know you like to dance?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I like it very much—for hygienic reasons principally," responded +the new-comer.<a name="page_059" id="page_059"></a></p> + +<p>"Please take my place, then," Ruth went on. "This is Mr. Chase, Miss +Maud Mackintosh. Now we will see if our generic geologist and +sensational senator will refuse to dance with <i>me</i>." And sinking +suddenly on her knees before Larue, Ruth extended her hands in petition.</p> + +<p>"What is all that she called him, Miss Maud?" inquired Chase, laughing.</p> + +<p>"Miss Mackintosh," said his partner, correctively. "They are only +alliterative adjectives, Mr. Chase, rather indiscriminately applied. +Ruth is apt to be indiscriminate."</p> + +<p>Larue had risen, and Ruth triumphantly led him to his place. He knew +that she was laughing at him; in fact, as he went through the figures +calmly, his partner mimicked him to his face. But he was indifferent +alike to her laughter and her mimicry; what he was noticing was her +beauty. If he had been speaking of her, he would have called her +"prettyish"; but as he was only thinking, he allowed himself to note the +charm of her eyes for the moment, the color in her cheeks and lips. For +he was sure that it was only for the moment. "The coloring is +evanescent," was his mental criticism. "Her beauty will not last. For +she is handsome only when she is happy, and happiness for her means +doing exactly as she pleases, and having her own way unchecked. No woman +can do that forever. By the time she is thirty she may be absolutely +plain."<a name="page_060" id="page_060"></a></p> + +<p>Maud Muriel had laid aside her hat and jacket. She possessed a wealth of +beautiful red hair, whose thick mass was combed so tightly back from her +forehead that it made her wink; her much-exposed countenance was not at +all handsome, though her hazel eyes were large, calm, and clear. She was +a spinster of thirty-six—tall and thin, with large bones. And from her +hair to her heels she was abnormally, extraordinarily straight. She +danced with much vigor, scrutinizing Chase, and talking to him in the +intervals between the figures. These intervals, however, were short, for +Ruth improvised with rapidity. Finally she kept them all flying round in +a circle so long that Mrs. Franklin, breathless, signalled that she must +pause.</p> + +<p>"Now we are all hungry," said Ruth. "Zoe, see to the coffee. And, Rinda, +you may make ready here. We won't go to the dining-room, His Grand; it's +much more fun in the kitchen."</p> + +<p>Various inviting dishes were soon arrayed upon a table. And then Ruth, +to pass away the time until the coffee should be ready, began to sing. +All the Franklins sang; Miss Billy had a sweet soprano, Maud Muriel a +resonant contralto, and Malachi Hill a tenor of power; Etheridge, when +he chose, could add bass notes.</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Hark, the merry merry Christ-Church bells,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 3em;">One, two, three, four, five, six;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">They sound so strong, so wondrous sweet,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">And they troll so merrily, merrily."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p><a name="page_061" id="page_061"></a></p> + +<p>Horace Chase took no part in the catch song; he sat looking at the +others. It was the Franklin family who held his attention—the mother +singing with light-hearted animation; Dolly playing her part on her +violin, and singing it also; and Ruth, who, with her hands clasped +behind her head, was carolling like a bird. To Chase's mind it seemed +odd that a woman so old as Mrs. Franklin, a woman with silver hair and +grown-up children, should like to dance and sing. Dolly was certainly a +very "live" invalid! And Ruth—well, Ruth was enchanting. Horace Chase's +nature was always touched by beauty; he was open to its influences, it +had been so from boyhood. What he admired was not regularity of feature, +but simply the seductive sweetness of womanhood. And, young as she was, +Ruth Franklin's face was full of this charm. He looked at her again as +she sat singing the chorus:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Hark, the first and second bell,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Ring every day at four and ten"—</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>Then his gaze wandered round the kitchen. From part of the wall the +plastering was gone; it had fallen, and had never been replaced. The +housewives whom he had hitherto known, so he said to himself, would have +preferred to have their walls repaired, and spend less, if necessary, +upon dinners. Suppers, too! (Here he noted the rich array on the kitchen +table.)</p> + +<p>This array was completed presently by the arrival of the coffee, which +filled the room with its fragrant<a name="page_062" id="page_062"></a> aroma, and the supper was consumed +amid much merriment. When the clock struck twelve, Maud Muriel rose. "I +must be going," she said. "Wilhelmina, I came for you; that is what +brought me. When I learned at the hotel that you were here, I followed +for the purpose of seeing you home."</p> + +<p>"Allow me the pleasure of accompanying you both," said Chase.</p> + +<p>"That is not necessary; I always see to Wilhelmina," answered Miss +Mackintosh, as she put on her hat.</p> + +<p>"Yes; she is so kind," murmured Miss Billy. But Miss Billy in her heart +believed that in some way or other Achilles Larue would yet be her +escort (though he never had been that, or anything else, in all the +years of their acquaintance). He was still in the house, and so was she; +something might happen!</p> + +<p>What happened was that Larue took leave of Mrs. Franklin, and went off +alone.</p> + +<p>Then Billy said to herself: "On the whole, I'm glad he didn't suggest +it. For it is only five minutes' walk to the hotel, and if he had gone +with me it would have counted as a call, and then he needn't have done +anything more for a long time. So I'm glad he did not come. Very."</p> + +<p>"Maud Muriel," demanded Dolly, "why select a <i>clay</i> pipe?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, did you see me?" inquired Miss Mackintosh, composedly. "I use a +clay pipe, Dolly, because it is cleaner; I can always have a new one. +Smoking<a name="page_063" id="page_063"></a> is said to insure the night's rest, and so I thought it best to +learn it, as my brother's children are singularly active at night. I +have been practising for three weeks, and I generally go to the woods, +where no one can see me. But to-day I did not have time."</p> + +<p>Chase broke into a laugh. Etheridge had emitted another ho, ho, ho! Then +he gave Maud a jovial tap. "My dear young lady, don't go to the woods. +Let <i>me</i> come, with another clay pipe, and be your protector."</p> + +<p>"I have never needed a protector in my life," replied Miss Mackintosh; +"I don't know what that feeling is, commodore. I secrete myself simply +because people might not understand my motives; they might think that I +was secretly given to dissolute courses. Are you ready, Wilhelmina?"</p> + +<p>As the two ladies opened the outer door and stepped forth into the +darkness, Chase, not deterred by the rebuff he had received from the +stalwart virgin, passed her, and offered his arm to the gentler Miss +Billy. And then Malachi Hill, feeling that he must, advanced to offer +himself as escort for the remaining lady.</p> + +<p>"Poor manikin! Do you think I need <i>you</i>?" inquired the sculptress +sarcastically, under her breath.</p> + +<p>The young clergyman disappeared. He did not actually run. But he was +round the corner in an astonishingly short space of time.</p> + +<p>Etheridge was the last to take leave. "Well, you<a name="page_064" id="page_064"></a> made a very merry +party for your bubbling friend," he said to Mrs. Franklin.</p> + +<p>"It wasn't for <i>him</i>," she answered.</p> + +<p>"He is not mother's bubbling friend, and he is not Dolly's, either," +said Ruth; "he is mine alone. Mother and Dolly do not in the least +appreciate him."</p> + +<p>"Is he worth much appreciation?" inquired Etheridge, noting her beauty +as Larue had noted it. "How striking she grows!" he thought. And, +forgetting for the moment what they were talking about, he looked at her +as Chase had looked.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Ruth was answering, girlishly: "Much appreciation? <i>All</i>, +commodore—all. Mr. Chase is <i>splendid</i>!"<a name="page_065" id="page_065"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<p>N<small>OTHING</small> could exceed the charm of the early summer, that year, in this +high valley. The amphitheatre of mountains had taken on fresher robes of +green, the air was like champagne; it would have been difficult to say +which river danced more gayly along its course, the foam-flecked French +Broad, its clear water open to the sunshine, or the little Swannanoa, +frolicking through the forest in the shade.</p> + +<p>One morning, a few days after the candy-pulling at L'Hommedieu, even +Maud Muriel was stirred to admiration as she threw open the blinds of +her bedroom at her usual early hour. "No humidity. And great +rarefaction," she said to herself, as she tried the atmosphere with a +tentative snort. Maud Muriel lived with her brother, Thomas Mackintosh; +that is, she had a room under his roof and a seat at his table. But she +did not spend much time at home, rather to the relief of Mrs. Thomas +Mackintosh, an easy-going Southern woman, with several young children, +including an obstreperous pair of twins. Maud Muriel, dismissing the +landscape, took a conscientious sponge-bath, and went down to breakfast. +After breakfast, on her way to her studio, she stopped for a moment to +see Miss Billy. "At any rate, I <i>walk</i> well," she<a name="page_066" id="page_066"></a> had often thought +with pride. And to-day, as she approached the hotel, she was so straight +that her shoulders tipped backward.</p> + +<p>Miss Billy was staying at the inn. This hotel bore the name "The Old +North State," the loving title given by native North-Carolinians to +their commonwealth—a commonwealth which, in its small long-settled +towns, its old farms, and in the names of its people, shows less change +in a hundred years than any other portion of the Union. The Old North, +as it was called, was a wooden structure painted white, with outside +blinds of green; in front of it extended a row of magnificent +maple-trees. Miss Billy had a small sitting-room on the second floor; +Maud Muriel, paying no attention to the negro servants, went up the +uncarpeted stairway to her friend's apartment, and, as she opened the +door, she caught sight of this friend carefully rolling a waste bit of +string into a small ball.</p> + +<p>"Too late—I saw you," she said. (For Miss Billy had nervously tried to +hide the ball.) "I know you have at least fifty more little wads of the +same sort somewhere, arranged in graded rows! A new ball of string of +the largest size—enough to last a year—costs a dime, Wilhelmina. You +must have a singularly defective sense of proportion to be willing to +give many minutes (for I have even seen you taking out knots!) to a +substance whose value really amounts to about the thousandth part of a +cent! I have stopped on my way to the barn to tell you two things,<a name="page_067" id="page_067"></a> +Wilhelmina. One is that I do <i>not</i> like your 'Mountain Walk.'" Here she +took a roll of delicately written manuscript, tied with blue ribbons, +from her pocket, and placed it on the table. "It is supposed to be about +trees, isn't it? But you do not describe a single one with the least +accuracy; all you do is to impute to them various allegorical +sentiments, which no tree—a purely vegetable production—<i>ever</i> had."</p> + +<p>"It was only a beginning—leading up to a study of the pre-Adamite +trees, which I hope to make, later," Miss Billy answered. "Ruskin, you +know—"</p> + +<p>"You need not quote Ruskin to me—a man who criticises sculpture without +any practical knowledge whatever of human anatomy; a man who +subordinates correct drawing in a picture to the virtuous state of mind +of the artist! If Ruskin's theory is true, very good persons who visit +the poor and go to church, are, if they dabble in water-colors, or +pen-and-ink sketches, the greatest of artists, because their piety is +sincere. And <i>vice versa</i>. The history of art shows that, doesn't it?" +commented Maud, ironically. "I am sorry to see that you sat up so late +last night, Wilhelmina."</p> + +<p>"Why, how do you know?" said Miss Billy, guiltily conscious of midnight +reading.</p> + +<p>"By the deep line between your eyebrows. You must see to that, or you +will be misjudged by scientific minds. For marked, lined, or wrinkled +foreheads indicate criminal tendencies; the statistics of prisons prove +it. To-night put on two pieces of<a name="page_068" id="page_068"></a> strong sticking-plaster at the +temples, to draw the skin back. The other thing I had to tell you is +that the result of my inquiries of a friend at the North who keeps in +touch with the latest investigations of Liébeault and the Germans, is, +that there may, after all, be something in the subject you mentioned to +me, namely, the possibility of influencing a person, not present, by +means of an effort of will. So we will try it now—for five minutes. Fix +your eyes steadily upon that figure of the carpet, Wilhelmina"—she +indicated a figure with her parasol—"and I will do the same. As subject +we will take my sister-in-law. We will will her to whip the twins. Are +you ready?" She took out her watch. "Begin, then."</p> + +<p>Miss Billy, though secretly disappointed in the choice of subject, tried +hard to fix her mind upon the proposed castigation. But in spite of her +efforts her thoughts would stray to the carpet itself, to the pattern of +the figure, and its reds and greens.</p> + +<p>"Time's up," announced Maud, replacing her watch in the strong +watch-pocket on the outside of her skirt; "I'll tell you whether the +whipping comes off. Do you think it is decent, Wilhelmina, to be +dressing and undressing yourself whenever you wish to know what time it +is?" (For Miss Billy, who tried to follow the fashions to some extent, +was putting her own watch back in her bodice, which she had unbuttoned +for the purpose.) "Woman will never be the equal of man until she has +grasped the conception<a name="page_069" id="page_069"></a> that the position of her pockets should be +unchangeable," Maud went on.</p> + +<p>"I think I will go with you as far as L'Hommedieu," suggested Billy, +ignoring the subject of the watch-pocket (an old one). "I have some +books to take, so I may as well." She put on her hat, and piled eight +dilapidated paper-covered volumes on her arm.</p> + +<p>"Are you still collecting vapid literature for that feather-headed +woman?" inquired Maud. For Billy went all over Asheville, to every house +she knew, and probed in old closets and bookcases in search of novels +for Mrs. Franklin. For years she had performed this office. When Mrs. +Franklin had finished reading one set of volumes, Billy carried them +back to their owners, and then roamed and foraged for more.</p> + +<p>"If you do go as far as L'Hommedieu, you must stop there definitely; you +must not go on to the barn," Maud Muriel announced, as they went down +the stairs. "For if you do, you will stay. And then I shall be going +back with you, to see to you. And then you will be coming part way back +with me, to talk. And thus we shall be going home with each other all +the rest of the day!" She passed out and crossed the street, doing it in +the face of the leaders of a team of six horses attached to one of the +huge mountain wagons, which are shaped like boats tilted up behind; for +two files of these wagons, heavily loaded, were coming slowly up the<a name="page_070" id="page_070"></a> +road. Miss Billy started to cross also, but after three or four steps +she turned and hurried back to the curb-stone. Then suddenly she started +a second time, running first in one direction, then in another, and +finally and unexpectedly in a third, so that the drivers of the wagons +nearest to her, and even the very horses themselves, were filled with +perplexity as to the course which she wished to pursue. Miss Billy, +meanwhile, finding herself hemmed in, began to shriek wildly. The +drivers in front stretched their necks round the corners of the canvas +hoods erected, like gigantic Shaker bonnets, over their high-piled +loads, in order to see what was the matter. And the drivers who were +behind stood up and peered forward. But they could make out nothing, +and, as Miss Billy continued her yells, the whole procession, and with +it the entire traffic of the main street, came slowly to a pause. The +pause was not long. The energetic Maud Muriel, jerking up the heads of +two of the leaders, made a dive, caught hold of her frightened friend, +and drew her out by main strength. The horses whom she had thus +attacked, shook themselves. "Hep!" called their driver. "Hep!" called +the other drivers, in various keys. And then, one by one, with a jerk +and a creak, the great wains started on again.</p> + +<p>When the friends reached L'Hommedieu, Billy was still trembling.</p> + +<p>"I'd better take them in for you," said Maud Muriel, referring to the +load of books which Billy was<a name="page_071" id="page_071"></a> carrying for her companion. They found +Dolly in the parlor, winding silk for her next pair of stockings. "Here +are some volumes which Wilhelmina is bringing to Mrs. Franklin," said +Maud Muriel, depositing the pile on a table.</p> + +<p>"More novels?" said Dolly. "I'm so glad. Thank you, Miss Billy. For +mother really has nothing for to-day. The one she had yesterday was very +dull; she said she was 'worrying' through it. It was a story about +female suffrage—as though any one could care for that!"</p> + +<p>"Care for it or not, it is sure to come," declared Miss Mackintosh.</p> + +<p>"Yes, in <small>A.D.</small> 5000."</p> + +<p>"Sooner, much sooner. <i>We</i> may not see it," pursued Maud Muriel, putting +up her finger impressively. "But, mark my words, our <i>children</i> will."</p> + +<p>Miss Billy listened to this statement with the deepest interest.</p> + +<p>"Well, Maud Muriel—Miss Billy, yourself, and myself as <i>parents</i>—that +certainly is a new idea!" Dolly replied.</p> + +<p>Ruth came in. At the same moment Maud Muriel turned to go; and, +unconsciously, Billy made a motion as if about to follow.</p> + +<p>"Wilhelmina, you are to <i>stay</i>," said Maud, sternly, as she departed, +straighter than ever.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Miss Billy, please stay," said Ruth. "I want you to go with me to +see Genevieve."</p> + +<p>"Genevieve?" repeated Dolly, surprised.<a name="page_072" id="page_072"></a></p> + +<p>"Yes. She has bought another new dress for me, and this time she is +going to fit it herself, she says, so that there may be no more +bagging," answered Ruth, laughing. "I know she intends to <i>squeeze</i> me +up. And so I want Miss Billy to come and say it's dangerous!"</p> + +<p>Ruth was naturally what is called short-waisted; this gave her the long +step which in a tall, slender woman is so enchantingly graceful. +Genevieve did not appreciate grace of this sort. In her opinion Ruth's +waist was too large. If she had been told that it was the waist of Greek +sculpture, the statement would not have altered her criticism; she had +no admiration for Greek sculpture; the few life-sized casts from antique +statues which she had seen had appeared to her highly unpleasant +objects. Her ideas of feminine shape were derived, in fact, from the +season's fashion plates. Her own costumes were always of one unbroken +tint, the same from head to foot. To men's eyes, therefore, her attire +had an air of great simplicity. Women perceived at once that this +unvarying effect was not obtained without much thought, and Genevieve +herself would have been the last to disclaim such attention. For she +believed that it was each woman's duty to dress as becomingly as was +possible, because it increased her attraction; and the greater her +attraction, the greater her influence. If she had been asked, "influence +for what?" she would have replied unhesitatingly, "influence for good!" +Her view of dress, therefore,<a name="page_073" id="page_073"></a> being a serious one, she was disturbed by +the entire indifference of her husband's family to the subject, both +generally and in detail. She had the most sincere desire to assist them, +to improve them; most of all she longed to improve Ruth (she had given +up Dolly), and more than once she had denied herself something, and +taken the money it would have cost, to buy a new costume for the +heedless girl, who generally ruined the gifts (in her sister-in-law's +opinion) by careless directions, or no directions at all, to the +Asheville dressmaker.</p> + +<p>Ruth bore Miss Billy away. But as they crossed the garden towards the +cottage she said: "I may as well tell you—there will be no fitting. For +Mr. Chase is there; I have just caught a glimpse of him from the upper +window."</p> + +<p>"Then why go now?" inquired Miss Billy, who at heart was much afraid of +Genevieve.</p> + +<p>"To see Mr. Chase, of course. I wish to thank him for my philopena, +which came late last night. Mother and Dolly are not pleased. But <i>I</i> +am, ever so much." She took a morocco case from her pocket, and, opening +it, disclosed a ring of very delicate workmanship, the gold circlet +hardly more than a thread, and enclosing a diamond, not large, but very +pure and bright.</p> + +<p>"Oh-ooh!" said Miss Billy, with deep admiration.</p> + +<p>"Yes; isn't it lovely? Mother and Dolly say that it is too much. But I +have never seen anything in the world yet which I thought too much! I +should<a name="page_074" id="page_074"></a> like to have ever so many rings, each set with one gem only, but +that gem perfect. And I should like to have twenty or thirty bracelets, +all of odd patterns, to wear on my arms above the elbow. And I should +like close rows of jewels to wear round my throat. And clasps of jewels +for the belt; and shoe-buckles too. I have never had an ornament, except +one dreadful silver thing. Let me see; it's on now!" And feeling under +her sleeve, she drew off a thin silver circlet, and threw it as far as +she could across the grass.</p> + +<p>"Oh, your pretty bracelet!" exclaimed Miss Billy.</p> + +<p>"Pretty? Horrid!"</p> + +<p>Horace Chase had called at the Cottage in answer to a note from +Genevieve, offering to take him to the Colored Home. "As you have shown +so much kindly interest in the Mission, I feel sure that this second +good work of ours will also please you," she wrote.</p> + +<p>"I think I won't go to-day, Gen, if it's all the same to you," said +Chase, when he entered. "For my horses have come and I ought not to +delay any longer about making some arrangements for them."</p> + +<p>"Any other time will do for the Home," answered Genevieve, graciously. +"But can't you stay for a little while, Horace? Let me show you my +house."</p> + +<p>Chase had already seen her parlor, with its velvet carpet, its set of +furniture covered with green, its pictures arranged according to the +size of the frames, with the largest below on a line with the eye, and<a name="page_075" id="page_075"></a> +the others above in pyramidical gradations, so that the smallest were +near the cornice. At that distance the subjects of the smaller pictures +were more or less indistinguishable; but at least the arrangement of the +frames was full of symmetry. In the second story, at the end of the +house, was "Jay's smoking-room." "Jay likes to smoke; it is a habit he +acquired in the navy; I have therefore fitted up this room on purpose," +said Jay's wife.</p> + +<p>It was a small chamber, with a sloping ceiling, a single window +overlooking the kitchen roof, oil-cloth on the floor, one table, and one +chair.</p> + +<p>"Do put in <i>two</i> chairs," suggested Chase, jocularly. For though he +thought the husband of Genevieve a fortunate man, he could not say that +his smoking-room was a cheerful place.</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>I</i> never sit here," answered Genevieve. "Now come down and take a +peep at my kitchen, Horace. I have been kneading the bread; there it is +on the table. I prefer to knead it myself, though I hope that in time +Susannah will be able to do it according to my method" (with a glance +towards the negro servant, who returned no answering smile). "And this +is my garden. I can never tell you how glad I am that we have at last a +fixed home of our own, Horrie. No more wandering about! Jay is able to +spend a large part of his summers here, and, later, when he has made a +little more money, he will come for the whole summer—four months. And I +go to Raleigh to be with him in the winter; I am<a name="page_076" id="page_076"></a> hoping that we can +have a winter home there too, very soon. We are <i>so</i> much more +comfortable in every way than we used to be. And looking at it from +another point of view, it is inexpressibly better for Jay himself to be +out of the navy. It always disturbed me—such a limited life!"</p> + +<p>Jared Franklin, when an ensign, had met Genevieve Gray, fallen in love +with her, and married her, in the short space of three months. He had +remained in the navy throughout the war, and for two years longer; then, +yielding at last to his wife's urgent entreaties, he had resigned. After +his resignation he had been for a time a clerk in Atlanta. Now he was in +business for himself in a small way at Raleigh; it was upon his +establishment there that Genevieve had started this summer home in +Asheville. "Our prospects are much brighter," she went on, cheerfully; +"for at present we have a future. No one has a future in the navy; no +one can make money there. But now there is no reason why Jay should not +succeed, as other men have succeeded; that is what I always tell him. +And I am not thinking only of ourselves, Horrie, as I say that; when Jay +is a rich man, my principal pleasure in it will be the power which we +shall have to give more in charity, to do more in all good works." And +in saying this, Genevieve Franklin was entirely sincere.</p> + +<p>"You must keep me posted about the railroad," she went on, as she led +the way across the garden.</p> + +<p><a name="page_077" id="page_077"></a>"Oh yes; if we decide to take hold of it, you shall be admitted into +the ring," answered Chase—"the inside track."</p> + +<p>"I could buy land here beforehand—quietly, you know?"</p> + +<p>"You've got a capital head for business, haven't you, Gen! Better than +any one has at your mother-in-law's, I reckon?"</p> + +<p>"They are not clever in that way; I have always regretted it. But they +are very amiable."</p> + +<p>"Not that Dolly!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Dolly? My principal feeling for poor Dolly, of course, is simply +pity. This is my little dairy, Horrie; come in. I have been churning +butter this morning."</p> + +<p>Ruth and Miss Billy, finding no one in the house, had followed to the +dairy; and they entered in time to hear this last phrase.</p> + +<p>"She does churning and everything else, Mr. Chase, at three o'clock in +the morning," said Ruth, with great seriousness.</p> + +<p>"Not quite so early," Genevieve corrected.</p> + +<p>The point was not taken up. The younger Mrs. Franklin, a fresh, strong, +equable creature, who woke at dawn as a child wakes, liked an early +breakfast as a child likes it. She found it difficult, therefore, to +understand her mother-in-law's hour of nine, or half-past nine. "But you +lose so much time, mamma," she had remarked during the first weeks of +her own residence at Asheville.</p> + +<p>"Yes," Dolly answered. (It was always Dolly<a name="page_078" id="page_078"></a> who answered Genevieve; +Dolly delighted in it.) "We <i>do</i> lose it at that end of the morning—the +raw end, Genevieve. But when we are once up, we remain up, available, +fully awake, get-at-able, until midnight; we do not go off and seclude +ourselves impregnably for two hours or so in the middle of the day." For +Dolly was aware that it was her sister-in-law's habit to retire to her +room immediately after her one o'clock dinner, and take a nap; often a +long one.</p> + +<p>"Do you wish to see something pretty, Genevieve?" said Ruth, giving her +the morocco case. "Thank you, Mr. Chase; I have wanted a ring so long; +you can't think how long!"</p> + +<p>"Have you?" said Chase, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Yes. And this is such a beauty."</p> + +<p>"Well, to me it seemed rather small. I wrote to a friend of mine to get +it; it was my partner, in fact, Mr. Willoughby. I told him that it was +for a young lady. That's his taste, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"The taste is perfect," said Miss Billy. For poor Miss Billy, browbeaten +though she was by almost everybody, possessed a very delicate and true +perception in all such matters.</p> + +<p>"I have been <i>perfectly</i> happy ever since it came," Ruth declared, as +she took the ring, slipped it on her finger, and looked at the effect.</p> + +<p>"You make me proud, Miss Ruth."</p> + +<p>"Don't you want to be a little prouder?" and she came up to him +coaxingly. "I am sure Genevieve has been asking you to go with her to +the Colored<a name="page_079" id="page_079"></a> Home?" This quick guess made Chase laugh. "For it is the +weekly reception day, and all her old women have on their clean turbans. +The Colored Home is excellent, of course, but it won't fly away; +there'll be more clean turbans next week. Meanwhile, <i>I</i> have something +very pressing. I have long wanted Miss Mackintosh to make a bust of +Petie Trone, Esq. And she won't, because she thinks it is frivolous. But +if <i>you</i> will go with me, Mr. Chase, and speak of it as a fine thing to +do, she will be impressed, I know; for she has a sort of concealed +liking for you." Chase made a grimace. "I don't mean anything fiery," +Ruth went on; "it's only a reasonable scientific interest. She is at the +barn now: won't you come? For Petie Trone, Esq., is not a young dog any +longer. He is more than eight years old," concluded the girl, +mournfully.</p> + +<p>Genevieve, who had been greatly struck by the ring, glanced at Chase +with inward despair, as her sister-in-law made this ineffective +conclusion. They had left the dairy, and were standing in the garden, +and her despair renewed itself as, in the brighter light, she noted +Ruth's faded dress, and the battered garden hat, whose half-detached +feather had been temporarily secured with a large white pin.</p> + +<p>But Chase was not looking at the hat. "Of course I'll go," he answered. +"We'll have the little scamp in bronze, if you like. Don't worry about +his age, Miss Ruth; he is so tremendously lively that he will see us all +out yet."<a name="page_080" id="page_080"></a></p> + +<p>"Come, then," said Ruth, exultingly. She linked her arm in Miss Billy's. +"You must go, too, Miss Billy, so that you can tell mother that I did +not tease Mr. Chase <i>too</i> hard."</p> + +<p>Maud Muriel's studio was in an unused hay-barn. Here, ranged on rough +shelves, were her "works," as Miss Billy called them—many studies of +arms, and hands, and a dozen finished portrait-busts in clay. The +subjects of the busts appeared to have been selected, one and all, for +their strictly commonplace aspect; they had not even the distinction of +ugliness. There were three old men with ordinary features, and no marked +expression of any kind; there were six middle-aged women, each with the +type of face which one forgets the moment after seeing it; and there +were three uncompromisingly uninteresting little boys. The modelling was +conscientious, and it was evident in each case that the likeness was +faithful.</p> + +<p>"But Petie Trone, Esq., is a <i>pretty</i> dog," objected the sculptress, +when Ruth had made her request, backed up by Chase, who described the +"dogs and animals of all sorts" which he had seen in bronze and marble +in the galleries abroad. No one laughed, as the formal title came out +from Maud's lips, Asheville had long ago accepted the name; Petie Trone, +Esq., was as well known as Mount Pisgah.</p> + +<p>"Don't you like pretty things?" Chase asked, gazing at the busts, and +then at the studies of arms and hands—scraggy arms with sharp elbows +and thin<a name="page_081" id="page_081"></a> fingers, withered old arms with clawlike phalanges, lean arms +of growing boys with hands like paws, hard-worked arms with distorted +muscles—every and any human arm and hand save a beautiful one.</p> + +<p>"Prettiness is the exception, not the rule," replied Maud, with +decision. "I prefer to model the usual, the average; for in that +direction, and in that only, lies truth."</p> + +<p>"Yes; and I suppose that if I should make a usual cur of Petie Trone, +Esq., cover him with average mud, and beat him so that he would cower +and slink in his poor little tail, <i>then</i> you would do him?" said Ruth, +indignantly.</p> + +<p>"See here, Miss Mackintosh, your principles needn't be upset by one +small dog. Come, do him; not his bust, but the whole of him. A +life-sized statue," added Chase, laughing; "he must be about eleven +inches long! Do him for me," he went on, boldly, looking at her with +secret amusement; for he had never seen such an oaken bearing as that of +this Asheville spinster.</p> + +<p>Maud Muriel did not relax the tension of her muscles; in fact, she could +not. The condition called "clinched," which with most persons is +occasional only, had with her become chronic. Nevertheless, somehow, she +consented.</p> + +<p>"I'll get the darling this minute," cried Ruth, hurrying out. And Chase +followed her.</p> + +<p>"Well, here you are again! What did I tell<a name="page_082" id="page_082"></a> you?" said the sculptress to +Miss Billy, when they were left alone.</p> + +<p>"I did not mean to come, Maud Muriel. I really did not intend—" Billy +began.</p> + +<p>"What place, Wilhelmina, is <i>paved</i> with good intentions? Now, of +course, we shall be going home with each other all the rest of the day!" +declared the sculptress, good-humoredly.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, outside, Ruth was suggesting to Horace Chase, coaxingly, that +he should wait until she could find her dog, and bring him to the barn. +"Because if <i>you</i> are not with me, Maud Muriel will be sure to change +her mind!"</p> + +<p>"Not she. She is no more changeable than a telegraph pole. I am afraid I +must leave you now, Miss Ruth; for the men are waiting to see me about +the horses."</p> + +<p>"Whose horses?"</p> + +<p>"Mine."</p> + +<p>"Did you send for them? Oh, <i>I</i> love horses too. Where are they?"</p> + +<p>"At the Old North stables. So you like horses? I'll drive the pair +round, then, in a day or two, to show them to you." And after shaking +hands with her—Chase always shook hands—he went towards the village; +for Maud Muriel's barn was on the outskirts. In figure he was tall, +thin, and muscular. He never appeared to be in haste; all his movements +were leisurely, even his words coming out with deliberation. His voice +was pitched in a low key; his<a name="page_083" id="page_083"></a> articulation was extremely distinct; +sometimes, when amused, he had a slight humorous drawl.</p> + +<p>Ruth looked after him for a moment. Then she went in search of her dog.</p> + +<p>A little later Anthony Etheridge paid his usual morning visit to the +post-office. On his return, when near his own abode, he met Horace +Chase.</p> + +<p>"A mail in?" inquired Chase, quickly, as he saw the letters.</p> + +<p>"No; they came last night. <i>I</i> am never in a hurry about mails," +answered Etheridge. "You younger fellows have not learned, as I have, +that among every six letters, say, four at least are sure to be more or +less disagreeable. Well, have you decided? Are you coming to my place?" +For Etheridge had rooms in a private house, where he paid for a whole +wing in order that his night's rest should not be disturbed by other +tenants, who might perhaps bring in young children; with his usual +thriftiness, he had offered his lower floor to Chase.</p> + +<p>"Well, no, I guess not; I'm thinking of coming here," Chase answered, +indicating the hotel near by with a backward turn of his thumb. "My +horses are here; they came last night. I'm making some arrangements for +them, now."</p> + +<p>Anthony Etheridge cared more for a good horse than for anything else in +the world. In spite of his title of Commodore, sailing had only a second +place in his list of tastes. He had commanded a holiday squadron only, a +fleet of yachts. Some years before,<a name="page_084" id="page_084"></a> he had resigned his commandership +in the Northern club. But he was still a commodore, almost in spite of +himself, for he had again been elected, this time by the winter yacht +club of St. Augustine. At the word "horses" his face had lighted up. +"Can I have a look at them?" he said, eagerly. "Did they stand the +journey well?"</p> + +<p>"O. K. They're round in the stable, if you want to come."</p> + +<p>The three horses were beautiful specimens of their kind. "The pair, I +intend to drive; I found that there was nothing in Asheville, and as I'm +going to stay awhile longer (for the air is bringing me right up), I had +to have something," Chase remarked. "The mare is for riding."</p> + +<p>"She looks like a racer?"</p> + +<p>"Well, she <i>has</i> taken one prize. But I shall never race her again; I +don't care about it. I remember when I thought a race just heaven! When +I wasn't more than nineteen, I took a prize with a trotter; 'twas a very +small race, to be sure; but a big thing to me. Not long after that, +there was another prize offered for a well-matched pair, and by that +time I had a pair—temporarily—bays. One of them, however, had a white +spot on his nose. Well, sir, I painted his nose, and won the premium!" +He broke into a laugh.</p> + +<p>"Was that before you invented the Bubble Baking-powder?" inquired +Etheridge.</p> + +<p>In this question, there was a tinge of superciliousness.<a name="page_085" id="page_085"></a> Chase did not +suspect it; in his estimation, a baking-powder was as good a means as +anything else, the sole important point being its success. But even if +he had perceived the tinge, it would only have amused him; with his +far-stretching plans—plans which extended across a continent—his large +interests and broad ambitions, criticism from this obscure old man would +have seemed comical. Anthony Etheridge was not so obscure a personage as +Chase fancied. But he was not known in the world of business or of +speculation, and he had very little money. This last fact Chase had +immediately divined. For he recognized in Etheridge a man who would +never have denied himself luxury unless forced to do it, a man who would +never have been at Asheville if he could have afforded Newport; the talk +about "nature undraped" was simply an excuse. And he had discovered also +another secret which no one (save Mrs. Franklin) suspected, namely, that +the handsome commodore was in reality far older than his gallant bearing +would seem to indicate.</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> didn't invent the Bubble," he had said, explanatorily. "I only +bought it. Then the inventor and I ran it together, in a sort of +partnership, as long as he lived. 'Twas as good as a silver mine for a +while. Nothing could stand against it, sir—nothing."</p> + +<p>But Etheridge was not interested in the Bubble. "I should like greatly +to see your mare go," he said. "Here, boy, isn't that track in the field +in pretty fair condition still?"<a name="page_086" id="page_086"></a></p> + +<p>"Yes, boss," answered the negro, whom he had addressed.</p> + +<p>"Why not let her go round it, Chase? It will do her good to stretch her +legs this fine morning."</p> + +<p>Here a shadow in the doorway caused them both to turn their heads. It +was Ruth Franklin.</p> + +<p>"Good heavens, Ruth, what are you doing here in the stables?" asked +Etheridge, astonished.</p> + +<p>"I have come to see the horses," replied Ruth, confidently. She +addressed Chase. She had already learned that she could count upon +indulgence from him, no matter what fancies might seize her.</p> + +<p>"Here they are, then," Chase answered. "Come closer. This is Peter, and +that is Piper. And here is the mare, Kentucky Belle. Your friend, the +commodore, was urging me, as you came in, to send Kentucky round a +race-course you have here somewhere."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know; the old ring," said Ruth. "Oh, please do! Please have a +real race."</p> + +<p>"But there's nothing to run against her, Miss Ruth. The pair are not +racers."</p> + +<p>"You go to Cyrus Jaycox," said Etheridge to the negro, "and ask him +for—for" (he could not remember the name)—"for the colt," he +concluded, in an enraged voice.</p> + +<p>"Fer Tipkinoo, sah? Yassah."</p> + +<p>"Tell him to come himself."</p> + +<p>"Yassah." The negro started off on a run.</p> + +<p>"It's the landlord of the Old North," Etheridge<a name="page_087" id="page_087"></a> explained. "He has a +promising colt, Tippecanoe" (he brought it out this time sonorously). +"No match, of course, for your mare, Chase. Still, it will make a little +sport." His color had risen; his face was young with anticipation. "Now, +Ruth, go home; you have seen the horses, and that is enough. Your mother +would be much displeased if she knew you were here."</p> + +<p>For answer, Ruth looked at Chase. "I won't be the least trouble," she +said, winningly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, do be! I like trouble—feel all the better for lots of it," he +answered. "Come along with me. And make all the trouble you can!"</p> + +<p>Three little negro boys, highly excited, had already started off to act +as pilots to the field. Ruth put her hand in Chase's arm; for if the +owner of Kentucky Belle wished to have her with him, or at least if he +had the appearance of wishing it, there was less to be said against her +presence. They led the way, therefore. Then came Chase's man with the +mare, Etheridge keeping close to the beautiful beast, and watching her +gait with critical eyes. All the hangers-on of the stable brought up the +rear. The field, where an amateur race had been held during the +preceding year, was not far distant; its course was a small one. Some +minutes later their group was completed by the arrival of Cyrus Jaycox +with his colt, Tippecanoe.</p> + +<p>"But where is Groves?" said Chase to his men. "Groves is the only one of +you who can ride her<a name="page_088" id="page_088"></a> properly." It turned out, however, that Groves had +gone to bed ill; he had taken a chill on the journey.</p> + +<p>"I didn't observe that he wasn't here," said Chase. (This was because he +had been talking to Ruth.) "We shall have to postpone it, commodore."</p> + +<p>"Let her go round with one of the other men just once, to show her +action," Etheridge urged.</p> + +<p>"Yes, please, please," said Ruth.</p> + +<p>The mare, therefore, went round the course with the groom Cartright, +followed by the Asheville colt, ridden by a little negro boy, who clung +on with grins and goggling eyes.</p> + +<p>"There is Mr. Hill, watching us over the fence," said Ruth. "How +astonished he looks!" And she beckoned to the distant figure.</p> + +<p>Malachi Hill, who had been up the mountain to pay a visit to a family in +bereavement, had recognized them, and stopped his horse in the road to +see what was going on. In response to Ruth's invitation, he found a +gate, opened it by leaning from his saddle, and came across to join +them. As he rode up, Etheridge was urging another round. "If I were not +such a heavy weight, I'd ride the mare myself!" he declared, with +enthusiasm. Cyrus Jaycox offered a second little negro, as jockey. But +Chase preferred to trust Cartright, unfitted though he was. In reality +he consented not on account of the urgency of Etheridge, but solely to +please the girl by his side.</p> + +<p><a name="page_089" id="page_089"></a>There was trouble about this second start; the colt, not having been +trained, boggled and balked. Kentucky Belle, on her side, could not +comprehend such awkwardness. "I'll go a few paces with them, just to get +them well off," suggested Malachi Hill. And, touching Daniel with his +whip, he rode forward, coming up behind the other two.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hill's Daniel was the laughing-stock of the irreverent; he was a +very tall, ancient horse, lean and rawboned, with a rat tail. But he +must have had a spark of youthful fire left in him somewhere, or else a +long-thwarted ambition, for he made more than the start which his rider +had intended; breaking into a pounding pace, he went round the entire +course, in spite of the clergyman's efforts to pull him up. The mare, +hearing the thundering sound of his advance behind her, began to go +faster. Old Daniel passed the Asheville colt as though he were nothing +at all; then, stretching out his gaunt head, he went in pursuit of the +steed in front like a mad creature, the dust of the ring rising in +clouds behind him. Nothing could now stop either horse. Cartright was +powerless with Kentucky Belle, and Daniel paid no heed to his rider. +But, the second time round, it was not quite clear whether the clergyman +was trying to stop or not. The third time there was no question—he +would not have stopped for the world; his flushed face showed the +deepest delight.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile people had collected as flies collect round honey; the negroes +who lived in the shanties behind the Old North had come running to the<a name="page_090" id="page_090"></a> +scene in a body, the big children "toting" the little ones; and down the +lane which led from the main street had rushed all the whites within +call, led by the postmaster himself, a veteran of the Mexican War. After +the fourth round, Kentucky Belle decided to stop of her own accord. She +was, of course, ahead. But not very far behind her, still thundering +along with his rat tail held stiffly out, came old Daniel, in his turn +ahead of Tippecanoe.</p> + +<p>As Daniel drew near, exhausted but still ardent, there rose loud +laughter and cheers. "Good gracious!" murmured the missionary, as he +quickly dismounted, pulled his hat straight, and involuntarily tried to +hide himself between Etheridge and Chase. "What <i>have</i> I done!"</p> + +<p>His perturbation was genuine. "Come along," said Chase, who had been +laughing uproariously himself; "we'll protect you." He gave his arm to +Mr. Hill, and with Ruth (who still kept her hold tightly) on his left, +he made with his two companions a stately progress back to the hotel, +followed by the mare led by Cartright, with Etheridge as body-guard; +then by Cyrus Jaycox, with Tippecanoe; and finally by all the +spectators, who now numbered nearly a hundred. But at the head of the +whole file (Chase insisted upon this) marched old Daniel, led by the +other groom.</p> + +<p>"Go round to the front," called Chase. And round they all went to the +main street, amid the hurrahs of the accompanying crowd, white and +black. At the<a name="page_091" id="page_091"></a> door of the Old North, Ruth escaped and took refuge +within, accompanied by the troubled clergyman; and a moment later Chase +and Etheridge followed. Ruth had led the way to Miss Billy's +sitting-room. Miss Billy received her guests with wonder; Maud Muriel +was with her (for her prophecy had come true; the two had already begun +the "going home" with each other).</p> + +<p>"We have had the most exciting race, Miss Billy," explained Ruth. "A +real horse-race round the old track out in the field. And Mr. Hill came +in second on Daniel!"</p> + +<p>The eyes of Miss Billy, turning to the clergyman with horror, moved +Chase to fresh laughter. "I say—why not all stay and dine with me?" he +suggested. "To celebrate Daniel's triumph, you know? I am coming here to +stay, so I might as well begin. The dinner hour is two o'clock, and it +is almost that now. We can have a table to ourselves, and perhaps they +can find us some champagne."</p> + +<p>"That will be great fun; <i>I'll</i> stay," said Ruth. "And the commodore +will, I'm sure. Mr. Hill, too."</p> + +<p>"Thanks, no. I must go. Good-day," said the missionary, hastening out.</p> + +<p>Chase pursued him. "Why, you are the hero of the whole thing," he said; +"the man of the hour! We can't bring old Daniel into the dining-room. So +we must have you, Hill."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to spoil it; but you will have to excuse<a name="page_092" id="page_092"></a> me," answered the +other man, hurriedly. Then, with an outburst of confidence: "It is +impossible for me to remain where Miss Mackintosh is present. There is +something perfectly awful to me, Mr. Chase, in that woman's eye!"</p> + +<p>"Is that all? Come back; I'll see to her," responded Chase. And see to +her he did. Aided by Etheridge, who liked nothing better than to assail +the sculptress with lovelorn compliments, Chase paid Maud Muriel such +devoted attention that for the moment she forgot poor Hill, or rather +she left him to himself. He was able, therefore, to eat his dinner. But +he still said, mutely, "Good gracious!" and, taking out his +handkerchief, he furtively wiped his brow.</p> + +<p>The Old North had provided for its patrons that day roast beef, spring +chickens, new potatoes, and apple puddings. All the diners at the other +tables asked for "a dish of gravy." A saucer containing gravy was then +brought and placed by the side of each plate. Small hot buscuits were +offered instead of bread, and eaten with the golden mountain butter. +Mrs. Jaycox, stimulated by the liberal order for champagne, sent to +Chase's table the additional splendors of three kinds of fresh cake, +peach preserves, and a glass jug of cream.<a name="page_093" id="page_093"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<p>T<small>HE</small> spring deepened into summer, and July opened. On the 10th, the +sojourners at the Warm Springs, the beautiful pools that well up in the +valley of the French Broad River, were assembled on the veranda of the +rambling wooden hotel, after their six o'clock supper, when they saw two +carriages approaching. "Phew! who can they be?" "What horses!"</p> + +<p>The horses were indeed remarkably handsome—two bays and a +lighter-limbed pair of sorrels; in addition there was a mounted groom. +The housekeeper, who had come out on the veranda, mentioned in a low +tone that a second groom had arrived, three hours earlier, to engage +rooms for the party, and make preparations. "They are to have supper by +themselves, later; we're to do our best. Extras have been ordered, and +they've sent all sorts of supplies. And champagne!"</p> + +<p>"Chase, did you say the name was? That's a hoax. It's General Grant +himself, I reckon, coming along yere like a conqueror in disguise," said +a wag.</p> + +<p>The bays were Horace Chase's Peter and Piper, attached to a two-seated +carriage which was a model as regarded comfort; Anthony Etheridge was +driving,<a name="page_094" id="page_094"></a> and with him were Mrs. Franklin, Dolly, and Ruth. Horace Chase +himself, in a light vehicle for two, which he called his cart, had the +sorrels. His companion was a gaunt, dark man, who looked as though he +had been ill. This man was Mrs. Franklin's son Jared.</p> + +<p>Franklin had been stricken by that disheartening malady which is formed +by the union of fever and ague. After bearing it for several weeks, and +sending no tidings of his condition to his family (for he considered it +a rather unmasculine ailment), he had journeyed to Asheville with the +last remnants of his strength, and arriving by stage, and finding no one +at the cottage (for it was his wife's day at the Colored Home), he had +come with uncertain steps across the field to L'Hommedieu, entering the +parlor like a yellow spectre, his eyes sunken, his mind slightly +wandering. "Ye-es, here I am," he said, vaguely. "I was coming next +week, you know. But I—I didn't feel well. And so I've—come now."</p> + +<p>His mother had given a cry; then, with an instinctive movement, her tall +figure looking taller than ever, she had rushed forward and clasped her +dazed, fever-stricken son in her arms.</p> + +<p>The mountain air, prompt remedies, and the vigilant nursing of +Genevieve, soon routed the insidious foes. Routed them, that is, for the +moment; for their strength lies in stealthy returns; as Jared said (he +made jokes even at the worst stages), they never<a name="page_095" id="page_095"></a> know when they are +beaten. But as soon as there was even a truce, their victim, though +still yellow and weak, announced that he must return to his business +immediately.</p> + +<p>"But I thought you spent your summers here, Mr. Franklin?" remarked +Horace Chase, inquiringly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, that is the plan, and I have been here a good deal for the past +three seasons. But this year I can't stay," Jared answered.</p> + +<p>This was said at L'Hommedieu. Ruth was sitting beside her brother on the +sofa, her arm in his. "But you must stay," she protested. "You are not +strong yet; you are not strong at all." She put her other arm across his +breast, as if to keep him. "I shall not let you go!"</p> + +<p>Jared Franklin was tall and broad-shouldered, with dark eyes whose +expression was always sad. In spite of this sadness, he had Dolly's +habit of making jocular remarks. But he had not Dolly's sharpness; where +she was sarcastic, the brother was only ironical. In looks Jared did not +resemble his mother or Dolly. But there was a strong likeness between +his face and Ruth's; they had the same contours, the same mouth.</p> + +<p>While Ruth was protesting, Mrs. Franklin, making no pretence of busying +herself with anything, not even with lamplighters, sat looking at her +son with eyes which seemed to have grown larger, owing to the depth of +love within them. Chase, who had happened to be at L'Hommedieu when +Jared arrived, had never forgotten that rush of the mother—the mother<a name="page_096" id="page_096"></a> +whose easy indolence he had, up to that moment, condemned. So now he +said, with his slight drawl: "Oh, you want to give the fever another +round of shot before you go back, Mr. Franklin. Why not take a few days +more, and drive with me over the Great Smokies into Tennessee?" And the +result was the party already described.</p> + +<p>The evening before the start, Ruth had come out on the veranda of +L'Hommedieu. Chase and her brother had been smoking there (for Jared had +not shown any deep attachment to his smoking-room), and Dolly, who loved +the aroma of cigars, had seated herself near them. Jared had now +strolled off with his mother, and Genevieve, coming over from the +cottage, had taken her husband's place. As she approached, Chase had +extinguished his cigar and tossed it into the grass; for tobacco smoke +always gave the younger Mrs. Franklin a headache.</p> + +<p>Ruth had walked up to Chase's chair. "No, please don't rise; I am only +looking at you, Mr. Chase. You are so wonderful!"</p> + +<p>"Now don't be <i>too</i> hard on me!" interposed the visitor, humorously.</p> + +<p>"First, you are making my brother take this long drive," Ruth went on; +"the very thing of all others that will do him good—and I could go down +on my knees to you just for that! Then you have sent for that easy +carriage, so that Dolly can go, too. Then you are taking <i>me</i>. The +commodore also, who would rather drive Peter and Piper than go to +heaven! I<a name="page_097" id="page_097"></a> have always wanted to see somebody who could do <i>everything</i>. +It must be very nice to have money," she concluded, reflectively.</p> + +<p>"And to do so much good with it," added Genevieve. Genevieve had +insisted that her mother-in-law should take the fourth place in the +carriage; for the drive would be excellent for Mrs. Franklin, who was +far from strong; whereas, for herself, as she was in perfect health, no +change was necessary. Genevieve might have mentioned, also, that she had +had change enough for her whole life, and to spare, during the years +which her husband had spent in the navy; for the younger Mrs. Franklin +did not enjoy varying scenes. A house of her own and everything in it +hers; prearranged occupations, all useful or beneficent, following each +other regularly in an unbroken round; a leading place in the management +of charitable institutions; the writing and despatching of letters, +asking for contributions to these institutions; the general supervision +of the clergy, with an eye to dangerous ritualistic tendencies; the +conscientious endeavor to tell her friends on all occasions what they +ought to do (Genevieve was never angry when they disagreed with her, she +only pitied them. There was, in fact, no one she knew whom she had not +felt herself competent, at one time or another, to pity)—all this gave +her the sense of doing good. And to Genevieve that was more precious +than all else—the feeling that she was doing good. "Ruth is right; it +must be enchanting to<a name="page_098" id="page_098"></a> have money," she went on. "I have often planned +what I should do myself if I had a fortune. I think I may say that I can +direct, administer; I have never seen or read of any charitable +institution, refuge, hospital, home, asylum, or whatever it may be, +which seemed too large or too complicated for me to undertake. On the +contrary, I know I should like it; I feel that I have that sort of +capacity." Her face kindled as she spoke; her genius (for she had a +genius, that of directorship) was stirring within her.</p> + +<p>"You certainly have one part of the capacity, and that is the +despotism," remarked Dolly, laughing. "The other members of your Board +of Managers for the Colored Home, for instance—Mrs. Baxter, Miss Wynne, +Miss Kent—they haven't a voice in even the smallest matter, poor souls! +You rule them with a rod of iron—all for their good, no doubt."</p> + +<p>"As it is," continued the younger Mrs. Franklin, combating not Dolly's +sarcasms (to which she had paid no attention), but her own sincere +longings—"as it is, I cannot build a hospital at present, though I +don't give up hope for the future. But I can at least give my prayers to +all, and that I do; I never ring a door-bell without offering an inward +petition that something I may say will help those whom I shall see when +I go in."</p> + +<p>"Now that's generous," commented Dolly. "But don't be too unselfish, +Genevieve; think of yourself occasionally; why not pray that something +<i>they</i> may say will be a help to <i>you</i>?"<a name="page_099" id="page_099"></a></p> + +<p>After the arrival of his party at the Warm Springs, Chase devoted a +half-hour to a brief but exhaustive examination of the site, the pool, +and the buildings. "When we have made a Tyrol of Buncombe, we'll annex +this place as a sort of Baden-Baden," he said. "Thirty-five miles from +Asheville—that will just do. Ever tried the baths, commodore?"</p> + +<p>"You must apply to somebody who has rheumatism, Mr. Chase," answered +Etheridge, loftily.</p> + +<p>"The pool has an abundant supply at a temperature of 104 Fahrenheit," +Chase went on, with the gleam of a smile showing itself in his eyes for +a moment (for the commodore's air of youth always amused him; it was so +determined). "Baden-Baden was one of the prettiest little places I saw +over there, on the other side of the big pond. They've taken lots of +pains to lay out a promenade along a stream, and the stream is about as +big as one from a garden-hose! But here there could be a walk worth +something—along this French Broad."</p> + +<p>They were strolling near the river in the red light of the sunset. +"Their forest that they talk about, their Black Forest, is all guarded +and patrolled," Chase continued; "every tree counted! I don't call that +a forest at all. Now <i>these</i> woods are perfectly wild. Why—they're as +wild as Noah!"</p> + +<p>"Don't you mean old as Noah?" inquired Ruth, laughing.</p> + +<p>"Certainly not," commented Jared. "Noah was<a name="page_100" id="page_100"></a> extremely wild. And not in +his youth only; in his age as well."</p> + +<p>"The first thing, however, would be the roads," Chase went on. "I never +thought I should have to take a back seat about the United States of +America! But I returned from Europe singing small, I can tell you, about +our roads. Talk about the difficulty of making 'em? Go and look at +Switzerland!"</p> + +<p>"By all means," said Ruth, promptly. "Only tell us how, Mr. Chase. We'll +go at once." She was walking with her brother, her hat dangling by its +elastic cord from her arm.</p> + +<p>Chase came out of his plans. "So you want to see Switzerland, do you?" +he said, in an indulgent tone.</p> + +<p>Ruth lifted her hat, and made with it a gesture which took in the entire +horizon. "I wish to see everything in the world!" Jared took her hat +away from her, put it on her head and secured it, or tried to secure it. +"Will you take me, Jared? I mean some day?" she said, as he bungled with +the cord, endeavoring to get it over her hair. "That's not the way." She +unbuttoned the loop and adjusted it. It was a straw hat (thanks to +Genevieve, a new one), which shaded her face, but left free, behind, the +thick braids which covered her small head from crown to throat.</p> + +<p>"Once, pussy, I might have answered yes. But now I'm not so sure," +replied Jared, rather gloomily.</p> + +<p>"I don't want to go, I wasn't in earnest; I only<a name="page_101" id="page_101"></a> want to stay where you +are," exclaimed his young sister, her mood changing. "But if only you +had never left the navy! If only you were not tied down in that horrid, +horrid Raleigh!"</p> + +<p>"Is Raleigh so very horrid?" inquired Chase.</p> + +<p>"Any place is horrid that keeps Jared shut up in a warehouse all day," +announced Ruth, indignantly.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Franklin, who was behind with Etheridge, came forward, took Ruth's +arm, and led her back.</p> + +<p>"She is sorry that you left the service?" Chase inquired of the brother.</p> + +<p>Ruth overheard this question. "Jared was always well when he was in the +navy," she called out. "No, His Grand, I <i>will</i> say it: he was always +well, and he was happy too; Dolly has told me so. Now he is never well; +he is growing so thin that I can't bear to see it. And as for +happiness—he is <i>miserable</i>!" Her voice broke; she stood still, her +breast heaving.</p> + +<p>Jared strolled on, his hands in the pockets of his flannel coat. "It's +nothing," he said to Chase, who was looking back; "she'll get over it in +a moment. She says whatever comes into her head; we have spoiled her, I +suppose. She was so much younger, you see; the last of my mother's six +children. And the three who came before her had died in infancy, so +there was a great to-do when this one lived."</p> + +<p>Chase glanced back a second time. Ruth, Mrs. Franklin, and Etheridge had +turned, and were going towards the hotel. "She appears to wish that you +had remained in the navy; isn't that rather odd?"<a name="page_102" id="page_102"></a> he inquired, the idea +in his mind being simply the facilities that existed for seeing this +idolized brother, now that Raleigh was his home instead of the ocean.</p> + +<p>"Odd?" repeated Jared. And his tone had such a strange vibration that +his companion turned and looked at him.</p> + +<p>They continued their walk for an hour longer. When they came back, they +found the commodore seated on the veranda of the cottage which had been +arranged for their use by Chase's courier. Ruth and Mrs. Franklin were +his companions, and Dolly was also there, resting on a sofa which had +been rolled out from the room behind. Chase and Jared lighted cigars; +Etheridge took out a cigarette.</p> + +<p>"Now if we only had Maud Muriel with her long clay pipe!" said Ruth. +There was no trace of trouble left in her voice; she had drawn her chair +close to her brother's, and seated herself contentedly.</p> + +<p>"It's to the pipe you owe the very clever likeness she has made of your +scamp of a dog," remarked Etheridge. "The smoking relaxed her a little, +without her knowing it, and so she didn't confine herself, as she +usually does, to the purely commonplace side."</p> + +<p>"Petie! A <i>commonplace</i> side!" protested Ruth.</p> + +<p>"She now wishes <i>me</i> to sit to her," said Mrs. Franklin; "for my +wrinkles have grown so deep lately that she is sure she can make +something satisfactorily hideous. Oh, I don't mind the wrinkles, Mr. +Chase!" (for Chase had begun to say, "Not at<a name="page_103" id="page_103"></a> all, ma'am"). "I received +my quietus long ago. When I was not quite forty, there was some question +about a particular dress-maker whom I wished to see at McCreery's. 'Was +she an <i>old</i> woman?' inquired an assistant. 'We have only one <i>old</i> +fitter.' It proved to be the person I meant. She was of my own age. The +same year I asked a young friend about a party which he had attended the +night before. 'Dreadfully dull,' he answered. 'Nobody there but old +frumps.' And the old frumps (as I happened to know) were simply twenty +or thirty of my contemporaries."</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's hard; I have often thought so!" said Etheridge, with +conviction. "Men, you see, have no age. But nothing saves a woman."</p> + +<p>"Yes, one thing—namely, to look like a sheep," replied Mrs. Franklin. +"If a woman wishes her face to remain young, she must cultivate calm, +and even stolidity; she must banish changing expressions; she must give +her facial muscles many hours, daily, of absolute repose. Most of my +wrinkles have been caused by my wretched habit of contorting my poor +thin slave of a face, partly of course to show my intelligence and +appreciation, but really, also, in a large measure from sympathy. I have +smiled unflinchingly at other people's jokes, looked sad for their +griefs, angry for their injuries; I have raised my eyebrows to my hair +over their surprises, and knitted my forehead into knots over their +mysteries; in short, I have never ceased to grimace. However,<a name="page_104" id="page_104"></a> even to +the sheep-women there comes the fatal moment when their cheeks begin to +look like those of an old baby," she concluded, laughing.</p> + +<p>Dolly, for once untalkative, had not paid attention to this +conversation; the moon had risen, and she had been watching its radiance +descend slowly and make a silver path across the river. It was so +beautiful! And (a rare occurrence with Dolly) it led her to think of +herself. "How I should have enjoyed, enjoyed, <i>enjoyed</i> everything if I +had only been well!" Even the tenderly loving mother could not have +comprehended fully her daughter's heart at that moment. For Mrs. +Franklin had had her part, such as it was, on the stage of human +existence, and had played it. But Dolly's regret was for a life unlived. +"How enchantingly lovely!" she murmured aloud, looking at the moonlit +water.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Etheridge; "and its greatest beauty is that it's primeval. +Larue, I suppose, would call it primevalish!"</p> + +<p>"I had thought of asking the senator to come along with us," observed +Chase.</p> + +<p>"In a sedan-chair?" inquired Etheridge. "I don't think you know what a +petrified squam-doodle he is!"</p> + +<p>"No, I can't say I do. I only know he's a senator, and we want some +senators. To boom our Tyrol, you know. Generals, too. Cottages might be +put up at pleasant points near Asheville—on Beaucatcher, for +instance—and presented to half a dozen<a name="page_105" id="page_105"></a> of the best-known Southern +generals? What do you say to that?"</p> + +<p>"Generals as much as you like; but when you and the Willoughbys spread +your nets for senators, do select better specimens than Achilles Larue! +He is only in the place temporarily at best; he'll be kicked out soon. +He succeeded the celebrated old senator who had represented this state +for years, and was as well known here, he and his trunk, as the +mountains themselves. When he resigned, there happened to be no one of +the right sort ready in the political field. Larue was here, he was a +college-bred man, and he had some reputation as an author (he has +written a dreadfully dull book, <i>The Blue Ridge in the Glacial Period</i>). +He had a little money, too, and that was in his favor. So they put him +in; and now they wish they hadn't! He has no magnetism, no go; nothing +but his tiresome drawing-copy profile and his good clothes. You say you +don't know what sort of a person he is? He is a decrier, sir; nothing +ever fully pleases him. His opinions on all subjects are so clipped to +the bone, so closely shaved and denuded, that they are like the plucked +chickens, blue and skinny, that one sees for sale at a stall. Achilles +Larue never smokes. On the hottest day Achilles Larue remains clammily +cold. He has no appreciation of a good dinner; he lives on salt mackerel +and digestive crackers. Finally, to sum him up, he is a man, sir, who +can neither ride nor drive—a man who knows nothing whatever about<a name="page_106" id="page_106"></a> a +horse! What do you suppose he asked me, when I was looking at a +Blue-Grass pacer last year? 'Does he possess endurance?' Yes—actually +those words of a <i>horse</i>! 'Does he possess endurance?'" repeated +Etheridge, pursing up his lips and pronouncing the syllables in a +mincing tone.</p> + +<p>"You say he has nothing but his drawing-copy profile and his good +clothes," remarked Dolly. "But he has something more, commodore: the +devotion of Mrs. Kip and Miss Billy Breeze."</p> + +<p>Etheridge looked discomfited.</p> + +<p>"<i>Two</i> ladies?" said Chase. "Why, he's in luck! Bachelor, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"He is a widower," answered Mrs. Franklin. "His wife happened to have +been a fool. He now believes that all women are idiots."</p> + +<p>"He is a man who has never written, and who never will write, a book +that stands on its own feet, whether good or bad; but only books <i>about</i> +books," grumbled Etheridge. "He has merely the commentator's mind. His +views on the Glacial Period are all borrowed. He can't be original even +about an iceberg!"</p> + +<p>"The ladies I have mentioned think that his originality is his strongest +point," objected Dolly. "He produces great effects by describing some +one in this way, for instance: 'He had small eyes and a grin. He was +remarkably handsome.' This leaves them open-mouthed. But Miss Billy +herself, as she stands, is his greatest effect; she was never outlined<a name="page_107" id="page_107"></a> +in very vivid hues, and now she has so effaced herself, rubbed herself +out, as it were (from fear lest he should call her 'sensational'), that +she is like a skeleton leaf. She has the greatest desire to be +'delicate,' extremely delicate, in everything that she does; and she +tries to sing, therefore, with so much expression that it's all +expression and very little singing! 'Coarse!'—that is to her the most +terrible word in the whole vocabulary. I asked her once whether her +horned tryceratops, with his seventy-five feet of length, might not have +been a little coarse in his manners."</p> + +<p>"I declare I'll never go to see the woman again; she <i>is</i> such a goose!" +exclaimed Etheridge, angrily.</p> + +<p>Jared laughed. And then his mother laughed also, happy to see him +amused. But at the same time she was thinking: "You may not go to see +Billy. But, dear me! you will come to see <i>us</i> forever and forever!" And +she had a weary vision of Etheridge, entering with his "hum-ha," and his +air of youth, five or six times a week as long as she lived.</p> + +<p>"Commodore," said Dolly, "you may not go to see Miss Breeze. But I am +sure you will come to see <i>us</i>, with your cheerful hum-ha, and your +youthful face, as long as we live."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Franklin passed her hand over her forehead. "There it is again!" +she thought. For, strangely often, Dolly would give voice to the very +ideas that were passing through her mother's mind at the moment. At +L'Hommedieu the two would fall into<a name="page_108" id="page_108"></a> silence sometimes, and remain +silent for a half-hour, one with her embroidery, the other with her +knitting. And then when Dolly spoke at last, it would be of the exact +subject which was in her mother's mind. Mrs. Franklin no longer +exclaimed: "How could you know I was thinking of that!" It happened too +often. She herself never divined Dolly's thoughts. It was Dolly who +divined hers, most of the time unconsciously.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Etheridge had replied, in a reassuring voice: "Well, Dolly, +I'll do my best; you may count upon <i>that</i>." And then Ruth, leaning her +head against her brother's arm so that her face was hidden, laughed +silently.</p> + +<p>From the Warm Springs they drove over the Great Smoky Mountains into +Tennessee. Then returning, making no haste, they climbed slowly up again +among the peaks. At the top of the pass they paused to gaze at the +far-stretching view—Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, +South Carolina, and Georgia; on the west, the Cumberland ranges sloping +towards Chattanooga; in the east, the crowded summits of the Blue Ridge, +their hue an unchanging azure; the Black Mountains with Mitchell, the +Cat-tail Peak, the Balsams, the Hairy Bear, the Big Craggy, Great +Pisgah, the Grandfather, and many more. The brilliant sunshine and the +crystalline atmosphere revealed every detail—the golden and red tints +of the gigantic bald cliffs near them, the foliage of every tree; the +farm-houses<a name="page_109" id="page_109"></a> like white dots thousands of feet below. Up here at the top +of the pass there were no clearings visible; for long miles in every +direction the forest held unbroken sway, filling the gorges like a leafy +ocean, and sweeping up to the surrounding summits in the darker tints of +the black balsams. The air was filled with delicate wild odors, a +fragrance which is like no other—the breath of a virgin forest.</p> + +<p>"And you want to put a railroad here?" broke out Dolly, suddenly. She +addressed Horace Chase, who had drawn up his sorrels beside the +carriage.</p> + +<p>"Oh no, Miss Dolly; it can't get up so high, you know," he answered, not +comprehending her dislike. "It will have to go through down below; +tunnels."</p> + +<p>"The principal objection I have to your railroad, Chase, is that it will +bring railroad good-byes to this uncorrupted neighborhood," said Jared. +"For there will be, of course, a station. And people will have to go +there to see their friends off. The train will always be late in +starting; then the heretofore sincere Ashevillians will be driven to all +the usual exaggerations and falsities to fill the eternal time; they +will have to repeat the same things over and over, stand first on one +leg and then on the other, and smile until they are absolute clowns. +Meanwhile their departing friends will be obliged to lean out of the +car-windows in return, and repeat inanities and grin, until they too are +perfectly haggard." Jared was now seated beside Etheridge; he had given +up his place in the cart to Ruth for an hour or two. Several<a name="page_110" id="page_110"></a> times Mrs. +Franklin herself had tried the cart. She was very happy, for Jared had +undoubtedly gained strength; there was a faint color in his cheeks, and +his face looked less worn, his eyes a little less dreary.</p> + +<p>"How I should like to see <i>all</i> the mountains!" exclaimed Ruth, +suddenly, looking at the crowded circle of peaks.</p> + +<p>"Well—I suppose there are some sort of roads?" Chase answered.</p> + +<p>"Put the two pairs together and make a four-in-hand," suggested +Etheridge, eagerly. "Then we might drive down Transylvania way. When I +wasn't more than eighteen I often drove a four-in-hand over +the—the—the range up there where I was born," he concluded, with fresh +inward disgust over the forgotten name.</p> + +<p>"The Green Mountains," said Mrs. Franklin.</p> + +<p>"Not at all. The Catskills," Etheridge answered, curtly. His birthplace +was Rutland, Vermont. But on principle he never acknowledged a forgotten +title.</p> + +<p>"This is the country of the moonshiners, isn't it?" asked Chase, his +keen eyes glancing down a wild gorge.</p> + +<p>"The young lady beside you can tell about that," Etheridge answered.</p> + +<p>Chase turned to Ruth, surprised. The color was leaving her face. "Yes, I +<i>did</i> see; I saw a man shot!" she said, her dark-fringed blue eyes +lifted to his with an awe-struck expression. "It was at<a name="page_111" id="page_111"></a> Crumb's, the +house where we stayed the first night, you know. I was standing at the +door. A man came running along the road, trying to reach the house. +Behind him, not more than ten feet distant, came another man, also +running. He held a pistol at arm's-length. He fired twice. After the +first shot, the man in front still ran. After the second, he staggered +along for a step or two, and then fell. And the other man disappeared." +These short sentences came out in whispered tones; when she finished, +her face was blanched.</p> + +<p>"You ought not to have seen it. You ought not to have told me," said +Chase, giving an indignant glance towards the carriage; he thought they +should have prevented the narration.</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't be disturbed, Mr. Chase," said Dolly, looking at him from her +cushions with an amused smile. "The balls were extracted, and the man is +now in excellent health. Ruth has a way of turning perfectly white and +then enormously red on all occasions. She was much whiter last week when +it was supposed that Petie Trone, Esq., had inflammation of the lungs."</p> + +<p>And Ruth herself was already laughing again, and the red had returned.</p> + +<p>"It was a revenue detective," explained Mrs. Franklin; "I mean the man +who was shot. The mountaineers have always made whiskey, and they think +that they have a right to make it; they look upon the detectives as +spies."<a name="page_112" id="page_112"></a></p> + +<p>But Chase had no sympathy for moonshiners; he was on the side of law and +order. "The government should send up troops," he said. "What else are +they for?"</p> + +<p>"It is not the business of the army to hunt out illicit stills," replied +Jared Franklin, all the ex-officer in his haughty tone.</p> + +<p>"Well, maybe not; you see I'm only a civilian myself," remarked Chase, +in a pacific voice. "Shall we go on?"</p> + +<p>They started down the eastern slope. When the cart was at some distance +in front, Ruth said: "Oh, Mr. Chase, thank you for answering so +good-naturedly. My brother has in reality a sweet temper. But lately he +has been so out of sorts, so unhappy."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am beginning to understand about that, Miss Ruth; I didn't at +first. It's a great pity. Perhaps something can be done?"</p> + +<p>"No; he can't get back into the navy now," said Ruth, sadly.</p> + +<p>"But a change of some kind might be arranged," answered Chase, touching +the off horse.</p> + +<p>At the base of the mountains they followed the river road again, a rocky +track, sometimes almost in the water, under towering cliffs that rose +steeply, their summits leaning forward a little as though they would +soon topple over. At many points it was a veritable cañon, and the swift +current of the stream foamed so whitely over the scattered rocks of its +bed that it was like the rapids of Niagara.<a name="page_113" id="page_113"></a> Here and there were bold +islands; the forest on both sides was splendid with the rich tints of +the <i>Rhododendron maximum</i> in full bloom; not patches or single bushes, +but high thickets, a solid wall of blazing color.</p> + +<p>Their stopping-place for the last evening was the farm-house called +Crumb's, where they had also spent the first night of their journey on +their way westward. Crumb's was one of the old farms; the grandfather of +David Crumb had tilled the same acres. It was a pleasant place near the +river, the house comparatively large and comfortable. The Crumbs were +well-to-do in the limited mountain sense of the term, though they had +probably never had a hundred dollars in cash in their lives. Mrs. Crumb, +a lank woman with stooping shoulders and a soft, flat voice, received +them without excitement. Nothing that life had to offer, for good or for +ill, could ever bring excitement again to Portia Crumb. Her four sons +had been killed in battle in Virginia, one after the other, and the +mother lived on patiently. David Crumb was more rebellious against what +he called their "bad luck." Once a week, and sometimes twice, he went to +Asheville, making the journey a pretext for forgetting troubles +according to the ancient way. He was at Asheville now, his wife +explained, "with a load of wood." She did not add that he would probably +return with a load of another sort—namely, a mixture of whiskey and +repentance. The two never spoke of their lost boys;<a name="page_114" id="page_114"></a> when they talked +together it was always about "the craps."</p> + +<p>Porshy, as her friends called her, having been warned by Chase's courier +that her former guests were returning, had set her supper-table with +care. People stopped at Crumb's perforce; for, save at Warm Springs, +there were no inns in the French Broad Valley. Ruth had been there +often. For the girl, who was a fearless horsewoman, was extravagantly +fond of riding; at one time or another she had ridden almost every horse +in Asheville, including old Daniel himself. Of late years the Crumbs +would have been glad to be relieved of all visitors. But the mountain +farmers of the South are invariably hospitable—hospitable even with +their last slice of corn-bread, their last cup of coffee. Porshy, +therefore, had brought out her best table-cloth (homespun, like her +sheets), her six thin silver teaspoons, her three china teacups and +saucers. "Yes, rale chiny, you bet," she had said, in her gentle, +lifeless voice, when Mrs. Franklin, who knew the tragedy of the house, +was benevolently admiring the painstaking effort. The inevitable hot +biscuits were waiting in a flat pan, together with fried bacon and +potatoes and coffee. Chase's supplies of potted meats, hot-house fruit, +and excellent champagne made the meal an extraordinary combination. The +table was set in the kitchen, which was also the living-room. One end of +the large, low-browed apartment was blocked by the loom, for Portia had +been accustomed to spin,<a name="page_115" id="page_115"></a> weave, dye, and fashion all the garments worn +by herself and her family.</p> + +<p>As they left the table, the sinking sun sent his horizontal beams +through the open windows in a flood of golden light. "Let us go up to +the terrace," said Ruth.</p> + +<p>The terrace was a plateau on the mountain-side at some distance above; a +winding path led thither through the thick forest. "It is too far," said +Mrs. Franklin. "It is at least a mile from here, and a steep climb all +the way; and, besides, it will soon be dark."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but I want to go immensely, His Grand. Mr. Chase liked it so much +when we were up there on our way out that he says it shall be named +after me. And perhaps they will put up a cottage."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Ruth's Terrace, ma'am. That is the name I propose," said Chase.</p> + +<p>"There will be light enough to go up; and then we can wait there until +the moon rises," continued Ruth. "The moon is full to-night, and the +view will be lovely. You will go, Jared, won't you? Oh, please!"</p> + +<p>She had her way, as usual. Chase and Jared, lighting cigars, prepared to +accompany her.</p> + +<p>"You'll stay here, I suppose, commodore?" said Chase.</p> + +<p>"Stay here! By no means. There is nothing I like better than an evening +stroll," answered Etheridge, heroically. And, lighting a cigarette, he<a name="page_116" id="page_116"></a> +walked on in advance, swinging his cane with an air of meditative +enjoyment.</p> + +<p>Dolly and Mrs. Franklin, meanwhile, sat beside the small fire which +Portia had made on the broad hearth of her "best room." The fire, of +aromatic "fat-pine" splinters only, without large sticks, had been +kindled more on account of the light than from any need of its warmth; +for the evening, though cool, was not cold. The best room, however, was +large, and the great forest and cliffs outside, and the wild river, made +the little blaze seem cheerful. Portia had been proud of this apartment +in the old days before the war. In one corner there was a bed covered +with a brilliant patch-work quilt; on the mantel-piece there was an old +accordion, and a vase for flowers whose design was a hand holding a +cornucopia; the floor was covered by a rag carpet; and tacked on the +walls in a long row were colored fashion plates from <i>Godey's Lady's +Book</i> for 1858. At ten o'clock Ruth and the commodore came in. But long +after midnight, when the others were asleep, Chase and Jared Franklin +still strolled to and fro along the river road in the moonlight, +talking. The next day they all returned to Asheville.</p> + +<p>At the end of the week, when Jared went back to his business, Chase +accompanied him. "I thought I might as well take a look at that horrid +Raleigh," he said to Ruth, with solemn humor. "You see, I have been +laboring under the impression that it was a very<a name="page_117" id="page_117"></a> pretty place—a +mistake which evidently wants to be cleared up."</p> + +<p>Ten days later the mud-bespattered Blue Ridge stage came slowly into +Asheville at its accustomed hour. The mail-bags were thrown out, and +then the postmaster, in his shirt-sleeves, with his spectacles on his +nose and his straw hat tilted back on his head, began the distribution +of their contents, assisted (through the open windows) by the usual +group of loungers. This friendly audience had its elbows on the sill. It +made accompanying comments as follows: "Hurry up, you veteran of the +Mexican war!" "That letter ain't for Johnny Monroe. It's for Jem Morse; +I can see the direction from here. Where's your eyes?" "<i>Six</i> for +General Cyarter? Lucky reb, <i>he</i> is!"</p> + +<p>Twenty minutes later Genevieve Franklin entered the parlor of +L'Hommedieu, a flush of deep rose-color in each cheek, her eyes +lustrous. "Mamma, a letter from Jay! It is too good—I cannot tell +you—" Her words came out pantingly, for she had been running; she sat +down with her hand over her breast as if to help herself breathe.</p> + +<p>"From Jared? Oh, where are my glasses?" said Mrs. Franklin, searching +vainly in her pocket and then on the table. "Here, Dolly. Quick! Read +it!"</p> + +<p>And then Dolly, also excited, read Jared's letter aloud.</p> + +<p>Ruth came in in time to hear this sentence: "I<a name="page_118" id="page_118"></a> am to have charge of +their Charleston office (the office of the Columbian Line), at a salary +of three thousand dollars a year."</p> + +<p>"Who? What? Not Jared? And at <i>Charleston</i>?" cried the girl, clapping +her hands. "Oh, how splendid! For it's the water, you know; the +salt-water at last. With the ships coming and going, and the ocean, it +won't be so awfully inland to him, poor fellow, as Raleigh and Atlanta."</p> + +<p>"And the large salary," said Genevieve, still breathless. "<i>That's</i> +Horrie! I have felt sure, from the first, that he would do something for +us. Such an old friend of mine. Dear, dear Horrie!"</p> + +<p>A week later Chase returned. "Yes, he'll get off to Charleston, ma'am, +in a few days," he said to Mrs. Franklin. "When he is settled there, you +must pay him a visit. I guess you'll end by going there to live."</p> + +<p>"Oh, we can't; we have this house, and no house there. If I could only +sell that place in Florida! However, we can stop in Charleston when we +go to Florida this winter. That is, if we go," added the mother, +remembering her load of debts. But she soon forgot it again; she forgot +everything save her joy in the brighter life for her son. "How can I +thank you?" she said to Chase, gratefully.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's no favor, ma'am. We have always needed a first-class man at +Charleston, and we've never had it; we think ourselves very lucky in +being able to secure Mr. Franklin."</p> + +<p>As he went back to the Old North with Etheridge,<a name="page_119" id="page_119"></a> whom he had met at +L'Hommedieu (as Mrs. Franklin would have said, "of course!"), Chase +added some further particulars. "You never saw such a mess as he'd made +of it, commodore. He told me—we had a good deal of talk when we took +that French Broad drive—that his business wasn't what he had hoped it +would be when he went into it; that he was afraid it was running down. +Running down? It was at a standstill; six months more, and he would have +been utterly swamped. The truth is, he didn't know how to manage it. How +should he? What does a navy man know about leather? He saw that it was +all wrong, yet he didn't know how to help it; that took the heart out of +him, you see. There was no use in going on with it a day longer; and so +I told him, as soon as I had looked into the thing a little. He has, +therefore, made an arrangement—sold out. And now he is going to take a +place at Charleston—our Columbian Line."</p> + +<p>"To the tune of three thousand dollars a year, I understand?"</p> + +<p>"He'll be worth it to us. A navy officer as agent will be a feather in +our caps. It's a pity he couldn't take command of one of our +steamers—with his hankering for the sea. Our steamer officers wear +uniforms, you know?"</p> + +<p>"Take care that he doesn't knock you down," said Etheridge, dryly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I haven't suggested it. I see he's cranky," Chase answered.<a name="page_120" id="page_120"></a></p> + +<p>When Jared Franklin reached Charleston, he went to the office of the +Columbian Company. It faced a wharf or dock, and from its windows he +could see the broad harbor, the most beautiful port of the South +Atlantic coast. He looked at Fort Sumter, then off towards the low white +beaches of Morris Island; he knew the region well; his ship had lain +outside during the war. Deliciously sweet to him was the salt tang of +the sea; already, miles inland, he had perceived it, and had put his +head out of the car window; the salt marshes had been to him like a +tonic, as the train rushed past. The ocean out there in the east, too, +that was rather better than a clattering street! Words could never +express how he loathed the remembrance of the hides and the leather. A +steamer of the Columbian Line came in. He went on board, contemptuous of +everything, of course, but enjoying that especial species of contempt. +Ascending to the upper deck, he glanced at the rigging and smoke-stacks. +They were not what he approved of; but, oh! the solace of abusing any +sort of rigging outlined against the sky! He went down and looked at the +engines; he spoke to the engineer; he prowled all over the ship, from +stem to stern, his feet enjoying the sensation of something underneath +them that floated. That evening, seated on a bench at the Battery, with +his arms on the railing, he looked out to sea. His beloved old life came +back to him; all his cruises—the Mediterranean ports, Villefranche and +the Bay of Naples; the<a name="page_121" id="page_121"></a> harbors of China, Rio Janeiro, Alexandria; +tropical islands; the color of the Pacific—while the wash of the water +below sounded in his ears. At last, long after midnight, he rose; he +came back to reality again. "Well, even this is a great windfall. And I +must certainly do the best I can for that long-legged fellow"—so he +said to himself as he went up Meeting Street towards his hotel. He liked +Chase after a fashion; he appreciated his friendliness and his genius +for business. But this was the way he thought of him—"that long-legged +fellow." Chase's fortune made no impression upon him. At heart he had +the sailor's chronic indifference to money-making. But at heart he had +also something else—Genevieve; Genevieve and her principles and plans, +Genevieve and her rules.<a name="page_122" id="page_122"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<p>O<small>NE</small> afternoon early in September, Miss Billy Breeze, her cheeks pink, +her gentle eyes excited, entered the principal store of Asheville, the +establishment of Messrs. Pinkham & Bebb. "Kid gloves, if you please, Mr. +Bebb. Delicate shades. No. 6." The box of gloves having been produced, +Miss Billy selected quickly twelve pairs. "I will take these. And please +add twelve pairs of white."</p> + +<p>Mr. Bebb was astounded, the order seemed to him reckless. Everybody in +Asheville knew that Miss Billy's income was six hundred dollars a year. +He made up the parcel slowly, in order to give her time to change her +mind. But Miss Billy paid for the twenty-four pairs without a quiver, +and, with the same excited look, took the package and went out. She +walked down the main street to its last houses; she came back on the +other side. Turning to the right, she traversed all the cross-roads in +that direction. When this was done, she re-entered the main street +again, and passed through its entire length a second time. It was +Saturday, the day when the country people came to town. Ten mountaineers +in a row were sitting on their heels in front of the post-office. +Mountain women on horseback,<a name="page_123" id="page_123"></a> wearing deep sun-bonnets, rode up and down +the street, bartering. Wagons passed along, loaded with peaches heaped +together as though they were potatoes. Miss Billy was now traversing all +the cross-roads to the left. When this was accomplished she came back to +the main street, and began over again. It took about an hour to make the +entire circuit. At half-past five, on her fourth round, still walking +quickly and always with an air of being bound to some especial point, +she met Achilles Larue. "Oh—really—is this <i>you</i>, Mr. Larue? Such a +<i>surprise</i> to see you! Lovely day, isn't it? I've been buying gloves." +She opened the package and turned over the gloves hastily. "Light +shades, you see. I—I thought I'd better."</p> + +<p>Larue, slightly lifting his hat, was about to pass on.</p> + +<p>But Miss Billy detained him. "Of course you are interested in the news, +Mr. Larue? Weren't you surprised? I was. I am afraid she is a little too +young for him. I think it is rather better when they are of <i>about</i> the +same age—don't you?" She had no idea that she had been walking, and at +twice her usual speed, for more than four hours. But her slender body +knew; it trembled from fatigue.</p> + +<p>Larue made another move, as if about to continue his course.</p> + +<p>"But do tell me—weren't you surprised?" Billy repeated, hastily. (For, +oh! he <i>must</i> not go so soon.)<a name="page_124" id="page_124"></a></p> + +<p>"I don't think I am ever surprised, Miss Breeze."</p> + +<p>Here Anthony Etheridge came by, and stopped. He looked sternly at Miss +Billy. "But what do you <i>think</i> of it, Mr. Larue?" Billy was inquiring.</p> + +<p>"I have not thought of it," Larue responded, coldly.</p> + +<p>"Are you selling gloves?" inquired Etheridge. For the paper having +fallen to the ground, the two dozen pairs were visible, lying in +confusion over Billy's arm.</p> + +<p>"To Mr. Larue?" (Giggle.) "Oh, I couldn't." (Giggle.) "They're only No. +6." For poor Billy had one humble little pride—her pretty hand.</p> + +<p>There was a sound of horses' feet, and Ruth Franklin rode round the +corner, on Kentucky Belle, giving them a gay nod as she passed. Horace +Chase and Malachi Hill were with her, both mounted on beautiful +horses—one black, one chestnut; and at some distance behind followed +Chase's groom. "How <i>happy</i> she looks!" murmured Miss Billy, with an +involuntary sigh.</p> + +<p>"Yes. She has obtained what she likes," commented Larue. "Hers is a +frivolous nature; she requires gayety, change, luxury, and now she will +have them. Her family are very wise to consent. For they have, I +suspect, but little money. Her good looks will soon disappear; at thirty +she will be plain." And this time, decidedly, he walked away.</p> + +<p>Miss Billy, her eyes dimmed by unshed tears,<a name="page_125" id="page_125"></a> looked after him. "Such +a—such a <i>worldly</i> view of marriage!" she managed to articulate.</p> + +<p>"What can you expect from a fish?" answered Etheridge, secretly glad of +his opportunity. "Achilles Larue is as cold-blooded as a mackerel, and +always was. I don't say he will never marry again; but if he does, the +woman he selects will have to go down on her knees and stay there" (Miss +Billy's eyes looked hopeful); "and bring him, also, a good big sum of +money in her hand." Here, noticing that one of the pairs of gloves had +slipped down so far that it was held by the tips of its fingers only, he +turned away with a sudden "Good-afternoon." For he had had rheumatism +all night in the small of his back; he could walk, but he could not +stoop.</p> + +<p>Miss Billy went home much depressed. The night before, after her usual +devotions and an hour's perusal of <i>The Blue Ridge in the Glacial +Period</i> (she read the volume through regularly once a month), she had +attempted a thought-transferrence. She had, indeed, made many such +experiments since Maud Muriel's explanation of the process. But last +night she had for the first time succeeded in keeping her mind strictly +to the subject; for nearly ten minutes, with her face screwed up by the +intensity of the effort, she had willed continuously, "Like me, +Achilles, like me!" (She was too modest even to <i>think</i> "love" instead +of "like.") "You must! You <i>shall</i>!" And now, when at last she had +succeeded in meeting him, this was the result! She<a name="page_126" id="page_126"></a> put away the gloves +mechanically: she had bought them not from any need, but simply because +she had felt the wish to go out and <i>do</i> something when the exciting +news of Ruth Franklin's engagement had reached her at noon. Stirred as +she already was by her own private experiment of the previous night, the +thought in her heart was: "Well, it isn't extravagance, for light gloves +are always useful. And then in case of—of anything happening to <i>me</i>, +they'd be all ready."</p> + +<p>When Anthony Etheridge left her, he went to L'Hommedieu, where he found +Dolly in the parlor with Petie Trone, Esq. Trone's basket had been +established by Ruth under the pedestal which now held his own likeness. +For Chase had kept his word; Maud Muriel's clever work had been +reproduced in bronze. The squirrel also was present; he was climbing up +the window-curtain. "So <i>you</i> have to see to the pets, do you?" remarked +the visitor as he seated himself. He had known of the engagement for +several days; he had already made what he called "the proper speeches" +to Mrs. Franklin and Ruth, and to Chase himself. "I have just seen +her—on Kentucky Belle," he went on. "Well, he will give her everything, +that's one certainty. On the whole, she's a lucky girl."</p> + +<p>"It is Mr. Chase who is lucky," answered Dolly, stiffly. She was +finishing off the toe of a stocking, and did not look up. "I consider +Mr. Chase a miraculously fortunate man."<a name="page_127" id="page_127"></a></p> + +<p>"Miraculously? How do you mean? Because she is young? The good-fortune, +as regards that, is for the wife, not the husband; for she will always +be so much his junior that he will have to consider her—he will never +dare to neglect her. Well, Dolly, all Asheville has heard the news this +morning; the town is ringing with it. And it is such an amiable +community that it has immediately given its benediction in the most +optimistic way. Of course, though, there are some who maintain that she +is marrying him for his money."</p> + +<p>Dolly knitted more rapidly.</p> + +<p>"And so she is," Etheridge added. "Though not in their sense, for she +has never reflected, never thought about it, never made a plan. All the +same, it is his wealth, you know, which has fascinated her—his wealth +and his liberality. She has never seen anything like it. No one she +knows has ever done such things—flowers, jewels, journeys, her brother +lifted out of his troubles as if by magic, a future sparkling and +splendid opening before her; no wonder she is dazzled. In addition, she +herself has an ingrained love of ease—"</p> + +<p>Dolly dropped her stocking. "Do you think I intend to sit here and +listen to you?" she demanded, with flashing eyes.</p> + +<p>"Wait, wait," answered Etheridge, putting out his hand as if to explain; +"you don't see what I am driving at, Dolly. As Mrs. Chase, your sister +will have everything she wishes for; all her tastes and<a name="page_128" id="page_128"></a> fancies +gratified to the full; and that is no small affair! Chase will be fond +of her; in addition, he will be excessively indulgent to her in every +way. With her nature and disposition, her training, too (for you have +spoiled her, all of you), it is really an ideal marriage for the girl, +and that is what I am trying to tell you. You might search the world +over, and you could not find a better one."</p> + +<p>"I don't like it; I never shall like it," answered Dolly, implacably. +"And mother in her heart agrees with me, though she has, somehow, a +higher idea of the man than I have. As for Ruth—Ruth is simply swept +away—"</p> + +<p>"Exactly; swept into her proper sphere," interrupted Etheridge. "Don't +interfere with the process."</p> + +<p>"She doesn't understand—" Dolly began.</p> + +<p>"She understands immensely well what she likes! Give Ruth indulgence, +amusement, pleasure, and she will be kind-hearted, amiable, generous; in +short, good and happy. On the other hand, there might be another story. +Come, I am going to be brutal; I don't know how much money your mother +has; but I suspect very little, with the possibility, perhaps, of less. +And I can't imagine, Dolly, any one more unhappy than your sister would +be, ten years hence, say, if shut up here in Asheville, poor, her good +looks gone, to face a life of dull sameness forever. I think it would +kill her! She is not at all the girl to accept monotony with resignation +or heroism; to settle<a name="page_129" id="page_129"></a> down to mending and reading, book-clubs and +whist-clubs, puddings and embroidery, gossip and good works."</p> + +<p>Here the house-door opened; Mrs. Franklin and Genevieve came in +together, and entered the parlor. When Dolly heard Genevieve's step, she +rose. Obliged to walk slowly, she could not slip out; but she made a +progress which was almost stately, as, without speaking to her +sister-in-law, or looking at her, she left the room.</p> + +<p>Genevieve, however, required no notice from Dolly. Her face was radiant +with satisfaction. She shook hands with Etheridge warmly. "I have not +seen you since it happened, commodore. I know you are with us in our +pleasure? I know you congratulate us?"</p> + +<p>Etheridge had always thought the younger Mrs. Franklin a beautiful +woman; she reminded him of the Madonna del Granduca at Florence. Now she +held his hand so long, and looked at him with such cordial friendliness, +that he came out with the gallant exclamation, "Chase is the one I +congratulate, by Jove!—on getting such a sister-in-law!"</p> + +<p>"Think of all Ruth will now be able to do—all the good! I seem to see +even my hospital," added Genevieve, gayly.</p> + +<p>"Hum—yes," added Etheridge. Walking away a step or two, he put his +hands in the pockets of his trousers and looked towards his legs +reflectively for a moment, as though surveying the pattern of the +garments<a name="page_130" id="page_130"></a>—a convenient gesture to which a (slender) man can resort when +he wishes to cover a silence.</p> + +<p>"For dear mamma, too, it is so delightful," continued Genevieve. She had +seated herself, and she now drew her mother-in-law down beside her. +"Ruth will never permit mamma to have another care."</p> + +<p>"Yes—I think I'll just run up and take off my bonnet," said Mrs. +Franklin, disengaging herself. And she left the room.</p> + +<p>Genevieve was not disturbed by this second departure; she was never +disturbed by any of the actions or the speeches of her husband's family. +She did her own duty regarding them regularly and steadily, month after +month; it was part of her rule of conduct. But what they did or said to +her in return was less important. "Ruth is a fortunate girl," she went +on, as she drew off her gloves with careful touches. "And she +appreciates it, commodore—I am glad to tell you that; I have been +talking to her. She is very happy. Horace is such an able and splendidly +successful man—a man whom every one must respect and admire most +warmly."</p> + +<p>"Yes, a clever speculator indeed!" commented Etheridge, ungratefully, +throwing over his drive with the bays.</p> + +<p>"Speculator? Oh no; it is all genuine business; I can assure you of +that," answered Genevieve, seriously. "And now perhaps you can help us a +little. Horace is anxious to have the marriage take place this fall. And +I am on his side. For why, indeed,<a name="page_131" id="page_131"></a> should they wait? The usual delays +are prudential, or for the purpose of making preparations. But in this +case there are no such conditions; he already has a house in New York, +for he has always preferred home life. Ruth is willing to have it so. +But mamma decidedly, almost obstinately, opposes it."</p> + +<p>"Dolly too, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I never count Dolly; her temper is so uncertain. But it is very +natural that it should be so, and one always excuses her, poor dear! +Couldn't <i>you</i> say a word or two to mamma, commodore? You have known her +so long; I am sure you have influence. But my chief dependence, of +course, is upon Jay. Mamma always yields to Jay."</p> + +<p>"Franklin, then, is pleased with the engagement?" said Etheridge, +walking about the room, taking up books, looking at them vaguely, and +laying them down again.</p> + +<p>"How could he <i>not</i> be! As it happens, however, we have not yet heard +from him, for when our letters reached Charleston he had just started +for New York on one of their steamers; some business errand. But he was +to return by train, and I am expecting to hear from him to-morrow."</p> + +<p>There was a sound outside. "Here they come," said Etheridge, looking +out.</p> + +<p>Genevieve rose quickly to join him at the window. Chase and Malachi Hill +were dismounting. Then Chase lifted Ruth from Kentucky Belle. "Those are +two new horses, you know," explained Genevieve, in<a name="page_132" id="page_132"></a> a low tone; "Horrie +sent for them. And he lets Mr. Hill ride one of them every day."</p> + +<p>"Yes; <i>horses</i> enough!" grumbled Etheridge, discontentedly.</p> + +<p>Ruth, holding up the skirt of her habit, was coming towards the house, +talking to her two escorts. When she entered the parlor, Genevieve went +forward and put her arm round her. "I know you have enjoyed your ride, +dear?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I have. How do you do, commodore? I have just been planning +another excursion with Horace." (The name came out happily and +securely.) "To Cæsar's Head this time; you to drive the four-in-hand, +and I to ride Kentucky Belle."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's right; arrange it with him," said Chase. "For I must go; I +have letters to write which can be postponed no longer. You have had +enough of me for to-day, I guess? May I come in to-morrow +afternoon—early?"</p> + +<p>"Come to lunch," said Ruth, giving him her hand. He held it out for a +moment, looking at her with kindly eyes. "You don't know how much I +enjoyed my ride," said the girl, heartily. "It is such a joy to be on +Kentucky Belle; she is so beautiful, and she moves so lightly! It was +the nicest ride I have ever had in my life!"</p> + +<p>This seemed to please Chase. He took leave of the others and went away.</p> + +<p>"I will wait here, if you will allow it, Miss Ruth, until he is out of +sight," said Malachi Hill. "For I<a name="page_133" id="page_133"></a> may as well confess to you—I have +already told Miss Dolly—that I seem fairly to lose my head when I find +myself with Mr. Chase alone! I am so haunted by the idea of all he could +do for the Church in these mountains that in spite of the generous gifts +he has already made, I keep hankering after more—like a regular +<i>gorilla</i> of covetousness!"</p> + +<p>"I shall have to see that he is never left alone with you," said Ruth, +laughing.</p> + +<p>"There! he has turned the corner. Now <i>I'll</i> go the other way," +continued the missionary, his seriousness unbroken.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hill is such a <i>good</i> man," remarked Genevieve as she closed the +window.</p> + +<p>"Miss Billy thinks him full of the darkest evil," commented Ruth. "Why +do you shut the window?"</p> + +<p>"You were in a draught. After your ride you must be warm."</p> + +<p>"I'm a precious object, am I?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear, you certainly are," replied Genevieve, with all the +seriousness of Malachi Hill.</p> + +<p>"If that simpleton of a Billy could see the parson eat apples, she would +change her opinion about him," remarked Etheridge. "A man who can devour +with relish four, five, and even six, cold raw apples (and the Asheville +apples are sixteen inches round) late in the evening, cores, seeds, and +all, <i>must</i> be virtuous—as virtuous as mutton!" He was looking at Ruth +as he spoke. The girl was leaning back in an easy-chair; Petie Trone, +Esq., had lost no time, he<a name="page_134" id="page_134"></a> was already established in her lap, and the +squirrel had flown to her shoulder. She had taken off her gauntlets, and +as she lifted her hands to remove her hat, he saw a flash. "Trinkets?" +he said.</p> + +<p>"Oh—you haven't seen it?" She drew off a ring and tossed it across to +him.</p> + +<p>"Take care!" said Genevieve.</p> + +<p>But Etheridge had already caught it. It was a solitaire diamond ring, +the stone of splendid beauty, large, pure, brilliant.</p> + +<p>"It came yesterday," Genevieve explained. Then she folded her +hands—this with Genevieve was always a deliberate motion. "There will +be diamonds—yes. But there will be other things also; surely our dear +Ruth will remember the duties of wealth as well as its pleasures."</p> + +<p>Ruth paid no heed to this; put on her ring again, using the philopena +circlet as a guard; then she said, "Petie Trone, Esq., there will be +just time before dinner for your Saturday scrubbing."</p> + +<p>Half an hour later when she returned, the little dog trotting behind +her, his small body pinned up in a hot towel, Genevieve cried in alarm, +"Where are your rings?"</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Ruth, looking at her hands, "I didn't miss them; they must +have come off in the tub. Since then I have been in my room, dressing."</p> + +<p>"And Rinda may have thrown away the water!" exclaimed her sister-in-law, +rushing up the stairs in breathless haste.<a name="page_135" id="page_135"></a></p> + +<p>But Rinda was never in a hurry to perform any of her duties, and the +wooden tub devoted to Mr. Trone still stood in its place. Genevieve, +baring her white arms, plunged both her hands into the water, her heart +beating with anxiety. But the rings, very soapy, were there.</p> + +<p>That evening, at nine o'clock, Mrs. Franklin was galloping through the +latest tale of Anthony Trollope. For she always read a novel with racing +speed to get at the story, skipping every description; then, if she had +been interested, she went back and reperused it in more leisurely +fashion. It was unusual to have a book fresh from the press; the +well-fingered volumes which Miss Billy borrowed for her so industriously +were generally two or three years old. Horace Chase, learning from Ruth +the mother's liking for novels, had sent a note to New York, ordering in +his large way "all the latest articles in fiction;" a package to be sent +to L'Hommedieu once a month. The first parcel had just arrived, and Mrs. +Franklin, opening it, much surprised, had surveyed the gift with mixed +feelings. She was alone; Dolly was upstairs. Ruth, seized with a sudden +fancy for a glass of cream, had gone, with Rinda as protector, to a +house at some distance, where cream was sold; for with Ruth fancies were +so vivid that it always seemed to her absolutely necessary to follow +them instantly. The mother turned over the volumes. "It doesn't make me +like him a bit better!" she said to herself. But her easy-chair was +comfortable; the reading-<a name="page_136" id="page_136"></a>lamp was burning brightly at her elbow. For +fourteen years novels had been her opiates; she put on her glasses, took +up the Trollope, and began. She had not been reading long, when her +attention suddenly jumped back to the present, owing to a sound outside. +For the window was open, somebody was coming up the path from the gate, +and she recognized—yes, she recognized the step. Letting the book drop, +she ran to the house-door. "Jared! Why—how did you get here? The stage +came in long ago."</p> + +<p>"I drove over from Old Fort," answered her son as he entered.</p> + +<p>"And you did not find Genevieve? She has gone with Mr. Hill to—"</p> + +<p>"I haven't been to the Cottage yet; I came directly here. Where is +Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"Out. But she will be in soon. Dolly isn't well to-night; she has gone +to bed."</p> + +<p>"The coast is clear, then, and we can talk," said Jared. "So much the +better." They were now in the parlor; before seating himself he closed +the door. "I have come up, mother, about this affair of Ruth's. As soon +as I got back to Charleston and read your letters, I started at once. +You have been careless, I fear; but at least I hope that nothing has +been said, that no one knows?"</p> + +<p>"Everybody knows, Jared. At least, everybody in Asheville."</p> + +<p>"Who has told? Chase?" asked Jared, angrily.<a name="page_137" id="page_137"></a></p> + +<p>"Oh no; he left that to us. I have said nothing, and Dolly has said +nothing. But—but—"</p> + +<p>"But what?"</p> + +<p>"Genevieve has announced it everywhere," answered Mrs. Franklin, her +inward feeling against her daughter-in-law for once getting the better +of her.</p> + +<p>"I will speak to Genevieve. But she is not the one most in fault, +mother; she could not have announced it unless <i>you</i> had given your +consent. And how came you to do that?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think I have consented. I have been waiting for you."</p> + +<p>"Very well, then; we can act together. Now that <i>I</i> have come, Horace +Chase will find that there's some one on hand to look after you; he will +no longer be able to do as he pleases!"</p> + +<p>"Our difficulty is, Jared, that it is not so much a question of his +doing as he pleases as it is of Ruth's doing as <i>she</i> pleases; she +thinks it is all enchanting; and she is headstrong, you know."</p> + +<p>"Yes. That is the very reason why I think you have been careless, +mother. You were here and I was not; you, therefore, were the one to +act. You should have taken Ruth out of town at once; you should have +taken her north, if necessary, and kept her there; you should have done +this at any sacrifice."</p> + +<p>"It is not so easy—" began his mother. Then she stopped. For she was +living on credit; she owed money everywhere, and there were still ten +days to elapse before any remittances could reach<a name="page_138" id="page_138"></a> her. But she would +have borne anything, and resorted to everything, rather than let Jared +know this. "It took me so completely by surprise," she said, beginning +again. "I am sure that you yourself had no suspicion of any such +possibility when we took that French Broad drive?"</p> + +<p>"No, I had not. And it enrages me to think how blind I was! He was +laying his plans even then; the whole trip, and all those costly things +he did—that was simply part of it." And leaving his chair, the brother +walked up and down the room, his face darkly flushed with anger. +"Ruth—a child! And he—thirty years older!"</p> + +<p>"Not that, dear. He is thirty-eight; and she was nineteen last week."</p> + +<p>"He looks much more than thirty-eight. But that isn't the point. You +don't seem to see, mother, what makes it so insufferable; he has bribed +her about <i>me</i>, bribed her with that place in Charleston; that's the +whole story! She is so happy about that, that she forgets all else."</p> + +<p>"I don't like the idea of an engagement between them any better than you +do, Jared. But I ought to say two things. One is, that I don't believe +he made any plot as to the Charleston place; I think he likes to help +people—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, our family!" interrupted the son, hotly. "No, mother, you don't +understand him in the least. Horace Chase is purely a business man, a +long-headed, driving, money-making fellow; all his ambition<a name="page_139" id="page_139"></a> (and he has +plenty of it) is along that one line. It's the only line, in fact, which +he thinks important. But the idea of his being a philanthropist would +make any one who has ever had business dealings with him laugh for a +week!"</p> + +<p>"Well, have that as you like. But even if he first gave you the place on +Ruth's account (for he has fallen very much in love with her, there is +no doubt of that), I don't see that he has any need to be a benefactor +in keeping you there. They are no doubt delighted to have you; he says +so himself, in fact. A navy officer, a gentleman—they may well be!" +added Mrs. Franklin, looking for the moment very much like her father, +old Major Seymour, with his aristocratic notions.</p> + +<p>"Why, mother, don't you know that people with that brutal amount of +money—Chaise and the Willoughbys, for instance—don't you know that +they look upon the salaries of army and navy officers simply as genteel +poverty?" said Jared, forgetting for the moment his anger in amusement +over her old-fashioned mistake.</p> + +<p>But he could not have made Mrs. Franklin believe this in ten years of +repetition, much less in ten minutes. "And the other thing I had to +say," she went on, "is that I don't think Ruth is marrying him on <i>your</i> +account solely."</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, she is, though she may not be conscious of it. But when I have +given up the Charleston place, which I shall do to-morrow, then she will +be<a name="page_140" id="page_140"></a> free again. The moment she sees that she can do <i>me</i> no good, all +will look different to her. I'd rather do anything—sell the Cottage, +and live on a crust all the rest of my days—than have a sister of mine +help me along in that way!"</p> + +<p>His mother watched him as he paced to and fro. He looked ill; there were +hollows at his temples and dark circles under his eyes; his tall figure +had begun to stoop. He was the dearest of all her children; his +incurable, unspoken regrets, his broken life, were like a dagger in her +heart at all times. He would give up his place, and then he would have +nothing; and she, his mother, could not help him with a penny. He would +give up his place and sell the Cottage, and then—Genevieve! It all came +back to that; it would always come back to that—Genevieve! She +swallowed hard to keep down the sob in her throat. "He is very much in +love with her," she repeated, vaguely, in order to say something.</p> + +<p>"Who cares if he is! I almost begin to think you like it, after all?"</p> + +<p>"No, dear, no; neither Dolly nor I like it in the least. But Ruth is not +easy to manage. And Genevieve was sure that you—"</p> + +<p>"This is not Genevieve's affair. It is mine!" thundered Jared.</p> + +<p>His mother jumped up, ran to him, and gave him a kiss. For the moment +she forgot his illness, his uncertain future, her own debts, all her +troubles, in the joy of hearing him at last assert his will against +that<a name="page_141" id="page_141"></a> of his wife. But it was only for a moment; she knew—knew far +better than he did—that the even-tempered feminine pertinacity would +always in the end have its way. Jared, impulsive, generous, +affectionate, was no match for Genevieve. In a contest of this sort it +is the nobler nature, always, that yields; the self-satisfied, limited +mind has an obstinacy that never gives way. She leaned her head against +her son's breast, and all the bitterness of his marriage came over her +afresh like a flood.</p> + +<p>"Why, mother, what is it?" asked Jared, feeling her tremble. He put his +arm round her, and smoothed her hair tenderly. "Tell me what it is that +troubles you so?"</p> + +<p>The gate swung to. Mrs. Franklin lifted her head. "Ruth is coming," she +whispered. "Say what you like to her. But, under all circumstances, +remember to be kind. I will come back presently." She hurried out.</p> + +<p>Rinda and Ruth entered. Rinda went to the kitchen, and Ruth, after +taking off her hat, came into the parlor, carrying her glass of cream. +"Jared!" She put down the glass on the table, and threw her arms round +her brother's neck. "Oh, I am <i>so</i> glad you have come!"</p> + +<p>"Sit down. Here, by me. I wish to speak to you, Ruth."</p> + +<p>"Yes—about my engagement. It's very good of you to come so soon;" and +she put her hand through his arm in her old affectionate way.<a name="page_142" id="page_142"></a></p> + +<p>"I do not call it an engagement when you have neither your mother's +consent nor mine," answered her brother. "Whatever it is, however, you +must make an end of it."</p> + +<p>"An end of it? Why?"</p> + +<p>"Because we all dislike the idea. You are too young to comprehend what +you are doing."</p> + +<p>"I am nineteen; that is not so very young. I comprehend that I am going +to be happy. And I <i>love</i> to be happy! I have never seen any one half so +kind as Mr. Chase. If there is anything I want to do, he arranges it. He +doesn't wait, and hesitate, and consider; he <i>does</i> it. He thinks of +everything; it is perfectly beautiful! Why, Jared—what he did for you, +wasn't that kind?"</p> + +<p>"Exactly. That is what he has bribed you with!"</p> + +<p>"Bribed?" repeated Ruth, surprised, as she saw the indignation in his +eyes. Then comprehending what he meant, she laughed, coloring a little +also. "But I am not marrying him on your account; I am marrying him on +my own. I am marrying because I like it, because I want to. You don't +believe it? Why—look at me." She rose and stood before him. "I am the +happiest girl in the world as I stand here! I should think you could see +it for yourself?" And in truth her face was radiant. "If I have ever had +any dreams of what I should like my life to be (and I have had plenty), +they have all come true," she went on, with her hands behind her, +looking at him reflectively. "Think of all I shall have!<a name="page_143" id="page_143"></a> And of where I +can go! And of what I can do! Why—there's no end of it!"</p> + +<p>"That is not the way to talk of marriage."</p> + +<p>"How one talks of it is not important. The important point is to be +happy <i>in</i> it, and that I shall be to the full—yes, to the full. His +Grand shall have whatever she likes; and Dolly too. First of all, Dolly +shall have a phaeton, so that she can drive to the woods every day. The +house shall be put in order from top to bottom. And—oh, everything!"</p> + +<p>"Is that the way you talk to <i>him</i>?"</p> + +<p>But the sarcasm fell to the ground. "Precisely. Word for word," answered +Ruth, lightly. And he saw that she spoke the truth.</p> + +<p>"He is much too old for you. If there were no other—"</p> + +<p>But Ruth interrupted him with a sort of sweet obstinacy. "That is for me +to judge, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"He is not at all the person you fancy he is."</p> + +<p>"I don't care what he is generally, what he is to other people; all I +care for is what he is to me. And about that you know nothing; I am the +one to know. He is nicer to me, and he always will be nicer, than +Genevieve has ever been to <i>you</i>!" And turning, the girl walked across +the room.</p> + +<p>"If I have been unhappy, that is the very reason I don't want you to +be," answered her brother, after a moment's pause.</p> + +<p>His tone touched her. She ran back to him, and seated herself on his +knee, with her cheek against his.<a name="page_144" id="page_144"></a> "I didn't mean it, dear; forgive me," +she whispered, softly. "But please don't be cross. You are angry because +you believe I am marrying to help <i>you</i>. But you are mistaken; I am +marrying for myself. You might be back in the navy, and mother and Dolly +might have more money, and I should still marry him. It would be because +I want to, because I like him. If you had anything to say against him +personally, it would be different, but you haven't. He is waiting to +tell you about himself, to introduce you to his family (he has only +sisters), and to his partners, the Willoughbys. Your only objections +appear to be that I am marrying him on your account, and I have told you +that I am not; and that he is older than I am, and <i>that</i> I like; and +that he has money, while we are poor. But he gets something in getting +me," she added, in a lighter tone, as she raised her head and looked at +him gayly. "Wait till you see how pretty I shall be in fine clothes."</p> + +<p>The door opened, and Mrs. Franklin came in.</p> + +<p>Ruth rose. "Here is mother. Now I must say the whole. Listen, mother; +and you too, Jared. I intend to marry Horace Chase. If not with your +consent, then without it. If you will not let me be married at home, +then I shall walk out of the house, go to Horace, and the first +clergyman or minister he can find shall marry us. There! I have said it. +But <i>why</i> should you treat me so? Don't make me so dreadfully unhappy."<a name="page_145" id="page_145"></a></p> + +<p>She had spoken wilfully, determinedly. But now she was pleading—though +it was pleading to have her own way. Into her beautiful eyes came two +big tears as she gazed at them. Neither Mrs. Franklin nor Jared could +withstand those drops.<a name="page_146" id="page_146"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<p>T<small>HE</small> wedding was over. Pretty little Trinity Church was left alone with +its decorations of flowers and vines, the work of Miss Billy Breeze. +Miss Billy, much excited, was now standing beside Ruth in the parlor at +L'Hommedieu; for Miss Billy and Maud Muriel were the bridesmaids. Maud +Muriel had consented with solemnity. "It is strange that such a man as +Horace Chase, a man of sense and importance, should be taken with a +child like Ruth Franklin," she confided to Miss Billy. "However, I won't +desert him at such a moment. I'll stand by him." She was in reality not +so much bridesmaid as groomsman.</p> + +<p>L'Hommedieu was decked with flowers. It was a warm autumn day, the +windows and doors were open. All Asheville was in attendance, if not in +the house and on the verandas, then gazing over the fence, and waiting +outside the gate. For there were many things to engage its attention. +First, there was Mrs. Franklin, looking very distinguished; then +Genevieve, the most beautiful woman present. Then there was Bishop +Carew, who had come from Wilmington to officiate. All Asheville admired +the <a name="page_147" id="page_147"></a>bishop—the handsome, kindly, noble old man, full of dignity, full +of sweetness as well; they were proud that he had come to "their" +wedding. For that was the way they thought of it. Even the +negroes—those who had flocked to old Daniel's race—had a sense of +ownership in the affair.</p> + +<p>A third point of interest was the general surprise over Maud. As Ruth +had selected the costumes of her bridesmaids, Miss Mackintosh was +attired for the first time in her life in ample soft draperies. Her +hair, too, arranged by Miss Billy, had no longer the look of the +penitentiary, and the result was that (to the amazement of the town) the +sculptress was almost handsome.</p> + +<p>Anthony Etheridge, much struck by this (and haunted by his old idea), +pressed upon her a glass of punch.</p> + +<p>"Take it," he urged, in a low tone, "take two or three. Then, as soon as +this is over, hurry to your studio and <i>let yourself go</i>. You'll do +wonders!"</p> + +<p>Two of Chase's partners were present, Nicholas Willoughby, a +quiet-looking man of fifty-eight, and his nephew Walter of the same +name; Walter was acting as "best man." The elder Willoughby had made use +of the occasion to take a general look at this mountain country, with +reference to Chase's ideas concerning it, in order to make a report to +his brother Richard. For Nicholas and Richard were millionaires many +times over; their business in life was investment. Asheville itself, +meanwhile, hardly comprehended the importance of such an event as<a name="page_148" id="page_148"></a> the +presence within its borders of a New York capitalist; it knew very +little about New York, still less about capitalists. Mrs. Franklin, +however, possessed a wider knowledge; she understood what was +represented by the name of Willoughby. And it had solaced her +unspeakably also to note that the uncle had a genuine liking for her +future son-in-law. "They have a real regard for him," she said to her +son, in private. "And I myself like him rather better than I once +thought I should."</p> + +<p>Jared had come from Charleston on the preceding day. "Oh, that's far too +guarded, mother," he answered. "The only way for us now is to like +Horace Chase with enthusiasm, to cling to him with the deepest +affection. We must admire unflinchingly everything he says and +everything he does—swallow him whole, as it were; it isn't difficult to +swallow things <i>whole</i>! Just watch me." And, in truth, it was Jared's +jocularity that enlivened the reception, and made it so gay; it reached +even Dolly, who (to aid him) became herself a veritable Catherine-wheel +of jokes, so that every one noticed how happy all the Franklins +were—how delighted with the marriage.</p> + +<p>Chase himself appeared well. His rather ordinary face was lighted by an +expression of deep inward happiness which was touching; its set lines +were relaxed; his eyes, which were usually too keen, had a softness that +was new to them. He was very silent; he let his best man talk for him. +Walter Willoughby performed this part admirably; standing beside<a name="page_149" id="page_149"></a> the +bridegroom, he "supported" him gayly through the two hours which were +given up to the outside friends.</p> + +<p>Ruth looked happy, but not particularly pretty. The excitement had given +her a deep flush; even her throat was red.</p> + +<p>At three o'clock Peter and Piper were brought round to the door; Chase +was to drive his wife over the mountains, through the magnificent +forest, now gorgeous with the tints of autumn, and at Old Fort a special +train was waiting to take them eastward.</p> + +<p>A few more minutes and then they were gone. There was nothing left but +the scattered rice on the ground, and Petie Trone, Esq., barking his +little heart out at the gate.<a name="page_150" id="page_150"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<p>E<small>ARLY</small> on a moonlit evening in January, 1875, Mr. and Mrs. Horace Chase +were approaching St. Augustine. They had come by steamer up the broad +St. Johns, the beautiful river of Florida, to the lonely little landing +called Tocoi; here they had intrusted themselves to the Atlantic Ocean +Railroad. This railroad undertook to convey travellers across the +peninsula to the sea-coast, fifteen miles distant; and the promise was +kept. But it was kept in a manner so leisurely that more than once +Horace Chase had risen and walked to and fro, as though, somehow, that +would serve to increase the speed. The rolling-stock possessed by the +Atlantic Ocean Railroad at that date consisted of two small street-cars, +one for passengers, one for luggage; Chase's promenade, therefore, +confined as it was to the first car, had a range of about four steps. +"I'm ridiculously fidgety, and that's a fact," he said to his wife, +laughing at himself. "I can be lazy enough in a Pullman, for then I can +either read the papers or go to sleep. But down here there are no papers +to read. And who can sleep in this jolting? I believe I'll ask that +darky to let me drive the mules!"</p> + +<p>"Do," said Ruth. "Then I can be out there with you on the front +platform."<a name="page_151" id="page_151"></a></p> + +<p>As there were no other passengers (save Petie Trone, Esq., asleep in his +travelling basket), Abram, the negro driver, gave up the reins with a +grin. Taking his station on the step, he then admonished the volunteer +from time to time as follows: "Dish yere's a bad bit; take keer, boss." +"Jess ahead de rail am splayed out on de lef'. Yank 'em hard to de +right, or we'll sut'ny run off de track. We ginerally <i>do</i> run off de +track 'bout yere." On each side was a dense forest veiled in the gray +long moss. Could that be snow between the two black lines of track +ahead? No snow, however, was possible in this warm atmosphere; it was +but the spectral effect of the moonlight, blanching to an even paler +whiteness the silvery sand which formed the road-bed between the rails. +This sand covered the sleepers to such a depth that the mules could not +step quickly; there was always a pailful of it on each foot to lift and +throw off. They moved on, therefore, in a sluggish trot, the cow-bells +attached to their collars keeping up a regular tink-tank, tink-tank.</p> + +<p>The tableau of her husband driving these spirited steeds struck Ruth as +comical. She was seated on a camp-stool by his side, and presently she +broke into a laugh. "Oh, you do look <i>so</i> funny, Horace! If you could +only see yourself! You, so particular about horses that you won't drive +anything that is not absolutely perfect, there you stand taking the +greatest pains, and watching solemnly every quiver of the ear of those +old mules!"<a name="page_152" id="page_152"></a></p> + +<p>They were alone, Abram having gone to the baggage-car to get his tin +horn. "Come, now, are you never going to stop making fun of me?" +inquired Chase. "How do you expect to hit St. Augustine to-night if this +fast express runs off the track?" But in spite of his protest, it was +easy to see that he liked to hear her laugh.</p> + +<p>Abram, coming back, put the horn to his lips and blew a resounding +blast; and presently, round a curve, the half-way station came into +view—namely, a hut of palmetto boughs on the barren, with a bonfire +before it. The negro station-men, beguiling their evening leisure by +dancing on the track to their own singing and the music of a banjo, did +not think it necessary to stop their gyrations until the heads of the +mules actually touched their shoulders. Even then they made no haste in +bringing out the fresh team which was to serve as motive power to St. +Augustine, and Mr. and Mrs. Chase, leaving the car, strolled up and down +near by. The veiled forest had been left behind; the rest of the way lay +over the open pine-barrens. The leaping bonfire, the singing negroes, +and the little train on its elevated snow-like track contrasted with the +wild, lonely, silent, tree-dotted plain, stretching away limitlessly in +the moonlight on all sides.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps Petie Trone, Esq., would like to take a run," said Ruth. +Hastening into the car with her usual heedlessness, she tripped and +nearly fell, Chase, who had followed, catching her arm just in time to +save her.<a name="page_153" id="page_153"></a></p> + +<p>"Some of these days, Ruthie, you will break your neck. Why are you +always in such a desperate hurry?"</p> + +<p>"Talk about hurry!" answered Ruth, as she unstrapped the basket and woke +the lazy Mr. Trone. "Who saw the whole of Switzerland in five days? and +found it slow at that?" And then they both laughed.</p> + +<p>After a stretch, Petie Trone decided to make a foray over the barren; +his little black figure was soon out of sight. "Horace, now that we are +here, I wish you would promise to stay. Can't we stay at least until the +middle of March? It's lovely in Florida in the winter," Ruth declared, +as they resumed their walk.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll stay as long as I can. But I must go to California on +business between this and spring," Chase answered.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you make one of the Willoughbys do that? They never do +anything!"</p> + +<p>"That's all right; I'm the working partner of the firm; it was so +understood from the beginning. The Willoughbys only put in capital; all +but Walter, of course, who hasn't got much. But Walter's a knowing young +chap, who will put in brains. My California business, however, has +nothing to do with the Willoughbys, Ruthie; it's my own private affair, +<i>that</i> is. If I succeed, and I think I shall, it'll about double my +pile. Come, you know you like money." He drew her hand through his arm +and held it.<a name="page_154" id="page_154"></a> "How many more rings do you want? How many more houses? +How many more French maids and flounces? How many more carriages?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, leave out the carriages, do," interrupted Ruth. "When it comes to +anything connected with a horse, who spends money—you or I?"</p> + +<p>"My one small spree compared to your fifty!"</p> + +<p>"Small!" she repeated. "Wherever we go, whole troops of horses appear by +magic!" Then, after a moment, she let her head rest against his shoulder +as they strolled slowly on. "You are only too good to me," she added, in +another tone.</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess that's about what I want to be," Chase answered, +covering, as he often did, the deep tenderness in his heart with a vein +of jocularity.</p> + +<p>The Atlantic Ocean Railroad's terminal station at St. Augustine +consisted of a platform in the sand and another flaring bonfire. At +half-past six Mrs. Franklin, Dolly, and Anthony Etheridge were waiting +on this platform for the evening train. With them was a fourth +person—Mrs. Lilian Kip. "Oh, I can scarcely wait to see her!" exclaimed +this lady, excitedly. "Will she be the same? But no. Impossible!"</p> + +<p>"She is exactly the same," answered Dolly, who, seated on an empty +dry-goods box, was watching the bonfire.</p> + +<p>"But you must remember that Ruth did not come to Florida last winter +after her marriage. And this summer, when I was in Asheville, she was +abroad.<a name="page_155" id="page_155"></a> And as none of you came south winter before last—don't you see +that it makes nearly <i>two</i> years since I have seen her?" Mrs. Kip went +on. "In addition, marriage changes a woman's face so—deepens its +expression and makes it so <i>much</i> more beautiful. I am sure, commodore, +that <i>you</i> agree with me there?" And she turned to the only man present.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," answered Etheridge, gallantly. In his heart he added: "And +therefore the more marriage the better? Is that what you are thinking +of, you idiot?"</p> + +<p>The presence of Mrs. Kip always tore Etheridge to pieces. He had never +had any intention of marrying, and he certainly had no such intention +now. Yet he could not help admiring this doubly widowed Lilian very +deeply, after a fashion. And he knew, too—jealously and angrily he knew +it—that before long she would inevitably be led to the altar a third +time; so extremely marriageable a woman would never lack for leaders.</p> + +<p>"Ruth is handsomer," remarked Mrs. Franklin; "otherwise she is +unchanged. You will see it for yourself, Lilian, when she comes."</p> + +<p>The mother's tone was placid. All her forebodings had faded away, and +she had watched them disappear with thankful eyes. For Ruth was happy; +there could be no doubt about that. In the year that had passed since +her marriage, she had returned twice to Asheville, and Mrs. Franklin +also had spent a month at her son-in-law's home in New York. On<a name="page_156" id="page_156"></a> all +these occasions it had been evident that the girl was enjoying greatly +her new life; that she was delightedly, exultantly, and gleefully +contented, and all in a natural way, without analyzing it. She delighted +in the boundless gratification of her taste for personal ease and +luxury; she exulted in all that she was able to do for her own family; +she was full of glee over the amusements, the entertainments, and +especially the change, that surrounded her like a boundless horizon. For +her husband denied her nothing; she had only to choose. He was not what +is known as set in his ways; he had no fixed habits (save the habit of +making money); in everything, therefore, except his business affairs, he +allowed his young wife to arrange their life according to her fancy. +This freedom, this power, and the wealth, had not yet become an old +story to Ruth, and, with the enjoyment which she found in all three, it +seemed as if they never would become that. It had been an immense +delight to her, for instance, to put L'Hommedieu in order for her +mother. A month after her marriage, on returning to Asheville for a +short visit, she had described her plan to Dolly. "And think what fun it +will be, Dolly, to have the whole house done over, not counting each +cent in Genevieve's deadly way, but just <i>recklessly</i>! And then to see +her squirm, and say 'surely!' And you and mother must pretend not to +care much about it; you must hardly know what is going on, while they +are actually putting in steam-heaters, and hard-wood floors,<a name="page_157" id="page_157"></a> and +bath-rooms with porcelain tubs—hurrah!" And, with Petie Trone barking +in her arms, she whirled round in a dance of glee.</p> + +<p>Chase happening to come in at this moment, she immediately repeated to +him all that she had been saying.</p> + +<p>He agreed; then added, with his humorous deliberation, "But you don't +seem to think quite so much of my old school-mate as I supposed you +did?"</p> + +<p>"Sisters-in-law, Mr. Chase, are seldom <i>very</i> devoted friends," +explained Dolly, going on with her embroidery. Dolly always did +something that required her close attention whenever Horace Chase was +present. "How, indeed, can they be? A sister sees one side of her +brother's nature, and sees it correctly; a wife sees another side, and +with equal accuracy. Each honestly believes that the other is entirely +wrong. Their point of view, you see, is so different!"</p> + +<p>The waiting group at the St. Augustine station on this January evening +heard at last the blast of Abram's horn, and presently the train came +in, the mules for the last few yards galloping madly, their tin bells +giving out a clattering peal, and Chase still acting as driver, with +Ruth beside him. Affectionate greetings followed, for all the Franklins +were warmly attached to each other. Mrs. Kip was not a Franklin, but she +was by nature largely affectionate; she was probably the most +affectionate person in Florida. To the present occasion she contributed +several tears of joy. Then she signalled to Juniper, her colored<a name="page_158" id="page_158"></a> +waiter; for, being not only affectionate, but romantic as well, she had +brought in her phaeton a bridal ornament, a heart three feet high, made +of roses reposing upon myrtle, and this symbol, amid the admiration of +all the bystanders, black and white, was now borne forward in the arms +of Juniper (who, being a slender lad, staggered under its weight). Ruth +laughed and laughed as this edifice was presented to her. But as, amid +her mirth, she had kissed the donor and thanked her very prettily, Mrs. +Kip was satisfied. For Ruth might laugh—Ruth, in fact, always +laughed—but marriage was marriage none the less; the most beautiful +human relation; and it was certainly fit that the first visit of a +happily wedded pair to the land of flowers should be commemorated +florally. Mrs. Kip volunteered to carry her heart to Mrs. Franklin's +residence; she drove away, therefore, Etheridge accompanying her, and +Juniper behind, balancing the structure as well as he could on his +knees, with his arms stretched upward to their fullest extent in order +to grasp its top.</p> + +<p>In a rickety barouche drawn by two lean horses the others followed, +laughing and talking gayly. Chase got on very well with his +mother-in-law; and he supposed, also, that he got on fairly well with +Dolly: he had not divined Dolly's mental attitude towards him, which was +that simply of an armed neutrality. Dolly would have been wildly happy +if, for herself and her mother at least, she could have refused every +cent of his money. This had not been<a name="page_159" id="page_159"></a> possible. Chase had settled upon +his wife a sum which gave her a large income for her personal use, +independent of all their common expenses; it was upon this income that +Ruth had drawn for the restoration of L'Hommedieu, and also for the +refurnishing of her mother's house at St. Augustine. "I can't be happy, +His Grand, I can't enjoy New York, or our trip to Europe, or anything, +unless I feel certain that you are perfectly comfortable in every way," +she had said during that first visit at home. "All this money is mine; I +am not asked what I do with it, and I never shall be asked; you don't +know Horace if you think he will ever even allude to the subject. He +intends it for my ownest own, and of course he knows what I care the +most for, and that is you and Jared and Dolly. I have always suspected +that something troubled you every now and then, though I didn't know +what. And if it was money, His Grand, you <i>must</i> take some from me, now +that I have it; you must take it, and make your little girl really +happy. For she can't be happy until you do."</p> + +<p>This youngest child really was still, in the mother's eyes, her "baby." +And when the baby, sitting down in her lap, put her arms round her neck +and pleaded so lovingly, the mother yielded. Her debts were now all +paid; it was a secret between herself and Ruth. The disappearance of the +burden was a great relief to the mother, though not so much so as it +would have been to some women; for it was characteristic of Mrs. +Franklin that she had never thought there<a name="page_160" id="page_160"></a> was anything wrong in being +in debt; she had only thought that it was unfortunate. It would not have +occurred to her, even in her worst anxieties, to reduce sternly her +expenses until they accorded with her means, no matter how low that +might lead her; there was a point, so she believed, beyond which a Mrs. +Franklin could not descend with justice to her children. And justice to +her children was certainly a mother's first duty; justice to creditors +must take a second place.</p> + +<p>To Dolly, unaware of the payment of the debts, the acceptance even of +the restoration of the two houses had been bitter enough; for though the +money came through Ruth's hands, it was nevertheless provided by this +stranger. "If I had only been well, I could have worked and saved mother +from this," she thought. "But I am helpless. Not only that, but a care! +Nobody stops to think how dreary a lot it is to be always a care. And +how hard, hard, never to be able to give, but always to have to accept, +accept, and be thankful!" But Dolly, at heart, had a generous nature; +she would not cloud even by a look her mother's contentment or the +happiness of Ruth. So when Chase said, as the barouche swayed crazily +through the deep mud-hole which for years formed the junction between +the station lane and the main road, "This old rattletrap isn't safe, +ma'am. Is it the best St. Augustine can do? You ought to have something +better!"—when Chase said this to her mother, Dolly even brought forward +a smile.<a name="page_161" id="page_161"></a></p> + +<p>The rattletrap followed the long causeway which crossed the salt-marsh +and the San Sebastian River. Entering the town beneath an archway of +foliage, this causeway broadened into a sandy street under huge +pride-of-India trees, whose branches met overhead. Old Miss +L'Hommedieu's winter residence was not far from St. Francis Barracks, at +the south end of the town. It was an old coquina house which rose +directly from a little-travelled roadway. An open space on the other +side of this roadway, and the absence of houses, gave it the air of +being "on the bay," as it was called. Chase had taken, for a term of +years, another house not far distant, which really was on the bay. He +had done this to please Ruth. It was not probable that they should spend +many winters in Florida; but in case they should wish to come +occasionally, it would be convenient to have a house ready. "And when we +don't want it, Jared could stay here now and then," Ruth had suggested.</p> + +<p>"Your brother? I guess he isn't going to be a very easy chap to arrange +for, here or anywhere," Chase had answered, laughing. "We've already +slipped up once pretty well—Charleston, you know." Then, seeing her +face grow troubled, "But he'll take another view of something else I +have in mind," he went on. "If my California project turns out as I +hope, it will be absolutely necessary for me to have a confidential man +to see to the New York part of it—some one whom I can trust. And I +shall be able to convince Franklin that this time, at any rate, instead +of its being<a name="page_162" id="page_162"></a> a favor to him, it'll be a favor to me. He won't kick at +<i>that</i>, I reckon."</p> + +<p>For Jared was now again at Raleigh, working as a clerk for the man who +had bought his former business; he had resigned his Charleston place in +spite of Ruth, in spite even of Genevieve. He had waited until the +wedding was over, in order that Ruth might not be made unhappy at the +moment; and then he had done it.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding this, his wife had never had so much money in her life +as she had now. For she and Ruth, with the perfectly good conscience +which women have in such matters, had combined together, as it were, to +circumvent secretly the obstinate naval officer. Ruth was warmly +attached to her brother; he was the one person who had been able to +control her when she was a child; his good opinion had been a hundred +times more important to her than that of her mother and Dolly. Now that +she was rich, she was bent upon helping him; and having found that she +could not do it directly, she had turned all her intelligence towards +doing it indirectly, through the capable, the willing Genevieve. Mrs. +Jared Franklin, Junior, had quietly and skilfully bought land in +Asheville (in readiness for the coming railroad); she had an account at +the bank; she had come into the possession of bonds and stock; she had +enlarged her house, and she had also given herself the pleasure (she +called it the benediction) of laying the foundations of an addition to +the Colored Home. As she<a name="page_163" id="page_163"></a> kept up a private correspondence with Ruth, +she had heard of the proposed place in New York for Jared, the place +where his services would be of value. She was not surprised; it was what +she had been counting upon. Jared's obstinacy would give way, <i>must</i> +give way, before this new opportunity; and in the meanwhile, here at +Asheville, all was going splendidly well.</p> + +<p>Amid these various transactions Jared Franklin's mother had been obliged +to make up her mind as to what her own attitude should be. It had been +to her a relief unspeakable, an overmastering joy, to know that her son +would not, after all, sink to harassing poverty. Soothed by this, lulled +also by the hope that before very long he would of his own accord +consent to give up what was so distasteful to him, she had virtually +condoned the underhand partnership between Ruth and Genevieve, arranging +the matter with her conscience after her own fashion, by simply turning +her head away from the subject entirely. As she had plenty of +imagination, she had ended by really convincing herself that she was not +aware of what was going on, because she had not heard any of the +details. (She had, in fact, refused to hear them.) This left her free to +say to Jared (if necessary) that she had known nothing. But she hoped +that no actual words of this sort would be required. Her temperament, +indeed, had always been largely made up of hope.</p> + +<p>It was true that Jared for the present was still at<a name="page_164" id="page_164"></a> Raleigh, drudging +away at a very small salary. That, however, would not last forever. And +in the meantime (and this was also extraordinarily agreeable to the +mother) Madame Genevieve was learning that she could not lead her +husband quite so easily as she had supposed she could. In her enjoyment +of this fact, Mrs. Franklin, in certain moods, almost hoped that (as his +affairs were in reality going on so well) her son would continue to hold +out for some time longer.</p> + +<p>The house which Horace Chase had taken at St. Augustine was much larger +than old Miss L'Hommedieu's abode; it was built of coquina, like hers, +but it faced the sea-wall directly, commanding the inlet; from its upper +windows one could see over Anastasia Island opposite, and follow miles +of the blue southern sea. Ruth's French maid, Félicité, had arrived at +this brown mansion the day before, with the heavy luggage; to-night, +however, new-comers were to remain with the mother in the smaller house.</p> + +<p>When the barouche reached Mrs. Franklin's door, Etheridge, Mrs. Kip, and +the heart were already there. "I won't stay now," said Mrs. Kip. "But +may I look in later? Evangeline Taylor is perfectly <i>wild</i> to come."</p> + +<p>When she returned, a little after eight, Chase was still in the +dining-room with Anthony Etheridge, who had dined there. The heart had +been suspended from a stout hook on the parlor wall, and Ruth happened a +moment before to have placed herself under it, when, having discovered +her old guitar in a closet,<a name="page_165" id="page_165"></a> she had seated herself to tune it. "It's +<i>so</i> sweet, Ruth, your sitting there under my flowers," said the +visitor, tearfully. "And yet, for <i>me</i>, such an—such an <i>association</i>!"</p> + +<p>"I thought your daughter was coming?" said Mrs. Franklin, peering +towards the door over her glasses.</p> + +<p>"Evangeline Taylor will be here in a moment," answered her mother; "her +governess is bringing her." And presently there entered a tall, a +gigantically tall girl, with a long, solemn, pale face. As she was +barely twelve, she was dressed youthfully in a short school-girl frock +with a blue sash. Advancing, she kissed Ruth; then, retiring to a +corner, she seated herself, arranged her feet in an appropriate pose, +and crossed her hands in her lap. A little later, when no one was +looking, she furtively altered the position of her feet. Then she +changed once or twice the arrangement of her hands. This being settled +at last to her satisfaction, she turned her attention to her features, +trying several different contortions, and finally settling upon a +drawing in of the lips and a slight dilatation of the nostrils. And all +this not in the least from vanity, but simply from an intense personal +conscientiousness.</p> + +<p>"The dear child longed to see you, Ruth. She danced for joy when she +heard you had come," explained the mother.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Evangeline and I have always been great chums," answered Ruth, +good-naturedly.</p> + +<p>The room was brightly lighted, and the light showed<a name="page_166" id="page_166"></a> that the young +wife's face was more beautiful than ever; the grace of her figure also +was now heightened by all the aids that dress can bestow. Ruth had said +to Jared, jokingly, "Wait till you see how pretty I shall be in fine +clothes!" The fine clothes had been purchased in profusion, and, what +was better, Félicité knew how to adapt them perfectly to her slender +young mistress.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kip, having paid her tribute to "the association" (she did not say +whether the feeling was connected with Andrew Taylor, her first husband, +or with the equally departed John Kip, her second), now seated herself +beside Ruth, and, with the freedom of old friendship, examined her +costume. "I know you had that made in Paris!" she said. "Simple as it +is, it has a sort of something or other! And, oh, what a beautiful +bracelet! What splendid rings!"</p> + +<p>Ruth wore no ornaments save that on her right wrist was a band of +sapphires, and on her right hand three of the same gems, all the stones +being of great beauty. On her left hand she wore the wedding circlet, +with her engagement-ring and the philopena guard over it. In answer to +the exclamation, she had taken off the jewels and tossed them all into +Mrs. Kip's lap. Mrs. Kip looked at them, her red lips open.</p> + +<p>To some persons, Lilian Kip seemed beautiful, in spite of the fact that +the outline of her features, from certain points of view, was almost +grotesque; she had a short nose, a wide mouth, a broad face,<a name="page_167" id="page_167"></a> and a +receding chin. Her dark-brown eyes were neither large nor bright, but +they had a soft, dove-like expression; her curling hair was of a +mahogany-red tint, and she had the exquisitely beautiful skin which +sometimes accompanies hair of this hue; her cheeks really had the +coloring of peaches and cream; her lips were like strawberries; her +neck, arms, and hands were as fair as the inner petals of a tea-rose. +With the exception of her imperfect facial outlines, she was as +faultlessly modelled as a Venus. A short Venus, it is true, and a +well-fed one; still a Venus. No one would ever have imagined her to be +the mother of that light-house of a daughter; it was necessary to recall +the fact that the height of the late Andrew Taylor had been six feet +four inches. Andrew Taylor having married Lilian Howard when she was but +seventeen, Lilian Kip, in spite of two husbands and her embarrassingly +overtopping child, found herself even now but thirty.</p> + +<p>She had put Ruth's rings on her hands and the bracelet on her wrist; now +she surveyed the effect with her head on one side, consideringly. While +she was thus engaged, Mrs. Franklin's little negro boy, Samp, ushered in +another visitor—Walter Willoughby.</p> + +<p>"Welcome to Florida, Mrs. Chase," he said, as he shook hands with Ruth. +"As you are an old resident, however, it's really your husband whom I +have come to greet; he is here, isn't he?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; he is in the dining-room with Commodore<a name="page_168" id="page_168"></a> Etheridge," Ruth +answered. "Will you go out?" For it was literally out; the old house was +built in the Spanish fashion round an interior court, and to reach the +dining-room one traversed a long veranda.</p> + +<p>"Thanks; I'll wait here," Walter answered. In reality he would have +preferred to go and have a cigar with Chase. But as he had not seen his +partner's wife since she returned from Europe, it was only courtesy as +well as good policy to remain where he was. For Mrs. Chase was a power. +She was a power because her husband would always wish to please her; +this desire would come next to his money-making, and would even, in +Walter's opinion (in case there should ever be a contest between the two +influences), "run in close!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kip had hastily divested herself of the jewels, and replaced them +on Ruth's wrist and hands, with many caressing touches. "Aren't they +<i>lovely</i>?" she said to Walter.</p> + +<p>"That little one, the guard, was <i>my</i> selection," he replied, indicating +the philopena circlet.</p> + +<p>"And not this also?" said Ruth, touching her engagement ring.</p> + +<p>"No; that was my uncle Richard's choice; Chase wrote to <i>him</i> the second +time, not to me," Walter answered. "I'm afraid he didn't like my taste." +He laughed; then turned to another subject. "You were playing the guitar +when I came in, Mrs. Chase; won't you sing something?"</p> + +<p>"I neither play nor sing in a civilized way," Ruth<a name="page_169" id="page_169"></a> answered. "None of +us do. In music we are all awful barbarians."</p> + +<p>"How can you say so," protested Mrs. Kip, "when, as a family, you are +<i>so</i> musical?" Then, summoning to her eyes an expression of great +intelligence, she added: "And I should know that you were, all of you, +from your thick eyebrows and very thick hair. You have heard of that +theory, haven't you, Mr. Willoughby? That all true musicians have very +thick hair?"</p> + +<p>"Also murderers; I mean the women—the murderesses," remarked Dolly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Dolly, what ideas you do have! Who would ever think of associating +murderesses with music? Music is <i>so</i> uplifting," protested the rosy +widow.</p> + +<p>"We should take care that it is not too much so," Dolly answered. "Lots +of us are ridiculously uplifted. We know one thing perhaps, and like it. +But we remain flatly ignorant about almost everything else. In a busy +world this would do no harm, if we could only be conscious of it. But +no; on we go, deeply conceited about the one thing we know and like, and +loftily severe as to the ignorance of other persons concerning it. It +doesn't occur to us that upon other subjects save our own, we ourselves +are presenting precisely the same spectacle. A Beethoven, when it comes +to pictures, may find something very taking in a daub representing a +plump child with a skipping-rope, and the legend: 'See me jump!' A +painter of the highest power<a name="page_170" id="page_170"></a> may think 'The Sweet By-and-By' on the +cornet the acme of musical expression. A distinguished sculptor may +appreciate on the stage only negro minstrels or a tenth-rate farce. A +great historian may see nothing to choose, in the way of beauty, between +a fine etching and a chromo. It is well known that the most celebrated, +and deservedly celebrated, scientific man of our day devours regularly +the weakest fiction that we have. And people who love the best classical +music and can endure nothing else, have no idea, very often, whether +they belong to the mammalia or the crustacea, or whether the Cologne +cathedral is Doric or late Tudor."</p> + +<p>"Carry it a little further, Miss Franklin," said Walter Willoughby; "it +has often been noted that criminals delight in the most sentimental +tales."</p> + +<p>"That isn't the same thing," Dolly answered. "However, to take up your +idea, Mr. Willoughby, it is certainly true that it is often the good +women who read with the most breathless interest the newspaper reports +of crimes."</p> + +<p>"Oh no!" exclaimed Mrs. Kip.</p> + +<p>"Yes, they do, Lilian," Dolly responded. "And when it comes to tales, +they like dreadful events, with plenty of moral reflections thrown in; +the moral reflections make it all right. A plain narrative of an even +much less degree of evil, given impartially, and without a word of +comment by the author—<i>that</i> seems to them the unpardonable thing."<a name="page_171" id="page_171"></a></p> + +<p>"Well, and isn't it?" said Mrs. Kip. "Shouldn't people be +<i>taught</i>—<i>counselled</i>?"</p> + +<p>"And it's for the sake of the counsel that they read such stories?" +inquired Dolly.</p> + +<p>During this conversation, Chase, in the dining-room, had risen and given +a stretch, with his long arms out horizontally. He was beginning to feel +bored by the talk of Anthony Etheridge, "the ancient swell," as he +called him. In addition, he had a vision of finishing this second cigar +in a comfortable chair in the parlor (for Mrs. Franklin had no objection +to cigar smoke), with Ruth near by; for it always amused him to hear his +wife laugh and talk. The commodore, meanwhile, having assigned to +himself from the day of the wedding the task of "helping to civilize the +Bubble," never lost an opportunity to tell him stories from his own more +cultivated experience—"stories that will give him ideas, and, by Jove! +phrases, too. He needs 'em!" He had risen also. But he now detained his +companion until he had finished what he was saying. "So there you have +the reason, Mr. Chase, why <i>I</i> didn't marry. I simply couldn't endure +the idea of an old woman's face opposite mine at table year after year; +for our women grow old so soon! Now you, sir, have shown the highest +wisdom in this respect. I congratulate you."</p> + +<p>"I don't know about that," answered Chase, as he turned towards the +door. "Ruth will have an old man's face opposite <i>her</i> before very long, +won't she?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all, my good friend; not at all. Men<a name="page_172" id="page_172"></a> have no age. At least, +they <i>need</i> not have it," answered Etheridge, bringing forward with +joviality his favorite axiom.</p> + +<p>Cordial greetings took place between Chase and Walter Willoughby. "Your +uncles weren't sure you would still be here," Chase remarked. "They +thought perhaps you wouldn't stay."</p> + +<p>"I shall stay awhile—outstay you, probably," answered Walter, smiling. +"I can't imagine that you'll stand it long."</p> + +<p>"Doing nothing, you mean? Well, it's true I have never loafed <i>much</i>," +Chase admitted.</p> + +<p>"You loafed all summer in Europe," the younger man replied, and his +voice had almost an intonation of complaint. He perceived this himself, +and smiled a little over it.</p> + +<p>"So that was loafing, was it," commented Ruth, in a musing +tone—"catching trains and coaches on a full run, seeing three or four +cantons, half a dozen towns, two passes, and several ranges of mountains +every day?"</p> + +<p>All laughed, and Mrs. Kip said: "Did you rush along at that rate? That +was baddish. There's no hurry <i>here</i>; that's one good thing. The laziest +place! We must get up a boat-ride soon, Ruth. Boat-drive, I mean."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Franklin meanwhile, rising to get something, knocked over +accidentally the lamplighters which she had just completed, and Chase, +who saw it, jumped up to help her collect them.<a name="page_173" id="page_173"></a></p> + +<p>"Why, how many you have made!" he said, gallantly.</p> + +<p>She was not pleased by this innocent speech; she had no desire to be +patted on the back, as it were, about her curled strips of paper; she +curled them to please herself. She made no reply, save that her nose +looked unusually aquiline.</p> + +<p>"Yes, mother is tremendously industrious in lamplighters," remarked +Dolly. "Her only grief is that she cannot send them to the Indian +missions. You can send <i>almost</i> everything to the Indian missions; but +somehow lamplighters fill no void."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean the new mission we are to have here—the Indians at the +fort?" asked Walter Willoughby. "They are having a big dance to-night."</p> + +<p>Ruth looked up.</p> + +<p>"Should you like to see it?" he went on, instantly taking advantage of +an opportunity to please her. "Nothing easier. We could watch it quite +comfortably, you know, from the ramparts."</p> + +<p>"I should like it ever so much! Let us go at once, before it is over!" +exclaimed Ruth, eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Ruth! Ruth!" said her mother. "After travelling all day, Mr. Chase may +be tired."</p> + +<p>"Not at all, ma'am," said Chase. "I don't take much stock in Indians +myself," he went on, to his wife. "Do you really want to go?"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, Horace. Please."</p> + +<p>"And the commodore will go with <i>me</i>," said Mrs.<a name="page_174" id="page_174"></a> Kip, turning her soft +eyes towards Etheridge, who went down before the glance like a house of +cards.</p> + +<p>"But we must take Evangeline Taylor home first," said Mrs. Kip. "We'll +go round by way of Andalusia, commodore. It would never do to let her +see an Indian dance at <i>her</i> age," she added, affectionately, lifting +her hand high to pat her daughter's aerial cheek. "It would make her +tremble like a babe."</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>did</i> you hear her 'baddish'!" said Dolly, as, a few minutes later, +they went up the steps that led to the sea-wall, Chase and Walter +Willoughby, Ruth and herself. "And did you hear her 'boat-drive'? She +has become so densely confused by hearing Achilles Larue inveigh against +the use of 'ride' for 'drive' that now she thinks everything must be +drive."</p> + +<p>Chase and Walter Willoughby smiled; but not unkindly. There are some +things which the Dolly Franklins of the world are incapable, with all +their cleverness, of comprehending; one of them is the attraction of a +sweet fool.</p> + +<p>The sea-wall of St. Augustine stretches, with its smooth granite coping, +along the entire front of the old town, nearly a mile in length. On the +land side its top is but four or five feet above the roadway; towards +the water it presents a high, dark, wet surface, against which comes the +wash of the ocean, or rather of the inlet; for the harbor is protected +by a long, low island lying outside. It is this island, called +Anastasia, that has the ocean beach. The<a name="page_175" id="page_175"></a> walk on top of the wall is +just wide enough for two. Walter Willoughby led the way with Dolly, and +Chase and his wife followed, a short distance behind.</p> + +<p>Walter thought Miss Franklin tiresome. With the impatience of a young +fellow, he did not care for her clever talk. He was interested in clever +men; in woman he admired other qualities. He had spent ten days in +Asheville during the preceding summer in connection with Chase's plans +for investment there, and he had been often at L'Hommedieu during his +stay; but he had found Genevieve more attractive than Dolly—Genevieve +and Mrs. Kip. For Mrs. Kip, since her second widowhood, had spent her +summers at Asheville, for the sake of "the mountain atmosphere;" ("which +means Achilles atmosphere," Mrs. Franklin declared). This evening Walter +had felt a distinct sense of annoyance when Dolly had announced her +intention of going with them to see the Indian dance, for this would +arrange their party in twos. He had no desire for a tête-à-tête with +Dolly, and neither did he care for a tête-à-tête with Ruth; his idea had +been to accompany Mr. and Mrs. Chase as a third. However, he made the +best of it; Walter always did that. He had the happy faculty of getting +all the enjoyment possible out of the present, whatever it might be. +Postponing, therefore, to the next day his plan for making himself +agreeable to the Chases, he led the way gayly enough to the fort.<a name="page_176" id="page_176"></a></p> + +<p>Fort San Marco is the most imposing ancient structure which the United +States can show. Begun in the seventeenth century, when Florida was a +province of Spain, it has turrets, ramparts, and bastions, a portcullis +and barbacan, a moat and drawbridge. Its water-battery, where once stood +the Spanish cannon, looks out to sea. Having outlived its use as a +fortification, it was now sheltering temporarily a band of Indians from +the far West, most of whom had been sentenced to imprisonment for crime. +With the captives had come their families, for this imprisonment was to +serve also as an experiment; the red men were to be instructed, +influenced, helped. At present the education had not had time to +progress far.</p> + +<p>The large square interior court, open to the sky, was to-night lighted +by torches of pine, which were thrust into the iron rings that had +served the Spaniards for the same purpose long before. The Indians, +adorned with paint and feathers, were going through their wild +evolutions, now moving round a large circle in a strange squatting +attitude, now bounding aloft. Their dark faces, either from their actual +feelings or from the simulated ferocity appropriate to a war-dance, were +very savage, and with their half-naked bodies, their whoops and yells, +they made a picture that was terribly realistic to the whites who looked +on from the ramparts above, for it needed but little imagination to +fancy a <i>bona fide</i> attack—the surprise of the lonely frontier +farm-<a name="page_177" id="page_177"></a>house, with the following massacre and dreadful shrieks.</p> + +<p>Ruth, half frightened, clung to her husband's arm. Mrs. Kip, after a +while, began to sob a little.</p> + +<p>"I'm <i>thinking</i>—of the <i>wo-women</i> they have probably <i>scalped</i> on the +<i>pla-ains</i>" she said to Etheridge.</p> + +<p>"What?" he asked, unable to hear.</p> + +<p>"Never mind; we'll <i>convert</i> them," she went on, drying her eyes +hopefully. For a Sunday-school was to be established at the fort, and +she had already promised to take a class.</p> + +<p>But Dolly was on the side of the Indians. "The crimes for which these +poor creatures are imprisoned here are nothing but virtues upside down," +she shouted. "They killed white men? Of course they did. Haven't the +white men stolen all their land?"</p> + +<p>"But we're going to <i>Christianize</i> them," yelled Mrs. Kip, in reply. +They were obliged to yell, amid the deafening noise of the dance and the +whoopings below.</p> + +<p>Ruth had a humorous remark ready, when suddenly her husband, to Walter's +amusement, put his hand over her lips. She looked up at him, laughing. +She understood.</p> + +<p>"Funniest thing in the world," he had once said to her, "but the more +noise there is, the more incessantly women <i>will</i> talk. Ever noticed? +They are capable of carrying on a shrieking conversation in the cars all +day long."</p> + +<p>The atmosphere grew dense with the smoke from<a name="page_178" id="page_178"></a> the pitch-pine torches, +and suddenly, ten minutes later, Dolly fainted. This in itself was not +alarming; with Dolly it happened not infrequently. But under the present +circumstances it was awkward.</p> + +<p>"Why did you let her come? I was amazed when I saw her here," said +Etheridge, testily.</p> + +<p>For Etheridge was dead tired. He hated the Indians; he detested the +choking smoke; he loathed open ramparts at this time of night. Ruth and +Mrs. Franklin had themselves been surprised by Dolly's desire to see the +dance. But they always encouraged any wish of hers to go anywhere; such +inclinations were so few.</p> + +<p>Walter Willoughby, meanwhile, prompt as ever, had already found a +vehicle—namely, the phaeton of Captain March, the army officer in +charge of the Indians; it was waiting outside to take Mrs. March back to +the Magnolia Hotel. "The captain lends it with pleasure; as soon, +therefore, as Miss Franklin is able, I can drive her home," suggested +Walter.</p> + +<p>But Chase, who knew through his wife some of the secrets of Dolly's +suffering, feared lest she might now be attacked by pain; he would not +trust her to a careless young fellow like Walter. "I'll take her +myself," he said. "And Ruth, you can come back with the others, along +the sea-wall."</p> + +<p>Dolly, who had recovered consciousness, protested against this +arrangement. But her voice was only a whisper; Chase, paying no +attention to it, lifted her<a name="page_179" id="page_179"></a> and helped her down to the phaeton. He was +certainly the one to do it, so he thought; his wife's sister was his +sister as well. It was a pity that she was not rather more amiable. But +that made no difference regarding one's duty towards her.</p> + +<p>The others also left the ramparts, and started homeward, following the +sea-wall.</p> + +<p>This granite pathway is not straight; it curves a little here and there, +adapting itself to the line of the shore. To-night it glittered in the +moonlight. It was high tide, and the water also glittered as it came +lapping against the stones waveringly, so that the granite somehow +seemed to waver, too. Etheridge was last, behind Mrs. Kip. He did not +wish to make her dizzy by walking beside her, he said. Suddenly he +descended. On the land side.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kip, hearing the thud of his jump, turned her head, surprised. And +then the commodore (though he was still staggering) held out his hand, +saying, "We get off here, of course; it is much our nearest way. That's +the reason I stepped down," he carelessly added.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kip had intended to follow the wall as far as the Basin. But she +always instinctively obeyed directions given in a masculine voice. If +there were two masculine voices, she obeyed the younger. In this case +the younger man did not speak. She acquiesced, therefore, in the elder's +sharp "Come!" For poor Etheridge had been so jarred by his fall that his +voice had become for the moment falsetto.<a name="page_180" id="page_180"></a></p> + +<p>Mrs. Chase and Walter Willoughby, thus deserted, continued on their way +alone.</p> + +<p>It was a beautiful night. The moon lighted the water so brilliantly that +the flash of the light-house on Anastasia seemed superfluous; the dark +fort loomed up in massive outlines; a narrow black boat was coming +across from the island, and, as there was a breeze, the two Minorcans it +carried had put up a rag of a sail, which shone like silver. "How fast +they go!" said Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Would you like to sail home?" asked Walter. He did not wait for her +answer, for, quick at divination, he had caught the wish in her voice. +He hailed the Minorcans; they brought their boat up to the next flight +of water-steps; in two minutes from the time she had first spoken, Ruth, +much amused by this unexpected adventure, was sailing down the inlet. +"Oh, how wet! I didn't think of that," Walter had exclaimed as he saw +the water in the bottom of the boat; and with a quick movement he had +divested himself of his coat, and made a seat of it for her in the +driest place. She had had no time to object, they were already off; she +must sit down, and sit still, for their tottlish craft was only a +dugout. Walter, squatting opposite, made jocular remarks about his +appearance as he sat there in his shirt-sleeves.</p> + +<p>It was never difficult for Ruth to laugh, and presently, as the water +gained on her companion in spite of all his efforts, she gave way to +mirth. She laughed<a name="page_181" id="page_181"></a> so long that Walter began to feel that he knew her +better, that he even knew her well. He laughed himself. But he also took +the greatest pains at the same time to guard her pretty dress from +injury.</p> + +<p>The breeze and the tide were both in their favor; they glided rapidly +past the bathing-house, the Plaza, the Basin, and the old mansion which +Chase had taken. Then Walter directed the Minorcans towards another +flight of water-steps. "Here we are," he said. "And in half the time it +would have taken us if we had walked. We have come like a shot."</p> + +<p>He took her to her mother's door. Then, pretty wet, with his ruined coat +over his arm, he walked back along the sea-wall to the St. Augustine +Hotel.<a name="page_182" id="page_182"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<p>T<small>WO</small> weeks later Mrs. Kip gave an afternoon party for the Indians. +Captain March had not been struck by her idea that the sight of "a +lady's quiet home" would have a soothing effect upon these children of +the plains. Mrs. Kip had invited the whole band, but the captain had +sent only a carefully selected half-dozen in charge of the interpreter. +And he had also added, uninvited, several soldiers from the small force +at his disposal. Mrs. Kip was sure that these soldiers were present +"merely for form." There are various kinds of form. Captain March, +having confided to the colonel who commanded at the other end of the +sea-wall, that he could answer for the decorum of his six "unless the +young ladies get hold of them," a further detachment of men had arrived +from St. Francis Barracks; for the colonel was aware that the party was +to be largely feminine. The festivities, therefore, went on with double +brilliancy, owing to the many uniforms visible under the trees.</p> + +<p>These trees were magnificent. Mrs. Kip occupied, as tenant, the old +Buckingham Smith place, which she had named Andalusia. Here, in addition +to the majestic live-oaks, were date-palms, palmettoes, magnolias, +crape-myrtles, figs, and bananas, hedges of<a name="page_183" id="page_183"></a> Spanish-bayonet, and a +half-mile of orange walks, which resembled tunnels through a +glossy-green foliage, the daylight at each end looking like a far-away +yellow spot. All this superb vegetation rose, strangely enough to +Northern eyes, from a silver-white soil. It was a beautiful day, warm +and bright. Above, the sky seemed very near; it closed down over the +flat land like a soft blue cover. The air was full of fragrance, for +both here and in the neighboring grove of Dr. Carrington the +orange-trees were in bloom. Andalusia was near the San Sebastian border +of the town, and to reach it on foot one was obliged to toil through a +lane so deep in sand that it was practically bottomless.</p> + +<p>There was no toil, however, for Mrs. Horace Chase; on the day of the +party she arrived at Andalusia in a phaeton drawn by two pretty ponies. +She was driving, for the ponies were hers. Her husband was beside her, +and, in the little seat behind, Walter Willoughby had perched himself. +It was a very early party, having begun with a dinner for the Indians at +one o'clock; Mr. and Mrs. Chase arrived at half-past two. Dressed in +white, Mrs. Kip was hovering round her dark-skinned guests. When she +could not think of anything else to do, she shook hands with them; she +had already been through this ceremony eight times. "If I could only +speak to them in their own tongue!" she said, yearningly. And the long +sentences, expressive of friendship, which she begged the interpreter to +translate to them, would have<a name="page_184" id="page_184"></a> filled a volume. The interpreter, a very +intelligent young man, obeyed all her requests with much politeness. +"Tell them that we <i>love</i> them," said Mrs. Kip. "Tell them that we think +of their <i>souls</i>."</p> + +<p>The interpreter bowed; then he translated as follows: "The white squaw +says that you have had enough to eat, and more than enough; and she +hopes that you won't make pigs of yourselves if anything else is +offered—especially Drowning Raven!"</p> + +<p>The Chases and Walter Willoughby had come to the Indian party for a +particular purpose, or rather Walter had asked the assistance of the +other two in carrying out a purpose of his own, which was to make Mrs. +Kip give them a ball. For Andalusia possessed a capital room for +dancing. The room was, in fact, an old gymnasium—a one-story building +near the house. Mrs. Kip was in the habit of lending this gymnasium for +tableaux and Sunday-school festivals; to-day it had served as a +dining-room for the Indians. Walter declared that with the aid of flags +and flowers the gymnasium would make an excellent ball-room; and as the +regimental band had arrived at St. Francis Barracks that morning for a +short stay, the mistress of Andalusia must be attacked at once.</p> + +<p>"We'll go to her Indian party, and compliment her out of her shoes," he +suggested. "You, Mrs. Chase, must be struck with her dress. I shall +simply make love to her. And let me see—what can you do?"<a name="page_185" id="page_185"></a> he went on, +addressing Chase. "I have it; you can admire her chiefs."</p> + +<p>"Dirty lot!" Chase answered. "I'd rather admire the hostess."</p> + +<p>But the six Indians were not at all dirty; they had never been half so +clean since they were born; they fairly shone with soap and ablutions. +Dressed in trousers and calico shirts, with moccasins on their feet, and +their black hair carefully anointed, they walked, stood, or sat in a +straight row all together, according to the strongly emphasized +instructions which they had received before setting out. Two old +warriors, one of them the gluttonous Drowning Raven reproved by the +interpreter, grinned affably at everything. The others preserved the +dignified Indian impassiveness.</p> + +<p>Soon after his arrival, Walter, who had paid his greetings upon +entering, returned to his fair hostess. "I hear you have a rose-tree +that is a wonder, Mrs. Kip; where is it?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kip began to explain. "Go through the first orange-walk. Then turn +to the right. Then—"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid I can't remember. Take me there yourself," said Walter, +calmly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I ought to be here, I think. People are still coming, you know," +answered the lady. Then, as he did not withdraw his order, "Well," she +said, assentingly.</p> + +<p>They were absent twenty minutes.</p> + +<p>When they returned, the soft brown eyes of the<a name="page_186" id="page_186"></a> widow had a partly +pleased, partly deprecatory expression. Another young man in love with +her! What could she do to prevent these occurrences?</p> + +<p>Walter, meanwhile, had returned to Mr. and Mrs. Chase. "It's all right," +he said to Ruth. "The ball will come off to-morrow night. Impromptu."</p> + +<p>"Well, you <i>have</i> got cheek!" commented Chase.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kip herself soon came up. "Ruth, dear, do you know that the +artillery band is only to stay a short time? My gymnasium has a capital +floor; what do you say to an impromptu dance there to-morrow night? I've +just thought of it; it's my own idea entirely."</p> + +<p>"Now what made her lug in that unnecessary lie at the end?" inquired +Chase, in a reasoning tone, when their hostess, after a few minutes more +of conversation, had returned to her duties. "It's of no importance to +anybody whose idea it was. That's what I call taking trouble for +nothing!"</p> + +<p>"If you believe your lie, it's no longer a lie," answered Walter; "and +she believes hers. A quarter of a minute after a thing has happened, a +woman can often succeed in convincing herself that it happened not +<i>quite</i> in that way, but in another. Then she tells it in <i>her</i> way +forever after."</p> + +<p>Chase gave a yawn. "Well, haven't you had about enough of this fool +business?" he said to his wife, using the words humorously.</p> + +<p>"I am ready to go whenever you like," she answered. For if he allowed +her to arrange their days<a name="page_187" id="page_187"></a> as she pleased, she, on her side, always +yielded to his wishes whenever he expressed them.</p> + +<p>"I'll go and see if the ponies have come," he suggested, and he made his +way towards the gate.</p> + +<p>"You don't give us a very nice character," Ruth went on to Walter.</p> + +<p>"About fibs, do you mean? I only said that you ladies have very powerful +beliefs. Proof is nothing to you; faith is all. There is another odd +fact connected with the subject, Mrs. Chase, and that is that an +absolutely veracious woman, one who tells the exact, bare, cold truth on +all occasions and nothing more; who never exaggerates or is tempted to +exaggerate, by even a hair's-breadth—who is never conscious that she is +coloring things too rosily—such a woman is somehow a very uninteresting +person to men! I can't explain it, and it doesn't seem just. But it's +so. Women of that sort (for they exist—a few of them) move through life +very admirably; but quite without masculine adorers." Then he stopped +himself. "I'm not here, however, to discuss problems with her," he +thought. "Several hours more of daylight; let me see, what can I suggest +next to amuse her?"</p> + +<p>This young man—he was twenty-seven—had had an intention in seeking St. +Augustine at this time; he wished to become well acquainted, if possible +intimate, with the enterprising member of his uncle's firm. He had some +money, but not much. His father, the elder Walter, had been the one +black sheep of the Willoughby flock, the one spendthrift<a name="page_188" id="page_188"></a> of that +prudent family circle. After the death of the prodigal, Richard and +Nicholas had befriended the son; the younger Walter was a graduate of +Columbia; he had spent eighteen months in Europe; and when not at +college or abroad, he had lived with his rich uncles. But this did not +satisfy him, he was intensely ambitious; the other Willoughbys had no +suspicion of the reach of this nephew's plans. For his ambitions +extended in half a dozen different directions, whereas what might have +been called the family idea had moved always along one line. Walter had +more taste than his uncles; he knew a good picture when he saw it; he +liked good architecture; he admired a well-bound book. But these things +were subordinate; his first wish was to be rich; that was the +stepping-stone to all the rest. As his uncles had children, he could not +expect to be their heir; but he had the advantage of the name and the +relationship, and they had already done much by making him, nominally at +least, a junior partner in this new (comparatively new) firm—a firm +which was, however, but one of their interests. The very first time that +Walter had met the Chase of Willoughby & Chase he had made up his mind +that this was the person he needed, the person to give him a lift. +Richard and Nicholas were too cautious, too conservative, for daring +enterprises, for outside speculations; in addition, they had no need to +turn to things of that sort. Their nephew, however, was in a hurry, and +here, ready to his hand, appeared a man of resources;<a name="page_189" id="page_189"></a> a man who had +made one fortune in a baking-powder, another by the bold purchase of +three-quarters of an uncertain silver mine, a third by speculation on a +large scale in lumber, while a fourth was now in progress, founded (more +regularly) in steamers. At present also there was a rumor that he had +something new on foot, something in California; Walter had an ardent +desire to be admitted to a part in this Californian enterprise, whatever +it might be. But Chase's trip to Europe had delayed any progress he +might have hoped for in this direction, just as it had delayed the +carrying out of the Asheville speculation. The Chases had returned to +New York in November. But immediately (for it had seemed immediately to +the impatient junior partner) Chase had been hurried off again, this +time to Florida, by his silly wife. Walter did not really mean that Ruth +was silly; he thought her pretty and amiable. But as she was gay, +restless, fond of change, she had interfered (unconsciously of course) +with his plans and his hopes for nearly a year; to call her silly, +therefore, was, in comparison, a mild revenge. "What under heaven is the +use of her dragging poor Chase 'away down South to the land of the +cotton,' when she has already kept him a whole summer wandering about +Europe," he had said to himself, discomfited, when he first heard of the +proposed Florida journey. The next day an idea came to him: "Why +shouldn't I go also? Chase will be sure to bore himself to death down +there, with nothing in the world to do.<a name="page_190" id="page_190"></a> And then I shall be on hand to +help him through the eternal sunshiny days! In addition, I may as well +try to make myself agreeable to his gadding wife; for, whether she knows +it as yet or not, it is evident that <i>she</i> rules the roost." He +followed, therefore. But as he came straight to Florida, and as Mr. and +Mrs. Chase had stopped <i>en route</i> at Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, +Charleston, and Savannah, Walter had been in St. Augustine nearly two +weeks before they arrived.</p> + +<p>So far, all had turned out as he had hoped it would. This was not +surprising; for young Willoughby was, not merely in manner, but also in +reality, a good-natured, agreeable fellow, full of life, fond of +amusement. He was ambitious, it is true. But he was as far as possible +from being a drudging money-maker. He meant to carry out his plans, but +he also meant to enjoy life as he went along. He had noticed, even as +far back as the time of the wedding, that the girl whom Horace Chase was +to marry had in her temperament both indolence and activity; now one of +these moods predominated, now the other. As soon, therefore, as Mr. and +Mrs. Chase were established in their St. Augustine house, he let himself +go. Whenever the young wife's mood for activity appeared to be +uppermost, he opened a door for it; he proposed an excursion, an +entertainment of some sort. Already, under his leadership, they had +sailed down the Matanzas River (as the inlet is called) to see the old +Spanish lookout; they had rowed up<a name="page_191" id="page_191"></a> Moultrie Creek; they had sent horses +across to Anastasia Island and had galloped for miles southward down the +hard ocean beach. They had explored the barrens; they had had a +bear-hunt; they had camped out; they had caught sharks. On these +occasions they had always been a party of at least four, and often of +seven, when Mrs. Franklin and Dolly, Mrs. Kip and Commodore Etheridge +joined in the excursion. Dolly in particular had surprised everybody by +her unexpected strength; she had accompanied them whenever it had been +possible. When it was not, she had urged her mother to take the vacant +place. "Do go, His Grand, so that you can tell me about it. For it does +amuse me so!"</p> + +<p>Walter's latest inspiration, the ball at Andalusia, having been +arranged, he now suggested that they should slip out unobserved and +finish the afternoon with a sail. "I noticed the <i>Owl and the Pussycat</i> +moored at the pier as we came by," he said. "If she is still there, Paul +Archer is at the club, probably, and I can easily borrow her."</p> + +<p>"Anything to get away from these Apaches," Chase answered. "And I'm a +good deal afraid, too, of that Evangeline Taylor! She has asked me three +times, with such a voice from the tombs, if I feel well to-day, that she +has turned me stiff."</p> + +<p>"Why on earth does that girl make such <i>awful</i> face?" inquired Walter.</p> + +<p>Ruth gave way to laughter. "I can never make you two believe it, but it +is really her deep sense of<a name="page_192" id="page_192"></a> duty. She thinks that she ought to look +earnest, or intelligent, or grateful, or whatever it may be, and so she +constantly tries new ways to do it."</p> + +<p>"What way is it when she glares at a fellow's collar for fifteen minutes +steadily," said Walter; "at close range?"</p> + +<p>"She <i>never</i> did!" protested Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Yes—in the tea-room; <i>my</i> collar. And every now and then she gave a +ghastly smile."</p> + +<p>"She didn't know it was your collar; she was simply fixing her eyes upon +a point in space, as less embarrassing than looking about. And she +smiled because she thought she ought to, as it is a party."</p> + +<p>"A point in space! My collar!" grumbled Walter.</p> + +<p>At the gate they looked back for a moment. The guests, nearly a hundred +in number, had gathered in a semicircle under a live-oak; they were +gazing with fresh interest at the Indians, who had been drawn up before +them. The six redskins were still in as close a row as though they had +been handcuffed together; the serious spinsters had failed entirely in +their attempts to break the rank, and have a gentle word with one or two +of them, apart. The Rev. Mr. Harrison, who was to make an address, now +advanced and began to speak; the listeners at the gate could hear his +voice, though they were too far off to catch the words. The voice would +go on for a minute or two, and pause. Then would follow the more +staccato accents of the interpreter.</p> + +<p>"The horse-joke comes in, Walter, when that interpreter<a name="page_193" id="page_193"></a> begins," said +Chase. "Who knows what he is saying?"</p> + +<p>The interpreter, however, made a very good speech. It was, perhaps, less +spiritual than Mr. Harrison's.</p> + +<p>It turned out afterwards that the thing which had made the deepest +impression upon the Apaches was not the "lady's quiet home," nor the +Sunday-school teachers, nor the cabinet-organ, nor even the dinner; it +was the extraordinary length of "the +young-squaw-with-her-head-in-the-sky," as they designated Evangeline +Taylor.</p> + +<p>Ruth drove her ponies down to the Basin. The little yacht called the +<i>Owl and the Pussycat</i> was still moored at the pier; but Paul Archer, +her owner, was not at the club, as Walter had supposed; he had gone to +the Florida House to call upon some friends. Commodore Etheridge was in +the club-room; he was forcing himself to stay away from Andalusia, for +he had an alarming vision of its mistress, dressed in white, with the +sunshine lighting up her sea-shell complexion and bringing out, +amorously, the rich tints of her hair. Delighted to have something to +do, he immediately took charge of Walter.</p> + +<p>"Write a line, Mr. Willoughby; write a line on your card, and our porter +shall take it to the Florida House at once. In the meanwhile Mr. and +Mrs. Chase can wait here. Not a bad place to wait in, Mrs. Chase? +Simple, you see. Close to nature. And nature's great restorer" (for two +of the club-men were asleep).<a name="page_194" id="page_194"></a></p> + +<p>The room was close to restorers of all sorts, for the land front was let +to a druggist. The house stood on the wooden pier facing the little +Plaza, across whose grassy space the old Spanish cathedral and the more +modern Episcopal church eyed each other without rancour. The Plaza's +third side was occupied by the post-office, which had once been the +residence of the Spanish governor.</p> + +<p>The club-room was a large, pleasant apartment, with windows and verandas +overlooking the water. There was a general straightening up of lounging +attitudes when Mrs. Chase came in. Etheridge had already introduced +Horace Chase to everybody at the club, and Chase, in his turn, had +introduced almost everybody to his wife. The club, to a man, admired +Mrs. Chase; while she waited, therefore, she held a little court. The +commodore, meanwhile, kindly took upon himself, as usual, the duty of +entertaining the Bubble.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Willoughby need not have gone to the Florida House in person; our +porter could perfectly well have taken a note, as I suggested. Capital +fellow, our porter; I never come South, Mr. Chase, without being struck +afresh with the excellence of the negroes as servants; they are the best +in the world; they're born for it!"</p> + +<p>"That's all right, if they're willing," Chase answered. "But not to +force 'em, you know. That slave-market in the Plaza, now—"</p> + +<p>"Oh Lord! Slave-market! Have <i>you</i> got hold<a name="page_195" id="page_195"></a> of that story too?" +interposed Etheridge, irritably. "It was never anything but a +fish-market in its life! But I'm tired of explaining it; that, and the +full-length skeleton hanging by its neck in an iron cage in the +underground dungeon at the fort—if they're not true, they ought to be; +that's what people appear to think! '<i>Si non ee veero, ee ben +trovatoro</i>,' as the Italians say. And speaking of the fort, I suppose +you have been to that ridiculous Indian party at Andalusia to-day? Mrs. +Kip must have looked grotesque, out-of-doors? In white too, I dare say?"</p> + +<p>"Grotesque? Why, she's pretty," answered Chase.</p> + +<p>"Not to my eye," responded Etheridge, determinedly. "She has the facial +outlines of a frog. Do you know the real reason why I didn't marry? I +couldn't endure, sir, the prospect of an old woman's face opposite mine +at table year after year. For our women grow old so soon—"</p> + +<p>As he brought this out, a dim remembrance of having said it to Horace +Chase before came into his mind. Had he, or had he not? Chase's face +betrayed nothing. If he had, what the devil did the fellow mean by not +answering naturally, "Yes, you told me?" Could it be possible that he, +Anthony Etheridge, had fallen into a habit of repeating?—So that people +were accustomed—? He went off and pretended to look at a file of +porpoises, who were going out to sea in a long line, like so many fat +dark wheels rolling through the water.<a name="page_196" id="page_196"></a></p> + +<p>Chase, left alone, took up a newspaper. But almost immediately he threw +it down, saying, "Well, I didn't expect to see <i>you</i> here!"</p> + +<p>The person whom he addressed was a stranger, who came in at this moment, +brought by a member of the club. He shook hands with Chase, and they +talked together for a while. Then Chase crossed the room, and, smiling a +little as he noted the semicircle round his wife, he asked her to come +out and walk up and down the pier while they waited for Willoughby. Once +outside, he said:</p> + +<p>"Ruthie, I want to have a talk with Patterson, that man you saw come in +just now. I'm not very keen about sailing, anyhow. Will you let me off +this time?"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes; I don't care about going," Ruth answered.</p> + +<p>"You needn't give it up because I do," said her husband, kindly; "you +like to sail. Take the ancient swell in my place. He will be delighted +to go, for it will make him appear so young. Just Ruth, Anthony, and +Walter—three gay little chums together!"</p> + +<p>As Chase had predicted, the commodore professed himself "enchanted." He +went off smilingly in Paul Archer's yacht, whose device of an owl and +pussycat confounded the practically minded, while to the initiated—the +admirers of those immortal honey-mooners who "ate with a runcible +spoon"—it gave delight; a glee which was increased by the delicate +pea-green hue of the pretty little craft.<a name="page_197" id="page_197"></a></p> + +<p>But in spite of his enchantment, the commodore soon brought the boat +back. He had taken the helm, and, when he had shown himself and his +young companions to everybody on the sea-wall; when he had dashed past +the old fort; and then, putting about, had gone beating across the inlet +to the barracks, he turned the prow towards the yacht club again. It was +the hour for his afternoon whist, and he never let anything interfere +with that.</p> + +<p>The excursion, therefore, had been a short one, and, as Walter walked +home with Mrs. Chase, she lingered a little. "It's too early to go in," +she declared. As they passed the second pier, a dilapidated construction +with its flooring gone, she espied a boat she knew. "There is the +<i>Shearwater</i> just coming in. I am sure Mr. Kean would lend it to us. +Don't you want to go out again?"</p> + +<p>The <i>Shearwater</i> was an odd little craft, flat on the water, with a +long, pointed, covered prow and one large sail. Ruth knew it well, for +Mr. Kean was an old friend of the Franklin's, and, in former winters, he +had often taken her out.</p> + +<p>"My object certainly is to please her," Walter said to himself. "But she +<i>does</i> keep one busy. Well, here goes!"</p> + +<p>Mr. Kean lent his boat, and presently they were off again.</p> + +<p>"Take me as far as the old light-house," Ruth suggested.</p> + +<p>"Easy enough going; but the getting back will<a name="page_198" id="page_198"></a> be another matter," +Walter answered. "We should have to tack."</p> + +<p>"I like tacking. I insist upon the light-house," Mrs. Chase replied, +gayly.</p> + +<p>The little boat glided rapidly past the town and San Marco; then turned +towards the sea. For the old light-house, an ancient Spanish beacon, was +on the ocean side of Anastasia.</p> + +<p>"We can see it now. Isn't this far enough?" Walter asked, after a while.</p> + +<p>"No; take me to the very door; I've made a vow to go," Ruth declared.</p> + +<p>"But at this rate we shall never get back. And when we do, your husband, +powerfully hungry for his delayed dinner, will be sharpening the +carving-knife on the sea-wall!"</p> + +<p>"He is more likely to be sharpening pencils at the Magnolia. He is sure +to be late himself; in fact, he told me so; for he has business matters +to talk over with that Mr. Patterson."</p> + +<p>Walter had not known, until now, the name of the person who had carried +off Chase; he had supposed that it was some ordinary acquaintance; he +had no idea that it was the Chicago man whose name he had heard +mentioned in connection with Chase's California interests. "David +Patterson, of Chicago?" he asked. "Is he going to stay?"</p> + +<p>"No; he leaves to-morrow morning, I believe," replied Ruth, in an +uninterested tone.</p> + +<p>"And here I am, sailing all over creation with<a name="page_199" id="page_199"></a> this insatiable girl, +when, if I had remained at the club, perhaps Chase would have introduced +me; perhaps I might even have been with them now at the Magnolia," +Walter reflected, with intense annoyance.</p> + +<p>At last she allowed him to put about. The sun was sinking out of sight. +Presently the after-glow gave a second daylight of deep gold. Down in +the south the dark line of the dense forest rose like a range of hills. +The perfume from the orange groves floated seaward and filled the air.</p> + +<p>"I used to believe that I liked riding better than anything," remarked +Ruth. "But ever since that little rush we had together in the dugout—do +you remember? the night we arrived?—ever since then, somehow, sailing +has seemed more delicious! For one thing, it's lazier."</p> + +<p>They were seated opposite each other in the small open space, Walter +holding the helm with one hand, while with the other he managed the +sail, and Ruth leaning back against the miniature deck. Presently she +began to sing, softly, Schubert's music set to Shakespeare's words:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"'Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">And Phœbus 'gins arise—'"</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>"Not the lark already?" asked Walter.</p> + +<p>He was exerting all his skill, but their progress was slow; the +<i>Shearwater</i> crossed and recrossed, crossed and recrossed, gaining but a +few feet in each transit.<a name="page_200" id="page_200"></a></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"'Arise! arise!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">My lady sweet, arise!'"</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="nind">sang Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Do you think I could get a rise out of those Minorcans?" suggested her +companion, indicating a fishing-boat at a little distance. "Perhaps they +could lend me some oars. I was a great fool to come out without them!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't get oars; that would spoil it. The tide has turned, and the +wind is dying down; we can float slowly in. Everything is exactly right, +and I am perfectly happy!"</p> + +<p>Walter, his mind haunted by that vision of Chase and Patterson at the +Magnolia, did not at first take in what she had said. Then, a minute or +two afterwards, her phrase returned to him, and he smiled; it seemed so +naïve. "It's delightful, in a discontented world, to hear you say that, +Mrs. Chase. Is it generally, or in particular, that you are so blissful? +St. Augustine? or life as a whole?"</p> + +<p>"Both," replied Ruth, promptly. "For I have everything I like—and I +like so many things! And everybody does whatever I want them to do. Why, +you yourself, Mr. Willoughby! Because I love to dance, you have arranged +that ball for to-morrow night. And when I asked you to take me out this +second time in the <i>Shearwater</i>, you did it at once."</p> + +<p>"Ah, my lady, with your blue eyes and dark lashes, you little know why!" +thought Walter, with an inward laugh.<a name="page_201" id="page_201"></a></p> + +<p>At last he got the boat up to the dilapidated pier again. It was long +after dark. He took her to her door, and left her; she must explain her +late arrival in her own way. Women, fortunately, are excellent at +explanations.</p> + +<p>But Chase was not there.</p> + +<p>Twenty minutes afterwards he came in, late in his turn. "You didn't have +dinner, Ruthie? I'm sorry you waited; I was detained."</p> + +<p>"I was very late myself," Ruth answered.</p> + +<p>"Even now I can't stay," Chase went on, hurriedly; "I came back to tell +you, and to get a few things. I am going up to Savannah with Patterson +for three or four days, on business. We are to have a special—a mule +special—this evening, and hit a steamer. You'd better have your mother +to stay with you while I'm away."</p> + +<p>"Yes. To-morrow."</p> + +<p>"She could come to-night, couldn't she?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but it's late; I won't make her turn out to-night. With seven +servants in the house, I am not afraid," Ruth answered.</p> + +<p>"I only thought you might be lonely?"</p> + +<p>"I'll sing all my songs to Petie Trone, Esq."</p> + +<p>He laughed and kissed her.</p> + +<p>"You must come back soon," she said.</p> + +<p>When he had gone she went up-stairs and changed her dress for a long, +loose costume of pale pink tint, covered with lace; then, returning, she +rang for dinner. Here, as in New York, there was a housekeeper,<a name="page_202" id="page_202"></a> who +relieved the young wife of all care. The dinner, in spite of the long +postponement, was excellent; it was also dainty, for the housekeeper had +learned Mrs. Chase's tastes. Mrs. Chase enjoyed it. She drank a glass of +wine, and dallied over the sweets and the fruit. Afterwards, in the +softly lighted drawing-room, she amused herself by singing half a dozen +songs. Petie Trone, Esq., the supposed audience, was not fond of music, +though the songs were sweet; he slinked out, and going softly up the +stairs, deposited himself of his own accord in his basket behind the +cheval-glass in the dressing-room. At eleven his mistress came up; she +let Félicité undress her, and brush with skilful touch the long, thick +mass of her hair. When the maid had gone, she read a little, leaning +back in an easy-chair, with a shaded lamp beside her; then, letting the +novel slip down on her lap, she sat there, looking about the room. Miss +Billy Breeze had marvelled over the luxurious toilet table at +L'Hommedieu; here the whole room was like that table. Presently its +occupant put out her hand, and drew towards her a small stand which held +her jewel-box. For she already had jewels, as Chase liked to buy them +for her. He would have covered his wife with diamonds if Mrs. Franklin +had not said (during that first visit at Asheville after the marriage), +"Ruth is too young to wear diamonds, Mr. Chase; don't you think so?" +Chase did not think so; but he had deferred to her opinion—at least, he +supposed himself to be deferring<a name="page_203" id="page_203"></a> to it when he bought only rubies and +sapphires and pearls. His wife now turned over these ornaments. She put +on the pearl necklace; then she took it off, and held it against her +cheek. But she did not spend as much time as usual over the jewels. +Often she entertained herself with them for an hour; it had been one of +her husband's amusements to watch her. To-night, putting the case aside, +she strolled to the window, opened it and looked out. The stars were +shining brilliantly overhead; she could hear the soft lapping of the +water against the sea-wall. From Anastasia came at intervals the flash +of the light-house. "I was over there at sunset," she said to herself as +she watched the gleam. Then closing the window, she walked idly to and +fro, with her hands clasped behind her. "How happy I am!" she thought; +or rather she did not think it, she felt it. She had no desire to sleep; +the door of the bedroom stood open behind her, but she did not go in. +She sat down on the divan, and let her head fall back among the +cushions: "Everything is perfect—perfect. How delightful it is to +live!"<a name="page_204" id="page_204"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<p>T<small>WO</small> days after the Indian party at Andalusia, the excursion which Mrs. +Kip had called a "boat-drive" came off. Horace Chase was still absent; +he had telegraphed to his wife that he could not return before the last +of the week. As all the preparations had been made, the excursion was +not postponed on his account. Nor was there any reason why it should be. +It was not given in honor of his wife, especially; Ruth, after sixteen +months of marriage, could hardly be called a bride. In addition, the +little winter colony had learned that an hour or two of their leisurely +pleasure-making was about as much as this man of affairs could enjoy +(some persons said "could endure"); after that his face was apt to +betray a vague boredom, although it was evident that (with his usual +careful politeness) he was trying to conceal it.</p> + +<p>Walter Willoughby, meanwhile, was making the best of an annoying +situation. He had lost the chance of being introduced to David +Patterson, and with it the opportunity of learning something definite, +at last, about Chase's Californian interests, and this seemed to him a +great misfortune. But there was no use in moaning over it; the course to +follow was<a name="page_205" id="page_205"></a> not still further to lose the five days of Chase's absence +in sulking, but to employ them in the only profitable way that was left +open (small profit, but better than nothing)—namely, in cementing still +further a friendly feeling between himself and Chase's wife, that +butterfly young wife who had been the cause of so many of his +disappointments. "Every little helps, I suppose," he said to himself, +philosophically. "And as the thing she likes best, apparently, is to go +and keep going, why, I'll take her own pace and outrace her—the little +gad-about!" For, to Walter's eyes, Ruth appeared very young; mentally +unformed as yet, child-like. His adjective "little" could, in truth, +only be applied to her in this sense, for in actual inches Mrs. Chase +was almost as tall as he was. Walter was of medium height, robust and +compact. He had a well-shaped, well-poised head, which joined his strong +neck behind with no hollow and scarcely a curve. His thick, dark hair +was kept very short; but, with his full temples and facial outlines, +this curt fashion became him well. He was not called handsome, though +his features were clearly cut and firm. His gray eyes were ordinarily +rather cold. But when he was animated—and he was usually very +animated—young Willoughby looked full of life. He was fond of pleasure, +fond of amusement. But this did not prevent his possessing, underneath +the surface, a resolute will, which he could enforce against himself as +well as against others. He intended to enjoy life.<a name="page_206" id="page_206"></a> And as, according to +his idea, there could be no lasting enjoyment without freedom from the +pinch of anxiety about material things, he also intended to get +money—first of all to get money. "For a few years, while one is young, +to have small means doesn't so much matter," he had told himself. "But +when one reaches middle age, or passes it, then, if one has children, +care inevitably steps in. There are anxieties, of course, which cannot +be prevented. But this particular one can be—with a certain amount of +energy, and also of resolute self-control in the beginning. The +'have-a-good-time-while-you-are-young' policy doesn't compensate for +having a bad time when you are old, in my opinion. And it's care that +makes one old!"</p> + +<p>Horace Chase had left St. Augustine on Monday. The next evening, at Mrs. +Kip's impromptu ball in the gymnasium, the junior partner of Willoughby, +Chase, & Company devoted his time to Mrs. Chase with much skill. His +attentions remained unobtrusive; he did not dance with her often. The +latter, indeed, would not have been possible in any case; for Mrs. Chase +was surrounded, from first to last, by all that St. Augustine could +offer. Graceful as she was in all her movements, Ruth's dancing was +particularly charming. And it was also striking; for, sinuous, lithe, +soon excited, she danced because she loved it, danced with unconscious +abandon. That night, her slender figure in the white ball dress, that +floated backward in the rapid motion, her happy face<a name="page_207" id="page_207"></a> with the starry +eyes and beautiful color coming and going—this made a picture which +those who were present remembered long. At ten o'clock she had begun to +dance; at two, when many persons were taking leave, she was still on the +floor; with her circle of admirers, it was now Mrs. Chase who was +keeping up the ball. Her mother, who was staying with her during her +husband's absence, had accompanied her to Andalusia. But there was no +need to ask whether Mrs. Franklin was tired; Mrs. Franklin was never +tired in scenes of gayety; she was as well entertained as her daughter. +Walter had danced but twice with Mrs. Chase during the four hours. But +always between her dances he had been on hand. If she had a fancy for +spending a few moments on the veranda, he had her white cloak ready; if +she wished for an ice, it appeared by magic; if there was any one she +did not care to dance with, she could always say that she was engaged to +Mr. Willoughby. It was in this way, in fact, that Mr. Willoughby had +obtained his two dances. The last dance, however, was all his own. It +was three o'clock; even the most good-natured chaperons had collected +their charges, and the music had ceased. "How sorry I am! I do so long +for just one waltz more," said Ruth.</p> + +<p>She spoke to her mother, but Walter overheard the words. He went across +to the musicians (in reality he bribed them); then returning, he said: +"I've arranged it, Mrs. Chase. You are to have that one waltz more." A +few of the young people, tempted<a name="page_208" id="page_208"></a> by the revived strains, threw aside +their wraps and joined them, but practically they had the floor to +themselves. Walter was an expert dancer, skilful and strong; he bore his +partner down the long room, guiding her so securely that she was not +obliged to think of their course; she could leave that entirely to him, +and give herself up to the enjoyment of the motion. As they returned +towards the music for the third time, she supposed that he would stop. +But he did not; he swept her down again, and in shorter circles that +made her, light as she was on her feet, a little giddy. "Isn't this +enough?" she asked. But apparently he did not hear her. The floor began +to spin. "Please stop," she murmured, her eyes half closing from the +increasing dizziness. But her partner kept on until he felt that she was +faltering; then, with a final bewildering whirl, he deposited her safely +on a bench, and stood beside her, laughing a little.</p> + +<p>There was no one near them; Mrs. Franklin, Mrs. Kip, and the few who +still remained, were at the other end of the room. Ruth, after a moment, +began to laugh also, while she pressed her hands over her eyes to help +herself see more clearly. "What possessed you?" she said. "Another +instant and I should certainly have fallen; I couldn't see a thing!"</p> + +<p>"No, you wouldn't have fallen, Mrs. Chase; I could have held you up +under any circumstances. But I wanted to make you for once acknowledge<a name="page_209" id="page_209"></a> +that we are not all so lethargic as you constantly accuse us of being."</p> + +<p>"Accuse?" said Ruth, surprised. She was still panting.</p> + +<p>"Yes, you accuse the whole world; you do nothing <i>but</i> accuse. You are +never preoccupied yourself, and so preoccupation in others seems to you +stupidity. You are never tired; so the rest of us strike you as owlish +and lazy."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but I'm often lazy myself," protested Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Precisely. No doubt when you go in for being lazy at all, you carry it +further than any poor, dull, reasonable man would ever dream of doing," +Walter went on. "I dare say you are capable of lying motionless on a +sofa, with a novel, for ten hours at a stretch!"</p> + +<p>"Ten hours? That's nothing. Ten days," answered Ruth. "I have spent ten +days at L'Hommedieu in that way many a time; Maud Muriel used to call it +'lucid stupor.'"</p> + +<p>"Lucid?" said Walter, doubtfully. "Do you think you can walk?" he went +on, as her mirth still continued. "Because the music really has stopped +this time, and I see your mother's eyes turning this way. Your laughs +are perfectly beautiful, of course. But do they leave you your walking +powers?"</p> + +<p>The musicians, seeing them rise, began suddenly to play again (for his +bribe had been a generous one), and he took her back to her mother in a +rapid <i>deux temps</i>.<a name="page_210" id="page_210"></a></p> + +<p>"Splendid! I like dancing better than anything else in the world," Ruth +declared.</p> + +<p>"I thought it was sailing? However, whatever it is, please make use of +me often, Mrs. Chase. When I've nothing to do I become terribly +low-spirited: for my uncles are bent upon marrying me!"</p> + +<p>"Have they selected any special person?" inquired Mrs. Franklin, +laughing, as he helped her to put on her cloak.</p> + +<p>"I think they have their eye on a widow, a widow of thirty-seven with a +fortune," answered Walter, with exaggerated gloom.</p> + +<p>"Will she have you?"</p> + +<p>"Never in the world!" Walter declared; "that's just it! Why, therefore, +should my uncles force me forward—such a tender flower as I am—to +certain defeat? It is on that account that I have run away. I have come +to hide in Florida—under your protection, Mrs. Chase."</p> + +<p>The meeting-place for the water-party the next day was St. Francis +Barracks—the long, brown structure with pointed gables and deep shady +verandas, which stood on the site of an old Spanish monastery, at the +south end of the sea-wall. The troops stationed at St. Francis that +winter belonged to the First Artillery; to-day the colonel and his +family, the captain and his wife, and the two handsome lieutenants took +part in the excursion; there were fifty people in all, and many yachts, +from the big <i>Seminole</i> down to the little <i>Shearwater</i>. Walter had <i>The +Owl and<a name="page_211" id="page_211"></a> the Pussycat</i>, and with him embarked Mrs. Franklin with her two +daughters, Miss Franklin and Mrs. Chase; Mrs. Lilian Kip; and Commodore +Etheridge. At two o'clock the little fleet sped gayly down the Matanzas.</p> + +<p>"Matanzas, Sebastian, St. Augustine," said Walter; "these names are all +in character. It's an awful misfortune for your husband's budding summer +resort in the North Carolina mountains, Mrs. Chase, that its name +happens to be Asheville, after that stupid custom of tacking the French +'ville' to some man's name; (for I take it that Ashe is a name, and not +cinders). In this case, the first settlers were more than usually +asinine; for they had the beautiful Indian 'Swannanoa' ready to their +hands."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but first settlers have no love for Indian names," commented Dolly. +"How can they have? The Indians and the great forest—these are their +enemies. To me there is something touching in our Higgsvilles and +Slatervilles. I see the first log cabins in the little clearing; then a +short, stump-bedecked street; then two or three streets and a +court-house. The Higgs or the Slater was their best man, their leader, +the one they looked up to. In North Carolina alone there are one hundred +and ten towns or villages with names ending in 'ville.'"</p> + +<p>"North Carolina? Oh yes, I dare say!" remarked Etheridge.</p> + +<p>"And two hundred and forty-one in New York," added Dolly.<a name="page_212" id="page_212"></a></p> + +<p>"Well, we make up for it in other ways," said Mrs. Franklin. "If the men +name the towns, the women name the children; I have known mothers to +produce simply from their own imaginations such titles as Merilla, and +Idelusia, for their daughters. I once knew a girl who had even been +baptized Damask Rose."</p> + +<p>"What did they call her for short?" inquired Walter.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. <i>Willoughby!</i>" said Lilian Kip, shocked.</p> + +<p>"Damask's mother was trying to solace herself with names, I fancy," Mrs. +Franklin went on, "because by the terms of her husband's will (she was a +widow), she forfeited all she had if she married again."</p> + +<p>"How outrageous?" exclaimed Mrs. Kip, bristling into vehemence. "If a +woman has been a good wife to one man, is that any reason why she should +be denied the <i>privilege</i> of being a good wife to another?"</p> + +<p>"Privilege?" repeated Dolly.</p> + +<p>"Surely there is no greater one," said Mrs. Kip, with a sigh. "Love is +so beautiful! And it is such a benefit! The more one loves, the better, +I think. And the more <i>persons</i> one loves, the more sweet and generous +one's nature becomes. If any one has been bereaved, I am always <i>so</i> +glad to hear that they are in love again. Even if the love is +unreturned" (here she gave a little swallow), "I still think it in +itself the greatest blessing we have; and the most improving."<a name="page_213" id="page_213"></a></p> + +<p>After a friendly race towards the south, the fleet turned and came back; +the company disembarked and walked across the narrow breadth of +Anastasia Island to the ocean beach, where, at the Spanish light-house, +the collation was to be served later in the day. The old beacon stood, +at high tide, almost in the water; for, in two hundred years, the ocean +had encroached largely upon the shore. Its square stone tower, which had +been topped in the Spanish days with an iron grating and a bonfire, now +displayed a revolving light, which flashed and then faded, flashed and +faded, signalling out to sea the harbor of St. Augustine. Under the +tower stood a coquina house for the keeper, and the whole was fortified, +having a defensive wall, with angles and loop-holes. Nothing could have +been more beautiful than the soft sapphire tint of the ocean, whose long +rollers, coming smoothly in, broke with a musical wash upon the broad +white beach which, firm as a pavement, stretched towards the south in +long curves. Not a ship was in sight. Overhead sailed an eagle. "Oh, why +did we land so soon?" said Ruth, regretfully. "We might have stayed out +two hours longer. For we are not to have the supper—or is it the +dinner?—at any rate, it's chowder—until sunset."</p> + +<p>"We can go out again, if you like," said Walter.</p> + +<p>Here Etheridge came up. The implacably clear light which comes from a +broad expanse of sea was revealing every minute line in Mrs. Franklin's +delicate face. "How wrinkled she looks!" was his self-congratulatory +thought. "Even fifteen years ago she was<a name="page_214" id="page_214"></a> finished—done!" Then he +added, aloud: "I think I'll accompany you, if you <i>are</i> going out again. +The afternoon promises to be endlessly long here, with nothing to do but +gawp for sea-beans, or squawk poetry!" This strenuous description of +some of the amusements already in progress on the beach showed that, in +the commodore's plans, something had gone wrong.</p> + +<p>"Are you really going, commodore?" asked Mrs. Franklin. "Then I'll put +Ruth in your charge."</p> + +<p>"Put me in it, too," said Dolly. "I should much rather sail than sit +here."</p> + +<p>"Oh no, Dolly. You never can take that walk to the landing a second time +so soon," said the mother.</p> + +<p>And so it proved. Dolly started. But, after a few steps, she had to give +it up. "I should think <i>you</i> would like to go, His Grand?" she +suggested.</p> + +<p>"I can't. I have promised to see to the chowder," answered Mrs. +Franklin. "Sailing and sea-beans and poetry are all very well. But I +have noticed that every one grows gloomy when the chowder is bad!"</p> + +<p>Etheridge, Ruth, and Walter Willoughby, therefore, recrossed the island +and embarked. The commodore took the helm.</p> + +<p>"What boat is that ahead of us?" asked Walter. "Some of our people? Has +any one else deserted the sea-beans?"</p> + +<p>"I dare say," replied Etheridge, carelessly.</p> + +<p>The commodore could manage a boat extremely<a name="page_215" id="page_215"></a> well; the <i>Owl and the +Pussycat</i> flew after that sail ahead, in a line as straight as a +plummet.</p> + +<p>"Why, it's Mrs. Kip," said Ruth, as they drew nearer. She had recognized +the gypsy hat in the other boat.</p> + +<p>"Yes, with Albert Tillotson," added Walter.</p> + +<p>"What, that donkey?" inquired Etheridge, with well-feigned surprise (and +an anger that required no feigning). "He can no more manage a boat than +I can manage a comet! Poor Mrs. Kip is in actual danger of her life. The +idea of that Tom Noddy of a Tillotson daring to take her out! I must run +this boat up alongside, Mr. Willoughby, and get on board immediately. +Common humanity requires it."</p> + +<p>"The commodore's common humanity is uncommonly like jealousy," said +Walter to Ruth when the <i>Owl</i> had dropped behind again after this +manœuvre had been successfully executed. "He is a clever old fellow! +Of course he knew she was out, and he came with us on purpose. We'll +keep near them, Mrs. Chase, and watch their faces; it will be as good as +a play."</p> + +<p>To his surprise, Ruth, who was generally so ready to laugh, did not pay +heed to this. "I am glad he has gone," she said; "for now we need not +talk—just sail and sail! Let us go over so far—straight down towards +the south." Her eyes had a dreamy expression which was new to him.</p> + +<p>"What next!" thought her companion. He glanced furtively at his watch. +"I can keep on for half an hour more, I suppose."<a name="page_216" id="page_216"></a></p> + +<p>But when, at the end of that time, he put about, Ruth, who had scarcely +spoken, straightened herself (she had been lying back indolently, with +one hand behind her head), and watched the turning prow with regret. +"<i>Must</i> we go back so soon? Why?"</p> + +<p>"To look for sea-beans," answered Walter. "Are you aware, Mrs. Chase, of +the awful significance of that New England phrase of condemnation, 'You +don't know beans'? It will be said that <i>I</i> don't know if I take you any +farther. For the tide will soon turn, and the wind is already against +us."</p> + +<p>But his tasks were not yet at an end; another idea soon took possession +of his companion's imagination.</p> + +<p>"How wild Anastasia looks from here! I have never landed at this point. +Can't we land now, just for a few moments? It would be such fun."</p> + +<p>"Won't it be more than fun, Mrs. Horace? A wild-goose—? Forgive the +pun."</p> + +<p>On Anastasia there are ancient trails running north and south. Ruth, +discovering one of these paths, followed it inland. "I wish we could +meet something, I wish we could have an adventure!" she said. "There are +bears over here; and there are alligators too at the pools. Perhaps this +trail leads to a pool?" The surmise was correct; the path soon brought +them within sight of a dark-looking pond, partly covered with lily +leaves. Ruth, who was first (for the old Indian trail was so narrow that +they could not walk side by side), turned back suddenly. "There really +<i>is</i> an alligator," she whispered. "He is half in and half<a name="page_217" id="page_217"></a> out of the +water. I am going to run round through the thicket, so as to have a +nearer view of him." And hurrying with noiseless steps along the trail, +she turned into the forest.</p> + +<p>He followed. "Don't be foolhardy," he urged. For she seemed to him so +fearless that there was no telling what she might do.</p> + +<p>But when they reached the opposite side of the pool no alligator was +visible, and Ruth, seating herself in the loop of a vine, which formed a +natural swing, laughed her merriest.</p> + +<p>"You are an excellent actress," he said. "I really believed that you had +seen the creature."</p> + +<p>"And if I had? They don't attack people; they are great cowards."</p> + +<p>"I have an admirable air of being more timid than she is!" he thought, +annoyed.</p> + +<p>They returned towards the shore along a low ridge. On their way he saw +something cross this ridge about thirty feet ahead of them—a slender +dark line. He ran forward and looked down (for the ridge was four feet +high).</p> + +<p>"Come quickly!" he called back to Ruth. "Your alligator was a base +invention. But here is something real. He is hardly more than an +infant," he continued, his eyes still fixed on the lower slope. "But he +is of the blood royal, I can tell by the shape of his neck. I'll get a +long branch, Mrs. Chase, and then, as you like adventures, you can see +him strike." Where they stood, they were safe, for the snake (it was a<a name="page_218" id="page_218"></a> +young rattlesnake) would not come up the ascent; when he moved, he would +glide the other way into the thicket. Hastily cutting a long wand from a +bush, he gave it to her. "Touch him," he directed; "on the body, not on +the head. Then you will see him coil!" He himself kept his eyes +meanwhile on the snake; he did not look at her. But the wand did not +descend. "Make haste," he urged, "or he will be off!"</p> + +<p>The wand came down slowly, paused, and then touched the reptile, who +instantly coiled himself, reared his flat head, and struck at it with +his fangs exposed. Walter, excited and interested, waited to see him +strike again. But there was no opportunity, for the wand itself was +dropping. He turned. Ruth, her face covered with her hands, was +shuddering convulsively.</p> + +<p>"The snake has gone," he said, reassuringly; "he went off like a shot +into the thicket, he is a quarter of a mile away by this time." For he +was alarmed by the violence of the tremor that had taken possession of +her.</p> + +<p>In spite of her tremor, she began to run; she hurried like a wild +creature along the ridge until she came to a broad open space of white +sand, over which no dark object could approach unseen; here she sank +down, sobbing aloud.</p> + +<p>He was at his wits' end. Why should a girl, who apparently had no fear +of bears or alligators, be frightened out of her senses by one small +snake?<a name="page_219" id="page_219"></a></p> + +<p>"Supposing she should faint—that Dolly is always fainting! What on +earth could I do?" he thought.</p> + +<p>Ruth, however, did not faint. But she sobbed and sobbed as if she could +not stop.</p> + +<p>"It's just like her laughing," thought Walter, in despair. "Dear Mrs. +Chase," he said aloud, "I am distracted to see how I have made you +suffer. These Florida snakes do very little harm, unless one happens to +step on them unawares. I did not imagine, I did not dream, that the mere +sight—But that makes no difference; I shall never forgive myself; +never!"</p> + +<p>Ruth looked up, catching her breath. "It was so dreadful!" she murmured, +brokenly. "Did you see its—its mouth?" She was so white that even her +lips were colorless; her blue eyes were dilated strangely.</p> + +<p>He grew more and more alarmed. Apparently she saw it, for she tried to +control herself; and, after two or three minutes, she succeeded. "You +must not mind if I happen to look rather pale," she said, timidly. "I am +sometimes very pale for a moment or two. And then I get dreadfully red +in the same way. Dolly often speaks of it. But it doesn't mean anything. +I can go now," she added, still timidly.</p> + +<p>"She thinks I am vexed," he said to himself, surprised. He was not +vexed; on the contrary, in her pallor and this new shyness she was more +interesting to him than she had ever been before. As he knew that they +ought to be on their way back, he accepted her offer to start, in spite +of her white<a name="page_220" id="page_220"></a> cheeks. But her steps were so weak, and she still trembled +so convulsively, that he drew her hand through his arm and held it. +Giving her in this way all the help he could, he took her towards the +shore, choosing a route through open spaces, so that there should be no +vision of any gliding thing in the underbrush near by. When they were +off again, crossing the Matanzas on a long tack, she was still very +pallid. "I haven't been clever," he thought. "At present she is unnerved +by fright. But by to-morrow it will be anger, and she will say that it +was my fault." While thinking of this, he talked on various subjects. +But it was a monologue; for a long time Ruth made no answer. Then +suddenly the color came rushing back to her cheeks. "<i>Please</i> don't +tell—don't tell any one how dreadfully frightened I was," she pleaded.</p> + +<p>"I never tell anything; I have no talent for narrative," he answered, +much relieved to see the returning red. "But I am dreadfully cut up and +wretched about that fright I was stupid enough to give you. I wish I +could make you forget it, Mrs. Chase; forget it forever."</p> + +<p>"On the contrary, I am afraid I shall remember it forever," Ruth +answered. Then she added, still timidly, "But you were so kind—It won't +be <i>all</i> unpleasant."</p> + +<p>"What a school-girl it is!" thought Walter. "And above all things, what +a creature of extremes! She must lead Horace Chase a life! However, she +is certainly seductively lovely."<a name="page_221" id="page_221"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<p>A<small>T</small> the end of this week Horace Chase returned. And the next morning he +paid a visit to his mother-in-law. He still used his "ma'am" when +talking to her; she still called him "Mr. Chase." In mentioning him to +others, she sometimes succeeded in bringing out a "Horace." But when the +tall, grave-looking business man was before her in person, she never got +beyond the more formal title.</p> + +<p>"My trip to Savannah, ma'am, was connected with business," Chase began, +after he had gone through his usual elaborate inquiries about her health +and "the health of Miss Dolly." "One of my friends, David Patterson by +name, and myself, have been engaged for some time in arranging a new +enterprise in which we are about to embark in California. Matters are +now sufficiently advanced for me to mention that about May next we shall +need a confidential man in New York to attend to the Eastern part of it. +It is highly important to me, ma'am, to have for that position some one +I know, some one I can trust. Mr. Patterson will go himself to +California, and remain there, probably, a year or more. Meanwhile I, at +the East, shall need just the right man under me; for <i>I</i> have other +things to see to; I cannot<a name="page_222" id="page_222"></a> give all my time to this new concern. Do you +think, ma'am, that Mr. Franklin could be induced to take this place? +Under the circumstances, I should esteem it a favor." And here he made +Jared's mother a little bow.</p> + +<p>"You are very kind," answered Mrs. Franklin. Having refused to know +anything of the correspondence between Ruth and Genevieve, she had had +until now no knowledge of the proposed New York place. "Jared's present +position is certainly most wretched drudgery," she went on; "far beneath +his abilities—which are really great."</p> + +<p>"Just so. And what should you recommend, ma'am, as the best way to open +the subject? Shall I take a run up to Raleigh? Or shall I drop him a +line? Perhaps you yourself would like to write?"</p> + +<p>The mother reflected. "If I do," she thought, "Jared will fancy that I +have begged the place for him. If Ruth writes, he will be sure of it. If +Mr. Chase writes, Jared will answer within the hour—a letter full of +jokes and friendliness, but—declining. If Chase goes to Raleigh in +person, Jared will decline verbally, and with even more unassailable +good-humor. No, there is only one person in the world who could perhaps +make him yield, and that person is Genevieve!" At this thought, her +face, which always showed like a barometer her inward feelings, changed +so markedly that her son-in-law hastened to interpose. "Don't bother +about the ways and means, ma'am; I guess I can fix it all right." He<a name="page_223" id="page_223"></a> +spoke in a confident tone, in order to reassure her; for he had a liking +for the "limber old lady," as he mentally called her. His confidence, +however, was in a large measure assumed; where business matters were in +question, the "offishness," as he termed it, of this ex-naval officer +had seemed to him such a queer trait that he hardly knew how to grapple +with it.</p> + +<p>"I was only thinking that my daughter-in-law would perhaps be the best +person to speak to Jared," replied Mrs. Franklin at last. (The words +came out with an effort.)</p> + +<p>"Gen? So she would; she is very clear-headed. But if she is to be the +one, I must first let her know just what the place is, and all about it, +and how can that be done, ma'am? Wouldn't Mr. Franklin see my letter?"</p> + +<p>"No. For she isn't in Raleigh with her husband; she is at Asheville."</p> + +<p>"Why, how's that?" inquired Chase, who had seen, from the first, Jared's +deep attachment to his wife.</p> + +<p>"How indeed!" thought the mother. Her lips quivered. She compressed them +in order to conceal it. The satisfaction which she had, for a time, felt +in the idea that Genevieve was learning, at last, that she could not +always control her husband—this had now vanished in the sense of her +son's long and dreary solitude. For the wife had not been in Raleigh +during the entire winter; Jared had been left<a name="page_224" id="page_224"></a> to endure existence as +best he could in his comfortless boarding-house. "My daughter-in-law has +been very closely occupied at Asheville," she explained, after a moment. +"They are improving their house there, you know, and she can superintend +work of that sort remarkably well."</p> + +<p>"That's so," said Chase, agreeingly.</p> + +<p>"She is also much interested in a new wing for the Colored Home," +pursued Mrs. Franklin; and this time a little of her deep inward +bitterness showed itself in her tone.</p> + +<p>"Gen's pretty cute!" thought Chase. "She's not only feathering her own +nest up there in Asheville, but at the same time she is starving out +that wrong-headed husband of hers." Then he went on aloud: "Well, ma'am, +if it's to be Mrs. Jared who is to attend to the matter for me, I guess +I'll wait until I can put the whole thing before her in a nutshell, with +the details arranged. That will be pretty soon now—as soon as I come +back from California. For I must go to California myself before long."</p> + +<p>"Are you going to take Ruth? How I shall miss her!" said the mother, +dispiritedly.</p> + +<p>"We shall not be gone a great while—only five or six weeks. On second +thoughts, why shouldn't you come along, ma'am?—come along with us? I +guess I could fix it so as you'd be pretty comfortable."</p> + +<p>"You are very kind. But I could not leave Dolly."</p> + +<p>"Of course not. I didn't mean that, ma'am; I meant that Miss Dolly +should come along too. That<a name="page_225" id="page_225"></a> French woman of Ruth's—Felicity—she's +capital when travelling. Or we could have a trained nurse? They have +very attractive nurses now, ma'am; real ladies; and good-looking too, +and sprightly."</p> + +<p>"You are always thoughtful," answered Mrs. Franklin, amused by this +description. "But it is impossible. Dolly can travel for two or three +days, if we take great precautions; but a longer time makes her ill. +Ruth is coming to lunch, isn't she? With Malachi? I am so glad you +brought him; he doesn't have many holidays."</p> + +<p>"Well, ma'am, he was there in Savannah, buying a bell, or, rather, +getting prices. A church bell, as I understood. He'd about got through, +and was going back to Asheville, when I suggested to him to come along +down to St. Augustine for three or four days. 'Come and look up your +wandering flock'—that is what I remarked to him. For you know, ma'am, +that with yourself and Miss Dolly, the commodore and Mrs. Kip, you make +four—four of his sheep in Florida; including Miss Evangeline Taylor, +four sheep and a first-prize lamb."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Franklin smiled. But she felt herself called upon to explain a +little. "We are not of his flock, exactly; Mr. Hill has a mission +charge. But though he is not our rector, we are all much attached to +him."</p> + +<p>"He's a capital little fellow, and works hard; I've great respect for +him. But somehow, ma'am, he's taken a queer way lately of stopping short +when he is talking. Almost as though he had choked!"<a name="page_226" id="page_226"></a></p> + +<p>"So he has—choked himself off," answered Mrs. Franklin, breaking into a +laugh. "When with you, he is constantly tempted to ask for money for the +Mission, he says. He knows, however, that the clergy are always accused +of paying court to rich men for begging purposes, and he is determined +to be an exception. But he finds it uncommonly difficult."</p> + +<p>"How much does he want?" inquired Chase. Then he paused. "Perhaps his +notions take the form of a church?" he went on. "I've been thinking a +little of building a church, ma'am. You see, my mother was a great +church-goer; she found her principal comfort in it. I've been very far +from steady myself, I'm sorry to say; I haven't done much credit to her +bringing-up. And so I've thought that I'd put up a church some day, as a +sort of memory of her. Because, if she'd lived, she would have liked +that better than anything else."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean an Episcopal church?" inquired Mrs. Franklin, touched by +these words.</p> + +<p>"Well, she was a Baptist herself," Chase replied. "So perhaps I have +rather a prejudice in favor of that denomination. But I'm not set upon +it; I should think it might be built so as to be suitable for all +persuasions. At any rate, I guess Hill and I could hit it off together +somehow."</p> + +<p>Here Dolly came in, and a moment afterwards Ruth appeared with the Rev. +Malachi Hill. Dolly greeted the young missionary with cordiality. "How +is Asheville?" she inquired. "How is Maud Muriel?"<a name="page_227" id="page_227"></a></p> + +<p>Malachi's radiant face changed. "She is the same. When I see her coming, +I do everything I can to keep out of the way. But sometimes there is no +corner to turn, or no house to go into, and I <i>have</i> to pass her. And +then I know just how she will say it!" And, tightening his lips, he +brought out a low "Manikin!"</p> + +<p>"Brace up," said Dolly. "You must look back at her and look her down; +make her falter."</p> + +<p>"Oh, falter!" repeated poor Malachi, hopelessly.</p> + +<p>Another guest now appeared—Mrs. Kip. For Mrs. Franklin had invited them +all to lunch before the jessamine hunt, which had been appointed for +that afternoon. As it happened, Mrs. Kip's first question also was, "How +is Miss Mackintosh?"</p> + +<p>"Unchanged. At least, she treats <i>me</i> with the same contumely," answered +the clergyman.</p> + +<p>"If you indulge yourself with such words as 'contumely,' Mr. Hill, +people will call you affected," said Dolly, in humorous warning.</p> + +<p>"Now, Dolly, don't say that," interposed Mrs. Kip. "For unusual words +are full of dignity. I don't know what I wouldn't give if <i>I</i> could +bring in, just naturally and easily, when I am talking, such a word, for +instance, as jejune! And for clergymen it is especially distinguished. +Though there is <i>one</i> clerical word, Mr. Hill, that I do think might be +altered, and that is closet. Why should we always be told to meditate in +our closets? Generally there is no room for a chair; so all one can +think of is people sitting on the floor among the shoes."<a name="page_228" id="page_228"></a></p> + +<p>Every one laughed. Mrs. Kip, however, had made her remark in perfect +good faith.</p> + +<p>The entrance of Walter Willoughby completed the party, and lunch was +announced. When the meal was over, and they came back to the parlor, +they found Félicité in waiting with Petie Trone, Esq. Félicité, a French +woman with a trim waist and large eyes, always looked as though she +would like to be wicked. In reality, however, she was harmless, for one +insatiable ambition within her swallowed up all else, namely, the +ambition not to be middle-aged. As she was forty-eight, the struggle +took all her time. "I bring to madame le petit trône for his promenade," +she said, as, after a respectful salutation to the company, she detached +the leader from the dog's collar.</p> + +<p>"Must that fat little wretch go with us?" Chase inquired, after the maid +had departed.</p> + +<p>For answer, Ruth took up Mr. Trone and deposited him on her husband's +knee. "Yes; and you are to see to him."</p> + +<p>"Is the squirrel down here too?" inquired Walter. "I haven't seen him."</p> + +<p>"Robert the Squirrel—" began Chase, with his hands in his trousers +pockets; then he paused. "That's just like Robert the Devil, isn't it? I +mean an opera, ma'am, of that name that they were giving in New York +last winter," he explained to Mrs. Franklin, so that she should not +think he was swearing.</p> + +<p><a name="page_229" id="page_229"></a>"Robert the Devil will do excellently well as a nickname for Bob," said +Dolly. "It's the best he has had."</p> + +<p>"Well, at any rate, Robert the Squirrel isn't here," Chase went on. "He +boards with Mr. Hill for the winter, Walter; special terms made for +nuts. And, by-the-way, Hill, you haven't mentioned Larue; how is the +senator? I'm keeping my eye on him for future use in booming our resort, +you know. The Governor of North Carolina remarking to the Governor of +South Carolina—you've heard that story? Well, sir, what we propose now +is to have the <i>senator</i> from North Carolina remark to the senator from +South Carolina (and to all the other senators thrown in) that Asheville +is bound to be the Lone Star of mountain resorts south of the +Catskills."</p> + +<p>Lilian Kip's heart had given a jump at Larue's name; to carry it off, +she took up a new novel which was lying on the table. (For Chase's order +had been a perennial one: "all the latest articles in fiction," pursued +Mrs. Franklin hotly, month after month.) "Oh, I am sure you don't like +<i>this</i>," said Lilian, when she had read the title.</p> + +<p>"I have only just begun it," answered Mrs. Franklin. "But why shouldn't +I like it? It is said to be original and amusing."</p> + +<p>"It is not <i>at all</i> the book I should wish to put into the hands of +Evangeline Taylor," replied Mrs. Kip, with decision.</p> + +<p>"The one unfailing test of the American mother for the entire literature +of the world!" commented Dolly.<a name="page_230" id="page_230"></a></p> + +<p>The search for the first jessamine was in those days one of the regular +amusements of a St. Augustine winter. Where St. George Street ends, +beyond the two pomegranate-topped pillars of the old city gate, Mrs. +Franklin's party came upon the other members of the searching +expedition, and they all walked on together along the shell road. On the +right, Fort San Marco loomed up, with the figures of several Indians on +its top outlined against the sky. Beyond shone the white sand-hills of +the North Beach. At the end of the road the searchers entered a long +range of park-like glades; here the yellow jessamine, the loveliest wild +flower of the Florida spring, unfolds its tendrils as it clambers over +the trees and thickets, lighting up their evergreen foliage with its +bell-shaped flowers. Dolly and Mrs. Franklin had accompanied the party +in a phaeton. "I think I can drive everywhere, even without a road, as +the ground is so level and open," Dolly suggested. "But you must serve +as guide, Ruth. Please keep us in sight."</p> + +<p>But after a while Ruth forgot this injunction. Mrs. Franklin, always +interested in whatever was going on, had already disappeared, searching +for the jessamine with the eagerness of a girl. Dolly, finding herself +thus deserted, stopped. But her brother-in-law, who had had his eye on +her pony from the beginning, soon appeared. "What, alone?" he said, +coming up.</p> + +<p>Upon seeing him, Dolly cleared her brow. "I don't mind it; the glades +are so pretty."<a name="page_231" id="page_231"></a></p> + +<p>Chase examined the glades; but without any marked admiration in his +glance.</p> + +<p>"Where is Ruth?" Dolly went on.</p> + +<p>"Just round the corner—I mean on the other side of that thicket. Walter +has found some of the vine they are all hunting for, and she's in a +great jubilation over it; she wanted to find it ahead of that Mr. Kean, +who always gets it first."</p> + +<p>"Please tell her to bring me a spray of it. As soon as she can."</p> + +<p>Assuring himself that the pony felt no curiosity about the absence of a +road under his feet, Chase, with his leisurely step, went in search of +his wife. He found her catching jessamine, which Walter, who had climbed +into a wild-plum tree, was throwing down. She had already adorned +herself with the blossoms, and when she saw her husband approaching she +went to meet him, and wound a spray round his hat.</p> + +<p>"Your sister wants some; she told me to tell you. She's back there a +little way—on the left," said Chase. "Hullo! here comes a wounded +hero;" for Petie Trone, Esq., had appeared, limping dolefully. "Never +mind; I'll see to the little porpoise if you want to go to Dolly." He +stooped and took up the dog with gentle touch. "He has probably been +interviewing some prickly-pears."</p> + +<p>When Ruth had gone, Walter's interest in the jessamine vanished. He +swung himself down to the ground. "Mrs. Chase has been telling me that +you<a name="page_232" id="page_232"></a> are thinking of going to California very soon?" he said, +inquiringly.</p> + +<p>"Yes; I guess we shall get off next week," Chase answered, examining +Trone's little paws.</p> + +<p>"I am going to be very bold," Walter went on. "I am going to ask you to +take me with you."</p> + +<p>Chase's features did not move, but his whole expression altered; the +half-humorous look which his face always wore when, in the company of +his young wife, he was "taking things easy," as he called it, gave place +in a flash to the cool reticence of the man of business. "Take you?" he +inquired, briefly. "Why?"</p> + +<p>And then Willoughby, in the plainest and most direct words (a directness +which was not, however, without the eloquence that comes from an intense +desire), explained his wish to be admitted to a part, however small, in +the California scheme. He allowed himself no reserves; he told the whole +story of his father's spendthrift propensities, and his own small means +in consequence. "I have a fixed determination to make money, Mr. Chase. +I dare say you have thought me idle; but I should not have idled if I +had had at any time the right thing to go into. Work? There is literally +no amount of work that I should shrink from, if it led towards the +fortune upon which I am bent. I can, and I will, work as hard as ever +you yourself have worked."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid you're looking for a soft snap," said Chase, shifting Mr. +Trone to his left arm, and putting<a name="page_233" id="page_233"></a> his right hand into his trousers +pocket, where he jingled a bunch of keys vaguely.</p> + +<p>"If you will let me come in, even by a little edge only, I am sure you +won't regret it," Walter went on. "Can't you recall, by looking back, +your own determination to succeed, and how far it carried you, how +strong it made you? Well, that is the way I feel to-day! You ought to be +able to comprehend me. You've been over the same road."</p> + +<p>"The same road!" repeated Chase, ironically. "Let's size it up a little. +I was taken out of school before I was fourteen—when my father died. +From that day I had not only to earn every crumb of bread I ate, but +help to earn the bread of my sisters too. Before I was eighteen I had +worked at half a dozen different things, and always at the rate of +thirteen or fourteen hours a day. By the time I was twenty I was old; I +had already lived a long and hard life. Now your side: A good home; +every luxury; school; college; Europe!"</p> + +<p>"You think that because I have been through Columbia, and because I once +had a yacht (the yacht was in reality my uncle's), I shall never make a +good business man," replied Walter. "Unfortunately, I have no means of +proving to you the contrary, unless you will give me the chance I ask +for. I don't pretend, of course, to have anything like your talents; +they are your own, and unapproached. But I do say that I have ability; I +<i>feel</i> that I have."</p> + +<p>"It's sizzling, is it?" commented Chase. "Why<a name="page_234" id="page_234"></a> don't you put it into the +business you're in already, then; the steamship firm of Willoughby, +Chase, & Co.? Boom that; put on steam, and boom it for all you're worth; +your uncles and I will see you through. You say you only want a chance; +why on earth don't you take the one that lies before you? If you wish to +convince me you know something, <i>that's</i> the way."</p> + +<p>"The steamship concern is too slow for me; I have looked into it, and I +know. I might work at it for ten years, and with the small share I have +in it I should not be very rich," Walter answered. "I'm in a hurry! I am +willing to give everything on my side—all my time and my strength and +my brains; but I want something good on the other."</p> + +<p>"Now you're shouting!"</p> + +<p>"The steamship firm is routine—regular; that isn't the way you made +<i>your</i> money," Walter went on.</p> + +<p>"My way is open to everybody. It isn't covered by any patent that I know +of," remarked Chase, in his dry tones.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is," answered Walter, immediately taking him up. "Or rather it +was; the Bubble Baking-Powder was very tightly patented."</p> + +<p>Chase grinned a little over this sally. But he was not moved towards the +least concession, and Walter saw that he was not; he therefore played +his last card. "I have a great deal of influence with my uncles, I +think; especially with my uncle Nicholas."<a name="page_235" id="page_235"></a></p> + +<p>"Put your money on Nicholas Willoughby, and you're safe, every time," +remarked Chase, in a general way.</p> + +<p>"I don't know whether you and Patterson care for more capital in +developing your California scheme?" Walter went on. "But if you do, I +could probably help you to some."</p> + +<p>Chase looked at him. The younger man's eyes met his, bright as steel.</p> + +<p>The millionaire walked over to a block of coquina, which had once formed +part of a Spanish house; here he seated himself, established Petie Trone +comfortably on his knee, and lifting his hand, tilted back still farther +on his head his jessamine-decked hat. "You've been blowing about being +able to work, Walter. But we can get plenty of hard workers without +letting 'em into the ring. And you've been talking about being sharp. +Sharp you may be. But I rather guess that when it comes to <i>that</i>, Dave +Patterson and I don't need any help. Capital, however, is another +matter; it's always another matter. By enlarging our scheme at its +present stage by a third (which we could do easily if your uncle +Nicholas came in), we should make a much bigger pile."</p> + +<p>There was no second block of coquina; Walter remained standing. But his +compact figure looked sturdy and firm as he stood there beside the other +man. "I could not go to my uncle without knowing what I am to tell him," +he remarked, after a moment.<a name="page_236" id="page_236"></a></p> + +<p>"Certainly not!" Chase answered. Then, after further reflection (this +time Walter did not break the silence), he said: "Well, see here; I may +as well state at the outset that unless your uncle will come in to a +pretty big tune, we don't want him at all; 'twouldn't pay us; we'd +prefer to play it alone. Now your uncles don't strike me as men who +would be willing to take risks. You say you have influence with 'em, or +rather with Nick. But I've got no proof of that. Of course it's +possible; Nick has brought you up; he's got no son—only girls; perhaps +he'd be willing to do for you what he'd do for a son of his own; perhaps +he really would take a risk, to give you a first-class start. But I +repeat that I've no proof of your having the least influence with him. +What's more, I've a healthy amount of doubt about it! Oh, I dare say +<i>you</i> believe you've got a pull; you're straight as far as that goes. My +notion is simply that you're mistaken, that you're barking up the wrong +tree; Nicholas ain't that sort! However, as it happens to be the moment +when we <i>could</i> enlarge (and double the profits), I'll give you my +terms. You have convinced me at least of one thing, and that is that +you're very sharp set yourself as to money-making; you want tremendously +to catch on. And it's <i>that</i> I'm going to take as my security. In this +way. In order to learn whether your uncle Nicholas, to oblige <i>you</i>, is +willing to come in with Patterson and myself in this affair, you must +first know what the affair is (as you very justly remarked);<a name="page_237" id="page_237"></a> I must +therefore tell you the whole scheme—show all my hand. Now, then, if I +do this, and your uncle <i>doesn't</i> take it up, then not only you don't +get in yourself, but if I see the slightest indication that my +confidence has been abused, I sell out of that steamship firm instanter, +and, as I'm virtually the firm, you know what that will mean! And the +one other property you have—that stock—you'll be surprised to see how +it'll go down to next to nothing on the street. 'Twon't hurt <i>me</i>, you +know. As for you, you'll deserve it all, and more, too, for having been +a dunderhead!"</p> + +<p>"I accept the terms," answered Willoughby. "Under the circumstances, +they're not even hard. If I fail, I <i>am</i> a dunderhead!—I shall be the +first to say it. But I sha'n't fail." (Even at this moment, though he +was intensely absorbed, his eye was struck by the contrast between the +keen, hard expression of Horace Chase's face and his flower-decked hat; +between the dry tones of his voice and the care with which he still held +his wife's little dog, who at this instant, after a long yawn, +affectionately licked the hand that held him, ringing by the motion the +three small silver bells with which his young mistress had adorned his +collar.) "If I am to go to California with you next week, I have no time +to lose," he went on, promptly. "For I must first go to New York, of +course, to see my uncle."</p> + +<p>"Well, rather!" interpolated Chase.</p> + +<p>"Couldn't you tell me now whatever I have to<a name="page_238" id="page_238"></a> know?" Walter continued. +"This is as good a place as any. We might walk off towards that house on +the right, near the shore; there is no danger of there being any +jessamine <i>there</i>."</p> + +<p>Here Ruth appeared. "Haven't you found any more?" she asked, surprised. +"Mr. Willoughby, you pretended to be so much interested! As for you, +Horace, where is your spirit? I thought you liked to be first in +everything?"</p> + +<p>"First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen," +quoted Chase. "Here—you'd better put your monkey in the phaeton," he +went on, passing over Mr. Trone. "He has a little rheumatism in his paw. +But you must try to bear it." His voice had again its humorous tones; +the penetrating look in his eyes had vanished. His wife standing there, +adorned with jessamine, her face looking child-like as she stroked her +dog, seemed to change the man of a moment before into an entirely +different being. In reality it did not do this; but it brought out +another part of his nature, and a part equally strong. Ruth had taken +off her gloves; the gems which her husband had given her flashed on her +hands as she lifted Mr. Trone to her shoulder and laid her cheek against +his little black head. "We are going for a short walk, Willoughby and +I," Chase said—"over towards that house on the shore. We'll be back +soon."</p> + +<p>"That house is Dalton's," answered Ruth, looking in that direction. +"Mrs. Dalton makes the loveliest<a name="page_239" id="page_239"></a> baskets, Horace; won't you get me one? +They are always a little one-sided, and that makes them much more +original, you know, than those that are for sale in town."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it makes them more original, does it?" repeated Chase.</p> + +<p>When he returned, an hour later, he brought the basket.</p> + +<p>Walter Willoughby started that night for New York.<a name="page_240" id="page_240"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<p>S<small>EVEN</small> weeks after she had searched for the first jessamine, Ruth Chase +was again at St. Augustine. But in the meanwhile she had made a long +journey, having accompanied her husband to California. Chase had +unexpectedly come back to Florida, to see David Patterson. When he +reached New York on his return from the West, and learned that Patterson +had been stricken down by illness at Palatka, he decided that the best +thing he could do would be to go to Palatka himself immediately.</p> + +<p>Ruth was delighted. "That means St. Augustine for me, doesn't it? Mother +and Dolly are still there. Oh, I <i>am</i> so glad!"</p> + +<p>"Why, Ruthie, do you care so much about it as all that? Why didn't you +say so before?" said Chase, looking up from his letters. "Then I could +have taken you down there in any case. Whereas now it's only this +accident of Patterson's being laid up that has made me decide to go. You +must <i>tell</i> me what you want, always. It's the only way we can possibly +get along," he concluded, with mock severity.</p> + +<p>Ruth gazed at the fire; for in New York, at the end of March, it was +still cold. "I love St. Augustine.<a name="page_241" id="page_241"></a> I was <i>so</i> happy there this winter," +she said, musingly.</p> + +<p>"Shall I build you a house near the sea-wall?" inquired her husband, +gathering up his letters and telegrams. As he left the room, he paused +beside her long enough to pass his hand fondly over her hair.</p> + +<p>It was arranged that Walter Willoughby, who had returned with them from +California, should also accompany them southward. For there were certain +details of the Western enterprise which Patterson understood better than +any one else did, as he had devoted his attention to them for six +months; it now became important that these details should be explained +to the younger man, in the (possible) case of Patterson's being laid up +for some time longer. After one day in New York, therefore, Chase and +his wife and young Willoughby started for the land of flowers. At +Savannah a telegram met them: "Horace Chase, Pulaski House, Savannah. +Come alone. Patterson."</p> + +<p>"When he's sick, he is always tremendously scared," commented Chase. "I +suppose we shall have to humor him. But I'll soon stir him up, and make +him feel better, Walter, and then I'll wire for you to come over at +once. Probably within twenty-four hours." After taking his wife to St. +Augustine, he crossed to Palatka alone. Walter was to wait at St. +Augustine for further directions.</p> + +<p>The young New-Yorker agreed to everything. He was in excellent spirits; +throughout the whole Californian<a name="page_242" id="page_242"></a> expedition he had, in truth, been +living in a state of inward excitement, though his face showed nothing +of it. For his uncle had consented, and he (Walter) had got his foot +into the stirrup at last. The ride might be breakneck, and it might be +hard; but at least it would not be long, and it would end at the +wished-for goal. Between two such riders as Patterson and Horace Chase +(Horace Chase especially; best of all, Horace Chase!), he could not fall +behind; they would sweep him along between them; he should come in +abreast. A closer acquaintance with Chase had only increased his +admiration for the man's extraordinary mind. "If ever there was a genius +for directing big combinations, here's one with a vengeance!" he said to +himself.</p> + +<p>On the second day after Chase's departure for Palatka, Ruth and her +mother, in the late afternoon, drove across the Sebastian River by way +of the red bridge, and thence to the barrens. These great tree-dotted +Florida prairies possess a charm for far-sighted eyes; their broad, +unfenced, unguarded expanses, stretching away on all sides, carpeted +with flowers and ferns, and the fans of the dwarf-palmetto, have an air +of freedom that is alluring. Walter Willoughby accompanied the two +ladies, perched in the little seat behind. He had, in fact, nothing else +to do, as Chase had as yet sent no telegram.</p> + +<p>They drove first to the Ponce de Leon spring. And Ruth made them drink: +"so that we shall always be young!"<a name="page_243" id="page_243"></a></p> + +<p>Leaving the spring, they drove to another part of the barren. Here the +violets grew so thickly that they made the ground blue. "I must have +some," said Ruth, joyously. And leaving her mother comfortably leaning +back in the phaeton under her white umbrella, she jumped out and began +to gather the flowers with her usual haste and impetuosity. "Why don't +you come and help?" she said to Walter. "You're terribly lazy. Tie the +ponies to that tree, and set to work."</p> + +<p>Walter obeyed. But he only gathered eight violets; then he stopped, and +stood fanning himself with his straw hat. "It is very warm," he said. +"Won't you let me get pitcher-plants instead? There are ever so many +over there. They are so large that eight of them will make a splendid +show." Daily companionship for seven weeks had made him feel thoroughly +at his ease with her. He had forgiven her for those old delays which she +had unknowingly caused in his plans; he now associated her with his +good-fortune, with his high hopes. She had been in the gayest spirits +throughout their stay in California, and this, too, had chimed in with +his mood.</p> + +<p>"Pitcher-plants!" said Ruth. "Horrid, murdering things! Let them alone." +But they strolled that way to look at them; and then they walked on +towards a ridge, where she was sure that they should find calopogon. +Beyond the ridge there was a clear pool, whose amber-colored water +rested on a bed of<a name="page_244" id="page_244"></a> silver sand; along one side rose the tall, delicate +plumes of the <i>Osmunda regalis</i>. "Isn't it lovely?" said Ruth. "I don't +believe there is anything more beautiful in all Florida!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, one thing," thought Walter, "and that is Ruth Chase." For Ruth's +beauty had deepened richly during the past half-year. It was not Walter +alone who had noticed the change, every one spoke of it. At present his +eyes could not but note it once more, as she stood there in her white +dress under the ferns.</p> + +<p>Then suddenly his thoughts were diverted in another direction. "I'm sure +that's for me!" he exclaimed. For he had discerned in the distance a +little negro boy on horseback. "He is bringing me my telegram at last—I +mean the one from your husband, Mrs. Chase, which I have been expecting +for two days. The stupid is following the road. I wonder if I couldn't +make him see me from here, so as to gain time?" And taking off his hat, +he waved it high in the air. But the child kept on his course. "Perhaps +I can make him hear," said Walter. He shouted, whistled, called. But all +to no purpose. "We might as well go back towards the phaeton," he +suggested. And they started.</p> + +<p>"What will the telegram be?" said Ruth, arranging her violets as she +walked on. "Have you any idea?"</p> + +<p>"A very clear one; it will tell me to arrive at Palatka as soon as +possible."<a name="page_245" id="page_245"></a></p> + +<p>"And, from Palatka, do you go back to New York?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; immediately."</p> + +<p>"We shall be in New York, too, by the middle of April. You are to stay +in New York, aren't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. It is to be my post in the game which will end, we trust, in your +husband's piling up still higher his great fortune, while <i>I</i> shall have +laid very solidly the foundation of mine. Good! that boy sees me at +last." For the little negro, suddenly leaving the road, was galloping +directly towards them over the barren, his bare feet flapping the flanks +of his horse to increase its speed. Walter ran forward to meet him, took +the telegram, tore open the envelope, and read the message within. Then, +after rewarding the messenger (who went back to town in joyful +opulence), he returned to Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Palatka?" she said, as he came up.</p> + +<p>"No. Something entirely different. And very unexpected. I am to go to +California; I am to start to-morrow morning. And I am to stay +there—live there. It will be for a year or two, I suppose; at any rate, +until this new campaign of your husband's planning has been fought out +and won—as won it surely will be. For Patterson, it seems, won't be +able to go at present, and I am to take his place. Later, he hopes to be +on the spot. But even then I am to remain, they tell me. My instructions +will be here to-night by letter." He felt, inwardly, a great sense of +triumph that he was considered competent<a name="page_246" id="page_246"></a>—already considered +competent—to take charge of the more important post. And as he put the +telegram in his pocket, the anticipation of success came to him like a +breeze charged with perfume; his pulses had a firm, quick beat; the +future—a future of his own choosing—unrolled itself brightly before +him.</p> + +<p>Ruth had made no reply. After a moment her silence struck him—struck +him even in his preoccupation—and he turned to look at her.</p> + +<p>Her face had a strange, stiffened aspect, as though her breathing had +suddenly been arrested.</p> + +<p>"Are you ill?" he asked, alarmed.</p> + +<p>"Oh no; I am only tired. Where is the phaeton? I have lost sight of it."</p> + +<p>"Over there; don't you see your mother's white parasol?"</p> + +<p>"Let us go back to her. But no—not just yet. I'll wait a moment or two, +as I'm so tired." And, turning her back to him, she sat down on a fallen +pine-tree, and rested her head on her hand.</p> + +<p>"I can bring the phaeton over here?" Walter suggested. "There is no +road, but the ground is smooth."</p> + +<p>She shook her head.</p> + +<p>After a moment he began to talk; partly to fill the pause, partly to +give expression to the thoughts that occupied his own mind—occupied it +so fully that he did not give close heed to her. She was suddenly tired. +Well, that was nothing unusual; it<a name="page_247" id="page_247"></a> was always something sudden; +generally a sudden gayety. At any rate, she could rest there comfortably +until she felt able to go on. "It's very odd to me to think that +to-morrow I shall be on my way to California again," he began. "That's +what I get by being the poor one of the company, Mrs. Chase! Your +husband, and Patterson, and my uncle, they sit comfortably at home; but +they send <i>me</i> from pillar to post without the least scruple. I don't +mind the going. But the staying—that's a change indeed. To live in +California—I have had a good many ideas in my mind, but I confess I +have never had that." He laughed. But it was easy to see that the idea +pleased him greatly.</p> + +<p>Ruth turned. Her eyes met his. And then, startled, amazed, the young man +read in their depths something that was to him an intense surprise.</p> + +<p>At the same moment she rose. "I can go now. Mother will be wondering +where I am," she said.</p> + +<p>He accompanied her in silence, his mind in a whirl. She said a few words +on ordinary subjects. Every now and then her voice came near failing +entirely, and she paused. But she always began again. Just before she +reached the phaeton she took a gray gauze veil from her pocket, and tied +it hastily across her face under her broad-brimmed hat. Mrs. Franklin +was waiting for them in lazy tranquillity. While Walter untied the +ponies, Ruth took the small seat behind. "Just for a change," she +explained. Walter, therefore, in her vacant place,<a name="page_248" id="page_248"></a> drove them back to +town. Having taken Mrs. Franklin home, he left Ruth at her own door. "As +I'm off early to-morrow morning, Mrs. Chase, I'll bid you good-by now," +he said, as the waiting servant came forward to the ponies' heads. She +gave him her hand. He could not see her face distinctly through that +baffling gray veil.</p> + +<p>That evening at eleven o'clock he passed the house again; he was taking +a farewell stroll on the sea-wall. As he went by, he saw that there was +a light in the drawing-room. "She has not gone to bed," he thought. He +jumped down from the wall, crossed the road, and, going up the steps, +put his hand on the bell-knob. But a sudden temptation took possession +of him, and, instead of ringing, he opened the door. "If her mother is +with her, I'll pretend that I found it ajar," he said to himself. But +there were no voices, all was still. His step had made no sound on the +thick rugs, and, advancing, he drew aside a curtain. On a couch in a +corner of the drawing-room was Ruth Chase, alone, her face hidden in her +hands.</p> + +<p>She started to her feet as he came in. "After all, Mrs. Chase, I found +that I wanted more of a good-by—" he began. And then, a second time, in +her eyes he read the astonishing, bewildering story. "She is still +unconscious of what it is," he thought. "If I go away at once—at once +and forever—no harm is done. And that is what I shall do." This was his +intention, and he knew that he should follow<a name="page_249" id="page_249"></a> it. The very certainty, +however, made him allow himself a moment or two of delay. For how +beautiful she was, and how deeply she loved him! He could not help +offering, as it were, a tribute to both; it seemed to him that he would +be a boor not to do so. And then, before he knew it, he had gone +further. "You see how it is with me," he began. "You see that I love +you; I myself did not know it until now." (What was this he was telling +her? And somehow, for the moment, it was true!) "Don't think that I do +not understand," he went on. "I understand all—all—" While he was +uttering these words he met her eyes again. And then he felt that he was +losing his head. "What am I doing? I'm not an abject fool!" he managed +to say to himself, mutely—mutely but violently. And he left the house.</p> + +<p>It took all his strength to do it.<a name="page_250" id="page_250"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<p>H<small>ORACE</small> C<small>HASE</small>, meanwhile, had arrived at Palatka, and opened the +discussion with David Patterson which ended in the decision to despatch +young Willoughby to California without delay. Having sent these +instructions, he remained at Palatka two days longer, his intention +being to cross, on the third day, to St. Augustine, get his wife and go +back to New York, stopping on the way at Raleigh in order to see Jared. +Always prompt, as soon as the question of the representative in +California was settled, his thoughts had turned towards his +brother-in-law; the proper moment had now arrived for fulfilling his +promises concerning him. But in answer to this note to Ruth, mentioning +this plan, there had come a long epistle from Mrs. Franklin. Ruth, she +wrote, wanted to go north by sea; it was a sudden fancy that had come to +her. Her wish was to go by the <i>Dictator</i> to Charleston, and there +change for the larger steamer. "As Dolly and I intend to start towards +L'Hommedieu next week, Ruth's idea is that we could go together as far +as Charleston; for the rest of the way, Félicité could look after her. +You need not therefore take the trouble to come to St. Augustine at all, +she says; you can go directly from Palatka to Raleigh. All this<a name="page_251" id="page_251"></a> sounds +a little self-willed. But, my dear Mr. Chase, if we spoiled her more or +less in the beginning, you must acknowledge that <i>you</i> have carried on +the process! In the eighteen months that have passed since your +marriage, have you ever refused compliance with even one of her whims? I +think not. On the contrary, I fear you encourage them; you always seem +to me to be waiting, with an inward laugh, to see what on earth she will +suggest next!" Thus wrote the mother in a joking strain. Then, turning +to the subject which was more important to her, she filled three sheets +with her joyful anticipations concerning her son. "Insist upon his +resigning his present place on the spot," she urged; "take no denial. +Make him go <i>with</i> you to New York. <i>Then</i> you will be sure of him."</p> + +<p>"The old lady seems to think he will be a great acquisition," said Chase +to himself, humorously.</p> + +<p>Her statement that he had, from the first, allowed his wife to follow +her fancies unchecked was a true one. It amused him to do this, amused +him to watch an idea dawn, and then, in a few minutes, take such entire +possession of her that it shook her hard—only to leave her and vanish +with equal suddenness. The element of the unexpected in her was a +constant entertainment to him. Her heedlessness, her feminine +indifference to logic, to the inevitable sequences of cause and +effect—this, too, had given him many a moment of mirth. If her face had +been less lovely, these characteristics would have worn, perhaps, +another<a name="page_252" id="page_252"></a> aspect. But in that case Horace Chase would not have been their +judge; for it was this alluring beauty (unconsciously alluring) which +had attracted him, which had made him fall in love with her. He was a +man whose life, up to the time of his engagement to Ruth, had been +irregular. But, though irregular, it had not been uncontrolled; he had +always been able to say, "Thus far; no farther!" But though her beauty +had been the first lure, he was now profoundly attached to his wife; his +pride in her was profound, his greatest pleasure was to make her happy.</p> + +<p>"By sea to New York, is it?" he said to himself, as his eyes hastily +glanced through the remainder of Mrs. Franklin's long letter (that is, +the three sheets about Jared). "Well, she is a capital sailor, that's +one comfort. Let's see; which of our steamers will she hit at +Charleston?"</p> + +<p>He was not annoyed because Ruth had not written, herself; Ruth did not +like to write letters. But it was a surprise to him that she should, of +her own accord, relinquish an opportunity to see her brother. "I reckon +she is counting upon my taking him up to New York with me, so that +she'll see him on the dock waiting for her when her steamer comes in," +he thought. "I guess she knows, too, that I'm likely to succeed better +with Jared when <i>she's</i> out of the business entirely. Franklin isn't +going to be boosted by his sister—that's been his fixed notion all +along. He doesn't suspect that his sister's nowhere in the<a name="page_253" id="page_253"></a> matter +compared with his wife; his whole position of being independent of <i>me</i>, +and all that, has been so undermined and honeycombed by Gen, that, in +reality, his sticking it out there at Raleigh is a farce! But he doesn't +know it. It's lucky he don't!"</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>Ruth had her way, as usual. Chase went northward from Palatka to +Savannah, where he had business; thence he was to go to Raleigh. His +wife, meanwhile, remained in St. Augustine for one week longer, and her +mother and sister, closing their own home, spent the time with her.</p> + +<p>Their last day came; they were to leave St. Augustine on the morrow. +Early in the afternoon, Ruth disappeared. When they were beginning to +wonder where she was, Félicité brought them a note. Mrs. Franklin read +it, and laughed. "She has gone for a sail; by herself!"</p> + +<p>"She might have told us. We could have gone with her," said Dolly, +irritably. "I don't like her being alone."</p> + +<p>"Oh, she is safe enough, as far as that goes," answered the mother, +comfortably. "She has taken old Donato, who, in spite of his seventy +years, is an excellent sailor; and he has, too, a very good boat."</p> + +<p>Dolly went to the window. "You are not in the least thinking of Ruth, +mother! You are thinking of Jared; you are thinking that if he takes +that place in New York, we must somehow get up there to see him this +summer; and you are planning to go to<a name="page_254" id="page_254"></a> that boarding-house on Staten +Island that the commodore told you about."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Franklin, who really was thinking of Staten Island, rolled a +lamplighter the wrong way. "It is happening oftener and oftener!" she +said to herself. "Is she going to die?" And she glanced towards her +invalid daughter with the old pang of loving pity quickened for the +moment to trepidation.</p> + +<p>Dolly's back was turned; she was gazing down the inlet. The house, which +was formerly the residence of General Worth, the Military Governor of +Florida, commanded an uninterrupted view of the Matanzas north and +south, and, over the low line of Anastasia Island, even the smallest +sail going towards the ocean was visible. But in spite of this long +expanse of water, Dolly could not see old Donato's boat. "His Grand +suspects nothing! Are mothers always so blind?" she thought. "So secure? +But she shall never know anything through <i>me</i>—dear old Grand! Ruth has +of course gone to say good-bye to the places which are associated in her +mind with that hateful Willoughby. If I could only have known it, I +would have kept her from it at any price. These long hours alone which +she covets so—they are the worst things, the worst!"</p> + +<p>Ruth's boat was far out of sight; at this moment she was landing on +Anastasia at the point where she had disembarked with Walter on the day +of the excursion. Telling the old Minorcan to wait for her, she sought +for the little Carib trail, and followed it<a name="page_255" id="page_255"></a> inland to the pool. Here +she spent half an hour, seated in the loop of the vine where she had sat +before. Then, rising, she slowly retraced their former course along the +low ridge.</p> + +<p>Since Walter's departure—he had left St. Augustine at dawn after that +strange evening visit—Ruth had been the prey of two moods, tossed from +one to the other helplessly; for the feelings which these moods by turn +excited were so strong that she had had no volition of her own—she had +been powerless against them. One of these mental states (the one that +possessed her now) was joy. The other was aching pain.</p> + +<p>For her fate had come upon her, as it was sure from the first to come. +And it found her defenceless; those who should have foreseen it had +neither guarded her against it, nor trained her so that she could guard +herself. She had no conception of life—no one had ever given her such a +conception—as a lesson in self-control; from her childhood all her +wishes had been granted. It is true that these wishes had been simple. +But that was because she had known no other standard; the degree of +indulgence (and of self-indulgence) was as great as if they had been +extravagant. If her disposition as a girl had been selfish, it was +unconscious selfishness; for her mother, her elder sister, and her +brother had never required anything from her save that she should be +happy. With her joyous nature, life had always been delightful to her, +and her marriage had<a name="page_256" id="page_256"></a> only made it more delightful. For Horace Chase, +unconsciously, had adopted the habit that the family had always had; +they never expected Ruth to take responsibility, to be serious, and, in +the same way, he never expected it. And he loved to see her contented, +just as they had loved it. There was some excuse for them all in the +fact that Ruth's contentment was a very charming thing—it was so +natural and exuberant.</p> + +<p>And, on her side, this girl had married Horace Chase first of all +because she liked him. What he had done for her brother, and his +wealth—these two influences had come only second, and would not have +sufficed without the first; her affection (for it was affection) had +been won by his kindness to herself. Since their marriage his lavish +generosity had pleased her, and gratified her imagination. But his +delicate consideration for her—this girl nineteen years younger than +himself—and his unselfishness, these she had not appreciated; she +supposed that husbands were, as a matter of course, like that. As it +happened, she had not a single girl friend who had married, from whose +face (if not from whose words also) she might have divined other ways. +Thus she had lived on, accepting everything in her easy, epicurean +fashion, until into her life had come love—this love for Walter +Willoughby.</p> + +<p>Walter devoting himself to Mrs. Chase for his own purposes, had never +had the slightest intention of falling in love with her; in truth, such +a catastrophe<a name="page_257" id="page_257"></a> (it would have seemed to him nothing less) would have +marred all his plans. He had wished only to amuse her. And, in the +beginning, it had been in truth his gay spirits which had attracted +Ruth, for she possessed gay spirits herself. She had been unaware of the +nature of the feeling which was taking possession of her; her +realization went no further than that life was now much more +interesting; and, with her rich capacity for enjoyment, she had grasped +this new pleasure eagerly. It was this which had made her beauty so much +more rich and vivid. It was this which had caused her to exclaim, "How +delightful it is to live!" If obstacles had interfered, the pain of +separation might have opened her eyes, at an earlier period, to the +nature of her attachment. But, owing to the circumstances of the case, +the junior partner had been with Mr. and Mrs. Chase almost daily ever +since their return from Europe. That announcement, therefore, out on the +barrens—his own announcement—of his departure the next morning, and +for an indefinite stay, had come upon her like the chill of sudden +death. And then in the evening, while she was still benumbed and +pulseless, had followed his strange, short visit, and the wild thrill of +joy in her heart over his declaration of his own love for her. For he +had said it, he had said it!</p> + +<p>These two conflicting tides—the pain of his absence and the joy of his +love—had held entire possession of her ever since. But passionate +though<a name="page_258" id="page_258"></a> her nature was, in matters of feeling it was deeply reticent as +well, and no one had noticed any change in her save Dolly, Dolly who had +divined something from her sister's new desire to be alone. Never before +had Ruth wished to be alone; but now she went off for long walks by +herself; and this plan for returning to New York by sea—that was simply +the same thing. From the moment of Ruth's engagement, Dolly had been +haunted by a terrible fear. Disliking Horace Chase herself, she did not +believe that he would be able to keep forever a supreme place in his +wife's heart. And then? Would Ruth be content to live on, as so many +wives live, with this supreme place unoccupied? It was her dread of +this, a dread which had suddenly become personified, that had made her +form one of almost all the excursions of this Florida winter; she had +gone whenever she was able, and often when she was unable—at least, she +would be present, she would mount guard.</p> + +<p>But in spite of her guardianship, something had evidently happened. What +was it? Was this desire of Ruth's to be alone a good sign or a bad sign? +Did it come from happiness or unhappiness? "If it is unhappiness, she +will throw it off," Dolly told herself. "She hates suffering. She will +manage, somehow, to rid herself of it." Thus she tried to reassure +herself.</p> + +<p>Ruth gave not only the afternoon but the evening to her pilgrimage; she +visited all the places where she had been with Walter. When the twilight +had<a name="page_259" id="page_259"></a> deepened to night, she came back to town, and, still accompanied by +Donato, she went to the old fort, and out the shell road; finally she +paid a visit to Andalusia. A bright moon was shining; over the low land +blew a perfumed breeze. Andalusia was deserted, Mrs. Kip had gone to +North Carolina. Bribing Uncle Jack, the venerable ex-slave who lived in +a little cabin under the bananas near the gate, Ruth went in, and +leaving her body-guard, the old fisherman, resting on a bench, she +wandered alone among the flowers. "You see that I love you. I myself did +not know it until now"—this was the talisman which was making her so +happy; two brief phrases uttered on the spur of the moment, phrases +preceded by nothing, followed by nothing. It was a proof of the +simplicity of her nature, its unconsciousness of half-motives, +half-meanings, that she should think these few words so conclusive. But +to her they were final. Direct herself, she supposed that others were +the same. She did not go beyond her talisman; she did not reason about +it, or plan. In fact, she did not think at all; she only felt—felt each +syllable take a treasure in her heart, and brooded over it happily. And +as she wandered to and fro in the moonlight, it was as well that Walter +did not see her. He did not love her—no. He had no wish to love her; it +would have interfered with all his plans. But if he had beheld her now, +he would have succumbed—succumbed, at least, for the moment, as he had +done before. He was not there,<a name="page_260" id="page_260"></a> however. And he had no intention of +being there, of being anywhere near Horace Chase's wife for a long time +to come. "I'll keep out of <i>that</i>!" he had said to himself, +determinedly.</p> + +<p>It was midnight when at last Ruth returned home, coming into the +drawing-room like a vision, in her white dress, with her arms full of +flowers.</p> + +<p>"Well, have you had enough of prowling?" asked her mother, sleepily. "I +must say that it appears to agree with you!"</p> + +<p>Even Dolly was reassured by her sister's radiant eyes.</p> + +<p>But later, when Félicité had left her mistress, then, if Dolly could +have opened the locked door, her comfort would have vanished; for the +other mood had now taken possession, and lying prone on a couch, with +her face hidden, Ruth was battling with her grief.</p> + +<p>Pain was so new to her, sorrow so new! Incapable of enduring (this was +what Dolly had hoped), many times during the last ten days she had +revolted against her suffering, and to-night she was revolting anew. "I +<i>will</i> not care for him; it makes me too wretched!" Leaving the couch, +she strode angrily to and fro. The three windows of the large room—it +was her dressing-room—stood open to the warm sea-air; she had put out +the candles, but the moonlight, entering in a flood, reflected her white +figure in the long mirrors as she came and went. Félicité had braided +her hair for the night, but the strands<a name="page_261" id="page_261"></a> had become loosened, and the +thick, waving mass flowed over her shoulders. "I will not think of him; +I will <i>not</i>!" And to emphasize it, she struck her clinched hand with +all her force on the stone window-seat. "It is cut. I'm glad! It will +make me remember that I am <i>not</i> to think of him." She was intensely in +earnest in her resolve, and, to help herself towards other thoughts, she +began to look feverishly at the landscape outside, as though it was +absolutely necessary that she should now resee and recount each point +and line. "There is the top of the light-house—and there is the +ocean—and there are the bushes near the quarry." She leaned out of the +window so as to see farther. "There is the North Beach; there is the +fort and the lookout tower." Thus for a few minutes her weary mind +followed the guidance of her will. "There is the bathing-house. And +there is the dock and the club-house; and there is the Basin. Down there +on the right is Fish Island. How lovely it all is! I wish I could stay +here forever. But even to-morrow night I shall be gone; I shall be on +the <i>Dictator</i>. And then will come Charleston. And then New York." (Her +mind had now escaped again.) "And then the days—and the months—and the +<i>years</i> without him! Oh, what shall I do? What shall I do?" And the pain +descending, sharper than ever, she sank down, and with her arms on the +window-seat and her face on her arms, and cried and cried—cried so long +that at last her shoulders fell forward stoopingly,<a name="page_262" id="page_262"></a> and her whole +slender frame lost its strength, and drooped against the window-sill +like a broken reed. Her despair held no plan for trying to see Walter, +her destiny seemed to her fixed; her revolts had not been against that +destiny, but against her pain. But something was upon her now which was +stronger than herself, stronger than her love of ease, stronger than her +dread of suffering. Dolly knew her well. But there were some depths +which even Dolly did not know.</p> + +<p>Dawn found her still there, her hands and feet cold, her face white; she +had wept herself out—there were no more tears left. The sun came up; +she watched it mechanically. "Félicité mustn't find me here," she +thought. She dragged herself to her feet; all her muscles were stiff. +Then going to the bedroom, she fell into a troubled sleep.</p> + +<p>It would be too much to say that during the entire night her mind had +not once turned towards her husband. She had thought of him now and +then, much as she had thought of her mother; as, for instance—would her +mother see any change in her face the next morning, after this night of +tears? Would her husband see any at New York when he arrived? Whenever +she remembered either one of them, she felt a sincere desire not to make +them unhappy. But this was momentary; during most of the night the +emotions that belonged to her nature swept over her with such force that +she had no power, no will, to think of anything save herself.<a name="page_263" id="page_263"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<p>H<small>ORACE</small> C<small>HASE</small>, following the suggestion of Mrs. Franklin (a suggestion +which had come in reality from Ruth), travelled northward to Raleigh +from Palatka without crossing to St. Augustine. He went "straight +through," as he called it; when he was alone he always went straight +through. He was no more particular as to where he slept than he was as +to what he ate. Reaching Raleigh in the evening, he went in search of +his brother-in-law. He had not sent word that he was coming. "I won't +give him time to trot out all his objections beforehand," he had said to +himself. He intended to make an attempt to arrange the matter with Jared +without calling in the aid of Genevieve. "If I fail, there'll always be +time to bring her on the scene. If I succeed, it'll take her down a bit; +and that won't hurt her!" he thought, with an inward smile.</p> + +<p>Ruth's "horrid Raleigh" looked very pretty as he walked through its +lighted streets. The boarding-house where Jared had passed the winter +proved to be an old mansion, which, in its day, had possessed claims to +dignity; it was large, with two wings running backward, and the main +building had a high pointed roof with dormer-windows. The front was<a name="page_264" id="page_264"></a> +even with the street; but the street itself was rural, with its two long +lines of magnificent trees, which formed the divisions (otherwise rather +vague) between the sidewalks and the broad expanse of the sandy roadway. +Chase's knock was answered by a little negro boy, whose head did not +reach the door-knob. "Mas' Franklin? Yassah. He's done gone out. Be in +soon, I reckon," he added, hopefully.</p> + +<p>Chase, after a moment's reflection, decided to go in and wait.</p> + +<p>"Show you in de parlo,' or right up in his own room, boss?" demanded the +infant, anxiously. "Dere's a party in de parlo'." This statement was +confirmed by the sound of music from within.</p> + +<p>"A party, is there? I guess I'll go up, then," said Chase.</p> + +<p>The child started up the stairs. His legs were so short that he had to +mount to each step with both feet, one after the other, before he could +climb to the next. These legs and feet and his arms were bare; the rest +of his small, plump person was clad in a little jacket and very short +breeches of pink calico. There were two long flights of stairs, and a +shorter flight to the attic; the pink breeches had the air of climbing +an Alp. Presently Chase took up the little toiler, candle and all.</p> + +<p>"You can tell me which way to go," he said. "What's your name?"</p> + +<p>"Pliny Abraham, sah."</p> + +<p>"Do you like Mr. Franklin?"<a name="page_265" id="page_265"></a></p> + +<p>"Mas' Franklin is de bes' body in dishyer house!" declared Pliny +Abraham, shrilly.</p> + +<p>"The best what?"</p> + +<p>"De bes' body. We'se got twenty-five bodies now, boss. Sometimes dere's +twenty-eight."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you mean boarders?"</p> + +<p>"Yassah. Bodies."</p> + +<p>Jared's room was in the attic. Pliny Abraham, who had been intensely +serious, began to grin as his bearer, after putting him down, placed a +dime in each of his little pink pockets; then he dashed out of the room, +his black legs disappearing so suddenly that Chase had the curiosity to +follow to the top of the stairs and look over. Pliny had evidently slid +down the banisters; for he was already embarked on the broader rail of +the flight below.</p> + +<p>Twenty minutes later there was a step on the stair; the door opened, and +Jared Franklin came in.</p> + +<p>"They didn't tell you I was here?" said Chase, as they shook hands.</p> + +<p>"No. Mrs. Nightingale is usually very attentive; too much so, in fact; +she's a bother!" Jared answered. "To-night, however, there's a party +down below, and she has the supper on her mind."</p> + +<p>"Is Pliny Abraham to serve it?"</p> + +<p>"You've seen him, have you?" said Jared, who was now lighting a lamp. +"Confounded smell—petroleum!" And he threw up the sash of the window.</p> + +<p>"I'm on my way up to New York, and I came<a name="page_266" id="page_266"></a> across from Goldsborough on +purpose to see you, Franklin, on a matter of business," Chase began. +"Ruth isn't with me this time; she took a notion to go north by sea. +Your mother and sister, I expect, will be seeing her off to-morrow from +Charleston; then, after a little rest for Miss Dolly, they're to go to +L'Hommedieu."</p> + +<p>"They'll stop here, won't they?" asked Jared, who was standing at the +window in order to get air which was untainted by the odor of the lamp.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," Chase answered. He knew that Dolly and her mother believed +that by the time they should reach Raleigh, Jared would have already +left. "Well, the gist of the matter, Franklin, is about this," he went +on. And then, tilting his chair back so that his long legs should have +more room, and with his thumbs in the pockets of his waistcoat, he began +deliberately to lie.</p> + +<p>For in the short space of time which had elapsed since his eyes first +rested upon Ruth's brother, he had entirely altered his plan. His +well-arranged arguments and explanations about the place in New York in +connection with his California scheme—all these he had abandoned; +something must be invented which would require no argument at all, +something which should attract Jared so strongly that he would of his +own accord accept it on the spot, and start northward the next morning. +"Once in New York, in our big house there, with Gen (for I shall +telegraph her to come on) and Ruth and the best<a name="page_267" id="page_267"></a> doctors, perhaps the +poor chap can be persuaded to give up, and take a good long rest," he +thought.</p> + +<p>For he had been greatly shocked by the change in Jared's appearance. +When he had last seen him, the naval officer had been gaunt; but now he +was wasted. His eyes had always been sad; but now they were deeply +sunken, with dark hollows under them and over them. "He looks <i>bad</i>," +Chase said to himself, emphatically. "This sort of life's been too much +for him, and Gen's got a good deal to answer for!" The only ornament of +the whitewashed wall was a large photograph of the wife; her handsome +face, with its regular outlines and calm eyes, presided serenely over +the attic room of the lonely husband.</p> + +<p>To have to contrive something new, plausible, and effective, in two +minutes' time, might have baffled most men. But Horace Chase had never +had a mind of routine, he had always been a free lance; original +conceptions and the boldest daring, accompanied by an extraordinary +personal sagacity, had formed his especial sort of genius—a genius +which had already made him, at thirty-nine, a millionaire many times +over. His invention, therefore, when he unrolled it, had an air of +perfect veracity. It had to do with a steamer, which (so he represented) +a man whom he knew had bought, in connection with what might be called, +perhaps, a branch of his own California scheme, although a branch with +which he himself had nothing whatever to do. This man needed an +experienced officer to take the steamer<a name="page_268" id="page_268"></a> immediately from San Francisco +to the Sandwich Islands, and thence on a cruise to various other islands +in the South Pacific. "The payment, to a navy man like you, ought to be +pretty good. But I can't say what the exact figure will be," he went on, +warily, "because I'm not in it myself, you see. He's a good deal of a +skinflint" (here he coolly borrowed a name for the occasion, the name of +a capitalist well known in New York); "but he's sound. It's a <i>bona +fide</i> operation; I can at least vouch for that. The steamer is +first-class, and you can pick out your own crew. There'll be a man +aboard to see to the trading part of it; all <i>you've</i> got to do is to +sail the ship." And in his driest and most practical voice he went on +enumerating the details.</p> + +<p>Jared knew that his brother-in-law had more than once been engaged in +outside speculations on a large scale; his acquaintance, therefore, with +kindred spirits, men who bought ocean steamers and sent them on cruises, +did not surprise him. The plan attracted him; he turned it over in his +mind to see if there were any reasons why he should not accept it. There +seemed to be none. To begin with, Horace Chase had nothing to do with +it; he should not be indebted to <i>him</i> for anything save the chance. In +addition, it would not be an easy berth, with plenty to get and little +to do, like the place at Charleston; on the contrary, a long voyage of +this sort would call out all he knew. And certainly he was sick of his +present life—deathly sick!<a name="page_269" id="page_269"></a></p> + +<p>Chase had said to himself: "Fellows who go down so low—and he's at the +end of <i>his</i> rope; that's plain—go up again like rockets sometimes, +just give 'em a chance."</p> + +<p>Jared, however, showed no resemblance to a rocket. He agreed, after a +while, to "undertake the job," as Chase called it, and he agreed, also, +to start the next morning with his brother-in-law for New York, where +the final arrangements were to be made; but his assent was given +mechanically, and his voice sounded weak, as though, physically, he had +very little strength. Mentally there was more stir. "I shall be deuced +glad to be on salt-water again," he said. "I dare say <i>you</i> think it's a +very limited life," he went on (and in the phrase there lurked something +scornful).</p> + +<p>"Well," answered Chase, with his slight drawl, "that depends upon what a +man wants, what he sets out to do." He put his hands down in the pockets +of his trousers, and looked at the lamp reflectively; then he +transferred his gaze to Jared. "I guess you've got a notion, Franklin, +that I care for nothing but money? And that's where you make a mistake. +For 'tain't the money; it's the making it. Making it (that is, in large +sums) is the best sort of a game. If you win, there's nothing like it. +It's sport, <i>that</i> is! It's fun! To get down to the bed-rock of the +subject, it's the power. Yes, sir, that's it—the power! The knowing +you've got it, and that other men know it too, and feel your hand on the +reins! For a big pile is something more than a pile; it's a proof that<a name="page_270" id="page_270"></a> +a man's got brains. (I mean, of course, if he has made it himself; I'm +not talking now about fortunes that are inherited, or are simply rolled +up by a rise in real estate.) As to the money taken alone, of course +it's a good thing to have, and I'm going on making more as long as I +can; I like it, and I know how. But about the disposing of it" (here he +took his hands out of his pockets and folded his arms), "I don't mind +telling you that I've got other ideas. My family—if I have a +family—will be provided for. After that, I've a notion that I may set +aside a certain sum for scientific research (I understand that's the +term). I don't know much about science myself; but I've always felt a +sort of general interest in it, somehow."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you intend to be a benefactor, do you?" said Jared, ironically. "I +hope, at least, that your endowment won't be open to everybody. It's +only fair to tell you that, in <i>my</i> opinion, one of the worst evils of +our country to-day is this universal education—education of all classes +indiscriminately."</p> + +<p>Chase looked at him for a moment in silence. Then, with a quiet dignity +which was new to the other man, he answered, "I don't think I understand +you."</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, you do," responded Jared, with a little laugh. But he felt +somewhat ashamed of his speech, and he bore it off by saying, "Are you +going to found a new institution? Or leave it in a lump to Harvard?"<a name="page_271" id="page_271"></a></p> + +<p>"I haven't got as far as that yet. I thought perhaps Ruth might like to +choose," Chase answered, his voice softening a little as he pronounced +his wife's name.</p> + +<p>"Ruth? Much <i>she</i> knows about it!" said the brother, amused. In his +heart he was thinking, "Well, at any rate, he isn't one of the blowers, +and that's a consolation! He is going to 'plank down' handsomely for +'scientific research.' (I wonder if he thinks they'll research another +baking-powder!) But he isn't going to shout about it. The fact is that +this is the first time I have ever heard him speak of himself, and his +own ideas. What he said just now about making money, that's his credo, +evidently. Pretty dry one! But, for such a fellow as he is, natural +enough, I suppose."</p> + +<p>Chase's credo, if such it was, was ended; he showed no disposition to +speak further of himself; on the contrary, he turned the conversation +towards his companion. For as the minutes had passed, more and more +Jared seemed to him ill—profoundly changed. "I'm afraid, Franklin, that +your health isn't altogether first-class nowadays?" he said, +tentatively.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm well enough, except that just now there's some sort of an +intermittent fever hanging about me. But it's very slight, and it only +appears occasionally; I dare say it will leave me as soon as I'm fairly +out of this hole of a place," Jared answered, in a dull tone.</p> + +<p>"He must be mighty glad to get away, and yet he<a name="page_272" id="page_272"></a> doesn't rally worth a +cent," thought Chase, with inward concern. "I say," he went on, aloud, +"as there's a party in the house, why not come along down to the hotel +and sleep there? I'm going to have some sort of a lunch when I go back; +you might keep me company?"</p> + +<p>Jared, however, made a gesture of repugnance. "I couldn't eat; I've no +appetite. The party doesn't trouble me—I'll go to bed. There'll be +plenty to do in the morning, if we are to catch that nine o'clock +train."</p> + +<p>Chase therefore took leave, and Jared accompanied him down to the street +door. Dancing was going on in the parlors on each side of the hall, and +the two, as they passed, caught a glimpse of pretty girls in white, with +flowers in their hair. After making an early appointment for the next +day, Chase said good-night, and turned down the tree-shaded street +towards his hotel.</p> + +<p>His step was never a hurried one; he had not, therefore, gone far when a +person, who had left the house two minutes after his own departure, +succeeded in overtaking him. "If you please—will you stop a moment?" +said this person. She was panting, for she had been running.</p> + +<p>Chase turned; by the light from a street-lamp, which reached them +flickeringly through the foliage, he saw a woman. Her face was in the +shadow, but a large flower, poised stiffly on the top of her head, +caught the light and gleamed whitely.<a name="page_273" id="page_273"></a></p> + +<p>"I am Mrs. Nightingale," she began. "Mr. Franklin, the gentleman you +called awn this evenin', is a member of my family. And I've been right +anxious about Mr. Franklin; I'm thankful somebody has come who knows +him. For indeed, sir, he's more sick than he likes to acknowledge. I've +been watchin' for you to come down; but when I saw <i>he</i> was with you, I +had to wait until he'd gone up again; then I slipped out and ran after +you."</p> + +<p>"I've been noticing that he looked bad, ma'am," Chase answered.</p> + +<p>"Oh, sir, somebody ought to be with him; he has fever at night, and when +it comes awn, he's out of his head. I've sat up myself three nights +lately to keep watch. He locks his do'; but there's an empty room next +to his where I stay, so that if he comes out I can see that he gets no +harm."</p> + +<p>"He walks about, then?"</p> + +<p>"In his own room—yes, sir; an' he talks, an' raves."</p> + +<p>"Couldn't you have managed to have him see a doctor, ma'am?"</p> + +<p>"I've done my best, but he won't hear of it. You see, it only comes awn +every third night or so, an' he has no idea himself how bad it is. In +the mawnin' it's gone, an' then all he says is that the breakfast is +bad. He goes to his business every day regular, though he looks so +po'ly. And he doesn't eat enough to keep a fly alive."</p> + +<p>Chase reflected. "I'll have a doctor go with us on<a name="page_274" id="page_274"></a> the sly to-morrow," +he thought, "and I'll engage a whole sleeper at Weldon to go through to +New York. I'll wire to Gen to start at once; she needn't be more than a +day behind us if she hurries." Then he went on, aloud: "Do you think he +is likely to be feverish to-night, ma'am?"</p> + +<p>"I hope not, sir, as last night was bad."</p> + +<p>"I guess it will be better, then, not to wake him up and force a doctor +upon him now, as he told me he was going to bed. I intend to take him +north with me to-morrow morning, ma'am, and in the meantime—that little +room you spoke of next to his—<i>I'll</i> occupy it to-night, if you'll let +me? I'll just go down to the hotel and get my bag, and be back soon. I'm +his brother-in-law," Chase continued, shaking hands with her, "and we're +all much obliged, ma'am, for what you've done; it was mighty kind—the +keeping watch at night."</p> + +<p>He went to his hotel, made a hasty supper, and returned, bag in hand, +before the half-hour was out. Mrs. Nightingale ushered him down one of +the long wings to her own apartment at the end, a comfortless, crowded +little chamber, full of relics of the war—her husband's sword and +uniform (he was shot at Gettysburg); his portrait; the portrait of her +brother, also among the slain; photographs of their graves; funeral +wreaths and flags.</p> + +<p>"Excuse my bringin' you here, sir; it's the only place I have. Mr. +Franklin hasn't gone to bed yet; I slipped up a moment ago to see, and +there was a<a name="page_275" id="page_275"></a> light under his do'. I'm afraid it would attract his +attention if you should go up now, sir, for he knows that the next room +is unoccupied."</p> + +<p>"<i>You've</i> occupied it, ma'am. But I guess you know how to step pretty +soft," Chase answered, gallantly. For now that he saw this good +Samaritan in a brighter light, he appreciated the depth of her charity. +The mistress of the boarding-house was the personification of chronic +fatigue; her dim eyes, her worn face, her stooping figure, and the +enlarged knuckles and bones of her hands, all told of hard toil and +care. Her thin hair was re-enforced behind by huge palpably false braids +of another shade, and the preposterous edifice, carried over the top of +the head, was adorned, in honor of the party, by the large white +camellia, placed exactly in the centre—"like a locomotive head-light," +Chase thought—which had attracted his notice in the street. But in +spite of her grotesque coiffure, no one with a heart could laugh at her. +The goodness in her faded face was so genuine and beautiful that +inwardly he saluted it. "She's the kind that'll never be rested <i>this</i> +side the grave," he said to himself.</p> + +<p>Left alone in her poor little temple of memories, he went to the window +and looked out. It was midnight, and the waning moon—the same moon +which had been full when Ruth made her happy pilgrimage at St. +Augustine—was now rising in its diminished form; diminished though it +was, it gave out light enough to show the Northerner that the old house +had at the<a name="page_276" id="page_276"></a> back, across both stories, covered verandas—"galleries," +Mrs. Nightingale called them. Above, the pointed roof of the main +building towered up dark against the star-decked sky, and from one of +its dormer-windows came a broad gleam of light. "That's Jared's room," +thought Chase. "He is writing to Gen, telling her all about it; sick as +he is, he sat up to do it. Meanwhile <i>she</i> was comfortably asleep at +ten."</p> + +<p>At last, when Jared had finally gone to bed, Mrs. Nightingale (who made +no more sound than a mouse) led the way up to the attic. Chase followed +her, shoeless, treading as cautiously as he could, and established +himself in the empty room with his door open, and a lighted candle in +the hall outside. By two o'clock the party down-stairs was over; the +house sank into silence.</p> + +<p>There had been no sound from Jared. "He's all right; I shall get him +safely off to-morrow," thought the watcher, with satisfaction. "At New +York, if he's well enough to talk, I shall have to invent another yarn +about that steamer. But probably the doctors will tell him on the spot +that he isn't able to undertake it. So that'll be the end of <i>that</i>."</p> + +<p>His motionless position ended by cramping him; the chair was hard; each +muscle of both legs seemed to have a separate twitch. "I might as well +lie down on the bed," he thought; "there, at least, I can stretch out."</p> + +<p>He was awakened by a sound; startled, he sat up,<a name="page_277" id="page_277"></a> listening. Jared, in +the next room, was talking. The words could not be distinguished; the +tone of the voice was strange. Then the floor vibrated; Jared had risen, +and was walking about. His voice grew louder. Chase noiselessly went +into the hall, and stood listening at the door. There was no light +within, and he ventured to turn the handle. But the bolt was fast. A +white figure now stole up the stairs and joined him; it was Mrs. +Nightingale, wrapped in a shawl. "Oh, I heard him 'way from my room! He +has never been so bad as this before," she whispered.</p> + +<p>Chase had always been aware that the naval officer disliked him; that +is, that he had greatly disliked the idea of his sister's marriage. "If +he sees me now, when he is out of his head, will it make him more +violent? Would it be better to have a stranger go in first?—the +doctor?"—these were the questions that occupied his mind while Mrs. +Nightingale was whispering her frightened remark.</p> + +<p>From the room now came a wild cry. That decided him. "I am going to +burst in the lock," he said to his companion, hurriedly. "Call up some +one to help me hold him, if necessary." His muscular frame was strong; +setting his shoulder against the door, after two or three efforts he +broke it open.</p> + +<p>But the light from the candle outside showed that the room was empty, +and, turning, he ran at full speed down the three flights of stairs, +passing white-robed, frightened groups (for the whole house was<a name="page_278" id="page_278"></a> now +astir), and, unlocking the back door, he dashed into the court-yard +behind, his face full of dread. But there was no lifeless heap on the +ground. Then, hastily, he looked up.</p> + +<p>Dawn was well advanced, though the sun had not yet risen; the clear, +pure light showed that nothing was lying on the roof of the upper +gallery, as he had feared would be the case. At the same instant, his +eyes caught sight of a moving object above; coming up the steep slope of +the roof from the front side, at first only the head visible, then the +shoulders, and finally the whole body, outlined against the violet sky, +appeared Jared Franklin. He was partly dressed, and he was talking to +himself; when he reached the apex of the roof he paused, brandishing his +arms with a wild gesture, and swaying unsteadily.</p> + +<p>Several persons were now in the court-yard; men had hurried out. Two +women joined them, and looked up. But when they saw the swaying figure +above, they ran back to the shelter of the hall, veiling their eyes and +shuddering. In a few moments all the women in the house had gathered in +this lower hall, frightened and tearful.</p> + +<p>Chase, meanwhile, outside, was pulling off his socks. "Get ladders," he +said, quickly, to the other men. "I'm going up. I'll try to hold him."</p> + +<p>"Oh, how <i>can</i> you get there?" asked Mrs. Nightingale, sobbing.</p> + +<p>"The same way he did," Chase answered, as he ran up the stairs.<a name="page_279" id="page_279"></a></p> + +<p>The men remonstrated. Two of them hurried after him. But he was ahead, +and, mounting to the sill of Jared's window, he stepped outside. Then, +not allowing himself to look at anything but the apex directly above +him, he walked slowly and evenly towards it up the steep incline, his +head and shoulders bent forward, his bare feet clinging to the +moss-grown shingles, while at intervals he touched with the tips of his +fingers the shingles that faced him, as a means of steadying himself.</p> + +<p>Down in the court-yard no word was now spoken. But the gazers drew their +breath audibly. Jared appeared to be unaware of any one below; his eyes, +though wide open, did not see the man who was approaching. Chase +perceived this, as soon as he himself had reached the top, and he +instantly took advantage of it; he moved straight towards Jared on his +hands and knees along the line of the ridge-pole. When he had come +within reach, he let himself slip down a few inches to a chimney that +was near; then, putting his left arm round this chimney as a support, he +stretched the right upward, and with a sudden grasp seized the other +man, throwing him down and pinning him with one and the same motion. +Jared fell on his back, half across the ridge, with his head hanging +over one slope and his legs and feet over the other; it was this +position which enabled Chase to hold him down. The madman (his frenzy +came from a violent form of inflammation of the brain) struggled +desperately. His strength seemed<a name="page_280" id="page_280"></a> so prodigious that to the watchers +below it appeared impossible that the rescuer could save him, or even +save himself. The steep roof had no parapet; and the cruel pavement +below was stone; the two bodies, grappled in a death-clutch, must go +down together.</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>pray</i>! Pray to God!" called a woman's voice from the court below.</p> + +<p>She spoke to Chase. But at that moment nothing in him could be spared +from his own immense effort; not only all the powers of his body, but of +his heart and mind and soul as well, were concentrated upon the one +thing he had to do. He accomplished it; feeling his arm growing weak, he +made a tremendous and final attempt to jam down still harder the breast +he grasped, and the blow (for it amounted to a blow) reduced Jared to +unconsciousness; his hands fell back, his ravings ceased. His strength +had been merely the fictitious force of fever; in reality he was weak.</p> + +<p>The ladders came. Both men were saved.</p> + +<p>"Come, now, if the roof had been only three inches above the ground—how +then?" Chase said, impatiently, as, after the visit of a doctor and the +arrival of two nurses, he came down for a hasty breakfast in Mrs. +Nightingale's dining-room, where the boarders began to shake hands with +him, enthusiastically. "The thing itself was simple enough; all that was +necessary was to act as though it <i>was</i> only three inches."<a name="page_281" id="page_281"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<p>A week later, early in the evening, a four-horse stage was coming slowly +down the last mile or two of road above the little North Carolina +village of Old Fort at the eastern base of the Blue Ridge. It was a +creaking, crazy vehicle, thickly encrusted with red clay. But as it had +pounded all the way from Asheville by the abominable mountain-road, no +doubt it had cause to be vociferous and tarnished. Above, the stars were +shining brightly; and the forest also appeared to be starlit, owing to +the myriads of fire-flies that gleamed like sparks against the dark +trees.</p> + +<p>A man who was coming up the road hailed the stage as it approached. +"Hello! Is Mr. Hill inside? The Rev. Mr. Hill of Asheville?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered a voice from the back seat of the vehicle, and a head +appeared at the window. "What—Mr. Chase? Is that you?" And, opening the +door, Malachi Hill, with his bag in his hand, jumped out.</p> + +<p>"I came up the road, thinking I might meet you," Horace Chase explained. +"Let's walk; there's something I want to talk over." They went on +together, leaving the stage behind. "I've got a new<a name="page_282" id="page_282"></a> idea," Chase began. +"What do you say to going up to New York to get my wife? I had intended +to go for her myself, as you know, starting from here to-night, as soon +as I had put the other ladies in your charge, to take back to Asheville. +But Mrs. Franklin looks pretty bad; and Dolly—she might have one of her +attacks. And, take it altogether, I've begun to feel that it's my +business to go with 'em all the way. For it's a long drive over the +mountains at best, and though the night's fine so far, there's no moon, +and the road is always awful. I have four men from Raleigh along—the +undertaker (who is a damn fool, always talking), and his assistants; and +so there'll be four teams—a wagon, the two carriages, and the hearse. I +guess I know the most about horses, and if you can fix it so as to take +my place, I'll see 'em through."</p> + +<p>"Certainly. I am anxious to help in any way you think best," answered +Malachi. "I wish I could start at once! But the stage is so late +to-night that, of course, the train has gone?"</p> + +<p>"That's just it—I kept it," Chase answered; "I knew one of us would +want to take it. You'll have to wait over at Salisbury in the usual +stupid way. But as Ruth can't be here in time for the funeral, it's not +of vital importance. The only thing that riles me is that, owing to that +confounded useless wait, you can't be on the dock to meet her when her +steamer comes in at New York; you won't be able to get there in time. +There'll be people, of<a name="page_283" id="page_283"></a> course—I've telegraphed. But no one she knows +as well as she knows you."</p> + +<p>Reaching the village, they walked quickly towards the railroad and +finished their talk as they stood beside the waiting train. There was no +station, the rails simply came to an end in the main street. A small +frame structure, which bore the inscription "Blue Ridge Hotel," faced +the end of the rails.</p> + +<p>"He's in there," said Chase, in a low tone, indicating a lighted window +of this house; "that room on the ground-floor. And the old lady—she is +sitting there beside him. She is quiet, she doesn't say anything. But +she just sits there."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Jared and Miss Dolly are with her, aren't they?" said the young +clergyman.</p> + +<p>"Well, Dolly is keeping Gen in the other room across the hall as much as +she <i>can</i>. For Dolly tells me that her mother likes best to sit there +alone. Women, you know, about their sons—sometimes they're queer!" +remarked Chase.</p> + +<p>"The mother's love—yes," Malachi answered, his voice uncertain for a +moment. He swallowed. "There isn't a man who doesn't feel, sooner or +later, after it has gone, that he hasn't prized it half enough—that it +was the best thing he had! It was brain-fever, wasn't it?" he went on, +hurriedly, to cover his emotion. For he, too, had been an only son.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and bad. He was raving; he knocked down one of the doctors. After +the fever left him, it was just possible, they told me, that he might<a name="page_284" id="page_284"></a> +have pulled through, if he had only been stronger. But he was played out +to begin with; I discovered that myself as soon as I reached Raleigh. +Gen got there in time to see him. But the old lady was too late; and +pretty hard lines for her! She kept telegraphing from different stations +as she and Dolly hurried up from Charleston; and I did my best to +hearten her by messages that met her here and there; but she missed it. +By only half an hour. When I saw that it had come—that he was sinking +and she wouldn't find him alive—I went out and just cursed, cursed the +luck! For Gen had his last words, and everything. And his poor old +mother had nothing at all."</p> + +<p>Here the conductor came up.</p> + +<p>"Ready?" said Chase. "All right, here's your through ticket, Hill—the +one I bought for myself. And inside the envelope is a memorandum, with +the number and street of our house in New York, and other items. I'm no +end obliged to you for going." They shook hands cordially. "When you +come back, don't let my wife travel straight through," added the +husband. "Make her stop over and sleep."</p> + +<p>"I'll do my best," answered Hill, as the train started. In deference to +the mourning party which it had brought westward, there was no whistle, +no ringing of the bell; the locomotive moved quietly away, and the +clergyman, standing on the rear platform, holding on by the handle of +the door, watched<a name="page_285" id="page_285"></a> as long as he could see it the lighted window of the +room where lay all that was mortal of Jared Franklin.</p> + +<p>An hour later the funeral procession started up the mountain. First, +there was a wagon, with the undertaker and his three assistants. Then +followed the large, heavy hearse drawn by four horses. Next came a +carriage containing Mrs. Franklin and Dolly; and, finally, a second +carriage for Genevieve and Horace Chase.</p> + +<p>"Poor mamma is sadly changed," commented Genevieve to her companion. +"She insisted upon being left alone with the remains at the hotel, you +know; and now she wishes her carriage to be as near the hearse as +possible. Fortunately, these things are very unimportant to me, Horace. +I do not feel, as they do, that Jay is <i>here</i>. My husband has gone—gone +to a better world. He knew that he was going; he said good-bye to me so +tenderly. He was always so—<i>so</i> kind." And covering her face, Genevieve +gave way to tears.</p> + +<p>"Yes, he thought the world and all of you, Gen. There's no doubt about +that," Chase answered.</p> + +<p>He did full justice to the sobbing woman by his side. He was more just +to her than her husband's family had ever been, or ever could be; he had +known her as a child, and he comprehended that according to her nature +and according to her unyielding beliefs as to what was best, she had +tried to be a good wife. In addition (as he was a man himself),<a name="page_286" id="page_286"></a> he +thought that it was to her credit that her husband had always been fond +of her, that he had remained devoted to her to the last. "That doesn't +go for nothing!" he said to himself.</p> + +<p>The ascent began. The carriages plunged into holes and lurched out of +them; they jolted across bits of corduroy; now and then, when the track +followed a gorge, they forded a brook. The curves were slippery, owing +to the red clay. Then, without warning, in the midst of mud would come +an unexpected sharp grind of the wheels over an exposed ledge of bare +rock. Before midnight clouds had obscured the stars and it grew very +dark. But the lamps on the carriages burned brightly, and a negro was +sent on in advance carrying a pitch-pine torch.</p> + +<p>In the middle of the night, at the top of the pass, there was a halt. +Chase had made Genevieve comfortable with cushions and shawls, and soon +after their second start she fell asleep. Perceiving this, he drew up +the window on her side, and then, opening the carriage-door softly, he +got out; it was easy to do it, as all the horses were walking. Making a +detour through the underbrush, so that he should not be seen by Mrs. +Franklin and Dolly in case they were awake, he appeared by the side of +the hearse.</p> + +<p>"Don't stop," he said to the driver, in a low tone; "I'm going to get up +there beside you." He climbed up and took the reins. "I'll drive the +rest of the way, or at least as far as the outskirts of the town.<a name="page_287" id="page_287"></a> For +between here and there are all the worst places. You go on and join that +fellow in front. You might carry a second torch; you'll find some in the +wagon."</p> + +<p>The driver of the hearse, an Asheville negro, who knew Chase, gave up +his seat gladly. There were bad holes ahead, and there was a newly +mended place which was a little uncertain; he would not have minded +taking the stage over that place (none of the Blue Ridge drivers minded +taking the stage anywhere), but he was superstitious about a hearse. +"Fo' de Lawd, I'm glad to be red of it!" he confided to the other negro, +as they went on together in advance with their flaring torches. "It +slips an' slews when dey ain't no 'casion! Sump'n mighty quare 'bout it, +I tell you <i>dat</i>!"</p> + +<p>Presently the plateau came to an end, and the descent began. Rain was +now falling. The four vehicles moved slowly on, winding down the zigzags +very cautiously in the darkness, slipping and swaying as they went.</p> + +<p>After half an hour of this progress, the torch-bearers in front came +hurrying back to give warning that the rain had loosened the temporary +repairs of the mended place, so that its edge had given away; for about +one hundred and forty yards, therefore, the track was dangerously narrow +and undefended, with the sheer precipice on one side and the high cliff +on the other; in addition, the roadway slanted towards this verge, and +the clay was very slippery.<a name="page_288" id="page_288"></a></p> + +<p>Chase immediately sent word back to the drivers of the carriages behind +to advance as slowly as was possible, but not to stop, for that might +waken the ladies; then, jumping down from the hearse, and leaving one of +the negroes in charge of his team, he hurried forward to make a personal +inspection. The broken shelf, without its parapet, certainly looked +precarious; so much so that the driver of the wagon, when he came up, +hesitated. Chase, ordering him down, took his place, and drove the wagon +across himself. Whereupon the verbose undertaker began to thank him.</p> + +<p>"Don't worry; I didn't do it for <i>you</i>" answered Chase, grimly. "If +you'd gone over, you'd have carried away more of the track; that was +all." Going back, he resumed his place on the hearse. Then speaking to +his horses, he guided them on to the shelf. Here he stood, in order to +see more clearly, the men on the far side watching him breathlessly, and +trying meanwhile (at a safe distance) to aid him as much as they could, +by holding their torches high. The ponderous hearse began to slip by its +own weight towards the verge. Then, with strong hand, Chase sent his +team sharply towards the cliff that towered above them, and kept them +grinding against it as they advanced, the two on the inside fairly +rubbing the rock, until, by main strength, the four together had dragged +their load away. But in a minute or two it began over again. It happened +not once merely, but four times. And, the last time, the hind<a name="page_289" id="page_289"></a> wheels +slipped so far, in spite of Chase's efforts, that it seemed as if they +would inevitably go over, and drag the struggling horses with them. But +Chase was as bold a driver as he was speculator. How he inspired them, +the horror-stricken watchers could not discover; but the four bays, +bounding sharply round together, sprang in a heap, as it were, at the +rocky wall on the left, the leaders rearing, the others on top of them; +and by this wild leap, the wheels (one of them was already over) were +violently jerked away. It was done at last; the dark, ponderous car +stood in safety on the other side, and the spectators, breathing again, +rubbed down the wet horses. Then Horace Chase went back on foot, and, in +turn, drove the two carriages across. Through these last two transits +not a word was spoken by any one; he mounted soundlessly, so that +Genevieve slept on undisturbed, and Mrs. Franklin and Dolly, unaware of +the danger or of the new hand on the reins, continued to gaze vaguely at +the darkness outside, their thoughts pursuing their own course. Finally, +leaving one of the negroes on guard to warn other travellers of the +wash-out and its perils, Chase resumed his place on the hearse, and the +four vehicles continued their slow progress down the mountain.</p> + +<p>After a while, the first vague clearness preceding dawn appeared; the +rain ceased. Happening to turn his head fifteen minutes later, he was +startled to see, in the dim light, the figure of a woman beside the +hearse. It was Mrs. Franklin. The road was now<a name="page_290" id="page_290"></a> smoother, and she walked +steadily on, keeping up with the walk of the horses. As the light grew +clearer, she saw who the driver was, and her eyes met his with +recognition. But her rigid face seemed to have no power for further +expression; it was set in lines that could not alter. Chase, on his +side, bowed gravely, taking off his hat; and he did not put it on again, +he left it on the seat by his side. He made no attempt to stop her, to +persuade her to return to her carriage; he recognized the presence of +one of those moods which, when they take possession of a woman, no power +on earth can alter.</p> + +<p>As they came to the first outlying houses of Asheville, he gave up his +place to the negro driver, and getting down on the other side of the +hearse, away from Mrs. Franklin, he went back for a moment to Dolly. +"You must let her do it! <i>Don't</i> try to prevent her," Dolly said, +imperatively, in a low tone, the instant she saw him at the carriage +door.</p> + +<p>"I'm not thinking of preventing her," Chase answered. Waiting until the +second carriage passed, he looked in; Genevieve was still asleep. Then, +still bareheaded, he joined Mrs. Franklin, and, without speaking, walked +beside her up the long, gradual ascent which leads into the town.</p> + +<p>The sun now appeared above the mountains; early risers coming to their +windows saw the dreary file pass—the wagon and the two carriages, heavy +with mud; the hearse with four horses, and the mother<a name="page_291" id="page_291"></a> walking beside +it. As they reached the main street, Chase spoke. "The Cottage?"</p> + +<p>"No; home," Mrs. Franklin answered. As the hearse turned into the +driveway of L'Hommedieu, she passed it, and, going on in advance, opened +the house door; here, waving away old Zoe and Rinda, who came hurrying +to meet her, she waited on the threshold until the men had lifted out +the coffin; then, leading the way to the sitting-room, she pointed to +the centre of the floor.</p> + +<p>"Oh, not to <i>our</i> house?" Genevieve whispered, as she alighted, her eyes +full of tears.</p> + +<p>But Dolly, to whom she spoke, limped in without answering, and Mrs. +Franklin paid no more heed to her daughter-in-law, who had followed her, +than as though she did not exist. Genevieve, quivering from her grief, +turned to Horace Chase.</p> + +<p>He put his arm round her, and led her from the sitting-room. "Give way +to her, Gen," he said, in a low tone. "She isn't well—don't you see it? +She isn't herself; she has been walking beside that hearse for the last +hour! Let her do whatever she likes; it's her only comfort. And now I am +going to take you straight home, and you must go to bed; if you don't, +you won't be able to get through the rest—and you wouldn't like that. +I'll come over at noon and arrange with you about the funeral; to-morrow +morning will be the best time, won't it?" And half leading, half +carrying her, for Genevieve was now crying helplessly, he took her +home.<a name="page_292" id="page_292"></a></p> + +<p>When he came back, Dolly was in the hall, waiting for him.</p> + +<p>There was no one in the sitting-room save Mrs. Franklin; he could see +her through the half-open door. She was sitting beside the coffin, with +her head against it, and one arm laid over its top. Her dress was +stained with mud; she had not taken off her bonnet; her gloves were +still on. Dolly closed the door, and shut out the sight.</p> + +<p>"You ought to see to her; she must be worn out," Chase said, +expostulatingly.</p> + +<p>"I'll do what I can," Dolly answered. "But mother has now no desire to +live—that will be the difficulty. She loves Ruth, and she loves me. But +not in the same way. Her father, her husband, and her son—these have +been mother's life. And now that the last has gone, the last of the +three men she adored, she doesn't care to stay. That is what she is +thinking now, as she sits there."</p> + +<p>"Come, you can't possibly know what she is thinking," Chase answered, +impatiently.</p> + +<p>"I always know what is in mother's mind; I wish I didn't!" said Dolly, +her features working convulsively for a moment. Then she controlled +herself. "I am sorry you came all the way back with us, Mr. Chase. It +wasn't necessary as far as <i>we</i> were concerned. We could have crossed +the mountain perfectly well without you. But Ruth—that is another +affair, and I wish you had gone for her yourself, instead of sending Mr. +Hill! You must be prepared<a name="page_293" id="page_293"></a> to see Ruth greatly changed. I should not be +surprised if she should arrive much broken, and even ill. She was very +fond of Jared. She will be overwhelmed—" Here, feeling that she was +saying too much, the elder sister abruptly disappeared.</p> + +<p>Chase, left alone, went out to see to the horses. The men were waiting +at the gate, the carriages and the hearse were drawn up at a little +distance; the undertaker and his assistants were standing in the garden. +"Get your breakfast at the hotel; I'll send for you presently," he said +to the latter. Then he paid the other men, and dismissed them. "You go +and tell whoever has charge, to have that bad bit of road put in order +to-day," he directed. "Tell them to send up a hundred hands, if +necessary. I'll pay the extra."<a name="page_294" id="page_294"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<p>T<small>HE</small> morning after the funeral, Chase, upon coming down to breakfast, +found Mrs. Franklin already in the sitting-room. She had not taken the +trouble to put on the new mourning garb which had been hastily made for +her; her attire was a brown dress which she had worn in Florida. She sat +motionless in her easy-chair, with her arms folded, her feet on a +footstool, and her face had the same stony look which had not varied +since she was told, upon her arrival at Raleigh, that her son was dead.</p> + +<p>"Well, ma'am, I hope you have slept?" Chase asked, as he extended his +hand.</p> + +<p>She gave him hers lifelessly.</p> + +<p>"Yes; I believe so."</p> + +<p>"Ruth will soon be here now," her son-in-law went on, as he seated +himself. "I told Hill not to let her travel straight through, for it +would only tire her; and she needs to keep well, ma'am, so as to be of +use to you. I'm going to drive over to Old Fort to-day, starting +late—about six o'clock, I guess. I've calculated that if Ruth spent a +night in New York (as she probably did, waiting for Hill to get there), +and if she stops over one night on the way, she would reach Old Fort +to-morrow noon. Then I'll bring her right on to L'Hommedieu."<a name="page_295" id="page_295"></a></p> + +<p>"Yes, bring her. And let her stay."</p> + +<p>"As long as ever you like, ma'am. I can't hold on long myself just now, +but I'll leave her with you, and come for her later. I am thinking of +taking a house at Newport for the summer; I hope that you and Miss Dolly +will feel like spending some time there with Ruth? Say August and +September?"</p> + +<p>"I shall travel no more. Leave her with me; it won't be for long."</p> + +<p>"You must cheer up, ma'am—for your daughters' sake."</p> + +<p>"Ruth has you," Mrs. Franklin responded. "And <i>you</i> are good." Her tone +remained lifeless. But it was evident that her words were sincere; that +a vague sense of justice had made her rouse herself long enough to utter +the commendation.</p> + +<p>"That's a mistake. I've never laid claim to anything of <i>that</i> sort," +Chase answered rather curtly, his face growing red.</p> + +<p>"When I say '<i>good</i>' I mean that you will be good to Ruth," said the +mother; "it is the only sort of goodness I care for! At present you +don't like Dolly. But Dolly is so absolutely devoted to her sister that +you will end by accepting her, faults and all; you won't mind her little +hostilities. I can therefore trust them both to you—I do so with +confidence," she added. And, with her set face unchanged, she made him a +little bow.</p> + +<p>"Why talk that way, ma'am? We hope to have you with us many years +longer," Chase answered.<a name="page_296" id="page_296"></a> "A green old age is a very fine thing to see." +(He thought rather well of that phrase.) "My grandmother—she stuck it +out to ninety-eight, and I hope you'll do the same."</p> + +<p>"Probably she wished to live. I have no such desire. As I sat here +beside my son the morning we arrived, I knew that I longed to go, too. I +want to be with him—and with my husband—and my dear father. My life +here has now come to its end, for <i>they</i> were my life."</p> + +<p>"That queer Dolly knew!" thought Chase. "But perhaps they've talked +about it?" He asked this question aloud. "Have you told your daughter +that, ma'am?"</p> + +<p>"Told my poor Dolly? Of course not. Please go to breakfast, Mr. Chase; I +am sure it is ready." Chase went to the dining-room. A moment later +Dolly came in to pour out the coffee.</p> + +<p>"Is there anything I can do for you this morning?" Chase asked, as he +took a piece of Zoe's hot corn-bread. "I am going to drive over to Old +Fort this afternoon, and wait there for Ruth, for I've calculated the +trains, and I reckon that she and Hill will reach there to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Dolly looked at him for a moment. Then she said: "You have a great deal +of influence with Genevieve; perhaps you could make her understand that +for the present it is better that she should not try to see mother. Tell +her that mother is much more broken than she was yesterday; tell her +that she is very<a name="page_297" id="page_297"></a> nervous; tell her, in short, anything you please, +provided it keeps her away!" Dolly added, suddenly giving up her long +effort to hide her bitter dislike.</p> + +<p>Chase glanced at her, and said nothing; he ate his corn-bread, and +finished his first cup of coffee in silence. Then, as she poured out the +second, he said: "Well, she might keep away entirely? She might leave +Asheville? She has a brother in St. Louis, and she likes the place, I +know; I've heard her say so. If her property here could be taken off her +hands—at a good valuation—and if a well-arranged, well-furnished house +could be provided for her there, near her brother, I guess she'd go. I +even guess she'd go pretty quick," he added; "she'd be a long sight +happier there than here." For though he had no especial affection for +Genevieve, he at least liked her better than he liked Dolly.</p> + +<p>Dolly, however, was indifferent to his liking or his disliking. "<i>Oh!</i>" +she said, her gaze growing vague in the intensity of her wish, "if it +could only be done!" Then her brow contracted, she pushed her plate +away. "But we cannot possibly be so much indebted to you—I mean so much +<i>more</i> indebted."</p> + +<p>"You needn't count yourself in, if it worries you," Chase answered with +his deliberate utterance. "For I should be doing it principally for +Ruth, you know. When she comes, the first thing she'll want to do, of +course, is to make her mother comfortable. And if Gen's clearing out, +root and branch, will help that, I rather guess Ruth can fix it."<a name="page_298" id="page_298"></a></p> + +<p>"You mean that <i>you</i> can."</p> + +<p>"Well, we're one; I don't think that even <i>you</i> can quite break that up +yet," Chase answered, ironically. Then he went on in a gentler tone: "I +want to do everything I can for your mother. She has always been very +kind to me."</p> + +<p>And Dolly was perfectly well aware that, as he looked at her (looked at +her yellow, scowling face), his feeling for her had become simply pity, +pity for the sickly old maid whom no one could possibly please—not even +her sweet young sister.</p> + +<p>Soon after breakfast Chase went to the Cottage. Genevieve received him +gratefully. Her cheeks were pale; her eyes showed the traces of the +tears of the previous day, the day of the funeral.</p> + +<p>Her visitor remained two hours. Then he rose, saying, "Well, I must see +about horses if I am to get to Old Fort to-night. I shall tell Ruth +about this new plan of ours, Gen. She'll be sure to like it; she'll +enjoy going to St. Louis to see you; we'll both come often. And you'll +be glad of a change yourself. The other house, too, is likely to be shut +up. For, though they don't say so yet, I guess the old lady and Dolly +will end by spending most of their time with Ruth, in New York."</p> + +<p>"I must go over and see mamma at once," answered Genevieve. "I must have +her opinion, first of all. I shall ask mamma's advice more than ever +now, Horace; it will be my pleasure as well as my duty. For Jay was very +fond of his mother; he<a name="page_299" id="page_299"></a> often told me—" Her voice quivered, and she +stopped.</p> + +<p>"Now, Gen, listen to me," said Chase, taking her hand. "Don't go over +there at all to-day. And, when you go to-morrow, and later, don't try to +see the old lady; wait till she asks for you. For she is all unhinged; +I've just come from there, and I know. She is very nervous, and +everything upsets her. It won't do either of you any good to meet at +present; it would only be a trial to you both. And Dolly says so, too. +Promise me that you'll take care of yourself; promise me especially that +you won't leave the house at all to-day, but stay quietly at home and +rest."</p> + +<p>Genevieve promised. But after he had gone, the sense of duty that was a +part of her nature led her to reconsider her determination. That her +husband should have been laid in his grave only twenty-four hours +before, and that she, the widow, should not see his bereaved mother +through the whole day, when their houses stood side by side; that they +should not mingle their tears, and their prayers also, while their +sorrow was still so new and so poignant—this seemed to her wrong. In +addition, it seemed hardly decent. The mother was ill and broken? So +much the more, then, was it her duty to go to her. At four o'clock, +therefore, she put on her bonnet and its long crape veil, and her black +mantle, and crossed the meadow towards L'Hommedieu.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Franklin was still sitting in the easy-chair with her arms folded, +as she had sat in the morning<a name="page_300" id="page_300"></a> when Chase came in. The only difference +was that now a newspaper lay across her lap; she had hastily taken it +from the table, and spread it over her knees, when she recognized her +daughter-in-law's step on the veranda.</p> + +<p>Genevieve came in. She was startled at first by the sight of the brown +dress, which happened to have red tints as well as brown in its fabric. +But it was only another cross to bear; her husband's family had always +given her so many! "I hope you slept last night, mamma?" she said, +bending to kiss Mrs. Franklin's forehead.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I believe so," the elder woman answered, mechanically, as she had +answered Chase. She was now indefinitely the elder. Between the wife of +forty, and the slender, graceful, vivacious mother of fifty-eight, there +had been but the difference of one short generation. But now the mother +might have been any age; her shoulders were bent, her skin looked +withered, and all the outlines of her face were set and sharpened.</p> + +<p>Genevieve took off her crape mantle, folding it (with her habitual +carefulness) before she laid it on a chair. "You must let me see to your +mourning, mamma," she said, as she thus busied herself. "I suppose your +new dress doesn't fit you? It was made so hastily. I shall be sitting +quietly at home for the present, day after day, and it will occupy me +and take my thoughts from myself to have some sewing to do. And I know +how to cut crape to advantage<a name="page_301" id="page_301"></a> also, for I was in mourning so long when +I was a girl."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Franklin made no reply.</p> + +<p>Her daughter-in-law, seating herself beside her, stroked back her gray +hair. "You look so tired! And I am afraid Dolly is tired out also, as +she isn't with you?"</p> + +<p>"I sent her to bed half an hour ago; for I am afraid one of her attacks +is coming on," Mrs. Franklin answered, her lips compressing themselves +as she endured the caress. Genevieve's touch was gentle. But Mrs. +Franklin did not like to have her hair stroked.</p> + +<p>"Poor Dolly! But, surely, it is not surprising. I must see her before I +go back. But shall I go back, mamma? As you are alone, wouldn't it be +better for me to stay with you for the rest of the day? I could read to +you; I should love to do it. It seems providential that my dear copy of +<i>Quiet Hours</i> should have come back from Philadelphia only yesterday; I +had sent it to Philadelphia, you know, to be rebound. But there have +been greater providences still; for instance, how I was able to get to +Raleigh in time to see our dear one. For the stage had gone when +Horace's telegram came, and Mr. Bebb's having arranged, by a mere +chance, to drive to Old Fort with that pair of fast horses at the very +<i>moment</i> I wished to start—surely that was providential? But you look +so white; do let me get you some tea? Or, better still, won't you go to<a name="page_302" id="page_302"></a> +bed? I should so love to undress you, and bathe your face with cologne."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Franklin shook her head; through her whole life she had detested +cologne. On the top of her dumb despair, on the top of her profound +enmity, rose again (a consciousness sickening to herself) all the petty +old irritations against this woman; against her "providential"; her +<i>Quiet Hours</i>; her "surely"; her "cutting crape to advantage"; and even +her "cologne." She closed her eyes so that at least she need not <i>see</i> +her.</p> + +<p>"I have had a letter from my sister," Genevieve went on. "I brought it +with me, thinking that you might like to hear it, for it is so +<i>beautifully</i> expressed. As you don't care to lie down, I'll read it to +you now. My sister reminds me, mamma, that in the midst of my grief I +ought to remember that I have had one great blessing—a blessing not +granted to all wives; and that is, that from the first moment of our +engagement to his last breath, dear Jay was perfectly devoted to me; he +never looked—he never cared to look—at any one else!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Franklin refolded her arms; her hands, laid over her elbows, +tightened on her sleeves.</p> + +<p>Genevieve began to read the letter. But when she came to the passage she +had quoted, the tears began to fall. "I won't go on," she said, as she +wiped them away. "For we must not dwell upon our griefs—don't you think +so, mamma? Not <i>purposely</i> remind ourselves of them; surely that is +unwise.<a name="page_303" id="page_303"></a> I have already arranged to give away Jay's clothes, for +instance—give them to persons who really need them. For as long as they +are in the house I can't help cr-crying whenever I see them." Her voice +broke, and she stopped; her effort at self-control, both here and at +home, was sincere.</p> + +<p>She replaced the letter in her pocket. And as she did so, the crape of +her sleeve, catching on the edge of the newspaper which lay over Mrs. +Franklin's knees, drew it so far to one side that it fell to the floor. +And there, revealed on the mother's lap, lay a little heap: a package of +letters in a school-boy hand; a battered top, and one or two other toys; +a baby's white robe yellow with age; some curls of soft hair, and a +little pair of baby shoes.</p> + +<p>"Oh, mamma, are you letting yourself brood over these things? Surely it +is not wise? Let me put them away."</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Franklin, gathering her poor treasures from Genevieve's touch, +placed them herself in her secretary, which she locked. Then she began +to walk to and fro across the broad room—to and fro, to and fro, her +step feverishly quick.</p> + +<p>After a minute, Genevieve followed her. "Mamma, try to be resigned. Try +to be calm."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Franklin stopped. She faced round upon her daughter-in-law. "You +dare to offer advice to me, you barren woman? You tell me to be +resigned? What do <i>you</i> know of a mother's love for her son—you who +have never borne a child? You can comprehend<a name="page_304" id="page_304"></a> neither my love nor my +grief. Providential, is it, that you reached Raleigh in time? Providence +is a strange thing if it assists <i>you</i>. For you have killed your +husband—killed him as certainly as though you had given him slow +poison. You broke up his life—the only life he loved; you never rested +until you had forced him out of the navy. And then, your greed for money +made you urge him incessantly to go into business—into business for +himself, which he knew nothing about. You gave him no peace; you drove +him on; your determination to have all the things <i>you</i> care for—a +house of your own and a garden; chairs and tables; handsome clothes; +money for <i>charities</i>" (impossible to describe the bitterness of this +last phrase)—"these have been far more important to you than anything +else—than his own happiness, or his own welfare. And, lately, your +process of murder has gone on faster. For he has been very ill all +winter (I know it <i>now</i>!) and you have not been near him; you have +stayed here month after month, buying land with Ruth's money, filling +your pockets and telling him nothing of it, adding to your house, and +saying to yourself comfortably meanwhile that this wise course of yours +would in the end bring him round to your views. It <i>has</i> brought him +round—to his death! His life for years has been wretched, and you were +the cause of the misery. For it was his feeling of being out of his +place, his gradual discouragement, his sense of failure, that finally +broke down his<a name="page_305" id="page_305"></a> health. If he had never seen <i>you</i>, he might have lived +to be an old man, filling with honor the position he was fitted for. +Now, at thirty-nine, he is dead. He was faithful to you, you say? He +was. And it is my greatest regret! I do not wish ever to see your face +again. For he was the joy of my life, and you were the curse of his. +Go!"</p> + +<p>These sentences, poured out in clear, vibrating tones, had filled +Genevieve with horror. And something that was almost fear followed as +the mother, coming nearer, her eyes blazing in her death-like face, +emphasized her last words by stretching out her arm with a gesture that +was fiercely grand—the grandeur of her bereavement and her despair.</p> + +<p>Genevieve escaped to the hall. Then, after waiting for a moment +uncertainly, she hurried home.</p> + +<p>When the sound of her footsteps had died away, Mrs. Franklin went to the +secretary and took out again the dress and the top, the little shoes and +the baby-curls; seating herself, she began to rearrange them. But her +hands only moved for a moment or two. Then her head sank back, her eyes +closed.<a name="page_306" id="page_306"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<p>A<small>S</small> it happened, Horace Chase was the next person who entered the parlor. +He was touched when he saw the old-looking figure, with the pathetic +little heap in its lap. But when he perceived that the figure was +unconscious, he was much alarmed; summoning help, he sent hastily for a +doctor. After being removed to her own room, Mrs. Franklin was extremely +restless; she moved her head incessantly from side to side on the +pillow, and she seemed to be half blind; her mind wandered, and her +voice, as she spoke incoherently, was very weak. Then suddenly she sank +into a lethargic slumber. The doctor waited to see in what condition she +would waken; for there were symptoms he did not like. Miss Billy, +meanwhile, was installed as nurse.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kip, Maud Muriel, and Miss Billy had visited this house of mourning +many times since the arrival of the funeral procession two days before, +with the mother walking beside the coffin of her son. And now that this +poor mother was stricken down, they all came again, anxious to be of +use. Chase, who had always liked her gentle ways, selected Miss Billy.</p> + +<p>Dolly knew nothing of her mother's prostration; for her pain (her old +enemy), having been deadened<a name="page_307" id="page_307"></a> by an opiate, she was sleeping. In order +that she should not suspect what had happened, Miss Billy did not show +herself at all in Dolly's room; Rinda, who was accustomed to this +service, was established there on a pallet, ready to answer if called.</p> + +<p>Chase had decided that he would wait for the doctor's report before +starting on his drive across the mountain; it would be satisfactory to +have something definite to tell Ruth. It was uncertain when that report +would come. But as he intended to set out, in spite of the darkness, the +first moment that it was possible, there was no use in going to bed. +Alone in the parlor, therefore, he first read through all the newspapers +he could find. Then, opening the window, he smoked a cigar or two. +Finally, his mind reverted, as it usually did when he was alone, to +business; drawing a chair to the table, he took out some memoranda and +sat down. Midnight passed. One o'clock came. Two o'clock. He still sat +there, absorbed. Mrs. Franklin's reading-lamp, burning brightly beside +him, lighted up his hard, keen face. For it looked hard now, with its +three deeply set lines, one on each side of the mouth, and one between +the eyes; and the eyes themselves were hard and sharp. But though the +business letter he was engaged upon was a masterpiece of shrewdness (as +those who received it would not fail to discover sooner or later), and +though it dealt with large interests that were important, the faintest +sound upstairs would have instantly caught the attention of its<a name="page_308" id="page_308"></a> writer. +On a chair beside him were railroad time-tables, and a sheet of +commercial note-paper with two lines of figures jotted down in orderly +rows side by side; these represented the two probabilities regarding the +trains which his wife might take—their hours of departure and their +connections. He had received no telegrams, and this had surprised him. +"What can the little chap be about?" he had more than once thought. His +adjective "little" was not depreciatory; Malachi Hill was, in fact, +short. In addition, his fresh, pink-tinged complexion and bright blue +eyes gave him a boyish air. To Horace Chase, who was over six feet in +height, and whose dark face looked ten years older than it really was, +the young missionary (whom he sincerely liked) seemed juvenile; his +youthful appearance, in fact, combined with his unmistakable "grit" (as +Chase called it), had been the thing which had first attracted the +notice of the millionaire.</p> + +<p>A little before three there was a sound. But it was not from upstairs, +it was outside; steps were coming up the path from the gate. The man in +the parlor went into the hall; and as he did so, to his surprise the +house-door opened and his wife came in.</p> + +<p>Behind her there was a momentary vision of Malachi Hill. The clergyman, +however, did not enter; upon seeing Horace Chase, he closed the door +quietly and went away.</p> + +<p>Ruth's face, even to the lips, was so white that<a name="page_309" id="page_309"></a> her husband hastily +put his arm round her; then he drew her into the sitting-room, closing +the door behind them.</p> + +<p>"Where is he?" Ruth had asked, or rather, her lips formed the words. +"Didn't you <i>wait</i> for me?"</p> + +<p>"My darling, he was buried yesterday," Chase answered, sitting down and +drawing her into his arms. "Didn't Hill tell you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but I didn't believe it. I thought you would wait for me; I +thought you would <i>know</i> that I wanted to see him."</p> + +<p>"No one saw him after we left Raleigh, dear. The coffin was not opened +again."</p> + +<p>"If I had been here, mother would have—<i>mother</i> would have—"</p> + +<p>"It was your mother who arranged everything," Chase explained gently, as +with careful touch he took off her hat, and then her gloves; her hands +were icy, and he held them in his to warm them.</p> + +<p>"Where <i>is</i> mother? And Dolly? Weren't they expecting me? Didn't they +<i>know</i> I would come?"</p> + +<p>"Your mother is sick upstairs. No, don't get up—you can't see her now; +she is asleep, and mustn't be disturbed. But the first moment she wakes +up the doctor is to let me know, and then you shall go to her right +away. Miss Breeze is up there keeping watch. Dolly has broken down, too. +But Dolly's case is no worse than it has often been before, and you'd +better let her sleep while she can. And now, will you stay here with me, +Ruthie, till the doctor<a name="page_310" id="page_310"></a> comes? Or would you rather go to bed? If you'll +go, I promise to tell you the minute your mother wakes." He put his hand +on her head protectingly, and kissed her cheek. Her face was cold. Her +whole frame had trembled incessantly from the moment of her entrance. +"My darling little girl, how tired you are!"</p> + +<p>"Tell me everything—everything about Jared," Ruth demanded, feverishly.</p> + +<p>Though she was so white, it was evident that she had not shed tears; her +eyes were bright, her lips were parched. Her husband, with his +rough-and-ready knowledge of women, knew that it would be better for her +to "have her cry out," as he would have phrased it; it would quiet her +excitement and subdue her so that she would sleep. As she could not eat, +he gave her a spoonful of brandy from his own flask, and wrapped her +cold feet in his travelling-shawl; then, putting her on the sofa, he sat +down beside her, and, holding her tenderly in his arms, he told her the +story of Jared's last hours.</p> + +<p>His account was truthful, save that he softened the details. In his +narrative Mrs. Nightingale's shabby house became homelike and +comfortable, and Jared's bare attic a pleasant place; Mrs. Nightingale +herself (here there was no need for exaggeration) was an angel of +kindness. He dwelt upon Jared's having agreed to go with him to New +York. "I had planned to start at nine o'clock the next morning, Ruthie, +having a doctor along without his knowing<a name="page_311" id="page_311"></a> it; and I had ordered a +private car—a Pullman sleeper—to go through to New York; once there, I +thought you could make him take a good long rest. That kind woman had +been sitting up at night in the room next to his. So I fixed that by +taking the same room myself. I didn't undress, but I guess I fell +asleep; and I woke up hearing him talking. And then he walked about the +room, and he even climbed out on the roof; but we soon got him back all +right. Everything possible was done, dear; the best doctor in Raleigh, +and a nurse—two of 'em. But it was no use. It was brain-fever, or +inflammation of the brain rather, and after it had left him he was too +weak to rally. They thought everything of him at Raleigh; your mother +wanted him brought here, and when we went to the depot, everybody who +had ever known him turned out, so that there was a long procession; and +all the ladies of his boarding-house brought flowers. At Old Fort, I had +intended to let Hill (I had wired to him to meet us there) take charge +of them across the mountains, for I wanted to go to New York to get +<i>you</i>. But the night was dark, and the road is always so bad that I +thought, on the whole, you'd rather have me stay with your mother. And +she has been tolerably well, too, until this afternoon, when she had an +attack of some sort. But I guess it's only that she is overtired; the +doctor will probably come down and tell us so before long."</p> + +<p>"I <i>wanted</i> to see him," repeated Ruth, her eyes<a name="page_312" id="page_312"></a> still dry and bright. +"It was very little to do for me, I think. If I could have just taken +his poor hand once—even if it <i>was</i> dead! Everybody else got there in +time to speak to him, to say good-by."</p> + +<p>"No; your mother didn't get there," Chase explained.</p> + +<p>"She didn't get there? And Genevieve <i>did?</i> I know it by your face. Let +me go to mother—poor mother! Let me go to her, and <i>never</i> leave her +again."</p> + +<p>"You shall go the instant she wakes; you shall stay with her as long as +you like," Chase answered, drawing her down again, and putting his cheek +against her head as it lay on his breast. "There is nothing in the world +I wouldn't do for your mother; you have only to choose. And for Dolly, +too. You shall stay with them; or they can go with you; or anything you +think best, my poor little girl."</p> + +<p>Ruth still trembled, and no tears came to her relief.</p> + +<p>Her cry, "And Genevieve <i>did?</i>" had struck him. "How they all hate her?" +he thought.</p> + +<p>He had seen Genevieve since Mrs. Franklin's attack; he had gone over for +a moment to tell her what had happened.</p> + +<p>Genevieve, when driven from L'Hommedieu, had taken refuge in her own +room at the Cottage; here, behind her locked door, she had spent a long +hour in examining herself searchingly, examining her whole married life. +Her hands had trembled as she<a name="page_313" id="page_313"></a> looked over her diaries, and as she +turned the pages of her "Questions for the Conscience." But with all her +efforts she could not discern any point where she had failed. Finally, +at the end of the examination, she summed the matter up more calmly: "It +<i>was</i> best for Jared to be out of the navy; he was forming habits there +that I understood better than his mother. And I <i>know</i> that I am not +avaricious. I know that I have always tried to do what was best for him, +that I have tried to elevate him and help him in every way. I have +worked hard—hard. I have never ceased to work. It is all a falsehood, +or, rather, it is a delusion; for she is, she <i>must</i> be, insane." Having +reached this conclusion (with Genevieve conclusions were final), she put +away her diaries and went down-stairs to tea. When Chase came in and +told what had happened, she said, with the utmost pity, "I am <i>not</i> +surprised! When she comes out of it, I fear you will find, Horace, that +her mind is affected. But surely it is natural. Mamma's mind—poor, dear +mamma!—never was very strong; and, in this great grief which has +overwhelmed us all, it has given way. We must make every allowance for +her." She told him nothing of her terrible half-hour at L'Hommedieu. She +never told any one. Silence was the only proper course—a pitying +silence over Jay's poor mother, his crazed mother.</p> + +<p>Ruth had paid no heed to her husband's soothing words, his promise to do +everything that he possibly could for her mother and Dolly. "What did +Jared<a name="page_314" id="page_314"></a> say? You were with him before he was ill. Tell me everything, +everything!"</p> + +<p>He tried to satisfy her. Then he attempted to draw her thoughts in +another direction. "How did you get here so soon, Ruthie? I told Hill to +make you stop over and sleep."</p> + +<p>"Sleep!" repeated Ruth. "I only thought of one thing, and that was to +get here in time to see him." She left the sofa. "You ought to have +waited for me. It would have been better if you had. <i>Jared</i> was the one +I cared for. One look at his face, even if he <i>was</i> dead. Where did they +put him when they brought him home? For I know mother had him here, here +and not at the Cottage. It was in this room, wasn't it? In the centre of +the floor?" She walked to the middle of the room and stood there. +"<i>Jared</i> could have helped me," she said, miserably. "Why did they take +my <i>brother</i>—the one person I had!"</p> + +<p>The door opened and the doctor entered. "<i>You</i> here, Mrs. Chase? I +didn't know you had come." He hesitated.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" said Ruth, going to him. "Tell me! <i>Tell</i> me."</p> + +<p>The doctor glanced at Chase.</p> + +<p>Chase came up, and took his wife's hand protectingly. "You may as well +tell her."</p> + +<p>"It is a stroke of paralysis," explained the doctor, gravely.</p> + +<p>"But she'll <i>know</i> me?" cried Ruth in an agony of tears.<a name="page_315" id="page_315"></a></p> + +<p>"She <i>may</i>. You can go up if you like."</p> + +<p>But the mother saw nothing, heard nothing on earth again. She might live +for years. But she did not know her own child.</p> + +<p>Chase came at last, and took his wife away.</p> + +<p>"Oh, be good to me, Horace, or I shall die! I think I <i>am</i> dying now," +she added in sudden terror.</p> + +<p>She clung to him in alarm. His immense kindness was now her refuge.<a name="page_316" id="page_316"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<p>I<small>N</small> spite of all there was to see that afternoon, Dolly Franklin had +chosen to remain at home; she sat alone in the drawing-room, adding +silken rows to her stocking of the moment. Wherever Ruth was, that was +now Dolly's home; since Mrs. Franklin's death, two years before, Dolly +had lived with her sister. The mother had survived her son but a month. +Her soul seemed to have departed with the first stroke of the benumbing +malady; there was nothing but the breathing left. At the end of a few +weeks, even the breathing ceased. Since then, L'Hommedieu had been +closed, save for a short time each spring. Horace Chase had bought a +cottage at Newport, and his wife and Dolly had divided their time +between Newport and New York. This winter, however, Chase had reopened +his Florida house, the old Worth place, at St. Augustine; for Ruth's +health appeared to be growing delicate; at least she had a dread of the +cold, of the icy winds, and the snow.</p> + +<p>"Well, we'll go back to the land of the alligators," said Chase; "we'll +live on sweet potatoes and the little oysters that grow round loose. You +seem to have forgotten that you own a shanty down there, Ruthie?"<a name="page_317" id="page_317"></a></p> + +<p>At first Ruth opposed this idea. Then suddenly she changed her mind. +"No, I'll go. I want to sail, and sail!"</p> + +<p>"So do I," said Dolly. "But why shouldn't we try new waters? The Bay of +Naples, for instance? Mr. Chase, if you cannot go over at present, you +could come for us, you know, whenever it was convenient?" Dolly expended +upon her idea all the eloquence she possessed.</p> + +<p>But Horace Chase never liked to have his wife beyond the reach of a +railroad. He himself often made long, rapid journeys without her. But he +was unwilling to have her "on the other side of the ferry," as he called +it, unless he could accompany her; and at present there were important +business interests which held him at home. As Ruth also paid small heed +to Dolly's brilliant (and wholly imaginary) pictures of Capri, Ischia, +and Sorrento, the elder sister had been forced (though with deep inward +reluctance) to yield; since December, therefore, they had all been +occupying the pleasant old mansion that faced the sea-wall.</p> + +<p>To-day, four o'clock came, and passed. Five o'clock came, and passed; +and Dolly still sat there alone. At last she put down her knitting, and, +taking her cane, limped upstairs and peeped into her sister's +dressing-room. Ruth, who was lying on the lounge with her face hidden, +appeared to be asleep. Dolly, therefore, closed the door noiselessly and +limped down again. Outside the weather was ideally<a name="page_318" id="page_318"></a> lovely. The +beautiful floral arch which had been erected in the morning still filled +the air with its fragrance, though the tea-roses of which it was +composed were now beginning to droop. St. Augustine, or rather the +visitors from the North, who at this season filled the little Spanish +town, had set up this blossoming greeting in honor of a traveller who +was expected by the afternoon train. This traveller had now arrived; he +had passed through the floral gateway in the landau which was bringing +him from the station. The arch bore as its legend: "The Ancient City +welcomes the great Soldier." The quiet-looking man in the landau was +named Grant.</p> + +<p>At length Dolly had a visitor; Mrs. Kip was shown in. A moment later the +Reverend Malachi Hill appeared, his face looking flushed, as though he +had been in great haste. Mrs. Kip's eyes had a conscious expression when +she saw him. She tried to cover it by saying, enthusiastically, "How +<i>well</i> you do look, Mr. Hill! You look so fresh; really <i>classic</i>."</p> + +<p>The outline of the clergyman's features was not the one usually +associated with this adjective. But Mrs. Kip was not a purist; it was +classic enough, in her opinion, to have bright blue eyes and golden +hair; the accidental line of the nose and mouth was less important.</p> + +<p>"Yes, my recovery is now complete," Malachi answered; "I must go back to +my work in a day or two. But I wish it hadn't been measles, you know. +Such a ridiculous malady!"<a name="page_319" id="page_319"></a></p> + +<p>"Oh, don't say that; measles are so sweet, so domestic. They make one +think of dear little children; and lemons," said Mrs. Kip, +imaginatively. "And then, when they are getting well, all sorts of +toys!"</p> + +<p>While she was speaking, Anthony Etheridge entered. And he, too, looked +as if he had been making haste. "What, Dolly, neither you nor Ruth out +on this great occasion? Are you a bit of a copperhead?"</p> + +<p>"No," Dolly answered. "I haven't spirit enough. <i>My</i> only spirit is in a +lamp; I have been making flaxseed tea and hot lemonade for Ruth, who has +a cold."</p> + +<p>"Does she swallow your messes?" Etheridge asked.</p> + +<p>"Never. But I like to fuss over them, and measure them out, and <i>stir</i> +them up!"</p> + +<p>"Just as I do for Evangeline Taylor," remarked Mrs. Kip, affectionately.</p> + +<p>"Lilian, isn't Evangeline long enough without that Taylor?" Dolly +suggested. "I have always meant to ask you."</p> + +<p>"I do it as a remembrance of her father," replied Lilian, with solemnity +"For I myself am a Taylor no longer; <i>I</i> am a Kip."</p> + +<p>"Oh, is that it? And if you should marry again, what then could you do +(as there is no second Evangeline) for your present name?" Dolly +inquired, gravely.</p> + +<p><a name="page_320" id="page_320"></a>"I have thought of that," answered the widow. "And I have decided that +I shall keep it. It shall precede any new name I may take; I should make +it a condition."</p> + +<p>"You are warned, gentlemen," commented Dolly.</p> + +<p>Etheridge for an instant looked alarmed. Then, as he saw that Malachi +had reddened violently, he grew savage. "Kip-Hill? Kip-Larue? +Kip-Willoughby?" he repeated, as if trying them. "Walter Willoughby, +however, is very poor dependence for you, Mrs. Lilian; for he is +evidently here in the train of the Barclays. He arrived with them +yesterday, and he tells me he is going up the Ocklawaha; I happen to +know that the Barclays are taking that trip, also."</p> + +<p>Walter Willoughby's name had rendered Mrs. Kip visibly conscious a +second time. The commodore's allusion to "the Barclays," and to Walter's +being "in their train," had made no impression upon her. They were +presumably ladies; but Lilian's mind was never troubled by the +attractions of other women, she was never jealous. One reason for this +immunity lay in the fact that she was always so actively engaged in the +occupation of loving that she had no time for jealousy; another was that +she had in her heart a soft conviction, modest but fixed, regarding the +power of her own charms. As excuse for her, it may be mentioned that the +conviction was not due to imagination, it was a certainty forced upon +her by actual fact; from her earliest girlhood men had been constantly +falling in love with her, and<a name="page_321" id="page_321"></a> apparently they were going to continue it +indefinitely. But though not jealous herself, she sympathized deeply +with the pain which this tormenting feeling gave to others, and, on the +present occasion, she feared that Malachi might be suffering from the +mention of Walter Willoughby's name, and that of Achilles Larue, in +connection with her own; she therefore began to talk quickly, as a +diversion to another subject. "Oh, do you know, as I came here this +afternoon I was reminded of something I have often meant to ask you—ask +all of you, and I'll say it now, as it's in my mind. Don't you know that +sign one so often sees everywhere—'Job Printing'? There is one in +Charlotte Street, and it was seeing it there just now as I passed that +made me think of it again. I suppose it must be some especial kind of +printing that they have named after Job? But it has always seemed to me +so odd, because there was, of course, no printing at all, until some +time after Job was dead? Or do you suppose it means that printers have +to be so <i>very</i> patient (with the bad handwriting that comes to them), +that they name <i>themselves</i> after Job?"</p> + +<p>Dolly put down her knitting. "Lilian, come here and let me kiss you. You +are too enchanting!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kip kissed Dolly with amiability. She already knew—she could not +help knowing—that she was too enchanting. But it was not often a +woman's voice that mentioned the fact. "It is late, I must go," she +said. "Mr. Hill, if you—if you want those<a name="page_322" id="page_322"></a> roses for Mrs. Chase's +bouquet, this is the best time to gather them."</p> + +<p>Malachi Hill found his hat with alacrity, and they went out together. +And then Etheridge took refuge in general objurgations. "I'm dead sick +of Florida, Dolly! It's so monotonous. So flat, and deep in sand. No +driving is possible. One of the best drives I ever had in my life was in +a sleigh; right up the Green Mountains. The snow was over the tops of +the fences, and the air clear as a bell!"</p> + +<p>"Do the Green Mountains interest the little turtle-dove who has just +gone out?" Dolly inquired.</p> + +<p>"Little turtle-fool! She makes eyes at every young idiot who comes +along."</p> + +<p>"Oh no, she only coos. It's her natural language. I won't answer as to +Achilles Larue, commodore, for that is a long-standing passion; she +began to admire his fur-lined overcoat, his neat shoes, his 'ish,' and +his mystic coldness within a month after the departure of her second +dear one. But as to her other flames, I think you could cut them out in +her affections if you would give your mind to it seriously; yes, even +the contemporary Willoughby. But you'll never give your mind to it, +you're a dog in the manger! You have no intention of marrying her +yourself. Yet you don't want any one else to marry her. Isn't it +tremendously appropriate that she happens to own an orange-grove? +Orange-blossoms always ready."</p> + +<p>"Contemporary?" Etheridge repeated, going back to the word that had +startled him.<a name="page_323" id="page_323"></a></p> + +<p>"Yes. Haven't you noticed how vividly contemporary young fellows of +Walter's type are? They have no fixed habits; for fixed habits are +founded in retrospect, and they never indulge in retrospect. Anything +that happened last week seems to them old; last year, antediluvian. They +live in the moment, with an outlook only towards the future. This makes +them very 'actual' wooers. As my brother-in-law would phrase it, they +are 'all there!'"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" said Etheridge. But as he went home to his own quarters (to +take a nap so as to be fresh for the evening), he turned over in his +thoughts that word "contemporary!" And he made up his mind that from +that hour he would mention no event which had occurred more than one +year before; he would tell no story which dated back beyond the same +period of time; he would read only the younger authors (whom he loathed +without exception); he would not permit himself to prefer any particular +walking-stick, any especial chair. At the club he would play euchre +instead of whist; and if there was any other even more confoundedly +modern and vulgar game, he would play that. Habits, indeed? Stuff and +nonsense!</p> + +<p>Left alone, Dolly went upstairs a second time. But Ruth's door was now +locked. The elder sister came back therefore to the drawing-room. Her +face was anxious.</p> + +<p>She banished the expression, however, when she heard her +brother-in-law's step in the hall; a moment<a name="page_324" id="page_324"></a> later Horace Chase entered, +his hands full of letters, and newspapers piled on his arm; he had come +from the post-office, where the afternoon mail had just been +distributed. "Where is Ruth? Still asleep?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"I think not; I heard Félicité's voice speaking to her just now, when I +was upstairs," Dolly answered.</p> + +<p>"They're taking another look at that new frock," Chase suggested, +jocosely, as he seated himself to reread his correspondence (for he had +already glanced through each letter in the street). "Where is Hill?" he +went on rather vaguely, his attention already attracted by something in +the first of these communications.</p> + +<p>"He came in, after the welcoming ceremonies, red in the face from +chasing Mrs. Kip. And the commodore appeared a moment later, also +breathless, and in search of her. But Malachi was selected to walk home +with the fair creature. And then the commodore trampled on Florida, and +talked of the Green Mountains."</p> + +<p>Dolly's tone was good-natured. But beneath this good-nature Chase +fancied that there was jealousy. "Eh—what's that you say?" he +responded, bringing out his words slowly, while he bestowed one more +thought upon the page he was reading before he gave her his full +attention. "The little Kip? Well, Dolly, she is a very sweet little +woman, isn't she?" he went on, reasonably, as if trying to open her eyes +gently to a fact that was undeniable. "But I didn't<a name="page_325" id="page_325"></a> know that Hill had +a fancy in that quarter. If he has, we must lend him a hand."</p> + +<p>For Chase had a decided liking for Malachi; the way the young clergyman +had carried through that rapid journey to New York and back, after Jared +Franklin's death, had won his regard and admiration. Malachi had not +stopped at Salisbury; his train went no farther, but he had succeeded in +getting a locomotive, by means of which, travelling on all night, he had +made a connection and reached New York in time after all to meet Ruth's +steamer. As it came in, there he was on the dock, dishevelled and +hungry, but there.</p> + +<p>And then when Ruth, frenzied by the tidings he brought (for it really +seemed to him almost frenzy), had insisted upon starting on her journey +to L'Hommedieu without an instant's delay, he had taken her, with +Félicité, southward again as rapidly as the trains could carry them. His +money was exhausted, but he did not stop; he travelled on credit, +pledging his watch; it was because he had no money that he had not +telegraphed. At Old Fort he procured a horse and light wagon, also on +trust, and though he had already spent four nights without sleep, he did +not stop, but drove Ruth across the mountains in the darkness on a sharp +trot, with the utmost skill and daring, leaving Félicité to follow by +stage. The sum which Chase had placed in the envelope with the ticket +had been intended merely for his own expenses; the additional amount +which was now required<a name="page_326" id="page_326"></a> for Ruth and her maid soon exhausted it, +together with all that he had with him of his own. Ruth's state of +tension—for she was dumb, white, and strange—had filled him with the +deepest apprehension; she did not think of money, and he could not bear +to speak to her of it. Such a contingency had not occurred to Chase, who +knew that his wife had with her more money than the cost of half a dozen +such journeys; for her purse was always not only full, but over-full; it +was one of his pleasures to keep it so. When, afterwards, he learned the +facts (from Ruth herself, upon questioning her), he went off, found +Malachi, and gave him what he called "a good big grip" of the hand. +"You're a trump, Hill, and can be banked on every time!" Since then he +had been Malachi's friend and advocate on all occasions, even to the +present one of endeavoring to moderate the supposed jealousy of his +sister-in-law regarding Lilian Kip.</p> + +<p>After this kindly meant attempt of his, Dolly did not again interrupt +him; she left him to finish his letters, while she went on with her +knitting in silence.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Franklin's prophecy, that Chase would end by liking Dolly for +herself, had not as yet come true. Ruth's husband accepted the presence +of his wife's sister under his roof; as she was an invalid, he would not +have been contented to have her elsewhere. Dolly's life now moved on +amid ease and comfort; she had her own attendant, who was partly a +lady's-maid, partly a nurse; she had her own phaeton, and,<a name="page_327" id="page_327"></a> when in New +York, her own coupé. If she was to live with Ruth at all, there was, +indeed, no other way; she could not do her own sister the injustice of +remaining a contrast, a jarring note by her side. Chase was invariably +kind to Dolly. Nevertheless Dolly knew that her especial combination of +ill-health and sarcasm seemed to him incongruous; she could detect in +his mind the thought that it was odd that a woman so sickly, with the +added misfortune of a plain face, should not at least try to be amiable, +since it was the only rôle she could properly fill. Her little +hostilities, as her mother had called them, were now necessarily +quiescent. But she had the conviction that, even if they had remained +active, her tall brother-in-law would not have minded them; he would +have taken, probably, a jocular view of them; and of herself as well.</p> + +<p>When the last letter was finished, and she saw her companion begin on +his newspapers, she spoke again: "I don't think Ruth ought to go to that +reception to-night; she is not well enough."</p> + +<p>"Why, I thought it was nothing but a very slight cold," Chase said, +turning round, surprised. "She mustn't think of going if she's sick. She +<i>wants</i> to go; she telegraphed for that dress."</p> + +<p>"Yes; last week. But that was before—before she felt ill. If she goes +now, it will be only because <i>you</i> care for it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, shucks! <i>I</i> care for it! What do I care for that sort of thing? +I'll go and tell her to give the<a name="page_328" id="page_328"></a> whole right up." He rose, leaving his +newspapers on the floor (Chase always wanted his newspapers on the +floor, and not on a table), and went towards the door. But, at the same +instant, Ruth herself came in. "I was just going up to tell you, Ruthie, +that I guess we won't turn out to-night after all—I mean to that show +at the Barracks. I reckon they can manage without us?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, but I want to see it," said Ruth. "If you are tired, I can go with +Mrs. Kip."</p> + +<p>"Well, who's running this family, anyway?" Chase demanded, going back to +his seat, not ill-pleased, however, that Dolly should see that her +information concerning her sister was less accurate than his own. But +his care regarding everything that was connected with his wife made him +add, "You'll give it up if I want you to, Ruthie?"</p> + +<p>"You don't. It's Dolly!" Ruth declared. "Dolly-Dulcinea, I have changed +my mind. I did not want to go this morning; I did not want to go this +noon. But, at half-past five o'clock precisely, I knew that I must go or +perish! Nothing shall keep me away." And, gayly waving her hand to her +sister, she went into the music-room, which opened from the larger +apartment, and, seating herself at the piano, began to play.</p> + +<p>Chase returned to his reading; his only comment to Dolly was, "She seems +to <i>look</i> pretty well." And it was true that Ruth looked not only well, +but brilliant. After a while they heard her begin to sing:<a name="page_329" id="page_329"></a></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"My short and happy day is done;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">The long and dreary night comes on;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">And at my door the Pale Horse stands,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">To carry me to unknown lands.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"His whinny shrill, his pawing hoof,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">Sound dreadful as a gathering storm;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">And I must leave this sheltering roof,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">And joys of life so soft and warm."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>"<i>Don't</i> sing that!" called Dolly, sharply.</p> + +<p>"Why not let her do as she likes?" suggested Chase, in the conciliatory +tone he often adopted with Dolly. To him all songs were the same; he +could not tell one from the other.</p> + +<p>At this moment Malachi Hill entered, with his arms full of roses. "Long +stalks?" said Ruth, hurrying to meet him. "Lovely! Now you shall help me +make my posy. What shall I bring home for you in my pocket, Mr. Hill? +Ice-cream?"</p> + +<p>"Well, the truth is I am thinking of going myself," answered Malachi, +coloring a little. "It has been mentioned to me that I ought to go—as a +representative of the clergy. It is not in the least a ball, they tell +me; it is a reception—a reception to General Grant. The young people +may perhaps dance a little; but not until after the general's +departure."</p> + +<p>"Capital idea," said Chase, adding a fourth to his pile of perused +sheets on the floor. "And don't go back on us, Hill, by proposing to +escort some one else. Ruth wants to make an impression on the general, +and, three abreast, perhaps we can do it."<a name="page_330" id="page_330"></a></p> + +<p>Suddenly Ruth went to her sister. "Dolly, you must go too. Now don't say +a word. You can go early and have a good seat; and as to dress, you can +wear your opera-cloak."</p> + +<p>"Oh no—" began Dolly.</p> + +<p>But Ruth stopped her. "You must. I want you to <i>see</i> me there."</p> + +<p>"Well, who's conceited, I'd like to know?" commented Chase, as he read +on.</p> + +<p>But Ruth's face wore no expression of conceit; its expression was that +of determination. With infinite relief Dolly saw this. "I'll go," she +said, comprehending Ruth's wish.</p> + +<p>The reception was given by a West Point comrade of General Grant's, who +happened to be spending the winter in Florida. As he had left the army +many years before, he was now a civilian, and the participation of St. +Francis Barracks in the affair was therefore accidental, not official. +For the civilian, being a man of wealth, had erected for the occasion a +temporary hall or ball-room, and had connected it by a covered passage +with the apartments of his brother, who was an artillery officer, +stationed that winter at this old Spanish post. At ten o'clock, this +improvised hall presented a gay appearance, owing to the flowers with +which it was profusely decorated, to the full dress of the ladies, and +to the uniforms; for the army had been reinforced by a contingent from +the navy, as two vessels belonging to the Coast Survey were in port.<a name="page_331" id="page_331"></a></p> + +<p>The reticent personage to whom all this homage was offered looked as if +he would like to get rid of it on any terms. He had commanded great +armies, he had won great battles, and that seemed to him easy enough. +But to stand and have his hand shaken—this was an ordeal!</p> + +<p>A lane had been kept open through the centre of the long room in order +to facilitate the presentations. At half-past ten, coming in his turn up +this avenue, the tall figure of Horace Chase could be seen; his wife was +with him, and they were preceded by the Rev. Malachi Hill. Chase, +inwardly amused by the ceremony, advanced towards Grant with his face +very solemn. But for the moment no one looked at him; all eyes were +turned towards the figure by his side.</p> + +<p>Half an hour earlier, as he sat alone in his drawing-room, waiting (and +reading another newspaper to pass away the time), Ruth had come to him. +As he heard her enter, he had looked up with a smile. Then his face +altered a little.</p> + +<p>"What! no diamonds?" he said.</p> + +<p>Ruth wore the new dress about which he had joked, but no ornaments save +a string of pearls.</p> + +<p>"It shall be just as you like," she answered, in a steady voice.</p> + +<p>"Oh no, Ruthie; just as <i>you</i> like."</p> + +<p>He admired diamonds, and now that she was nearly twenty-three, he had +said to himself that even her mother, if she had lived, would no longer +have objected to her wearing them. He had therefore bought<a name="page_332" id="page_332"></a> for her +recently a superb necklace, bracelets, and other ornaments, and he had +pleased himself with the thought that for this official occasion they +would be entirely appropriate. Ruth, reading his disappointment in his +eyes, went out, and returned a few minutes later adorned with all his +gifts to the very last stone. And now, as she came up the lane in the +centre of the crowded room, the gems gleamed and flashed, gleamed on her +neck, on her arms, in her hair, and in the filmy lace of her dress. +Always tall, she had grown more womanly, and she could therefore bear +the splendor. To-night, in addition, her own face was striking, for her +color had returned, and her extraordinarily beautiful eyes were at their +best—lustrous and profound. It had always been said of Ruth that her +beauty came and went. To-night it had certainly come, and to such a +degree that it spurred Etheridge to the exclamation, in an undertone:</p> + +<p>"Too many diamonds. But, by George, she shines them down!"</p> + +<p>After the presentation was over Chase stepped aside, and, with his wife, +joined Dolly. Dolly had a very good place; draped in her opera-cloak, +which was made of a rich Oriental fabric, she looked odd, ugly, and +distinguished.</p> + +<p>"Everybody is here except the Barclays," Etheridge announced. "There +can't be a soul left in any of the hotels. And all the negroes in town +are on the sea-wall outside, ready to hurrah when the great man drives +away."<a name="page_333" id="page_333"></a></p> + +<p>"Here's Walter. He is coming this way—he is looking for <i>us</i>," said +Chase. "How are you, Walter?"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Chase! Delighted to meet you again," said Willoughby, shaking +hands with Ruth with the utmost cordiality.</p> + +<p>"My sister is here also," Ruth answered, moving aside so that he could +see Dolly. And then Walter greeted Miss Franklin with the same extreme +heartiness.</p> + +<p>"Bless my soul, what enthusiasm!" commented Etheridge. "One would +suppose that you had not met for years."</p> + +<p>"And we haven't," said Ruth, surveying Walter, coolly. "Mr. Willoughby +has changed. He has a sort of Chinese air."</p> + +<p>"Willoughby has been living in California for two years, commodore; +didn't you know that?" Chase explained, inwardly enjoying his wife's +sally. "<i>I've</i> been to California four times since then. But as he +hasn't been east, the ladies have lost sight of him."</p> + +<p>"Are you returning to the Pacific?" Etheridge inquired of the younger +man, "so as to look more Chinese still?"</p> + +<p>"The Celestial air I have already caught will have to do," Walter +answered, laughing. "California is a wonderfully fascinating country. +But I am not going back; the business which took me there is concluded."</p> + +<p>Horace Chase smiled, detecting the triumph under these words. For his +Pacific-coast enterprise had<a name="page_334" id="page_334"></a> been highly successful, and Walter had +carried out his part of it with great energy and intelligence, and had +profited accordingly. That particular partnership was now dissolved.</p> + +<p>When the dancing began, Ruth declined her invitations. "It isn't +necessary to stay any longer, is it?" Dolly suggested in a low tone. +"The carriage is probably waiting."</p> + +<p>Here Chase, who had left them twenty minutes before, came up. "I've been +seeing the general off," he said. "Well—he appeared middling glad to +go! No dancing, Ruthie?" For he always remembered the things that amused +his wife, and dancing, he knew, was high on her list.</p> + +<p>And then, with that overtouch which it is so often the fate of an elder +sister to bestow, Dolly said, "I really think she had better not try it. +She is not thoroughly strong yet—after her cold."</p> + +<p>This second assertion of a knowledge superior to his own annoyed Chase. +And Ruth perceived it. "I am perfectly well," she answered. And, +accepting the next invitation, she began to dance. She danced with +everybody. Walter Willoughby had his turn with the rest.</p> + +<p>A week later, Chase, coming home at sunset, looked into the +drawing-room. His wife was not there, and he went upstairs in search of +her. He found her in her dressing-room, with a work-basket by her side. +"Well! I've never seen you <i>sew</i> before," he declared, amused by this +new industry.<a name="page_335" id="page_335"></a></p> + +<p>"I've had letters that make it necessary for me to go north, Ruthie. +You'll be all right here, with Dolly, won't you?" He had seated himself, +and was now glancing over a letter.</p> + +<p>"Don't go," said Ruth, abruptly. And she went on sewing with her +unnecessarily strong stitches; her mother had been wont to say of her +that, if she sewed at all, the results were like iron.</p> + +<p>Petie Trone, Esq., aged but still pretty, had been reposing on the +lounge by her side. But the moment Chase seated himself, the little +patriarch had jumped down, gone over, and climbed confidently up to his +knees, where, after turning round three times, he had finally settled +himself curled up like a black ball, with his nose on his tail.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I must," Chase answered. "There's something I've got to attend to." +And he continued to study the letter.</p> + +<p>"Take me with you, then," said Ruth, going on with her rocklike seam.</p> + +<p>"What's that? Take you?" her husband responded, still absorbed. "Not +this time, I guess. For I'm going straight through to Chicago. It would +tire you."</p> + +<p>"No; I should like it; I don't want to stay here." She put down her +work; going to one of the tables, she stood there with her back towards +him, turning things over, but hardly as though she perceived what they +were. Chase finished his letter. Then, as he replaced it in his pocket, +he saw that she had risen,<a name="page_336" id="page_336"></a> and, depositing Mr. Trone on the lounge, he +went to her and put his arm round her shoulders.</p> + +<p>"I'd take you if I could, Ruthie," he said, indulgently, beginning a +reasonable argument with her. "But my getting to Chicago by a certain +date is imperative, and to do it I've got to catch to-night's train and +go through, and that would be too hard travelling for you. Besides, you +would lose all the benefit of your Southern winter if you should hurry +north now, while it is still so cold; that is always a mistake—to go +north too early. Your winter here has done you lots of good, and that's +a great pleasure to me. I want to be proud of you next summer at +Newport, you know." And he pinched her cheek.</p> + +<p>Ruth turned and looked at him. "<i>Are</i> you proud of me?"</p> + +<p>"Oh no!" answered Chase, laughing. "Not at all!" Then, after a moment, +he went on, his tone altering. "I like to work a big deal through; I'm +more or less proud of that, I reckon. But down below everything else, +Ruthie, I guess my biggest pride is just—<i>you</i>." He was a man without +any grace in speech. But certain tones of his voice had an eloquence of +their own.</p> + +<p>Ruth straightened herself. "I will do what you wish. I will stay +here—as you prefer it. And you must keep on being proud of me. You must +be proud of me always, <i>always</i>."</p> + +<p>This made her husband laugh a second time. "It's a conceit that's come +to stay, Mrs. Chase. You may put your money on it!"<a name="page_337" id="page_337"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<p>A<small>S</small> he walked down the sea-wall to his hotel after the Grant reception, +Walter Willoughby said to himself that Mrs. Chase's coldness was the +very thing he desired, the thing he had been hoping for, devoutly, for +more than two years. The assertion was true. But though he had hoped, he +had hardly expected that her indifference would have become so complete. +If he did not exactly enjoy it, it had at least the advantage of leaving +him perfectly free. For purposes of his own (purposes which had nothing +to do with her), he had found it convenient to come to Florida this +winter. And now that St. Augustine was reached, these same private +purposes made him desire to remain there rather longer than he had at +first intended. After the Grant reception he told himself with relief +that there was now no reason, "no reason on earth," why he should not +stay as long as it suited him to do so. He therefore remained. He joined +in the amusements of the little winter-colony, the riding, driving, +sailing, walking, and fishing parties that filled the lovely days. Under +these conditions two weeks went by. Horace Chase had not as yet +returned; he was engaged in one of those bold enterprises of a +speculative nature<a name="page_338" id="page_338"></a> which he called "a little operation;" occasionally +he planned and carried through one of these campaigns alone.</p> + +<p>On the last night of this second week Ruth came into her sister's room. +It was one o'clock, but Dolly was awake; the moonlight, penetrating the +dark curtains, showed her who it was. "Is that you, Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," Ruth answered. "Dolly, I want to go away."</p> + +<p>Dolly raised herself, quickly. "Whenever you like," she answered. "We +can go to-morrow morning by the first train; they can pack one trunk, +and the rest can be sent after us. I shall be quite well enough to go." +For Dolly had been in bed all day, suffering severely; it was the only +day for two weeks which she had not spent, hour by hour, with her +sister. "You will have had a telegram from Mr. Chase," she went on; "we +can say that as explanation."</p> + +<p>Ruth turned away. She left the details to her sister.</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't go off and shut yourself up. Stay here with me," pleaded +Dolly, entreatingly.</p> + +<p>"I'd rather be alone," Ruth began. But her voice broke. "No, I'm afraid! +I <i>will</i> stay here. But you mustn't talk to me, Dolly."</p> + +<p>"Not a word," Dolly responded; "if you will tell me, first, where you +have been?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, only at Andalusia, as you know," Ruth answered, in the same +exhausted tone. "It isn't very<a name="page_339" id="page_339"></a> late; every one stayed till after +twelve. And I came home as I went; that is, with Colonel and Mrs. +Atherton; they left me just now at the door."</p> + +<p>"Alone?"</p> + +<p>"No; with Walter Willoughby. But he did not come in; he only stood there +on the steps with me for a moment; that's all." While Ruth was saying +this, she had taken off her hat and gloves; then, in the dim light, +Dolly saw her sink down on the divan, and lie there, motionless. The +elder sister crept towards her on the outside of the bed (for the divan +was across its foot), and covered her carefully with a warm shawl; then, +faithful to her promise, she returned to her place in silence. And +neither of them spoke again.</p> + +<p>On the divan Ruth was not fighting a battle; she had given up, she was +fleeing.</p> + +<p>When, two years before, absorbed in her love for Walter, she had +insisted upon that long, solitary voyage northward from Charleston, so +that she could give herself up uninterruptedly to her own thoughts, +alone with them and the blue sea, the tidings which had met her at New +York as she landed—the tidings of her brother's death—had come upon +her almost like a blinding shaft of lightning. It was as if she, too, +had died. And she found her life again only partially, as she went +southward in the rushing trains, as she crossed the mountains in the +wagon, and arrived by night at dimly lighted L'Hommedieu. Sleepless +through both journeys—the voyage northward<a name="page_340" id="page_340"></a> and the return by +land—worn out by the intense emotions which, in turn, had swept over +her, she had reached her mother's door at last so exhausted that her +vital powers had sunk low. Then it was that the gentle care of the man +who knew nothing of the truth had saved her—saved her from the +dangerous tension of her own excitement, and, later, from a death-like +faintness which, if prolonged, would have been her end. For when she +beheld the changed, drawn, unconscious face of her mother, that "mother" +who had seemed to her as much a fixed part of her life as her own +breath, her heart had failed her, failed not merely in the common +meaning of the phrase, but actually; its pulsations grew so weak that a +great dread seized her—the instinctive shrinking of her whole young +being from the touch of death. In her terror, she had fled to her +husband, she had taken refuge in his boundless kindness. "Oh, I am +dying, Horace; I <i>must</i> be dying! Save me!" was her frightened cry.</p> + +<p>For she was essentially feminine. In her character, the womanhood, the +sweet, pure, physical womanhood, had a strong part; it had not been +refined away by over-development of the mental powers, or reduced to a +subordinate position by ascetic surroundings. It remained, therefore, +what nature had made it. And it gave her a great charm. But its presence +left small place for the more masculine qualities, for stoical fortitude +and courage; she<a name="page_341" id="page_341"></a> could not face fear; she could not stand alone; and +she had always, besides, the need to be cherished and protected, to be +held dear, very dear.</p> + +<p>This return to her husband was sincere as far as it carried her. From +one point of view, it might be said that she had never left him. For her +love for Walter had contained no plan; and her girlish affection for +Horace Chase remained what it always had been, though the deeper +feelings were now awake underneath.</p> + +<p>Time passed; the days grew slowly to months, and the months at last +became a long year, and then two. Little by little she fell back into +her old ways; she laughed at Dolly's sallies, she talked and jested with +her husband. She sometimes asked herself whether those buried feelings +would ever rise and take possession of her again. But Walter remained +absent—that was the thing that saved her. A personal presence was with +her always a powerful influence. But an absence was equally powerful in +its quieting effect; it produced temporarily more or less oblivion. She +had never been able to live on memories. And she had a great desire at +all times to be happy. And, therefore, to a certain degree, she did +become happy again; she amused herself with fair success at Newport and +New York.</p> + +<p>And then Walter had re-entered the circle of her life. And by a fatality +this had come to her at St. Augustine. On the morning of the day of the +Grant reception, she had suddenly learned that he was in<a name="page_342" id="page_342"></a> town. And she +knew (it came like a wave over her) that she dreaded the meeting.</p> + +<p>There had been no spoken confidences between the sisters. But Dolly had +instantly extended all the protection that was in her power, and even +more; for she had braved the displeasure of her brother-in-law by +maintaining that his wife was ill, and that she (Dolly) knew more of the +illness than he did. And then, suddenly, this elder sister was put in +the wrong. For Ruth herself appeared, declaring gayly that she was well, +perfectly well. The gayety was assumed. But the declaration that she was +well was a truthful one; she was not only well, but her heart was +beating with excitement. For the idea had taken possession of her that +this was the very opportunity she needed to prove to herself (and to +Dolly also) that she was changed, that she was calm and indifferent. And +it would be a triumph also to show this indifference to Walter. Her +acts, her words, her every intonation should make this clear to him; +delightfully, coldly, brilliantly clear!</p> + +<p>Yet, into this very courage had come, as an opposing force, that vague +premonition which had made her suddenly begin to sing "The Stirrup Cup."</p> + +<p>But a mood of renewed gayety had followed; she had entered the +improvised ball-room with pulses beating high, sure that all was well.</p> + +<p>Before the evening was over she knew that all was ill; she knew that at +the bottom of everything<a name="page_343" id="page_343"></a> what had made her go thither was simply the +desire to see Walter Willoughby once more.</p> + +<p>When, a few days later, her husband told her that he was going north, +with one of her sudden impulses she said, "Take me with you." He had not +consented. And she knew that she was glad that he had not. Certain tones +of his voice, however, when he spoke of his pride in her, had touched +her deeply; into her remembrance came the thought of all he had done for +her mother, all he had done for Jared, and she strengthened herself +anew: she would go through with it and he should know nothing; he should +remain proud of her always, always.</p> + +<p>But this was not a woman who could go on unmoved seeing daily the man +she loved; those buried feelings rose again to the surface, and she was +powerless to resist them. All she could do (and this required a constant +effort) was to keep her cold manner unaltered.</p> + +<p>Walter, meanwhile, was not paying much heed to Mrs. Chase. At the Grant +reception, he had been piqued by her sarcasms; he had smarted under the +surprise which her laughing coolness and gayety gave him. But this +vexation soon faded; it was, after all, nothing compared with the great +desire which he had at this particular moment to find himself entirely +free from entanglements of that nature. He was therefore glad of her +coldness. He continued to see her often; in that small society they +could not help but meet. And occasionally he asked himself if there<a name="page_344" id="page_344"></a> was +nothing underneath this glittering frost? No least little scrap left of +her feeling of two years before? But, engrossed as he was with his own +projects, this curiosity remained dormant until suddenly these projects +went astray; they encountered an obstacle which for the time being made +it impossible for him to pursue them further. This happened at the end +of his second week in St. Augustine. Foiled, and more or less irritated, +and having also for the moment nothing else to do, he felt in the mood +to solace himself a little with the temporary entertainment of finding +out (of course in ways that would be unobserved by others) whether there +was or was not anything left of the caprice which the millionaire's +pretty wife had certainly felt for him when he was in Florida before.</p> + +<p>For that was his idea of it—a caprice. He saw only one side of Ruth's +nature; to him she seemed a thoughtless, spoiled young creature, highly +impressionable, but all on the surface; no feeling would last long with +her or be very deep, though for the moment it might carry her away.</p> + +<p>What he did was so little, during this process of finding out, and what +he said was so even less, that if related it would not have made a +narrative, it would have been nothing to tell. But the woman he was +studying was now like a harp: the lightest touch of his hand on the +strings drew out the music. And when, therefore, upon that last night, +taking advantage of the few moments he had<a name="page_345" id="page_345"></a> with her alone at her door, +after her friends from the Barracks had passed on—when he then said a +word or two, to her it was fatal. His phrase meant in reality nothing; +it was tentative only. But Ruth had no suspicion of this; her own love +was direct, uncomplicated, and overmastering; she supposed that his was +the same. She looked at him dumbly; then she turned, entering the house +with rapid step and hurrying up the stairs, leaving the sleepy servant +who came forward to meet her to close the door. Fatal had his words been +to her; fatally sweet!</p> + +<p>The two sisters left St. Augustine the next morning; in the evening they +were far down the St. John's River on their way to Savannah. They sat +together near the bow of the steamer, watching in silence the windings +of the magnificent stream; the moonlight was so bright that they could +see the silvery long-moss draping the live-oaks on shore, and, in the +tops of signal cypresses, bare and gaunt, the huge nests of the +fish-hawks, like fortifications.</p> + +<p>"Poor Chase! covering her with diamonds, and giving her everything; +while <i>I</i> can turn her round my finger!" Walter said to himself when he +heard they had gone.</p> + +<p>On the day of his wife's departure—that sudden departure from St. +Augustine of which he as yet knew nothing, Horace Chase, in Chicago, was +bringing to a close his "little operation"; by six o'clock, four +long-headed men had discovered that they had<a name="page_346" id="page_346"></a> been tremendously +out-generalled. Later in the evening, three of these men happened to be +standing together in a corridor of one of the Chicago hotels, when the +successful operator, who was staying in the house, came by chance +through the same brightly lighted passage-way.</p> + +<p>"I guess you think, Chase, that you've got the laugh on us," said one of +the group. "But just wait a month or two; we'll make you walk!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, the devil!" answered Chase, passing on.</p> + +<p>"He's as hard as flint!" said the second of the discomfited trio, who, +depressed by his losses (which to him meant ruin), had a lump in his +throat. "There isn't such a thing as an ounce of feeling in Horace +Chase's <i>whole</i> composition, damn him!"<a name="page_347" id="page_347"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<p>H<small>IS</small> little campaign over, Horace Chase made his preparations for +returning to Florida. These consisted in hastily throwing into a valise +the few things which he had brought with him, and ringing the bell to +have a carriage called so that he could catch the midnight train. As he +was stepping into this carriage, a telegram was handed to him. "Hold on +a minute," he called to the driver, as he opened it. "We are on our way +to Savannah," he read. "You will find us at the Scriven House. Ruth not +well." And the signature was "Dora Franklin." "Drive on," he called a +second time, and as the carriage rolled towards the station he said to +himself, "That Dolly! Always trying to make out that Ruth's sick. I +guess it's only that she's tired of Florida. She wanted to leave when +<i>I</i> came north; asked me to take her."</p> + +<p>But when he reached Savannah, he found his wife if not ill, at least +much altered; she was white and silent, she scarcely spoke; she sat hour +after hour with her eyes on a book, though the pages were not turned. +"She isn't well," Dolly explained again.</p> + +<p>"Then we must have in the doctors," Chase answered,<a name="page_348" id="page_348"></a> decisively. "I'll +get the best advice from New York immediately; I'll wire at once."</p> + +<p>"Don't; it would only bother her," objected Dolly. "They can do no more +for her than we can, for it is nothing but lack of strength. Take her up +to L'Hommedieu, and let her stay there all summer; that will be the best +thing for her, by far."</p> + +<p>"That's the question; will it?" remarked Chase to himself, reflectively.</p> + +<p>"Do I know her, or do I not?" urged Dolly. "I have been with her ever +since she was born. Trust me, at least where <i>she</i> is concerned; for she +is all I have left in the world, and I understand her every breath."</p> + +<p>"Of course I know you think no end of her," Chase answered. But he was +not satisfied; he went to Ruth herself. "Ruthie, you needn't go to +Newport this summer, if you're tired of it; you can go anywhere you +like, short of Europe (for I can't quite get abroad this year). There +are all sorts of first-rate places, I hear, along the coast of Maine."</p> + +<p>"I don't care where I go," Ruth answered, dully, "except that I want to +be far away from—from the tiresome people we usually see."</p> + +<p>"Well, that means far away from Newport, doesn't it? We've been there +for two summers," Chase answered, helping her (as he thought) to find +out what she really wanted. "Would you like to go up the lakes—to +Mackinac and Marquette?"</p> + +<p>"No, L'Hommedieu would do, perhaps."<a name="page_349" id="page_349"></a></p> + +<p>"Yes, Dolly's plan. Are you doing it for <i>her</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Ruth, with weary truthfulness, "don't you know that I never +do things for Dolly, but that it's always Dolly who does things for me?"</p> + +<p>Her husband took her to L'Hommedieu.</p> + +<p>She seemed glad to be there; she wandered about and looked at her +mother's things; she opened her mother's secretary and used it; she sat +in her mother's easy-chair, and read her books. There was no jarring +element at hand; Genevieve, beneficent, much admired, and well off, had +been living for two years in St. Louis; her North Carolina cottage was +now occupied by Mrs. Kip.</p> + +<p>Chase had the inspiration of sending for Kentucky Belle, and after a +while Ruth began to ride. This did her more good than anything else; +every day she was out for hours among the mountains with her husband, +and often with the additional escort of Malachi Hill.</p> + +<p>One morning they made an expedition to the wild gorge where the squirrel +had received his freedom two years before; Ruth dismounted, and walked +about under the trees, looking up into the foliage.</p> + +<p>"He's booming; he's got what <i>he</i> likes," said Chase—"your Robert the +Squirrel; or Robert the Devil, as Dolly called him."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't want him back," Ruth answered; "I am glad he is free. Every +one ought to be free," she went on, musingly, as though stating a new +truth which she had just discovered.<a name="page_350" id="page_350"></a></p> + +<p>"I came out nearly every week, Mrs. Chase, during the first six months, +with nuts for him," said Malachi, comfortingly. "I used to bring at +least a quart, and I put them in a particular place. Well—they were +always gone."</p> + +<p>As they came down a flank of the mountain overlooking the village, Chase +surveyed the valley with critical eyes. "If we really decide to take +this thing up at last—Nick and Richard Willoughby, and myself, and one +or two more—my own idea would be to have a grand combine of all the +advantages possible," he began. "In the United States we don't do this +thing up half so completely as they do abroad. Over there, if they have +mountains—as in Switzerland, for instance—they don't trust to that +alone, they don't leave people to sit and stare at 'em all day; they add +other attractions. They have boys with horns, where there happen to be +echoes; they illuminate the waterfalls; girls dressed up in costumes +milk cows in arbors; and men with flowers and other things stuck in +their hats, yodel and sing. All sorts of carved things, too, are +constantly offered for sale, such as salad-forks, paper-cutters, and +cuckoo clocks. Then, if it isn't mountains, but springs, they always +have the very best music they can get, to make the water go down. It +would be a smart thing to have the sulphur near here brought into town +in pipes to a sort of park, where we could have a casino with a hall for +dancing, and a restaurant where you could always get a first-class meal. +And, outside, a stand for the band.<a name="page_351" id="page_351"></a> And then in the park there ought to +be, without fail, long rows of bright little stores for the ladies—like +those at Baden-Baden, Ruthie? No large articles sold, but a great +variety of small things. Ladies always like that; they can drink the +water, listen to the music, and yet go shopping too, and buy all sorts +of little knick-knacks to take home as presents; it would be extremely +popular. The North Carolina garnets and amethysts could be sold; and +specimens of the mica and gold and the native pink marble could be +exhibited. Then those Cherokee Indians out Qualla way might be +encouraged to come to the park with their baskets and bead-work to sell. +And there must be, of course, a museum of curiosities, stuffed animals, +and mummies, and such things. There's a museum opposite that lion cut in +the rock at Lucerne Hill—I guess you've heard of it? It attracts more +interest than the lion himself; I've watched, and I know; ten out of +twelve of the people who come there, look two minutes at the lion, and +give ten at least to the museum. Then it wouldn't be a half-bad idea to +get hold of an eminent doctor; we might make him a present of half a +mountain as an inducement. Larue, by the way, won't be of much use to +our boom, now that he isn't a senator any longer. Did they kick him out, +Hill, or freeze him out?"</p> + +<p>"Well—he resigned," answered Malachi, diplomatically. "You see, they +wanted the present senator—a man who has far more magnetism."</p> + +<p>"Larue never <i>was</i> 'in it'; I saw that from the<a name="page_352" id="page_352"></a> first," Chase +commented. "Well, then, in addition, there must, of course, be a +hospital in the town, so that the ladies can get up fairs for it each +year at the height of the season; they find the <i>greatest</i> interest in +fairs; I've often noticed it. Then I should give <i>my</i> vote for a good +race-course. And, finally, all the churches ought to be put in tip-top +condition—painted and papered and made more attractive. But that, Hill, +we'll leave to you."</p> + +<p>Malachi laughed. He admired Horace Chase greatly, but he had long ago +despaired of making him pay heed to certain distinctions. "I think I +won't meddle with the other churches if you will only help along ours," +he answered; "our Church school here, and my mountain missions."</p> + +<p>"All right; we'll boom them all," said Chase, liberally. "There might be +a statue of Daniel Boom in the park, near the casino," he went on in a +considering tone; "he lived near here for some time. Though, come to +think of it, his name was Boone, wasn't it?—just missed being +appropriate! Well, at any rate, we can have a statue of Colonel David +Vance, and of Dr. Mitchell, who is buried on Mitchell's Peak. And of +David L. Swain."</p> + +<p>"Have you any especial sculptor in view?" inquired Malachi, who was not +without a slight knowledge of art.</p> + +<p>"No. But we could get a good marble-cutter to take a contract for the +lot; that would be the easiest way, I reckon."<a name="page_353" id="page_353"></a></p> + +<p>Malachi could not help being glad, revengefully glad, that at least +there was no mention of Maud Muriel. Only the day before the sculptress +had greeted him with her low-breathed "Manikin!" as he came upon her in +a narrow winding lane which he had incautiously entered. A man may be as +dauntless as possible (so he told himself), but that does not help him +when his assailant is a person whom he cannot knock down—"a striding, +scornful, sculping spinster!" "She had better look out!" he had thought, +angrily, as he passed on.</p> + +<p>His morning ride over, Chase took a fresh horse after lunch, and went +down to Crumb's. Nicholas Willoughby, struck by the wildness and beauty +of these North Carolina mountains, had built a cottage on the high +plateau above Crumb's, the plateau which Chase had named "Ruth's +Terrace" several years before. During the preceding summer, Nicholas had +occupied this house (which he called The Lodge) for a month or more. +This year, having lent it to some friends for August and September, he +had asked Chase to see that all was in order before their arrival.</p> + +<p>While Chase was off upon this errand, Ruth and Dolly were to go for a +drive along the Swannanoa. But first Dolly stopped at Miss Mackintosh's +barn; her latest work was on exhibition there. This was nothing less +than a colossal study in clay of the sculptress's own back from the nape +of the neck to the waist; Dolly, who had already had a view of this +masterpiece,<a name="page_354" id="page_354"></a> was now bringing Ruth to see it, with the hope that it +would make her laugh. It did. Her old mirth came back for several +minutes as she gazed at the rigidly faithful copy of Maud Muriel's +shoulder-blades, her broad, gaunt shoulders, and the endless line of +conscientiously done vertebræ adorning her spine.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kip was there, also looking. "Maud Muriel, how could you <i>see</i> your +back?" she inquired.</p> + +<p>"Hand-glass," replied the sculptress, briefly.</p> + +<p>"Well, to me it looks hardly proper," commented Mrs. Kip; "it's +so—<i>exposed</i>. And then, without any head or arms, it seems so +mutilated; like some awful thing from a battle-field! I don't think it's +necessary for lady artists to study anatomy, Maud Muriel; it isn't +expected of them; it doesn't seem quite feminine. Why don't you carve +angels? They <i>have</i> no anatomy, and, of course, they need none. Angels, +little children, and flowers—I think those are the most appropriate +subjects for <i>lady</i> artists, both in sculpture and in painting." Then, +seeing Maud Muriel begin to snort (as Dolly called the dilation of the +sculptress's nostrils when she was angry), Mrs. Kip hurried on, changing +the subject as she went. "But sculpture certainly agrees with you, +Maudie dear. I really think your splendid hair grows thicker and +thicker! You could always earn your living (if you had occasion) by just +having yourself photographed, back-view, with your hair down, and a +placard—'Results of Barry's Tricopherus.' Barry would give <i>anything</i> +to get you."<a name="page_355" id="page_355"></a></p> + +<p>Maud Muriel was not without humor, after her curt fashion. "Well, +Lilian," she answered, "<i>you</i> might be 'Results of Packer's Granulated +Food,' I'm sure. You look exactly like one of the prize health-babies."</p> + +<p>"Oh no!" cried Mrs. Kip, in terror, "I'm not at <i>all</i> well, Maud Muriel. +Don't tell me so, or I shall be ill directly! Neither Evangeline Taylor +nor I are in the <i>least</i> robust; we are <i>both</i> pulmonic."</p> + +<p>At this moment Evangeline herself appeared at the door, accompanied by +her inseparable Miss Green, a personage who was the pride of Mrs. Kip's +existence. This was not for what she was, but for her title: "Evangeline +Taylor and her governess"—this to Mrs. Kip seemed almost royal. She now +hurried forward to meet her child, and, taking her arm, led her away +from the torso to the far end of the barn, where two new busts were +standing on a table, one of them the likeness of a short-nosed, +belligerent boy, and the other of a dreary, sickly woman. "Come and look +at these <i>sweet</i> things, darling."</p> + +<p>And then Ruth broke into a second laugh.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Chase," said Maud Muriel, suddenly, "I wish <i>you</i> would sit to +me."</p> + +<p>"No. Ask her husband to sit," suggested Dolly. "You know you like to do +men best, Maud Muriel."</p> + +<p>"Well, generally speaking, the outlines of a man's face are more +distinct," the sculptress admitted. "And yet, Dolly, it doesn't always +follow. For, generally speaking, women—"<a name="page_356" id="page_356"></a></p> + +<p>"Maud Muriel, I am <i>never</i> generally speaking, but always particularly," +Dolly declared. "Do Mr. Chase. He will come like a shot if you will +smoke your pipe; he has been dying to see you do it for three years."</p> + +<p>"I have given up the pipe; I have cigars now," explained Maud, gravely. +"But I do not smoke here; I take a walk with a cigar on dark nights—"</p> + +<p>"Sh! Don't talk about it now," interrupted Mrs. Kip, warningly. For +Evangeline Taylor, having extracted all she could from the "sweet +things," was coming towards them. There was a good deal to come. Her +height was now six feet and an inch. Her long, rigid face wore an +expression which she intended to be one of deep interest in the works of +art displayed before her; but as she was more shy than ever, her eyes, +as she approached the group, had a suppressed nervous gleam which, with +her strange facial tension, made her look half-mad.</p> + +<p>"Dear child!" said the mother, fondly, as Ruth, to whom the poor young +giant was passionately devoted, made her happy by taking her off and +talking to her kindly, apart. "She has the true Taylor eyes. So +profound! And yet so dove-like!" Here the head of Achilles Larue +appeared at the open door, and Lilian abandoned the Taylor eyes to +whisper quickly, "Oh, Maud Muriel, do cover that dreadful thing up!"</p> + +<p>"Cover it up? Why—it is what he has come to see," answered the intrepid +Maud.<a name="page_357" id="page_357"></a></p> + +<p>The ex-senator inspected the torso. "Most praise-worthy, Miss +Mackintosh. And, in execution, quite—quite fairish. Though you have +perhaps exaggerated the anatomical effect—the salient appearance of the +bones?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all. They are an exact reproduction from life," answered Maud, +with dignity.</p> + +<p>Lilian Kip, still apprehensive as to the influence of the torso upon a +young mind, sent her daughter home to play "battledoor and shuttlecock, +dear" (Evangeline played "battledoor and shuttlecock, dear," every +afternoon for an hour with her governess, to acquire "grace of +carriage"); Larue was now talking to Ruth, and Lilian, after some +hesitation, walked across the barn and seated herself on a bench at its +far end (the only seat in that resolute place); from this point she +gazed and gazed at Larue. He was as correct as ever—from his straight +nose to his finger-tips; from his smooth, short hair, parted in the +middle, to his long, slender foot with its high in-step. Dolly, tired of +standing, came after a while and sat down on the bench beside the widow. +They heard Achilles say, "No; I decided not to go." Then, a few minutes +later, came another "No; I decided not to do that."</p> + +<p>"All his decisions are <i>not</i> to do things," commented Dolly, in an +undertone. "When he dies, it can be put on his tombstone: 'He was a verb +in the passive voice, conjugated negatively.' Why, what's the matter, +Lilian?"<a name="page_358" id="page_358"></a></p> + +<p>"It's nothing—I am only a little agitated. I will tell you about it +some time," answered Mrs. Kip, squeezing Dolly's hand. Ruth, tired of +the senator, looked across at Dolly. Dolly joined her, and they took +leave.</p> + +<p>Maud Muriel followed them to the door. "I <i>should</i> like to do your head, +Ruth."</p> + +<p>"No; you are to do Mr. Chase's," Dolly called back from the phaeton. +"She has been in love with your husband from the first," she went on to +her sister, as she turned her pony's head towards the Swannanoa. And +then Ruth laughed a third time.</p> + +<p>But though Dolly thus made sport, in her heart there was a pang. She +knew—no one better—that her sister's face had changed greatly during +the past three months. Now that his wife was well again, Chase himself +noticed nothing. And to the little circle of North Carolina friends Ruth +was dear; they were very slow to observe anything that was unfavorable +to those they cared for. To-day, however, Maud Muriel's unerring scent +for ugliness had put her (though unconsciously) upon the track, and, for +the first time in all their acquaintance, she had asked Ruth to sit to +her. It was but a scent as yet; Ruth was still lovely. But the elder +sister could see, as in a vision, that with several years more, under +the blight of hidden suffering, her beauty might disappear entirely; her +divine blue eyes alone could not save her if her color should fade, if +the sweet expression of her mouth should alter to confirmed +unhappiness,<a name="page_359" id="page_359"></a> if her face should grow so thin that its irregular +outlines would become apparent.</p> + +<p>Two hours later there was a tap at Miss Billy Breeze's door, at the Old +North Hotel.</p> + +<p>"Come in," said Miss Billy. "Oh, is it you, Lilian? I am glad to see +you. I haven't been out this afternoon, as it seemed a little coolish!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kip looked excited. "Coolish, Billy?" she repeated, standing still +in the centre of the room. "Ish? <i>Ish?</i> And I, too, have said it; I +don't pretend to deny it. But it is over at last, and I am free! I have +been—been different for some time. But I did not know <i>how</i> different +until this very afternoon. I met him at Maud Muriel's barn, soon after +two. And I sat there, and looked at him and <i>looked</i> at him. And +suddenly it came across me that <i>perhaps</i> after all I didn't care +<i>quite</i> so much for him. I was so nervous that I could scarcely speak, +but I did manage to ask him to take a little stroll with me. For you see +I wanted to be perfectly <i>sure</i>. And as he walked along beside me, +putting down his feet in that precise sort of way he does, and every now +and then saying 'ish'—like a great light in the dark, like a falling +off of <i>chains</i>, I knew that it was at last at an end—that he had +ceased to be all the world to me. And it was such an <i>enormous</i> relief +that when I came back, if there had been a circus or a menagerie in +town, I give you my word I should certainly have gone to it—as a +celebration! And then, Billy, I thought of <i>you</i>. And I made up my mind +that I<a name="page_360" id="page_360"></a> would come right straight over here and ask you—<i>Is</i> he worth +it? What has Achilles Larue ever done for either of us, Billy, but just +snub, snub, snub? and crush, crush, crush? If you could only feel what a +joy it is to have that tiresome old ache gone! And to just <i>know</i> that +he is hateful!" And Lilian, much agitated, took Billy's hand in hers.</p> + +<p>But Billy, dim and pale, drew herself away. "You do him great injustice, +Lilian. But he has never expected the ordinary mind to comprehend him. +Your intentions, of course, are good, and I am obliged to you for them. +But I am not like you; to me it is a pleasure, and always will be, as +well as a constant education, to go on admiring the greatest man I have +ever known!"</p> + +<p>"Whether he looks at you or not?" demanded Lilian.</p> + +<p>"Whether he looks at me or not," answered Billy, firmly.</p> + +<p>"If you had ever been <i>married</i>, Wilhelmina, you would know that you +could not go on forever living on <i>shadows</i>!" declared the widow as she +took leave. "Shadows may be all very well. But we are human, after all, +and we need <i>realities</i>." Having decided upon a new reality, her step +was so joyous that Horace Chase, coming home from his long ride to +Crumb's, hardly recognized her, as he passed her in the twilight. At +L'Hommedieu he found no one in the sitting-room but Dolly. "Ruth is +resting after our drive," explained the elder sister. "I took her<a name="page_361" id="page_361"></a> first +to the barn to see Maud Muriel's torso, and that made her laugh +tremendously. Well, is The Lodge in order?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's all right; Nick's friends can come along as soon as they +like," Chase answered.</p> + +<p>"And are none of the Willoughbys to be there this summer?" Dolly went +on.</p> + +<p>"No; Nick has gone to Carlsbad—he isn't well. And Richard is off +yachting. Walter has taken a cottage at Newport."</p> + +<p>Dolly already knew this latter fact. But she wished to hear it again.</p> + +<p>Rinda now appeared, ushering in Malachi Hill. The young clergyman was so +unusually erect that he seemed tall; his face was flushed, and his eyes +had a triumphant expression. He looked first at Dolly, then at Chase. +"I've done it!" he announced, dashing his clerical hat down upon the +sofa. "That Miss Mackintosh has called me 'Manikin' once too often. She +did it again just now—in the alley behind your house. And I up and +kissed her!"</p> + +<p>"You didn't," said Chase, breaking into a roaring laugh.</p> + +<p>"Yes; I did. For three whole years and more, Mr. Chase, that woman has +treated me with perfectly outrageous contempt. She has seemed to think +that I was nothing at all, that I wasn't a man; she has walked on me, +stamped on me, shoved me right and left, and even kicked me, as it were. +I have felt that I couldn't stand it <i>much</i> longer. And I have tried<a name="page_362" id="page_362"></a> to +think of a way to take her down. Suddenly, just now, it came to me that +nothing on earth would take her down quite so much as that. And so when +she came out with her accustomed epithet, I just gave her a hurl, and +did it! It is true I'm a clergyman, and I have acted as though I had +kept on being only an insurance agent. But a man is a man after all, in +spite of the cloth," concluded Malachi, belligerently.</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't apologize," said Dolly. "It's too delicious!" And then she +and Horace Chase, for once of the same mind, laughed until they were +exhausted.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the sculptress had appeared in Miss Billy's sitting-room. She +came in without knocking, her footfall much more quiet than usual. +"Wilhelmina, how old are you?" she demanded, after she had carefully +closed the door.</p> + +<p>"Why—you know. I am thirty-nine," Billy answered, putting down with +tender touch the book she was reading (<i>The Blue Ridge in the Glacial +Period</i>).</p> + +<p>"And I am forty," pursued Maud, meditatively. "It is never too late to +add to one's knowledge, Wilhelmina, if the knowledge is accurate; that +is, if it is observed from life. And I have stopped in for a moment, on +my way home, to mention something which <i>is</i> so observed. You know all +the talk and fuss there is in poetry, Wilhelmina, about kisses (I mean +when given by a man)? I am now in a position to<a name="page_363" id="page_363"></a> tell you, from actual +experience, what they amount to." She came nearer, and lowered her +voice. "They are <i>very far indeed</i> from being what is described. There +is nothing in them. Nothing whatever!"<a name="page_364" id="page_364"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<p>H<small>ORACE</small> C<small>HASE</small> spent the whole summer at L'Hommedieu, without any journeys +or absences. His wife rode with him several times a week; she drove out +with Dolly in the phaeton; she led her usual life. Usual, that is, to a +certain extent; for, personally, she was listless, and the change in her +looks was growing so much more marked that at last every one, save her +husband, noticed it. When September came, Chase went to New York on +business. He was absent two weeks. When he returned he found his wife +lying on the sofa. She left the sofa for a chair when he came in; but, +after the first day, she no longer made this effort; she remained on the +couch, hour after hour, with her eyes closed. Once or twice, when her +husband urged it, she rode out with him. But her figure drooped so, as +she sat in the saddle, that he did not ask her to go again. He began to +feel vaguely uneasy. She seemed well; but her silence and her pallor +troubled him. As she herself was impenetrable—sweet, gentle, and +dumb—he was finally driven to speak to Dolly.</p> + +<p>"You say she seems well," Dolly answered. "But that is just the trouble; +she seems so, but she is not. What she needs, in my opinion, is a +complete<a name="page_365" id="page_365"></a> change—a change of scene and air and associations of all +kinds. Take her abroad for five or six years, and arrange your own +affairs so that you can stay there with her."</p> + +<p>"Five or six years? That's a large order; that's <i>living</i> over there," +Chase said, surprised.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Dolly, "that is what I mean. Live there for a while." +Then she made what was to her a supreme sacrifice: "<i>I</i> will stay here. +I won't try to go." This was a bribe. She knew that her brother-in-law +found her constant presence irksome.</p> + +<p>"Of course I wouldn't hesitate if I thought it would set her up," said +Chase. "I'll see what she says about it."</p> + +<p>"If you consult her, that will be the end of the whole thing," answered +Dolly; "you will never go, and neither will she. For she will feel that +you would be sure to dislike it. You ought to arrange it without one +syllable to her, and then <i>do</i> it. And if I were you, I wouldn't +postpone it too long."</p> + +<p>"What do you talk that way for?" said Chase, angrily. "You have no right +to keep anything from me if you <i>know</i> anything. What do you think's the +matter with her, that you take that tone?"</p> + +<p>"I think she is dying," Dolly answered, stolidly. "Slowly, of course; it +might require three or four years more at the present rate of progress. +If nothing is done to stop it, by next year it would be called nervous +prostration, perhaps. And then, the year after, consumption."<a name="page_366" id="page_366"></a></p> + +<p>Chase sprang up. "How dare you sit there and talk to me of her dying?" +he exclaimed, hotly. "What the hell do you mean?"</p> + +<p>Dolly preserved her composure unbroken. "She has never been very strong. +Nobody can know with absolute accuracy, Mr. Chase; but at least I am +telling you exactly what I think."</p> + +<p>"I'll take her abroad at once. I'll live over there forever if it will +do any good," Chase answered, turning to go out in order to hide his +emotion.</p> + +<p>"Remember, if you tell her about it beforehand, she will refuse to go," +Dolly called after him.</p> + +<p>Always prompt, that same afternoon Chase started northward. He was on +his way to New York, with the intention of arranging his affairs so that +he could leave them for several years. It would be a heavy piece of +work. But work never daunted him. The very first moment that it was +possible he intended to return to L'Hommedieu, take his wife, and go +abroad by the next steamer, allowing her not one hour for demur. In the +meanwhile, she was to know nothing of the project; it was to take her by +surprise, according to Dolly's idea.</p> + +<p>Dolly spent the time of his absence in trying to amuse her sister, or at +least in trying to occupy her and fill the long days. These days, out of +doors, were heavenly in their beauty; the atmosphere of paradise, as we +imagine paradise, was now lent to earth for a time; a fringe of it lay +over the valley of the French Broad. The sunshine was a golden haze; the +hue of<a name="page_367" id="page_367"></a> the mountains was like violet velvet; there was no wind, the air +was perfectly still; in all directions the forest was glowing and +flaming with the indescribably gorgeous tints of the American autumn. +For a time Ruth had seemed a little stronger; she had taken two or three +drives in the phaeton. Then her listlessness came back with double +force. One afternoon Dolly found her lying with her head on her arm +(like a flower half-broken from its stalk, poor Dolly thought). But the +elder sister began bravely, with a laugh. "Well, it's out, Ruth. It is +announced to-day, and everybody knows it. I mean the engagement of +Malachi and the fair Lilian. But somebody ought really to speak to them, +it is a public matter; it ought to be in the hands of a Society for the +Prevention of Cruelty to the Future. Think of her profile, and then of +his, and imagine, if you can, a combination of the two let loose upon an +innocent world!"</p> + +<p>Ruth smiled a little, but the smile was faint. She lay for some minutes +longer with closed eyes, and then, wearily, she sat up. "Oh, I am so +tired of this room! I believe I'll go out, after all. Please call +Félicité, and order the phaeton."</p> + +<p>"A drive? That is a good idea, as it is such a divine afternoon," said +Dolly. "I will go with you."</p> + +<p>"Oh no—with your lame arm." (For rheumatism had been bothering Dolly +all day.) "If you are afraid to have me go alone, I can take Félicité."<a name="page_368" id="page_368"></a></p> + +<p>"Very well," said Dolly, who thwarted Ruth now in nothing. "May I sit +here while you dress?"</p> + +<p>"If you like," answered Ruth, her voice dull and languid.</p> + +<p>Dolly pretended to knit, and she made jokes about the approaching +nuptials. "It is to come off during Christmas week, they say. The bishop +is to be here, but he will only pronounce the benediction, for Lilian +prefers to have Mr. Arlington perform the ceremony. You see, she is +accustomed to Mr. Arlington; she usually has him for her marriages, you +know." But in Dolly's heart, as she talked, there were no jokes. For as +Félicité dressed Ruth, the elder sister could not help seeing how wasted +was the slender figure. And when the skilful hand of the Frenchwoman +brushed and braided the thick hair, the hollows at the temples were +conspicuous. Félicité, making no remark about it, shaded these hollows +with little waving locks. But Ruth, putting up her hands impatiently, +pushed the locks all back.</p> + +<p>When she returned from her drive two hours later, the sun was setting. +She entered the parlor with rapid step, her arms full of branches of +bright leaves which she had gathered. Their tints were less bright than +her cheeks, and her eyes had a radiance that was startling.</p> + +<p>Dolly looked at her, alarmed, though (faithful to her rule) she made no +comment. "Can it be fever?" she thought. But this was not fever.</p> + +<p>Ruth decorated the room with her branches. She<a name="page_369" id="page_369"></a> said nothing of +importance, only a vague word or two about the sunshine, and the beauty +of the brilliant forest; but she hummed to herself, and finally broke +into a song, as with the same rapid step she went upstairs to her room.</p> + +<p>A few moments later Miss Billy Breeze was shown in. "I couldn't help +stopping for a moment, Dolly, because I am so perfectly delighted to see +that dear Ruth is <i>so</i> much better; she passed me a little while ago in +her phaeton, looking really brilliant! Her old self again. After all, +the mountain air <i>has</i> done her good. I was so glad that (I don't mind +telling you)—I went right home and knelt down and thanked God," said +the good little woman, with the tears welling up in her pretty eyes.</p> + +<p>Miss Billy stayed nearly half an hour. Just before she went away she +said (after twenty minutes of excited talk about Lilian and Malachi), +"Oh, I saw Mr. Willoughby in the street this afternoon; he had ridden up +from The Lodge, so Mr. Bebb told me. I didn't know he was staying +there?"</p> + +<p>"Why, has he come back from Carlsbad?" asked Dolly, surprised.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't mean Mr. Nicholas Willoughby," answered Billy, "I mean +Walter; the nephew, you know. The one who was groomsman at Ruth's +wedding."<a name="page_370" id="page_370"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<p>R<small>UTH</small> had seen Walter. It was this which had given her that new life. +Tired of Félicité's "flapping way of driving," as she called it, she had +left the phaeton for a few moments, and was sitting by herself in the +forest, with her elbow on her knee and her chin resting on the palm of +her hand; her eyes, vaguely fixed on a red bush near by, had an +indescribably weary expression. Her figure was out of sight from the +place where the phaeton and the maid were waiting; her face was turned +in the other direction. In this direction there was at some distance a +second road, and along this track she saw presently a man approaching on +horseback. Suddenly she recognized him. It was Walter Willoughby. He +slackened his speed for a moment to say a word or two to a farmer who +was on his way to Asheville with a load of wood; then, touching his +horse with his whip, he rode on at a brisk pace, and in a moment more +was out of sight.</p> + +<p>Ruth had started to her feet. But the distance was too great for her to +call to him. Straight as the flight of an arrow she ran towards the +wagon, which was pursuing its way, the horses walking slowly, the wheels +giving out a regular "scrunch, scrunch."<a name="page_371" id="page_371"></a></p> + +<p>"The gentleman who spoke to you just now—do you know where he is +staying?"</p> + +<p>"Down to Crumb's; leastways that new house they've built on the mountain +'bove there. He 'lowed I might bring him down some peaches! But +<i>peaches</i> is out long ago," replied the man. Ruth returned home. She +went through the evening in a dream, listening to Dolly's remarks +without much answer; then, earlier than usual, she sought her own room. +She fell asleep instantly, and her sleep was so profound that Dolly, who +stole softly to the door at midnight and again at one o'clock, to see if +all was well, went back to her room greatly cheered. For this was the +best night's rest which Ruth had had for months. The elder sister, +relieved and comforted, soon sank into slumber herself.</p> + +<p>Ruth's tranquil rest came simply from freedom, from the end of the long +struggle which had been consuming her strength and her life. The sudden +vision of the man she loved, his actual presence before her, had broken +down her last barrier; it had given way silently, as a dam against which +deep water has long pressed yields sometimes without a sound when the +flood rises but one inch higher. She slept because she was going to him, +and she knew that she was going.</p> + +<p>She had been vaguely aware that she could not see Walter again with any +security. It was this which had made her take refuge in her mother's old +home in the mountains, far away from him and from<a name="page_372" id="page_372"></a> all chance of meeting +him. She could not trust herself, but she could flee. And she had fled. +This, however, was the limit of her force; her will had not the power to +sustain her, to keep her from lassitude and despair; and thus she had +drooped and faded until to her sister had come that terrible fear that +the end would really be death. When Walter appeared, she was powerless +to resist further, she went to him as the needle turns to the pole. Her +love led her like a despot, and it was sweet to her to be thus led. Her +action was utterly uncalculating; the loss of her home was as nothing to +her; the loss of her good-repute, nothing; her husband, her sister, the +whole world—all were alike forgotten. She had but one thought, one +idea—to go to him.</p> + +<p>She woke an hour before dawn; it was the time she had fixed upon. She +left her bed and dressed herself, using the brilliant moonlight as her +candle; with soft, quick steps she stole down the stairs to the kitchen, +and taking a key which was hanging from a nail by the fireplace, she let +herself out. The big watch-dog, Turk, came to meet her, wagging his +tail. She went to the stable, unlocked the door, and leaving it open for +the sake of the light, she saddled Kentucky Belle. Then she led the +gentle creature down the garden to a gate at its end which opened upon +the back street. Closing this gate behind her so that Turk should not +follow, she mounted and rode away.</p> + +<p>The village was absolutely silent; each moonlit street seemed more still +than the last. When the outskirts<a name="page_373" id="page_373"></a> were left behind, she turned her +horse towards the high bridle-path, whose general course was the same as +that of the road along the river below, the road which led to the Warm +Springs, passing on its way the farm of David Crumb.</p> + +<p>As she did these things, one after the other, she neither thought nor +reasoned; her action was instinctive. And the ride was a revel of joy; +her cheeks were flushed with rose, her eyes were brilliant, her pulses +were beating with a force and health which they had not known for +months; she sang to herself little snatches of songs, vaguely, but +gayly.</p> + +<p>The dawn grew golden, the sun came up. The air was perfectly still and +softly hazy. Every now and then a red leaf floated gently down from its +branch to the ground; the footfalls of Kentucky Belle were muffled in +these fallen leaves.</p> + +<p>The bridle-path, winding along the flanks of the mountain, was longer +than the straighter road below. It was eight o'clock before it brought +her in sight of Crumb's. "I must leave Kentucky Belle in good hands," +she thought. A steep track led down to the farm. The mare followed it +cautiously, and brought her to Portia's door. "Can your husband take +care of my horse for an hour or two?" she asked, smiling, as Portia came +out. "Is he at home?"</p> + +<p>"He's at home. But he ain't workin' to-day," Mrs. Crumb replied; "he's +ailin' a little. But <i>I'll</i> see to yer mare."</p> + +<p>Ruth dismounted; patting Kentucky Belle, she put<a name="page_374" id="page_374"></a> her cheek for a moment +against the beautiful creature's head. "Good-bye," she whispered. "I am +going for a walk," she said to Portia.</p> + +<p>"Take a snack of sump'n' nerrer to eat first?" Portia suggested.</p> + +<p>But Ruth shook her head; she was already off. She went down the river +road as though she intended to take her walk in that direction. But as +soon as the bend concealed her from Portia's view she turned into the +forest. The only footpath to the terrace, "Ruth's Terrace," where +Nicholas Willoughby had built his cottage, was the one which led up from +Crumb's; Ruth's idea was that she should soon reach this track. But +somehow she missed it; she gave up the search, and, turning, went +straight up the mountain. This slope also was covered with the fallen +leaves, a carpet of red and gold. She climbed lightly, joyously, pulling +herself up the steepest places by the trunks of the smaller trees. Her +color brightened. Taking some of the leaves, she twisted their stalks +round the buttons of her habit so as to make a red-and-gold trimming.</p> + +<p>When she reached the summit she knew where she was, for she could now +see the cliffs on the other side of the French Broad. They told her that +she had gone too far to the left; and, turning, this time in the right +direction, she made her way through the forest along the plateau, +keeping close to its verge as a guide. As the chimneys of the Lodge came +into view, she reminded herself that she wished to see<a name="page_375" id="page_375"></a> Walter +first—Walter himself, and not the servants. She had already paid +several visits to The Lodge; she knew the place well. A good +carriage-road led to it through a ravine which opened three miles below +Crumb's; Nicholas Willoughby had constructed this new ascent. But he had +not built any fences or walls, and she could therefore approach without +being seen by keeping among the trees. At the side there was a thicket, +which almost touched one end of the veranda; she stole into this +thicket, and noiselessly made her way towards the house. When she +reached the nearest point which she could attain unseen, she paused; her +idea was to wait here until Walter should come out.</p> + +<p>For he would be sure to come before long. The veranda was always the +sitting-room; it commanded that wide view of the mountains far and near +which had caused Nicholas Willoughby, at the cost of much money and +trouble, to perch his cottage just here. The friends to whom he had lent +The Lodge had left it ten days before, as Ruth knew. A man and his wife +were always in charge, but when they were alone the front of the house +was kept closed. To-day the windows were all open, a rising breeze +swayed the curtains to and fro, and there were numerous other signs of +Walter's presence; on the veranda were several easy-chairs and a lounge, +besides a table with books and papers. And wasn't that the hat he had +worn when she saw him talking to the farmer the day before? Yes, it was +the same. "What time can it be?" she<a name="page_376" id="page_376"></a> thought. She had not her watch +with her—the costly diamond-decked toy which Horace Chase had given +her; she had left it with her rings on the toilet-table at L'Hommedieu. +Her wedding-ring was there also. But this was not from any plan about +it; she always took off her rings at night. She had simply forgotten to +put them on.</p> + +<p>After ten minutes of waiting her heart gave a leap—she heard Walter's +voice within the house. "That is a woman answering. He is talking to the +housekeeper," she said to herself.</p> + +<p>But presently there seemed to be three voices. "It is another servant," +she thought. Then, before she had time to recognize that the intonations +were not those of the mountain women (who were the only resource as +servants in this remote spot), Walter Willoughby himself came into view, +pushing aside the curtains of one of the long windows that opened on the +veranda.</p> + +<p>But before Ruth could detach herself from the branches that surrounded +her, he had drawn back again to make room for some one else, and a lady +came out. He followed this lady; he took his seat familiarly upon the +lounge where she had placed herself. It was Marion Barclay, the +handsome, inanimate girl who, with her father and mother, had spent some +weeks at St. Augustine during the preceding winter.</p> + +<p>Marion was no longer inanimate. The fault of her finely chiselled face +had been its coldness; but<a name="page_377" id="page_377"></a> there was no coldness now as Walter +Willoughby took her hand and pressed it to his lips.</p> + +<p>At this moment Mrs. Barclay, Marion's mother, appeared. "Well, Darby and +Joan," she said, smiling, as she established herself in the most +comfortable chair.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Barclay had favored Walter's suit from the first. It was her +husband who had opposed it. Christopher Barclay had, in fact, opposed it +so strongly that at St. Augustine he had dismissed young Willoughby with +a very decided negative. It was while held at bay by this curt refusal +that young Willoughby had entertained himself for a time by a fresh +study of Mrs. Horace Chase.</p> + +<p>This, however, had been but a brief diversion; he had never had the +least intention of giving up Marion, and he had renewed his suit at +Newport as soon as the summer opened. This time he had been more +successful, and finally he had succeeded in winning Christopher Barclay +to the belief that he would know how to manage his daughter's fortune, +as, from the first, he had won Mrs. Barclay to the conviction that he +would know how to manage her daughter's heart. Marion herself meanwhile +had never had the slightest doubt as to either the one or the other. The +engagement was still very new. As Mr. Barclay had investments at +Chattanooga to look after, the little party of four had taken these +beautiful October days for an excursion to Tennessee. Mrs. Barclay had +heard that one of the elder Willoughbys had built a<a name="page_378" id="page_378"></a> cottage "not far +from the Great Smoky Mountains," and as the paradisiacal weather +continued, with the forests all aglow and the sky a mixture of blue and +gold, she suggested that they should go over from Chattanooga and take a +look at it. Walter had therefore arranged it. From the Warm Springs he +himself had ridden on in advance, in order to have the house opened; +this was the moment when he had made his brief visit to Asheville for +the purpose of ordering supplies. The Barclays were to come no farther +eastward than The Lodge; they were to return in a day or two to Warm +Springs, and thence back to Chattanooga. Even if he had known that Ruth +Chase was at L'Hommedieu, Walter would not have been deterred from +pleasing Mrs. Barclay by any thought of her vicinity; but, as it +happened, he supposed that she was in New York. For a recent letter from +Nicholas Willoughby had mentioned that Chase himself was there, and that +he was going abroad with his wife for several years, sailing by the next +Wednesday's Cunarder.</p> + +<p>"Darby and Joan?" Walter had repeated, in answer to Mrs. Barclay's +remark. "That is exactly what I am after, mother. Come, let us settle +the matter now on the spot—the <i>bona fide</i> Darby-and-Joan-ness. When +shall it begin?"</p> + +<p>"'Mother'!" commented Mrs. Barclay, laughing. "You have not lost much in +your life through timidity, Walter; I venture to say that."</p> + +<p><a name="page_379" id="page_379"></a>"Nothing whatever," Walter replied, promptly. "Shall we arrange it for +next month? I have always said I should select November for my wedding, +to see how my wife bears bad weather."</p> + +<p>"No, no. Not quite so soon as that," answered Mrs. Barclay. "But early +in the year perhaps," she went on, consentingly, as she looked at her +daughter's happy blushing face.</p> + +<p>Ruth heard every word; the veranda was not four yards distant; through +the crevices in the foliage she could see them all distinctly.</p> + +<p>She had immediately recognized the Barclays. Anthony Etheridge's speech +about Walter's being in their train came back to her, and other mentions +of their name as well. But this was mechanical merely; what held her, +what transfixed her, was Walter's own countenance. Marion Barclay, Mrs. +Barclay, all the rumors that Etheridge could collect, these would have +been nothing to her if it had not been for that—for Walter's face.</p> + +<p>And Walter was, in truth, very happy. Marion was everything that he +wished his wife to be: she was accomplished and statuesque; to those she +liked she could be charming; her features had the distinction which he +had always been determined that his wife should possess. He was not +marrying her for her fortune, though he was very glad she had that, +also. He was much in love with her, and it was this which Ruth had +perceived—perceived beyond a doubt.</p> + +<p>For ten minutes she stood there motionless, her<a name="page_380" id="page_380"></a> eyes resting upon him. +Then, feeling a death-like chill coming, she had just sense enough, just +life enough left, to move backward noiselessly through the smooth leaves +until she had reached the open forest beyond. As a whole life passes +before the eyes of a drowning man, in the same way she saw as in a +vision her long mistake, and her one idea was to get to some spot where +he could not see her, where he would never find her, before she sank +down. She glanced over her shoulder; yes, the thicket concealed her in +that direction. Then she looked towards the verge; her hurrying steps +took her thither. Sitting down on the edge, she let herself slip over, +holding on by a little sapling. It broke and gave way. And then the +figure in the dark riding-habit, which was still adorned gayly with the +bright leaves, disappeared.<a name="page_381" id="page_381"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<p>D<small>OLLY</small> F<small>RANKLIN</small> woke soon after dawn. A moment later she stole to Ruth's +door and listened. There was no sound within, and, hoping that the +tranquil slumber still continued, the elder sister turned the +door-handle and looked in.</p> + +<p>The window-curtains were drawn widely aside, as Ruth had arranged them +several hours before, in order to let in the moonlight; the clear +sunshine showed that the bed was tenantless, the room empty. Dolly +entered quickly, closing the door behind her. But there was no letter +bearing her name fastened to the pin-cushion or placed conspicuously on +the mantel-piece, as she had feared. The rings, watch, and purse lying +on the toilet-table next attracted her attention; she placed them in a +drawer and locked it, putting the key in her pocket. Then, with her +heart throbbing, she looked to see what clothes had been taken. "The +riding-habit and hat. She has gone to The Lodge! She has found out in +some way that he is staying there. Probably she is on Kentucky Belle."</p> + +<p>After making sure that there were no other betrayals in Ruth's deserted +room, the elder sister returned to her own apartment and rang for her +English<a name="page_382" id="page_382"></a> maid, Diana Pollikett. Diana was not yet up. As soon as +possible she came hurrying in, afraid that Miss Franklin was ill. "Call +Félicité," ordered Dolly. Then when the two returned together, the +sallow Frenchwoman muffled in a pink shawl, Dolly said: "Mrs. Chase has +gone off for an early ride. I dare say that she thought it would be +amusing to take me by surprise." And she laughed. But that there was +anger underneath her laugh was very evident. "Félicité, go down and see +if I am not right," she went on. "I think you will find that her horse +is gone."</p> + +<p>Her acting was so perfect—the feigned mirth, with the deep annoyance +visible beneath it—that the two maids were secretly much entertained; +Mrs. Chase's escapade and her sharp-eyed sister's discomfiture were in +three minutes known to everybody in the house. "Your mademoiselle, she +tr'ry to keep <i>my</i> young madame a <i>leetle</i> too tight," commented +Félicité in confidence to Miss Pollikett.</p> + +<p>Dolly, having set her story going, went through the form of eating her +breakfast. Then, as soon as she could, without seeming to be in too +great haste, she drove off in her own phaeton, playing to the end her +part of suppressed vexation.</p> + +<p>She was on her way to The Lodge. It was a long drive, and the road was +rough; the gait of her old pony was never more than slow; but she had +not dared to take a faster horse, lest the unusual act should excite +surprise. "Oh, Prosper, <i>do</i> go on!"<a name="page_383" id="page_383"></a> she kept saying, pleadingly, to +the pony. But with all her effort it was two o'clock before she reached +Crumb's, Prosper's jog-trot being hardly faster than a walk.</p> + +<p>As the farm-house at last came into sight, she brushed away her tears of +despair and summoned a smile. "My sister is here, or she has been here, +hasn't she?" she said, confidently, to Mrs. Crumb, who, at the sound of +the wheels, had come to the door.</p> + +<p>"Yes, she's been yere. She's gone for a walk," Portia answered. "She +left her mare; but she wouldn't stop to eat anything, though she must +have quit town mortial early."</p> + +<p>"Oh, she had breakfast before she started," lied Dolly, carelessly. "And +I have brought lunch with me; we are to eat it together. But I am very +late in getting here, my fat old pony is so slow! Which way has she +gone?"</p> + +<p>"Straight down the road," replied Portia. "An' when you find her, I +reckon you'd both better be thinkin' of gettin' todes home befo' long. +For the fine weather's about broke; there's a change comin'."</p> + +<p>"Down the road—yes," thought Dolly. "But as soon as she was out of +sight she went straight up the mountain! Oh, if I could only do it too! +It is <i>so</i> much shorter." But as she feared her weak ankle might fail, +all she could do was to drive up by the new road, the road which +Nicholas Willoughby had built through the ravine below. She went on, +therefore;<a name="page_384" id="page_384"></a> there were still three miles to cover before this new road +turned off.</p> + +<p>It was the only well-made carriage-track in the county. First it +followed the ravine, crossing and recrossing the brook at its bottom; +then, leaving the gorge behind, it wound up the remainder of the ascent +in long zigzags like those of the Alpine passes. The breeze, which had +stirred the curtains of The Lodge when Ruth was standing in the thicket, +had now grown into a wind, and clouds were gathering. But Dolly noticed +nothing. Reaching the new road at last, she began the ascent.</p> + +<p>When about a third of the way up, she thought she heard the sound of +wheels coming down. The zigzag next above hers was fringed with trees, +so that she could see nothing, but presently she distinguished the trot +of two horses. Was it Ruth with Walter Willoughby? Were they already +taking flight? Fiercely Dolly turned her phaeton straight across the +road to block the way. "She shall never pass me. I will drag her from +him!" The bend of the zigzag was at some distance; she waited, +motionless, listening to the wheels above as they came nearer and +nearer. Then round the curve into view swept a pair of horses and a +light carriage. The top of the carriage was down; she could see that it +held four persons; on the back seat was a portly man with gray hair, and +with him a comfortable-looking elderly lady; in front was a tall, +fair-haired girl, and by her side—Walter Willoughby.<a name="page_385" id="page_385"></a></p> + +<p>In the first glance Dolly had recognized Walter's companions. And the +radiant face of Marion Barclay, so changed, so happy, told her all. She +drew her pony straight, and, turning out a little so as to make room, +she passed them with a bow, and even with a smile.</p> + +<p>Walter seemed astonished to see her there. But he had time to do no more +than return her salutation, for he was driving at a sharp pace, and the +descent was steep. He looked back. But her pony was going steadily up +the zigzag, and presently turning the bend the phaeton disappeared.</p> + +<p>"This road leads only to The Lodge; I cannot imagine why Miss Franklin +is going there now," he commented. "Or what she is doing here in any +case, so far from L'Hommedieu."</p> + +<p>"L'Hommedieu? What is that? Oh yes, I remember; Anthony Etheridge told +me that the Franklins had a place with that name (Huguenot, isn't it?) +in the North Carolina mountains somewhere," remarked Mrs. Barclay. "What +has become, by-the-way, of the pretty sister who married your uncle's +partner, Horace Chase? She wasn't in Newport this summer. Is she +abroad?"</p> + +<p>"No. But she is going soon," Walter answered. "My last letter from my +uncle mentioned that Chase was in New York, and that he had taken +passage for himself and his wife in the Cunarder of next Wednesday."</p> + +<p>"Dear me! those clouds certainly look threatening,"<a name="page_386" id="page_386"></a> commented Mrs. +Barclay, forgetting the Chases, as a treeless space in front gave her +for a moment a wider view of the sky.</p> + +<p>It was this change in the weather which had altered their plans. +Nicholas Willoughby's mountain perch, though an ideal spot when the sky +was blue, would be dreary enough in a long autumn storm; the Barclays +and their prospective son-in-law were therefore hastening back to the +lowlands.</p> + +<p>Dolly reached the summit. And as the road brought her nearer to The +Lodge, she was assailed by sinister forebodings. The first enormous +relief which had filled her heart as she read the story told by the +carriage, was now darkened by dread of another sort. If Ruth too had +seen Marion, if Ruth too had comprehended all—where was she? From the +untroubled countenances of the descending party, Dolly was certain that +they, at least, had had no glimpse of Ruth; no, not even Walter. Dolly +believed that men were capable of every brutality. But Walter's +expression, when he returned her bow, had not been that of assumed +unconsciousness, or assumed anything; there was no mistaking it—he was +happy and contented; he looked as though he were enjoying the rapid +motion and his own skilful driving, but very decidedly also as though +all the rest of his attention was given to the girl by his side. "He has +not even seen her! And he cares nothing for her; it is all a mistake! +Now let me only find her and get her home, and no one shall <i>ever</i><a name="page_387" id="page_387"></a> +know!" Dolly had said to herself with inexpressible relief. But then had +followed fear: <i>could</i> she find her?</p> + +<p>When the chimneys of The Lodge came into sight she drove her pony into +the woods and tied him to a tree. Then she approached the house +cautiously, going through the forest and searching the carpet of fallen +leaves, trying to discover the imprint of footsteps. "If she came here +(and I <i>know</i> she did), is there any place from which, herself +concealed, she could have had a glimpse of Marion? That thicket, +perhaps? It stretches almost to the veranda." And limping to this copse, +Dolly examined its outer edge closely, inch by inch. She found two +places where there was a track; evidently some one had entered at one of +the points, and penetrated to a certain distance; then had come out in a +straight line, backward. Dolly entered the thicket herself and followed +this track. It brought her to a spot whence she had a clear view of the +veranda. All signs of occupation were already gone; the chairs and +tables had been carried in, the windows had been closed and barred. "If +she stood here and saw them, and then if she moved backward and got +herself out," thought Dolly, "where did she go next?" When freed from +the thicket, she knelt down and looked along the surface of the ground, +her eyes on a level with it; she had seen the negroes find small +articles in that way—a button, or even a pin. After changing her place +two or three times, she thought she discerned a faint indication of +footsteps, and she followed this possible<a name="page_388" id="page_388"></a> trail, keeping at some +distance from it at one side so that it should not be effaced, and every +now and then stooping to get another view of it, horizontally. For the +signs were so slight that it was difficult to see them—nothing but a +few leaves pressed down a little more than the others, here and there. +The trail led her to the edge of the plateau. And here at last was +something more definite—flattened herbage, and a small sapling bent +over the verge and broken, as though some one had borne a weight upon +it. "She let herself slip over the edge," thought Dolly. "She is down +there in the woods somewhere. Oh, how shall I find her!"</p> + +<p>The October afternoon would be drawing to its close before long, and +this evening there would be no twilight, for black clouds were covering +the sky, and the wind was beginning to sway the boughs of the trees +above. In spite of her lameness, Dolly let herself down over the edge. +There was no time to lose; she must find her sister before dark.</p> + +<p>The slope below was steep; she tried to check her sliding descent, but +she did not succeed in stopping herself until her clothes had been torn +and her body a good deal bruised. When at last her slide was arrested, +she began to search the ground for a second trail. But if there had been +one, the leaves obscured it; not only were they coming down in showers +from above, but the wind every now and then scooped up armfuls of those +already fallen, and whirled them round and round in eddying spirals.<a name="page_389" id="page_389"></a> +Keeping the peeled sapling above her as her guide, Dolly began to +descend, going first to the right for several yards, then to the left, +and pausing at the end of each zigzag to examine the forest beyond. With +her crippled ankle her progress was slow. She lost sight, after a while, +of the sapling. But as she had what is called the sense of locality, she +was still able to keep pretty near the imaginary line which she was +trying to follow. For her theory was that Ruth had gone straight down; +that, once out of sight from that house, she had let herself go. Light +though she was on her feet, she must have ended by falling, and then, if +there was a second ledge below—"But I won't think of that!" Dolly said +to herself, desperately.</p> + +<p>She was now so far from the house that she knew she could not be heard. +She therefore began to call "Ruth! Ruth!" But there was no reply. "I +will count, and every time I reach a hundred I will call. Oh why, just +this one day, should it grow dark so early, after weeks of the clearest +twilight?" Drops began to fall, and finally the rain came down in +torrents. She crouched beside a large tree, using its trunk as a +protection as much as she could. Her hat and jacket were soon wet +through, but she did not think of herself, she thought only of +Ruth—Ruth, who had been fading for months—Ruth, out in this storm. +"But I'll find her and take her back. And no one shall ever know," +thought the elder sister, determinedly.<a name="page_390" id="page_390"></a></p> + +<p>After what seemed a long time the rain grew less dense. The instant she +could see her way Dolly resumed her search. The ground was now wet, and +her skirts were soon stained as she moved haltingly back and forth, +holding on by the trees. "Ruth! Ruth?" At the end of half an hour, when +it was quite dark, she came to a hollow lined with bushes. She +hesitated, but her determination to make her search thorough over every +inch of the ground caused her to let herself down into it by sense of +feeling, holding on as well as she could by the bushes.</p> + +<p>And there at the bottom was the body of her sister.</p> + +<p>"O God, <i>don't</i> let her be dead!" she cried, aloud. Drying the palm of +her hand, she unbuttoned the soaked riding-habit and felt for the heart. +At first there seemed to be no beating. Then she thought she perceived a +faint throb, but she could not be sure; perhaps it was only her intense +wish transferred to the place. Ruth's hat was gone, her hair and her +cold face were soaked. "If I could only <i>see</i> her! Poor, poor little +girl!" said Dolly, sobbing aloud.</p> + +<p>Presently it began to rain again with great violence; and then Dolly, in +a rage, seated herself on the soaked ground at the bottom of the hollow, +took her sister's lifeless form in her arms, and held it close. "She is +<i>not</i> dead, for she isn't heavy; she is light. If she had been dead I +<i>couldn't</i> have lifted<a name="page_391" id="page_391"></a> her." She dried Ruth's face. She began to chafe +her temples and breast. After half an hour she thought she perceived +more warmth, and her cramped arm redoubled its effort. The rain was +coming down in sheets, but she did not mind it now, for she felt a +breath, a sigh. "Ruth, do you know me? It is Dolly; no one but Dolly."</p> + +<p>Ruth's eyes opened, though Dolly could not see them. Then she said, +"Dolly, he loves some one else." That was all; she did not speak again.</p> + +<p>The storm kept on, and they sat there together, motionless. Ruth's +clothes were so wet that they were like lead. At length the black cloud +from which that especial deluge had come moved away, and fitful +moonlight shone out. Now came the anxious moment: would Ruth be able to +walk?</p> + +<p>At first it seemed as if she could not even rise, her whole body was so +stiff. She was also extremely weak; she had eaten nothing since the +night before, and the new life which had inspired her was utterly gone. +But Dolly, somehow, made herself firm as iron; standing, she lifted her +sister to her feet and held her upright until, little by little, she +regained breath enough to take one or two steps. Then slowly they +climbed from the hollow. With many pauses they went down the mountain; +from this point, fortunately, its slope was not quite so steep. How she +did it Dolly never knew, but the moment came at last when she saw a +lighted window, and made her way towards it. And the final<a name="page_392" id="page_392"></a> moment also +came when she arrived at a door. Her arm was still supporting her pale +young sister, who leaned against her. Ruth had not spoken; she had moved +automatically; her senses were half torpid.</p> + +<p>The lighted window was that of Portia Crumb. Portia had not gone to bed. +But she was not sitting up on their account; she supposed that they had +found shelter at one of several small houses that were scattered along +the river road in the direction which they had taken. She was sitting up +in order to minister to her "Dave." David Crumb's fits of drunkenness +generally lasted through two days. When he came to himself, his first +demand was for coffee, and his wife, who never could resist secretly +sympathizing a little with the relief which her surly husband was able +to obtain for a time from the grief which gnawed incessantly at her own +poor heart—his wife always remained within call to give him whatever he +needed. And, oddly enough, these vigils had become almost precious to +Portia. For occasionally at these moments David of his own accord would +talk of his lost boys—the only times he ever mentioned them or +permitted his wife to do so. And now and then he would allow her to read +her Bible to him, and even to sing a hymn perhaps, to which he would +contribute in snatches a growling repentant bass.</p> + +<p>Portia's coffee-pot now stood on the hot coals of her kitchen fireplace; +she had been occupying the<a name="page_393" id="page_393"></a> time in spinning, and in chanting softly to +herself, as the rain poured down outside:</p> + +<p class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/ill_pg_393_lg.png"> +<img src="images/ill_pg_393.png" width="550" height="246" alt="musical notation: +Je -ru -sa-lem, my hap-py home, Name ev-er de-ar tu +me, When shell my la-ber-rs hev an end? Thy +joys when shell I see ? Thy-y joys when shell-el I see?" title="musical notation: +Je -ru -sa-lem, my hap-py home, Name ev-er de-ar tu +me, When shell my la-ber-rs hev an end? Thy +joys when shell I see ? Thy-y joys when shell-el I see?" /></a> +</p> + +<p>Then, hearing some one at the outer door, she had come to open it.</p> + +<p>"Good Lors! Miss Dolly! Here!—lemme help you! Bring her right into the +kitchen, an' put her down on the mat clost to the fire till I get her +wet close off!"<a name="page_394" id="page_394"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + +<p>H<small>ORACE</small> C<small>HASE</small>, having by hard work arranged his far-stretching affairs so +that he could leave them, reached L'Hommedieu late in the evening of the +day of Ruth's flight. He had not telegraphed that he was coming; his +plan was to have his wife well on her way to New York and the Liverpool +steamer almost before she knew it. She had always been fond of the +unexpected; this fondness would perhaps serve him now. When he reached +the old house, to which his money had given a new freshness, there was +no one to meet him but Dolly's Diana. Diana, in her moderate, unexcited +way, began to tell him what had happened. But she was soon re-enforced +by Félicité, whose ideas (regarding the same events) were far more +theoretic.</p> + +<p>"Miss Franklin had a lunch prepared, and took it with her," Diana went +on.</p> + +<p>"Eet ended in a peekneek," interrupted Félicité. "The leaf was so red, +and the time so beautiful, monsieur; no clouds, and the sky of a blue! +Then suddenlee the rain ees come. No doubt they have entered in a house +to wait till morning."</p> + +<p>"Which road did my wife take?" inquired Chase, his tone anxious.<a name="page_395" id="page_395"></a></p> + +<p>"Ah, monsieur, no one <i>see</i> herr, she go so early. Eet was herr joke—to +escape a leetle from herr sistare, if eet is permit to say eet; pardon."</p> + +<p>"Which way, then, did Miss Franklin go?" continued Chase, impatiently.</p> + +<p>Both women pointed towards the left. "She went <i>down</i> the street. <i>That</i> +way."</p> + +<p>"Down the street? That's no good. What I want to know is which road she +took after leaving town?"</p> + +<p>But naturally neither Félicité nor Miss Pollikett could answer this +question; they had not followed the phaeton.</p> + +<p>Chase rang the bell, and sent for one of the stablemen. "Let Pompey and +Zip go and ask at all the last houses (where the three roads that can be +reached from the end of this street turn off) whether any one noticed +Miss Franklin drive past this morning? They all know her pony and trap. +Tell Pompey to step lively, and if the people have gone to bed, he must +knock 'em up."</p> + +<p>The two negroes returned in less than fifteen minutes; they had found +the trace without trouble: Miss Franklin had taken the river road +towards Warm Springs.</p> + +<p>"Saddle my horse," said Chase; "and you, Jeff, as soon as I have +started, put the pair in the light carriage and drive down to Crumb's. +Have the lamps in good order and burning brightly, and see that the +curtains are buttoned down so as to keep<a name="page_396" id="page_396"></a> the inside dry. Felicity, put +in shawls and whatever's necessary; the ladies are no doubt under cover +somewhere; but they may have got wet before reaching it. Perhaps one of +you had better go along?" he added, looking at the two women +reflectively, as if deciding which one would be best.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir; I can be ready in a moment," said Diana, going out.</p> + +<p>"Ah! for <i>two</i> there is not enough place," murmured Félicité, relieved.</p> + +<p>Chase ate a few mouthfuls of something while his horse was being +saddled; then, less than half an hour after his arrival, he was off +again. It was very dark, but he did not slacken his speed for that, nor +for the rough, stony ascents and descents, nor for the places where the +now swollen river had overflowed the track. The distance which Dolly's +slow old pony had taken five hours to traverse, this hard rider covered +in less than half the time. At one o'clock he reached Crumb's. It was +the first house in that direction after the village and its outskirts +had been left behind. Along the mile or two beyond it, farther towards +the west, were three smaller houses, and at one of the four he hoped to +find his wife. As he drew near Crumb's, he saw that the windows were +lighted. "They're here!" he said to himself, with a long breath of +relief. As he rode up to the porch, Portia, who had heard his horse's +footsteps, looked out.</p> + +<p>"They're here?" he asked.<a name="page_397" id="page_397"></a></p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Portia, "they be."</p> + +<p>"And all right?"</p> + +<p>"I reckon so, by this time. Mis' Chase, she was pretty well beat when +she first come; but she's asleep now, an' restin' well. And Miss Dolly, +she's asleep too."</p> + +<p>Chase dismounted. "Can my horse be put up? Just call some one, will +you?"</p> + +<p>"Well, Isrul Porter, who works here, has gone home," answered Mrs. +Crumb. "Arter Mis' Chase and Miss Dolly got yere, I sent Isrul arter +their pony, what they'd lef' in the woods more'n two miles off, an' he +'lowed, Isrul did, that he'd take him home with him for the night when +he found him, bekase the Porters's house is nearer than our'n to the +place where he was lef'. An' Dave, he ain't workin' ter-day; he's ailin' +a little. But <i>I</i> kin see to yer hoss."</p> + +<p>"Show a light and I'll do it myself," Chase answered, amused at the idea +of his leaving such work to a woman.</p> + +<p>Portia returned to the kitchen, and came back with a burning brand of +pitch-pine, which gave out a bright flare. Carrying this as a torch, she +led the way to the stable, Chase following with the horse. "Your mare, +she's in yere erready," said the farmer's wife, pointing to Kentucky +Belle.</p> + +<p>Then, as they went back to the house by the light of the flaring brand, +she asked whether she should go up and wake Ruth.<a name="page_398" id="page_398"></a></p> + +<p>"Yes, and I'll go along; which room is it? Hold on, though; are you sure +my wife's asleep?"</p> + +<p>"When I went up the minute before you come, she was, an' Miss Dolly +too."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, I guess I won't disturb 'em just yet," said Chase, and he +went with Portia to her kitchen, where she brought forward her +rocking-chair for his use. "What time did they get here?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>Portia, seating herself on a three-legged stool, told what she knew. As +she was finishing her story there came a growl from the dark end of the +long room, the end where the loom stood. "It's only Dave wakin' up," she +explained, and she hastened towards her husband. But as she did so he +roared "Coffee!" in impatient tones, and, hurrying back, she knelt down +and blew up the fire. "I'm comin', Dave; it's all ready," she called. +Then as she continued to work the bellows quickly she went on in a low +voice to Chase: "He'll stay awake now fer an hour or two. An' he'll be +talkin', an' takin' on, p'raps. Mebbe you'd ruther set in the best room +for a whilst? There's a fire; an' the stairs mount right up from there +to the room where yer wife's asleep, so you kin go up whenever you like. +Relse you might lay down yourself, without disturbin' 'em at all till +mawnin'. There's a good bed in the best room; none better."</p> + +<p>"Coffee!" demanded the farmer a second time, and Portia quickly took the +cup, which stood waiting with sugar and cream already in it, and lifting +her pot<a name="page_399" id="page_399"></a> from the coals, poured out the odorous beverage, the strong +coffee of Rio. Though she had an intense desire to be left alone with +"Dave," now that his precious waking-time had come, her inborn sense of +hospitality would never have permitted her to suggest that her guest +should leave her, if she had not believed with all her heart that her +best room was really a bower of beauty; she even had the feeling that +she ought to urge it a little, lest he should be unwilling to "use it +common." Chase, perceiving that she wished him to go, went softly out, +and, entering the bower, closed the door behind him. The fire was low. +He put on some pitch-pine splinters, and added wood; for, in spite of +his water-proof coat (which was now hanging before the fireplace in the +kitchen), his clothes were damp. He lifted the logs carefully, so as not +to waken the sleepers above; then he sat down and stretched out his legs +to the blaze. In spite of Portia's assertion that his wife was "all +right," he was very uneasy; he could scarcely keep himself from stealing +up to get a look at her. But sleeplessness had been for so long one of +her troubles that he knew it was far wiser to let her rest as long as +she could. One thought pleased him; it had pleased him since the moment +he heard it: her stealing off for a ride at dawn simply to tease Dolly. +That certainly looked as if she must be much stronger than she had been +when he left her. It was an escapade worthy of the days when she had +been the frolicking Ruth Franklin. On the other hand loomed up the +results<a name="page_400" id="page_400"></a> of this freak of hers, namely, her having been out so long in +the storm. Portia's expression, "pretty well beat when she first +come"—that was not encouraging. Thus he weighed the possibilities, +sitting there with his chair tilted back, his eyes fixed on the reviving +flame. He knew that he could not sleep until he had seen her. Portia's +"best bed," therefore, did not tempt him. In addition, he wished to wait +for the carriage, in order to contrive some sort of shelter for it, and +to assist in putting up the horses, since there was no one else to do +it. After a while, with his hands clasped behind his head, he moved his +chair a little and looked vaguely round the room. Everything was the +same as when he had paid his former visit there during the excursion +which he had made over the Great Smoky Mountains with the Franklins and +poor Jared. The red patch-work quilt was spread smoothly over the bed; +the accordion was on the mantel-piece, flanked by the vase whose design +was a pudgy hand holding a cornucopia; on the wall was the long row of +smirking fashion-plates. This means of entertainment, however, was soon +exhausted, and after a while he took some memoranda from his pocket, +and, bending forward towards the fire, began to look them over.</p> + +<p>He had been thus engaged for nearly half an hour when a door opened +behind him, and Dolly Franklin came in.</p> + +<p>She had no idea that he was there. The bedroom above, whose flight of +steep stairs she had just descended,<a name="page_401" id="page_401"></a> possessed windows only towards the +river; and the second-story floors of the old house were so thick that +no sound from below could penetrate them. She had not therefore heard +Chase ride up on the other side; she had not distinguished any sounds in +the kitchen.</p> + +<p>He jumped up when he saw her. "I'm <i>mighty</i> glad you've come down, +Dolly. I've been afraid to disturb her. Is she awake?"</p> + +<p>Dolly closed the door behind her. "No; she is sleeping soundly. I +wouldn't go up just now if I were you. A good sleep is what she needs +most of all."</p> + +<p>"All right; I'll wait. But how in the world came she to be out so long +in the rain, and you too? That's the part I don't understand."</p> + +<p>Dolly's heart had stood still when she saw her brother-in-law. "I'll sit +here for a while," she suggested, in order to gain time. "Will you +please pull forward that chair—the one in the corner? I had no idea you +were here. I only came down for the pillows from this bed; they are +better than those upstairs." While she was getting out these words her +quick mind had flown back to L'Hommedieu, and to the impression which +she had left behind her there, carefully arranged and left as +explanation of their absence. The explanation had been intended for any +of their friends who might happen to come to the house during the day. +But it would do equally well for Horace Chase, and Félicité<a name="page_402" id="page_402"></a> could be +safely trusted to have repeated it to him within five minutes after his +unexpected arrival! For Félicité was not fond of Miss Dora Franklin. The +idea that her young mistress had gone off for a ride at daylight would +be an immense delight to the Frenchwoman, not for the expedition itself +(such amusements in a country so "sauvage" being beyond her +comprehension), but for the annoyance to mademoiselle—mademoiselle +whose watchfulness over everything that concerned her sister (even her +sister's maid) was so insupportably oppressive. Their start, therefore, +Dolly reflected, both Ruth's at dawn and her own a little later, was +probably in a measure accounted for in Horace Chase's mind. But as +regarded the hours in the rain, what could she invent about that? For +Portia had evidently described Ruth's exhaustion and their wet clothes. +She had seated herself by the fire; arrayed in one of the shapeless +dresses of her hostess, with her hair braided and hanging down her back, +her plain face looked plainer than ever. Worn out though she was, she +had not been asleep even for a moment; she had been sitting by the +bedside watching her sister. Ruth had lain motionless, with her head +thrown back lifelessly, her breathing scarcely perceptible. Whenever +Portia had peeped in (and the farmer's wife had stolen softly up the +stairs three times) Dolly had pretended to be asleep; and she knew that +Portia would think that Ruth also was sleeping. But Ruth was not asleep. +And Dolly's mind was filled<a name="page_403" id="page_403"></a> with apprehension. What would follow this +apathy?</p> + +<p>"As I understand it, Ruthie took a notion to go off for a ride at +daybreak," Horace Chase began, "and then, after breakfast, you followed +her. How did you know which way she went? I suppose you asked. But she +left her mare here as early as half-past eight this morning, the woman +of the house tells me, and you yourself got here at two; what happened +afterwards? How came you to stay out in the rain? Unless you got lost, I +don't see what you were about."</p> + +<p>"We <i>were</i> lost for a while," answered Dolly, who had now arranged her +legend. "But that was afterwards. Our staying out was my fault, or, +rather, my misfortune." She put out her feet and warmed them calmly. +"After I drove on from here, I didn't find Ruth for some time. When at +last I came upon her, we took our lunch together, and then I tied the +pony to a tree and we strolled off through the woods, picking up the +colored leaves. Suddenly I had one of my attacks. And it must have been +a pretty bad one, for it lasted a long time. How long I don't know; but +when I came to myself it was dark. Ruth, of course, couldn't carry me, +poor child. And she wouldn't leave me. So there we stayed in the rain. +And when finally I was able to move, it took us ages to get here, for +not only was I obliged to walk slowly, but it was so dark that we +couldn't find the road. I am all right now. But meanwhile <i>she</i> is +dreadfully used up."<a name="page_404" id="page_404"></a></p> + +<p>Here, from the kitchen, came the sound of Portia's gentle voice:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"When <i>shell</i> these eyes thy heavenly walls</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">An' peerly gates behold?</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Thy buildin's with salvation strong,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">An' streets of shinin' gold?</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">An'-an' streets of shi-i-<i>nin</i>' gold!"</span></td></tr> +</table> +<p>"Crumb has arrived at his religious stage, and his wife is celebrating," +commented Dolly. "He goes through them all in regular succession every +time he is drunk. Obstinacy. Savagery. Lethargy. And then, finally, +Repentance, for he isn't one of those unimportant just persons who need +none."</p> + +<p>Chase glanced at her with inward disfavor; cynicism in a woman was +extremely unpleasant to him. His mental comment, after she had explained +their adventures, had been: "Well, if <i>Dolly</i> had let the whole job +alone, none of this would have happened; Ruth would have had her lark +out and come home all right, and that would have been the end of it. But +Dolly must needs have <i>her</i> finger in the pie, and out she goes. Then of +course she gets sick, and the end is that instead of her seeing to Ruth, +Ruth has to see to her." But he kept these reflections to himself. He +brought forward instead the idea that was important to him: "Isn't it a +pretty good sign she's better, that she <i>wanted</i> to go off for a ride in +that way? It's like the things she used to do when I first knew her. +Don't you remember how she stayed out so long that<a name="page_405" id="page_405"></a> cold, windy night +without her hat, talking with Malachi Hill over the back fence about his +Big Moose masquerade? And how she even went on, bareheaded and in the +dark, half across the village to find Achilles Larue and get him to +come, so that she could tease Miss Billy?" He gave a short laugh over +the remembrance. "I cannot help thinking, Dolly, that she isn't half as +sick as you made out; in fact, I've never thought she was, though I've +more or less fallen in with your idea of giving her a change. I <i>had</i> +made arrangements to start for New York to-morrow morning, so as to hit +the Cunarder of Wednesday. But, as things have turned out, I don't know +that we need pull up stakes so completely, after all. She's evidently +better."</p> + +<p>For one instant Dolly thought. Then she spoke: "No, carry out your plan. +Take her away to-morrow morning just as you intended. Even if she <i>is</i> +somewhat stronger (though I think you'll find that she isn't), she needs +a change." She said this decidedly. But the decision was for her own +sake; it was an effort to make herself believe, by the sound of the +spoken words, that this course would still be possible. "It <i>shall</i> be +possible," she resolved in her own mind.</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess I won't decide till I see her," Chase answered. "Perhaps +she's awake by this time?"</p> + +<p>Dolly got up quickly. "I will go and see; my step is lighter than yours. +If I do not come back, that will mean that she is still asleep, and that +I think<a name="page_406" id="page_406"></a> it best not to disturb her. The moment she does wake, however, +I will come and call you. Will that do?"</p> + +<p>"All right," said Chase, briefly, a second time. He did not especially +enjoy the prospect of several years in Europe. But at least it would be +agreeable to have his wife to himself, with no Dolly to meddle and +dictate.</p> + +<p>After she had gone, he sat expectant for nearly fifteen minutes. But she +did not return; Ruth evidently had not wakened. He rose, gave a stretch, +and, going to the window, raised the curtain and looked out. The rain +was pouring down; there was no sign of the carriage; it was so dark that +he could not see even the nearest trees. Dropping the curtain again, he +walked about the room for a while. Then he started to go to the kitchen, +to see how his wet coat was coming on; but remembering Portia's vigil +(which nothing could have induced him to break in upon, now that he +understood its nature), he stopped. He looked at all the simpering +ladies of the fashion-plates, ladies whose bodies were formed on the +model which seems to be peculiar to such publications, and to exist only +for them; he lifted the vase and inspected it a third time; he even +tried the accordion softly. Finally he sat down by the fire, and, taking +out his memoranda again, he went back to business calculations.</p> + +<p>Dolly had gone swiftly up the stairs and along the entry which led to +the bedroom. Ruth was lying just as she had left her, with her eyes +shut, her head<a name="page_407" id="page_407"></a> thrown back. Dolly closed the door and locked it; then +she came and leaned over her.</p> + +<p>"Ruth, do you hear me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Ruth, mechanically.</p> + +<p>Dolly sat down by the side of the bed and drew her sister towards her.</p> + +<p>"I have something to tell you," she whispered. "Your husband is +down-stairs."</p> + +<p>Ruth did not start. After a moment she opened her eyes and turned them +slowly towards her sister.</p> + +<p>"He came home unexpectedly," Dolly went on, in the same low tone. "He +reached L'Hommedieu this evening, and when they told him that we had not +returned he had inquiries made as to the road we had taken, and came +down here himself on horseback. At L'Hommedieu, Ruth, they think that +you slipped out at dawn for a ride, just to play me a trick, because I +have watched you so closely about your health lately that you were out +of all patience. I let them think this; or, rather, I made them think +it. And they have repeated it to your husband, who accepts it just as +they did. The only thing he could not understand was why we stayed out +so long in the storm, for Portia had evidently told him how late it was +when we came in, and how exhausted you looked. So I have just said that +after I found you we had our lunch together, and then, after tying the +pony to a tree, we strolled through the woods, picking up the colored +leaves. Suddenly one of my attacks came on, and it was a bad attack; I +was unconscious for a<a name="page_408" id="page_408"></a> long time. You wouldn't leave me; and so there we +had to stay in the rain. When at last I could walk I had to come slowly. +And we couldn't find the road for a long while—it was so dark. All this +seems to him perfectly natural, Ruth; he suspects nothing. The only +point he is troubled about is your health—how that will come out after +the exposure. He is sitting by the fire down-stairs waiting for you to +wake, for I told him you were asleep. And here is something supremely +fortunate: his plan is to take you off to New York to-morrow morning, to +hit the Wednesday's Cunard steamer for Liverpool. He has had this idea +for some weeks—the idea of going abroad. That was the reason he went +away—to make ready. He didn't tell you about it, because he thought he +would take you by surprise. And he still hopes to sail on Wednesday, +provided you are well enough, it isn't to be a flying trip this time; he +is willing to stay over there for years if you like. Now, Ruth, listen +to me. You <i>must</i> go. You need make no effort of any kind; just let +yourself slip on from day to day, passively. There is nothing difficult +about that. If there were, I should not ask you to do it, for I know you +could never play a part. But here there is no part; you need do no more +than you always have done. That has never been much, for from the first +the devotion has been on his side, not on yours, and he will expect no +more. Now try to sleep a little, and then at sunrise I will let him come +up. When he comes you needn't talk; you can say<a name="page_409" id="page_409"></a> you are too tired to +talk. He is so uneasy about your health that he will fall in with +anything. Don't think about it any more. The whole thing's settled."</p> + +<p>Suiting her actions to her words, Dolly rearranged the coverlet over her +sister, and then, rising, she began to make a screen before the fire +with two chairs and a blanket, so that its light should not fall across +the bed. While she was thus engaged she heard a sound, and, turning her +head, she saw that Ruth was getting up.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" she said, going to her. "Do you want anything?"</p> + +<p>"Where are my clothes?" Ruth asked. She was sitting on the edge of the +bed, her bare feet resting on the rag mat by its side.</p> + +<p>"Portia is drying them. She left some of her things on that chair for +you. But don't get up now; the night isn't anywhere near over."</p> + +<p>Ruth went to the chair where lay the garments, coarse but clean; she +unbuttoned her night-gown (also one of Portia's). Then her strength +failed, and she sank down on the chair. "Come back to bed," said Dolly, +urgently.</p> + +<p>Ruth let her head rest on the chair-back for a moment or two. Then she +said: "I won't try to dress; I don't feel strong enough. But please get +me some stockings and shoes, and a shawl. That will be enough."</p> + +<p>"Are you tired of the bed? I can make you comfortable in that chair by +the fire, then," Dolly answered.<a name="page_410" id="page_410"></a> "Here are stockings. And shoes, +too—Portia's. But I'm afraid they will drop off!" Kneeling down, she +drew on the stockings, and then Ruth, rising, stepped into the shoes. +Dolly went to spread a blanket over the chair, and while she was thus +engaged Ruth, seeing a homespun dress of Portia's hanging from a peg, +took it and put it on over her night-gown.</p> + +<p>"You need not have done that," commented Dolly; "here is a second +blanket to wrap you up in."</p> + +<p>But Ruth was going towards the door. Dolly hurried after her and caught +her arm. "You are not going down? What for?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," answered Ruth, vaguely. Then, with quickened breath, she +added, "Yes, I <i>do</i> know; I am going to tell—tell what I did." She was +panting a little; Dolly could hear the sound.</p> + +<p>The elder sister held her tightly. But Ruth did not struggle, she stood +passive. "What are you going to tell?" Dolly asked, sternly. "What <i>is</i> +there to tell? You took a ride; you walked in the forest; you stood in a +thicket; you came back. That is all. No one saw you; no one on earth +knows anything more. And there <i>was</i> nothing more, save in thought. Your +thoughts are your own affair, you are not required to tell them; it +would be a strange world indeed if we had to tell all our thoughts! In +your <i>acts</i> as it has turned out, there has been nothing wrong. Leave it +so, then. Let it rest."</p> + +<p>Ruth did not reply. But in her clouded eyes<a name="page_411" id="page_411"></a> Dolly thought she read +refusal. "Ruth, let me judge for you," she pleaded. "Could I possibly +advise you to do anything that was not your best course? Your very best? +If you force an account of your inward feelings upon your husband—who +does not ask for them or want them—you destroy his happiness, you make +him wretched. Don't you care for that? If I have never liked him—and I +may as well confess that I never have—at least I know his devotion to +you. If you tell, therefore, tell so unnecessarily, it will be a great +cruelty. Think of all he did for mother! Of all he did and tried to do +for Jared!"</p> + +<p>Two tears welled up in Ruth's eyes. But she did not speak.</p> + +<p>"And then there is another thing," Dolly went on. "If he knows the +truth, all the good in him will be changed to bitterness. And, besides, +he will be very harsh to you, Ruth; he will be brutal; and he will even +think that it is right that he should be so. For those are the ideas +of—of some people about wives who go wrong." To the woman who had +married Horace Chase Dolly could say no more. But if she had spoken out +all that was in her heart, her phrase would have been, "For those are +the ideas of common people about wives who go wrong." (For to Dolly, +Horace Chase's commonness—or what seemed to her commonness—had always +been the insupportable thing.) But what she was saying now about her +dread of his possible brutality was not in the least a<a name="page_412" id="page_412"></a> fiction invented +to influence Ruth; she had in reality the greatest possible dread of it.</p> + +<p>Ruth, however, seemed either to have no fears at all, or else she was +all fear—fear that had reached the stage of torpor.</p> + +<p>"Think of <i>this</i>, too," urged Dolly, finally. "If you tell, have you the +slightest idea that your husband will be able to keep himself from +breaking off instantly all relations with the Willoughbys—with the +uncles as well as the nephew? And do you want Walter Willoughby to +suspect—as he certainly would suspect—the cause? Do you wish this +young fellow who has merely played with you, who from the beginning has +amused himself at your expense, and, no doubt, laughed at you over and +over again—do you wish him to have a fresh joke at the sight of your +imbittered husband's jealousy? Is he to tell the whole story to Marion +Barclay? And have <i>her</i> laughing also at your hopeless passion for +him?—at the way you have thrown yourself at his head? If you are +silent, not only will your husband be saved from all his wretchedness, +but Walter Willoughby will have no story to tell!"</p> + +<p>For answer, Ruth gave a moan of physical weakness; she did not try to +free herself from her sister's hold; she stood motionless, her figure +drooping, her eyes closed. "Dolly," she murmured, "if you keep on +opposing me—and my strength won't hold out very long—you will end by +preventing it, preventing my telling. But there is something you won't +be<a name="page_413" id="page_413"></a> able to prevent: I am so tired that I want to die! And I shouldn't +be afraid of <i>that</i>; I mean, finding a way."</p> + +<p>Dolly's hands dropped.</p> + +<p>And then Ruth, after a moment more of delay, pushed back the bolt, +passed along the entry, and began to go down the dark stairs. She went +slowly, a step at a time. A step; then a hesitation; then another step. +Finally she reached the bottom, and opened the door.</p> + +<p>Her descent had been noiseless; it was not until her hand touched the +latch that Chase turned his head. When he saw her, he sprang up. "<i>You</i>, +Ruthie!" he exclaimed, delightedly, as she entered, followed, after a +moment, by the frightened, wretched Dolly. "Are you well enough to be +up?" He put his arm round her and kissed her. "Come to the fire."</p> + +<p>But Ruth drew herself away; she moved off to a little distance. "Wait; I +have something to tell you," she answered.</p> + +<p>"At any rate, sit down," Chase responded, bringing the best arm-chair +and placing it before her. He had had a long experience regarding her +changing caprices; he never disputed them.</p> + +<p>But she did not seat herself; she only leaned on the back of the chair, +her hands grasping its top. "I did not take that ride this morning for +the reason you think," she began. "I was going to Walter Willoughby; I +knew he was at The Lodge."<a name="page_414" id="page_414"></a></p> + +<p>"Well, then, I wish you hadn't," replied Chase. He looked annoyed, but +not angry. "Fellows like Walter are conceited enough without that sort +of thing. If you wanted to see him, you could have sent a note, asking +him to come to L'Hommedieu. Or Dolly could have written it for you; that +would have been the best way. But don't stand there; sit down."</p> + +<p>Ruth took a fresh grasp of the chair. "You do not comprehend," she said, +her voice showing how little strength she had. But though she was weak +physically, there was no nervousness; she was perfectly calm. "You do +not comprehend. I was going to him because I loved him, Horace. I have +loved him for a long time. I loved him so that I <i>had</i> to go!"</p> + +<p>As she said this her husband's face changed—changed in a way that was +pitiful to see. He looked stunned, stricken.</p> + +<p>"I did not mean to," Ruth went on. "I did not know what it was at first. +And then—it was too late. I thought he loved me; I was sure of it. And +so—I went to him."</p> + +<p>Dolly, hurrying forward, laid her hand restrainingly on Chase's wrist. +"He didn't see her, no one saw her. And she did no harm, no harm +whatever."</p> + +<p>But Chase shook Dolly off with a motion of his shoulder. Ruth, too, paid +no heed to her sister; she looked straight at her husband, not +defiantly, but drearily; she went on with her tale almost mechanically,<a name="page_415" id="page_415"></a> +and with the same desperate calmness as before. "So I went to him; I +left my horse here, and went up through the woods. But he had Marion +Barclay there; I saw her. And I saw his face, the expression of his +face, as he talked to her; it is Marion he loves!"</p> + +<p>"I could have told you that. At least I could have told you that he has +been trying to get that girl for a long time," said Chase, bitterly. +"But there was nothing in that to hold him back as regards <i>you</i>. And it +hasn't held him back; it hasn't prevented him from—But he shall answer +for this! Answer to <i>me</i>." The rage in his face was deep; his eyes +gleamed; his hands were clinched. Dolly turned cold. "He will <i>kill</i> +Walter," she thought. "Oh, what will he do to Ruth?"</p> + +<p>Ruth had left her chair; she came and stood before her husband. "He +isn't to blame, Horace. I would tell you if he were; I should like to +see Marion Barclay suffer! But if you go to him, he will only laugh at +you, and with reason; for he has never cared for me, and he has never +even pretended to care; I see that now. It is <i>I</i> who have been in love +with <i>him</i>. It began that first winter we spent in Florida," she went +on. She had returned to her place behind the chair, and her eyes were +again fixed upon her husband's face. "And when he told me, suddenly, +that he was going to California, going for years, I could not breathe. +Then, when Jared died, and mother died, and you were so good to me, I +tried to<a name="page_416" id="page_416"></a> forget him. But as soon as I saw him again I knew that it was +of no use—no sort of use!"</p> + +<p>"You'll never make me believe that <i>he</i> did nothing all this time," said +Chase, savagely. "That he didn't profit—that he didn't take +advantage—"</p> + +<p>But Ruth shook her head. "No. Perhaps he amused himself a little. Once +or twice he said a few words. But that was all. And even this was called +out by me—by <i>my</i> love. Left to himself, he always drew back, he always +stopped. But <i>I</i>—I never did! You must believe me about this—I mean +about its having been <i>my</i> doing. How can I make you believe it? If I +say that by my mother's memory, by Jared's, what I have told you is +true, will you believe it then? Very well; I <i>do</i> say so." Exhausted, +she put her face down upon her hands on the top of the chair-back.</p> + +<p>The firelight, which was now brilliant, had revealed her clearly. Her +figure in the homespun dress looked wasted; in her face there was now no +beauty, the irregularity of its outlines was conspicuous, the bright +color was gone, the eyes were dull and dead.</p> + +<p>Something in her bowed head touched Chase keenly. A memory of her as she +was when he married her came before him, the radiant young creature who +had given herself to him so willingly and so joyously.</p> + +<p>"Ruthie, we'll forget it," he said, in a changed voice. "I was too old +for you, I am afraid. I ought not to have asked you to marry me. But +it's done now, past mending, and we must make the best<a name="page_417" id="page_417"></a> of it. But we'll +begin all over again, my poor little girl." For his wife had always +seemed to him a child, an impulsive, lovely child; a little spoiled, no +doubt, but enchantingly sweet and dear. Her affection for him, as far as +it went, had been sincere; he had comprehended that from the beginning. +And alluring though she was to him in her young beauty, he would not +have married her without it; her consent, even her willing consent, +would not have been enough. And now it seemed to him that he could go +back to that girlish liking, that he could foster it and draw it out. He +had not protected her from her own fancies, he had not guarded her or +guided her. Now he would make her more a part of his life; he would no +longer think of her as a child.</p> + +<p>He had come to her as he spoke. This time she did not draw herself away; +but, looking at him with the same fixed gaze, she went on. She had been +speaking slowly, but now her words came pouring forth in a flood as +though she felt that it was the only way in which she could get them +spoken at all; each brief phrase was hurried out with a quick pant.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you don't understand. You think it was a fancy. But it wasn't, it +wasn't; I <i>loved</i> him! I was going to stay with him forever. I would +have gone to the ends of the earth with him. I would never have asked a +question. I hadn't the least hesitation; you mustn't think that I had. I +sang to myself as I rode out here, I was so happy and glad. I didn't +care what became of you; I didn't even<a name="page_418" id="page_418"></a> think of you. If he had been +alone at The Lodge, I should have gone straight into his arms. And you +might have come in, and I shouldn't have minded; I shouldn't even have +known you were there! From the moment I started, you were nothing to +me—nothing; you didn't exist! I am as guilty as a woman can be. I had +every intention, every inclination. What was lacking was <i>his</i> will; but +never mine! It was only twelve hours ago. I haven't changed in that +time. The only change is that now I know he doesn't care for <i>me</i>. I +would have accepted anything—yes, anything. It was only twelve hours +ago, and if he <i>had</i> been alone at The Lodge, whether he really loved me +or not, he would not have—turned me out."</p> + +<p>"No; damn him!" answered Chase.</p> + +<p>"And <i>I</i> should have been glad to stay," Ruth concluded, inflexibly.</p> + +<p>Her husband turned away. It was a strong man's anguish. He sat down by +the fire, his face covered by his hands.</p> + +<p>Into the pause there now came again the strains of Portia's hymn in the +kitchen—that verse about "the peerly gates" which she was hopefully +singing a second time to Dave. Then, in the silence that followed, the +room seemed filled with the rushing sound of the rain.</p> + +<p>Ruth had remained motionless. "I shall never be any better," she went on +with the same desperation; "I wish you to understand me just as I really +am.<a name="page_419" id="page_419"></a> I might even do it a second time; I don't know. You may make +whatever arrangements you like about me; I agree to all in advance. And +now—I'll go." Turning, she went towards the door of the stairway, the +pale Dolly joining her in silence.</p> + +<p>Then Horace Chase got up. His face showed how profoundly he had +suffered; it was changed, changed for life. "After all this that you've +told me, Ruth, I don't press myself upon you—I never shall again; I +<i>couldn't;</i> that's ended. You haven't got any father or mother, and +you're very young yet; so I shall have to see to you for the present. +But it can be done from a distance, and that's the way I'll fix it. You +mustn't think I don't feel this thing because I don't say much. It just +about kills me! But as to condemning, coming down on you out and out, I +don't do it, I haven't got the cheek! Who am I that I should dare to? +Have I been so faultless myself that I have any right to judge <i>you?</i>" +And as he said this, his rugged face had, for the moment, an expression +that was striking in its beauty; its mixture of sorrow, honesty, and +grandeur.</p> + +<p>Ruth gazed at him. Then she gave an inarticulate entreating cry, and ran +to him.</p> + +<p>But she was so weak that she fell, and Dolly rushed forward.</p> + +<p>Horace Chase put Dolly aside—put her aside forever. He lifted his wife +in his arms, and silently bent his head over hers as it lay on his +breast.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="c">THE END</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>B<small>Y</small> CONSTANCE F. WOOLSON.</p> + +<p>JUPITER LIGHTS. 16mo, Cloth, $1 25.</p> +<p>EAST ANGELS. 16mo, Cloth, $1 25.</p> +<p>ANNE. Illustrated. 16mo, Cloth, $1 25.</p> +<p>FOR THE MAJOR. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00.</p> +<p>CASTLE NOWHERE. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00.</p> +<p>RODMAN THE KEEPER. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00.</p> + +<p>There is a certain bright cheerfulness in Miss Woolson's writing which +invests all her characters with lovable qualities.—<i>Jewish Advocate</i>, +N. Y.</p> + +<p>Miss Woolson is among our few successful writers of interesting magazine +stories, and her skill and power are perceptible in the delineation of +her heroines no less than in the suggestive pictures of local +life.—<i>Jewish Messenger</i>, N. Y.</p> + +<p>Constance Fenimore Woolson may easily become the novelist +laureate.—<i>Boston Globe.</i></p> + +<p>Miss Woolson has a graceful fancy, a ready wit, a polished style, and +conspicuous dramatic power; while her skill in the development of a +story is very remarkable.—<i>London Life.</i></p> + +<p>Miss Woolson never once follows the beaten track of the orthodox +novelist, but strikes a new and richly-loaded vein, which so far is all +her own; and thus we feel, on reading one of her works, a fresh +sensation, and we put down the book with a sigh to think our pleasant +task of reading it is finished. The author's lines must have fallen to +her in very pleasant places; or she has, perhaps, within herself the +wealth of womanly love and tenderness she pours so freely into all she +writes. Such books as hers do much to elevate the moral tone of the +day—a quality sadly wanting in novels of the time.—<i>Whitehall Review</i>, +London.</p> + +<p class="c"><span class="smcap">Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.</span></p> + +<p class="c">==><i>The above works sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the +United States, Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price.</i></p> + +<hr /> + +<p>B<small>Y</small> MARIA LOUISE POOL.</p> + +<p>THE TWO SALOMES. A Novel. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 25.</p> + +<p>A work of notable power and artistic feeling.—<i>Literary World</i>, Boston.</p> + +<p>The character conceptions of the story are all good and well wrought +out, the situations are all logical and expressive, and the interest in +the problem keeps fresh till the close of the book.—<i>Providence +Journal.</i></p> + +<p>KATHARINE NORTH. A Novel. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 25.</p> + +<p>"Katharine North" is, from an artistic and literary standpoint, Miss +Pool's best work, and will take high rank among the novels of the year. +The story is an intensely interesting one, and is most skilfully +constructed.—<i>Boston Traveller.</i></p> + +<p>MRS. KEATS BRADFORD. A Novel. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 25.</p> + +<p>Miss Pool's novels have the characteristic qualities of American life. +They have an indigenous flavor. The author is on her own ground, +instinct with American feeling and purpose.—<i>N. Y. Tribune.</i></p> + +<p>ROWENY IN BOSTON. A Novel. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 25.</p> + +<p>Is a surprisingly good story.... It is a very delicately drawn story in +all particulars. It is sensitive in the matter of ideas and of phrase. +Its characters make a delightful company. It is excellent art and rare +entertainment.—<i>N. Y. Sun.</i></p> + +<p>DALLY. A Novel. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 25; Paper, 50 cents.</p> + +<p>There is not a lay figure in the book; all are flesh and blood +creations.... The humor of "Dally" is grateful to the sense; it is +provided in abundance, together with touches of pathos, an inseparable +concomitant.—<i>Philadelphia Ledger.</i></p> + +<p class="c"><span class="smcap">Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.</span></p> + +<p class="c">==><i>The above works are for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent by</i> +<span class="smcap">Harper & Brothers</span>, <i>postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, +Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price.</i></p> + +<hr /> + +<p>B<small>Y</small> JAMES M. LUDLOW.</p> + +<p>THE CAPTAIN OF THE JANIZARIES. A Tale of the Times of Scanderbeg and the +Fall of Constantinople. 16mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 50; Paper, 50 cents.</p> + +<p>Strong in its central historical character, abounding in incident, rapid +and stirring in action, animated and often brilliant in +style.—<i>Christian Union</i>, N. Y.</p> + +<p>Something new and striking interests us in almost every chapter. The +peasantry of the Balkans, the training and government of the Janizaries, +the interior of Christian and Moslem camps, the horrors of raids and +battles, the violence of the Sultan, the tricks of spies, the exploits +of heroes, engage Mr. Ludlow's fluent pen.—<i>N. Y. Tribune.</i></p> + +<p>A KING OF TYRE. A Tale of the Times of Ezra and Nehemiah. 16mo, Cloth, +Ornamental, $1 00.</p> + +<p>It is altogether a fresh and enjoyable tale, strong in its situations +and stirring in its actions.—<i>Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette.</i></p> + +<p>The picture of the life and manners of that far-away period is carefully +and artistically drawn, the plot is full of interest, and the whole +treatment of the subject is strikingly original, and there is a dramatic +intensity in the story which will at once remind the reader of +"Ben-Hur."—<i>Boston Traveller.</i></p> + +<p>THAT ANGELIC WOMAN. A Novel. 16mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 00.</p> + +<p>The plot is skilfully drawn, the whole story shows dramatic power, and +the conclusion will satisfy those readers who prefer a happy ending of +an exciting tale.—<i>Observer</i>, N. Y.</p> + +<p>Dramatic, vivid in scene and action, it has many truthful touches, and +is written with the easy clearness and quick movement familiar to Dr. +Ludlow's readers.—<i>Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette.</i></p> + +<p class="c"><span class="smcap">Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.</span></p> + +<p class="c">==><i>The above works are for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent by +the publishers, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, +Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price.</i></p> + +<hr /> + +<p>THE PRINCE OF INDIA;</p> + +<p>Or, Why Constantinople Fell. By <span class="smcap">Lew. Wallace</span>, Author of "Ben-Hur," "The +Boyhood of Christ," etc. Two Volumes. 16mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $2 50; +Half Leather, $4 00; Three-quarter Leather, $5 00; Three-quarter Calf, +$6 00; Three-quarter Crushed Levant, $8 00. (<i>In a Box.</i>)</p> + +<p>General Wallace has achieved the (literary) impossible. He has struck +the bull's-eye twice in succession. After his phenomenal hit with +"Ben-Hur" he has given us, in "The Prince of India," another book which +no man will say shows the least falling off.... It is a great +book.—<i>N.Y. Tribune.</i></p> + +<p>A great story. It has power and fire. We believe that it will be read +and re-read.—<i>N.Y. Sun.</i></p> + +<p>For boldness of conception this romance is unique of its kind. The +amount of research shown is immense. The mere <i>mise en scène</i> necessary +for the proper presentation of the Byzantine period alone involves a +life-long study.... There are incidents innumerable in this romance, and +all are worked up with dramatic effect.—<i>N.Y. Times.</i></p> + +<p>Its human interest is so vivid that it is one of those historical novels +laid down reluctantly, only with the last page, with the feeling that +one turns away from men and women with whom for a while he lived and +moved.... A masterly and great and absorbing work of fiction.... +Dignity, a superb conjunction of historical and imaginative material, +the movement of a strong river of fancy, an unfailing quality of human +interest, fill it overflowingly.—<i>N.Y. Mail and Express.</i></p> + +<p>In invention, in the power to make mind-impressions, in thrilling +interest, "The Prince of India" is not inferior to "Ben-Hur." The visit +to the grave of Hiram, King of Tyre, with which the story opens, at once +arouses the reader's keenest interest, which culminates in the closing +pages of the second volume with the downfall of +Constantinople.—<i>Philadelphia Inquirer.</i></p> + +<p class="c"><span class="smcap">Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.</span></p> + +<p class="c">==><i>For sale by all booksellers, or will be sent by mail, postage +prepaid, to any part of the United States, Canada, or Mexico, on receipt +of the price.</i></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="" +style="border:2px solid black;padding:2%;"> +<tr><th align="center">The following typographical error was corrected by the etext transcriber:</th></tr> +<tr><td align="center">Two woman joined them=>Two women joined them</td></tr> +</table> + +<hr class="full" /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Horace Chase, by Constance Fenimore Woolson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HORACE CHASE *** + +***** This file should be named 39067-h.htm or 39067-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/0/6/39067/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images available at The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: Horace Chase + +Author: Constance Fenimore Woolson + +Release Date: March 6, 2012 [EBook #39067] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HORACE CHASE *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images available at The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + +HORACE CHASE + +A Novel + +by + +CONSTANCE FENIMORE WOOLSON + +AUTHOR OF "JUPITER LIGHTS" "EAST ANGELS" ETC. + +NEW YORK + +HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS + +1894 + +Copyright, 1894, by HARPER & BROTHERS. + +_All rights reserved._ + + + + +HORACE CHASE + + + +CHAPTER I + + +In a mountain village of North Carolina, in the year 1873, the spring +had opened with its accustomed beauty. But one day there came a pure +cold wind which swept through the high valley at tremendous speed from +dawn to midnight. People who never succumb to mere comfort did not +relight their fires. But to the Franklin family comfort was a goddess, +they would never have thought of calling her "mere"; "delightful" was +their word, and Ruth would probably have said "delicious." The fire in +Mrs. Franklin's parlor, therefore, having been piled with fresh logs at +two o'clock as an offering to this deity, was now, at four, sending out +a ruddy glow. It was a fire which called forth Ruth's highest +approbation when she came in, followed by her dog, Petie Trone, Esq. Not +that Ruth had been facing the blast; she never went out from a sense of +duty, and for her there was no pleasure in doing battle with things that +were disagreeable for the sake merely of conquering them. Ruth had come +from her own room, where there was a fire also, but one not so generous +as this, for here the old-fashioned hearth was broad and deep. The girl +sat down on the rug before the blaze, and then, after a moment, she +stretched herself out at full length there, with her head resting on her +arm thrown back behind it. + +"It's a pity, Ruth, that with all your little ways, you are not little +yourself," remarked Dolly Franklin, the elder sister. "Such a whalelike +creature sprawled on the floor isn't endearing; it looks like something +out of Gulliver." + +"It's always so," observed Mrs. Franklin, drowsily. "It's the oddest +thing in the world--but people never will stay in character; they want +to be something different. Don't you remember that whenever poor Sue +Inness was asked to sing, the wee little creature invariably chanted, +'Here's a health to King Charles,' in as martial a voice as she could +summon? Whereas Lucia Lewis, who is as big as a grenadier, always +warbles softly some such thing as 'Call me pet names, dearest. Call me a +bird.' Bird! Mastodon would do better." + +"Mastodon?" Ruth commented. "It is evident, His Grand, that you have +seen Miss Billy to-day!" + +Ruth was not a whale, in spite of Dolly's assertion. But she was tall, +her shoulders had a marked breadth, and her arms were long. She was very +slender and supple, and this slenderness, together with her small hands +and feet, took away all idea of majesty in connection with her, tall +though she was; one did not think of majesty, but rather of girlish +merriment and girlish activity. And girlish indolence as well. Mrs. +Franklin had once said: "Ruth is either running, or jumping, or doing +something in such haste that she is breathless; or else she is stretched +out at full length on the carpet or the sofa, looking as though she +never intended to move again!" + +The girl had a dark complexion with a rich color, and hair that was +almost black; her face was lighted by blue eyes, with long thick black +lashes which made a dark fringe round the blue. The persons who liked +Ruth thought her beautiful; they asserted that her countenance had in it +something which was captivating. But others replied that though her +friends might call her captivating if they pleased, since that word +denotes merely a personal charm, they had no right to say that she was +beautiful; for as regards beauty, there are well-defined rules, and, +with the exception of her wonderful eyes, the face of the second Miss +Franklin transgressed every one of these canons. Ruth's features were +without doubt irregular. And especially was it true that her mouth was +large. But the lips were exquisitely cut, and the teeth very white. +Regarding her appearance as a whole, there was a fact which had not as +yet been noticed, namely, that no man ever found fault with it; the +criticism came always from feminine lips. And these critics spoke the +truth; but they forgot, or rather they did not see, some of the +compensations. There were people not a few, even in her own small +circle, who did not look with favor upon Ruth Franklin; it was not +merely, so they asserted, that she was heedless and frivolous, caring +only for her own amusement, and sacrificing everything to that, for of +many young persons this could be said; but they maintained in addition +that hers was a disposition in its essence self-indulgent; she was +indolent; she was fond of luxuries; she was even fond of "good +eating"--an odd accusation to be brought against a girl of that age. In +this case also the charges were made by feminine lips. And again it may +be added that while these critics spoke the truth, or part of the truth, +they did not, on the other hand, see some of the compensations. + +"Why do you say '_poor_ Sue Inness,' His Grand?" inquired Dolly, in an +expostulating tone. "Why do people always say '_poor_' so-and-so, of any +one who is dead? It is an alarmingly pitying word; as though the +unfortunate departed must certainly be in a very bad place!" + +"Here is something about the bishop," said Mrs. Franklin, who was +reading a Raleigh newspaper in the intervals of conversation. Her tone +was now animated. "He has been in Washington, and one of his sermons +was--" + +But she was interrupted by her daughters, who united their voices in a +chant as follows: + + "Mother Franklin thinks, + That General Jackson, + Jared the Sixth, + Macaroon custards, + And Bishop Carew, + Are per-_fec_-tion!" + +Mrs. Franklin made no reply to these Gregorian assertions (which she had +often heard before), save the remark, "You have torn your skirt, Ruth." + +"Oh, please don't look at me over your glasses, His Grand. It spoils +your profile so," answered Ruth; for Mrs. Franklin was surveying the +skirt with her head bent forward and her chin drawn sharply in, so that +her eyes could be brought to bear upon the rent over her spectacles. + +She now drew off these aids to vision impatiently. "Whether I look +through them or over them doesn't matter; you and Dolly are never +satisfied. I cannot read the paper without my glasses; do you wish me to +know nothing of the news of the world?" + +"We'll _tell_ you," responded Dolly, going on busily with her knitting. +"For instance, to-day: Genevieve has had _all_ the paint cleaned and +_all_ the windows washed; she is now breathing that righteous atmosphere +of cold, fireless bleakness and soap which she adores. Miss Billy Breeze +has admired everything that she can think of, because admiration is so +uplifting. And she has written another page about the primeval world; +now she--" + +Here the door which led to the entrance-hall was opened with a jerk by +Linda, a plump negro girl, who bounced in, ejaculated "Lady!" in a +congratulatory tone, and then bounced out to act as usher for the +incoming guest. + +"Billy herself, probably," said Mrs. Franklin. "Ruth, are you stretched +out there under the plea that you are not yet fully grown?" + +But Ruth did not deem it necessary to leave her couch for Miss Billy +Breeze. "Hail, Billy!" she said, as the visitor entered. "Mother thinks +that I ought to be seated politely on the sofa; will you please imagine +that I am there?" + +"Oh, certainly," replied Miss Breeze, in a conciliatory tone. Miss +Breeze lived under the impression that the members of this family +quarrelled with each other almost incessantly; when she was present, +therefore, she did her best to smooth over their asperities. "It is +rather good for her, you know," she said reassuringly to Mrs. Franklin; +"for it is a windy day, and Ruth is not robust." Then to Ruth: "Your +mother naturally wishes you to look your best, my dear." + +"Do you, His Grand?" inquired Ruth. "Because if you do, I must certainly +stay where I am, so that I can tuck under me, very neatly, this rip in +my skirt, which Miss Billy has not yet seen. Petie Trone, Esq., shake +hands with the lady." The dog, a small black-and-tan terrier, was +reposing on the rug beside Ruth; upon hearing her command, he trotted +across to the visitor, and offered a tiny paw. + +"Dear little fellow," said Miss Breeze, bending, and shaking it gently. +"His Grand must allow that he looks extremely well?" + +For the circle of friends had ended by accepting the legend (invented by +Ruth) that Mrs. Franklin was Petie Trone's grandmother, or "His Grand." +The only person who still held out against this title was Genevieve, the +daughter-in-law; Mrs. Franklin the younger thought that the name was +ridiculous. Her husband's family seemed to her incomprehensibly silly +about their pets. + +Miss Wilhelmina Breeze was thirty-five; but no one would have thought so +from her fair pink-and-white complexion, and young, innocent eyes. From +her earliest years she had longed to hear herself called "Wilhelmina." +But the longing was almost never gratified; the boyish name given to her +in joke when she was a baby had clung to her with the usual fatal +tenacity. + +"Miss Billy, have you seen mother to-day?" Dolly inquired. + +"Not until now," answered the visitor, surprised. + +"Well, then, have you thought of mastodons?" + +"Certainly I have; and if you yourself, Dolly, would think more +seriously of the whole subject, the primeval world--you would soon be as +fascinated with it as I am. Imagine one of those vast extinct animals, +Dolly, lifting his neck up a hill to nibble the trees on its top!" said +Miss Breeze with enthusiasm. "And birds as large as chapels flying +through the air! Probably they sang, those birds. What sort of voices +do you suppose they had? The cave-lion was twenty-nine feet high. The +horned tryceratops was seventy-five feet long! It elevates the mind even +to think of them." + +"You see, His Grand, that she _has_ thought of mastodons," commented +Dolly. "Your unexpected mention of them, therefore, is plainly the +influence of her mind acting upon yours from a distance--the distance of +the Old North Hotel." + +"Have you really thought of them, dear Mrs. Franklin? And do you believe +there can be such a thing as the conscious--I mean, of course, +_un_conscious--influence of one mind upon another?" inquired Miss Billy, +her face betraying a delighted excitement. + +"No, no; it's only Dolly's nonsense," answered Mrs. Franklin. + +"It's easy to say nonsense, His Grand. But how, then, do you account for +the utterances of my planchette?" demanded Dolly, wagging her head +triumphantly. + +Dolly, the second of Mrs. Franklin's three children, was an invalid. The +Franklins, as a family, were tall and dark, and Dolly was tall and dark +also; her face, owing to the pain which frequently assailed her, was +thin, worn, and wrinkled. She sat in a low easy-chair, and beside her +was her own especial table, which held what she called her "jibs." These +were numerous, for Dolly occupied herself in many ways. She sketched, +she carved little knick-knacks, she played the violin; she made lace, +she worked out chess problems, and she knitted; she also scribbled +rhymes which her family called poetry. The mantel-piece of this parlor +was adorned with a hanging which bore one of her verses, stitched in old +English text, the work of her mother's needle: + + "O Fire! in these dark frozen days + So gracious is thy red, + So warm thy comfort, we forget + The violets are dead." + +The family thought this beautiful. Dolly's verses, her drawing and +wood-carving, her lace-making and chess, were amateurish; her +violin-playing was at times spirited, and that was the utmost that could +be said of it. But her knitting was remarkable. She knitted nothing but +silk stockings, and these, when finished, had a wonderful perfection. +Dolly was accustomed to say of herself that in the heels of her +stockings was to be found the only bit of conscience which she +possessed. + +When she mentioned planchette, her mother frowned. "I do not approve of +such things." + +"Yes, because you are afraid!" chuckled Dolly. + +"Oh, anything that dear Mrs. Franklin does not approve of--" murmured +Miss Billy. + +Mrs. Franklin rose. + +"His Grand is fleeing!" Dolly announced, gleefully. + +"I must make the salad-dressing, mustn't I? Ruth will not touch Zoe's +dressing. Billy, Mr. Chase is to dine with us to-day, informally; don't +you want to stay and help us entertain him?" added the mistress of the +house as she left the room. + +"Dolly," suggested Ruth, from her place on the rug, "set planchette to +work, and make it tell us secrets; make it tell us whether Miss Billy +understands the _true_ character of Achilles Larue!" + +"She does not; I can tell her that without planchette," replied Dolly. +"Only one person in the world has ever fully understood Achilles--had +the strength to do it; and _he_ died!" + +"Yes, I know; I have heard Mr. Larue speak of that one friend," said +Miss Billy, regretfully. "How unfortunate that he lost him!" + +"Yes, baddish. And the term is quite in his own line," commented Dolly. +"With him it is never warm, but warmish; the bluest sky is bluish; a +June day, fairish; a twenty-mile walk, longish. In this way he is not +committed to extravagant statements. When he is dead, he won't be more +than deadish. But he's that now." + +Mrs. Franklin, having made the salad-dressing (when she made it, it was +always perfection), returned to the parlor. "Ruth, go and change your +dress. Take Miss Billy with you, but take her to my room, not yours. For +of course you will stay, Billy?" + +"I don't think I'd better; I'm not dressed for the evening; and I said I +should be back," answered Miss Breeze, hesitatingly. + +"To whom did you say it? To the Old North? Run along," said Mrs. +Franklin, smiling. "If it is shoes you are thinking of, as yours are +muddy, Ruth can lend you a pair." + +"That she cannot," remarked Dolly. "Buy Ruth six pairs of new shoes, and +in six days all will be shabby. But you can have a pair of mine, Miss +Billy." + +When she was left alone with her elder daughter, Mrs. Franklin said: +"Poor Billy! She is always haunted by the idea that she may possibly +meet Achilles Larue here. She certainly will not meet him at the Old +North, for he never goes near the place, in spite of her gentle +invitations. But here there is always a chance, and I never can resist +giving it to her, although in reality it is folly; he has never looked +at her, and he never will." + +"No. But you need not be anxious about her," replied Dolly; "she has the +happy faculty of living in illusions, day after day. She can go on +hopefully admiring Achilles to the last moment of her life, and I dare +say she even thinks that he has a liking for her, little as he shows it. +She has occult reasons for this belief; she would find them in a kick." + +"Goose!" said Mrs. Franklin, dismissing Billy's virginal dreams with the +matron's disillusioned knowledge. "Aren't you going to change your +dress, Dolly?" + +"Why? Am I not tidy as I am? I thought you considered me too tidy?" And +it was true that the elder Miss Franklin was always a personification +of rigid neatness; from the dark hair that shaded her tired face, to the +shoes on her feet, all was severely orderly and severely plain. + +"Oh, go, go!" answered her mother, impatiently. + +Dolly screwed up her mouth, shook her head slowly, and laid her work +aside; then she rose, and with her cane walked towards the door. On her +way she stopped, and, bending, kissed her mother's forehead. "Some of +these days, mother, I shall be beautiful. It will be during one of our +future existences somewhere. It must be so, dear; you have earned it for +me by your loving pity here." Nothing could exceed the tenderness of her +tone as she said this. + +Mrs. Franklin made no response beyond a little toss of her head, as +though repudiating this account of herself. But after Dolly had left the +room, a moisture gathered in the mother's eyes. + +Ruth, meanwhile, had conducted Miss Billy to her own chamber. + +"But Mrs. Franklin said I was to go to _her_ room?" suggested the guest. + +"She doesn't mind; she only meant that Bob is probably here," answered +Ruth, as she opened the windows and threw back the blinds; for the +afternoon was drawing towards its close. + +Miss Billy took off her bonnet, and, after a moment's thought, hung it +by its crown on a peg; in that position it did not seem possible that +even Bob could make a resting-place within it. Bob was young and very +small. He was beautiful or devilish according to one's view of +flying-squirrels. But whether you liked him or whether you hated him, +there was always a certain amount of interest in connection with the +creature, because you could never be sure where he was. Miss Billy, who +was greatly afraid of him, had given a quick look towards the tops of +the windows and doors. There was no squirrel visible. But that was small +comfort; Bob could hide himself behind a curtain-ring when he chose. One +of the blinds came swinging to with a bang, and Ruth, reopening the +window, struggled with it again. "There is Mr. Hill coming along the +back street on Daniel," she said, pausing. "He is beckoning to me! What +can he want? You will find shoes in the closet, Miss Billy, and don't +wait for me; I am going down to speak to him." Away she flew, running +lightly at full speed through the upper hall and down the back stairs, +closely followed by Petie Trone, Esq. + +Miss Billy closed the window and stood there for a moment looking out. +Presently she saw Ruth at the stone wall at the end of the garden. She +also recognized (with disapproving eyes) the unclerical hat of the Rev. +Malachi Hill, who had stopped his horse in the road outside. He was +talking to Ruth, who listened with her chin resting on her hands on the +top of the wall, while the wind roughened her hair wildly, and blew out +her skirts like a balloon. Miss Billy watched her for a while; then, +after making her own preparations for the evening, she seated herself +by the fire to wait. For no one could make Ruth come in one moment +before she chose to do so; it seemed better, therefore, not to call +attention to her absence by returning to the parlor alone, lest Mrs. +Franklin should be made uneasy by knowing that the girl was out, +bareheaded, in the cold wind. Having made her decision (Billy was always +troubled, even upon the smallest occasion, by four or five different +theories as to the best course to pursue), she looked about the room +with the same wonder and gentle dislike which she had often felt before. +The necessary articles of furniture were all set closely back against +the wall, in order that the central space of the large chamber should be +left entirely free. For Ruth did not like little things--small objects +of any kind which required dusting, and which could be easily upset. +Miss Billy, who adored little things, and who lived in a grove of them, +thought the place dreadfully bare. There were no souvenirs; no +photographs of friends in velvet frames; there were no small tables, +brackets, screens, hanging shelves, little chairs, little boxes, little +baskets, fans, and knick-knacks; there was not even a wall-calendar. +With Miss Billy, the removal of the old leaf from her poetical calendar, +and the reading of the new one each morning, was a solemn rite. And when +her glance reached the toilet-table, her non-comprehension reached its +usual climax. The table itself was plain and unadorned, but on its top +was spread out a profuse array of toilet articles, all of ivory or +crystal. That a girl so wholly careless about everything else should +insist upon having so many costly and dainty objects for her personal +use in the privacy of her own room seemed remarkable. "Give Ruth her +bath in scented water, and all these ivory and crystal things to use +when she dresses, and she is perfectly willing to go about in a faded, +torn old skirt, a hat entirely out of fashion, shabby gloves, and +worn-out shoes; in short, looking anyhow!" mused Billy, perplexed. + +Down-stairs Mrs. Franklin was receiving another visitor. After Dolly's +departure, Rinda had made a second irruptive entrance, with the +announcement, "Gen'lem!" and Mr. Anthony Etheridge came in. Etheridge +was a strikingly handsome man, who appeared to be about fifty-eight. He +entered with light step and smiling face, and a flower in his coat. + +"Ah, commodore, when did you return?" said Mrs. Franklin, giving him her +hand. + +"Two hours ago," answered Etheridge, bowing over it gallantly. "You are +looking remarkably well, my dear madam. Hum-ha!" These last syllables +were not distinct; Etheridge often made this little sound, which was not +an ahem; it seemed intended to express merely a general enjoyment of +existence--a sort of overflow of health and vitality. + +"Only two hours ago? You have been all day in that horrible stage, and +yet you have strength to pay visits?" + +"Not visits; _a_ visit. You are alone?" + +"Only for the moment; Dolly and Ruth are dressing. We are expecting some +one to dine with us--a new acquaintance, by-the-way, since you left; a +Mr. Chase." + +"Yes, Horace Chase; I knew he was here. I should like to kick him out!" + +"Why so fierce?" said Mrs. Franklin, going on with her lamplighters. For +the making of lamplighters from old newspapers was one of her pastimes. + +"Of course I am fierce. We don't want fellows of that sort here; he will +upset the whole place! What brought him?" + +"He has not been well, I believe" ("That's one comfort! They never are," +interpolated Etheridge), "and he was advised to try mountain air. In +addition, he is said to be looking into the railroad project." + +"Good heavens! Already? The one solace I got out of the war was the +check it gave to the advance of those horrible rails westward; I have +been in hopes that the locomotives would not get beyond Old Fort in my +time, at any rate. Why, Dora, this strip of mountain country is the most +splendid bit of natural forest, of nature undraped, which exists to-day +between the Atlantic Ocean and the Rockies!" + +"Save your eloquence for Genevieve, commodore." + +"Hum-ha! Mrs. Jared, eh?" + +"Yes; she knew Mr. Chase when he was a little boy; she says she used to +call him Horrie. As soon as she heard that he was here, she revived the +acquaintance; and then she introduced him to us." + +"Does she _like_ him?" asked Etheridge, with annoyance in his tone. + +"I don't know whether she likes him or not; but she is hoping that he +will do something that will increase the value of property here." + +"It is intelligent of Mrs. Jared to be thinking of that already," said +Etheridge, softening a little. "Perhaps if I owned land here, I should +take another view of the subject myself! You too, Dora--you might make +something?" + +"No; we have no land save the garden, and the house is dreadfully +dilapidated. Personally, I may as well confess that I should be glad to +see the railroad arrive; I am mortally tired of that long jolting +stage-drive from Old Fort; it nearly kills me each time I take it. And I +am afraid I don't care for nature undraped so much as you do, commodore; +I think I like draperies." + +"Of course you do! But when you--and by you I mean the nation at +large--when you perceive that your last acre of primitive forest is +forever gone, then you will repent. And you will begin to cultivate +wildness as they do abroad, poor creatures--plant forests and guard 'em +with stone walls and keepers, by Jove! Horace Chase appears here as the +pioneer of spoliation. He may not mean it; he does not come with an axe +on his shoulder exactly; he comes, in fact, with baking-powder; but +that's how it will end. Haven't you heard that it was baking-powder? At +least you have heard of the powder itself--the Bubble? I thought so. +Well, that's where he made his first money--the Bubble Baking-Powder; +and he made a lot of it, too! Now he is in no end of other things. One +of them is steamships; some of the Willoughbys of New York have gone in +with him, and together they have set up a new company, with steamers +running south--the Columbian Line." + +"Yes, Genevieve explained it to us. But as he does not travel with his +steamers round his neck, there remains for us, inland people as we are, +only what he happens to be himself. And that is nothing interesting." + +"Not interesting, eh?" said Etheridge, rather gratified. + +"To my mind he is not. He is ordinary in appearance and manners; he says +'yes, ma'am,' and 'no, ma'am,' to me, as though I were a +great-grandmother! In short, I don't care for him, and it is solely on +Genevieve's account that I have invited him. For she keeps urging me to +do it; she is very anxious to have him like Asheville. He has already +dined with us twice, to meet her. But to-day he comes informally--a +chance invitation given only this morning (and again given solely to +please _her_), when I happened to meet him at the Cottage." + +"How old is the wretch?" + +"I don't know. Forty-four or forty-five." + +"Quite impossible, then, that Mrs. Jared should have known him when he +was a boy; she was not born at that time," commented Etheridge. "What +she means, of course, is that she, as a child herself, called him +'Horrie.'" + +Mrs. Franklin did not answer, and at this moment Dolly came in. + +"Yes, I am well," she said, in reply to the visitor's greeting; "we are +all well, and lazy. The world at large will never be helped much by us, +I fear; we are too contented. Have you ever noticed, commodore, that the +women who sacrifice their lives so nobly to help humanity seldom +sacrifice one small thing, and that is a happy home? Either they do not +possess such an article, or else they have spoiled it by quarrelling +with every individual member of their families." + +"Now, Dolly, no more of your sarcasms. Tell me rather about this new +acquaintance of yours, this bubbling capitalist whom you have invented +and set up in your midst during my unsuspecting absence," said +Etheridge. + +"You need not think, commodore, that you can make me say one word about +him," answered Dolly, solemnly; "for I read in a book only the other day +that a tendency to talk about other persons, instead of one's self, was +a sure sign of advancing age. Young people, the book goes on to say, are +at heart interested in nothing on earth but themselves and their own +affairs; they have not the least curiosity about character or traits in +general. As I wish to be considered young, I have made a vow to talk of +nothing but myself hereafter. Anything you may wish to hear about _me_ +I am ready to tell you." Dolly was now attired in a velvet dress of dark +russet hue, like the color of autumn oak leaves; this tint took the eye +away somewhat from the worn look of her plain thin face. The dress, +however, was eight years old, and the fashion in which it had been made +originally had never been altered. + +"The being interested in nothing but themselves, and their own doings +and feelings, is not confined to young people," said Mrs. Franklin, +laughing. "I have known a goodly number of their elders who were quite +as bad. When these gentry hold forth, by the hour, about their +convictions and their theories, their beliefs and disbeliefs, their +likings and dislikings, their tastes and their principles, their souls, +their minds, and their bodies--if, in despair, you at last, by way of a +change, turn the conversation towards some one else, they become loftily +silent. And they go away and tell everybody, with regret of course, that +you are hopelessly given to gossip! Gossip, in fact, has become very +valuable to me; I keep it on hand, and pour it forth in floods, to drown +those egotists out." + +"When you gossip, then, I shall know that _I_ bore you," said Etheridge, +rising, "I mustn't do so now; I leave you to your Bubble. Mrs. Jared, I +suppose, will be with you this evening? I ask because I had thought of +paying her a how-do-you-do visit, later." + +"Pay it here, commodore," suggested Mrs. Franklin. "Perhaps you would +like to see her 'Horrie' yourself?" + +"Greatly, greatly. I am always glad to meet any of these driving +speculators who come within my reach. For it makes me contented for a +month afterwards--contented with my own small means--to see how yellow +they are! Not a man jack of them who hasn't a skin like guinea gold." +Upon this point the commodore could enlarge safely, for no color could +be fresher and finer than his own. + +After he had gone, Mrs. Franklin said: "Imagine what he has just told +me--that Genevieve could not possibly have known Horace Chase when he +was a boy, because she is far too young!" And then mother and daughter +joined in a merry laugh. + +"It would be fun to tell him that she was forty on her last birthday," +said Dolly. + +"He would never believe you; he would think that you fibbed from +jealousy," answered Mrs. Franklin. "As you are dressed, I may as well go +and make ready myself," she added, rising. "I have been waiting for +Ruth; I cannot imagine what she is about." + +This is what Ruth was about--she was rushing up the back stairs in the +dark, breathless. When she reached her room, she lit the candles +hastily. "You still here, Miss Billy? I supposed you had gone down long +ago." She stirred the fire into a blaze, and knelt to warm her cold +hands. "Such fun! I have made an engagement for us all, this evening. +You can never think what it is. Nothing less than a fancy-dress +procession at the rink for the benefit of the Mission. A man is carrying +costumes across the mountains for some tableaux for a soldiers' monument +at Knoxville; his wagon has broken down, and he is obliged to stay here +until it is mended. Mr. Hill has made use of this for the Mission. Isn't +it a splendid idea? He has been rushing about all the afternoon, and he +has found twenty persons who are willing to appear in fancy dress, and +he himself is to be an Indian chief, in war-paint and feathers." + +"In war-paint and feathers? _Oh!_" + +"Yes. It seems that he has a costume of his own. He had it when he was +an insurance agent, you know, before he entered the ministry; he was +always fond of such things, he says, and the costume is a very handsome +one; when he wore it, he called himself Big Moose." + +"Big Moose! It must be stopped," said Miss Billy, in a horrified voice. +For Miss Billy had the strictest ideas regarding the dignity of the +clergy. + +"On the contrary, I told him that it would be a great attraction, and +that it was his duty to do all he could," declared Ruth, breaking into +one of her intense laughs. Her laugh was not loud, but when it had once +begun it seemed sometimes as if it would never stop. At present, as soon +as she could speak, she announced, "We'll _all_ go." + +"Do not include me," said Miss Billy, with dignity. "I think it +shocking, Ruth. I do indeed." + +"Oh, you'll be there," said Ruth, springing up, and drawing Miss Billy +to her feet. "You'll put on roller-skates yourself, and go wheeling off +first this way, then that way, with Achilles Larue." And, as she said +this, she gleefully forced her visitor across the floor, now in a long +sweep to the right, now to the left, with as close an imitation of +skating as the circumstances permitted. + +While they were thus engaged, Mrs. Franklin opened the door. "What are +you doing? Ruth--not dressed yet?" + +"I'm all ready, His Grand," responded Ruth, running across the room and +pouring water into the basin in a great hurry. "I have only to wash my +hands" (here she dashed lavender into the water); "I'll be down +directly." + +"And we shall all admire you in that torn dress," said her mother. + +"Never mind, I'll pin it up. Nobody will see it at dinner, under the +table. And after dinner my cloak will cover it--for we are all going +out." + +"Going out this windy evening? Never! Are you ready, Billy? And Ruth, +you must come as you are, for Mr. Chase is already here, and Rinda is +bringing in the soup." + +"Never fear, His Grand. I'll come." + +And come she did, two minutes later, just as she was, save that her +wind-roughened hair had been vaguely smoothed, and fastened down hastily +with large hair-pins placed at random. Owing to her hurry, she had a +brilliant color; and seeing, as she entered, the disapproving +expression in her mother's eyes, she was seized with the idea of making, +for her own amusement, a stately sweeping courtesy to Horace Chase; this +she accordingly did, carrying it off very well, with an air of majesty +just tempered at the edges with burlesque. + +Chase, who had risen, watched this salutation with great interest. When +it was over, he felt it incumbent upon him, however, to go through, in +addition, the more commonplace greeting. "How do you do, Miss Ruth?" he +said, extending his hand. And he gave the tips of her fingers (all she +yielded to him) three careful distinct shakes. + +Then they went to dinner. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +The meal which followed was good; for Zoe, the cook, was skilful in her +old-fashioned way. But the dinner service was ordinary; the only wine +was Dry Catawba; Rinda's ideas of waiting, too, were primitive. The +Franklins, however, had learned to wait upon themselves. They had the +habit of remaining long at the table; for, whether they were alone or +whether they had a guest, there was always a soup, there was always a +salad, there were always nuts and fruit, followed by coffee--four +courses, therefore, in addition to the two which the younger Mrs. +Franklin, whose household was managed in a very different way, +considered all that was necessary "for the body." + +"A serious rice pudding, Genevieve, no doubt _is_ enough for the body, +as you call it," Dolly had once said. "But _we_ think of the mind also; +we aim at brilliancy. And no one ever scintillated yet on cod-fish and +stewed prunes!" + +"Mrs. Jared Franklin is well, I hope?" Chase asked, when the last course +was reached. He was not fond of nuts or figs, but he was playing his +part, according to his conception of it, by eating at intervals one +raisin. + +"Quite well; thanks. I have never known her to be ill," replied Dolly. + +"Mr. Chase, I am going to suggest something: as mother and my +sister-in-law are both Mrs. Jared, and as mother has no burning desire +to be called 'old Mrs. Franklin' just yet, why don't you say 'Mrs. G. +B.' when you mean the younger matron?" + +Chase would never have thought of calling either the one or the other a +matron, his idea of the word being the female superintendent of a public +institution. "G. B.--are those her initials?" he said. "Yes, of course; +G. for Genevieve, or Gen, as I used to call her." + +"And B. for Beatrice; isn't that lovely? Our own names, unfortunately, +are very plain--Ruth, Dolly, and Jared; Genevieve has taken pity upon +the Jared, and changed it to Jay. Mother, however, actually likes the +name Jared. She is weak enough to be proud of the fact that there have +been six Jared Franklins in the direct line, from eldest son to father, +going back to colonial days. People are _very_ sorry for this delusion +of hers; they have told her repeatedly that the colonial period was +unimportant. Genevieve, in particular, has often explained to her that +modern times are far more interesting." + +"I guess there isn't much question about that, is there?" said Chase. +"No doubt they did the best they could in those old days. But they +couldn't do much, you see, because they had nothing to work with, no +machinery, no capital, no combinations; they couldn't hear anything +until long after it had happened, and they couldn't go anywhere except +on horseback. I've always been glad _I_ didn't serve my time then. I +guess I should have found it slow." + +"You must find Asheville rather slow?" remarked Dolly. + +"It is more than slow, Miss Franklin; it has stopped entirely. But it +has great natural advantages--I have been surprised to see how many. I +like new enterprises, and I've been thinking about something." Here he +paused and ate one more raisin, balancing it for a moment upon the palm +of his hand before he swallowed it. "I've been thinking of picking up +that railroad at Old Fort and pushing it right through to this place, +and on to Tennessee; a branch, later, to tap South Carolina and Georgia. +That isn't all, however." He paused again. Then with a glance which +rested for a moment on each face, and finally stopped at Mrs. +Franklin's, "What do you say," he added, with an hospitable smile, "to +my making a big watering-place of your hilly little village?" + +"_Asheville_ watered? What next!" said Dolly. + +"The next is that the stock won't be," replied Chase, laughing. "I mean, +the stock of the company that undertakes the affair, if it does +undertake it. You'd better apply for some right off; all of you. Shall I +tell you how the thing strikes me, while you are finishing your nuts? +Well, then, this is about it. The whole South is a hot place in summer, +ladies; from Baltimore down to the end of Florida and Louisiana they +simply swelter from June to October, and always must swelter. If you +will look at a map, you can see for yourselves that the only region +where the people of all this big section can get fresh air during the +heated term, without a long journey for it, is this one line of +mountains, called Alleghanies in the lump, but in reality including the +Blue Ridge, the Cumberlands, your Smokies and Blacks, and others about +here. For a trip to the southern sea-coast isn't much relief; a hot +beach is about the hottest place I know! Now, then, what is the best +point among these mountains? The Alleghanies lie _this_ way." (He made +the Alleghanies with a table-spoon.) "Then _there_ is the Blue Ridge." +(A nut-cracker.) "And here you get your Smokies and so forth." (Almonds +taken hastily from a dish and arranged in a line.) "And I'll just +indicate the Cumberlands with this orange. Very well. Now where are the +highest peaks of these lines? Let us follow the range down. Do we find +them in Pennsylvania? No, sir. Do we find them in Virginia? We do not. +Are they over there among the Cumberlands? Not by a long shot. Where are +they, then? Right here, ladies, at your own door; right here, where I +make a dot this minute." And taking a pencil from his pocket, he made a +small mark on the table-cloth between the spoon and the nut-cracker. "In +this neighborhood," he went on, emphasizing his statement by pointing +his pencil at Miss Billy, "there are thirteen nearly seven thousand +feet high. It seems to me, therefore, that in spite of all the jokes +about talking for buncombe, the talk for Buncombe has not been half tall +enough yet. For this very Buncombe County is bound to be the favorite +watering-place for over twelve millions of people, some day or other." + +"Watering-place?" commented Dolly. "Well, we _have_ the two rivers, the +French Broad and the Swannanoa. But the Swannanoa is small; if the +millions should all drink at once, it would soon go dry." + +"I meant summer resort, Miss Franklin, not watering-place," said Chase, +inwardly entertained by the quickness bordering on the sharp with which +"the sickly one," as he called her, always took him up. "Though there +are sulphur springs near by too: I have been out to look at them. And it +isn't only the Southerners who will come here," he went on. "Northerners +will flock also, when they understand what these mountains are. For, in +comparison with them, the Catskills are a suburb; the White Mountains, +ornamental rock-work; and the Adirondacks, a wood-lot. _Here_ everything +is absolutely wild; you can shoot because there are all sorts of things +_to_ shoot, from bears down. And then there's another point--for I +haven't got to the bottom of the sack yet. This mountain valley of +yours, being 2400 feet above the sea, has a wonderfully pure dry air, +and yet, as it is so far south, it is not cold; its winter climate, +therefore, is as good as its summer, and even better. So here's the +situation: people who live in hot places will come here from June to +October, and people who live in cold places will come from October to +June." He returned the orange and the almonds to their dishes, replaced +the table-spoon and nut-cracker, and then, looking at Mrs. Franklin, he +gave her a cheerful nod. "That's it, ma'am; that's the whole in a +nutshell." + +Ruth gravely offered him an empty almond shell. + +"We'll have something better than that, Miss Ruth--a philopena." And +taking a nut-cracker, he opened several almonds. Finding a double +kernel, he gave her one of the halves. "Now, if I win, I should be much +favored if you would make me something of worsted--a tidy is the name, I +think?" + +Ruth began to laugh. + +"Well, then, a picture-frame of cones." + +And now the other ladies joined in Ruth's merriment. + +"We must decline such rare objects," said Mrs. Franklin. "But we have +our own small resources, Mr. Chase." And, leading the way back to the +parlor, she showed him the mantel-cover with Dolly's verse. + +"Why, that's beautiful, Miss Franklin," said Chase, with sincere +admiration, when he had read the lines. "I didn't know you could write +poetry." + +"Oh yes," answered Dolly. "I think in elegies as a general thing, and I +make sonnets as I dress. Epics are nothing to me, and I turn off +triolets in no time. But I don't publish, Mr. Chase, because I don't +want to be called a _minor_ poet." + +Here Rinda came in like a projectile, carrying a large box clasped in +her arms. "Jess lef'! 'Spress!" she exclaimed excitedly. + +"Express?" repeated Mrs. Franklin, trying to make out the address +without her glasses. "Read it, Ruth." + +Ruth looked at the label, and then broke into another laugh. She had +hardly recovered from the preceding one, and Chase, with amusement, +watched her start off again. But he soon found himself surrounded by +laughers a second time. + +"Why, what's wrong with it?" he asked, seeing that it was the label +which excited their mirth. And in his turn he examined it. "Miss Ruth +Franklin, Lommy Dew, Asheville? That's right, isn't it? Isn't Lommy Dew +the name of your place?" + +Rinda meanwhile, wildly curious, had been opening the box by main force +with the aid of the poker. She now uncovered a huge cluster of hot-house +roses, packed in moss. + +"Flowers? Who could have sent them?" said Mrs. Franklin, surprised. She +had no suspicion of her present guest; her thoughts had turned towards +some of their old friends at the North. But Ruth, happening to catch the +look in Horace Chase's eyes as he glanced for an instant at the +blossoms, not so much admiringly as critically, exclaimed: + +"_You_ sent them, Mr. Chase. How perfectly lovely!" + +"I'm afraid they're not much," Chase answered. "I thought they'd send +more." He had wished to show that he appreciated the invitations to +L'Hommedieu, and as, according to his idea, it was the young lady of the +family to whom it was proper to pay such attentions, he had ordered the +box to be sent to Ruth rather than to Mrs. Franklin or Dolly. + +Ruth's laugh had stopped. She was passionately fond of hot-house +flowers, and now both her hands together could hardly encircle even the +stems alone of these superb tea-roses, whose gorgeous masses filled her +arms as she raised them. With a quick movement she buried her face in +the soft petals. + +"But, I say, what was wrong with this?" asked Chase a second time, as he +again looked at the label. + +"L'Hommedieu is a French name--" began Dolly. + +But Ruth interrupted her: "It is an ugly old French name, Mr. Chase, and +as it is pronounced, in America at least, exactly as you wrote it, I +think it might as well be spelled so, too. At present, however, this is +the way--the silly way." And holding her flowers with her left arm, she +detached her right hand, and scribbled the name on the edge of the +Raleigh paper. + +"Ah!" said Chase, looking at it. "I don't speak French myself. I thought +perhaps it had something to do with dew." And frowning a little, a frown +of attention, he spelled the word over. + +An old negro woman, her head covered with a red kerchief folded like a +turban, now came stiffly in with the coffee-tray, her stiffness being +an angry dignity. It was Zoe, the cook, tired of waiting for Rinda, who, +still in the parlor, was occupied in gazing with friendly interest at +the roses. "Lawdy--ef I ain't clean ferget!" remarked the waitress, +genially, to the company in general. + +"You clar out, good-fer-nutt'n nigger!" muttered the offended cook, in +an undertone to her coadjutor. + +With the tray, or rather behind it, a lady came in. + +"Just in time for coffee, Genevieve," remarked Dolly, cheerfully. + +"Thanks; I do not take it at night," Genevieve answered. + +This was a dialogue often repeated in one form or another, for Dolly +kept it up. The younger Mrs. Franklin did not like evening dinners, and +Dolly even maintained that her sister-in-law thought them wicked. "She +sees a close connection between a late dinner with coffee after it, and +the devil." The Franklins had always dined at the close of the day, for +the elder Jared Franklin, having been the editor of a daily paper, had +found that hour the most convenient one. The editor was gone; his family +had moved from the North to the South, and life for them was changed in +many ways; but his habit of the evening dinner they had never altered. + +The younger Mrs. Franklin greeted Chase cordially. Dolly listened, +hoping to hear her call him "Horrie." But Genevieve contented herself +with giving him her hand, and some frank words of welcome. Genevieve +was always frank. And in all she said and did, also, she was absolutely +sincere. She was a beautiful woman with golden hair, fair skin, regular +features, and ideally lovely eyes; her tall figure was of Juno-like +proportions. Chase admired her, that was evident. But Dolly (who was +noting this) had long ago discovered that men always admired her +sister-in-law. In addition to her beauty, Genevieve had a sweet voice, +and an earnest, half-appealing way of speaking. She was appealing to +Chase now. "There is to be an entertainment at the rink to-night, +Horace, for the benefit of the Mission; won't you go? I hope so. And, +mamma, that is what I have come over for; to tell you about it, and beg +you to go also." She had seated herself beside Chase; but, as she said +these last words, she put out her hand and laid it affectionately on +Mrs. Franklin's shoulder. + +"I believe I am to have the pleasure of spending the evening here?" +Chase answered, making a little bow towards his hostess. + +"But if mamma herself goes to the rink, as I am sure she will, then +won't you accompany her? The Mission and the Colored Home, Horace, +are--" + +But here Chase, like a madman, made a sudden bound, and grasped the top +of Miss Billy Breeze's head. + +Quick as his spring had been, however, Ruth's was quicker. She pulled +his hands away. "Don't hurt him! _Don't!_" + +But the squirrel was not under Chase's fingers; he had already escaped, +and, running down the front of Miss Billy's dress (to her unspeakable +terror), he now made another leap, and landed on Dolly's arm, where Ruth +caught him. + +"What in creation is it?" said Chase, who had followed. "A bird? Or a +mouse?" + +"Mouse!" said Ruth, indignantly. "It's Bob, my dear little +flying-squirrel; I saw him on the cornice, but I thought he would fly to +me. It's amazing that any one can possibly be afraid of the darling," +she added, with a reproachful glance towards Miss Billy, who was still +cowering. "I had him when he was nothing but a baby, Mr. Chase--he had +fallen from his nest--and I have brought him up myself. Now that he is +getting to be a big boy, he naturally likes to fly about a little. He +cannot be always climbing his one little tree in the dining-room. He is +so soft and downy. Look at his bright eyes." Here she opened her hand so +that Chase could see her pet. "Would you like to hold him for a moment?" + +"Oh, I'll look at _you_ holding him," answered Chase. "Hollo! here's +another." For Petie Trone, Esq., his jealousy roused by his mistress's +interest in the squirrel, had come out from under the sofa, and was now +seated on his hind-legs at the edge of her dress, begging. "Wouldn't you +like an owl?" Chase suggested. "Or a 'possum? A 'coon might be tamed, if +caught young." + +Ruth walked away, offended. + +This made him laugh still more as he returned to his place beside +Genevieve. + +"She is only eighteen," murmured the younger Mrs. Franklin, +apologetically. Her words were covered by a rapturous "Gen'lem!" from +Rinda at the door. For Rinda was always perfectly delighted to see +anybody; when, therefore, there were already two or three guests, and +still another appeared, her voice became ecstatic. The new-comer was +Anthony Etheridge. + +"How fortunate!" said Genevieve. "For it makes another for our little +charity party. There is to be an impromptu entertainment at the rink +to-night, commodore, for the benefit of the Mission, and mamma is going, +I hope. Won't you accompany her? Let me introduce Mr. Chase--a very old +friend of mine. Mr. Chase, Commodore Etheridge." + +"Happy to meet you," said Chase, rising in order to shake hands. + +"Gen'lem!" called Rinda again; this time fairly in a yell. + +The last "gen'lem" was a slender man of thirty-five, who came in with +his overcoat on. "Thanks; I did not take it off," he said, in answer to +Mrs. Franklin, "because I knew that you were all going to the"--(here +Ruth gave a deep cough)--"because I thought it possible that you might +be going to the rink to-night," he went on, changing the form of his +sentence, with a slight smile; "and in that case I hoped to accompany +you." + +"Yes," said Genevieve, "mamma is going, Mr. Larue. I only wish I could +go, also." + +The cheeks of Miss Billy Breeze had become flushed with rose-color as +the new-comer entered. Noticing instantly the change he had made in his +sentence when Ruth coughed, she at once divined that the girl had gone, +bareheaded and in the darkness, to his residence during that long +absence before dinner, in order to secure his co-operation in the frolic +of the evening. Ruth had, in fact, done this very thing; for nothing +amused her so much as to watch Billy herself when Larue was present. The +girl was now wicked enough to carry on her joke a little longer. "I am +_so_ sorry, Miss Billy, that you do not care to go," she said, +regretfully. + +Miss Billy passed her handkerchief over her mouth and tried to smile. +But she was, in fact, winking to keep back tears. + +And then Mrs. Franklin, always kind-hearted, came to the rescue. "Did +you tell Ruth that you could not go, Billy? Change your mind, my dear; +change it to please _me_." + +"Oh, if _you_ care about it, dear Mrs. Franklin," murmured Billy, +escaping, and hurrying happily up the stairs to put on her wraps. + +The rink was a large, bare structure of wood, with a circular arena for +roller-skating. This evening the place was lighted, and the gallery was +occupied by the colored band. The members of this band, a new +organization, had volunteered their services with the heartiest +good-will. It was true that they could play (without mistakes) but one +selection, namely, "The lone starry hours give me, love." But they +arranged this difficulty by playing it first, softly; then as a solo on +the cornet; then fortissimo, with drums; by means of these alterations +it lasted bravely throughout the evening. Nearly the whole village was +present; the promenade was crowded, and there were many skaters on the +floor below. The Rev. Malachi Hill, the originator of the entertainment, +was distributing programmes, his face beaming with pleasure as he +surveyed the assemblage. Presently he came to the party from +L'Hommedieu. "Programmes, Mrs. Franklin? Programmes, gentlemen?" He had +written these programmes himself, in his best handwriting. "The +performance will soon begin," he explained. "The procession will skate +round the arena five times, and afterwards most of the characters will +join in a reel--" Here some one called him, and he hastened off. + +Chase, who had received a programme, looked at it in a business-like +way. "Christopher Columbus," he read aloud; "Romeo and Juliet; the +Muses, Calliope, and--and others," he added, glancing down the list. + +His Calliope had rhymed with hope, and a gleam of inward entertainment +showed itself for one instant in the eyes of Etheridge and Larue. Ruth +saw this scintillation; instantly she crossed to Chase's side, as he +still studied the programme, and bending to look at it, said, "Please, +may I see too?" + +"Oh! I thought you had one," said Chase, giving her the sheet of paper. + +"The Muses," read Ruth again, aloud. "Cally-ope," she went on, giving +the word Chase's pronunciation. "And Terp-si-core." She made this name +rhyme with "more." Then, standing beside her new acquaintance, she +glared at the remainder of the party, defiantly. + +Mrs. Franklin was so much overcome by this performance of her daughter's +that she was obliged to turn away to conceal her laughter. + +"What possesses her--the witch!" asked Etheridge, following. + +"It is only because she thinks I don't like him. He has given her those +magnificent roses, and so she intends to stand up for him. I never know +whom she will fancy next. Do look at her now!" + +"I am afraid you have spoiled her," commented Etheridge, but joining in +the mother's laugh himself, as he caught a glimpse of Ruth starting off, +with high-held head and firm step, to walk with Chase round the entire +promenade. + +Owing to this sudden departure, Miss Billy Breeze found herself +unexpectedly alone with Larue. She was so much excited by this state of +things that at first she could hardly speak. How many times, during this +very month, had she arranged with herself exactly what she should say if +such an opportunity should be given her. Her most original ideas, her +most beautiful thoughts (she kept them written out in her diary), +should be summoned to entertain him. The moment had come. And this is +what she actually did say: "Oh!" (giggle), "how pretty it is, isn't it?" +(Giggle.) "Really a most beautiful sight. So interesting to see so many +persons, and all so happy, is it not? I don't know when I've seen +anything lovelier. Yes, indeed--_lovely_. But I hope you won't take +cold, Mr. Larue? Really, now, do be careful. One takes cold so easily; +and then it is sometimes so hard to recover." With despair she heard +herself bringing out these inanities. "I hope you are not in a draught?" +she wandered on. "Colds are _so_ tiresome." + +And now, with a loud burst from the band, the procession issued from an +improvised tent at the end of the building. First came Christopher +Columbus at the head; then Romeo and Juliet; the Muses, three and three; +George Washington and his wife, accompanied by Plato and a shepherdess; +other personages followed, and all were mounted on roller-skates, and +were keeping time to the music as well as they could. Then the rear was +closed by a single American Indian in a complete costume of +copper-colored tights, with tomahawk, war-paint, and feathers. + +This Indian, as he was alone, was conspicuous; and when he skated into +the brighter light, there came from that part of the audience which was +nearest to him, a sound of glee. The sound, however, was instantly +suppressed. But it rose again as he sailed majestically onward, in long +sweeps to the right and the left, his head erect, his tomahawk +brandished; it increased to mirth which could not be stifled. For nature +having given to this brave slender legs, the costume-maker had supplied +a herculean pair of calves, and these appendages had shifted their +position, and were now adorning the front of each limb at the knee, the +chieftain meanwhile remaining unconscious of the accident, and +continuing to perform his part with stateliness at the end of the +skating line. Ruth, with her hands dropping helplessly by her side, +laughed until her mother came to her. Mrs. Franklin herself was laughing +so that she could hardly speak. But Ruth's laughs sometimes were almost +dangerous; they took such complete possession of her. + +"Give her your arm and make her walk up and down," said Mrs. Franklin to +Etheridge. + +And Etheridge took the girl under his charge. + +Chase, who had grinned silently each time the unsuspecting Moose came +into view (for the procession had passed round the arena three times), +now stepped down to the skating-floor as he approached on his fourth +circuit, and stopped him. There was a short conference, and then, amid +peals of mirth, the Moose looked down, and for the first time discovered +the aspect of his knees. Chase signalled to the band to stop. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "this Indian was not aware of his +attractions." (Applause.) + +"But now that he knows what they are, he will take part in the reel +(which he had not intended to do), and he will take part _as he is_! For +the benefit of the Mission, ladies and gentlemen. The hat will be passed +immediately afterwards." Signing to the musicians to go on again, he +conducted the chief to the space which had been left free for the reel, +and then, when the other couples had skated to their places, he led off +with his companion in a sort of quickstep (as he had no skates); and it +is safe to say that North Carolina had never beheld so original a dance +as that which followed (to the inexhaustible "Starry Hours" played as a +jig). Chase and the Indian led and reled. Finally Chase, with his hat +tilted back on his head, and his face extremely solemn, balanced with +his partner, taking so much pains with remarkable fancy steps, which +were immediately imitated by the Indian's embossed legs, that the entire +audience was weak from its continuous mirth. Then removing his hat, +Chase made the rounds, proffering it with cordial invitation to all: +"For the Mission, ladies and gentlemen. For _Big Moose's_ Mission." + +Big Moose, on his way home later (in his clergyman's attire this time), +was so happy that he gave thanks. He would have liked, indeed, to chant +a gloria. For the Mission was very near his heart, and from its +beginning it had been so painfully fettered by poverty that, several +times, he had almost despaired. But now that magic hat had brought to +the struggling little fund more than it had ever dreamed of possessing; +for underneath the dimes and the quarters of Asheville had laid a fat +roll, a veritable Golconda roll of greenbacks. But one person could have +given this roll, namely, the one stranger, Horace Chase. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +Mrs. Franklin was a widow, her husband, Jared Franklin, having died in +1860. Franklin, a handsome, hearty man, who had enjoyed every day of his +life, had owned and edited a well-known newspaper in one of the large +towns on the Hudson River. This paper had brought him in a good income, +which he had spent in his liberal way, year after year. The Franklins +were not extravagant; but they lived generously, and they all had what +they wanted. Their days went on happily, for they were fond of each +other, they had the same sense of humor, and they took life easily, one +and all. But when Jared Franklin died (after a sudden and short +illness), it was found that he at least had taken it too easily; for he +had laid aside nothing, and there were large debts to pay. As he had put +his only son, the younger Jared, into the navy, the newspaper was sold. +But it did not bring in so much as was expected, and the executors were +forced in the end to sell the residence also; when the estate was +finally cleared, the widow found herself left with no home, and, for +income, only the small sum which had come to her from her father, Major +Seymour, of the army. In this condition of things her thoughts turned +towards the South. + +For her mother, Mrs. Seymour, was a Southerner of Huguenot descent, one +of the L'Hommedieu family. And Mrs. Seymour's eldest sister, Miss Dora +L'Hommedieu, had bequeathed to the niece (now Mrs. Franklin), who had +been named after her, all she had to leave. This was not much. But the +queer, obstinate old woman did own two houses, one for the summer among +the mountains of North Carolina, one for the winter in Florida. For she +believed that she owed her remarkable health and longevity to a careful +change of climate twice each year; and, accompanied by an old negress as +cross-grained as herself, she had arrived in turn at each of these +residences for so many seasons that it had seemed as if she would +continue to arrive forever. In 1859, however, her migrations ceased. + +At that date the Franklins were still enjoying their prosperity, and +this legacy of the two ramshackle L'Hommedieu abodes, far away in the +South, was a good deal laughed at by Jared Franklin, who laughed often. +But when, soon afterwards, the blow came, and his widow found herself +homeless and bereft, these houses seemed to beckon to her. They could +not be sold while the war lasted, and even after that great struggle was +over no purchasers appeared. In the meantime they were her own; they +would be a roof, two roofs, over her head; and the milder climate would +be excellent for her invalid daughter Dolly. In addition, their reduced +income would go much further there than here. As soon after the war, +therefore, as it could be arranged, she had made the change, and now for +seven years she had been living in old Dora's abodes, very thankful to +have them. + +Mrs. Franklin herself would have said that they lived in North Carolina; +that their visits to Florida were occasional only. It was true that she +had made every effort to dispose of the Florida place. "For sale--a good +coquina house on the bay," had been a standing advertisement in the St. +Augustine _Press_ year after year. But her hopes had been disappointed, +and as the house still remained hers, she had only once been able to +withstand the temptation of giving Dolly the benefit of the Florida +climate in the winter, little as she could afford the additional +expense; in reality, therefore, they had divided their year much as Miss +L'Hommedieu had divided hers. + +The adjective ramshackle, applied at random by Jared Franklin, had +proved to be appropriate enough as regarded the North Carolina house, +which old Dora had named L'Hommedieu, after herself. L'Hommedieu was a +rambling wooden structure surrounded by verandas; it had been built +originally by a low-country planter who came up to these mountains in +the summer. But old Miss L'Hommedieu had let everything run down; she +had, in truth, no money for repairs. When the place, therefore, came +into the hands of her niece, it was much dilapidated. And in her turn +Mrs. Franklin had done very little in the way of renovation, beyond +stopping the leaks of the roof. Her daughter-in-law, Genevieve, was +distressed by the aspect of everything, both without and within. "You +really ought to have the whole house done over, mamma," she had said +more than once. "If you will watch all the details yourself, it need not +cost so very much: see what I have accomplished at the Cottage. + +"In time, in time," Mrs. Franklin had answered. But in her heart she was +not fond of Genevieve's abode; she preferred the low-ceilinged rooms of +L'Hommedieu, shabby though they might be. These rooms had, in fact, an +air of great cheerfulness. Anthony Etheridge was accustomed to say that +he had never seen anywhere a better collection of easy-chairs. "There +are at least eight with the long seat which holds a man's body +comfortably as far as the knees, as it ought to held; not ending +skimpily half-way between the knee and the hip in the usual miserable +fashion!" Mrs. Franklin had saved three of these chairs from the wreck +of her northern home, and the others had been made, of less expensive +materials, under her own eye. Both she and her husband had by nature a +strong love of ease, and their children had inherited the same +disposition; it could truthfully be said that as a family they made +themselves comfortable, and kept themselves comfortable, all day long. + +They did this at present in the face of obstacles which would have made +some minds forget the very name of comfort. For they were far from their +old home; they were cramped as to money; there was Dolly's suffering to +reckon with; and there was a load of debt. The children, however, were +ignorant in a great measure of this last difficulty; whatever property +there was, belonged to Mrs. Franklin personally, and she kept her cares +to herself. These fresh debts, made after the estate had finally been +cleared, were incurred by the mother's deliberate act--an act of folly +or of beauty, according to the point from which one views it; after her +husband's death she had borrowed money in order to give to her daughter +Dora every possible aid and advantage in her contest with fate--the long +struggle which the girl made to ignore illness, to conquer pain. These +sums had never been repaid, and when the mother thought of them, she was +troubled. But she did not think of them often; when she had succeeded +(with difficulty) in paying the interest each year, she was able to +dismiss the subject from her mind, and return to her old habit of taking +life easily; for neither her father, the army officer, nor her husband, +the liberal-handed editor, had ever taught her with any strictness the +importance of a well-balanced account. Poor Dolly's health had always +been uncertain. But when her childhood was over, her mother's tender +help from minute to minute had kept her up in a determined attempt to +follow the life led by other girls of her age. A mother's love can do +much. But heredity, coming from the past, blind and deaf to all appeal, +does more, and the brave effort failed. The elder Miss Franklin had now +been for years an invalid, and an invalid for whom no improvement could +be expected; sometimes she was able, with the aid of her cane, to take a +walk of a mile's length, or more, and often several weeks would pass in +tolerable comfort; but sooner or later the pain was sure to come on +again, and it was a pain very hard to bear. But although Dolly was an +invalid, she was neither sad nor dull. Both she and her mother were +talkers by nature, and they never seemed to reach the end of their +interest in each other's remarks. Ruth, too, was never tired of +listening and laughing over Dolly's sallies. The whole family, in fact, +had been born gay-hearted, and they were always sufficiently entertained +with their own conversation and their own jokes; on the stormy days, +when they could expect no visitors, they enjoyed life on the whole +rather more than they did when they had guests--though they were fond of +company also. + +One evening, a week after the masquerade at the rink, Mrs. Franklin, +leaning back in her easy-chair with her feet on a footstool, was +peacefully reading a novel, when she was surprised by the entrance of +Miss Breeze; she was surprised because Billy had paid her a visit in the +afternoon. "Yes, I thought I would come in again," began Billy, vaguely. +"I thought perhaps--or rather I thought it would be better--" + +"Take off your bonnet and jacket, won't you?" interposed Ruth. + +"Why, how smart you are, Billy!" remarked Mrs. Franklin, as she noted +her guest's best dress, and the pink ribbon round her throat above the +collar. + +"Yes," began Billy again; "I thought--it seemed better--" + +"Dolly," interrupted Ruth, "get out planchette, and make it write Billy +a love letter!" And she gave her sister a glance which said: "Head her +off! Or she will let it all out." + +Dolly comprehended. She motioned Miss Breeze solemnly to a chair near +her table, and taking the planchette from its box, she arranged the +paper under it. + +"I don't like it! I don't like it!" protested Mrs. Franklin. + +"His Grand, if you don't like it, beat it," said Ruth, jumping up. "Give +it a question too hard to answer. Go to the dining-room and do +something--anything you like. Then planchette shall tell us what it +is--aha!" + +"A good idea," said Mrs. Franklin, significantly. And with her light +step she left the room. The mother was as active as a girl; no one was +ever deterred, therefore, from asking her to rise, or to move about, by +any idea of age. She was tall, with aquiline features, bright dark eyes, +and thick silvery hair. As she was thin, her face showed the lines and +fine wrinkles which at middle age offset a slender waist. But, when she +was animated, these lines disappeared, for at such moments her color +rose, the same beautiful color which Ruth had inherited. + +Dolly sat with her hands on the little heart-shaped board, pondering +what she should say; for her familiar spirit was simply her own quick +invention. But while it would have been easy to mystify Miss Billy, it +was not easy to imagine what her mother, a distinctly hostile element, +might do for the especial purpose of perplexing the medium; for although +Mrs. Franklin knew perfectly well that her daughter invented all of +planchette's replies, she remained nevertheless strongly opposed to even +this pretended occultism. Dolly therefore pondered. But, as she did so, +she was saying to herself that it was useless to ponder, and that she +might as well select something at random, when suddenly there sprang +into her mind a word, a word apropos of nothing at all, and, obeying an +impulse, she wrote it; that is, planchette wrote it under the unseen +propelling power of her long fingers. Then Ruth pushed the board aside, +and they all read the word; it was "grinning." + +"Grinning?" repeated Ruth. "How absurd! Imagine mother grinning!" + +She opened the door, and called, "What did you do, His Grand?" + +"Wishing to expose that very skilful pretender, Miss Dora Franklin, I +did the most unlikely thing I could think of," answered Mrs. Franklin's +voice. "I went to the mirror, and standing in front of it, I grinned at +my own image; grinned like a Cheshire cat." + +Miss Billy looked at Dolly with frightened eyes. Dolly herself was +startled; she crumpled the paper and threw it hastily into the +waste-basket. + +Mrs. Franklin, returning through the hall, was met by Anthony Etheridge, +who had entered without ringing, merely giving a preliminary tap on the +outer door with his walking-stick. Dolly began to talk as soon as they +came in, selecting a subject which had nothing to do with planchette. +For the unconscious knowledge which, of late years, she seemed to +possess, regarding the thoughts in her mother's mind, troubled them +both. + +"Commodore, I have something to tell you. It is for you especially, for +I have long known your secret attachment! From my window, I can see that +field behind the Mackintosh house. Imagine my beholding Maud Muriel +opening the gate this afternoon, crossing to the big bush in the centre, +seating herself behind it, taking a long clay pipe from her pocket, +filling it, lighting it, and smoking it!" + +"No!" exclaimed Etheridge, breaking into a resounding laugh. "Could she +make it go?" + +"Not very well, I think; I took my opera-glass and watched her. Her +face, as she puffed away, was exactly as solemn as it is when she models +her deadly busts." + +"Ho, ho, ho!" roared Etheridge again. "Ladies, excuse me. I have always +thought that girl might be a genius if she could only get drunk! +Perhaps the pipe is a beginning." + +While he was saying this, Horace Chase was ushered in. A moment later +there came another ring, and the Rev. Mr. Hill appeared, followed by +Achilles Larue. + +"Why, I have a party!" said Mrs. Franklin, smiling, as she welcomed the +last comer. + +"Yes, His Grand, it _is_ a party," said Ruth. "Now you may know, since +they are here, and you cannot stop it. I invited them all myself, late +this afternoon; and it is a molasses-candy-pulling; Dolly and I have +arranged it. We did not tell you beforehand, because we knew you would +say it was sticky." + +"Sticky it is," replied Mrs. Franklin. + +"Vilely sticky!" added Etheridge, emphatically. + +"And then we knew, also, that you would say that you could not get up a +supper in so short a time," Ruth went on. "But Zoe has had her sister to +help her, and ever so many nice things are all ready; chicken salad, for +instance; and--listen, His Grand--a long row of macaroon custards, each +cup with _three_ macaroons dissolved in madeira!" And then she intoned +the family chant, Dolly joining in from her easy-chair: + + "Mother Franklin thinks, + That General Jackson, + Jared the Sixth, + Macaroon custards, + And Bishop Carew, + Are per-_fec_-tion!" + +"What does she mean by that?" said Chase to Miss Billy. + +"Oh, it is only one of their jokes; they have so many! Dear Mrs. +Franklin was brought up by her father to admire General Jackson, and +Dolly and Ruth pretend that she thinks he is still at the White House. +And Jared the Sixth means her son, you know. And they say she is fond of +macaroon custards; that is, _fondish_," added Miss Billy, getting in the +"ish" with inward satisfaction. "And she is much attached to Bishop +Carew. But, for that matter, so are we all." + +"A Roman Catholic?" inquired Chase. + +"He is our bishop--the Episcopal Bishop of North Carolina," answered +Miss Breeze, surprised. + +"Oh! I didn't know. I'm a Baptist myself. Or at least my parents were," +explained Chase. + +The kitchen of L'Hommedieu was large and low, with the beams showing +overhead; it had a huge fireplace with an iron crane. This evening a pot +dangled from the crane; it held the boiling molasses, and Zoe, brilliant +in a new scarlet turban in honor of the occasion, was stirring the syrup +with a long-handled spoon. One of the easy-chairs had been brought from +the parlor for Dolly. Malachi Hill seated himself beside her; he seemed +uneasy; he kept his hat in his hand. "I did not know that Mr. Chase was +to be here, Miss Dolly, or I would not have come," he said to his +companion, in an undertone. "I can't think what to make of myself--I'm +becoming a regular cormorant! Strange to say, instead of being satisfied +with all he has given to the Mission, I want more. I keep thinking of +all the good he might do in these mountains if he only knew the facts, +and I have fairly to hold myself in when he is present, to keep from +flattering him and getting further help. Yes, it's as bad as that! +Clergymen, you know, are always accused of paying court to rich men, or +rather to liberal men. For the first time in my life I understand the +danger! It's a dreadful temptation--it is indeed. I really think, Miss +Dolly, that I had better go." + +"No, you needn't; I'll see to you," answered Dolly. "If I notice you +edging up too near him, I'll give a loud ahem. Stay and amuse yourself; +you know you like it." + +And Malachi Hill did like it. In his mission-work he was tirelessly +energetic, self-sacrificing, devoted; on the other hand, he was as fond +of merrymaking as a boy. He pulled the candy with glee, but also with +eager industry, covering platter after platter with his braided sticks. +His only rival in diligence was Chase, who also showed great energy. +Dolly pulled; Mrs. Franklin pulled; even Etheridge helped. Ruth did not +accomplish much, for she stopped too often; but when she did work she +drew out the fragrant strands to a greater length than any one else +attempted, and she made wheels of it, and silhouettes of all the +company, including Mr. Trone. Miss Billy had begun with much interest; +then, seeing that Larue had done nothing beyond arranging the platters +and plates in mathematical order on the table, she stopped, slipped out, +and went up-stairs to wash her hands. When she returned, fortune favored +her; the only vacant seat was one near him, and, after a short +hesitation, she took it. Larue did not speak; he was looking at Ruth, +who was now pulling candy with Horace Chase, drawing out the golden rope +to a yard's length, and throwing the end back to him gayly. + +Finally, when not even the painstaking young missionary could scrape +another drop from the exhausted pot, Dolly, taking her violin, played a +waltz. The uncarpeted floor was tempting, and after all the sticky hands +had been washed, the dancing began--Ruth with Chase, Etheridge with Miss +Billy; then Etheridge with Mrs. Franklin, while Miss Billy returned +quickly to her precious chair. + +"But these dances do not compare with the old ones," said Mrs. Franklin, +when they had paused to let Dolly rest. "There was the mazurka; and the +varsovienne--how pretty that was! La-la-la, la, _la_!" And humming the +tune, she took a step or two lightly. Etheridge, who knew the +varsovienne, joined her. + +"Go on," said Ruth. "I'll whistle it for you." And sitting on the edge +of a table she whistled the tune, while the two dancers circled round +the kitchen, looking extremely well together. + +"Whistling girls, you know," said Chase, warningly. + +He had joined Ruth, and was watching her as she performed her part. She +kept on, undisturbed by his jests, bending her head a little to the +right and to the left in time with the music; her whistling was as clear +as a flute. + +"And then there was the heel-and-toe polka. Surely you remember that, +commodore," pursued Mrs. Franklin, with inward malice. + +For the heel-and-toe was a very ancient memory. It was considered old +when she herself had seen it as a child. + +"Never heard of it in my life," answered Etheridge. "Hum--ha." + +"Oh, I know the heel-and-toe," cried Ruth. "I learned it from mother +ages ago, just for fun. Are you rested, Dolly? Play it, please, and +mother and I will show them." + +Dolly began, and then Mrs. Franklin and Ruth, tall, slender mother, and +tall, slender daughter, each with one arm round the other's waist, and +the remaining arm held curved above the head, danced down the long room +together, taking the steps of the queer Polish dance with charming grace +and precision. + +"Oh, _dear_ Mrs. Franklin, so young and cheerful! So pleasant to see +her, is it not? So lovely! Don't you think so? And dancing is so +interesting in so many ways! Though, of course, there are other +amusements equally to be desired," murmured Miss Billy, incoherently, to +Larue. + +"Now we will have a quadrille, and I will improvise the figures," said +Ruth. "Mother and the commodore; Miss Billy and Mr. Larue; Mr. Chase +with me; and we will take turns in making the fourth couple." + +"Unfortunately, I don't dance," observed Larue. + +"Spoil-sport!" said Ruth, annihilatingly. + +"You got it that time," remarked Chase, condolingly, to the other man. + +"Miss Ruth, I can take the senator's place, if you like," said Malachi +Hill, springing up, good-naturedly. + +Since the termination of the candy-pulling, he had been sitting +contentedly beside Dolly, watching her play, and regaling himself +meanwhile with a stick of the fresh compound, its end carefully +enveloped in a holder of paper. + +"Excellent," said Ruth. "Please take Miss Billy, then." + +Poor Miss Billy, obliged to dance with a misguided clergyman! This time +there was not the excuse of the Mission; it was a real dance. He already +smoked; the next step certainly would be cards and horse-racing! While +she was taking her place, Rinda ushered in a new guest. + +"Maud Muriel--how lucky!" exclaimed Ruth. "You are the very person we +need, for we are trying to get up a quadrille, and have not enough +persons. I know you like to dance?" + +"Yes, I like it very much--for hygienic reasons principally," responded +the new-comer. + +"Please take my place, then," Ruth went on. "This is Mr. Chase, Miss +Maud Mackintosh. Now we will see if our generic geologist and +sensational senator will refuse to dance with _me_." And sinking +suddenly on her knees before Larue, Ruth extended her hands in petition. + +"What is all that she called him, Miss Maud?" inquired Chase, laughing. + +"Miss Mackintosh," said his partner, correctively. "They are only +alliterative adjectives, Mr. Chase, rather indiscriminately applied. +Ruth is apt to be indiscriminate." + +Larue had risen, and Ruth triumphantly led him to his place. He knew +that she was laughing at him; in fact, as he went through the figures +calmly, his partner mimicked him to his face. But he was indifferent +alike to her laughter and her mimicry; what he was noticing was her +beauty. If he had been speaking of her, he would have called her +"prettyish"; but as he was only thinking, he allowed himself to note the +charm of her eyes for the moment, the color in her cheeks and lips. For +he was sure that it was only for the moment. "The coloring is +evanescent," was his mental criticism. "Her beauty will not last. For +she is handsome only when she is happy, and happiness for her means +doing exactly as she pleases, and having her own way unchecked. No woman +can do that forever. By the time she is thirty she may be absolutely +plain." + +Maud Muriel had laid aside her hat and jacket. She possessed a wealth of +beautiful red hair, whose thick mass was combed so tightly back from her +forehead that it made her wink; her much-exposed countenance was not at +all handsome, though her hazel eyes were large, calm, and clear. She was +a spinster of thirty-six--tall and thin, with large bones. And from her +hair to her heels she was abnormally, extraordinarily straight. She +danced with much vigor, scrutinizing Chase, and talking to him in the +intervals between the figures. These intervals, however, were short, for +Ruth improvised with rapidity. Finally she kept them all flying round in +a circle so long that Mrs. Franklin, breathless, signalled that she must +pause. + +"Now we are all hungry," said Ruth. "Zoe, see to the coffee. And, Rinda, +you may make ready here. We won't go to the dining-room, His Grand; it's +much more fun in the kitchen." + +Various inviting dishes were soon arrayed upon a table. And then Ruth, +to pass away the time until the coffee should be ready, began to sing. +All the Franklins sang; Miss Billy had a sweet soprano, Maud Muriel a +resonant contralto, and Malachi Hill a tenor of power; Etheridge, when +he chose, could add bass notes. + + "Hark, the merry merry Christ-Church bells, + One, two, three, four, five, six; + They sound so strong, so wondrous sweet, + And they troll so merrily, merrily." + +Horace Chase took no part in the catch song; he sat looking at the +others. It was the Franklin family who held his attention--the mother +singing with light-hearted animation; Dolly playing her part on her +violin, and singing it also; and Ruth, who, with her hands clasped +behind her head, was carolling like a bird. To Chase's mind it seemed +odd that a woman so old as Mrs. Franklin, a woman with silver hair and +grown-up children, should like to dance and sing. Dolly was certainly a +very "live" invalid! And Ruth--well, Ruth was enchanting. Horace Chase's +nature was always touched by beauty; he was open to its influences, it +had been so from boyhood. What he admired was not regularity of feature, +but simply the seductive sweetness of womanhood. And, young as she was, +Ruth Franklin's face was full of this charm. He looked at her again as +she sat singing the chorus: + + "Hark, the first and second bell, + Ring every day at four and ten"-- + +Then his gaze wandered round the kitchen. From part of the wall the +plastering was gone; it had fallen, and had never been replaced. The +housewives whom he had hitherto known, so he said to himself, would have +preferred to have their walls repaired, and spend less, if necessary, +upon dinners. Suppers, too! (Here he noted the rich array on the kitchen +table.) + +This array was completed presently by the arrival of the coffee, which +filled the room with its fragrant aroma, and the supper was consumed +amid much merriment. When the clock struck twelve, Maud Muriel rose. "I +must be going," she said. "Wilhelmina, I came for you; that is what +brought me. When I learned at the hotel that you were here, I followed +for the purpose of seeing you home." + +"Allow me the pleasure of accompanying you both," said Chase. + +"That is not necessary; I always see to Wilhelmina," answered Miss +Mackintosh, as she put on her hat. + +"Yes; she is so kind," murmured Miss Billy. But Miss Billy in her heart +believed that in some way or other Achilles Larue would yet be her +escort (though he never had been that, or anything else, in all the +years of their acquaintance). He was still in the house, and so was she; +something might happen! + +What happened was that Larue took leave of Mrs. Franklin, and went off +alone. + +Then Billy said to herself: "On the whole, I'm glad he didn't suggest +it. For it is only five minutes' walk to the hotel, and if he had gone +with me it would have counted as a call, and then he needn't have done +anything more for a long time. So I'm glad he did not come. Very." + +"Maud Muriel," demanded Dolly, "why select a _clay_ pipe?" + +"Oh, did you see me?" inquired Miss Mackintosh, composedly. "I use a +clay pipe, Dolly, because it is cleaner; I can always have a new one. +Smoking is said to insure the night's rest, and so I thought it best to +learn it, as my brother's children are singularly active at night. I +have been practising for three weeks, and I generally go to the woods, +where no one can see me. But to-day I did not have time." + +Chase broke into a laugh. Etheridge had emitted another ho, ho, ho! Then +he gave Maud a jovial tap. "My dear young lady, don't go to the woods. +Let _me_ come, with another clay pipe, and be your protector." + +"I have never needed a protector in my life," replied Miss Mackintosh; +"I don't know what that feeling is, commodore. I secrete myself simply +because people might not understand my motives; they might think that I +was secretly given to dissolute courses. Are you ready, Wilhelmina?" + +As the two ladies opened the outer door and stepped forth into the +darkness, Chase, not deterred by the rebuff he had received from the +stalwart virgin, passed her, and offered his arm to the gentler Miss +Billy. And then Malachi Hill, feeling that he must, advanced to offer +himself as escort for the remaining lady. + +"Poor manikin! Do you think I need _you_?" inquired the sculptress +sarcastically, under her breath. + +The young clergyman disappeared. He did not actually run. But he was +round the corner in an astonishingly short space of time. + +Etheridge was the last to take leave. "Well, you made a very merry +party for your bubbling friend," he said to Mrs. Franklin. + +"It wasn't for _him_," she answered. + +"He is not mother's bubbling friend, and he is not Dolly's, either," +said Ruth; "he is mine alone. Mother and Dolly do not in the least +appreciate him." + +"Is he worth much appreciation?" inquired Etheridge, noting her beauty +as Larue had noted it. "How striking she grows!" he thought. And, +forgetting for the moment what they were talking about, he looked at her +as Chase had looked. + +Meanwhile Ruth was answering, girlishly: "Much appreciation? _All_, +commodore--all. Mr. Chase is _splendid_!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Nothing could exceed the charm of the early summer, that year, in this +high valley. The amphitheatre of mountains had taken on fresher robes of +green, the air was like champagne; it would have been difficult to say +which river danced more gayly along its course, the foam-flecked French +Broad, its clear water open to the sunshine, or the little Swannanoa, +frolicking through the forest in the shade. + +One morning, a few days after the candy-pulling at L'Hommedieu, even +Maud Muriel was stirred to admiration as she threw open the blinds of +her bedroom at her usual early hour. "No humidity. And great +rarefaction," she said to herself, as she tried the atmosphere with a +tentative snort. Maud Muriel lived with her brother, Thomas Mackintosh; +that is, she had a room under his roof and a seat at his table. But she +did not spend much time at home, rather to the relief of Mrs. Thomas +Mackintosh, an easy-going Southern woman, with several young children, +including an obstreperous pair of twins. Maud Muriel, dismissing the +landscape, took a conscientious sponge-bath, and went down to breakfast. +After breakfast, on her way to her studio, she stopped for a moment to +see Miss Billy. "At any rate, I _walk_ well," she had often thought +with pride. And to-day, as she approached the hotel, she was so straight +that her shoulders tipped backward. + +Miss Billy was staying at the inn. This hotel bore the name "The Old +North State," the loving title given by native North-Carolinians to +their commonwealth--a commonwealth which, in its small long-settled +towns, its old farms, and in the names of its people, shows less change +in a hundred years than any other portion of the Union. The Old North, +as it was called, was a wooden structure painted white, with outside +blinds of green; in front of it extended a row of magnificent +maple-trees. Miss Billy had a small sitting-room on the second floor; +Maud Muriel, paying no attention to the negro servants, went up the +uncarpeted stairway to her friend's apartment, and, as she opened the +door, she caught sight of this friend carefully rolling a waste bit of +string into a small ball. + +"Too late--I saw you," she said. (For Miss Billy had nervously tried to +hide the ball.) "I know you have at least fifty more little wads of the +same sort somewhere, arranged in graded rows! A new ball of string of +the largest size--enough to last a year--costs a dime, Wilhelmina. You +must have a singularly defective sense of proportion to be willing to +give many minutes (for I have even seen you taking out knots!) to a +substance whose value really amounts to about the thousandth part of a +cent! I have stopped on my way to the barn to tell you two things, +Wilhelmina. One is that I do _not_ like your 'Mountain Walk.'" Here she +took a roll of delicately written manuscript, tied with blue ribbons, +from her pocket, and placed it on the table. "It is supposed to be about +trees, isn't it? But you do not describe a single one with the least +accuracy; all you do is to impute to them various allegorical +sentiments, which no tree--a purely vegetable production--_ever_ had." + +"It was only a beginning--leading up to a study of the pre-Adamite +trees, which I hope to make, later," Miss Billy answered. "Ruskin, you +know--" + +"You need not quote Ruskin to me--a man who criticises sculpture without +any practical knowledge whatever of human anatomy; a man who +subordinates correct drawing in a picture to the virtuous state of mind +of the artist! If Ruskin's theory is true, very good persons who visit +the poor and go to church, are, if they dabble in water-colors, or +pen-and-ink sketches, the greatest of artists, because their piety is +sincere. And _vice versa_. The history of art shows that, doesn't it?" +commented Maud, ironically. "I am sorry to see that you sat up so late +last night, Wilhelmina." + +"Why, how do you know?" said Miss Billy, guiltily conscious of midnight +reading. + +"By the deep line between your eyebrows. You must see to that, or you +will be misjudged by scientific minds. For marked, lined, or wrinkled +foreheads indicate criminal tendencies; the statistics of prisons prove +it. To-night put on two pieces of strong sticking-plaster at the +temples, to draw the skin back. The other thing I had to tell you is +that the result of my inquiries of a friend at the North who keeps in +touch with the latest investigations of Liebeault and the Germans, is, +that there may, after all, be something in the subject you mentioned to +me, namely, the possibility of influencing a person, not present, by +means of an effort of will. So we will try it now--for five minutes. Fix +your eyes steadily upon that figure of the carpet, Wilhelmina"--she +indicated a figure with her parasol--"and I will do the same. As subject +we will take my sister-in-law. We will will her to whip the twins. Are +you ready?" She took out her watch. "Begin, then." + +Miss Billy, though secretly disappointed in the choice of subject, tried +hard to fix her mind upon the proposed castigation. But in spite of her +efforts her thoughts would stray to the carpet itself, to the pattern of +the figure, and its reds and greens. + +"Time's up," announced Maud, replacing her watch in the strong +watch-pocket on the outside of her skirt; "I'll tell you whether the +whipping comes off. Do you think it is decent, Wilhelmina, to be +dressing and undressing yourself whenever you wish to know what time it +is?" (For Miss Billy, who tried to follow the fashions to some extent, +was putting her own watch back in her bodice, which she had unbuttoned +for the purpose.) "Woman will never be the equal of man until she has +grasped the conception that the position of her pockets should be +unchangeable," Maud went on. + +"I think I will go with you as far as L'Hommedieu," suggested Billy, +ignoring the subject of the watch-pocket (an old one). "I have some +books to take, so I may as well." She put on her hat, and piled eight +dilapidated paper-covered volumes on her arm. + +"Are you still collecting vapid literature for that feather-headed +woman?" inquired Maud. For Billy went all over Asheville, to every house +she knew, and probed in old closets and bookcases in search of novels +for Mrs. Franklin. For years she had performed this office. When Mrs. +Franklin had finished reading one set of volumes, Billy carried them +back to their owners, and then roamed and foraged for more. + +"If you do go as far as L'Hommedieu, you must stop there definitely; you +must not go on to the barn," Maud Muriel announced, as they went down +the stairs. "For if you do, you will stay. And then I shall be going +back with you, to see to you. And then you will be coming part way back +with me, to talk. And thus we shall be going home with each other all +the rest of the day!" She passed out and crossed the street, doing it in +the face of the leaders of a team of six horses attached to one of the +huge mountain wagons, which are shaped like boats tilted up behind; for +two files of these wagons, heavily loaded, were coming slowly up the +road. Miss Billy started to cross also, but after three or four steps +she turned and hurried back to the curb-stone. Then suddenly she started +a second time, running first in one direction, then in another, and +finally and unexpectedly in a third, so that the drivers of the wagons +nearest to her, and even the very horses themselves, were filled with +perplexity as to the course which she wished to pursue. Miss Billy, +meanwhile, finding herself hemmed in, began to shriek wildly. The +drivers in front stretched their necks round the corners of the canvas +hoods erected, like gigantic Shaker bonnets, over their high-piled +loads, in order to see what was the matter. And the drivers who were +behind stood up and peered forward. But they could make out nothing, +and, as Miss Billy continued her yells, the whole procession, and with +it the entire traffic of the main street, came slowly to a pause. The +pause was not long. The energetic Maud Muriel, jerking up the heads of +two of the leaders, made a dive, caught hold of her frightened friend, +and drew her out by main strength. The horses whom she had thus +attacked, shook themselves. "Hep!" called their driver. "Hep!" called +the other drivers, in various keys. And then, one by one, with a jerk +and a creak, the great wains started on again. + +When the friends reached L'Hommedieu, Billy was still trembling. + +"I'd better take them in for you," said Maud Muriel, referring to the +load of books which Billy was carrying for her companion. They found +Dolly in the parlor, winding silk for her next pair of stockings. "Here +are some volumes which Wilhelmina is bringing to Mrs. Franklin," said +Maud Muriel, depositing the pile on a table. + +"More novels?" said Dolly. "I'm so glad. Thank you, Miss Billy. For +mother really has nothing for to-day. The one she had yesterday was very +dull; she said she was 'worrying' through it. It was a story about +female suffrage--as though any one could care for that!" + +"Care for it or not, it is sure to come," declared Miss Mackintosh. + +"Yes, in A.D. 5000." + +"Sooner, much sooner. _We_ may not see it," pursued Maud Muriel, putting +up her finger impressively. "But, mark my words, our _children_ will." + +Miss Billy listened to this statement with the deepest interest. + +"Well, Maud Muriel--Miss Billy, yourself, and myself as _parents_--that +certainly is a new idea!" Dolly replied. + +Ruth came in. At the same moment Maud Muriel turned to go; and, +unconsciously, Billy made a motion as if about to follow. + +"Wilhelmina, you are to _stay_," said Maud, sternly, as she departed, +straighter than ever. + +"Yes, Miss Billy, please stay," said Ruth. "I want you to go with me to +see Genevieve." + +"Genevieve?" repeated Dolly, surprised. + +"Yes. She has bought another new dress for me, and this time she is +going to fit it herself, she says, so that there may be no more +bagging," answered Ruth, laughing. "I know she intends to _squeeze_ me +up. And so I want Miss Billy to come and say it's dangerous!" + +Ruth was naturally what is called short-waisted; this gave her the long +step which in a tall, slender woman is so enchantingly graceful. +Genevieve did not appreciate grace of this sort. In her opinion Ruth's +waist was too large. If she had been told that it was the waist of Greek +sculpture, the statement would not have altered her criticism; she had +no admiration for Greek sculpture; the few life-sized casts from antique +statues which she had seen had appeared to her highly unpleasant +objects. Her ideas of feminine shape were derived, in fact, from the +season's fashion plates. Her own costumes were always of one unbroken +tint, the same from head to foot. To men's eyes, therefore, her attire +had an air of great simplicity. Women perceived at once that this +unvarying effect was not obtained without much thought, and Genevieve +herself would have been the last to disclaim such attention. For she +believed that it was each woman's duty to dress as becomingly as was +possible, because it increased her attraction; and the greater her +attraction, the greater her influence. If she had been asked, "influence +for what?" she would have replied unhesitatingly, "influence for good!" +Her view of dress, therefore, being a serious one, she was disturbed by +the entire indifference of her husband's family to the subject, both +generally and in detail. She had the most sincere desire to assist them, +to improve them; most of all she longed to improve Ruth (she had given +up Dolly), and more than once she had denied herself something, and +taken the money it would have cost, to buy a new costume for the +heedless girl, who generally ruined the gifts (in her sister-in-law's +opinion) by careless directions, or no directions at all, to the +Asheville dressmaker. + +Ruth bore Miss Billy away. But as they crossed the garden towards the +cottage she said: "I may as well tell you--there will be no fitting. For +Mr. Chase is there; I have just caught a glimpse of him from the upper +window." + +"Then why go now?" inquired Miss Billy, who at heart was much afraid of +Genevieve. + +"To see Mr. Chase, of course. I wish to thank him for my philopena, +which came late last night. Mother and Dolly are not pleased. But _I_ +am, ever so much." She took a morocco case from her pocket, and, opening +it, disclosed a ring of very delicate workmanship, the gold circlet +hardly more than a thread, and enclosing a diamond, not large, but very +pure and bright. + +"Oh-ooh!" said Miss Billy, with deep admiration. + +"Yes; isn't it lovely? Mother and Dolly say that it is too much. But I +have never seen anything in the world yet which I thought too much! I +should like to have ever so many rings, each set with one gem only, but +that gem perfect. And I should like to have twenty or thirty bracelets, +all of odd patterns, to wear on my arms above the elbow. And I should +like close rows of jewels to wear round my throat. And clasps of jewels +for the belt; and shoe-buckles too. I have never had an ornament, except +one dreadful silver thing. Let me see; it's on now!" And feeling under +her sleeve, she drew off a thin silver circlet, and threw it as far as +she could across the grass. + +"Oh, your pretty bracelet!" exclaimed Miss Billy. + +"Pretty? Horrid!" + +Horace Chase had called at the Cottage in answer to a note from +Genevieve, offering to take him to the Colored Home. "As you have shown +so much kindly interest in the Mission, I feel sure that this second +good work of ours will also please you," she wrote. + +"I think I won't go to-day, Gen, if it's all the same to you," said +Chase, when he entered. "For my horses have come and I ought not to +delay any longer about making some arrangements for them." + +"Any other time will do for the Home," answered Genevieve, graciously. +"But can't you stay for a little while, Horace? Let me show you my +house." + +Chase had already seen her parlor, with its velvet carpet, its set of +furniture covered with green, its pictures arranged according to the +size of the frames, with the largest below on a line with the eye, and +the others above in pyramidical gradations, so that the smallest were +near the cornice. At that distance the subjects of the smaller pictures +were more or less indistinguishable; but at least the arrangement of the +frames was full of symmetry. In the second story, at the end of the +house, was "Jay's smoking-room." "Jay likes to smoke; it is a habit he +acquired in the navy; I have therefore fitted up this room on purpose," +said Jay's wife. + +It was a small chamber, with a sloping ceiling, a single window +overlooking the kitchen roof, oil-cloth on the floor, one table, and one +chair. + +"Do put in _two_ chairs," suggested Chase, jocularly. For though he +thought the husband of Genevieve a fortunate man, he could not say that +his smoking-room was a cheerful place. + +"Oh, _I_ never sit here," answered Genevieve. "Now come down and take a +peep at my kitchen, Horace. I have been kneading the bread; there it is +on the table. I prefer to knead it myself, though I hope that in time +Susannah will be able to do it according to my method" (with a glance +towards the negro servant, who returned no answering smile). "And this +is my garden. I can never tell you how glad I am that we have at last a +fixed home of our own, Horrie. No more wandering about! Jay is able to +spend a large part of his summers here, and, later, when he has made a +little more money, he will come for the whole summer--four months. And I +go to Raleigh to be with him in the winter; I am hoping that we can +have a winter home there too, very soon. We are _so_ much more +comfortable in every way than we used to be. And looking at it from +another point of view, it is inexpressibly better for Jay himself to be +out of the navy. It always disturbed me--such a limited life!" + +Jared Franklin, when an ensign, had met Genevieve Gray, fallen in love +with her, and married her, in the short space of three months. He had +remained in the navy throughout the war, and for two years longer; then, +yielding at last to his wife's urgent entreaties, he had resigned. After +his resignation he had been for a time a clerk in Atlanta. Now he was in +business for himself in a small way at Raleigh; it was upon his +establishment there that Genevieve had started this summer home in +Asheville. "Our prospects are much brighter," she went on, cheerfully; +"for at present we have a future. No one has a future in the navy; no +one can make money there. But now there is no reason why Jay should not +succeed, as other men have succeeded; that is what I always tell him. +And I am not thinking only of ourselves, Horrie, as I say that; when Jay +is a rich man, my principal pleasure in it will be the power which we +shall have to give more in charity, to do more in all good works." And +in saying this, Genevieve Franklin was entirely sincere. + +"You must keep me posted about the railroad," she went on, as she led +the way across the garden. + +"Oh yes; if we decide to take hold of it, you shall be admitted into +the ring," answered Chase--"the inside track." + +"I could buy land here beforehand--quietly, you know?" + +"You've got a capital head for business, haven't you, Gen! Better than +any one has at your mother-in-law's, I reckon?" + +"They are not clever in that way; I have always regretted it. But they +are very amiable." + +"Not that Dolly!" + +"Oh, Dolly? My principal feeling for poor Dolly, of course, is simply +pity. This is my little dairy, Horrie; come in. I have been churning +butter this morning." + +Ruth and Miss Billy, finding no one in the house, had followed to the +dairy; and they entered in time to hear this last phrase. + +"She does churning and everything else, Mr. Chase, at three o'clock in +the morning," said Ruth, with great seriousness. + +"Not quite so early," Genevieve corrected. + +The point was not taken up. The younger Mrs. Franklin, a fresh, strong, +equable creature, who woke at dawn as a child wakes, liked an early +breakfast as a child likes it. She found it difficult, therefore, to +understand her mother-in-law's hour of nine, or half-past nine. "But you +lose so much time, mamma," she had remarked during the first weeks of +her own residence at Asheville. + +"Yes," Dolly answered. (It was always Dolly who answered Genevieve; +Dolly delighted in it.) "We _do_ lose it at that end of the morning--the +raw end, Genevieve. But when we are once up, we remain up, available, +fully awake, get-at-able, until midnight; we do not go off and seclude +ourselves impregnably for two hours or so in the middle of the day." For +Dolly was aware that it was her sister-in-law's habit to retire to her +room immediately after her one o'clock dinner, and take a nap; often a +long one. + +"Do you wish to see something pretty, Genevieve?" said Ruth, giving her +the morocco case. "Thank you, Mr. Chase; I have wanted a ring so long; +you can't think how long!" + +"Have you?" said Chase, smiling. + +"Yes. And this is such a beauty." + +"Well, to me it seemed rather small. I wrote to a friend of mine to get +it; it was my partner, in fact, Mr. Willoughby. I told him that it was +for a young lady. That's his taste, I suppose." + +"The taste is perfect," said Miss Billy. For poor Miss Billy, browbeaten +though she was by almost everybody, possessed a very delicate and true +perception in all such matters. + +"I have been _perfectly_ happy ever since it came," Ruth declared, as +she took the ring, slipped it on her finger, and looked at the effect. + +"You make me proud, Miss Ruth." + +"Don't you want to be a little prouder?" and she came up to him +coaxingly. "I am sure Genevieve has been asking you to go with her to +the Colored Home?" This quick guess made Chase laugh. "For it is the +weekly reception day, and all her old women have on their clean turbans. +The Colored Home is excellent, of course, but it won't fly away; +there'll be more clean turbans next week. Meanwhile, _I_ have something +very pressing. I have long wanted Miss Mackintosh to make a bust of +Petie Trone, Esq. And she won't, because she thinks it is frivolous. But +if _you_ will go with me, Mr. Chase, and speak of it as a fine thing to +do, she will be impressed, I know; for she has a sort of concealed +liking for you." Chase made a grimace. "I don't mean anything fiery," +Ruth went on; "it's only a reasonable scientific interest. She is at the +barn now: won't you come? For Petie Trone, Esq., is not a young dog any +longer. He is more than eight years old," concluded the girl, +mournfully. + +Genevieve, who had been greatly struck by the ring, glanced at Chase +with inward despair, as her sister-in-law made this ineffective +conclusion. They had left the dairy, and were standing in the garden, +and her despair renewed itself as, in the brighter light, she noted +Ruth's faded dress, and the battered garden hat, whose half-detached +feather had been temporarily secured with a large white pin. + +But Chase was not looking at the hat. "Of course I'll go," he answered. +"We'll have the little scamp in bronze, if you like. Don't worry about +his age, Miss Ruth; he is so tremendously lively that he will see us all +out yet." + +"Come, then," said Ruth, exultingly. She linked her arm in Miss Billy's. +"You must go, too, Miss Billy, so that you can tell mother that I did +not tease Mr. Chase _too_ hard." + +Maud Muriel's studio was in an unused hay-barn. Here, ranged on rough +shelves, were her "works," as Miss Billy called them--many studies of +arms, and hands, and a dozen finished portrait-busts in clay. The +subjects of the busts appeared to have been selected, one and all, for +their strictly commonplace aspect; they had not even the distinction of +ugliness. There were three old men with ordinary features, and no marked +expression of any kind; there were six middle-aged women, each with the +type of face which one forgets the moment after seeing it; and there +were three uncompromisingly uninteresting little boys. The modelling was +conscientious, and it was evident in each case that the likeness was +faithful. + +"But Petie Trone, Esq., is a _pretty_ dog," objected the sculptress, +when Ruth had made her request, backed up by Chase, who described the +"dogs and animals of all sorts" which he had seen in bronze and marble +in the galleries abroad. No one laughed, as the formal title came out +from Maud's lips, Asheville had long ago accepted the name; Petie Trone, +Esq., was as well known as Mount Pisgah. + +"Don't you like pretty things?" Chase asked, gazing at the busts, and +then at the studies of arms and hands--scraggy arms with sharp elbows +and thin fingers, withered old arms with clawlike phalanges, lean arms +of growing boys with hands like paws, hard-worked arms with distorted +muscles--every and any human arm and hand save a beautiful one. + +"Prettiness is the exception, not the rule," replied Maud, with +decision. "I prefer to model the usual, the average; for in that +direction, and in that only, lies truth." + +"Yes; and I suppose that if I should make a usual cur of Petie Trone, +Esq., cover him with average mud, and beat him so that he would cower +and slink in his poor little tail, _then_ you would do him?" said Ruth, +indignantly. + +"See here, Miss Mackintosh, your principles needn't be upset by one +small dog. Come, do him; not his bust, but the whole of him. A +life-sized statue," added Chase, laughing; "he must be about eleven +inches long! Do him for me," he went on, boldly, looking at her with +secret amusement; for he had never seen such an oaken bearing as that of +this Asheville spinster. + +Maud Muriel did not relax the tension of her muscles; in fact, she could +not. The condition called "clinched," which with most persons is +occasional only, had with her become chronic. Nevertheless, somehow, she +consented. + +"I'll get the darling this minute," cried Ruth, hurrying out. And Chase +followed her. + +"Well, here you are again! What did I tell you?" said the sculptress to +Miss Billy, when they were left alone. + +"I did not mean to come, Maud Muriel. I really did not intend--" Billy +began. + +"What place, Wilhelmina, is _paved_ with good intentions? Now, of +course, we shall be going home with each other all the rest of the day!" +declared the sculptress, good-humoredly. + +Meanwhile, outside, Ruth was suggesting to Horace Chase, coaxingly, that +he should wait until she could find her dog, and bring him to the barn. +"Because if _you_ are not with me, Maud Muriel will be sure to change +her mind!" + +"Not she. She is no more changeable than a telegraph pole. I am afraid I +must leave you now, Miss Ruth; for the men are waiting to see me about +the horses." + +"Whose horses?" + +"Mine." + +"Did you send for them? Oh, _I_ love horses too. Where are they?" + +"At the Old North stables. So you like horses? I'll drive the pair +round, then, in a day or two, to show them to you." And after shaking +hands with her--Chase always shook hands--he went towards the village; +for Maud Muriel's barn was on the outskirts. In figure he was tall, +thin, and muscular. He never appeared to be in haste; all his movements +were leisurely, even his words coming out with deliberation. His voice +was pitched in a low key; his articulation was extremely distinct; +sometimes, when amused, he had a slight humorous drawl. + +Ruth looked after him for a moment. Then she went in search of her dog. + +A little later Anthony Etheridge paid his usual morning visit to the +post-office. On his return, when near his own abode, he met Horace +Chase. + +"A mail in?" inquired Chase, quickly, as he saw the letters. + +"No; they came last night. _I_ am never in a hurry about mails," +answered Etheridge. "You younger fellows have not learned, as I have, +that among every six letters, say, four at least are sure to be more or +less disagreeable. Well, have you decided? Are you coming to my place?" +For Etheridge had rooms in a private house, where he paid for a whole +wing in order that his night's rest should not be disturbed by other +tenants, who might perhaps bring in young children; with his usual +thriftiness, he had offered his lower floor to Chase. + +"Well, no, I guess not; I'm thinking of coming here," Chase answered, +indicating the hotel near by with a backward turn of his thumb. "My +horses are here; they came last night. I'm making some arrangements for +them, now." + +Anthony Etheridge cared more for a good horse than for anything else in +the world. In spite of his title of Commodore, sailing had only a second +place in his list of tastes. He had commanded a holiday squadron only, a +fleet of yachts. Some years before, he had resigned his commandership +in the Northern club. But he was still a commodore, almost in spite of +himself, for he had again been elected, this time by the winter yacht +club of St. Augustine. At the word "horses" his face had lighted up. +"Can I have a look at them?" he said, eagerly. "Did they stand the +journey well?" + +"O. K. They're round in the stable, if you want to come." + +The three horses were beautiful specimens of their kind. "The pair, I +intend to drive; I found that there was nothing in Asheville, and as I'm +going to stay awhile longer (for the air is bringing me right up), I had +to have something," Chase remarked. "The mare is for riding." + +"She looks like a racer?" + +"Well, she _has_ taken one prize. But I shall never race her again; I +don't care about it. I remember when I thought a race just heaven! When +I wasn't more than nineteen, I took a prize with a trotter; 'twas a very +small race, to be sure; but a big thing to me. Not long after that, +there was another prize offered for a well-matched pair, and by that +time I had a pair--temporarily--bays. One of them, however, had a white +spot on his nose. Well, sir, I painted his nose, and won the premium!" +He broke into a laugh. + +"Was that before you invented the Bubble Baking-powder?" inquired +Etheridge. + +In this question, there was a tinge of superciliousness. Chase did not +suspect it; in his estimation, a baking-powder was as good a means as +anything else, the sole important point being its success. But even if +he had perceived the tinge, it would only have amused him; with his +far-stretching plans--plans which extended across a continent--his large +interests and broad ambitions, criticism from this obscure old man would +have seemed comical. Anthony Etheridge was not so obscure a personage as +Chase fancied. But he was not known in the world of business or of +speculation, and he had very little money. This last fact Chase had +immediately divined. For he recognized in Etheridge a man who would +never have denied himself luxury unless forced to do it, a man who would +never have been at Asheville if he could have afforded Newport; the talk +about "nature undraped" was simply an excuse. And he had discovered also +another secret which no one (save Mrs. Franklin) suspected, namely, that +the handsome commodore was in reality far older than his gallant bearing +would seem to indicate. + +"_I_ didn't invent the Bubble," he had said, explanatorily. "I only +bought it. Then the inventor and I ran it together, in a sort of +partnership, as long as he lived. 'Twas as good as a silver mine for a +while. Nothing could stand against it, sir--nothing." + +But Etheridge was not interested in the Bubble. "I should like greatly +to see your mare go," he said. "Here, boy, isn't that track in the field +in pretty fair condition still?" + +"Yes, boss," answered the negro, whom he had addressed. + +"Why not let her go round it, Chase? It will do her good to stretch her +legs this fine morning." + +Here a shadow in the doorway caused them both to turn their heads. It +was Ruth Franklin. + +"Good heavens, Ruth, what are you doing here in the stables?" asked +Etheridge, astonished. + +"I have come to see the horses," replied Ruth, confidently. She +addressed Chase. She had already learned that she could count upon +indulgence from him, no matter what fancies might seize her. + +"Here they are, then," Chase answered. "Come closer. This is Peter, and +that is Piper. And here is the mare, Kentucky Belle. Your friend, the +commodore, was urging me, as you came in, to send Kentucky round a +race-course you have here somewhere." + +"Yes, I know; the old ring," said Ruth. "Oh, please do! Please have a +real race." + +"But there's nothing to run against her, Miss Ruth. The pair are not +racers." + +"You go to Cyrus Jaycox," said Etheridge to the negro, "and ask him +for--for" (he could not remember the name)--"for the colt," he +concluded, in an enraged voice. + +"Fer Tipkinoo, sah? Yassah." + +"Tell him to come himself." + +"Yassah." The negro started off on a run. + +"It's the landlord of the Old North," Etheridge explained. "He has a +promising colt, Tippecanoe" (he brought it out this time sonorously). +"No match, of course, for your mare, Chase. Still, it will make a little +sport." His color had risen; his face was young with anticipation. "Now, +Ruth, go home; you have seen the horses, and that is enough. Your mother +would be much displeased if she knew you were here." + +For answer, Ruth looked at Chase. "I won't be the least trouble," she +said, winningly. + +"Oh, do be! I like trouble--feel all the better for lots of it," he +answered. "Come along with me. And make all the trouble you can!" + +Three little negro boys, highly excited, had already started off to act +as pilots to the field. Ruth put her hand in Chase's arm; for if the +owner of Kentucky Belle wished to have her with him, or at least if he +had the appearance of wishing it, there was less to be said against her +presence. They led the way, therefore. Then came Chase's man with the +mare, Etheridge keeping close to the beautiful beast, and watching her +gait with critical eyes. All the hangers-on of the stable brought up the +rear. The field, where an amateur race had been held during the +preceding year, was not far distant; its course was a small one. Some +minutes later their group was completed by the arrival of Cyrus Jaycox +with his colt, Tippecanoe. + +"But where is Groves?" said Chase to his men. "Groves is the only one of +you who can ride her properly." It turned out, however, that Groves had +gone to bed ill; he had taken a chill on the journey. + +"I didn't observe that he wasn't here," said Chase. (This was because he +had been talking to Ruth.) "We shall have to postpone it, commodore." + +"Let her go round with one of the other men just once, to show her +action," Etheridge urged. + +"Yes, please, please," said Ruth. + +The mare, therefore, went round the course with the groom Cartright, +followed by the Asheville colt, ridden by a little negro boy, who clung +on with grins and goggling eyes. + +"There is Mr. Hill, watching us over the fence," said Ruth. "How +astonished he looks!" And she beckoned to the distant figure. + +Malachi Hill, who had been up the mountain to pay a visit to a family in +bereavement, had recognized them, and stopped his horse in the road to +see what was going on. In response to Ruth's invitation, he found a +gate, opened it by leaning from his saddle, and came across to join +them. As he rode up, Etheridge was urging another round. "If I were not +such a heavy weight, I'd ride the mare myself!" he declared, with +enthusiasm. Cyrus Jaycox offered a second little negro, as jockey. But +Chase preferred to trust Cartright, unfitted though he was. In reality +he consented not on account of the urgency of Etheridge, but solely to +please the girl by his side. + +There was trouble about this second start; the colt, not having been +trained, boggled and balked. Kentucky Belle, on her side, could not +comprehend such awkwardness. "I'll go a few paces with them, just to get +them well off," suggested Malachi Hill. And, touching Daniel with his +whip, he rode forward, coming up behind the other two. + +Mr. Hill's Daniel was the laughing-stock of the irreverent; he was a +very tall, ancient horse, lean and rawboned, with a rat tail. But he +must have had a spark of youthful fire left in him somewhere, or else a +long-thwarted ambition, for he made more than the start which his rider +had intended; breaking into a pounding pace, he went round the entire +course, in spite of the clergyman's efforts to pull him up. The mare, +hearing the thundering sound of his advance behind her, began to go +faster. Old Daniel passed the Asheville colt as though he were nothing +at all; then, stretching out his gaunt head, he went in pursuit of the +steed in front like a mad creature, the dust of the ring rising in +clouds behind him. Nothing could now stop either horse. Cartright was +powerless with Kentucky Belle, and Daniel paid no heed to his rider. +But, the second time round, it was not quite clear whether the clergyman +was trying to stop or not. The third time there was no question--he +would not have stopped for the world; his flushed face showed the +deepest delight. + +Meanwhile people had collected as flies collect round honey; the negroes +who lived in the shanties behind the Old North had come running to the +scene in a body, the big children "toting" the little ones; and down the +lane which led from the main street had rushed all the whites within +call, led by the postmaster himself, a veteran of the Mexican War. After +the fourth round, Kentucky Belle decided to stop of her own accord. She +was, of course, ahead. But not very far behind her, still thundering +along with his rat tail held stiffly out, came old Daniel, in his turn +ahead of Tippecanoe. + +As Daniel drew near, exhausted but still ardent, there rose loud +laughter and cheers. "Good gracious!" murmured the missionary, as he +quickly dismounted, pulled his hat straight, and involuntarily tried to +hide himself between Etheridge and Chase. "What _have_ I done!" + +His perturbation was genuine. "Come along," said Chase, who had been +laughing uproariously himself; "we'll protect you." He gave his arm to +Mr. Hill, and with Ruth (who still kept her hold tightly) on his left, +he made with his two companions a stately progress back to the hotel, +followed by the mare led by Cartright, with Etheridge as body-guard; +then by Cyrus Jaycox, with Tippecanoe; and finally by all the +spectators, who now numbered nearly a hundred. But at the head of the +whole file (Chase insisted upon this) marched old Daniel, led by the +other groom. + +"Go round to the front," called Chase. And round they all went to the +main street, amid the hurrahs of the accompanying crowd, white and +black. At the door of the Old North, Ruth escaped and took refuge +within, accompanied by the troubled clergyman; and a moment later Chase +and Etheridge followed. Ruth had led the way to Miss Billy's +sitting-room. Miss Billy received her guests with wonder; Maud Muriel +was with her (for her prophecy had come true; the two had already begun +the "going home" with each other). + +"We have had the most exciting race, Miss Billy," explained Ruth. "A +real horse-race round the old track out in the field. And Mr. Hill came +in second on Daniel!" + +The eyes of Miss Billy, turning to the clergyman with horror, moved +Chase to fresh laughter. "I say--why not all stay and dine with me?" he +suggested. "To celebrate Daniel's triumph, you know? I am coming here to +stay, so I might as well begin. The dinner hour is two o'clock, and it +is almost that now. We can have a table to ourselves, and perhaps they +can find us some champagne." + +"That will be great fun; _I'll_ stay," said Ruth. "And the commodore +will, I'm sure. Mr. Hill, too." + +"Thanks, no. I must go. Good-day," said the missionary, hastening out. + +Chase pursued him. "Why, you are the hero of the whole thing," he said; +"the man of the hour! We can't bring old Daniel into the dining-room. So +we must have you, Hill." + +"I am sorry to spoil it; but you will have to excuse me," answered the +other man, hurriedly. Then, with an outburst of confidence: "It is +impossible for me to remain where Miss Mackintosh is present. There is +something perfectly awful to me, Mr. Chase, in that woman's eye!" + +"Is that all? Come back; I'll see to her," responded Chase. And see to +her he did. Aided by Etheridge, who liked nothing better than to assail +the sculptress with lovelorn compliments, Chase paid Maud Muriel such +devoted attention that for the moment she forgot poor Hill, or rather +she left him to himself. He was able, therefore, to eat his dinner. But +he still said, mutely, "Good gracious!" and, taking out his +handkerchief, he furtively wiped his brow. + +The Old North had provided for its patrons that day roast beef, spring +chickens, new potatoes, and apple puddings. All the diners at the other +tables asked for "a dish of gravy." A saucer containing gravy was then +brought and placed by the side of each plate. Small hot buscuits were +offered instead of bread, and eaten with the golden mountain butter. +Mrs. Jaycox, stimulated by the liberal order for champagne, sent to +Chase's table the additional splendors of three kinds of fresh cake, +peach preserves, and a glass jug of cream. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +The spring deepened into summer, and July opened. On the 10th, the +sojourners at the Warm Springs, the beautiful pools that well up in the +valley of the French Broad River, were assembled on the veranda of the +rambling wooden hotel, after their six o'clock supper, when they saw two +carriages approaching. "Phew! who can they be?" "What horses!" + +The horses were indeed remarkably handsome--two bays and a +lighter-limbed pair of sorrels; in addition there was a mounted groom. +The housekeeper, who had come out on the veranda, mentioned in a low +tone that a second groom had arrived, three hours earlier, to engage +rooms for the party, and make preparations. "They are to have supper by +themselves, later; we're to do our best. Extras have been ordered, and +they've sent all sorts of supplies. And champagne!" + +"Chase, did you say the name was? That's a hoax. It's General Grant +himself, I reckon, coming along yere like a conqueror in disguise," said +a wag. + +The bays were Horace Chase's Peter and Piper, attached to a two-seated +carriage which was a model as regarded comfort; Anthony Etheridge was +driving, and with him were Mrs. Franklin, Dolly, and Ruth. Horace Chase +himself, in a light vehicle for two, which he called his cart, had the +sorrels. His companion was a gaunt, dark man, who looked as though he +had been ill. This man was Mrs. Franklin's son Jared. + +Franklin had been stricken by that disheartening malady which is formed +by the union of fever and ague. After bearing it for several weeks, and +sending no tidings of his condition to his family (for he considered it +a rather unmasculine ailment), he had journeyed to Asheville with the +last remnants of his strength, and arriving by stage, and finding no one +at the cottage (for it was his wife's day at the Colored Home), he had +come with uncertain steps across the field to L'Hommedieu, entering the +parlor like a yellow spectre, his eyes sunken, his mind slightly +wandering. "Ye-es, here I am," he said, vaguely. "I was coming next +week, you know. But I--I didn't feel well. And so I've--come now." + +His mother had given a cry; then, with an instinctive movement, her tall +figure looking taller than ever, she had rushed forward and clasped her +dazed, fever-stricken son in her arms. + +The mountain air, prompt remedies, and the vigilant nursing of +Genevieve, soon routed the insidious foes. Routed them, that is, for the +moment; for their strength lies in stealthy returns; as Jared said (he +made jokes even at the worst stages), they never know when they are +beaten. But as soon as there was even a truce, their victim, though +still yellow and weak, announced that he must return to his business +immediately. + +"But I thought you spent your summers here, Mr. Franklin?" remarked +Horace Chase, inquiringly. + +"Yes, that is the plan, and I have been here a good deal for the past +three seasons. But this year I can't stay," Jared answered. + +This was said at L'Hommedieu. Ruth was sitting beside her brother on the +sofa, her arm in his. "But you must stay," she protested. "You are not +strong yet; you are not strong at all." She put her other arm across his +breast, as if to keep him. "I shall not let you go!" + +Jared Franklin was tall and broad-shouldered, with dark eyes whose +expression was always sad. In spite of this sadness, he had Dolly's +habit of making jocular remarks. But he had not Dolly's sharpness; where +she was sarcastic, the brother was only ironical. In looks Jared did not +resemble his mother or Dolly. But there was a strong likeness between +his face and Ruth's; they had the same contours, the same mouth. + +While Ruth was protesting, Mrs. Franklin, making no pretence of busying +herself with anything, not even with lamplighters, sat looking at her +son with eyes which seemed to have grown larger, owing to the depth of +love within them. Chase, who had happened to be at L'Hommedieu when +Jared arrived, had never forgotten that rush of the mother--the mother +whose easy indolence he had, up to that moment, condemned. So now he +said, with his slight drawl: "Oh, you want to give the fever another +round of shot before you go back, Mr. Franklin. Why not take a few days +more, and drive with me over the Great Smokies into Tennessee?" And the +result was the party already described. + +The evening before the start, Ruth had come out on the veranda of +L'Hommedieu. Chase and her brother had been smoking there (for Jared had +not shown any deep attachment to his smoking-room), and Dolly, who loved +the aroma of cigars, had seated herself near them. Jared had now +strolled off with his mother, and Genevieve, coming over from the +cottage, had taken her husband's place. As she approached, Chase had +extinguished his cigar and tossed it into the grass; for tobacco smoke +always gave the younger Mrs. Franklin a headache. + +Ruth had walked up to Chase's chair. "No, please don't rise; I am only +looking at you, Mr. Chase. You are so wonderful!" + +"Now don't be _too_ hard on me!" interposed the visitor, humorously. + +"First, you are making my brother take this long drive," Ruth went on; +"the very thing of all others that will do him good--and I could go down +on my knees to you just for that! Then you have sent for that easy +carriage, so that Dolly can go, too. Then you are taking _me_. The +commodore also, who would rather drive Peter and Piper than go to +heaven! I have always wanted to see somebody who could do _everything_. +It must be very nice to have money," she concluded, reflectively. + +"And to do so much good with it," added Genevieve. Genevieve had +insisted that her mother-in-law should take the fourth place in the +carriage; for the drive would be excellent for Mrs. Franklin, who was +far from strong; whereas, for herself, as she was in perfect health, no +change was necessary. Genevieve might have mentioned, also, that she had +had change enough for her whole life, and to spare, during the years +which her husband had spent in the navy; for the younger Mrs. Franklin +did not enjoy varying scenes. A house of her own and everything in it +hers; prearranged occupations, all useful or beneficent, following each +other regularly in an unbroken round; a leading place in the management +of charitable institutions; the writing and despatching of letters, +asking for contributions to these institutions; the general supervision +of the clergy, with an eye to dangerous ritualistic tendencies; the +conscientious endeavor to tell her friends on all occasions what they +ought to do (Genevieve was never angry when they disagreed with her, she +only pitied them. There was, in fact, no one she knew whom she had not +felt herself competent, at one time or another, to pity)--all this gave +her the sense of doing good. And to Genevieve that was more precious +than all else--the feeling that she was doing good. "Ruth is right; it +must be enchanting to have money," she went on. "I have often planned +what I should do myself if I had a fortune. I think I may say that I can +direct, administer; I have never seen or read of any charitable +institution, refuge, hospital, home, asylum, or whatever it may be, +which seemed too large or too complicated for me to undertake. On the +contrary, I know I should like it; I feel that I have that sort of +capacity." Her face kindled as she spoke; her genius (for she had a +genius, that of directorship) was stirring within her. + +"You certainly have one part of the capacity, and that is the +despotism," remarked Dolly, laughing. "The other members of your Board +of Managers for the Colored Home, for instance--Mrs. Baxter, Miss Wynne, +Miss Kent--they haven't a voice in even the smallest matter, poor souls! +You rule them with a rod of iron--all for their good, no doubt." + +"As it is," continued the younger Mrs. Franklin, combating not Dolly's +sarcasms (to which she had paid no attention), but her own sincere +longings--"as it is, I cannot build a hospital at present, though I +don't give up hope for the future. But I can at least give my prayers to +all, and that I do; I never ring a door-bell without offering an inward +petition that something I may say will help those whom I shall see when +I go in." + +"Now that's generous," commented Dolly. "But don't be too unselfish, +Genevieve; think of yourself occasionally; why not pray that something +_they_ may say will be a help to _you_?" + +After the arrival of his party at the Warm Springs, Chase devoted a +half-hour to a brief but exhaustive examination of the site, the pool, +and the buildings. "When we have made a Tyrol of Buncombe, we'll annex +this place as a sort of Baden-Baden," he said. "Thirty-five miles from +Asheville--that will just do. Ever tried the baths, commodore?" + +"You must apply to somebody who has rheumatism, Mr. Chase," answered +Etheridge, loftily. + +"The pool has an abundant supply at a temperature of 104 Fahrenheit," +Chase went on, with the gleam of a smile showing itself in his eyes for +a moment (for the commodore's air of youth always amused him; it was so +determined). "Baden-Baden was one of the prettiest little places I saw +over there, on the other side of the big pond. They've taken lots of +pains to lay out a promenade along a stream, and the stream is about as +big as one from a garden-hose! But here there could be a walk worth +something--along this French Broad." + +They were strolling near the river in the red light of the sunset. +"Their forest that they talk about, their Black Forest, is all guarded +and patrolled," Chase continued; "every tree counted! I don't call that +a forest at all. Now _these_ woods are perfectly wild. Why--they're as +wild as Noah!" + +"Don't you mean old as Noah?" inquired Ruth, laughing. + +"Certainly not," commented Jared. "Noah was extremely wild. And not in +his youth only; in his age as well." + +"The first thing, however, would be the roads," Chase went on. "I never +thought I should have to take a back seat about the United States of +America! But I returned from Europe singing small, I can tell you, about +our roads. Talk about the difficulty of making 'em? Go and look at +Switzerland!" + +"By all means," said Ruth, promptly. "Only tell us how, Mr. Chase. We'll +go at once." She was walking with her brother, her hat dangling by its +elastic cord from her arm. + +Chase came out of his plans. "So you want to see Switzerland, do you?" +he said, in an indulgent tone. + +Ruth lifted her hat, and made with it a gesture which took in the entire +horizon. "I wish to see everything in the world!" Jared took her hat +away from her, put it on her head and secured it, or tried to secure it. +"Will you take me, Jared? I mean some day?" she said, as he bungled with +the cord, endeavoring to get it over her hair. "That's not the way." She +unbuttoned the loop and adjusted it. It was a straw hat (thanks to +Genevieve, a new one), which shaded her face, but left free, behind, the +thick braids which covered her small head from crown to throat. + +"Once, pussy, I might have answered yes. But now I'm not so sure," +replied Jared, rather gloomily. + +"I don't want to go, I wasn't in earnest; I only want to stay where you +are," exclaimed his young sister, her mood changing. "But if only you +had never left the navy! If only you were not tied down in that horrid, +horrid Raleigh!" + +"Is Raleigh so very horrid?" inquired Chase. + +"Any place is horrid that keeps Jared shut up in a warehouse all day," +announced Ruth, indignantly. + +Mrs. Franklin, who was behind with Etheridge, came forward, took Ruth's +arm, and led her back. + +"She is sorry that you left the service?" Chase inquired of the brother. + +Ruth overheard this question. "Jared was always well when he was in the +navy," she called out. "No, His Grand, I _will_ say it: he was always +well, and he was happy too; Dolly has told me so. Now he is never well; +he is growing so thin that I can't bear to see it. And as for +happiness--he is _miserable_!" Her voice broke; she stood still, her +breast heaving. + +Jared strolled on, his hands in the pockets of his flannel coat. "It's +nothing," he said to Chase, who was looking back; "she'll get over it in +a moment. She says whatever comes into her head; we have spoiled her, I +suppose. She was so much younger, you see; the last of my mother's six +children. And the three who came before her had died in infancy, so +there was a great to-do when this one lived." + +Chase glanced back a second time. Ruth, Mrs. Franklin, and Etheridge had +turned, and were going towards the hotel. "She appears to wish that you +had remained in the navy; isn't that rather odd?" he inquired, the idea +in his mind being simply the facilities that existed for seeing this +idolized brother, now that Raleigh was his home instead of the ocean. + +"Odd?" repeated Jared. And his tone had such a strange vibration that +his companion turned and looked at him. + +They continued their walk for an hour longer. When they came back, they +found the commodore seated on the veranda of the cottage which had been +arranged for their use by Chase's courier. Ruth and Mrs. Franklin were +his companions, and Dolly was also there, resting on a sofa which had +been rolled out from the room behind. Chase and Jared lighted cigars; +Etheridge took out a cigarette. + +"Now if we only had Maud Muriel with her long clay pipe!" said Ruth. +There was no trace of trouble left in her voice; she had drawn her chair +close to her brother's, and seated herself contentedly. + +"It's to the pipe you owe the very clever likeness she has made of your +scamp of a dog," remarked Etheridge. "The smoking relaxed her a little, +without her knowing it, and so she didn't confine herself, as she +usually does, to the purely commonplace side." + +"Petie! A _commonplace_ side!" protested Ruth. + +"She now wishes _me_ to sit to her," said Mrs. Franklin; "for my +wrinkles have grown so deep lately that she is sure she can make +something satisfactorily hideous. Oh, I don't mind the wrinkles, Mr. +Chase!" (for Chase had begun to say, "Not at all, ma'am"). "I received +my quietus long ago. When I was not quite forty, there was some question +about a particular dress-maker whom I wished to see at McCreery's. 'Was +she an _old_ woman?' inquired an assistant. 'We have only one _old_ +fitter.' It proved to be the person I meant. She was of my own age. The +same year I asked a young friend about a party which he had attended the +night before. 'Dreadfully dull,' he answered. 'Nobody there but old +frumps.' And the old frumps (as I happened to know) were simply twenty +or thirty of my contemporaries." + +"Yes, it's hard; I have often thought so!" said Etheridge, with +conviction. "Men, you see, have no age. But nothing saves a woman." + +"Yes, one thing--namely, to look like a sheep," replied Mrs. Franklin. +"If a woman wishes her face to remain young, she must cultivate calm, +and even stolidity; she must banish changing expressions; she must give +her facial muscles many hours, daily, of absolute repose. Most of my +wrinkles have been caused by my wretched habit of contorting my poor +thin slave of a face, partly of course to show my intelligence and +appreciation, but really, also, in a large measure from sympathy. I have +smiled unflinchingly at other people's jokes, looked sad for their +griefs, angry for their injuries; I have raised my eyebrows to my hair +over their surprises, and knitted my forehead into knots over their +mysteries; in short, I have never ceased to grimace. However, even to +the sheep-women there comes the fatal moment when their cheeks begin to +look like those of an old baby," she concluded, laughing. + +Dolly, for once untalkative, had not paid attention to this +conversation; the moon had risen, and she had been watching its radiance +descend slowly and make a silver path across the river. It was so +beautiful! And (a rare occurrence with Dolly) it led her to think of +herself. "How I should have enjoyed, enjoyed, _enjoyed_ everything if I +had only been well!" Even the tenderly loving mother could not have +comprehended fully her daughter's heart at that moment. For Mrs. +Franklin had had her part, such as it was, on the stage of human +existence, and had played it. But Dolly's regret was for a life unlived. +"How enchantingly lovely!" she murmured aloud, looking at the moonlit +water. + +"Yes," said Etheridge; "and its greatest beauty is that it's primeval. +Larue, I suppose, would call it primevalish!" + +"I had thought of asking the senator to come along with us," observed +Chase. + +"In a sedan-chair?" inquired Etheridge. "I don't think you know what a +petrified squam-doodle he is!" + +"No, I can't say I do. I only know he's a senator, and we want some +senators. To boom our Tyrol, you know. Generals, too. Cottages might be +put up at pleasant points near Asheville--on Beaucatcher, for +instance--and presented to half a dozen of the best-known Southern +generals? What do you say to that?" + +"Generals as much as you like; but when you and the Willoughbys spread +your nets for senators, do select better specimens than Achilles Larue! +He is only in the place temporarily at best; he'll be kicked out soon. +He succeeded the celebrated old senator who had represented this state +for years, and was as well known here, he and his trunk, as the +mountains themselves. When he resigned, there happened to be no one of +the right sort ready in the political field. Larue was here, he was a +college-bred man, and he had some reputation as an author (he has +written a dreadfully dull book, _The Blue Ridge in the Glacial Period_). +He had a little money, too, and that was in his favor. So they put him +in; and now they wish they hadn't! He has no magnetism, no go; nothing +but his tiresome drawing-copy profile and his good clothes. You say you +don't know what sort of a person he is? He is a decrier, sir; nothing +ever fully pleases him. His opinions on all subjects are so clipped to +the bone, so closely shaved and denuded, that they are like the plucked +chickens, blue and skinny, that one sees for sale at a stall. Achilles +Larue never smokes. On the hottest day Achilles Larue remains clammily +cold. He has no appreciation of a good dinner; he lives on salt mackerel +and digestive crackers. Finally, to sum him up, he is a man, sir, who +can neither ride nor drive--a man who knows nothing whatever about a +horse! What do you suppose he asked me, when I was looking at a +Blue-Grass pacer last year? 'Does he possess endurance?' Yes--actually +those words of a _horse_! 'Does he possess endurance?'" repeated +Etheridge, pursing up his lips and pronouncing the syllables in a +mincing tone. + +"You say he has nothing but his drawing-copy profile and his good +clothes," remarked Dolly. "But he has something more, commodore: the +devotion of Mrs. Kip and Miss Billy Breeze." + +Etheridge looked discomfited. + +"_Two_ ladies?" said Chase. "Why, he's in luck! Bachelor, I suppose?" + +"He is a widower," answered Mrs. Franklin. "His wife happened to have +been a fool. He now believes that all women are idiots." + +"He is a man who has never written, and who never will write, a book +that stands on its own feet, whether good or bad; but only books _about_ +books," grumbled Etheridge. "He has merely the commentator's mind. His +views on the Glacial Period are all borrowed. He can't be original even +about an iceberg!" + +"The ladies I have mentioned think that his originality is his strongest +point," objected Dolly. "He produces great effects by describing some +one in this way, for instance: 'He had small eyes and a grin. He was +remarkably handsome.' This leaves them open-mouthed. But Miss Billy +herself, as she stands, is his greatest effect; she was never outlined +in very vivid hues, and now she has so effaced herself, rubbed herself +out, as it were (from fear lest he should call her 'sensational'), that +she is like a skeleton leaf. She has the greatest desire to be +'delicate,' extremely delicate, in everything that she does; and she +tries to sing, therefore, with so much expression that it's all +expression and very little singing! 'Coarse!'--that is to her the most +terrible word in the whole vocabulary. I asked her once whether her +horned tryceratops, with his seventy-five feet of length, might not have +been a little coarse in his manners." + +"I declare I'll never go to see the woman again; she _is_ such a goose!" +exclaimed Etheridge, angrily. + +Jared laughed. And then his mother laughed also, happy to see him +amused. But at the same time she was thinking: "You may not go to see +Billy. But, dear me! you will come to see _us_ forever and forever!" And +she had a weary vision of Etheridge, entering with his "hum-ha," and his +air of youth, five or six times a week as long as she lived. + +"Commodore," said Dolly, "you may not go to see Miss Breeze. But I am +sure you will come to see _us_, with your cheerful hum-ha, and your +youthful face, as long as we live." + +Mrs. Franklin passed her hand over her forehead. "There it is again!" +she thought. For, strangely often, Dolly would give voice to the very +ideas that were passing through her mother's mind at the moment. At +L'Hommedieu the two would fall into silence sometimes, and remain +silent for a half-hour, one with her embroidery, the other with her +knitting. And then when Dolly spoke at last, it would be of the exact +subject which was in her mother's mind. Mrs. Franklin no longer +exclaimed: "How could you know I was thinking of that!" It happened too +often. She herself never divined Dolly's thoughts. It was Dolly who +divined hers, most of the time unconsciously. + +Meanwhile Etheridge had replied, in a reassuring voice: "Well, Dolly, +I'll do my best; you may count upon _that_." And then Ruth, leaning her +head against her brother's arm so that her face was hidden, laughed +silently. + +From the Warm Springs they drove over the Great Smoky Mountains into +Tennessee. Then returning, making no haste, they climbed slowly up again +among the peaks. At the top of the pass they paused to gaze at the +far-stretching view--Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, +South Carolina, and Georgia; on the west, the Cumberland ranges sloping +towards Chattanooga; in the east, the crowded summits of the Blue Ridge, +their hue an unchanging azure; the Black Mountains with Mitchell, the +Cat-tail Peak, the Balsams, the Hairy Bear, the Big Craggy, Great +Pisgah, the Grandfather, and many more. The brilliant sunshine and the +crystalline atmosphere revealed every detail--the golden and red tints +of the gigantic bald cliffs near them, the foliage of every tree; the +farm-houses like white dots thousands of feet below. Up here at the top +of the pass there were no clearings visible; for long miles in every +direction the forest held unbroken sway, filling the gorges like a leafy +ocean, and sweeping up to the surrounding summits in the darker tints of +the black balsams. The air was filled with delicate wild odors, a +fragrance which is like no other--the breath of a virgin forest. + +"And you want to put a railroad here?" broke out Dolly, suddenly. She +addressed Horace Chase, who had drawn up his sorrels beside the +carriage. + +"Oh no, Miss Dolly; it can't get up so high, you know," he answered, not +comprehending her dislike. "It will have to go through down below; +tunnels." + +"The principal objection I have to your railroad, Chase, is that it will +bring railroad good-byes to this uncorrupted neighborhood," said Jared. +"For there will be, of course, a station. And people will have to go +there to see their friends off. The train will always be late in +starting; then the heretofore sincere Ashevillians will be driven to all +the usual exaggerations and falsities to fill the eternal time; they +will have to repeat the same things over and over, stand first on one +leg and then on the other, and smile until they are absolute clowns. +Meanwhile their departing friends will be obliged to lean out of the +car-windows in return, and repeat inanities and grin, until they too are +perfectly haggard." Jared was now seated beside Etheridge; he had given +up his place in the cart to Ruth for an hour or two. Several times Mrs. +Franklin herself had tried the cart. She was very happy, for Jared had +undoubtedly gained strength; there was a faint color in his cheeks, and +his face looked less worn, his eyes a little less dreary. + +"How I should like to see _all_ the mountains!" exclaimed Ruth, +suddenly, looking at the crowded circle of peaks. + +"Well--I suppose there are some sort of roads?" Chase answered. + +"Put the two pairs together and make a four-in-hand," suggested +Etheridge, eagerly. "Then we might drive down Transylvania way. When I +wasn't more than eighteen I often drove a four-in-hand over +the--the--the range up there where I was born," he concluded, with fresh +inward disgust over the forgotten name. + +"The Green Mountains," said Mrs. Franklin. + +"Not at all. The Catskills," Etheridge answered, curtly. His birthplace +was Rutland, Vermont. But on principle he never acknowledged a forgotten +title. + +"This is the country of the moonshiners, isn't it?" asked Chase, his +keen eyes glancing down a wild gorge. + +"The young lady beside you can tell about that," Etheridge answered. + +Chase turned to Ruth, surprised. The color was leaving her face. "Yes, I +_did_ see; I saw a man shot!" she said, her dark-fringed blue eyes +lifted to his with an awe-struck expression. "It was at Crumb's, the +house where we stayed the first night, you know. I was standing at the +door. A man came running along the road, trying to reach the house. +Behind him, not more than ten feet distant, came another man, also +running. He held a pistol at arm's-length. He fired twice. After the +first shot, the man in front still ran. After the second, he staggered +along for a step or two, and then fell. And the other man disappeared." +These short sentences came out in whispered tones; when she finished, +her face was blanched. + +"You ought not to have seen it. You ought not to have told me," said +Chase, giving an indignant glance towards the carriage; he thought they +should have prevented the narration. + +"Oh, don't be disturbed, Mr. Chase," said Dolly, looking at him from her +cushions with an amused smile. "The balls were extracted, and the man is +now in excellent health. Ruth has a way of turning perfectly white and +then enormously red on all occasions. She was much whiter last week when +it was supposed that Petie Trone, Esq., had inflammation of the lungs." + +And Ruth herself was already laughing again, and the red had returned. + +"It was a revenue detective," explained Mrs. Franklin; "I mean the man +who was shot. The mountaineers have always made whiskey, and they think +that they have a right to make it; they look upon the detectives as +spies." + +But Chase had no sympathy for moonshiners; he was on the side of law and +order. "The government should send up troops," he said. "What else are +they for?" + +"It is not the business of the army to hunt out illicit stills," replied +Jared Franklin, all the ex-officer in his haughty tone. + +"Well, maybe not; you see I'm only a civilian myself," remarked Chase, +in a pacific voice. "Shall we go on?" + +They started down the eastern slope. When the cart was at some distance +in front, Ruth said: "Oh, Mr. Chase, thank you for answering so +good-naturedly. My brother has in reality a sweet temper. But lately he +has been so out of sorts, so unhappy." + +"Yes, I am beginning to understand about that, Miss Ruth; I didn't at +first. It's a great pity. Perhaps something can be done?" + +"No; he can't get back into the navy now," said Ruth, sadly. + +"But a change of some kind might be arranged," answered Chase, touching +the off horse. + +At the base of the mountains they followed the river road again, a rocky +track, sometimes almost in the water, under towering cliffs that rose +steeply, their summits leaning forward a little as though they would +soon topple over. At many points it was a veritable canyon, and the swift +current of the stream foamed so whitely over the scattered rocks of its +bed that it was like the rapids of Niagara. Here and there were bold +islands; the forest on both sides was splendid with the rich tints of +the _Rhododendron maximum_ in full bloom; not patches or single bushes, +but high thickets, a solid wall of blazing color. + +Their stopping-place for the last evening was the farm-house called +Crumb's, where they had also spent the first night of their journey on +their way westward. Crumb's was one of the old farms; the grandfather of +David Crumb had tilled the same acres. It was a pleasant place near the +river, the house comparatively large and comfortable. The Crumbs were +well-to-do in the limited mountain sense of the term, though they had +probably never had a hundred dollars in cash in their lives. Mrs. Crumb, +a lank woman with stooping shoulders and a soft, flat voice, received +them without excitement. Nothing that life had to offer, for good or for +ill, could ever bring excitement again to Portia Crumb. Her four sons +had been killed in battle in Virginia, one after the other, and the +mother lived on patiently. David Crumb was more rebellious against what +he called their "bad luck." Once a week, and sometimes twice, he went to +Asheville, making the journey a pretext for forgetting troubles +according to the ancient way. He was at Asheville now, his wife +explained, "with a load of wood." She did not add that he would probably +return with a load of another sort--namely, a mixture of whiskey and +repentance. The two never spoke of their lost boys; when they talked +together it was always about "the craps." + +Porshy, as her friends called her, having been warned by Chase's courier +that her former guests were returning, had set her supper-table with +care. People stopped at Crumb's perforce; for, save at Warm Springs, +there were no inns in the French Broad Valley. Ruth had been there +often. For the girl, who was a fearless horsewoman, was extravagantly +fond of riding; at one time or another she had ridden almost every horse +in Asheville, including old Daniel himself. Of late years the Crumbs +would have been glad to be relieved of all visitors. But the mountain +farmers of the South are invariably hospitable--hospitable even with +their last slice of corn-bread, their last cup of coffee. Porshy, +therefore, had brought out her best table-cloth (homespun, like her +sheets), her six thin silver teaspoons, her three china teacups and +saucers. "Yes, rale chiny, you bet," she had said, in her gentle, +lifeless voice, when Mrs. Franklin, who knew the tragedy of the house, +was benevolently admiring the painstaking effort. The inevitable hot +biscuits were waiting in a flat pan, together with fried bacon and +potatoes and coffee. Chase's supplies of potted meats, hot-house fruit, +and excellent champagne made the meal an extraordinary combination. The +table was set in the kitchen, which was also the living-room. One end of +the large, low-browed apartment was blocked by the loom, for Portia had +been accustomed to spin, weave, dye, and fashion all the garments worn +by herself and her family. + +As they left the table, the sinking sun sent his horizontal beams +through the open windows in a flood of golden light. "Let us go up to +the terrace," said Ruth. + +The terrace was a plateau on the mountain-side at some distance above; a +winding path led thither through the thick forest. "It is too far," said +Mrs. Franklin. "It is at least a mile from here, and a steep climb all +the way; and, besides, it will soon be dark." + +"Oh, but I want to go immensely, His Grand. Mr. Chase liked it so much +when we were up there on our way out that he says it shall be named +after me. And perhaps they will put up a cottage." + +"Yes, Ruth's Terrace, ma'am. That is the name I propose," said Chase. + +"There will be light enough to go up; and then we can wait there until +the moon rises," continued Ruth. "The moon is full to-night, and the +view will be lovely. You will go, Jared, won't you? Oh, please!" + +She had her way, as usual. Chase and Jared, lighting cigars, prepared to +accompany her. + +"You'll stay here, I suppose, commodore?" said Chase. + +"Stay here! By no means. There is nothing I like better than an evening +stroll," answered Etheridge, heroically. And, lighting a cigarette, he +walked on in advance, swinging his cane with an air of meditative +enjoyment. + +Dolly and Mrs. Franklin, meanwhile, sat beside the small fire which +Portia had made on the broad hearth of her "best room." The fire, of +aromatic "fat-pine" splinters only, without large sticks, had been +kindled more on account of the light than from any need of its warmth; +for the evening, though cool, was not cold. The best room, however, was +large, and the great forest and cliffs outside, and the wild river, made +the little blaze seem cheerful. Portia had been proud of this apartment +in the old days before the war. In one corner there was a bed covered +with a brilliant patch-work quilt; on the mantel-piece there was an old +accordion, and a vase for flowers whose design was a hand holding a +cornucopia; the floor was covered by a rag carpet; and tacked on the +walls in a long row were colored fashion plates from _Godey's Lady's +Book_ for 1858. At ten o'clock Ruth and the commodore came in. But long +after midnight, when the others were asleep, Chase and Jared Franklin +still strolled to and fro along the river road in the moonlight, +talking. The next day they all returned to Asheville. + +At the end of the week, when Jared went back to his business, Chase +accompanied him. "I thought I might as well take a look at that horrid +Raleigh," he said to Ruth, with solemn humor. "You see, I have been +laboring under the impression that it was a very pretty place--a +mistake which evidently wants to be cleared up." + +Ten days later the mud-bespattered Blue Ridge stage came slowly into +Asheville at its accustomed hour. The mail-bags were thrown out, and +then the postmaster, in his shirt-sleeves, with his spectacles on his +nose and his straw hat tilted back on his head, began the distribution +of their contents, assisted (through the open windows) by the usual +group of loungers. This friendly audience had its elbows on the sill. It +made accompanying comments as follows: "Hurry up, you veteran of the +Mexican war!" "That letter ain't for Johnny Monroe. It's for Jem Morse; +I can see the direction from here. Where's your eyes?" "_Six_ for +General Cyarter? Lucky reb, _he_ is!" + +Twenty minutes later Genevieve Franklin entered the parlor of +L'Hommedieu, a flush of deep rose-color in each cheek, her eyes +lustrous. "Mamma, a letter from Jay! It is too good--I cannot tell +you--" Her words came out pantingly, for she had been running; she sat +down with her hand over her breast as if to help herself breathe. + +"From Jared? Oh, where are my glasses?" said Mrs. Franklin, searching +vainly in her pocket and then on the table. "Here, Dolly. Quick! Read +it!" + +And then Dolly, also excited, read Jared's letter aloud. + +Ruth came in in time to hear this sentence: "I am to have charge of +their Charleston office (the office of the Columbian Line), at a salary +of three thousand dollars a year." + +"Who? What? Not Jared? And at _Charleston_?" cried the girl, clapping +her hands. "Oh, how splendid! For it's the water, you know; the +salt-water at last. With the ships coming and going, and the ocean, it +won't be so awfully inland to him, poor fellow, as Raleigh and Atlanta." + +"And the large salary," said Genevieve, still breathless. "_That's_ +Horrie! I have felt sure, from the first, that he would do something for +us. Such an old friend of mine. Dear, dear Horrie!" + +A week later Chase returned. "Yes, he'll get off to Charleston, ma'am, +in a few days," he said to Mrs. Franklin. "When he is settled there, you +must pay him a visit. I guess you'll end by going there to live." + +"Oh, we can't; we have this house, and no house there. If I could only +sell that place in Florida! However, we can stop in Charleston when we +go to Florida this winter. That is, if we go," added the mother, +remembering her load of debts. But she soon forgot it again; she forgot +everything save her joy in the brighter life for her son. "How can I +thank you?" she said to Chase, gratefully. + +"Oh, it's no favor, ma'am. We have always needed a first-class man at +Charleston, and we've never had it; we think ourselves very lucky in +being able to secure Mr. Franklin." + +As he went back to the Old North with Etheridge, whom he had met at +L'Hommedieu (as Mrs. Franklin would have said, "of course!"), Chase +added some further particulars. "You never saw such a mess as he'd made +of it, commodore. He told me--we had a good deal of talk when we took +that French Broad drive--that his business wasn't what he had hoped it +would be when he went into it; that he was afraid it was running down. +Running down? It was at a standstill; six months more, and he would have +been utterly swamped. The truth is, he didn't know how to manage it. How +should he? What does a navy man know about leather? He saw that it was +all wrong, yet he didn't know how to help it; that took the heart out of +him, you see. There was no use in going on with it a day longer; and so +I told him, as soon as I had looked into the thing a little. He has, +therefore, made an arrangement--sold out. And now he is going to take a +place at Charleston--our Columbian Line." + +"To the tune of three thousand dollars a year, I understand?" + +"He'll be worth it to us. A navy officer as agent will be a feather in +our caps. It's a pity he couldn't take command of one of our +steamers--with his hankering for the sea. Our steamer officers wear +uniforms, you know?" + +"Take care that he doesn't knock you down," said Etheridge, dryly. + +"Oh, I haven't suggested it. I see he's cranky," Chase answered. + +When Jared Franklin reached Charleston, he went to the office of the +Columbian Company. It faced a wharf or dock, and from its windows he +could see the broad harbor, the most beautiful port of the South +Atlantic coast. He looked at Fort Sumter, then off towards the low white +beaches of Morris Island; he knew the region well; his ship had lain +outside during the war. Deliciously sweet to him was the salt tang of +the sea; already, miles inland, he had perceived it, and had put his +head out of the car window; the salt marshes had been to him like a +tonic, as the train rushed past. The ocean out there in the east, too, +that was rather better than a clattering street! Words could never +express how he loathed the remembrance of the hides and the leather. A +steamer of the Columbian Line came in. He went on board, contemptuous of +everything, of course, but enjoying that especial species of contempt. +Ascending to the upper deck, he glanced at the rigging and smoke-stacks. +They were not what he approved of; but, oh! the solace of abusing any +sort of rigging outlined against the sky! He went down and looked at the +engines; he spoke to the engineer; he prowled all over the ship, from +stem to stern, his feet enjoying the sensation of something underneath +them that floated. That evening, seated on a bench at the Battery, with +his arms on the railing, he looked out to sea. His beloved old life came +back to him; all his cruises--the Mediterranean ports, Villefranche and +the Bay of Naples; the harbors of China, Rio Janeiro, Alexandria; +tropical islands; the color of the Pacific--while the wash of the water +below sounded in his ears. At last, long after midnight, he rose; he +came back to reality again. "Well, even this is a great windfall. And I +must certainly do the best I can for that long-legged fellow"--so he +said to himself as he went up Meeting Street towards his hotel. He liked +Chase after a fashion; he appreciated his friendliness and his genius +for business. But this was the way he thought of him--"that long-legged +fellow." Chase's fortune made no impression upon him. At heart he had +the sailor's chronic indifference to money-making. But at heart he had +also something else--Genevieve; Genevieve and her principles and plans, +Genevieve and her rules. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +One afternoon early in September, Miss Billy Breeze, her cheeks pink, +her gentle eyes excited, entered the principal store of Asheville, the +establishment of Messrs. Pinkham & Bebb. "Kid gloves, if you please, Mr. +Bebb. Delicate shades. No. 6." The box of gloves having been produced, +Miss Billy selected quickly twelve pairs. "I will take these. And please +add twelve pairs of white." + +Mr. Bebb was astounded, the order seemed to him reckless. Everybody in +Asheville knew that Miss Billy's income was six hundred dollars a year. +He made up the parcel slowly, in order to give her time to change her +mind. But Miss Billy paid for the twenty-four pairs without a quiver, +and, with the same excited look, took the package and went out. She +walked down the main street to its last houses; she came back on the +other side. Turning to the right, she traversed all the cross-roads in +that direction. When this was done, she re-entered the main street +again, and passed through its entire length a second time. It was +Saturday, the day when the country people came to town. Ten mountaineers +in a row were sitting on their heels in front of the post-office. +Mountain women on horseback, wearing deep sun-bonnets, rode up and down +the street, bartering. Wagons passed along, loaded with peaches heaped +together as though they were potatoes. Miss Billy was now traversing all +the cross-roads to the left. When this was accomplished she came back to +the main street, and began over again. It took about an hour to make the +entire circuit. At half-past five, on her fourth round, still walking +quickly and always with an air of being bound to some especial point, +she met Achilles Larue. "Oh--really--is this _you_, Mr. Larue? Such a +_surprise_ to see you! Lovely day, isn't it? I've been buying gloves." +She opened the package and turned over the gloves hastily. "Light +shades, you see. I--I thought I'd better." + +Larue, slightly lifting his hat, was about to pass on. + +But Miss Billy detained him. "Of course you are interested in the news, +Mr. Larue? Weren't you surprised? I was. I am afraid she is a little too +young for him. I think it is rather better when they are of _about_ the +same age--don't you?" She had no idea that she had been walking, and at +twice her usual speed, for more than four hours. But her slender body +knew; it trembled from fatigue. + +Larue made another move, as if about to continue his course. + +"But do tell me--weren't you surprised?" Billy repeated, hastily. (For, +oh! he _must_ not go so soon.) + +"I don't think I am ever surprised, Miss Breeze." + +Here Anthony Etheridge came by, and stopped. He looked sternly at Miss +Billy. "But what do you _think_ of it, Mr. Larue?" Billy was inquiring. + +"I have not thought of it," Larue responded, coldly. + +"Are you selling gloves?" inquired Etheridge. For the paper having +fallen to the ground, the two dozen pairs were visible, lying in +confusion over Billy's arm. + +"To Mr. Larue?" (Giggle.) "Oh, I couldn't." (Giggle.) "They're only No. +6." For poor Billy had one humble little pride--her pretty hand. + +There was a sound of horses' feet, and Ruth Franklin rode round the +corner, on Kentucky Belle, giving them a gay nod as she passed. Horace +Chase and Malachi Hill were with her, both mounted on beautiful +horses--one black, one chestnut; and at some distance behind followed +Chase's groom. "How _happy_ she looks!" murmured Miss Billy, with an +involuntary sigh. + +"Yes. She has obtained what she likes," commented Larue. "Hers is a +frivolous nature; she requires gayety, change, luxury, and now she will +have them. Her family are very wise to consent. For they have, I +suspect, but little money. Her good looks will soon disappear; at thirty +she will be plain." And this time, decidedly, he walked away. + +Miss Billy, her eyes dimmed by unshed tears, looked after him. "Such +a--such a _worldly_ view of marriage!" she managed to articulate. + +"What can you expect from a fish?" answered Etheridge, secretly glad of +his opportunity. "Achilles Larue is as cold-blooded as a mackerel, and +always was. I don't say he will never marry again; but if he does, the +woman he selects will have to go down on her knees and stay there" (Miss +Billy's eyes looked hopeful); "and bring him, also, a good big sum of +money in her hand." Here, noticing that one of the pairs of gloves had +slipped down so far that it was held by the tips of its fingers only, he +turned away with a sudden "Good-afternoon." For he had had rheumatism +all night in the small of his back; he could walk, but he could not +stoop. + +Miss Billy went home much depressed. The night before, after her usual +devotions and an hour's perusal of _The Blue Ridge in the Glacial +Period_ (she read the volume through regularly once a month), she had +attempted a thought-transferrence. She had, indeed, made many such +experiments since Maud Muriel's explanation of the process. But last +night she had for the first time succeeded in keeping her mind strictly +to the subject; for nearly ten minutes, with her face screwed up by the +intensity of the effort, she had willed continuously, "Like me, +Achilles, like me!" (She was too modest even to _think_ "love" instead +of "like.") "You must! You _shall_!" And now, when at last she had +succeeded in meeting him, this was the result! She put away the gloves +mechanically: she had bought them not from any need, but simply because +she had felt the wish to go out and _do_ something when the exciting +news of Ruth Franklin's engagement had reached her at noon. Stirred as +she already was by her own private experiment of the previous night, the +thought in her heart was: "Well, it isn't extravagance, for light gloves +are always useful. And then in case of--of anything happening to _me_, +they'd be all ready." + +When Anthony Etheridge left her, he went to L'Hommedieu, where he found +Dolly in the parlor with Petie Trone, Esq. Trone's basket had been +established by Ruth under the pedestal which now held his own likeness. +For Chase had kept his word; Maud Muriel's clever work had been +reproduced in bronze. The squirrel also was present; he was climbing up +the window-curtain. "So _you_ have to see to the pets, do you?" remarked +the visitor as he seated himself. He had known of the engagement for +several days; he had already made what he called "the proper speeches" +to Mrs. Franklin and Ruth, and to Chase himself. "I have just seen +her--on Kentucky Belle," he went on. "Well, he will give her everything, +that's one certainty. On the whole, she's a lucky girl." + +"It is Mr. Chase who is lucky," answered Dolly, stiffly. She was +finishing off the toe of a stocking, and did not look up. "I consider +Mr. Chase a miraculously fortunate man." + +"Miraculously? How do you mean? Because she is young? The good-fortune, +as regards that, is for the wife, not the husband; for she will always +be so much his junior that he will have to consider her--he will never +dare to neglect her. Well, Dolly, all Asheville has heard the news this +morning; the town is ringing with it. And it is such an amiable +community that it has immediately given its benediction in the most +optimistic way. Of course, though, there are some who maintain that she +is marrying him for his money." + +Dolly knitted more rapidly. + +"And so she is," Etheridge added. "Though not in their sense, for she +has never reflected, never thought about it, never made a plan. All the +same, it is his wealth, you know, which has fascinated her--his wealth +and his liberality. She has never seen anything like it. No one she +knows has ever done such things--flowers, jewels, journeys, her brother +lifted out of his troubles as if by magic, a future sparkling and +splendid opening before her; no wonder she is dazzled. In addition, she +herself has an ingrained love of ease--" + +Dolly dropped her stocking. "Do you think I intend to sit here and +listen to you?" she demanded, with flashing eyes. + +"Wait, wait," answered Etheridge, putting out his hand as if to explain; +"you don't see what I am driving at, Dolly. As Mrs. Chase, your sister +will have everything she wishes for; all her tastes and fancies +gratified to the full; and that is no small affair! Chase will be fond +of her; in addition, he will be excessively indulgent to her in every +way. With her nature and disposition, her training, too (for you have +spoiled her, all of you), it is really an ideal marriage for the girl, +and that is what I am trying to tell you. You might search the world +over, and you could not find a better one." + +"I don't like it; I never shall like it," answered Dolly, implacably. +"And mother in her heart agrees with me, though she has, somehow, a +higher idea of the man than I have. As for Ruth--Ruth is simply swept +away--" + +"Exactly; swept into her proper sphere," interrupted Etheridge. "Don't +interfere with the process." + +"She doesn't understand--" Dolly began. + +"She understands immensely well what she likes! Give Ruth indulgence, +amusement, pleasure, and she will be kind-hearted, amiable, generous; in +short, good and happy. On the other hand, there might be another story. +Come, I am going to be brutal; I don't know how much money your mother +has; but I suspect very little, with the possibility, perhaps, of less. +And I can't imagine, Dolly, any one more unhappy than your sister would +be, ten years hence, say, if shut up here in Asheville, poor, her good +looks gone, to face a life of dull sameness forever. I think it would +kill her! She is not at all the girl to accept monotony with resignation +or heroism; to settle down to mending and reading, book-clubs and +whist-clubs, puddings and embroidery, gossip and good works." + +Here the house-door opened; Mrs. Franklin and Genevieve came in +together, and entered the parlor. When Dolly heard Genevieve's step, she +rose. Obliged to walk slowly, she could not slip out; but she made a +progress which was almost stately, as, without speaking to her +sister-in-law, or looking at her, she left the room. + +Genevieve, however, required no notice from Dolly. Her face was radiant +with satisfaction. She shook hands with Etheridge warmly. "I have not +seen you since it happened, commodore. I know you are with us in our +pleasure? I know you congratulate us?" + +Etheridge had always thought the younger Mrs. Franklin a beautiful +woman; she reminded him of the Madonna del Granduca at Florence. Now she +held his hand so long, and looked at him with such cordial friendliness, +that he came out with the gallant exclamation, "Chase is the one I +congratulate, by Jove!--on getting such a sister-in-law!" + +"Think of all Ruth will now be able to do--all the good! I seem to see +even my hospital," added Genevieve, gayly. + +"Hum--yes," added Etheridge. Walking away a step or two, he put his +hands in the pockets of his trousers and looked towards his legs +reflectively for a moment, as though surveying the pattern of the +garments--a convenient gesture to which a (slender) man can resort when +he wishes to cover a silence. + +"For dear mamma, too, it is so delightful," continued Genevieve. She had +seated herself, and she now drew her mother-in-law down beside her. +"Ruth will never permit mamma to have another care." + +"Yes--I think I'll just run up and take off my bonnet," said Mrs. +Franklin, disengaging herself. And she left the room. + +Genevieve was not disturbed by this second departure; she was never +disturbed by any of the actions or the speeches of her husband's family. +She did her own duty regarding them regularly and steadily, month after +month; it was part of her rule of conduct. But what they did or said to +her in return was less important. "Ruth is a fortunate girl," she went +on, as she drew off her gloves with careful touches. "And she +appreciates it, commodore--I am glad to tell you that; I have been +talking to her. She is very happy. Horace is such an able and splendidly +successful man--a man whom every one must respect and admire most +warmly." + +"Yes, a clever speculator indeed!" commented Etheridge, ungratefully, +throwing over his drive with the bays. + +"Speculator? Oh no; it is all genuine business; I can assure you of +that," answered Genevieve, seriously. "And now perhaps you can help us a +little. Horace is anxious to have the marriage take place this fall. And +I am on his side. For why, indeed, should they wait? The usual delays +are prudential, or for the purpose of making preparations. But in this +case there are no such conditions; he already has a house in New York, +for he has always preferred home life. Ruth is willing to have it so. +But mamma decidedly, almost obstinately, opposes it." + +"Dolly too, I suppose?" + +"Oh, I never count Dolly; her temper is so uncertain. But it is very +natural that it should be so, and one always excuses her, poor dear! +Couldn't _you_ say a word or two to mamma, commodore? You have known her +so long; I am sure you have influence. But my chief dependence, of +course, is upon Jay. Mamma always yields to Jay." + +"Franklin, then, is pleased with the engagement?" said Etheridge, +walking about the room, taking up books, looking at them vaguely, and +laying them down again. + +"How could he _not_ be! As it happens, however, we have not yet heard +from him, for when our letters reached Charleston he had just started +for New York on one of their steamers; some business errand. But he was +to return by train, and I am expecting to hear from him to-morrow." + +There was a sound outside. "Here they come," said Etheridge, looking +out. + +Genevieve rose quickly to join him at the window. Chase and Malachi Hill +were dismounting. Then Chase lifted Ruth from Kentucky Belle. "Those are +two new horses, you know," explained Genevieve, in a low tone; "Horrie +sent for them. And he lets Mr. Hill ride one of them every day." + +"Yes; _horses_ enough!" grumbled Etheridge, discontentedly. + +Ruth, holding up the skirt of her habit, was coming towards the house, +talking to her two escorts. When she entered the parlor, Genevieve went +forward and put her arm round her. "I know you have enjoyed your ride, +dear?" + +"Of course I have. How do you do, commodore? I have just been planning +another excursion with Horace." (The name came out happily and +securely.) "To Caesar's Head this time; you to drive the four-in-hand, +and I to ride Kentucky Belle." + +"Yes, that's right; arrange it with him," said Chase. "For I must go; I +have letters to write which can be postponed no longer. You have had +enough of me for to-day, I guess? May I come in to-morrow +afternoon--early?" + +"Come to lunch," said Ruth, giving him her hand. He held it out for a +moment, looking at her with kindly eyes. "You don't know how much I +enjoyed my ride," said the girl, heartily. "It is such a joy to be on +Kentucky Belle; she is so beautiful, and she moves so lightly! It was +the nicest ride I have ever had in my life!" + +This seemed to please Chase. He took leave of the others and went away. + +"I will wait here, if you will allow it, Miss Ruth, until he is out of +sight," said Malachi Hill. "For I may as well confess to you--I have +already told Miss Dolly--that I seem fairly to lose my head when I find +myself with Mr. Chase alone! I am so haunted by the idea of all he could +do for the Church in these mountains that in spite of the generous gifts +he has already made, I keep hankering after more--like a regular +_gorilla_ of covetousness!" + +"I shall have to see that he is never left alone with you," said Ruth, +laughing. + +"There! he has turned the corner. Now _I'll_ go the other way," +continued the missionary, his seriousness unbroken. + +"Mr. Hill is such a _good_ man," remarked Genevieve as she closed the +window. + +"Miss Billy thinks him full of the darkest evil," commented Ruth. "Why +do you shut the window?" + +"You were in a draught. After your ride you must be warm." + +"I'm a precious object, am I?" + +"Yes, dear, you certainly are," replied Genevieve, with all the +seriousness of Malachi Hill. + +"If that simpleton of a Billy could see the parson eat apples, she would +change her opinion about him," remarked Etheridge. "A man who can devour +with relish four, five, and even six, cold raw apples (and the Asheville +apples are sixteen inches round) late in the evening, cores, seeds, and +all, _must_ be virtuous--as virtuous as mutton!" He was looking at Ruth +as he spoke. The girl was leaning back in an easy-chair; Petie Trone, +Esq., had lost no time, he was already established in her lap, and the +squirrel had flown to her shoulder. She had taken off her gauntlets, and +as she lifted her hands to remove her hat, he saw a flash. "Trinkets?" +he said. + +"Oh--you haven't seen it?" She drew off a ring and tossed it across to +him. + +"Take care!" said Genevieve. + +But Etheridge had already caught it. It was a solitaire diamond ring, +the stone of splendid beauty, large, pure, brilliant. + +"It came yesterday," Genevieve explained. Then she folded her +hands--this with Genevieve was always a deliberate motion. "There will +be diamonds--yes. But there will be other things also; surely our dear +Ruth will remember the duties of wealth as well as its pleasures." + +Ruth paid no heed to this; put on her ring again, using the philopena +circlet as a guard; then she said, "Petie Trone, Esq., there will be +just time before dinner for your Saturday scrubbing." + +Half an hour later when she returned, the little dog trotting behind +her, his small body pinned up in a hot towel, Genevieve cried in alarm, +"Where are your rings?" + +"Oh," said Ruth, looking at her hands, "I didn't miss them; they must +have come off in the tub. Since then I have been in my room, dressing." + +"And Rinda may have thrown away the water!" exclaimed her sister-in-law, +rushing up the stairs in breathless haste. + +But Rinda was never in a hurry to perform any of her duties, and the +wooden tub devoted to Mr. Trone still stood in its place. Genevieve, +baring her white arms, plunged both her hands into the water, her heart +beating with anxiety. But the rings, very soapy, were there. + +That evening, at nine o'clock, Mrs. Franklin was galloping through the +latest tale of Anthony Trollope. For she always read a novel with racing +speed to get at the story, skipping every description; then, if she had +been interested, she went back and reperused it in more leisurely +fashion. It was unusual to have a book fresh from the press; the +well-fingered volumes which Miss Billy borrowed for her so industriously +were generally two or three years old. Horace Chase, learning from Ruth +the mother's liking for novels, had sent a note to New York, ordering in +his large way "all the latest articles in fiction;" a package to be sent +to L'Hommedieu once a month. The first parcel had just arrived, and Mrs. +Franklin, opening it, much surprised, had surveyed the gift with mixed +feelings. She was alone; Dolly was upstairs. Ruth, seized with a sudden +fancy for a glass of cream, had gone, with Rinda as protector, to a +house at some distance, where cream was sold; for with Ruth fancies were +so vivid that it always seemed to her absolutely necessary to follow +them instantly. The mother turned over the volumes. "It doesn't make me +like him a bit better!" she said to herself. But her easy-chair was +comfortable; the reading-lamp was burning brightly at her elbow. For +fourteen years novels had been her opiates; she put on her glasses, took +up the Trollope, and began. She had not been reading long, when her +attention suddenly jumped back to the present, owing to a sound outside. +For the window was open, somebody was coming up the path from the gate, +and she recognized--yes, she recognized the step. Letting the book drop, +she ran to the house-door. "Jared! Why--how did you get here? The stage +came in long ago." + +"I drove over from Old Fort," answered her son as he entered. + +"And you did not find Genevieve? She has gone with Mr. Hill to--" + +"I haven't been to the Cottage yet; I came directly here. Where is +Ruth?" + +"Out. But she will be in soon. Dolly isn't well to-night; she has gone +to bed." + +"The coast is clear, then, and we can talk," said Jared. "So much the +better." They were now in the parlor; before seating himself he closed +the door. "I have come up, mother, about this affair of Ruth's. As soon +as I got back to Charleston and read your letters, I started at once. +You have been careless, I fear; but at least I hope that nothing has +been said, that no one knows?" + +"Everybody knows, Jared. At least, everybody in Asheville." + +"Who has told? Chase?" asked Jared, angrily. + +"Oh no; he left that to us. I have said nothing, and Dolly has said +nothing. But--but--" + +"But what?" + +"Genevieve has announced it everywhere," answered Mrs. Franklin, her +inward feeling against her daughter-in-law for once getting the better +of her. + +"I will speak to Genevieve. But she is not the one most in fault, +mother; she could not have announced it unless _you_ had given your +consent. And how came you to do that?" + +"I don't think I have consented. I have been waiting for you." + +"Very well, then; we can act together. Now that _I_ have come, Horace +Chase will find that there's some one on hand to look after you; he will +no longer be able to do as he pleases!" + +"Our difficulty is, Jared, that it is not so much a question of his +doing as he pleases as it is of Ruth's doing as _she_ pleases; she +thinks it is all enchanting; and she is headstrong, you know." + +"Yes. That is the very reason why I think you have been careless, +mother. You were here and I was not; you, therefore, were the one to +act. You should have taken Ruth out of town at once; you should have +taken her north, if necessary, and kept her there; you should have done +this at any sacrifice." + +"It is not so easy--" began his mother. Then she stopped. For she was +living on credit; she owed money everywhere, and there were still ten +days to elapse before any remittances could reach her. But she would +have borne anything, and resorted to everything, rather than let Jared +know this. "It took me so completely by surprise," she said, beginning +again. "I am sure that you yourself had no suspicion of any such +possibility when we took that French Broad drive?" + +"No, I had not. And it enrages me to think how blind I was! He was +laying his plans even then; the whole trip, and all those costly things +he did--that was simply part of it." And leaving his chair, the brother +walked up and down the room, his face darkly flushed with anger. +"Ruth--a child! And he--thirty years older!" + +"Not that, dear. He is thirty-eight; and she was nineteen last week." + +"He looks much more than thirty-eight. But that isn't the point. You +don't seem to see, mother, what makes it so insufferable; he has bribed +her about _me_, bribed her with that place in Charleston; that's the +whole story! She is so happy about that, that she forgets all else." + +"I don't like the idea of an engagement between them any better than you +do, Jared. But I ought to say two things. One is, that I don't believe +he made any plot as to the Charleston place; I think he likes to help +people--" + +"Yes, our family!" interrupted the son, hotly. "No, mother, you don't +understand him in the least. Horace Chase is purely a business man, a +long-headed, driving, money-making fellow; all his ambition (and he has +plenty of it) is along that one line. It's the only line, in fact, which +he thinks important. But the idea of his being a philanthropist would +make any one who has ever had business dealings with him laugh for a +week!" + +"Well, have that as you like. But even if he first gave you the place on +Ruth's account (for he has fallen very much in love with her, there is +no doubt of that), I don't see that he has any need to be a benefactor +in keeping you there. They are no doubt delighted to have you; he says +so himself, in fact. A navy officer, a gentleman--they may well be!" +added Mrs. Franklin, looking for the moment very much like her father, +old Major Seymour, with his aristocratic notions. + +"Why, mother, don't you know that people with that brutal amount of +money--Chaise and the Willoughbys, for instance--don't you know that +they look upon the salaries of army and navy officers simply as genteel +poverty?" said Jared, forgetting for the moment his anger in amusement +over her old-fashioned mistake. + +But he could not have made Mrs. Franklin believe this in ten years of +repetition, much less in ten minutes. "And the other thing I had to +say," she went on, "is that I don't think Ruth is marrying him on _your_ +account solely." + +"Oh yes, she is, though she may not be conscious of it. But when I have +given up the Charleston place, which I shall do to-morrow, then she will +be free again. The moment she sees that she can do _me_ no good, all +will look different to her. I'd rather do anything--sell the Cottage, +and live on a crust all the rest of my days--than have a sister of mine +help me along in that way!" + +His mother watched him as he paced to and fro. He looked ill; there were +hollows at his temples and dark circles under his eyes; his tall figure +had begun to stoop. He was the dearest of all her children; his +incurable, unspoken regrets, his broken life, were like a dagger in her +heart at all times. He would give up his place, and then he would have +nothing; and she, his mother, could not help him with a penny. He would +give up his place and sell the Cottage, and then--Genevieve! It all came +back to that; it would always come back to that--Genevieve! She +swallowed hard to keep down the sob in her throat. "He is very much in +love with her," she repeated, vaguely, in order to say something. + +"Who cares if he is! I almost begin to think you like it, after all?" + +"No, dear, no; neither Dolly nor I like it in the least. But Ruth is not +easy to manage. And Genevieve was sure that you--" + +"This is not Genevieve's affair. It is mine!" thundered Jared. + +His mother jumped up, ran to him, and gave him a kiss. For the moment +she forgot his illness, his uncertain future, her own debts, all her +troubles, in the joy of hearing him at last assert his will against +that of his wife. But it was only for a moment; she knew--knew far +better than he did--that the even-tempered feminine pertinacity would +always in the end have its way. Jared, impulsive, generous, +affectionate, was no match for Genevieve. In a contest of this sort it +is the nobler nature, always, that yields; the self-satisfied, limited +mind has an obstinacy that never gives way. She leaned her head against +her son's breast, and all the bitterness of his marriage came over her +afresh like a flood. + +"Why, mother, what is it?" asked Jared, feeling her tremble. He put his +arm round her, and smoothed her hair tenderly. "Tell me what it is that +troubles you so?" + +The gate swung to. Mrs. Franklin lifted her head. "Ruth is coming," she +whispered. "Say what you like to her. But, under all circumstances, +remember to be kind. I will come back presently." She hurried out. + +Rinda and Ruth entered. Rinda went to the kitchen, and Ruth, after +taking off her hat, came into the parlor, carrying her glass of cream. +"Jared!" She put down the glass on the table, and threw her arms round +her brother's neck. "Oh, I am _so_ glad you have come!" + +"Sit down. Here, by me. I wish to speak to you, Ruth." + +"Yes--about my engagement. It's very good of you to come so soon;" and +she put her hand through his arm in her old affectionate way. + +"I do not call it an engagement when you have neither your mother's +consent nor mine," answered her brother. "Whatever it is, however, you +must make an end of it." + +"An end of it? Why?" + +"Because we all dislike the idea. You are too young to comprehend what +you are doing." + +"I am nineteen; that is not so very young. I comprehend that I am going +to be happy. And I _love_ to be happy! I have never seen any one half so +kind as Mr. Chase. If there is anything I want to do, he arranges it. He +doesn't wait, and hesitate, and consider; he _does_ it. He thinks of +everything; it is perfectly beautiful! Why, Jared--what he did for you, +wasn't that kind?" + +"Exactly. That is what he has bribed you with!" + +"Bribed?" repeated Ruth, surprised, as she saw the indignation in his +eyes. Then comprehending what he meant, she laughed, coloring a little +also. "But I am not marrying him on your account; I am marrying him on +my own. I am marrying because I like it, because I want to. You don't +believe it? Why--look at me." She rose and stood before him. "I am the +happiest girl in the world as I stand here! I should think you could see +it for yourself?" And in truth her face was radiant. "If I have ever had +any dreams of what I should like my life to be (and I have had plenty), +they have all come true," she went on, with her hands behind her, +looking at him reflectively. "Think of all I shall have! And of where I +can go! And of what I can do! Why--there's no end of it!" + +"That is not the way to talk of marriage." + +"How one talks of it is not important. The important point is to be +happy _in_ it, and that I shall be to the full--yes, to the full. His +Grand shall have whatever she likes; and Dolly too. First of all, Dolly +shall have a phaeton, so that she can drive to the woods every day. The +house shall be put in order from top to bottom. And--oh, everything!" + +"Is that the way you talk to _him_?" + +But the sarcasm fell to the ground. "Precisely. Word for word," answered +Ruth, lightly. And he saw that she spoke the truth. + +"He is much too old for you. If there were no other--" + +But Ruth interrupted him with a sort of sweet obstinacy. "That is for me +to judge, isn't it?" + +"He is not at all the person you fancy he is." + +"I don't care what he is generally, what he is to other people; all I +care for is what he is to me. And about that you know nothing; I am the +one to know. He is nicer to me, and he always will be nicer, than +Genevieve has ever been to _you_!" And turning, the girl walked across +the room. + +"If I have been unhappy, that is the very reason I don't want you to +be," answered her brother, after a moment's pause. + +His tone touched her. She ran back to him, and seated herself on his +knee, with her cheek against his. "I didn't mean it, dear; forgive me," +she whispered, softly. "But please don't be cross. You are angry because +you believe I am marrying to help _you_. But you are mistaken; I am +marrying for myself. You might be back in the navy, and mother and Dolly +might have more money, and I should still marry him. It would be because +I want to, because I like him. If you had anything to say against him +personally, it would be different, but you haven't. He is waiting to +tell you about himself, to introduce you to his family (he has only +sisters), and to his partners, the Willoughbys. Your only objections +appear to be that I am marrying him on your account, and I have told you +that I am not; and that he is older than I am, and _that_ I like; and +that he has money, while we are poor. But he gets something in getting +me," she added, in a lighter tone, as she raised her head and looked at +him gayly. "Wait till you see how pretty I shall be in fine clothes." + +The door opened, and Mrs. Franklin came in. + +Ruth rose. "Here is mother. Now I must say the whole. Listen, mother; +and you too, Jared. I intend to marry Horace Chase. If not with your +consent, then without it. If you will not let me be married at home, +then I shall walk out of the house, go to Horace, and the first +clergyman or minister he can find shall marry us. There! I have said it. +But _why_ should you treat me so? Don't make me so dreadfully unhappy." + +She had spoken wilfully, determinedly. But now she was pleading--though +it was pleading to have her own way. Into her beautiful eyes came two +big tears as she gazed at them. Neither Mrs. Franklin nor Jared could +withstand those drops. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +The wedding was over. Pretty little Trinity Church was left alone with +its decorations of flowers and vines, the work of Miss Billy Breeze. +Miss Billy, much excited, was now standing beside Ruth in the parlor at +L'Hommedieu; for Miss Billy and Maud Muriel were the bridesmaids. Maud +Muriel had consented with solemnity. "It is strange that such a man as +Horace Chase, a man of sense and importance, should be taken with a +child like Ruth Franklin," she confided to Miss Billy. "However, I won't +desert him at such a moment. I'll stand by him." She was in reality not +so much bridesmaid as groomsman. + +L'Hommedieu was decked with flowers. It was a warm autumn day, the +windows and doors were open. All Asheville was in attendance, if not in +the house and on the verandas, then gazing over the fence, and waiting +outside the gate. For there were many things to engage its attention. +First, there was Mrs. Franklin, looking very distinguished; then +Genevieve, the most beautiful woman present. Then there was Bishop +Carew, who had come from Wilmington to officiate. All Asheville admired +the bishop--the handsome, kindly, noble old man, full of dignity, full +of sweetness as well; they were proud that he had come to "their" +wedding. For that was the way they thought of it. Even the +negroes--those who had flocked to old Daniel's race--had a sense of +ownership in the affair. + +A third point of interest was the general surprise over Maud. As Ruth +had selected the costumes of her bridesmaids, Miss Mackintosh was +attired for the first time in her life in ample soft draperies. Her +hair, too, arranged by Miss Billy, had no longer the look of the +penitentiary, and the result was that (to the amazement of the town) the +sculptress was almost handsome. + +Anthony Etheridge, much struck by this (and haunted by his old idea), +pressed upon her a glass of punch. + +"Take it," he urged, in a low tone, "take two or three. Then, as soon as +this is over, hurry to your studio and _let yourself go_. You'll do +wonders!" + +Two of Chase's partners were present, Nicholas Willoughby, a +quiet-looking man of fifty-eight, and his nephew Walter of the same +name; Walter was acting as "best man." The elder Willoughby had made use +of the occasion to take a general look at this mountain country, with +reference to Chase's ideas concerning it, in order to make a report to +his brother Richard. For Nicholas and Richard were millionaires many +times over; their business in life was investment. Asheville itself, +meanwhile, hardly comprehended the importance of such an event as the +presence within its borders of a New York capitalist; it knew very +little about New York, still less about capitalists. Mrs. Franklin, +however, possessed a wider knowledge; she understood what was +represented by the name of Willoughby. And it had solaced her +unspeakably also to note that the uncle had a genuine liking for her +future son-in-law. "They have a real regard for him," she said to her +son, in private. "And I myself like him rather better than I once +thought I should." + +Jared had come from Charleston on the preceding day. "Oh, that's far too +guarded, mother," he answered. "The only way for us now is to like +Horace Chase with enthusiasm, to cling to him with the deepest +affection. We must admire unflinchingly everything he says and +everything he does--swallow him whole, as it were; it isn't difficult to +swallow things _whole_! Just watch me." And, in truth, it was Jared's +jocularity that enlivened the reception, and made it so gay; it reached +even Dolly, who (to aid him) became herself a veritable Catherine-wheel +of jokes, so that every one noticed how happy all the Franklins +were--how delighted with the marriage. + +Chase himself appeared well. His rather ordinary face was lighted by an +expression of deep inward happiness which was touching; its set lines +were relaxed; his eyes, which were usually too keen, had a softness that +was new to them. He was very silent; he let his best man talk for him. +Walter Willoughby performed this part admirably; standing beside the +bridegroom, he "supported" him gayly through the two hours which were +given up to the outside friends. + +Ruth looked happy, but not particularly pretty. The excitement had given +her a deep flush; even her throat was red. + +At three o'clock Peter and Piper were brought round to the door; Chase +was to drive his wife over the mountains, through the magnificent +forest, now gorgeous with the tints of autumn, and at Old Fort a special +train was waiting to take them eastward. + +A few more minutes and then they were gone. There was nothing left but +the scattered rice on the ground, and Petie Trone, Esq., barking his +little heart out at the gate. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Early on a moonlit evening in January, 1875, Mr. and Mrs. Horace Chase +were approaching St. Augustine. They had come by steamer up the broad +St. Johns, the beautiful river of Florida, to the lonely little landing +called Tocoi; here they had intrusted themselves to the Atlantic Ocean +Railroad. This railroad undertook to convey travellers across the +peninsula to the sea-coast, fifteen miles distant; and the promise was +kept. But it was kept in a manner so leisurely that more than once +Horace Chase had risen and walked to and fro, as though, somehow, that +would serve to increase the speed. The rolling-stock possessed by the +Atlantic Ocean Railroad at that date consisted of two small street-cars, +one for passengers, one for luggage; Chase's promenade, therefore, +confined as it was to the first car, had a range of about four steps. +"I'm ridiculously fidgety, and that's a fact," he said to his wife, +laughing at himself. "I can be lazy enough in a Pullman, for then I can +either read the papers or go to sleep. But down here there are no papers +to read. And who can sleep in this jolting? I believe I'll ask that +darky to let me drive the mules!" + +"Do," said Ruth. "Then I can be out there with you on the front +platform." + +As there were no other passengers (save Petie Trone, Esq., asleep in his +travelling basket), Abram, the negro driver, gave up the reins with a +grin. Taking his station on the step, he then admonished the volunteer +from time to time as follows: "Dish yere's a bad bit; take keer, boss." +"Jess ahead de rail am splayed out on de lef'. Yank 'em hard to de +right, or we'll sut'ny run off de track. We ginerally _do_ run off de +track 'bout yere." On each side was a dense forest veiled in the gray +long moss. Could that be snow between the two black lines of track +ahead? No snow, however, was possible in this warm atmosphere; it was +but the spectral effect of the moonlight, blanching to an even paler +whiteness the silvery sand which formed the road-bed between the rails. +This sand covered the sleepers to such a depth that the mules could not +step quickly; there was always a pailful of it on each foot to lift and +throw off. They moved on, therefore, in a sluggish trot, the cow-bells +attached to their collars keeping up a regular tink-tank, tink-tank. + +The tableau of her husband driving these spirited steeds struck Ruth as +comical. She was seated on a camp-stool by his side, and presently she +broke into a laugh. "Oh, you do look _so_ funny, Horace! If you could +only see yourself! You, so particular about horses that you won't drive +anything that is not absolutely perfect, there you stand taking the +greatest pains, and watching solemnly every quiver of the ear of those +old mules!" + +They were alone, Abram having gone to the baggage-car to get his tin +horn. "Come, now, are you never going to stop making fun of me?" +inquired Chase. "How do you expect to hit St. Augustine to-night if this +fast express runs off the track?" But in spite of his protest, it was +easy to see that he liked to hear her laugh. + +Abram, coming back, put the horn to his lips and blew a resounding +blast; and presently, round a curve, the half-way station came into +view--namely, a hut of palmetto boughs on the barren, with a bonfire +before it. The negro station-men, beguiling their evening leisure by +dancing on the track to their own singing and the music of a banjo, did +not think it necessary to stop their gyrations until the heads of the +mules actually touched their shoulders. Even then they made no haste in +bringing out the fresh team which was to serve as motive power to St. +Augustine, and Mr. and Mrs. Chase, leaving the car, strolled up and down +near by. The veiled forest had been left behind; the rest of the way lay +over the open pine-barrens. The leaping bonfire, the singing negroes, +and the little train on its elevated snow-like track contrasted with the +wild, lonely, silent, tree-dotted plain, stretching away limitlessly in +the moonlight on all sides. + +"Perhaps Petie Trone, Esq., would like to take a run," said Ruth. +Hastening into the car with her usual heedlessness, she tripped and +nearly fell, Chase, who had followed, catching her arm just in time to +save her. + +"Some of these days, Ruthie, you will break your neck. Why are you +always in such a desperate hurry?" + +"Talk about hurry!" answered Ruth, as she unstrapped the basket and woke +the lazy Mr. Trone. "Who saw the whole of Switzerland in five days? and +found it slow at that?" And then they both laughed. + +After a stretch, Petie Trone decided to make a foray over the barren; +his little black figure was soon out of sight. "Horace, now that we are +here, I wish you would promise to stay. Can't we stay at least until the +middle of March? It's lovely in Florida in the winter," Ruth declared, +as they resumed their walk. + +"Well, I'll stay as long as I can. But I must go to California on +business between this and spring," Chase answered. + +"Why don't you make one of the Willoughbys do that? They never do +anything!" + +"That's all right; I'm the working partner of the firm; it was so +understood from the beginning. The Willoughbys only put in capital; all +but Walter, of course, who hasn't got much. But Walter's a knowing young +chap, who will put in brains. My California business, however, has +nothing to do with the Willoughbys, Ruthie; it's my own private affair, +_that_ is. If I succeed, and I think I shall, it'll about double my +pile. Come, you know you like money." He drew her hand through his arm +and held it. "How many more rings do you want? How many more houses? +How many more French maids and flounces? How many more carriages?" + +"Oh, leave out the carriages, do," interrupted Ruth. "When it comes to +anything connected with a horse, who spends money--you or I?" + +"My one small spree compared to your fifty!" + +"Small!" she repeated. "Wherever we go, whole troops of horses appear by +magic!" Then, after a moment, she let her head rest against his shoulder +as they strolled slowly on. "You are only too good to me," she added, in +another tone. + +"Well, I guess that's about what I want to be," Chase answered, +covering, as he often did, the deep tenderness in his heart with a vein +of jocularity. + +The Atlantic Ocean Railroad's terminal station at St. Augustine +consisted of a platform in the sand and another flaring bonfire. At +half-past six Mrs. Franklin, Dolly, and Anthony Etheridge were waiting +on this platform for the evening train. With them was a fourth +person--Mrs. Lilian Kip. "Oh, I can scarcely wait to see her!" exclaimed +this lady, excitedly. "Will she be the same? But no. Impossible!" + +"She is exactly the same," answered Dolly, who, seated on an empty +dry-goods box, was watching the bonfire. + +"But you must remember that Ruth did not come to Florida last winter +after her marriage. And this summer, when I was in Asheville, she was +abroad. And as none of you came south winter before last--don't you see +that it makes nearly _two_ years since I have seen her?" Mrs. Kip went +on. "In addition, marriage changes a woman's face so--deepens its +expression and makes it so _much_ more beautiful. I am sure, commodore, +that _you_ agree with me there?" And she turned to the only man present. + +"Yes, yes," answered Etheridge, gallantly. In his heart he added: "And +therefore the more marriage the better? Is that what you are thinking +of, you idiot?" + +The presence of Mrs. Kip always tore Etheridge to pieces. He had never +had any intention of marrying, and he certainly had no such intention +now. Yet he could not help admiring this doubly widowed Lilian very +deeply, after a fashion. And he knew, too--jealously and angrily he knew +it--that before long she would inevitably be led to the altar a third +time; so extremely marriageable a woman would never lack for leaders. + +"Ruth is handsomer," remarked Mrs. Franklin; "otherwise she is +unchanged. You will see it for yourself, Lilian, when she comes." + +The mother's tone was placid. All her forebodings had faded away, and +she had watched them disappear with thankful eyes. For Ruth was happy; +there could be no doubt about that. In the year that had passed since +her marriage, she had returned twice to Asheville, and Mrs. Franklin +also had spent a month at her son-in-law's home in New York. On all +these occasions it had been evident that the girl was enjoying greatly +her new life; that she was delightedly, exultantly, and gleefully +contented, and all in a natural way, without analyzing it. She delighted +in the boundless gratification of her taste for personal ease and +luxury; she exulted in all that she was able to do for her own family; +she was full of glee over the amusements, the entertainments, and +especially the change, that surrounded her like a boundless horizon. For +her husband denied her nothing; she had only to choose. He was not what +is known as set in his ways; he had no fixed habits (save the habit of +making money); in everything, therefore, except his business affairs, he +allowed his young wife to arrange their life according to her fancy. +This freedom, this power, and the wealth, had not yet become an old +story to Ruth, and, with the enjoyment which she found in all three, it +seemed as if they never would become that. It had been an immense +delight to her, for instance, to put L'Hommedieu in order for her +mother. A month after her marriage, on returning to Asheville for a +short visit, she had described her plan to Dolly. "And think what fun it +will be, Dolly, to have the whole house done over, not counting each +cent in Genevieve's deadly way, but just _recklessly_! And then to see +her squirm, and say 'surely!' And you and mother must pretend not to +care much about it; you must hardly know what is going on, while they +are actually putting in steam-heaters, and hard-wood floors, and +bath-rooms with porcelain tubs--hurrah!" And, with Petie Trone barking +in her arms, she whirled round in a dance of glee. + +Chase happening to come in at this moment, she immediately repeated to +him all that she had been saying. + +He agreed; then added, with his humorous deliberation, "But you don't +seem to think quite so much of my old school-mate as I supposed you +did?" + +"Sisters-in-law, Mr. Chase, are seldom _very_ devoted friends," +explained Dolly, going on with her embroidery. Dolly always did +something that required her close attention whenever Horace Chase was +present. "How, indeed, can they be? A sister sees one side of her +brother's nature, and sees it correctly; a wife sees another side, and +with equal accuracy. Each honestly believes that the other is entirely +wrong. Their point of view, you see, is so different!" + +The waiting group at the St. Augustine station on this January evening +heard at last the blast of Abram's horn, and presently the train came +in, the mules for the last few yards galloping madly, their tin bells +giving out a clattering peal, and Chase still acting as driver, with +Ruth beside him. Affectionate greetings followed, for all the Franklins +were warmly attached to each other. Mrs. Kip was not a Franklin, but she +was by nature largely affectionate; she was probably the most +affectionate person in Florida. To the present occasion she contributed +several tears of joy. Then she signalled to Juniper, her colored +waiter; for, being not only affectionate, but romantic as well, she had +brought in her phaeton a bridal ornament, a heart three feet high, made +of roses reposing upon myrtle, and this symbol, amid the admiration of +all the bystanders, black and white, was now borne forward in the arms +of Juniper (who, being a slender lad, staggered under its weight). Ruth +laughed and laughed as this edifice was presented to her. But as, amid +her mirth, she had kissed the donor and thanked her very prettily, Mrs. +Kip was satisfied. For Ruth might laugh--Ruth, in fact, always +laughed--but marriage was marriage none the less; the most beautiful +human relation; and it was certainly fit that the first visit of a +happily wedded pair to the land of flowers should be commemorated +florally. Mrs. Kip volunteered to carry her heart to Mrs. Franklin's +residence; she drove away, therefore, Etheridge accompanying her, and +Juniper behind, balancing the structure as well as he could on his +knees, with his arms stretched upward to their fullest extent in order +to grasp its top. + +In a rickety barouche drawn by two lean horses the others followed, +laughing and talking gayly. Chase got on very well with his +mother-in-law; and he supposed, also, that he got on fairly well with +Dolly: he had not divined Dolly's mental attitude towards him, which was +that simply of an armed neutrality. Dolly would have been wildly happy +if, for herself and her mother at least, she could have refused every +cent of his money. This had not been possible. Chase had settled upon +his wife a sum which gave her a large income for her personal use, +independent of all their common expenses; it was upon this income that +Ruth had drawn for the restoration of L'Hommedieu, and also for the +refurnishing of her mother's house at St. Augustine. "I can't be happy, +His Grand, I can't enjoy New York, or our trip to Europe, or anything, +unless I feel certain that you are perfectly comfortable in every way," +she had said during that first visit at home. "All this money is mine; I +am not asked what I do with it, and I never shall be asked; you don't +know Horace if you think he will ever even allude to the subject. He +intends it for my ownest own, and of course he knows what I care the +most for, and that is you and Jared and Dolly. I have always suspected +that something troubled you every now and then, though I didn't know +what. And if it was money, His Grand, you _must_ take some from me, now +that I have it; you must take it, and make your little girl really +happy. For she can't be happy until you do." + +This youngest child really was still, in the mother's eyes, her "baby." +And when the baby, sitting down in her lap, put her arms round her neck +and pleaded so lovingly, the mother yielded. Her debts were now all +paid; it was a secret between herself and Ruth. The disappearance of the +burden was a great relief to the mother, though not so much so as it +would have been to some women; for it was characteristic of Mrs. +Franklin that she had never thought there was anything wrong in being +in debt; she had only thought that it was unfortunate. It would not have +occurred to her, even in her worst anxieties, to reduce sternly her +expenses until they accorded with her means, no matter how low that +might lead her; there was a point, so she believed, beyond which a Mrs. +Franklin could not descend with justice to her children. And justice to +her children was certainly a mother's first duty; justice to creditors +must take a second place. + +To Dolly, unaware of the payment of the debts, the acceptance even of +the restoration of the two houses had been bitter enough; for though the +money came through Ruth's hands, it was nevertheless provided by this +stranger. "If I had only been well, I could have worked and saved mother +from this," she thought. "But I am helpless. Not only that, but a care! +Nobody stops to think how dreary a lot it is to be always a care. And +how hard, hard, never to be able to give, but always to have to accept, +accept, and be thankful!" But Dolly, at heart, had a generous nature; +she would not cloud even by a look her mother's contentment or the +happiness of Ruth. So when Chase said, as the barouche swayed crazily +through the deep mud-hole which for years formed the junction between +the station lane and the main road, "This old rattletrap isn't safe, +ma'am. Is it the best St. Augustine can do? You ought to have something +better!"--when Chase said this to her mother, Dolly even brought forward +a smile. + +The rattletrap followed the long causeway which crossed the salt-marsh +and the San Sebastian River. Entering the town beneath an archway of +foliage, this causeway broadened into a sandy street under huge +pride-of-India trees, whose branches met overhead. Old Miss +L'Hommedieu's winter residence was not far from St. Francis Barracks, at +the south end of the town. It was an old coquina house which rose +directly from a little-travelled roadway. An open space on the other +side of this roadway, and the absence of houses, gave it the air of +being "on the bay," as it was called. Chase had taken, for a term of +years, another house not far distant, which really was on the bay. He +had done this to please Ruth. It was not probable that they should spend +many winters in Florida; but in case they should wish to come +occasionally, it would be convenient to have a house ready. "And when we +don't want it, Jared could stay here now and then," Ruth had suggested. + +"Your brother? I guess he isn't going to be a very easy chap to arrange +for, here or anywhere," Chase had answered, laughing. "We've already +slipped up once pretty well--Charleston, you know." Then, seeing her +face grow troubled, "But he'll take another view of something else I +have in mind," he went on. "If my California project turns out as I +hope, it will be absolutely necessary for me to have a confidential man +to see to the New York part of it--some one whom I can trust. And I +shall be able to convince Franklin that this time, at any rate, instead +of its being a favor to him, it'll be a favor to me. He won't kick at +_that_, I reckon." + +For Jared was now again at Raleigh, working as a clerk for the man who +had bought his former business; he had resigned his Charleston place in +spite of Ruth, in spite even of Genevieve. He had waited until the +wedding was over, in order that Ruth might not be made unhappy at the +moment; and then he had done it. + +Notwithstanding this, his wife had never had so much money in her life +as she had now. For she and Ruth, with the perfectly good conscience +which women have in such matters, had combined together, as it were, to +circumvent secretly the obstinate naval officer. Ruth was warmly +attached to her brother; he was the one person who had been able to +control her when she was a child; his good opinion had been a hundred +times more important to her than that of her mother and Dolly. Now that +she was rich, she was bent upon helping him; and having found that she +could not do it directly, she had turned all her intelligence towards +doing it indirectly, through the capable, the willing Genevieve. Mrs. +Jared Franklin, Junior, had quietly and skilfully bought land in +Asheville (in readiness for the coming railroad); she had an account at +the bank; she had come into the possession of bonds and stock; she had +enlarged her house, and she had also given herself the pleasure (she +called it the benediction) of laying the foundations of an addition to +the Colored Home. As she kept up a private correspondence with Ruth, +she had heard of the proposed place in New York for Jared, the place +where his services would be of value. She was not surprised; it was what +she had been counting upon. Jared's obstinacy would give way, _must_ +give way, before this new opportunity; and in the meanwhile, here at +Asheville, all was going splendidly well. + +Amid these various transactions Jared Franklin's mother had been obliged +to make up her mind as to what her own attitude should be. It had been +to her a relief unspeakable, an overmastering joy, to know that her son +would not, after all, sink to harassing poverty. Soothed by this, lulled +also by the hope that before very long he would of his own accord +consent to give up what was so distasteful to him, she had virtually +condoned the underhand partnership between Ruth and Genevieve, arranging +the matter with her conscience after her own fashion, by simply turning +her head away from the subject entirely. As she had plenty of +imagination, she had ended by really convincing herself that she was not +aware of what was going on, because she had not heard any of the +details. (She had, in fact, refused to hear them.) This left her free to +say to Jared (if necessary) that she had known nothing. But she hoped +that no actual words of this sort would be required. Her temperament, +indeed, had always been largely made up of hope. + +It was true that Jared for the present was still at Raleigh, drudging +away at a very small salary. That, however, would not last forever. And +in the meantime (and this was also extraordinarily agreeable to the +mother) Madame Genevieve was learning that she could not lead her +husband quite so easily as she had supposed she could. In her enjoyment +of this fact, Mrs. Franklin, in certain moods, almost hoped that (as his +affairs were in reality going on so well) her son would continue to hold +out for some time longer. + +The house which Horace Chase had taken at St. Augustine was much larger +than old Miss L'Hommedieu's abode; it was built of coquina, like hers, +but it faced the sea-wall directly, commanding the inlet; from its upper +windows one could see over Anastasia Island opposite, and follow miles +of the blue southern sea. Ruth's French maid, Felicite, had arrived at +this brown mansion the day before, with the heavy luggage; to-night, +however, new-comers were to remain with the mother in the smaller house. + +When the barouche reached Mrs. Franklin's door, Etheridge, Mrs. Kip, and +the heart were already there. "I won't stay now," said Mrs. Kip. "But +may I look in later? Evangeline Taylor is perfectly _wild_ to come." + +When she returned, a little after eight, Chase was still in the +dining-room with Anthony Etheridge, who had dined there. The heart had +been suspended from a stout hook on the parlor wall, and Ruth happened a +moment before to have placed herself under it, when, having discovered +her old guitar in a closet, she had seated herself to tune it. "It's +_so_ sweet, Ruth, your sitting there under my flowers," said the +visitor, tearfully. "And yet, for _me_, such an--such an _association_!" + +"I thought your daughter was coming?" said Mrs. Franklin, peering +towards the door over her glasses. + +"Evangeline Taylor will be here in a moment," answered her mother; "her +governess is bringing her." And presently there entered a tall, a +gigantically tall girl, with a long, solemn, pale face. As she was +barely twelve, she was dressed youthfully in a short school-girl frock +with a blue sash. Advancing, she kissed Ruth; then, retiring to a +corner, she seated herself, arranged her feet in an appropriate pose, +and crossed her hands in her lap. A little later, when no one was +looking, she furtively altered the position of her feet. Then she +changed once or twice the arrangement of her hands. This being settled +at last to her satisfaction, she turned her attention to her features, +trying several different contortions, and finally settling upon a +drawing in of the lips and a slight dilatation of the nostrils. And all +this not in the least from vanity, but simply from an intense personal +conscientiousness. + +"The dear child longed to see you, Ruth. She danced for joy when she +heard you had come," explained the mother. + +"Yes, Evangeline and I have always been great chums," answered Ruth, +good-naturedly. + +The room was brightly lighted, and the light showed that the young +wife's face was more beautiful than ever; the grace of her figure also +was now heightened by all the aids that dress can bestow. Ruth had said +to Jared, jokingly, "Wait till you see how pretty I shall be in fine +clothes!" The fine clothes had been purchased in profusion, and, what +was better, Felicite knew how to adapt them perfectly to her slender +young mistress. + +Mrs. Kip, having paid her tribute to "the association" (she did not say +whether the feeling was connected with Andrew Taylor, her first husband, +or with the equally departed John Kip, her second), now seated herself +beside Ruth, and, with the freedom of old friendship, examined her +costume. "I know you had that made in Paris!" she said. "Simple as it +is, it has a sort of something or other! And, oh, what a beautiful +bracelet! What splendid rings!" + +Ruth wore no ornaments save that on her right wrist was a band of +sapphires, and on her right hand three of the same gems, all the stones +being of great beauty. On her left hand she wore the wedding circlet, +with her engagement-ring and the philopena guard over it. In answer to +the exclamation, she had taken off the jewels and tossed them all into +Mrs. Kip's lap. Mrs. Kip looked at them, her red lips open. + +To some persons, Lilian Kip seemed beautiful, in spite of the fact that +the outline of her features, from certain points of view, was almost +grotesque; she had a short nose, a wide mouth, a broad face, and a +receding chin. Her dark-brown eyes were neither large nor bright, but +they had a soft, dove-like expression; her curling hair was of a +mahogany-red tint, and she had the exquisitely beautiful skin which +sometimes accompanies hair of this hue; her cheeks really had the +coloring of peaches and cream; her lips were like strawberries; her +neck, arms, and hands were as fair as the inner petals of a tea-rose. +With the exception of her imperfect facial outlines, she was as +faultlessly modelled as a Venus. A short Venus, it is true, and a +well-fed one; still a Venus. No one would ever have imagined her to be +the mother of that light-house of a daughter; it was necessary to recall +the fact that the height of the late Andrew Taylor had been six feet +four inches. Andrew Taylor having married Lilian Howard when she was but +seventeen, Lilian Kip, in spite of two husbands and her embarrassingly +overtopping child, found herself even now but thirty. + +She had put Ruth's rings on her hands and the bracelet on her wrist; now +she surveyed the effect with her head on one side, consideringly. While +she was thus engaged, Mrs. Franklin's little negro boy, Samp, ushered in +another visitor--Walter Willoughby. + +"Welcome to Florida, Mrs. Chase," he said, as he shook hands with Ruth. +"As you are an old resident, however, it's really your husband whom I +have come to greet; he is here, isn't he?" + +"Yes; he is in the dining-room with Commodore Etheridge," Ruth +answered. "Will you go out?" For it was literally out; the old house was +built in the Spanish fashion round an interior court, and to reach the +dining-room one traversed a long veranda. + +"Thanks; I'll wait here," Walter answered. In reality he would have +preferred to go and have a cigar with Chase. But as he had not seen his +partner's wife since she returned from Europe, it was only courtesy as +well as good policy to remain where he was. For Mrs. Chase was a power. +She was a power because her husband would always wish to please her; +this desire would come next to his money-making, and would even, in +Walter's opinion (in case there should ever be a contest between the two +influences), "run in close!" + +Mrs. Kip had hastily divested herself of the jewels, and replaced them +on Ruth's wrist and hands, with many caressing touches. "Aren't they +_lovely_?" she said to Walter. + +"That little one, the guard, was _my_ selection," he replied, indicating +the philopena circlet. + +"And not this also?" said Ruth, touching her engagement ring. + +"No; that was my uncle Richard's choice; Chase wrote to _him_ the second +time, not to me," Walter answered. "I'm afraid he didn't like my taste." +He laughed; then turned to another subject. "You were playing the guitar +when I came in, Mrs. Chase; won't you sing something?" + +"I neither play nor sing in a civilized way," Ruth answered. "None of +us do. In music we are all awful barbarians." + +"How can you say so," protested Mrs. Kip, "when, as a family, you are +_so_ musical?" Then, summoning to her eyes an expression of great +intelligence, she added: "And I should know that you were, all of you, +from your thick eyebrows and very thick hair. You have heard of that +theory, haven't you, Mr. Willoughby? That all true musicians have very +thick hair?" + +"Also murderers; I mean the women--the murderesses," remarked Dolly. + +"Oh, Dolly, what ideas you do have! Who would ever think of associating +murderesses with music? Music is _so_ uplifting," protested the rosy +widow. + +"We should take care that it is not too much so," Dolly answered. "Lots +of us are ridiculously uplifted. We know one thing perhaps, and like it. +But we remain flatly ignorant about almost everything else. In a busy +world this would do no harm, if we could only be conscious of it. But +no; on we go, deeply conceited about the one thing we know and like, and +loftily severe as to the ignorance of other persons concerning it. It +doesn't occur to us that upon other subjects save our own, we ourselves +are presenting precisely the same spectacle. A Beethoven, when it comes +to pictures, may find something very taking in a daub representing a +plump child with a skipping-rope, and the legend: 'See me jump!' A +painter of the highest power may think 'The Sweet By-and-By' on the +cornet the acme of musical expression. A distinguished sculptor may +appreciate on the stage only negro minstrels or a tenth-rate farce. A +great historian may see nothing to choose, in the way of beauty, between +a fine etching and a chromo. It is well known that the most celebrated, +and deservedly celebrated, scientific man of our day devours regularly +the weakest fiction that we have. And people who love the best classical +music and can endure nothing else, have no idea, very often, whether +they belong to the mammalia or the crustacea, or whether the Cologne +cathedral is Doric or late Tudor." + +"Carry it a little further, Miss Franklin," said Walter Willoughby; "it +has often been noted that criminals delight in the most sentimental +tales." + +"That isn't the same thing," Dolly answered. "However, to take up your +idea, Mr. Willoughby, it is certainly true that it is often the good +women who read with the most breathless interest the newspaper reports +of crimes." + +"Oh no!" exclaimed Mrs. Kip. + +"Yes, they do, Lilian," Dolly responded. "And when it comes to tales, +they like dreadful events, with plenty of moral reflections thrown in; +the moral reflections make it all right. A plain narrative of an even +much less degree of evil, given impartially, and without a word of +comment by the author--_that_ seems to them the unpardonable thing." + +"Well, and isn't it?" said Mrs. Kip. "Shouldn't people be +_taught_--_counselled_?" + +"And it's for the sake of the counsel that they read such stories?" +inquired Dolly. + +During this conversation, Chase, in the dining-room, had risen and given +a stretch, with his long arms out horizontally. He was beginning to feel +bored by the talk of Anthony Etheridge, "the ancient swell," as he +called him. In addition, he had a vision of finishing this second cigar +in a comfortable chair in the parlor (for Mrs. Franklin had no objection +to cigar smoke), with Ruth near by; for it always amused him to hear his +wife laugh and talk. The commodore, meanwhile, having assigned to +himself from the day of the wedding the task of "helping to civilize the +Bubble," never lost an opportunity to tell him stories from his own more +cultivated experience--"stories that will give him ideas, and, by Jove! +phrases, too. He needs 'em!" He had risen also. But he now detained his +companion until he had finished what he was saying. "So there you have +the reason, Mr. Chase, why _I_ didn't marry. I simply couldn't endure +the idea of an old woman's face opposite mine at table year after year; +for our women grow old so soon! Now you, sir, have shown the highest +wisdom in this respect. I congratulate you." + +"I don't know about that," answered Chase, as he turned towards the +door. "Ruth will have an old man's face opposite _her_ before very long, +won't she?" + +"Not at all, my good friend; not at all. Men have no age. At least, +they _need_ not have it," answered Etheridge, bringing forward with +joviality his favorite axiom. + +Cordial greetings took place between Chase and Walter Willoughby. "Your +uncles weren't sure you would still be here," Chase remarked. "They +thought perhaps you wouldn't stay." + +"I shall stay awhile--outstay you, probably," answered Walter, smiling. +"I can't imagine that you'll stand it long." + +"Doing nothing, you mean? Well, it's true I have never loafed _much_," +Chase admitted. + +"You loafed all summer in Europe," the younger man replied, and his +voice had almost an intonation of complaint. He perceived this himself, +and smiled a little over it. + +"So that was loafing, was it," commented Ruth, in a musing +tone--"catching trains and coaches on a full run, seeing three or four +cantons, half a dozen towns, two passes, and several ranges of mountains +every day?" + +All laughed, and Mrs. Kip said: "Did you rush along at that rate? That +was baddish. There's no hurry _here_; that's one good thing. The laziest +place! We must get up a boat-ride soon, Ruth. Boat-drive, I mean." + +Mrs. Franklin meanwhile, rising to get something, knocked over +accidentally the lamplighters which she had just completed, and Chase, +who saw it, jumped up to help her collect them. + +"Why, how many you have made!" he said, gallantly. + +She was not pleased by this innocent speech; she had no desire to be +patted on the back, as it were, about her curled strips of paper; she +curled them to please herself. She made no reply, save that her nose +looked unusually aquiline. + +"Yes, mother is tremendously industrious in lamplighters," remarked +Dolly. "Her only grief is that she cannot send them to the Indian +missions. You can send _almost_ everything to the Indian missions; but +somehow lamplighters fill no void." + +"Do you mean the new mission we are to have here--the Indians at the +fort?" asked Walter Willoughby. "They are having a big dance to-night." + +Ruth looked up. + +"Should you like to see it?" he went on, instantly taking advantage of +an opportunity to please her. "Nothing easier. We could watch it quite +comfortably, you know, from the ramparts." + +"I should like it ever so much! Let us go at once, before it is over!" +exclaimed Ruth, eagerly. + +"Ruth! Ruth!" said her mother. "After travelling all day, Mr. Chase may +be tired." + +"Not at all, ma'am," said Chase. "I don't take much stock in Indians +myself," he went on, to his wife. "Do you really want to go?" + +"Oh yes, Horace. Please." + +"And the commodore will go with _me_," said Mrs. Kip, turning her soft +eyes towards Etheridge, who went down before the glance like a house of +cards. + +"But we must take Evangeline Taylor home first," said Mrs. Kip. "We'll +go round by way of Andalusia, commodore. It would never do to let her +see an Indian dance at _her_ age," she added, affectionately, lifting +her hand high to pat her daughter's aerial cheek. "It would make her +tremble like a babe." + +"Oh, _did_ you hear her 'baddish'!" said Dolly, as, a few minutes later, +they went up the steps that led to the sea-wall, Chase and Walter +Willoughby, Ruth and herself. "And did you hear her 'boat-drive'? She +has become so densely confused by hearing Achilles Larue inveigh against +the use of 'ride' for 'drive' that now she thinks everything must be +drive." + +Chase and Walter Willoughby smiled; but not unkindly. There are some +things which the Dolly Franklins of the world are incapable, with all +their cleverness, of comprehending; one of them is the attraction of a +sweet fool. + +The sea-wall of St. Augustine stretches, with its smooth granite coping, +along the entire front of the old town, nearly a mile in length. On the +land side its top is but four or five feet above the roadway; towards +the water it presents a high, dark, wet surface, against which comes the +wash of the ocean, or rather of the inlet; for the harbor is protected +by a long, low island lying outside. It is this island, called +Anastasia, that has the ocean beach. The walk on top of the wall is +just wide enough for two. Walter Willoughby led the way with Dolly, and +Chase and his wife followed, a short distance behind. + +Walter thought Miss Franklin tiresome. With the impatience of a young +fellow, he did not care for her clever talk. He was interested in clever +men; in woman he admired other qualities. He had spent ten days in +Asheville during the preceding summer in connection with Chase's plans +for investment there, and he had been often at L'Hommedieu during his +stay; but he had found Genevieve more attractive than Dolly--Genevieve +and Mrs. Kip. For Mrs. Kip, since her second widowhood, had spent her +summers at Asheville, for the sake of "the mountain atmosphere;" ("which +means Achilles atmosphere," Mrs. Franklin declared). This evening Walter +had felt a distinct sense of annoyance when Dolly had announced her +intention of going with them to see the Indian dance, for this would +arrange their party in twos. He had no desire for a tete-a-tete with +Dolly, and neither did he care for a tete-a-tete with Ruth; his idea had +been to accompany Mr. and Mrs. Chase as a third. However, he made the +best of it; Walter always did that. He had the happy faculty of getting +all the enjoyment possible out of the present, whatever it might be. +Postponing, therefore, to the next day his plan for making himself +agreeable to the Chases, he led the way gayly enough to the fort. + +Fort San Marco is the most imposing ancient structure which the United +States can show. Begun in the seventeenth century, when Florida was a +province of Spain, it has turrets, ramparts, and bastions, a portcullis +and barbacan, a moat and drawbridge. Its water-battery, where once stood +the Spanish cannon, looks out to sea. Having outlived its use as a +fortification, it was now sheltering temporarily a band of Indians from +the far West, most of whom had been sentenced to imprisonment for crime. +With the captives had come their families, for this imprisonment was to +serve also as an experiment; the red men were to be instructed, +influenced, helped. At present the education had not had time to +progress far. + +The large square interior court, open to the sky, was to-night lighted +by torches of pine, which were thrust into the iron rings that had +served the Spaniards for the same purpose long before. The Indians, +adorned with paint and feathers, were going through their wild +evolutions, now moving round a large circle in a strange squatting +attitude, now bounding aloft. Their dark faces, either from their actual +feelings or from the simulated ferocity appropriate to a war-dance, were +very savage, and with their half-naked bodies, their whoops and yells, +they made a picture that was terribly realistic to the whites who looked +on from the ramparts above, for it needed but little imagination to +fancy a _bona fide_ attack--the surprise of the lonely frontier +farm-house, with the following massacre and dreadful shrieks. + +Ruth, half frightened, clung to her husband's arm. Mrs. Kip, after a +while, began to sob a little. + +"I'm _thinking_--of the _wo-women_ they have probably _scalped_ on the +_pla-ains_" she said to Etheridge. + +"What?" he asked, unable to hear. + +"Never mind; we'll _convert_ them," she went on, drying her eyes +hopefully. For a Sunday-school was to be established at the fort, and +she had already promised to take a class. + +But Dolly was on the side of the Indians. "The crimes for which these +poor creatures are imprisoned here are nothing but virtues upside down," +she shouted. "They killed white men? Of course they did. Haven't the +white men stolen all their land?" + +"But we're going to _Christianize_ them," yelled Mrs. Kip, in reply. +They were obliged to yell, amid the deafening noise of the dance and the +whoopings below. + +Ruth had a humorous remark ready, when suddenly her husband, to Walter's +amusement, put his hand over her lips. She looked up at him, laughing. +She understood. + +"Funniest thing in the world," he had once said to her, "but the more +noise there is, the more incessantly women _will_ talk. Ever noticed? +They are capable of carrying on a shrieking conversation in the cars all +day long." + +The atmosphere grew dense with the smoke from the pitch-pine torches, +and suddenly, ten minutes later, Dolly fainted. This in itself was not +alarming; with Dolly it happened not infrequently. But under the present +circumstances it was awkward. + +"Why did you let her come? I was amazed when I saw her here," said +Etheridge, testily. + +For Etheridge was dead tired. He hated the Indians; he detested the +choking smoke; he loathed open ramparts at this time of night. Ruth and +Mrs. Franklin had themselves been surprised by Dolly's desire to see the +dance. But they always encouraged any wish of hers to go anywhere; such +inclinations were so few. + +Walter Willoughby, meanwhile, prompt as ever, had already found a +vehicle--namely, the phaeton of Captain March, the army officer in +charge of the Indians; it was waiting outside to take Mrs. March back to +the Magnolia Hotel. "The captain lends it with pleasure; as soon, +therefore, as Miss Franklin is able, I can drive her home," suggested +Walter. + +But Chase, who knew through his wife some of the secrets of Dolly's +suffering, feared lest she might now be attacked by pain; he would not +trust her to a careless young fellow like Walter. "I'll take her +myself," he said. "And Ruth, you can come back with the others, along +the sea-wall." + +Dolly, who had recovered consciousness, protested against this +arrangement. But her voice was only a whisper; Chase, paying no +attention to it, lifted her and helped her down to the phaeton. He was +certainly the one to do it, so he thought; his wife's sister was his +sister as well. It was a pity that she was not rather more amiable. But +that made no difference regarding one's duty towards her. + +The others also left the ramparts, and started homeward, following the +sea-wall. + +This granite pathway is not straight; it curves a little here and there, +adapting itself to the line of the shore. To-night it glittered in the +moonlight. It was high tide, and the water also glittered as it came +lapping against the stones waveringly, so that the granite somehow +seemed to waver, too. Etheridge was last, behind Mrs. Kip. He did not +wish to make her dizzy by walking beside her, he said. Suddenly he +descended. On the land side. + +Mrs. Kip, hearing the thud of his jump, turned her head, surprised. And +then the commodore (though he was still staggering) held out his hand, +saying, "We get off here, of course; it is much our nearest way. That's +the reason I stepped down," he carelessly added. + +Mrs. Kip had intended to follow the wall as far as the Basin. But she +always instinctively obeyed directions given in a masculine voice. If +there were two masculine voices, she obeyed the younger. In this case +the younger man did not speak. She acquiesced, therefore, in the elder's +sharp "Come!" For poor Etheridge had been so jarred by his fall that his +voice had become for the moment falsetto. + +Mrs. Chase and Walter Willoughby, thus deserted, continued on their way +alone. + +It was a beautiful night. The moon lighted the water so brilliantly that +the flash of the light-house on Anastasia seemed superfluous; the dark +fort loomed up in massive outlines; a narrow black boat was coming +across from the island, and, as there was a breeze, the two Minorcans it +carried had put up a rag of a sail, which shone like silver. "How fast +they go!" said Ruth. + +"Would you like to sail home?" asked Walter. He did not wait for her +answer, for, quick at divination, he had caught the wish in her voice. +He hailed the Minorcans; they brought their boat up to the next flight +of water-steps; in two minutes from the time she had first spoken, Ruth, +much amused by this unexpected adventure, was sailing down the inlet. +"Oh, how wet! I didn't think of that," Walter had exclaimed as he saw +the water in the bottom of the boat; and with a quick movement he had +divested himself of his coat, and made a seat of it for her in the +driest place. She had had no time to object, they were already off; she +must sit down, and sit still, for their tottlish craft was only a +dugout. Walter, squatting opposite, made jocular remarks about his +appearance as he sat there in his shirt-sleeves. + +It was never difficult for Ruth to laugh, and presently, as the water +gained on her companion in spite of all his efforts, she gave way to +mirth. She laughed so long that Walter began to feel that he knew her +better, that he even knew her well. He laughed himself. But he also took +the greatest pains at the same time to guard her pretty dress from +injury. + +The breeze and the tide were both in their favor; they glided rapidly +past the bathing-house, the Plaza, the Basin, and the old mansion which +Chase had taken. Then Walter directed the Minorcans towards another +flight of water-steps. "Here we are," he said. "And in half the time it +would have taken us if we had walked. We have come like a shot." + +He took her to her mother's door. Then, pretty wet, with his ruined coat +over his arm, he walked back along the sea-wall to the St. Augustine +Hotel. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +Two weeks later Mrs. Kip gave an afternoon party for the Indians. +Captain March had not been struck by her idea that the sight of "a +lady's quiet home" would have a soothing effect upon these children of +the plains. Mrs. Kip had invited the whole band, but the captain had +sent only a carefully selected half-dozen in charge of the interpreter. +And he had also added, uninvited, several soldiers from the small force +at his disposal. Mrs. Kip was sure that these soldiers were present +"merely for form." There are various kinds of form. Captain March, +having confided to the colonel who commanded at the other end of the +sea-wall, that he could answer for the decorum of his six "unless the +young ladies get hold of them," a further detachment of men had arrived +from St. Francis Barracks; for the colonel was aware that the party was +to be largely feminine. The festivities, therefore, went on with double +brilliancy, owing to the many uniforms visible under the trees. + +These trees were magnificent. Mrs. Kip occupied, as tenant, the old +Buckingham Smith place, which she had named Andalusia. Here, in addition +to the majestic live-oaks, were date-palms, palmettoes, magnolias, +crape-myrtles, figs, and bananas, hedges of Spanish-bayonet, and a +half-mile of orange walks, which resembled tunnels through a +glossy-green foliage, the daylight at each end looking like a far-away +yellow spot. All this superb vegetation rose, strangely enough to +Northern eyes, from a silver-white soil. It was a beautiful day, warm +and bright. Above, the sky seemed very near; it closed down over the +flat land like a soft blue cover. The air was full of fragrance, for +both here and in the neighboring grove of Dr. Carrington the +orange-trees were in bloom. Andalusia was near the San Sebastian border +of the town, and to reach it on foot one was obliged to toil through a +lane so deep in sand that it was practically bottomless. + +There was no toil, however, for Mrs. Horace Chase; on the day of the +party she arrived at Andalusia in a phaeton drawn by two pretty ponies. +She was driving, for the ponies were hers. Her husband was beside her, +and, in the little seat behind, Walter Willoughby had perched himself. +It was a very early party, having begun with a dinner for the Indians at +one o'clock; Mr. and Mrs. Chase arrived at half-past two. Dressed in +white, Mrs. Kip was hovering round her dark-skinned guests. When she +could not think of anything else to do, she shook hands with them; she +had already been through this ceremony eight times. "If I could only +speak to them in their own tongue!" she said, yearningly. And the long +sentences, expressive of friendship, which she begged the interpreter to +translate to them, would have filled a volume. The interpreter, a very +intelligent young man, obeyed all her requests with much politeness. +"Tell them that we _love_ them," said Mrs. Kip. "Tell them that we think +of their _souls_." + +The interpreter bowed; then he translated as follows: "The white squaw +says that you have had enough to eat, and more than enough; and she +hopes that you won't make pigs of yourselves if anything else is +offered--especially Drowning Raven!" + +The Chases and Walter Willoughby had come to the Indian party for a +particular purpose, or rather Walter had asked the assistance of the +other two in carrying out a purpose of his own, which was to make Mrs. +Kip give them a ball. For Andalusia possessed a capital room for +dancing. The room was, in fact, an old gymnasium--a one-story building +near the house. Mrs. Kip was in the habit of lending this gymnasium for +tableaux and Sunday-school festivals; to-day it had served as a +dining-room for the Indians. Walter declared that with the aid of flags +and flowers the gymnasium would make an excellent ball-room; and as the +regimental band had arrived at St. Francis Barracks that morning for a +short stay, the mistress of Andalusia must be attacked at once. + +"We'll go to her Indian party, and compliment her out of her shoes," he +suggested. "You, Mrs. Chase, must be struck with her dress. I shall +simply make love to her. And let me see--what can you do?" he went on, +addressing Chase. "I have it; you can admire her chiefs." + +"Dirty lot!" Chase answered. "I'd rather admire the hostess." + +But the six Indians were not at all dirty; they had never been half so +clean since they were born; they fairly shone with soap and ablutions. +Dressed in trousers and calico shirts, with moccasins on their feet, and +their black hair carefully anointed, they walked, stood, or sat in a +straight row all together, according to the strongly emphasized +instructions which they had received before setting out. Two old +warriors, one of them the gluttonous Drowning Raven reproved by the +interpreter, grinned affably at everything. The others preserved the +dignified Indian impassiveness. + +Soon after his arrival, Walter, who had paid his greetings upon +entering, returned to his fair hostess. "I hear you have a rose-tree +that is a wonder, Mrs. Kip; where is it?" + +Mrs. Kip began to explain. "Go through the first orange-walk. Then turn +to the right. Then--" + +"I am afraid I can't remember. Take me there yourself," said Walter, +calmly. + +"Oh, I ought to be here, I think. People are still coming, you know," +answered the lady. Then, as he did not withdraw his order, "Well," she +said, assentingly. + +They were absent twenty minutes. + +When they returned, the soft brown eyes of the widow had a partly +pleased, partly deprecatory expression. Another young man in love with +her! What could she do to prevent these occurrences? + +Walter, meanwhile, had returned to Mr. and Mrs. Chase. "It's all right," +he said to Ruth. "The ball will come off to-morrow night. Impromptu." + +"Well, you _have_ got cheek!" commented Chase. + +Mrs. Kip herself soon came up. "Ruth, dear, do you know that the +artillery band is only to stay a short time? My gymnasium has a capital +floor; what do you say to an impromptu dance there to-morrow night? I've +just thought of it; it's my own idea entirely." + +"Now what made her lug in that unnecessary lie at the end?" inquired +Chase, in a reasoning tone, when their hostess, after a few minutes more +of conversation, had returned to her duties. "It's of no importance to +anybody whose idea it was. That's what I call taking trouble for +nothing!" + +"If you believe your lie, it's no longer a lie," answered Walter; "and +she believes hers. A quarter of a minute after a thing has happened, a +woman can often succeed in convincing herself that it happened not +_quite_ in that way, but in another. Then she tells it in _her_ way +forever after." + +Chase gave a yawn. "Well, haven't you had about enough of this fool +business?" he said to his wife, using the words humorously. + +"I am ready to go whenever you like," she answered. For if he allowed +her to arrange their days as she pleased, she, on her side, always +yielded to his wishes whenever he expressed them. + +"I'll go and see if the ponies have come," he suggested, and he made his +way towards the gate. + +"You don't give us a very nice character," Ruth went on to Walter. + +"About fibs, do you mean? I only said that you ladies have very powerful +beliefs. Proof is nothing to you; faith is all. There is another odd +fact connected with the subject, Mrs. Chase, and that is that an +absolutely veracious woman, one who tells the exact, bare, cold truth on +all occasions and nothing more; who never exaggerates or is tempted to +exaggerate, by even a hair's-breadth--who is never conscious that she is +coloring things too rosily--such a woman is somehow a very uninteresting +person to men! I can't explain it, and it doesn't seem just. But it's +so. Women of that sort (for they exist--a few of them) move through life +very admirably; but quite without masculine adorers." Then he stopped +himself. "I'm not here, however, to discuss problems with her," he +thought. "Several hours more of daylight; let me see, what can I suggest +next to amuse her?" + +This young man--he was twenty-seven--had had an intention in seeking St. +Augustine at this time; he wished to become well acquainted, if possible +intimate, with the enterprising member of his uncle's firm. He had some +money, but not much. His father, the elder Walter, had been the one +black sheep of the Willoughby flock, the one spendthrift of that +prudent family circle. After the death of the prodigal, Richard and +Nicholas had befriended the son; the younger Walter was a graduate of +Columbia; he had spent eighteen months in Europe; and when not at +college or abroad, he had lived with his rich uncles. But this did not +satisfy him, he was intensely ambitious; the other Willoughbys had no +suspicion of the reach of this nephew's plans. For his ambitions +extended in half a dozen different directions, whereas what might have +been called the family idea had moved always along one line. Walter had +more taste than his uncles; he knew a good picture when he saw it; he +liked good architecture; he admired a well-bound book. But these things +were subordinate; his first wish was to be rich; that was the +stepping-stone to all the rest. As his uncles had children, he could not +expect to be their heir; but he had the advantage of the name and the +relationship, and they had already done much by making him, nominally at +least, a junior partner in this new (comparatively new) firm--a firm +which was, however, but one of their interests. The very first time that +Walter had met the Chase of Willoughby & Chase he had made up his mind +that this was the person he needed, the person to give him a lift. +Richard and Nicholas were too cautious, too conservative, for daring +enterprises, for outside speculations; in addition, they had no need to +turn to things of that sort. Their nephew, however, was in a hurry, and +here, ready to his hand, appeared a man of resources; a man who had +made one fortune in a baking-powder, another by the bold purchase of +three-quarters of an uncertain silver mine, a third by speculation on a +large scale in lumber, while a fourth was now in progress, founded (more +regularly) in steamers. At present also there was a rumor that he had +something new on foot, something in California; Walter had an ardent +desire to be admitted to a part in this Californian enterprise, whatever +it might be. But Chase's trip to Europe had delayed any progress he +might have hoped for in this direction, just as it had delayed the +carrying out of the Asheville speculation. The Chases had returned to +New York in November. But immediately (for it had seemed immediately to +the impatient junior partner) Chase had been hurried off again, this +time to Florida, by his silly wife. Walter did not really mean that Ruth +was silly; he thought her pretty and amiable. But as she was gay, +restless, fond of change, she had interfered (unconsciously of course) +with his plans and his hopes for nearly a year; to call her silly, +therefore, was, in comparison, a mild revenge. "What under heaven is the +use of her dragging poor Chase 'away down South to the land of the +cotton,' when she has already kept him a whole summer wandering about +Europe," he had said to himself, discomfited, when he first heard of the +proposed Florida journey. The next day an idea came to him: "Why +shouldn't I go also? Chase will be sure to bore himself to death down +there, with nothing in the world to do. And then I shall be on hand to +help him through the eternal sunshiny days! In addition, I may as well +try to make myself agreeable to his gadding wife; for, whether she knows +it as yet or not, it is evident that _she_ rules the roost." He +followed, therefore. But as he came straight to Florida, and as Mr. and +Mrs. Chase had stopped _en route_ at Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, +Charleston, and Savannah, Walter had been in St. Augustine nearly two +weeks before they arrived. + +So far, all had turned out as he had hoped it would. This was not +surprising; for young Willoughby was, not merely in manner, but also in +reality, a good-natured, agreeable fellow, full of life, fond of +amusement. He was ambitious, it is true. But he was as far as possible +from being a drudging money-maker. He meant to carry out his plans, but +he also meant to enjoy life as he went along. He had noticed, even as +far back as the time of the wedding, that the girl whom Horace Chase was +to marry had in her temperament both indolence and activity; now one of +these moods predominated, now the other. As soon, therefore, as Mr. and +Mrs. Chase were established in their St. Augustine house, he let himself +go. Whenever the young wife's mood for activity appeared to be +uppermost, he opened a door for it; he proposed an excursion, an +entertainment of some sort. Already, under his leadership, they had +sailed down the Matanzas River (as the inlet is called) to see the old +Spanish lookout; they had rowed up Moultrie Creek; they had sent horses +across to Anastasia Island and had galloped for miles southward down the +hard ocean beach. They had explored the barrens; they had had a +bear-hunt; they had camped out; they had caught sharks. On these +occasions they had always been a party of at least four, and often of +seven, when Mrs. Franklin and Dolly, Mrs. Kip and Commodore Etheridge +joined in the excursion. Dolly in particular had surprised everybody by +her unexpected strength; she had accompanied them whenever it had been +possible. When it was not, she had urged her mother to take the vacant +place. "Do go, His Grand, so that you can tell me about it. For it does +amuse me so!" + +Walter's latest inspiration, the ball at Andalusia, having been +arranged, he now suggested that they should slip out unobserved and +finish the afternoon with a sail. "I noticed the _Owl and the Pussycat_ +moored at the pier as we came by," he said. "If she is still there, Paul +Archer is at the club, probably, and I can easily borrow her." + +"Anything to get away from these Apaches," Chase answered. "And I'm a +good deal afraid, too, of that Evangeline Taylor! She has asked me three +times, with such a voice from the tombs, if I feel well to-day, that she +has turned me stiff." + +"Why on earth does that girl make such _awful_ face?" inquired Walter. + +Ruth gave way to laughter. "I can never make you two believe it, but it +is really her deep sense of duty. She thinks that she ought to look +earnest, or intelligent, or grateful, or whatever it may be, and so she +constantly tries new ways to do it." + +"What way is it when she glares at a fellow's collar for fifteen minutes +steadily," said Walter; "at close range?" + +"She _never_ did!" protested Ruth. + +"Yes--in the tea-room; _my_ collar. And every now and then she gave a +ghastly smile." + +"She didn't know it was your collar; she was simply fixing her eyes upon +a point in space, as less embarrassing than looking about. And she +smiled because she thought she ought to, as it is a party." + +"A point in space! My collar!" grumbled Walter. + +At the gate they looked back for a moment. The guests, nearly a hundred +in number, had gathered in a semicircle under a live-oak; they were +gazing with fresh interest at the Indians, who had been drawn up before +them. The six redskins were still in as close a row as though they had +been handcuffed together; the serious spinsters had failed entirely in +their attempts to break the rank, and have a gentle word with one or two +of them, apart. The Rev. Mr. Harrison, who was to make an address, now +advanced and began to speak; the listeners at the gate could hear his +voice, though they were too far off to catch the words. The voice would +go on for a minute or two, and pause. Then would follow the more +staccato accents of the interpreter. + +"The horse-joke comes in, Walter, when that interpreter begins," said +Chase. "Who knows what he is saying?" + +The interpreter, however, made a very good speech. It was, perhaps, less +spiritual than Mr. Harrison's. + +It turned out afterwards that the thing which had made the deepest +impression upon the Apaches was not the "lady's quiet home," nor the +Sunday-school teachers, nor the cabinet-organ, nor even the dinner; it +was the extraordinary length of "the young-squaw-with-her-head-in-the-sky," +as they designated Evangeline Taylor. + +Ruth drove her ponies down to the Basin. The little yacht called the +_Owl and the Pussycat_ was still moored at the pier; but Paul Archer, +her owner, was not at the club, as Walter had supposed; he had gone to +the Florida House to call upon some friends. Commodore Etheridge was in +the club-room; he was forcing himself to stay away from Andalusia, for +he had an alarming vision of its mistress, dressed in white, with the +sunshine lighting up her sea-shell complexion and bringing out, +amorously, the rich tints of her hair. Delighted to have something to +do, he immediately took charge of Walter. + +"Write a line, Mr. Willoughby; write a line on your card, and our porter +shall take it to the Florida House at once. In the meanwhile Mr. and +Mrs. Chase can wait here. Not a bad place to wait in, Mrs. Chase? +Simple, you see. Close to nature. And nature's great restorer" (for two +of the club-men were asleep). + +The room was close to restorers of all sorts, for the land front was let +to a druggist. The house stood on the wooden pier facing the little +Plaza, across whose grassy space the old Spanish cathedral and the more +modern Episcopal church eyed each other without rancour. The Plaza's +third side was occupied by the post-office, which had once been the +residence of the Spanish governor. + +The club-room was a large, pleasant apartment, with windows and verandas +overlooking the water. There was a general straightening up of lounging +attitudes when Mrs. Chase came in. Etheridge had already introduced +Horace Chase to everybody at the club, and Chase, in his turn, had +introduced almost everybody to his wife. The club, to a man, admired +Mrs. Chase; while she waited, therefore, she held a little court. The +commodore, meanwhile, kindly took upon himself, as usual, the duty of +entertaining the Bubble. + +"Mr. Willoughby need not have gone to the Florida House in person; our +porter could perfectly well have taken a note, as I suggested. Capital +fellow, our porter; I never come South, Mr. Chase, without being struck +afresh with the excellence of the negroes as servants; they are the best +in the world; they're born for it!" + +"That's all right, if they're willing," Chase answered. "But not to +force 'em, you know. That slave-market in the Plaza, now--" + +"Oh Lord! Slave-market! Have _you_ got hold of that story too?" +interposed Etheridge, irritably. "It was never anything but a +fish-market in its life! But I'm tired of explaining it; that, and the +full-length skeleton hanging by its neck in an iron cage in the +underground dungeon at the fort--if they're not true, they ought to be; +that's what people appear to think! '_Si non ee veero, ee ben +trovatoro_,' as the Italians say. And speaking of the fort, I suppose +you have been to that ridiculous Indian party at Andalusia to-day? Mrs. +Kip must have looked grotesque, out-of-doors? In white too, I dare say?" + +"Grotesque? Why, she's pretty," answered Chase. + +"Not to my eye," responded Etheridge, determinedly. "She has the facial +outlines of a frog. Do you know the real reason why I didn't marry? I +couldn't endure, sir, the prospect of an old woman's face opposite mine +at table year after year. For our women grow old so soon--" + +As he brought this out, a dim remembrance of having said it to Horace +Chase before came into his mind. Had he, or had he not? Chase's face +betrayed nothing. If he had, what the devil did the fellow mean by not +answering naturally, "Yes, you told me?" Could it be possible that he, +Anthony Etheridge, had fallen into a habit of repeating?--So that people +were accustomed--? He went off and pretended to look at a file of +porpoises, who were going out to sea in a long line, like so many fat +dark wheels rolling through the water. + +Chase, left alone, took up a newspaper. But almost immediately he threw +it down, saying, "Well, I didn't expect to see _you_ here!" + +The person whom he addressed was a stranger, who came in at this moment, +brought by a member of the club. He shook hands with Chase, and they +talked together for a while. Then Chase crossed the room, and, smiling a +little as he noted the semicircle round his wife, he asked her to come +out and walk up and down the pier while they waited for Willoughby. Once +outside, he said: + +"Ruthie, I want to have a talk with Patterson, that man you saw come in +just now. I'm not very keen about sailing, anyhow. Will you let me off +this time?" + +"Oh yes; I don't care about going," Ruth answered. + +"You needn't give it up because I do," said her husband, kindly; "you +like to sail. Take the ancient swell in my place. He will be delighted +to go, for it will make him appear so young. Just Ruth, Anthony, and +Walter--three gay little chums together!" + +As Chase had predicted, the commodore professed himself "enchanted." He +went off smilingly in Paul Archer's yacht, whose device of an owl and +pussycat confounded the practically minded, while to the initiated--the +admirers of those immortal honey-mooners who "ate with a runcible +spoon"--it gave delight; a glee which was increased by the delicate +pea-green hue of the pretty little craft. + +But in spite of his enchantment, the commodore soon brought the boat +back. He had taken the helm, and, when he had shown himself and his +young companions to everybody on the sea-wall; when he had dashed past +the old fort; and then, putting about, had gone beating across the inlet +to the barracks, he turned the prow towards the yacht club again. It was +the hour for his afternoon whist, and he never let anything interfere +with that. + +The excursion, therefore, had been a short one, and, as Walter walked +home with Mrs. Chase, she lingered a little. "It's too early to go in," +she declared. As they passed the second pier, a dilapidated construction +with its flooring gone, she espied a boat she knew. "There is the +_Shearwater_ just coming in. I am sure Mr. Kean would lend it to us. +Don't you want to go out again?" + +The _Shearwater_ was an odd little craft, flat on the water, with a +long, pointed, covered prow and one large sail. Ruth knew it well, for +Mr. Kean was an old friend of the Franklin's, and, in former winters, he +had often taken her out. + +"My object certainly is to please her," Walter said to himself. "But she +_does_ keep one busy. Well, here goes!" + +Mr. Kean lent his boat, and presently they were off again. + +"Take me as far as the old light-house," Ruth suggested. + +"Easy enough going; but the getting back will be another matter," +Walter answered. "We should have to tack." + +"I like tacking. I insist upon the light-house," Mrs. Chase replied, +gayly. + +The little boat glided rapidly past the town and San Marco; then turned +towards the sea. For the old light-house, an ancient Spanish beacon, was +on the ocean side of Anastasia. + +"We can see it now. Isn't this far enough?" Walter asked, after a while. + +"No; take me to the very door; I've made a vow to go," Ruth declared. + +"But at this rate we shall never get back. And when we do, your husband, +powerfully hungry for his delayed dinner, will be sharpening the +carving-knife on the sea-wall!" + +"He is more likely to be sharpening pencils at the Magnolia. He is sure +to be late himself; in fact, he told me so; for he has business matters +to talk over with that Mr. Patterson." + +Walter had not known, until now, the name of the person who had carried +off Chase; he had supposed that it was some ordinary acquaintance; he +had no idea that it was the Chicago man whose name he had heard +mentioned in connection with Chase's California interests. "David +Patterson, of Chicago?" he asked. "Is he going to stay?" + +"No; he leaves to-morrow morning, I believe," replied Ruth, in an +uninterested tone. + +"And here I am, sailing all over creation with this insatiable girl, +when, if I had remained at the club, perhaps Chase would have introduced +me; perhaps I might even have been with them now at the Magnolia," +Walter reflected, with intense annoyance. + +At last she allowed him to put about. The sun was sinking out of sight. +Presently the after-glow gave a second daylight of deep gold. Down in +the south the dark line of the dense forest rose like a range of hills. +The perfume from the orange groves floated seaward and filled the air. + +"I used to believe that I liked riding better than anything," remarked +Ruth. "But ever since that little rush we had together in the dugout--do +you remember? the night we arrived?--ever since then, somehow, sailing +has seemed more delicious! For one thing, it's lazier." + +They were seated opposite each other in the small open space, Walter +holding the helm with one hand, while with the other he managed the +sail, and Ruth leaning back against the miniature deck. Presently she +began to sing, softly, Schubert's music set to Shakespeare's words: + + "'Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings, + And Phoebus 'gins arise--'" + +"Not the lark already?" asked Walter. + +He was exerting all his skill, but their progress was slow; the +_Shearwater_ crossed and recrossed, crossed and recrossed, gaining but a +few feet in each transit. + + "'Arise! arise! + My lady sweet, arise!'" + +sang Ruth. + +"Do you think I could get a rise out of those Minorcans?" suggested her +companion, indicating a fishing-boat at a little distance. "Perhaps they +could lend me some oars. I was a great fool to come out without them!" + +"Oh, don't get oars; that would spoil it. The tide has turned, and the +wind is dying down; we can float slowly in. Everything is exactly right, +and I am perfectly happy!" + +Walter, his mind haunted by that vision of Chase and Patterson at the +Magnolia, did not at first take in what she had said. Then, a minute or +two afterwards, her phrase returned to him, and he smiled; it seemed so +naive. "It's delightful, in a discontented world, to hear you say that, +Mrs. Chase. Is it generally, or in particular, that you are so blissful? +St. Augustine? or life as a whole?" + +"Both," replied Ruth, promptly. "For I have everything I like--and I +like so many things! And everybody does whatever I want them to do. Why, +you yourself, Mr. Willoughby! Because I love to dance, you have arranged +that ball for to-morrow night. And when I asked you to take me out this +second time in the _Shearwater_, you did it at once." + +"Ah, my lady, with your blue eyes and dark lashes, you little know why!" +thought Walter, with an inward laugh. + +At last he got the boat up to the dilapidated pier again. It was long +after dark. He took her to her door, and left her; she must explain her +late arrival in her own way. Women, fortunately, are excellent at +explanations. + +But Chase was not there. + +Twenty minutes afterwards he came in, late in his turn. "You didn't have +dinner, Ruthie? I'm sorry you waited; I was detained." + +"I was very late myself," Ruth answered. + +"Even now I can't stay," Chase went on, hurriedly; "I came back to tell +you, and to get a few things. I am going up to Savannah with Patterson +for three or four days, on business. We are to have a special--a mule +special--this evening, and hit a steamer. You'd better have your mother +to stay with you while I'm away." + +"Yes. To-morrow." + +"She could come to-night, couldn't she?" + +"Yes; but it's late; I won't make her turn out to-night. With seven +servants in the house, I am not afraid," Ruth answered. + +"I only thought you might be lonely?" + +"I'll sing all my songs to Petie Trone, Esq." + +He laughed and kissed her. + +"You must come back soon," she said. + +When he had gone she went up-stairs and changed her dress for a long, +loose costume of pale pink tint, covered with lace; then, returning, she +rang for dinner. Here, as in New York, there was a housekeeper, who +relieved the young wife of all care. The dinner, in spite of the long +postponement, was excellent; it was also dainty, for the housekeeper had +learned Mrs. Chase's tastes. Mrs. Chase enjoyed it. She drank a glass of +wine, and dallied over the sweets and the fruit. Afterwards, in the +softly lighted drawing-room, she amused herself by singing half a dozen +songs. Petie Trone, Esq., the supposed audience, was not fond of music, +though the songs were sweet; he slinked out, and going softly up the +stairs, deposited himself of his own accord in his basket behind the +cheval-glass in the dressing-room. At eleven his mistress came up; she +let Felicite undress her, and brush with skilful touch the long, thick +mass of her hair. When the maid had gone, she read a little, leaning +back in an easy-chair, with a shaded lamp beside her; then, letting the +novel slip down on her lap, she sat there, looking about the room. Miss +Billy Breeze had marvelled over the luxurious toilet table at +L'Hommedieu; here the whole room was like that table. Presently its +occupant put out her hand, and drew towards her a small stand which held +her jewel-box. For she already had jewels, as Chase liked to buy them +for her. He would have covered his wife with diamonds if Mrs. Franklin +had not said (during that first visit at Asheville after the marriage), +"Ruth is too young to wear diamonds, Mr. Chase; don't you think so?" +Chase did not think so; but he had deferred to her opinion--at least, he +supposed himself to be deferring to it when he bought only rubies and +sapphires and pearls. His wife now turned over these ornaments. She put +on the pearl necklace; then she took it off, and held it against her +cheek. But she did not spend as much time as usual over the jewels. +Often she entertained herself with them for an hour; it had been one of +her husband's amusements to watch her. To-night, putting the case aside, +she strolled to the window, opened it and looked out. The stars were +shining brilliantly overhead; she could hear the soft lapping of the +water against the sea-wall. From Anastasia came at intervals the flash +of the light-house. "I was over there at sunset," she said to herself as +she watched the gleam. Then closing the window, she walked idly to and +fro, with her hands clasped behind her. "How happy I am!" she thought; +or rather she did not think it, she felt it. She had no desire to sleep; +the door of the bedroom stood open behind her, but she did not go in. +She sat down on the divan, and let her head fall back among the +cushions: "Everything is perfect--perfect. How delightful it is to +live!" + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +Two days after the Indian party at Andalusia, the excursion which Mrs. +Kip had called a "boat-drive" came off. Horace Chase was still absent; +he had telegraphed to his wife that he could not return before the last +of the week. As all the preparations had been made, the excursion was +not postponed on his account. Nor was there any reason why it should be. +It was not given in honor of his wife, especially; Ruth, after sixteen +months of marriage, could hardly be called a bride. In addition, the +little winter colony had learned that an hour or two of their leisurely +pleasure-making was about as much as this man of affairs could enjoy +(some persons said "could endure"); after that his face was apt to +betray a vague boredom, although it was evident that (with his usual +careful politeness) he was trying to conceal it. + +Walter Willoughby, meanwhile, was making the best of an annoying +situation. He had lost the chance of being introduced to David +Patterson, and with it the opportunity of learning something definite, +at last, about Chase's Californian interests, and this seemed to him a +great misfortune. But there was no use in moaning over it; the course to +follow was not still further to lose the five days of Chase's absence +in sulking, but to employ them in the only profitable way that was left +open (small profit, but better than nothing)--namely, in cementing still +further a friendly feeling between himself and Chase's wife, that +butterfly young wife who had been the cause of so many of his +disappointments. "Every little helps, I suppose," he said to himself, +philosophically. "And as the thing she likes best, apparently, is to go +and keep going, why, I'll take her own pace and outrace her--the little +gad-about!" For, to Walter's eyes, Ruth appeared very young; mentally +unformed as yet, child-like. His adjective "little" could, in truth, +only be applied to her in this sense, for in actual inches Mrs. Chase +was almost as tall as he was. Walter was of medium height, robust and +compact. He had a well-shaped, well-poised head, which joined his strong +neck behind with no hollow and scarcely a curve. His thick, dark hair +was kept very short; but, with his full temples and facial outlines, +this curt fashion became him well. He was not called handsome, though +his features were clearly cut and firm. His gray eyes were ordinarily +rather cold. But when he was animated--and he was usually very +animated--young Willoughby looked full of life. He was fond of pleasure, +fond of amusement. But this did not prevent his possessing, underneath +the surface, a resolute will, which he could enforce against himself as +well as against others. He intended to enjoy life. And as, according to +his idea, there could be no lasting enjoyment without freedom from the +pinch of anxiety about material things, he also intended to get +money--first of all to get money. "For a few years, while one is young, +to have small means doesn't so much matter," he had told himself. "But +when one reaches middle age, or passes it, then, if one has children, +care inevitably steps in. There are anxieties, of course, which cannot +be prevented. But this particular one can be--with a certain amount of +energy, and also of resolute self-control in the beginning. The +'have-a-good-time-while-you-are-young' policy doesn't compensate for +having a bad time when you are old, in my opinion. And it's care that +makes one old!" + +Horace Chase had left St. Augustine on Monday. The next evening, at Mrs. +Kip's impromptu ball in the gymnasium, the junior partner of Willoughby, +Chase, & Company devoted his time to Mrs. Chase with much skill. His +attentions remained unobtrusive; he did not dance with her often. The +latter, indeed, would not have been possible in any case; for Mrs. Chase +was surrounded, from first to last, by all that St. Augustine could +offer. Graceful as she was in all her movements, Ruth's dancing was +particularly charming. And it was also striking; for, sinuous, lithe, +soon excited, she danced because she loved it, danced with unconscious +abandon. That night, her slender figure in the white ball dress, that +floated backward in the rapid motion, her happy face with the starry +eyes and beautiful color coming and going--this made a picture which +those who were present remembered long. At ten o'clock she had begun to +dance; at two, when many persons were taking leave, she was still on the +floor; with her circle of admirers, it was now Mrs. Chase who was +keeping up the ball. Her mother, who was staying with her during her +husband's absence, had accompanied her to Andalusia. But there was no +need to ask whether Mrs. Franklin was tired; Mrs. Franklin was never +tired in scenes of gayety; she was as well entertained as her daughter. +Walter had danced but twice with Mrs. Chase during the four hours. But +always between her dances he had been on hand. If she had a fancy for +spending a few moments on the veranda, he had her white cloak ready; if +she wished for an ice, it appeared by magic; if there was any one she +did not care to dance with, she could always say that she was engaged to +Mr. Willoughby. It was in this way, in fact, that Mr. Willoughby had +obtained his two dances. The last dance, however, was all his own. It +was three o'clock; even the most good-natured chaperons had collected +their charges, and the music had ceased. "How sorry I am! I do so long +for just one waltz more," said Ruth. + +She spoke to her mother, but Walter overheard the words. He went across +to the musicians (in reality he bribed them); then returning, he said: +"I've arranged it, Mrs. Chase. You are to have that one waltz more." A +few of the young people, tempted by the revived strains, threw aside +their wraps and joined them, but practically they had the floor to +themselves. Walter was an expert dancer, skilful and strong; he bore his +partner down the long room, guiding her so securely that she was not +obliged to think of their course; she could leave that entirely to him, +and give herself up to the enjoyment of the motion. As they returned +towards the music for the third time, she supposed that he would stop. +But he did not; he swept her down again, and in shorter circles that +made her, light as she was on her feet, a little giddy. "Isn't this +enough?" she asked. But apparently he did not hear her. The floor began +to spin. "Please stop," she murmured, her eyes half closing from the +increasing dizziness. But her partner kept on until he felt that she was +faltering; then, with a final bewildering whirl, he deposited her safely +on a bench, and stood beside her, laughing a little. + +There was no one near them; Mrs. Franklin, Mrs. Kip, and the few who +still remained, were at the other end of the room. Ruth, after a moment, +began to laugh also, while she pressed her hands over her eyes to help +herself see more clearly. "What possessed you?" she said. "Another +instant and I should certainly have fallen; I couldn't see a thing!" + +"No, you wouldn't have fallen, Mrs. Chase; I could have held you up +under any circumstances. But I wanted to make you for once acknowledge +that we are not all so lethargic as you constantly accuse us of being." + +"Accuse?" said Ruth, surprised. She was still panting. + +"Yes, you accuse the whole world; you do nothing _but_ accuse. You are +never preoccupied yourself, and so preoccupation in others seems to you +stupidity. You are never tired; so the rest of us strike you as owlish +and lazy." + +"Oh, but I'm often lazy myself," protested Ruth. + +"Precisely. No doubt when you go in for being lazy at all, you carry it +further than any poor, dull, reasonable man would ever dream of doing," +Walter went on. "I dare say you are capable of lying motionless on a +sofa, with a novel, for ten hours at a stretch!" + +"Ten hours? That's nothing. Ten days," answered Ruth. "I have spent ten +days at L'Hommedieu in that way many a time; Maud Muriel used to call it +'lucid stupor.'" + +"Lucid?" said Walter, doubtfully. "Do you think you can walk?" he went +on, as her mirth still continued. "Because the music really has stopped +this time, and I see your mother's eyes turning this way. Your laughs +are perfectly beautiful, of course. But do they leave you your walking +powers?" + +The musicians, seeing them rise, began suddenly to play again (for his +bribe had been a generous one), and he took her back to her mother in a +rapid _deux temps_. + +"Splendid! I like dancing better than anything else in the world," Ruth +declared. + +"I thought it was sailing? However, whatever it is, please make use of +me often, Mrs. Chase. When I've nothing to do I become terribly +low-spirited: for my uncles are bent upon marrying me!" + +"Have they selected any special person?" inquired Mrs. Franklin, +laughing, as he helped her to put on her cloak. + +"I think they have their eye on a widow, a widow of thirty-seven with a +fortune," answered Walter, with exaggerated gloom. + +"Will she have you?" + +"Never in the world!" Walter declared; "that's just it! Why, therefore, +should my uncles force me forward--such a tender flower as I am--to +certain defeat? It is on that account that I have run away. I have come +to hide in Florida--under your protection, Mrs. Chase." + +The meeting-place for the water-party the next day was St. Francis +Barracks--the long, brown structure with pointed gables and deep shady +verandas, which stood on the site of an old Spanish monastery, at the +south end of the sea-wall. The troops stationed at St. Francis that +winter belonged to the First Artillery; to-day the colonel and his +family, the captain and his wife, and the two handsome lieutenants took +part in the excursion; there were fifty people in all, and many yachts, +from the big _Seminole_ down to the little _Shearwater_. Walter had _The +Owl and the Pussycat_, and with him embarked Mrs. Franklin with her two +daughters, Miss Franklin and Mrs. Chase; Mrs. Lilian Kip; and Commodore +Etheridge. At two o'clock the little fleet sped gayly down the Matanzas. + +"Matanzas, Sebastian, St. Augustine," said Walter; "these names are all +in character. It's an awful misfortune for your husband's budding summer +resort in the North Carolina mountains, Mrs. Chase, that its name +happens to be Asheville, after that stupid custom of tacking the French +'ville' to some man's name; (for I take it that Ashe is a name, and not +cinders). In this case, the first settlers were more than usually +asinine; for they had the beautiful Indian 'Swannanoa' ready to their +hands." + +"Oh, but first settlers have no love for Indian names," commented Dolly. +"How can they have? The Indians and the great forest--these are their +enemies. To me there is something touching in our Higgsvilles and +Slatervilles. I see the first log cabins in the little clearing; then a +short, stump-bedecked street; then two or three streets and a +court-house. The Higgs or the Slater was their best man, their leader, +the one they looked up to. In North Carolina alone there are one hundred +and ten towns or villages with names ending in 'ville.'" + +"North Carolina? Oh yes, I dare say!" remarked Etheridge. + +"And two hundred and forty-one in New York," added Dolly. + +"Well, we make up for it in other ways," said Mrs. Franklin. "If the men +name the towns, the women name the children; I have known mothers to +produce simply from their own imaginations such titles as Merilla, and +Idelusia, for their daughters. I once knew a girl who had even been +baptized Damask Rose." + +"What did they call her for short?" inquired Walter. + +"Oh, Mr. _Willoughby!_" said Lilian Kip, shocked. + +"Damask's mother was trying to solace herself with names, I fancy," Mrs. +Franklin went on, "because by the terms of her husband's will (she was a +widow), she forfeited all she had if she married again." + +"How outrageous?" exclaimed Mrs. Kip, bristling into vehemence. "If a +woman has been a good wife to one man, is that any reason why she should +be denied the _privilege_ of being a good wife to another?" + +"Privilege?" repeated Dolly. + +"Surely there is no greater one," said Mrs. Kip, with a sigh. "Love is +so beautiful! And it is such a benefit! The more one loves, the better, +I think. And the more _persons_ one loves, the more sweet and generous +one's nature becomes. If any one has been bereaved, I am always _so_ +glad to hear that they are in love again. Even if the love is +unreturned" (here she gave a little swallow), "I still think it in +itself the greatest blessing we have; and the most improving." + +After a friendly race towards the south, the fleet turned and came back; +the company disembarked and walked across the narrow breadth of +Anastasia Island to the ocean beach, where, at the Spanish light-house, +the collation was to be served later in the day. The old beacon stood, +at high tide, almost in the water; for, in two hundred years, the ocean +had encroached largely upon the shore. Its square stone tower, which had +been topped in the Spanish days with an iron grating and a bonfire, now +displayed a revolving light, which flashed and then faded, flashed and +faded, signalling out to sea the harbor of St. Augustine. Under the +tower stood a coquina house for the keeper, and the whole was fortified, +having a defensive wall, with angles and loop-holes. Nothing could have +been more beautiful than the soft sapphire tint of the ocean, whose long +rollers, coming smoothly in, broke with a musical wash upon the broad +white beach which, firm as a pavement, stretched towards the south in +long curves. Not a ship was in sight. Overhead sailed an eagle. "Oh, why +did we land so soon?" said Ruth, regretfully. "We might have stayed out +two hours longer. For we are not to have the supper--or is it the +dinner?--at any rate, it's chowder--until sunset." + +"We can go out again, if you like," said Walter. + +Here Etheridge came up. The implacably clear light which comes from a +broad expanse of sea was revealing every minute line in Mrs. Franklin's +delicate face. "How wrinkled she looks!" was his self-congratulatory +thought. "Even fifteen years ago she was finished--done!" Then he +added, aloud: "I think I'll accompany you, if you _are_ going out again. +The afternoon promises to be endlessly long here, with nothing to do but +gawp for sea-beans, or squawk poetry!" This strenuous description of +some of the amusements already in progress on the beach showed that, in +the commodore's plans, something had gone wrong. + +"Are you really going, commodore?" asked Mrs. Franklin. "Then I'll put +Ruth in your charge." + +"Put me in it, too," said Dolly. "I should much rather sail than sit +here." + +"Oh no, Dolly. You never can take that walk to the landing a second time +so soon," said the mother. + +And so it proved. Dolly started. But, after a few steps, she had to give +it up. "I should think _you_ would like to go, His Grand?" she +suggested. + +"I can't. I have promised to see to the chowder," answered Mrs. +Franklin. "Sailing and sea-beans and poetry are all very well. But I +have noticed that every one grows gloomy when the chowder is bad!" + +Etheridge, Ruth, and Walter Willoughby, therefore, recrossed the island +and embarked. The commodore took the helm. + +"What boat is that ahead of us?" asked Walter. "Some of our people? Has +any one else deserted the sea-beans?" + +"I dare say," replied Etheridge, carelessly. + +The commodore could manage a boat extremely well; the _Owl and the +Pussycat_ flew after that sail ahead, in a line as straight as a +plummet. + +"Why, it's Mrs. Kip," said Ruth, as they drew nearer. She had recognized +the gypsy hat in the other boat. + +"Yes, with Albert Tillotson," added Walter. + +"What, that donkey?" inquired Etheridge, with well-feigned surprise (and +an anger that required no feigning). "He can no more manage a boat than +I can manage a comet! Poor Mrs. Kip is in actual danger of her life. The +idea of that Tom Noddy of a Tillotson daring to take her out! I must run +this boat up alongside, Mr. Willoughby, and get on board immediately. +Common humanity requires it." + +"The commodore's common humanity is uncommonly like jealousy," said +Walter to Ruth when the _Owl_ had dropped behind again after this +manoeuvre had been successfully executed. "He is a clever old fellow! +Of course he knew she was out, and he came with us on purpose. We'll +keep near them, Mrs. Chase, and watch their faces; it will be as good as +a play." + +To his surprise, Ruth, who was generally so ready to laugh, did not pay +heed to this. "I am glad he has gone," she said; "for now we need not +talk--just sail and sail! Let us go over so far--straight down towards +the south." Her eyes had a dreamy expression which was new to him. + +"What next!" thought her companion. He glanced furtively at his watch. +"I can keep on for half an hour more, I suppose." + +But when, at the end of that time, he put about, Ruth, who had scarcely +spoken, straightened herself (she had been lying back indolently, with +one hand behind her head), and watched the turning prow with regret. +"_Must_ we go back so soon? Why?" + +"To look for sea-beans," answered Walter. "Are you aware, Mrs. Chase, of +the awful significance of that New England phrase of condemnation, 'You +don't know beans'? It will be said that _I_ don't know if I take you any +farther. For the tide will soon turn, and the wind is already against +us." + +But his tasks were not yet at an end; another idea soon took possession +of his companion's imagination. + +"How wild Anastasia looks from here! I have never landed at this point. +Can't we land now, just for a few moments? It would be such fun." + +"Won't it be more than fun, Mrs. Horace? A wild-goose--? Forgive the +pun." + +On Anastasia there are ancient trails running north and south. Ruth, +discovering one of these paths, followed it inland. "I wish we could +meet something, I wish we could have an adventure!" she said. "There are +bears over here; and there are alligators too at the pools. Perhaps this +trail leads to a pool?" The surmise was correct; the path soon brought +them within sight of a dark-looking pond, partly covered with lily +leaves. Ruth, who was first (for the old Indian trail was so narrow that +they could not walk side by side), turned back suddenly. "There really +_is_ an alligator," she whispered. "He is half in and half out of the +water. I am going to run round through the thicket, so as to have a +nearer view of him." And hurrying with noiseless steps along the trail, +she turned into the forest. + +He followed. "Don't be foolhardy," he urged. For she seemed to him so +fearless that there was no telling what she might do. + +But when they reached the opposite side of the pool no alligator was +visible, and Ruth, seating herself in the loop of a vine, which formed a +natural swing, laughed her merriest. + +"You are an excellent actress," he said. "I really believed that you had +seen the creature." + +"And if I had? They don't attack people; they are great cowards." + +"I have an admirable air of being more timid than she is!" he thought, +annoyed. + +They returned towards the shore along a low ridge. On their way he saw +something cross this ridge about thirty feet ahead of them--a slender +dark line. He ran forward and looked down (for the ridge was four feet +high). + +"Come quickly!" he called back to Ruth. "Your alligator was a base +invention. But here is something real. He is hardly more than an +infant," he continued, his eyes still fixed on the lower slope. "But he +is of the blood royal, I can tell by the shape of his neck. I'll get a +long branch, Mrs. Chase, and then, as you like adventures, you can see +him strike." Where they stood, they were safe, for the snake (it was a +young rattlesnake) would not come up the ascent; when he moved, he would +glide the other way into the thicket. Hastily cutting a long wand from a +bush, he gave it to her. "Touch him," he directed; "on the body, not on +the head. Then you will see him coil!" He himself kept his eyes +meanwhile on the snake; he did not look at her. But the wand did not +descend. "Make haste," he urged, "or he will be off!" + +The wand came down slowly, paused, and then touched the reptile, who +instantly coiled himself, reared his flat head, and struck at it with +his fangs exposed. Walter, excited and interested, waited to see him +strike again. But there was no opportunity, for the wand itself was +dropping. He turned. Ruth, her face covered with her hands, was +shuddering convulsively. + +"The snake has gone," he said, reassuringly; "he went off like a shot +into the thicket, he is a quarter of a mile away by this time." For he +was alarmed by the violence of the tremor that had taken possession of +her. + +In spite of her tremor, she began to run; she hurried like a wild +creature along the ridge until she came to a broad open space of white +sand, over which no dark object could approach unseen; here she sank +down, sobbing aloud. + +He was at his wits' end. Why should a girl, who apparently had no fear +of bears or alligators, be frightened out of her senses by one small +snake? + +"Supposing she should faint--that Dolly is always fainting! What on +earth could I do?" he thought. + +Ruth, however, did not faint. But she sobbed and sobbed as if she could +not stop. + +"It's just like her laughing," thought Walter, in despair. "Dear Mrs. +Chase," he said aloud, "I am distracted to see how I have made you +suffer. These Florida snakes do very little harm, unless one happens to +step on them unawares. I did not imagine, I did not dream, that the mere +sight--But that makes no difference; I shall never forgive myself; +never!" + +Ruth looked up, catching her breath. "It was so dreadful!" she murmured, +brokenly. "Did you see its--its mouth?" She was so white that even her +lips were colorless; her blue eyes were dilated strangely. + +He grew more and more alarmed. Apparently she saw it, for she tried to +control herself; and, after two or three minutes, she succeeded. "You +must not mind if I happen to look rather pale," she said, timidly. "I am +sometimes very pale for a moment or two. And then I get dreadfully red +in the same way. Dolly often speaks of it. But it doesn't mean anything. +I can go now," she added, still timidly. + +"She thinks I am vexed," he said to himself, surprised. He was not +vexed; on the contrary, in her pallor and this new shyness she was more +interesting to him than she had ever been before. As he knew that they +ought to be on their way back, he accepted her offer to start, in spite +of her white cheeks. But her steps were so weak, and she still trembled +so convulsively, that he drew her hand through his arm and held it. +Giving her in this way all the help he could, he took her towards the +shore, choosing a route through open spaces, so that there should be no +vision of any gliding thing in the underbrush near by. When they were +off again, crossing the Matanzas on a long tack, she was still very +pallid. "I haven't been clever," he thought. "At present she is unnerved +by fright. But by to-morrow it will be anger, and she will say that it +was my fault." While thinking of this, he talked on various subjects. +But it was a monologue; for a long time Ruth made no answer. Then +suddenly the color came rushing back to her cheeks. "_Please_ don't +tell--don't tell any one how dreadfully frightened I was," she pleaded. + +"I never tell anything; I have no talent for narrative," he answered, +much relieved to see the returning red. "But I am dreadfully cut up and +wretched about that fright I was stupid enough to give you. I wish I +could make you forget it, Mrs. Chase; forget it forever." + +"On the contrary, I am afraid I shall remember it forever," Ruth +answered. Then she added, still timidly, "But you were so kind--It won't +be _all_ unpleasant." + +"What a school-girl it is!" thought Walter. "And above all things, what +a creature of extremes! She must lead Horace Chase a life! However, she +is certainly seductively lovely." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +At the end of this week Horace Chase returned. And the next morning he +paid a visit to his mother-in-law. He still used his "ma'am" when +talking to her; she still called him "Mr. Chase." In mentioning him to +others, she sometimes succeeded in bringing out a "Horace." But when the +tall, grave-looking business man was before her in person, she never got +beyond the more formal title. + +"My trip to Savannah, ma'am, was connected with business," Chase began, +after he had gone through his usual elaborate inquiries about her health +and "the health of Miss Dolly." "One of my friends, David Patterson by +name, and myself, have been engaged for some time in arranging a new +enterprise in which we are about to embark in California. Matters are +now sufficiently advanced for me to mention that about May next we shall +need a confidential man in New York to attend to the Eastern part of it. +It is highly important to me, ma'am, to have for that position some one +I know, some one I can trust. Mr. Patterson will go himself to +California, and remain there, probably, a year or more. Meanwhile I, at +the East, shall need just the right man under me; for _I_ have other +things to see to; I cannot give all my time to this new concern. Do you +think, ma'am, that Mr. Franklin could be induced to take this place? +Under the circumstances, I should esteem it a favor." And here he made +Jared's mother a little bow. + +"You are very kind," answered Mrs. Franklin. Having refused to know +anything of the correspondence between Ruth and Genevieve, she had had +until now no knowledge of the proposed New York place. "Jared's present +position is certainly most wretched drudgery," she went on; "far beneath +his abilities--which are really great." + +"Just so. And what should you recommend, ma'am, as the best way to open +the subject? Shall I take a run up to Raleigh? Or shall I drop him a +line? Perhaps you yourself would like to write?" + +The mother reflected. "If I do," she thought, "Jared will fancy that I +have begged the place for him. If Ruth writes, he will be sure of it. If +Mr. Chase writes, Jared will answer within the hour--a letter full of +jokes and friendliness, but--declining. If Chase goes to Raleigh in +person, Jared will decline verbally, and with even more unassailable +good-humor. No, there is only one person in the world who could perhaps +make him yield, and that person is Genevieve!" At this thought, her +face, which always showed like a barometer her inward feelings, changed +so markedly that her son-in-law hastened to interpose. "Don't bother +about the ways and means, ma'am; I guess I can fix it all right." He +spoke in a confident tone, in order to reassure her; for he had a liking +for the "limber old lady," as he mentally called her. His confidence, +however, was in a large measure assumed; where business matters were in +question, the "offishness," as he termed it, of this ex-naval officer +had seemed to him such a queer trait that he hardly knew how to grapple +with it. + +"I was only thinking that my daughter-in-law would perhaps be the best +person to speak to Jared," replied Mrs. Franklin at last. (The words +came out with an effort.) + +"Gen? So she would; she is very clear-headed. But if she is to be the +one, I must first let her know just what the place is, and all about it, +and how can that be done, ma'am? Wouldn't Mr. Franklin see my letter?" + +"No. For she isn't in Raleigh with her husband; she is at Asheville." + +"Why, how's that?" inquired Chase, who had seen, from the first, Jared's +deep attachment to his wife. + +"How indeed!" thought the mother. Her lips quivered. She compressed them +in order to conceal it. The satisfaction which she had, for a time, felt +in the idea that Genevieve was learning, at last, that she could not +always control her husband--this had now vanished in the sense of her +son's long and dreary solitude. For the wife had not been in Raleigh +during the entire winter; Jared had been left to endure existence as +best he could in his comfortless boarding-house. "My daughter-in-law has +been very closely occupied at Asheville," she explained, after a moment. +"They are improving their house there, you know, and she can superintend +work of that sort remarkably well." + +"That's so," said Chase, agreeingly. + +"She is also much interested in a new wing for the Colored Home," +pursued Mrs. Franklin; and this time a little of her deep inward +bitterness showed itself in her tone. + +"Gen's pretty cute!" thought Chase. "She's not only feathering her own +nest up there in Asheville, but at the same time she is starving out +that wrong-headed husband of hers." Then he went on aloud: "Well, ma'am, +if it's to be Mrs. Jared who is to attend to the matter for me, I guess +I'll wait until I can put the whole thing before her in a nutshell, with +the details arranged. That will be pretty soon now--as soon as I come +back from California. For I must go to California myself before long." + +"Are you going to take Ruth? How I shall miss her!" said the mother, +dispiritedly. + +"We shall not be gone a great while--only five or six weeks. On second +thoughts, why shouldn't you come along, ma'am?--come along with us? I +guess I could fix it so as you'd be pretty comfortable." + +"You are very kind. But I could not leave Dolly." + +"Of course not. I didn't mean that, ma'am; I meant that Miss Dolly +should come along too. That French woman of Ruth's--Felicity--she's +capital when travelling. Or we could have a trained nurse? They have +very attractive nurses now, ma'am; real ladies; and good-looking too, +and sprightly." + +"You are always thoughtful," answered Mrs. Franklin, amused by this +description. "But it is impossible. Dolly can travel for two or three +days, if we take great precautions; but a longer time makes her ill. +Ruth is coming to lunch, isn't she? With Malachi? I am so glad you +brought him; he doesn't have many holidays." + +"Well, ma'am, he was there in Savannah, buying a bell, or, rather, +getting prices. A church bell, as I understood. He'd about got through, +and was going back to Asheville, when I suggested to him to come along +down to St. Augustine for three or four days. 'Come and look up your +wandering flock'--that is what I remarked to him. For you know, ma'am, +that with yourself and Miss Dolly, the commodore and Mrs. Kip, you make +four--four of his sheep in Florida; including Miss Evangeline Taylor, +four sheep and a first-prize lamb." + +Mrs. Franklin smiled. But she felt herself called upon to explain a +little. "We are not of his flock, exactly; Mr. Hill has a mission +charge. But though he is not our rector, we are all much attached to +him." + +"He's a capital little fellow, and works hard; I've great respect for +him. But somehow, ma'am, he's taken a queer way lately of stopping short +when he is talking. Almost as though he had choked!" + +"So he has--choked himself off," answered Mrs. Franklin, breaking into a +laugh. "When with you, he is constantly tempted to ask for money for the +Mission, he says. He knows, however, that the clergy are always accused +of paying court to rich men for begging purposes, and he is determined +to be an exception. But he finds it uncommonly difficult." + +"How much does he want?" inquired Chase. Then he paused. "Perhaps his +notions take the form of a church?" he went on. "I've been thinking a +little of building a church, ma'am. You see, my mother was a great +church-goer; she found her principal comfort in it. I've been very far +from steady myself, I'm sorry to say; I haven't done much credit to her +bringing-up. And so I've thought that I'd put up a church some day, as a +sort of memory of her. Because, if she'd lived, she would have liked +that better than anything else." + +"Do you mean an Episcopal church?" inquired Mrs. Franklin, touched by +these words. + +"Well, she was a Baptist herself," Chase replied. "So perhaps I have +rather a prejudice in favor of that denomination. But I'm not set upon +it; I should think it might be built so as to be suitable for all +persuasions. At any rate, I guess Hill and I could hit it off together +somehow." + +Here Dolly came in, and a moment afterwards Ruth appeared with the Rev. +Malachi Hill. Dolly greeted the young missionary with cordiality. "How +is Asheville?" she inquired. "How is Maud Muriel?" + +Malachi's radiant face changed. "She is the same. When I see her coming, +I do everything I can to keep out of the way. But sometimes there is no +corner to turn, or no house to go into, and I _have_ to pass her. And +then I know just how she will say it!" And, tightening his lips, he +brought out a low "Manikin!" + +"Brace up," said Dolly. "You must look back at her and look her down; +make her falter." + +"Oh, falter!" repeated poor Malachi, hopelessly. + +Another guest now appeared--Mrs. Kip. For Mrs. Franklin had invited them +all to lunch before the jessamine hunt, which had been appointed for +that afternoon. As it happened, Mrs. Kip's first question also was, "How +is Miss Mackintosh?" + +"Unchanged. At least, she treats _me_ with the same contumely," answered +the clergyman. + +"If you indulge yourself with such words as 'contumely,' Mr. Hill, +people will call you affected," said Dolly, in humorous warning. + +"Now, Dolly, don't say that," interposed Mrs. Kip. "For unusual words +are full of dignity. I don't know what I wouldn't give if _I_ could +bring in, just naturally and easily, when I am talking, such a word, for +instance, as jejune! And for clergymen it is especially distinguished. +Though there is _one_ clerical word, Mr. Hill, that I do think might be +altered, and that is closet. Why should we always be told to meditate in +our closets? Generally there is no room for a chair; so all one can +think of is people sitting on the floor among the shoes." + +Every one laughed. Mrs. Kip, however, had made her remark in perfect +good faith. + +The entrance of Walter Willoughby completed the party, and lunch was +announced. When the meal was over, and they came back to the parlor, +they found Felicite in waiting with Petie Trone, Esq. Felicite, a French +woman with a trim waist and large eyes, always looked as though she +would like to be wicked. In reality, however, she was harmless, for one +insatiable ambition within her swallowed up all else, namely, the +ambition not to be middle-aged. As she was forty-eight, the struggle +took all her time. "I bring to madame le petit trone for his promenade," +she said, as, after a respectful salutation to the company, she detached +the leader from the dog's collar. + +"Must that fat little wretch go with us?" Chase inquired, after the maid +had departed. + +For answer, Ruth took up Mr. Trone and deposited him on her husband's +knee. "Yes; and you are to see to him." + +"Is the squirrel down here too?" inquired Walter. "I haven't seen him." + +"Robert the Squirrel--" began Chase, with his hands in his trousers +pockets; then he paused. "That's just like Robert the Devil, isn't it? I +mean an opera, ma'am, of that name that they were giving in New York +last winter," he explained to Mrs. Franklin, so that she should not +think he was swearing. + +"Robert the Devil will do excellently well as a nickname for Bob," said +Dolly. "It's the best he has had." + +"Well, at any rate, Robert the Squirrel isn't here," Chase went on. "He +boards with Mr. Hill for the winter, Walter; special terms made for +nuts. And, by-the-way, Hill, you haven't mentioned Larue; how is the +senator? I'm keeping my eye on him for future use in booming our resort, +you know. The Governor of North Carolina remarking to the Governor of +South Carolina--you've heard that story? Well, sir, what we propose now +is to have the _senator_ from North Carolina remark to the senator from +South Carolina (and to all the other senators thrown in) that Asheville +is bound to be the Lone Star of mountain resorts south of the +Catskills." + +Lilian Kip's heart had given a jump at Larue's name; to carry it off, +she took up a new novel which was lying on the table. (For Chase's order +had been a perennial one: "all the latest articles in fiction," pursued +Mrs. Franklin hotly, month after month.) "Oh, I am sure you don't like +_this_," said Lilian, when she had read the title. + +"I have only just begun it," answered Mrs. Franklin. "But why shouldn't +I like it? It is said to be original and amusing." + +"It is not _at all_ the book I should wish to put into the hands of +Evangeline Taylor," replied Mrs. Kip, with decision. + +"The one unfailing test of the American mother for the entire literature +of the world!" commented Dolly. + +The search for the first jessamine was in those days one of the regular +amusements of a St. Augustine winter. Where St. George Street ends, +beyond the two pomegranate-topped pillars of the old city gate, Mrs. +Franklin's party came upon the other members of the searching +expedition, and they all walked on together along the shell road. On the +right, Fort San Marco loomed up, with the figures of several Indians on +its top outlined against the sky. Beyond shone the white sand-hills of +the North Beach. At the end of the road the searchers entered a long +range of park-like glades; here the yellow jessamine, the loveliest wild +flower of the Florida spring, unfolds its tendrils as it clambers over +the trees and thickets, lighting up their evergreen foliage with its +bell-shaped flowers. Dolly and Mrs. Franklin had accompanied the party +in a phaeton. "I think I can drive everywhere, even without a road, as +the ground is so level and open," Dolly suggested. "But you must serve +as guide, Ruth. Please keep us in sight." + +But after a while Ruth forgot this injunction. Mrs. Franklin, always +interested in whatever was going on, had already disappeared, searching +for the jessamine with the eagerness of a girl. Dolly, finding herself +thus deserted, stopped. But her brother-in-law, who had had his eye on +her pony from the beginning, soon appeared. "What, alone?" he said, +coming up. + +Upon seeing him, Dolly cleared her brow. "I don't mind it; the glades +are so pretty." + +Chase examined the glades; but without any marked admiration in his +glance. + +"Where is Ruth?" Dolly went on. + +"Just round the corner--I mean on the other side of that thicket. Walter +has found some of the vine they are all hunting for, and she's in a +great jubilation over it; she wanted to find it ahead of that Mr. Kean, +who always gets it first." + +"Please tell her to bring me a spray of it. As soon as she can." + +Assuring himself that the pony felt no curiosity about the absence of a +road under his feet, Chase, with his leisurely step, went in search of +his wife. He found her catching jessamine, which Walter, who had climbed +into a wild-plum tree, was throwing down. She had already adorned +herself with the blossoms, and when she saw her husband approaching she +went to meet him, and wound a spray round his hat. + +"Your sister wants some; she told me to tell you. She's back there a +little way--on the left," said Chase. "Hullo! here comes a wounded +hero;" for Petie Trone, Esq., had appeared, limping dolefully. "Never +mind; I'll see to the little porpoise if you want to go to Dolly." He +stooped and took up the dog with gentle touch. "He has probably been +interviewing some prickly-pears." + +When Ruth had gone, Walter's interest in the jessamine vanished. He +swung himself down to the ground. "Mrs. Chase has been telling me that +you are thinking of going to California very soon?" he said, +inquiringly. + +"Yes; I guess we shall get off next week," Chase answered, examining +Trone's little paws. + +"I am going to be very bold," Walter went on. "I am going to ask you to +take me with you." + +Chase's features did not move, but his whole expression altered; the +half-humorous look which his face always wore when, in the company of +his young wife, he was "taking things easy," as he called it, gave place +in a flash to the cool reticence of the man of business. "Take you?" he +inquired, briefly. "Why?" + +And then Willoughby, in the plainest and most direct words (a directness +which was not, however, without the eloquence that comes from an intense +desire), explained his wish to be admitted to a part, however small, in +the California scheme. He allowed himself no reserves; he told the whole +story of his father's spendthrift propensities, and his own small means +in consequence. "I have a fixed determination to make money, Mr. Chase. +I dare say you have thought me idle; but I should not have idled if I +had had at any time the right thing to go into. Work? There is literally +no amount of work that I should shrink from, if it led towards the +fortune upon which I am bent. I can, and I will, work as hard as ever +you yourself have worked." + +"I'm afraid you're looking for a soft snap," said Chase, shifting Mr. +Trone to his left arm, and putting his right hand into his trousers +pocket, where he jingled a bunch of keys vaguely. + +"If you will let me come in, even by a little edge only, I am sure you +won't regret it," Walter went on. "Can't you recall, by looking back, +your own determination to succeed, and how far it carried you, how +strong it made you? Well, that is the way I feel to-day! You ought to be +able to comprehend me. You've been over the same road." + +"The same road!" repeated Chase, ironically. "Let's size it up a little. +I was taken out of school before I was fourteen--when my father died. +From that day I had not only to earn every crumb of bread I ate, but +help to earn the bread of my sisters too. Before I was eighteen I had +worked at half a dozen different things, and always at the rate of +thirteen or fourteen hours a day. By the time I was twenty I was old; I +had already lived a long and hard life. Now your side: A good home; +every luxury; school; college; Europe!" + +"You think that because I have been through Columbia, and because I once +had a yacht (the yacht was in reality my uncle's), I shall never make a +good business man," replied Walter. "Unfortunately, I have no means of +proving to you the contrary, unless you will give me the chance I ask +for. I don't pretend, of course, to have anything like your talents; +they are your own, and unapproached. But I do say that I have ability; I +_feel_ that I have." + +"It's sizzling, is it?" commented Chase. "Why don't you put it into the +business you're in already, then; the steamship firm of Willoughby, +Chase, & Co.? Boom that; put on steam, and boom it for all you're worth; +your uncles and I will see you through. You say you only want a chance; +why on earth don't you take the one that lies before you? If you wish to +convince me you know something, _that's_ the way." + +"The steamship concern is too slow for me; I have looked into it, and I +know. I might work at it for ten years, and with the small share I have +in it I should not be very rich," Walter answered. "I'm in a hurry! I am +willing to give everything on my side--all my time and my strength and +my brains; but I want something good on the other." + +"Now you're shouting!" + +"The steamship firm is routine--regular; that isn't the way you made +_your_ money," Walter went on. + +"My way is open to everybody. It isn't covered by any patent that I know +of," remarked Chase, in his dry tones. + +"Yes, it is," answered Walter, immediately taking him up. "Or rather it +was; the Bubble Baking-Powder was very tightly patented." + +Chase grinned a little over this sally. But he was not moved towards the +least concession, and Walter saw that he was not; he therefore played +his last card. "I have a great deal of influence with my uncles, I +think; especially with my uncle Nicholas." + +"Put your money on Nicholas Willoughby, and you're safe, every time," +remarked Chase, in a general way. + +"I don't know whether you and Patterson care for more capital in +developing your California scheme?" Walter went on. "But if you do, I +could probably help you to some." + +Chase looked at him. The younger man's eyes met his, bright as steel. + +The millionaire walked over to a block of coquina, which had once formed +part of a Spanish house; here he seated himself, established Petie Trone +comfortably on his knee, and lifting his hand, tilted back still farther +on his head his jessamine-decked hat. "You've been blowing about being +able to work, Walter. But we can get plenty of hard workers without +letting 'em into the ring. And you've been talking about being sharp. +Sharp you may be. But I rather guess that when it comes to _that_, Dave +Patterson and I don't need any help. Capital, however, is another +matter; it's always another matter. By enlarging our scheme at its +present stage by a third (which we could do easily if your uncle +Nicholas came in), we should make a much bigger pile." + +There was no second block of coquina; Walter remained standing. But his +compact figure looked sturdy and firm as he stood there beside the other +man. "I could not go to my uncle without knowing what I am to tell him," +he remarked, after a moment. + +"Certainly not!" Chase answered. Then, after further reflection (this +time Walter did not break the silence), he said: "Well, see here; I may +as well state at the outset that unless your uncle will come in to a +pretty big tune, we don't want him at all; 'twouldn't pay us; we'd +prefer to play it alone. Now your uncles don't strike me as men who +would be willing to take risks. You say you have influence with 'em, or +rather with Nick. But I've got no proof of that. Of course it's +possible; Nick has brought you up; he's got no son--only girls; perhaps +he'd be willing to do for you what he'd do for a son of his own; perhaps +he really would take a risk, to give you a first-class start. But I +repeat that I've no proof of your having the least influence with him. +What's more, I've a healthy amount of doubt about it! Oh, I dare say +_you_ believe you've got a pull; you're straight as far as that goes. My +notion is simply that you're mistaken, that you're barking up the wrong +tree; Nicholas ain't that sort! However, as it happens to be the moment +when we _could_ enlarge (and double the profits), I'll give you my +terms. You have convinced me at least of one thing, and that is that +you're very sharp set yourself as to money-making; you want tremendously +to catch on. And it's _that_ I'm going to take as my security. In this +way. In order to learn whether your uncle Nicholas, to oblige _you_, is +willing to come in with Patterson and myself in this affair, you must +first know what the affair is (as you very justly remarked); I must +therefore tell you the whole scheme--show all my hand. Now, then, if I +do this, and your uncle _doesn't_ take it up, then not only you don't +get in yourself, but if I see the slightest indication that my +confidence has been abused, I sell out of that steamship firm instanter, +and, as I'm virtually the firm, you know what that will mean! And the +one other property you have--that stock--you'll be surprised to see how +it'll go down to next to nothing on the street. 'Twon't hurt _me_, you +know. As for you, you'll deserve it all, and more, too, for having been +a dunderhead!" + +"I accept the terms," answered Willoughby. "Under the circumstances, +they're not even hard. If I fail, I _am_ a dunderhead!--I shall be the +first to say it. But I sha'n't fail." (Even at this moment, though he +was intensely absorbed, his eye was struck by the contrast between the +keen, hard expression of Horace Chase's face and his flower-decked hat; +between the dry tones of his voice and the care with which he still held +his wife's little dog, who at this instant, after a long yawn, +affectionately licked the hand that held him, ringing by the motion the +three small silver bells with which his young mistress had adorned his +collar.) "If I am to go to California with you next week, I have no time +to lose," he went on, promptly. "For I must first go to New York, of +course, to see my uncle." + +"Well, rather!" interpolated Chase. + +"Couldn't you tell me now whatever I have to know?" Walter continued. +"This is as good a place as any. We might walk off towards that house on +the right, near the shore; there is no danger of there being any +jessamine _there_." + +Here Ruth appeared. "Haven't you found any more?" she asked, surprised. +"Mr. Willoughby, you pretended to be so much interested! As for you, +Horace, where is your spirit? I thought you liked to be first in +everything?" + +"First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen," +quoted Chase. "Here--you'd better put your monkey in the phaeton," he +went on, passing over Mr. Trone. "He has a little rheumatism in his paw. +But you must try to bear it." His voice had again its humorous tones; +the penetrating look in his eyes had vanished. His wife standing there, +adorned with jessamine, her face looking child-like as she stroked her +dog, seemed to change the man of a moment before into an entirely +different being. In reality it did not do this; but it brought out +another part of his nature, and a part equally strong. Ruth had taken +off her gloves; the gems which her husband had given her flashed on her +hands as she lifted Mr. Trone to her shoulder and laid her cheek against +his little black head. "We are going for a short walk, Willoughby and +I," Chase said--"over towards that house on the shore. We'll be back +soon." + +"That house is Dalton's," answered Ruth, looking in that direction. +"Mrs. Dalton makes the loveliest baskets, Horace; won't you get me one? +They are always a little one-sided, and that makes them much more +original, you know, than those that are for sale in town." + +"Oh, it makes them more original, does it?" repeated Chase. + +When he returned, an hour later, he brought the basket. + +Walter Willoughby started that night for New York. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +Seven weeks after she had searched for the first jessamine, Ruth Chase +was again at St. Augustine. But in the meanwhile she had made a long +journey, having accompanied her husband to California. Chase had +unexpectedly come back to Florida, to see David Patterson. When he +reached New York on his return from the West, and learned that Patterson +had been stricken down by illness at Palatka, he decided that the best +thing he could do would be to go to Palatka himself immediately. + +Ruth was delighted. "That means St. Augustine for me, doesn't it? Mother +and Dolly are still there. Oh, I _am_ so glad!" + +"Why, Ruthie, do you care so much about it as all that? Why didn't you +say so before?" said Chase, looking up from his letters. "Then I could +have taken you down there in any case. Whereas now it's only this +accident of Patterson's being laid up that has made me decide to go. You +must _tell_ me what you want, always. It's the only way we can possibly +get along," he concluded, with mock severity. + +Ruth gazed at the fire; for in New York, at the end of March, it was +still cold. "I love St. Augustine. I was _so_ happy there this winter," +she said, musingly. + +"Shall I build you a house near the sea-wall?" inquired her husband, +gathering up his letters and telegrams. As he left the room, he paused +beside her long enough to pass his hand fondly over her hair. + +It was arranged that Walter Willoughby, who had returned with them from +California, should also accompany them southward. For there were certain +details of the Western enterprise which Patterson understood better than +any one else did, as he had devoted his attention to them for six +months; it now became important that these details should be explained +to the younger man, in the (possible) case of Patterson's being laid up +for some time longer. After one day in New York, therefore, Chase and +his wife and young Willoughby started for the land of flowers. At +Savannah a telegram met them: "Horace Chase, Pulaski House, Savannah. +Come alone. Patterson." + +"When he's sick, he is always tremendously scared," commented Chase. "I +suppose we shall have to humor him. But I'll soon stir him up, and make +him feel better, Walter, and then I'll wire for you to come over at +once. Probably within twenty-four hours." After taking his wife to St. +Augustine, he crossed to Palatka alone. Walter was to wait at St. +Augustine for further directions. + +The young New-Yorker agreed to everything. He was in excellent spirits; +throughout the whole Californian expedition he had, in truth, been +living in a state of inward excitement, though his face showed nothing +of it. For his uncle had consented, and he (Walter) had got his foot +into the stirrup at last. The ride might be breakneck, and it might be +hard; but at least it would not be long, and it would end at the +wished-for goal. Between two such riders as Patterson and Horace Chase +(Horace Chase especially; best of all, Horace Chase!), he could not fall +behind; they would sweep him along between them; he should come in +abreast. A closer acquaintance with Chase had only increased his +admiration for the man's extraordinary mind. "If ever there was a genius +for directing big combinations, here's one with a vengeance!" he said to +himself. + +On the second day after Chase's departure for Palatka, Ruth and her +mother, in the late afternoon, drove across the Sebastian River by way +of the red bridge, and thence to the barrens. These great tree-dotted +Florida prairies possess a charm for far-sighted eyes; their broad, +unfenced, unguarded expanses, stretching away on all sides, carpeted +with flowers and ferns, and the fans of the dwarf-palmetto, have an air +of freedom that is alluring. Walter Willoughby accompanied the two +ladies, perched in the little seat behind. He had, in fact, nothing else +to do, as Chase had as yet sent no telegram. + +They drove first to the Ponce de Leon spring. And Ruth made them drink: +"so that we shall always be young!" + +Leaving the spring, they drove to another part of the barren. Here the +violets grew so thickly that they made the ground blue. "I must have +some," said Ruth, joyously. And leaving her mother comfortably leaning +back in the phaeton under her white umbrella, she jumped out and began +to gather the flowers with her usual haste and impetuosity. "Why don't +you come and help?" she said to Walter. "You're terribly lazy. Tie the +ponies to that tree, and set to work." + +Walter obeyed. But he only gathered eight violets; then he stopped, and +stood fanning himself with his straw hat. "It is very warm," he said. +"Won't you let me get pitcher-plants instead? There are ever so many +over there. They are so large that eight of them will make a splendid +show." Daily companionship for seven weeks had made him feel thoroughly +at his ease with her. He had forgiven her for those old delays which she +had unknowingly caused in his plans; he now associated her with his +good-fortune, with his high hopes. She had been in the gayest spirits +throughout their stay in California, and this, too, had chimed in with +his mood. + +"Pitcher-plants!" said Ruth. "Horrid, murdering things! Let them alone." +But they strolled that way to look at them; and then they walked on +towards a ridge, where she was sure that they should find calopogon. +Beyond the ridge there was a clear pool, whose amber-colored water +rested on a bed of silver sand; along one side rose the tall, delicate +plumes of the _Osmunda regalis_. "Isn't it lovely?" said Ruth. "I don't +believe there is anything more beautiful in all Florida!" + +"Yes, one thing," thought Walter, "and that is Ruth Chase." For Ruth's +beauty had deepened richly during the past half-year. It was not Walter +alone who had noticed the change, every one spoke of it. At present his +eyes could not but note it once more, as she stood there in her white +dress under the ferns. + +Then suddenly his thoughts were diverted in another direction. "I'm sure +that's for me!" he exclaimed. For he had discerned in the distance a +little negro boy on horseback. "He is bringing me my telegram at last--I +mean the one from your husband, Mrs. Chase, which I have been expecting +for two days. The stupid is following the road. I wonder if I couldn't +make him see me from here, so as to gain time?" And taking off his hat, +he waved it high in the air. But the child kept on his course. "Perhaps +I can make him hear," said Walter. He shouted, whistled, called. But all +to no purpose. "We might as well go back towards the phaeton," he +suggested. And they started. + +"What will the telegram be?" said Ruth, arranging her violets as she +walked on. "Have you any idea?" + +"A very clear one; it will tell me to arrive at Palatka as soon as +possible." + +"And, from Palatka, do you go back to New York?" + +"Yes; immediately." + +"We shall be in New York, too, by the middle of April. You are to stay +in New York, aren't you?" + +"Yes. It is to be my post in the game which will end, we trust, in your +husband's piling up still higher his great fortune, while _I_ shall have +laid very solidly the foundation of mine. Good! that boy sees me at +last." For the little negro, suddenly leaving the road, was galloping +directly towards them over the barren, his bare feet flapping the flanks +of his horse to increase its speed. Walter ran forward to meet him, took +the telegram, tore open the envelope, and read the message within. Then, +after rewarding the messenger (who went back to town in joyful +opulence), he returned to Ruth. + +"Palatka?" she said, as he came up. + +"No. Something entirely different. And very unexpected. I am to go to +California; I am to start to-morrow morning. And I am to stay +there--live there. It will be for a year or two, I suppose; at any rate, +until this new campaign of your husband's planning has been fought out +and won--as won it surely will be. For Patterson, it seems, won't be +able to go at present, and I am to take his place. Later, he hopes to be +on the spot. But even then I am to remain, they tell me. My instructions +will be here to-night by letter." He felt, inwardly, a great sense of +triumph that he was considered competent--already considered +competent--to take charge of the more important post. And as he put the +telegram in his pocket, the anticipation of success came to him like a +breeze charged with perfume; his pulses had a firm, quick beat; the +future--a future of his own choosing--unrolled itself brightly before +him. + +Ruth had made no reply. After a moment her silence struck him--struck +him even in his preoccupation--and he turned to look at her. + +Her face had a strange, stiffened aspect, as though her breathing had +suddenly been arrested. + +"Are you ill?" he asked, alarmed. + +"Oh no; I am only tired. Where is the phaeton? I have lost sight of it." + +"Over there; don't you see your mother's white parasol?" + +"Let us go back to her. But no--not just yet. I'll wait a moment or two, +as I'm so tired." And, turning her back to him, she sat down on a fallen +pine-tree, and rested her head on her hand. + +"I can bring the phaeton over here?" Walter suggested. "There is no +road, but the ground is smooth." + +She shook her head. + +After a moment he began to talk; partly to fill the pause, partly to +give expression to the thoughts that occupied his own mind--occupied it +so fully that he did not give close heed to her. She was suddenly tired. +Well, that was nothing unusual; it was always something sudden; +generally a sudden gayety. At any rate, she could rest there comfortably +until she felt able to go on. "It's very odd to me to think that +to-morrow I shall be on my way to California again," he began. "That's +what I get by being the poor one of the company, Mrs. Chase! Your +husband, and Patterson, and my uncle, they sit comfortably at home; but +they send _me_ from pillar to post without the least scruple. I don't +mind the going. But the staying--that's a change indeed. To live in +California--I have had a good many ideas in my mind, but I confess I +have never had that." He laughed. But it was easy to see that the idea +pleased him greatly. + +Ruth turned. Her eyes met his. And then, startled, amazed, the young man +read in their depths something that was to him an intense surprise. + +At the same moment she rose. "I can go now. Mother will be wondering +where I am," she said. + +He accompanied her in silence, his mind in a whirl. She said a few words +on ordinary subjects. Every now and then her voice came near failing +entirely, and she paused. But she always began again. Just before she +reached the phaeton she took a gray gauze veil from her pocket, and tied +it hastily across her face under her broad-brimmed hat. Mrs. Franklin +was waiting for them in lazy tranquillity. While Walter untied the +ponies, Ruth took the small seat behind. "Just for a change," she +explained. Walter, therefore, in her vacant place, drove them back to +town. Having taken Mrs. Franklin home, he left Ruth at her own door. "As +I'm off early to-morrow morning, Mrs. Chase, I'll bid you good-by now," +he said, as the waiting servant came forward to the ponies' heads. She +gave him her hand. He could not see her face distinctly through that +baffling gray veil. + +That evening at eleven o'clock he passed the house again; he was taking +a farewell stroll on the sea-wall. As he went by, he saw that there was +a light in the drawing-room. "She has not gone to bed," he thought. He +jumped down from the wall, crossed the road, and, going up the steps, +put his hand on the bell-knob. But a sudden temptation took possession +of him, and, instead of ringing, he opened the door. "If her mother is +with her, I'll pretend that I found it ajar," he said to himself. But +there were no voices, all was still. His step had made no sound on the +thick rugs, and, advancing, he drew aside a curtain. On a couch in a +corner of the drawing-room was Ruth Chase, alone, her face hidden in her +hands. + +She started to her feet as he came in. "After all, Mrs. Chase, I found +that I wanted more of a good-by--" he began. And then, a second time, in +her eyes he read the astonishing, bewildering story. "She is still +unconscious of what it is," he thought. "If I go away at once--at once +and forever--no harm is done. And that is what I shall do." This was his +intention, and he knew that he should follow it. The very certainty, +however, made him allow himself a moment or two of delay. For how +beautiful she was, and how deeply she loved him! He could not help +offering, as it were, a tribute to both; it seemed to him that he would +be a boor not to do so. And then, before he knew it, he had gone +further. "You see how it is with me," he began. "You see that I love +you; I myself did not know it until now." (What was this he was telling +her? And somehow, for the moment, it was true!) "Don't think that I do +not understand," he went on. "I understand all--all--" While he was +uttering these words he met her eyes again. And then he felt that he was +losing his head. "What am I doing? I'm not an abject fool!" he managed +to say to himself, mutely--mutely but violently. And he left the house. + +It took all his strength to do it. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +Horace Chase, meanwhile, had arrived at Palatka, and opened the +discussion with David Patterson which ended in the decision to despatch +young Willoughby to California without delay. Having sent these +instructions, he remained at Palatka two days longer, his intention +being to cross, on the third day, to St. Augustine, get his wife and go +back to New York, stopping on the way at Raleigh in order to see Jared. +Always prompt, as soon as the question of the representative in +California was settled, his thoughts had turned towards his +brother-in-law; the proper moment had now arrived for fulfilling his +promises concerning him. But in answer to this note to Ruth, mentioning +this plan, there had come a long epistle from Mrs. Franklin. Ruth, she +wrote, wanted to go north by sea; it was a sudden fancy that had come to +her. Her wish was to go by the _Dictator_ to Charleston, and there +change for the larger steamer. "As Dolly and I intend to start towards +L'Hommedieu next week, Ruth's idea is that we could go together as far +as Charleston; for the rest of the way, Felicite could look after her. +You need not therefore take the trouble to come to St. Augustine at all, +she says; you can go directly from Palatka to Raleigh. All this sounds +a little self-willed. But, my dear Mr. Chase, if we spoiled her more or +less in the beginning, you must acknowledge that _you_ have carried on +the process! In the eighteen months that have passed since your +marriage, have you ever refused compliance with even one of her whims? I +think not. On the contrary, I fear you encourage them; you always seem +to me to be waiting, with an inward laugh, to see what on earth she will +suggest next!" Thus wrote the mother in a joking strain. Then, turning +to the subject which was more important to her, she filled three sheets +with her joyful anticipations concerning her son. "Insist upon his +resigning his present place on the spot," she urged; "take no denial. +Make him go _with_ you to New York. _Then_ you will be sure of him." + +"The old lady seems to think he will be a great acquisition," said Chase +to himself, humorously. + +Her statement that he had, from the first, allowed his wife to follow +her fancies unchecked was a true one. It amused him to do this, amused +him to watch an idea dawn, and then, in a few minutes, take such entire +possession of her that it shook her hard--only to leave her and vanish +with equal suddenness. The element of the unexpected in her was a +constant entertainment to him. Her heedlessness, her feminine +indifference to logic, to the inevitable sequences of cause and +effect--this, too, had given him many a moment of mirth. If her face had +been less lovely, these characteristics would have worn, perhaps, +another aspect. But in that case Horace Chase would not have been their +judge; for it was this alluring beauty (unconsciously alluring) which +had attracted him, which had made him fall in love with her. He was a +man whose life, up to the time of his engagement to Ruth, had been +irregular. But, though irregular, it had not been uncontrolled; he had +always been able to say, "Thus far; no farther!" But though her beauty +had been the first lure, he was now profoundly attached to his wife; his +pride in her was profound, his greatest pleasure was to make her happy. + +"By sea to New York, is it?" he said to himself, as his eyes hastily +glanced through the remainder of Mrs. Franklin's long letter (that is, +the three sheets about Jared). "Well, she is a capital sailor, that's +one comfort. Let's see; which of our steamers will she hit at +Charleston?" + +He was not annoyed because Ruth had not written, herself; Ruth did not +like to write letters. But it was a surprise to him that she should, of +her own accord, relinquish an opportunity to see her brother. "I reckon +she is counting upon my taking him up to New York with me, so that +she'll see him on the dock waiting for her when her steamer comes in," +he thought. "I guess she knows, too, that I'm likely to succeed better +with Jared when _she's_ out of the business entirely. Franklin isn't +going to be boosted by his sister--that's been his fixed notion all +along. He doesn't suspect that his sister's nowhere in the matter +compared with his wife; his whole position of being independent of _me_, +and all that, has been so undermined and honeycombed by Gen, that, in +reality, his sticking it out there at Raleigh is a farce! But he doesn't +know it. It's lucky he don't!" + + * * * * * + +Ruth had her way, as usual. Chase went northward from Palatka to +Savannah, where he had business; thence he was to go to Raleigh. His +wife, meanwhile, remained in St. Augustine for one week longer, and her +mother and sister, closing their own home, spent the time with her. + +Their last day came; they were to leave St. Augustine on the morrow. +Early in the afternoon, Ruth disappeared. When they were beginning to +wonder where she was, Felicite brought them a note. Mrs. Franklin read +it, and laughed. "She has gone for a sail; by herself!" + +"She might have told us. We could have gone with her," said Dolly, +irritably. "I don't like her being alone." + +"Oh, she is safe enough, as far as that goes," answered the mother, +comfortably. "She has taken old Donato, who, in spite of his seventy +years, is an excellent sailor; and he has, too, a very good boat." + +Dolly went to the window. "You are not in the least thinking of Ruth, +mother! You are thinking of Jared; you are thinking that if he takes +that place in New York, we must somehow get up there to see him this +summer; and you are planning to go to that boarding-house on Staten +Island that the commodore told you about." + +Mrs. Franklin, who really was thinking of Staten Island, rolled a +lamplighter the wrong way. "It is happening oftener and oftener!" she +said to herself. "Is she going to die?" And she glanced towards her +invalid daughter with the old pang of loving pity quickened for the +moment to trepidation. + +Dolly's back was turned; she was gazing down the inlet. The house, which +was formerly the residence of General Worth, the Military Governor of +Florida, commanded an uninterrupted view of the Matanzas north and +south, and, over the low line of Anastasia Island, even the smallest +sail going towards the ocean was visible. But in spite of this long +expanse of water, Dolly could not see old Donato's boat. "His Grand +suspects nothing! Are mothers always so blind?" she thought. "So secure? +But she shall never know anything through _me_--dear old Grand! Ruth has +of course gone to say good-bye to the places which are associated in her +mind with that hateful Willoughby. If I could only have known it, I +would have kept her from it at any price. These long hours alone which +she covets so--they are the worst things, the worst!" + +Ruth's boat was far out of sight; at this moment she was landing on +Anastasia at the point where she had disembarked with Walter on the day +of the excursion. Telling the old Minorcan to wait for her, she sought +for the little Carib trail, and followed it inland to the pool. Here +she spent half an hour, seated in the loop of the vine where she had sat +before. Then, rising, she slowly retraced their former course along the +low ridge. + +Since Walter's departure--he had left St. Augustine at dawn after that +strange evening visit--Ruth had been the prey of two moods, tossed from +one to the other helplessly; for the feelings which these moods by turn +excited were so strong that she had had no volition of her own--she had +been powerless against them. One of these mental states (the one that +possessed her now) was joy. The other was aching pain. + +For her fate had come upon her, as it was sure from the first to come. +And it found her defenceless; those who should have foreseen it had +neither guarded her against it, nor trained her so that she could guard +herself. She had no conception of life--no one had ever given her such a +conception--as a lesson in self-control; from her childhood all her +wishes had been granted. It is true that these wishes had been simple. +But that was because she had known no other standard; the degree of +indulgence (and of self-indulgence) was as great as if they had been +extravagant. If her disposition as a girl had been selfish, it was +unconscious selfishness; for her mother, her elder sister, and her +brother had never required anything from her save that she should be +happy. With her joyous nature, life had always been delightful to her, +and her marriage had only made it more delightful. For Horace Chase, +unconsciously, had adopted the habit that the family had always had; +they never expected Ruth to take responsibility, to be serious, and, in +the same way, he never expected it. And he loved to see her contented, +just as they had loved it. There was some excuse for them all in the +fact that Ruth's contentment was a very charming thing--it was so +natural and exuberant. + +And, on her side, this girl had married Horace Chase first of all +because she liked him. What he had done for her brother, and his +wealth--these two influences had come only second, and would not have +sufficed without the first; her affection (for it was affection) had +been won by his kindness to herself. Since their marriage his lavish +generosity had pleased her, and gratified her imagination. But his +delicate consideration for her--this girl nineteen years younger than +himself--and his unselfishness, these she had not appreciated; she +supposed that husbands were, as a matter of course, like that. As it +happened, she had not a single girl friend who had married, from whose +face (if not from whose words also) she might have divined other ways. +Thus she had lived on, accepting everything in her easy, epicurean +fashion, until into her life had come love--this love for Walter +Willoughby. + +Walter devoting himself to Mrs. Chase for his own purposes, had never +had the slightest intention of falling in love with her; in truth, such +a catastrophe (it would have seemed to him nothing less) would have +marred all his plans. He had wished only to amuse her. And, in the +beginning, it had been in truth his gay spirits which had attracted +Ruth, for she possessed gay spirits herself. She had been unaware of the +nature of the feeling which was taking possession of her; her +realization went no further than that life was now much more +interesting; and, with her rich capacity for enjoyment, she had grasped +this new pleasure eagerly. It was this which had made her beauty so much +more rich and vivid. It was this which had caused her to exclaim, "How +delightful it is to live!" If obstacles had interfered, the pain of +separation might have opened her eyes, at an earlier period, to the +nature of her attachment. But, owing to the circumstances of the case, +the junior partner had been with Mr. and Mrs. Chase almost daily ever +since their return from Europe. That announcement, therefore, out on the +barrens--his own announcement--of his departure the next morning, and +for an indefinite stay, had come upon her like the chill of sudden +death. And then in the evening, while she was still benumbed and +pulseless, had followed his strange, short visit, and the wild thrill of +joy in her heart over his declaration of his own love for her. For he +had said it, he had said it! + +These two conflicting tides--the pain of his absence and the joy of his +love--had held entire possession of her ever since. But passionate +though her nature was, in matters of feeling it was deeply reticent as +well, and no one had noticed any change in her save Dolly, Dolly who had +divined something from her sister's new desire to be alone. Never before +had Ruth wished to be alone; but now she went off for long walks by +herself; and this plan for returning to New York by sea--that was simply +the same thing. From the moment of Ruth's engagement, Dolly had been +haunted by a terrible fear. Disliking Horace Chase herself, she did not +believe that he would be able to keep forever a supreme place in his +wife's heart. And then? Would Ruth be content to live on, as so many +wives live, with this supreme place unoccupied? It was her dread of +this, a dread which had suddenly become personified, that had made her +form one of almost all the excursions of this Florida winter; she had +gone whenever she was able, and often when she was unable--at least, she +would be present, she would mount guard. + +But in spite of her guardianship, something had evidently happened. What +was it? Was this desire of Ruth's to be alone a good sign or a bad sign? +Did it come from happiness or unhappiness? "If it is unhappiness, she +will throw it off," Dolly told herself. "She hates suffering. She will +manage, somehow, to rid herself of it." Thus she tried to reassure +herself. + +Ruth gave not only the afternoon but the evening to her pilgrimage; she +visited all the places where she had been with Walter. When the twilight +had deepened to night, she came back to town, and, still accompanied by +Donato, she went to the old fort, and out the shell road; finally she +paid a visit to Andalusia. A bright moon was shining; over the low land +blew a perfumed breeze. Andalusia was deserted, Mrs. Kip had gone to +North Carolina. Bribing Uncle Jack, the venerable ex-slave who lived in +a little cabin under the bananas near the gate, Ruth went in, and +leaving her body-guard, the old fisherman, resting on a bench, she +wandered alone among the flowers. "You see that I love you. I myself did +not know it until now"--this was the talisman which was making her so +happy; two brief phrases uttered on the spur of the moment, phrases +preceded by nothing, followed by nothing. It was a proof of the +simplicity of her nature, its unconsciousness of half-motives, +half-meanings, that she should think these few words so conclusive. But +to her they were final. Direct herself, she supposed that others were +the same. She did not go beyond her talisman; she did not reason about +it, or plan. In fact, she did not think at all; she only felt--felt each +syllable take a treasure in her heart, and brooded over it happily. And +as she wandered to and fro in the moonlight, it was as well that Walter +did not see her. He did not love her--no. He had no wish to love her; it +would have interfered with all his plans. But if he had beheld her now, +he would have succumbed--succumbed, at least, for the moment, as he had +done before. He was not there, however. And he had no intention of +being there, of being anywhere near Horace Chase's wife for a long time +to come. "I'll keep out of _that_!" he had said to himself, +determinedly. + +It was midnight when at last Ruth returned home, coming into the +drawing-room like a vision, in her white dress, with her arms full of +flowers. + +"Well, have you had enough of prowling?" asked her mother, sleepily. "I +must say that it appears to agree with you!" + +Even Dolly was reassured by her sister's radiant eyes. + +But later, when Felicite had left her mistress, then, if Dolly could +have opened the locked door, her comfort would have vanished; for the +other mood had now taken possession, and lying prone on a couch, with +her face hidden, Ruth was battling with her grief. + +Pain was so new to her, sorrow so new! Incapable of enduring (this was +what Dolly had hoped), many times during the last ten days she had +revolted against her suffering, and to-night she was revolting anew. "I +_will_ not care for him; it makes me too wretched!" Leaving the couch, +she strode angrily to and fro. The three windows of the large room--it +was her dressing-room--stood open to the warm sea-air; she had put out +the candles, but the moonlight, entering in a flood, reflected her white +figure in the long mirrors as she came and went. Felicite had braided +her hair for the night, but the strands had become loosened, and the +thick, waving mass flowed over her shoulders. "I will not think of him; +I will _not_!" And to emphasize it, she struck her clinched hand with +all her force on the stone window-seat. "It is cut. I'm glad! It will +make me remember that I am _not_ to think of him." She was intensely in +earnest in her resolve, and, to help herself towards other thoughts, she +began to look feverishly at the landscape outside, as though it was +absolutely necessary that she should now resee and recount each point +and line. "There is the top of the light-house--and there is the +ocean--and there are the bushes near the quarry." She leaned out of the +window so as to see farther. "There is the North Beach; there is the +fort and the lookout tower." Thus for a few minutes her weary mind +followed the guidance of her will. "There is the bathing-house. And +there is the dock and the club-house; and there is the Basin. Down there +on the right is Fish Island. How lovely it all is! I wish I could stay +here forever. But even to-morrow night I shall be gone; I shall be on +the _Dictator_. And then will come Charleston. And then New York." (Her +mind had now escaped again.) "And then the days--and the months--and the +_years_ without him! Oh, what shall I do? What shall I do?" And the pain +descending, sharper than ever, she sank down, and with her arms on the +window-seat and her face on her arms, and cried and cried--cried so long +that at last her shoulders fell forward stoopingly, and her whole +slender frame lost its strength, and drooped against the window-sill +like a broken reed. Her despair held no plan for trying to see Walter, +her destiny seemed to her fixed; her revolts had not been against that +destiny, but against her pain. But something was upon her now which was +stronger than herself, stronger than her love of ease, stronger than her +dread of suffering. Dolly knew her well. But there were some depths +which even Dolly did not know. + +Dawn found her still there, her hands and feet cold, her face white; she +had wept herself out--there were no more tears left. The sun came up; +she watched it mechanically. "Felicite mustn't find me here," she +thought. She dragged herself to her feet; all her muscles were stiff. +Then going to the bedroom, she fell into a troubled sleep. + +It would be too much to say that during the entire night her mind had +not once turned towards her husband. She had thought of him now and +then, much as she had thought of her mother; as, for instance--would her +mother see any change in her face the next morning, after this night of +tears? Would her husband see any at New York when he arrived? Whenever +she remembered either one of them, she felt a sincere desire not to make +them unhappy. But this was momentary; during most of the night the +emotions that belonged to her nature swept over her with such force that +she had no power, no will, to think of anything save herself. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +Horace Chase, following the suggestion of Mrs. Franklin (a suggestion +which had come in reality from Ruth), travelled northward to Raleigh +from Palatka without crossing to St. Augustine. He went "straight +through," as he called it; when he was alone he always went straight +through. He was no more particular as to where he slept than he was as +to what he ate. Reaching Raleigh in the evening, he went in search of +his brother-in-law. He had not sent word that he was coming. "I won't +give him time to trot out all his objections beforehand," he had said to +himself. He intended to make an attempt to arrange the matter with Jared +without calling in the aid of Genevieve. "If I fail, there'll always be +time to bring her on the scene. If I succeed, it'll take her down a bit; +and that won't hurt her!" he thought, with an inward smile. + +Ruth's "horrid Raleigh" looked very pretty as he walked through its +lighted streets. The boarding-house where Jared had passed the winter +proved to be an old mansion, which, in its day, had possessed claims to +dignity; it was large, with two wings running backward, and the main +building had a high pointed roof with dormer-windows. The front was +even with the street; but the street itself was rural, with its two long +lines of magnificent trees, which formed the divisions (otherwise rather +vague) between the sidewalks and the broad expanse of the sandy roadway. +Chase's knock was answered by a little negro boy, whose head did not +reach the door-knob. "Mas' Franklin? Yassah. He's done gone out. Be in +soon, I reckon," he added, hopefully. + +Chase, after a moment's reflection, decided to go in and wait. + +"Show you in de parlo,' or right up in his own room, boss?" demanded the +infant, anxiously. "Dere's a party in de parlo'." This statement was +confirmed by the sound of music from within. + +"A party, is there? I guess I'll go up, then," said Chase. + +The child started up the stairs. His legs were so short that he had to +mount to each step with both feet, one after the other, before he could +climb to the next. These legs and feet and his arms were bare; the rest +of his small, plump person was clad in a little jacket and very short +breeches of pink calico. There were two long flights of stairs, and a +shorter flight to the attic; the pink breeches had the air of climbing +an Alp. Presently Chase took up the little toiler, candle and all. + +"You can tell me which way to go," he said. "What's your name?" + +"Pliny Abraham, sah." + +"Do you like Mr. Franklin?" + +"Mas' Franklin is de bes' body in dishyer house!" declared Pliny +Abraham, shrilly. + +"The best what?" + +"De bes' body. We'se got twenty-five bodies now, boss. Sometimes dere's +twenty-eight." + +"Oh, you mean boarders?" + +"Yassah. Bodies." + +Jared's room was in the attic. Pliny Abraham, who had been intensely +serious, began to grin as his bearer, after putting him down, placed a +dime in each of his little pink pockets; then he dashed out of the room, +his black legs disappearing so suddenly that Chase had the curiosity to +follow to the top of the stairs and look over. Pliny had evidently slid +down the banisters; for he was already embarked on the broader rail of +the flight below. + +Twenty minutes later there was a step on the stair; the door opened, and +Jared Franklin came in. + +"They didn't tell you I was here?" said Chase, as they shook hands. + +"No. Mrs. Nightingale is usually very attentive; too much so, in fact; +she's a bother!" Jared answered. "To-night, however, there's a party +down below, and she has the supper on her mind." + +"Is Pliny Abraham to serve it?" + +"You've seen him, have you?" said Jared, who was now lighting a lamp. +"Confounded smell--petroleum!" And he threw up the sash of the window. + +"I'm on my way up to New York, and I came across from Goldsborough on +purpose to see you, Franklin, on a matter of business," Chase began. +"Ruth isn't with me this time; she took a notion to go north by sea. +Your mother and sister, I expect, will be seeing her off to-morrow from +Charleston; then, after a little rest for Miss Dolly, they're to go to +L'Hommedieu." + +"They'll stop here, won't they?" asked Jared, who was standing at the +window in order to get air which was untainted by the odor of the lamp. + +"Perhaps," Chase answered. He knew that Dolly and her mother believed +that by the time they should reach Raleigh, Jared would have already +left. "Well, the gist of the matter, Franklin, is about this," he went +on. And then, tilting his chair back so that his long legs should have +more room, and with his thumbs in the pockets of his waistcoat, he began +deliberately to lie. + +For in the short space of time which had elapsed since his eyes first +rested upon Ruth's brother, he had entirely altered his plan. His +well-arranged arguments and explanations about the place in New York in +connection with his California scheme--all these he had abandoned; +something must be invented which would require no argument at all, +something which should attract Jared so strongly that he would of his +own accord accept it on the spot, and start northward the next morning. +"Once in New York, in our big house there, with Gen (for I shall +telegraph her to come on) and Ruth and the best doctors, perhaps the +poor chap can be persuaded to give up, and take a good long rest," he +thought. + +For he had been greatly shocked by the change in Jared's appearance. +When he had last seen him, the naval officer had been gaunt; but now he +was wasted. His eyes had always been sad; but now they were deeply +sunken, with dark hollows under them and over them. "He looks _bad_," +Chase said to himself, emphatically. "This sort of life's been too much +for him, and Gen's got a good deal to answer for!" The only ornament of +the whitewashed wall was a large photograph of the wife; her handsome +face, with its regular outlines and calm eyes, presided serenely over +the attic room of the lonely husband. + +To have to contrive something new, plausible, and effective, in two +minutes' time, might have baffled most men. But Horace Chase had never +had a mind of routine, he had always been a free lance; original +conceptions and the boldest daring, accompanied by an extraordinary +personal sagacity, had formed his especial sort of genius--a genius +which had already made him, at thirty-nine, a millionaire many times +over. His invention, therefore, when he unrolled it, had an air of +perfect veracity. It had to do with a steamer, which (so he represented) +a man whom he knew had bought, in connection with what might be called, +perhaps, a branch of his own California scheme, although a branch with +which he himself had nothing whatever to do. This man needed an +experienced officer to take the steamer immediately from San Francisco +to the Sandwich Islands, and thence on a cruise to various other islands +in the South Pacific. "The payment, to a navy man like you, ought to be +pretty good. But I can't say what the exact figure will be," he went on, +warily, "because I'm not in it myself, you see. He's a good deal of a +skinflint" (here he coolly borrowed a name for the occasion, the name of +a capitalist well known in New York); "but he's sound. It's a _bona +fide_ operation; I can at least vouch for that. The steamer is +first-class, and you can pick out your own crew. There'll be a man +aboard to see to the trading part of it; all _you've_ got to do is to +sail the ship." And in his driest and most practical voice he went on +enumerating the details. + +Jared knew that his brother-in-law had more than once been engaged in +outside speculations on a large scale; his acquaintance, therefore, with +kindred spirits, men who bought ocean steamers and sent them on cruises, +did not surprise him. The plan attracted him; he turned it over in his +mind to see if there were any reasons why he should not accept it. There +seemed to be none. To begin with, Horace Chase had nothing to do with +it; he should not be indebted to _him_ for anything save the chance. In +addition, it would not be an easy berth, with plenty to get and little +to do, like the place at Charleston; on the contrary, a long voyage of +this sort would call out all he knew. And certainly he was sick of his +present life--deathly sick! + +Chase had said to himself: "Fellows who go down so low--and he's at the +end of _his_ rope; that's plain--go up again like rockets sometimes, +just give 'em a chance." + +Jared, however, showed no resemblance to a rocket. He agreed, after a +while, to "undertake the job," as Chase called it, and he agreed, also, +to start the next morning with his brother-in-law for New York, where +the final arrangements were to be made; but his assent was given +mechanically, and his voice sounded weak, as though, physically, he had +very little strength. Mentally there was more stir. "I shall be deuced +glad to be on salt-water again," he said. "I dare say _you_ think it's a +very limited life," he went on (and in the phrase there lurked something +scornful). + +"Well," answered Chase, with his slight drawl, "that depends upon what a +man wants, what he sets out to do." He put his hands down in the pockets +of his trousers, and looked at the lamp reflectively; then he +transferred his gaze to Jared. "I guess you've got a notion, Franklin, +that I care for nothing but money? And that's where you make a mistake. +For 'tain't the money; it's the making it. Making it (that is, in large +sums) is the best sort of a game. If you win, there's nothing like it. +It's sport, _that_ is! It's fun! To get down to the bed-rock of the +subject, it's the power. Yes, sir, that's it--the power! The knowing +you've got it, and that other men know it too, and feel your hand on the +reins! For a big pile is something more than a pile; it's a proof that +a man's got brains. (I mean, of course, if he has made it himself; I'm +not talking now about fortunes that are inherited, or are simply rolled +up by a rise in real estate.) As to the money taken alone, of course +it's a good thing to have, and I'm going on making more as long as I +can; I like it, and I know how. But about the disposing of it" (here he +took his hands out of his pockets and folded his arms), "I don't mind +telling you that I've got other ideas. My family--if I have a +family--will be provided for. After that, I've a notion that I may set +aside a certain sum for scientific research (I understand that's the +term). I don't know much about science myself; but I've always felt a +sort of general interest in it, somehow." + +"Oh, you intend to be a benefactor, do you?" said Jared, ironically. "I +hope, at least, that your endowment won't be open to everybody. It's +only fair to tell you that, in _my_ opinion, one of the worst evils of +our country to-day is this universal education--education of all classes +indiscriminately." + +Chase looked at him for a moment in silence. Then, with a quiet dignity +which was new to the other man, he answered, "I don't think I understand +you." + +"Oh yes, you do," responded Jared, with a little laugh. But he felt +somewhat ashamed of his speech, and he bore it off by saying, "Are you +going to found a new institution? Or leave it in a lump to Harvard?" + +"I haven't got as far as that yet. I thought perhaps Ruth might like to +choose," Chase answered, his voice softening a little as he pronounced +his wife's name. + +"Ruth? Much _she_ knows about it!" said the brother, amused. In his +heart he was thinking, "Well, at any rate, he isn't one of the blowers, +and that's a consolation! He is going to 'plank down' handsomely for +'scientific research.' (I wonder if he thinks they'll research another +baking-powder!) But he isn't going to shout about it. The fact is that +this is the first time I have ever heard him speak of himself, and his +own ideas. What he said just now about making money, that's his credo, +evidently. Pretty dry one! But, for such a fellow as he is, natural +enough, I suppose." + +Chase's credo, if such it was, was ended; he showed no disposition to +speak further of himself; on the contrary, he turned the conversation +towards his companion. For as the minutes had passed, more and more +Jared seemed to him ill--profoundly changed. "I'm afraid, Franklin, that +your health isn't altogether first-class nowadays?" he said, +tentatively. + +"Oh, I'm well enough, except that just now there's some sort of an +intermittent fever hanging about me. But it's very slight, and it only +appears occasionally; I dare say it will leave me as soon as I'm fairly +out of this hole of a place," Jared answered, in a dull tone. + +"He must be mighty glad to get away, and yet he doesn't rally worth a +cent," thought Chase, with inward concern. "I say," he went on, aloud, +"as there's a party in the house, why not come along down to the hotel +and sleep there? I'm going to have some sort of a lunch when I go back; +you might keep me company?" + +Jared, however, made a gesture of repugnance. "I couldn't eat; I've no +appetite. The party doesn't trouble me--I'll go to bed. There'll be +plenty to do in the morning, if we are to catch that nine o'clock +train." + +Chase therefore took leave, and Jared accompanied him down to the street +door. Dancing was going on in the parlors on each side of the hall, and +the two, as they passed, caught a glimpse of pretty girls in white, with +flowers in their hair. After making an early appointment for the next +day, Chase said good-night, and turned down the tree-shaded street +towards his hotel. + +His step was never a hurried one; he had not, therefore, gone far when a +person, who had left the house two minutes after his own departure, +succeeded in overtaking him. "If you please--will you stop a moment?" +said this person. She was panting, for she had been running. + +Chase turned; by the light from a street-lamp, which reached them +flickeringly through the foliage, he saw a woman. Her face was in the +shadow, but a large flower, poised stiffly on the top of her head, +caught the light and gleamed whitely. + +"I am Mrs. Nightingale," she began. "Mr. Franklin, the gentleman you +called awn this evenin', is a member of my family. And I've been right +anxious about Mr. Franklin; I'm thankful somebody has come who knows +him. For indeed, sir, he's more sick than he likes to acknowledge. I've +been watchin' for you to come down; but when I saw _he_ was with you, I +had to wait until he'd gone up again; then I slipped out and ran after +you." + +"I've been noticing that he looked bad, ma'am," Chase answered. + +"Oh, sir, somebody ought to be with him; he has fever at night, and when +it comes awn, he's out of his head. I've sat up myself three nights +lately to keep watch. He locks his do'; but there's an empty room next +to his where I stay, so that if he comes out I can see that he gets no +harm." + +"He walks about, then?" + +"In his own room--yes, sir; an' he talks, an' raves." + +"Couldn't you have managed to have him see a doctor, ma'am?" + +"I've done my best, but he won't hear of it. You see, it only comes awn +every third night or so, an' he has no idea himself how bad it is. In +the mawnin' it's gone, an' then all he says is that the breakfast is +bad. He goes to his business every day regular, though he looks so +po'ly. And he doesn't eat enough to keep a fly alive." + +Chase reflected. "I'll have a doctor go with us on the sly to-morrow," +he thought, "and I'll engage a whole sleeper at Weldon to go through to +New York. I'll wire to Gen to start at once; she needn't be more than a +day behind us if she hurries." Then he went on, aloud: "Do you think he +is likely to be feverish to-night, ma'am?" + +"I hope not, sir, as last night was bad." + +"I guess it will be better, then, not to wake him up and force a doctor +upon him now, as he told me he was going to bed. I intend to take him +north with me to-morrow morning, ma'am, and in the meantime--that little +room you spoke of next to his--_I'll_ occupy it to-night, if you'll let +me? I'll just go down to the hotel and get my bag, and be back soon. I'm +his brother-in-law," Chase continued, shaking hands with her, "and we're +all much obliged, ma'am, for what you've done; it was mighty kind--the +keeping watch at night." + +He went to his hotel, made a hasty supper, and returned, bag in hand, +before the half-hour was out. Mrs. Nightingale ushered him down one of +the long wings to her own apartment at the end, a comfortless, crowded +little chamber, full of relics of the war--her husband's sword and +uniform (he was shot at Gettysburg); his portrait; the portrait of her +brother, also among the slain; photographs of their graves; funeral +wreaths and flags. + +"Excuse my bringin' you here, sir; it's the only place I have. Mr. +Franklin hasn't gone to bed yet; I slipped up a moment ago to see, and +there was a light under his do'. I'm afraid it would attract his +attention if you should go up now, sir, for he knows that the next room +is unoccupied." + +"_You've_ occupied it, ma'am. But I guess you know how to step pretty +soft," Chase answered, gallantly. For now that he saw this good +Samaritan in a brighter light, he appreciated the depth of her charity. +The mistress of the boarding-house was the personification of chronic +fatigue; her dim eyes, her worn face, her stooping figure, and the +enlarged knuckles and bones of her hands, all told of hard toil and +care. Her thin hair was re-enforced behind by huge palpably false braids +of another shade, and the preposterous edifice, carried over the top of +the head, was adorned, in honor of the party, by the large white +camellia, placed exactly in the centre--"like a locomotive head-light," +Chase thought--which had attracted his notice in the street. But in +spite of her grotesque coiffure, no one with a heart could laugh at her. +The goodness in her faded face was so genuine and beautiful that +inwardly he saluted it. "She's the kind that'll never be rested _this_ +side the grave," he said to himself. + +Left alone in her poor little temple of memories, he went to the window +and looked out. It was midnight, and the waning moon--the same moon +which had been full when Ruth made her happy pilgrimage at St. +Augustine--was now rising in its diminished form; diminished though it +was, it gave out light enough to show the Northerner that the old house +had at the back, across both stories, covered verandas--"galleries," +Mrs. Nightingale called them. Above, the pointed roof of the main +building towered up dark against the star-decked sky, and from one of +its dormer-windows came a broad gleam of light. "That's Jared's room," +thought Chase. "He is writing to Gen, telling her all about it; sick as +he is, he sat up to do it. Meanwhile _she_ was comfortably asleep at +ten." + +At last, when Jared had finally gone to bed, Mrs. Nightingale (who made +no more sound than a mouse) led the way up to the attic. Chase followed +her, shoeless, treading as cautiously as he could, and established +himself in the empty room with his door open, and a lighted candle in +the hall outside. By two o'clock the party down-stairs was over; the +house sank into silence. + +There had been no sound from Jared. "He's all right; I shall get him +safely off to-morrow," thought the watcher, with satisfaction. "At New +York, if he's well enough to talk, I shall have to invent another yarn +about that steamer. But probably the doctors will tell him on the spot +that he isn't able to undertake it. So that'll be the end of _that_." + +His motionless position ended by cramping him; the chair was hard; each +muscle of both legs seemed to have a separate twitch. "I might as well +lie down on the bed," he thought; "there, at least, I can stretch out." + +He was awakened by a sound; startled, he sat up, listening. Jared, in +the next room, was talking. The words could not be distinguished; the +tone of the voice was strange. Then the floor vibrated; Jared had risen, +and was walking about. His voice grew louder. Chase noiselessly went +into the hall, and stood listening at the door. There was no light +within, and he ventured to turn the handle. But the bolt was fast. A +white figure now stole up the stairs and joined him; it was Mrs. +Nightingale, wrapped in a shawl. "Oh, I heard him 'way from my room! He +has never been so bad as this before," she whispered. + +Chase had always been aware that the naval officer disliked him; that +is, that he had greatly disliked the idea of his sister's marriage. "If +he sees me now, when he is out of his head, will it make him more +violent? Would it be better to have a stranger go in first?--the +doctor?"--these were the questions that occupied his mind while Mrs. +Nightingale was whispering her frightened remark. + +From the room now came a wild cry. That decided him. "I am going to +burst in the lock," he said to his companion, hurriedly. "Call up some +one to help me hold him, if necessary." His muscular frame was strong; +setting his shoulder against the door, after two or three efforts he +broke it open. + +But the light from the candle outside showed that the room was empty, +and, turning, he ran at full speed down the three flights of stairs, +passing white-robed, frightened groups (for the whole house was now +astir), and, unlocking the back door, he dashed into the court-yard +behind, his face full of dread. But there was no lifeless heap on the +ground. Then, hastily, he looked up. + +Dawn was well advanced, though the sun had not yet risen; the clear, +pure light showed that nothing was lying on the roof of the upper +gallery, as he had feared would be the case. At the same instant, his +eyes caught sight of a moving object above; coming up the steep slope of +the roof from the front side, at first only the head visible, then the +shoulders, and finally the whole body, outlined against the violet sky, +appeared Jared Franklin. He was partly dressed, and he was talking to +himself; when he reached the apex of the roof he paused, brandishing his +arms with a wild gesture, and swaying unsteadily. + +Several persons were now in the court-yard; men had hurried out. Two +women joined them, and looked up. But when they saw the swaying figure +above, they ran back to the shelter of the hall, veiling their eyes and +shuddering. In a few moments all the women in the house had gathered in +this lower hall, frightened and tearful. + +Chase, meanwhile, outside, was pulling off his socks. "Get ladders," he +said, quickly, to the other men. "I'm going up. I'll try to hold him." + +"Oh, how _can_ you get there?" asked Mrs. Nightingale, sobbing. + +"The same way he did," Chase answered, as he ran up the stairs. + +The men remonstrated. Two of them hurried after him. But he was ahead, +and, mounting to the sill of Jared's window, he stepped outside. Then, +not allowing himself to look at anything but the apex directly above +him, he walked slowly and evenly towards it up the steep incline, his +head and shoulders bent forward, his bare feet clinging to the +moss-grown shingles, while at intervals he touched with the tips of his +fingers the shingles that faced him, as a means of steadying himself. + +Down in the court-yard no word was now spoken. But the gazers drew their +breath audibly. Jared appeared to be unaware of any one below; his eyes, +though wide open, did not see the man who was approaching. Chase +perceived this, as soon as he himself had reached the top, and he +instantly took advantage of it; he moved straight towards Jared on his +hands and knees along the line of the ridge-pole. When he had come +within reach, he let himself slip down a few inches to a chimney that +was near; then, putting his left arm round this chimney as a support, he +stretched the right upward, and with a sudden grasp seized the other +man, throwing him down and pinning him with one and the same motion. +Jared fell on his back, half across the ridge, with his head hanging +over one slope and his legs and feet over the other; it was this +position which enabled Chase to hold him down. The madman (his frenzy +came from a violent form of inflammation of the brain) struggled +desperately. His strength seemed so prodigious that to the watchers +below it appeared impossible that the rescuer could save him, or even +save himself. The steep roof had no parapet; and the cruel pavement +below was stone; the two bodies, grappled in a death-clutch, must go +down together. + +"Oh, _pray_! Pray to God!" called a woman's voice from the court below. + +She spoke to Chase. But at that moment nothing in him could be spared +from his own immense effort; not only all the powers of his body, but of +his heart and mind and soul as well, were concentrated upon the one +thing he had to do. He accomplished it; feeling his arm growing weak, he +made a tremendous and final attempt to jam down still harder the breast +he grasped, and the blow (for it amounted to a blow) reduced Jared to +unconsciousness; his hands fell back, his ravings ceased. His strength +had been merely the fictitious force of fever; in reality he was weak. + +The ladders came. Both men were saved. + +"Come, now, if the roof had been only three inches above the ground--how +then?" Chase said, impatiently, as, after the visit of a doctor and the +arrival of two nurses, he came down for a hasty breakfast in Mrs. +Nightingale's dining-room, where the boarders began to shake hands with +him, enthusiastically. "The thing itself was simple enough; all that was +necessary was to act as though it _was_ only three inches." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +A week later, early in the evening, a four-horse stage was coming slowly +down the last mile or two of road above the little North Carolina +village of Old Fort at the eastern base of the Blue Ridge. It was a +creaking, crazy vehicle, thickly encrusted with red clay. But as it had +pounded all the way from Asheville by the abominable mountain-road, no +doubt it had cause to be vociferous and tarnished. Above, the stars were +shining brightly; and the forest also appeared to be starlit, owing to +the myriads of fire-flies that gleamed like sparks against the dark +trees. + +A man who was coming up the road hailed the stage as it approached. +"Hello! Is Mr. Hill inside? The Rev. Mr. Hill of Asheville?" + +"Yes," answered a voice from the back seat of the vehicle, and a head +appeared at the window. "What--Mr. Chase? Is that you?" And, opening the +door, Malachi Hill, with his bag in his hand, jumped out. + +"I came up the road, thinking I might meet you," Horace Chase explained. +"Let's walk; there's something I want to talk over." They went on +together, leaving the stage behind. "I've got a new idea," Chase began. +"What do you say to going up to New York to get my wife? I had intended +to go for her myself, as you know, starting from here to-night, as soon +as I had put the other ladies in your charge, to take back to Asheville. +But Mrs. Franklin looks pretty bad; and Dolly--she might have one of her +attacks. And, take it altogether, I've begun to feel that it's my +business to go with 'em all the way. For it's a long drive over the +mountains at best, and though the night's fine so far, there's no moon, +and the road is always awful. I have four men from Raleigh along--the +undertaker (who is a damn fool, always talking), and his assistants; and +so there'll be four teams--a wagon, the two carriages, and the hearse. I +guess I know the most about horses, and if you can fix it so as to take +my place, I'll see 'em through." + +"Certainly. I am anxious to help in any way you think best," answered +Malachi. "I wish I could start at once! But the stage is so late +to-night that, of course, the train has gone?" + +"That's just it--I kept it," Chase answered; "I knew one of us would +want to take it. You'll have to wait over at Salisbury in the usual +stupid way. But as Ruth can't be here in time for the funeral, it's not +of vital importance. The only thing that riles me is that, owing to that +confounded useless wait, you can't be on the dock to meet her when her +steamer comes in at New York; you won't be able to get there in time. +There'll be people, of course--I've telegraphed. But no one she knows +as well as she knows you." + +Reaching the village, they walked quickly towards the railroad and +finished their talk as they stood beside the waiting train. There was no +station, the rails simply came to an end in the main street. A small +frame structure, which bore the inscription "Blue Ridge Hotel," faced +the end of the rails. + +"He's in there," said Chase, in a low tone, indicating a lighted window +of this house; "that room on the ground-floor. And the old lady--she is +sitting there beside him. She is quiet, she doesn't say anything. But +she just sits there." + +"Mrs. Jared and Miss Dolly are with her, aren't they?" said the young +clergyman. + +"Well, Dolly is keeping Gen in the other room across the hall as much as +she _can_. For Dolly tells me that her mother likes best to sit there +alone. Women, you know, about their sons--sometimes they're queer!" +remarked Chase. + +"The mother's love--yes," Malachi answered, his voice uncertain for a +moment. He swallowed. "There isn't a man who doesn't feel, sooner or +later, after it has gone, that he hasn't prized it half enough--that it +was the best thing he had! It was brain-fever, wasn't it?" he went on, +hurriedly, to cover his emotion. For he, too, had been an only son. + +"Yes, and bad. He was raving; he knocked down one of the doctors. After +the fever left him, it was just possible, they told me, that he might +have pulled through, if he had only been stronger. But he was played out +to begin with; I discovered that myself as soon as I reached Raleigh. +Gen got there in time to see him. But the old lady was too late; and +pretty hard lines for her! She kept telegraphing from different stations +as she and Dolly hurried up from Charleston; and I did my best to +hearten her by messages that met her here and there; but she missed it. +By only half an hour. When I saw that it had come--that he was sinking +and she wouldn't find him alive--I went out and just cursed, cursed the +luck! For Gen had his last words, and everything. And his poor old +mother had nothing at all." + +Here the conductor came up. + +"Ready?" said Chase. "All right, here's your through ticket, Hill--the +one I bought for myself. And inside the envelope is a memorandum, with +the number and street of our house in New York, and other items. I'm no +end obliged to you for going." They shook hands cordially. "When you +come back, don't let my wife travel straight through," added the +husband. "Make her stop over and sleep." + +"I'll do my best," answered Hill, as the train started. In deference to +the mourning party which it had brought westward, there was no whistle, +no ringing of the bell; the locomotive moved quietly away, and the +clergyman, standing on the rear platform, holding on by the handle of +the door, watched as long as he could see it the lighted window of the +room where lay all that was mortal of Jared Franklin. + +An hour later the funeral procession started up the mountain. First, +there was a wagon, with the undertaker and his three assistants. Then +followed the large, heavy hearse drawn by four horses. Next came a +carriage containing Mrs. Franklin and Dolly; and, finally, a second +carriage for Genevieve and Horace Chase. + +"Poor mamma is sadly changed," commented Genevieve to her companion. +"She insisted upon being left alone with the remains at the hotel, you +know; and now she wishes her carriage to be as near the hearse as +possible. Fortunately, these things are very unimportant to me, Horace. +I do not feel, as they do, that Jay is _here_. My husband has gone--gone +to a better world. He knew that he was going; he said good-bye to me so +tenderly. He was always so--_so_ kind." And covering her face, Genevieve +gave way to tears. + +"Yes, he thought the world and all of you, Gen. There's no doubt about +that," Chase answered. + +He did full justice to the sobbing woman by his side. He was more just +to her than her husband's family had ever been, or ever could be; he had +known her as a child, and he comprehended that according to her nature +and according to her unyielding beliefs as to what was best, she had +tried to be a good wife. In addition (as he was a man himself), he +thought that it was to her credit that her husband had always been fond +of her, that he had remained devoted to her to the last. "That doesn't +go for nothing!" he said to himself. + +The ascent began. The carriages plunged into holes and lurched out of +them; they jolted across bits of corduroy; now and then, when the track +followed a gorge, they forded a brook. The curves were slippery, owing +to the red clay. Then, without warning, in the midst of mud would come +an unexpected sharp grind of the wheels over an exposed ledge of bare +rock. Before midnight clouds had obscured the stars and it grew very +dark. But the lamps on the carriages burned brightly, and a negro was +sent on in advance carrying a pitch-pine torch. + +In the middle of the night, at the top of the pass, there was a halt. +Chase had made Genevieve comfortable with cushions and shawls, and soon +after their second start she fell asleep. Perceiving this, he drew up +the window on her side, and then, opening the carriage-door softly, he +got out; it was easy to do it, as all the horses were walking. Making a +detour through the underbrush, so that he should not be seen by Mrs. +Franklin and Dolly in case they were awake, he appeared by the side of +the hearse. + +"Don't stop," he said to the driver, in a low tone; "I'm going to get up +there beside you." He climbed up and took the reins. "I'll drive the +rest of the way, or at least as far as the outskirts of the town. For +between here and there are all the worst places. You go on and join that +fellow in front. You might carry a second torch; you'll find some in the +wagon." + +The driver of the hearse, an Asheville negro, who knew Chase, gave up +his seat gladly. There were bad holes ahead, and there was a newly +mended place which was a little uncertain; he would not have minded +taking the stage over that place (none of the Blue Ridge drivers minded +taking the stage anywhere), but he was superstitious about a hearse. +"Fo' de Lawd, I'm glad to be red of it!" he confided to the other negro, +as they went on together in advance with their flaring torches. "It +slips an' slews when dey ain't no 'casion! Sump'n mighty quare 'bout it, +I tell you _dat_!" + +Presently the plateau came to an end, and the descent began. Rain was +now falling. The four vehicles moved slowly on, winding down the zigzags +very cautiously in the darkness, slipping and swaying as they went. + +After half an hour of this progress, the torch-bearers in front came +hurrying back to give warning that the rain had loosened the temporary +repairs of the mended place, so that its edge had given away; for about +one hundred and forty yards, therefore, the track was dangerously narrow +and undefended, with the sheer precipice on one side and the high cliff +on the other; in addition, the roadway slanted towards this verge, and +the clay was very slippery. + +Chase immediately sent word back to the drivers of the carriages behind +to advance as slowly as was possible, but not to stop, for that might +waken the ladies; then, jumping down from the hearse, and leaving one of +the negroes in charge of his team, he hurried forward to make a personal +inspection. The broken shelf, without its parapet, certainly looked +precarious; so much so that the driver of the wagon, when he came up, +hesitated. Chase, ordering him down, took his place, and drove the wagon +across himself. Whereupon the verbose undertaker began to thank him. + +"Don't worry; I didn't do it for _you_" answered Chase, grimly. "If +you'd gone over, you'd have carried away more of the track; that was +all." Going back, he resumed his place on the hearse. Then speaking to +his horses, he guided them on to the shelf. Here he stood, in order to +see more clearly, the men on the far side watching him breathlessly, and +trying meanwhile (at a safe distance) to aid him as much as they could, +by holding their torches high. The ponderous hearse began to slip by its +own weight towards the verge. Then, with strong hand, Chase sent his +team sharply towards the cliff that towered above them, and kept them +grinding against it as they advanced, the two on the inside fairly +rubbing the rock, until, by main strength, the four together had dragged +their load away. But in a minute or two it began over again. It happened +not once merely, but four times. And, the last time, the hind wheels +slipped so far, in spite of Chase's efforts, that it seemed as if they +would inevitably go over, and drag the struggling horses with them. But +Chase was as bold a driver as he was speculator. How he inspired them, +the horror-stricken watchers could not discover; but the four bays, +bounding sharply round together, sprang in a heap, as it were, at the +rocky wall on the left, the leaders rearing, the others on top of them; +and by this wild leap, the wheels (one of them was already over) were +violently jerked away. It was done at last; the dark, ponderous car +stood in safety on the other side, and the spectators, breathing again, +rubbed down the wet horses. Then Horace Chase went back on foot, and, in +turn, drove the two carriages across. Through these last two transits +not a word was spoken by any one; he mounted soundlessly, so that +Genevieve slept on undisturbed, and Mrs. Franklin and Dolly, unaware of +the danger or of the new hand on the reins, continued to gaze vaguely at +the darkness outside, their thoughts pursuing their own course. Finally, +leaving one of the negroes on guard to warn other travellers of the +wash-out and its perils, Chase resumed his place on the hearse, and the +four vehicles continued their slow progress down the mountain. + +After a while, the first vague clearness preceding dawn appeared; the +rain ceased. Happening to turn his head fifteen minutes later, he was +startled to see, in the dim light, the figure of a woman beside the +hearse. It was Mrs. Franklin. The road was now smoother, and she walked +steadily on, keeping up with the walk of the horses. As the light grew +clearer, she saw who the driver was, and her eyes met his with +recognition. But her rigid face seemed to have no power for further +expression; it was set in lines that could not alter. Chase, on his +side, bowed gravely, taking off his hat; and he did not put it on again, +he left it on the seat by his side. He made no attempt to stop her, to +persuade her to return to her carriage; he recognized the presence of +one of those moods which, when they take possession of a woman, no power +on earth can alter. + +As they came to the first outlying houses of Asheville, he gave up his +place to the negro driver, and getting down on the other side of the +hearse, away from Mrs. Franklin, he went back for a moment to Dolly. +"You must let her do it! _Don't_ try to prevent her," Dolly said, +imperatively, in a low tone, the instant she saw him at the carriage +door. + +"I'm not thinking of preventing her," Chase answered. Waiting until the +second carriage passed, he looked in; Genevieve was still asleep. Then, +still bareheaded, he joined Mrs. Franklin, and, without speaking, walked +beside her up the long, gradual ascent which leads into the town. + +The sun now appeared above the mountains; early risers coming to their +windows saw the dreary file pass--the wagon and the two carriages, heavy +with mud; the hearse with four horses, and the mother walking beside +it. As they reached the main street, Chase spoke. "The Cottage?" + +"No; home," Mrs. Franklin answered. As the hearse turned into the +driveway of L'Hommedieu, she passed it, and, going on in advance, opened +the house door; here, waving away old Zoe and Rinda, who came hurrying +to meet her, she waited on the threshold until the men had lifted out +the coffin; then, leading the way to the sitting-room, she pointed to +the centre of the floor. + +"Oh, not to _our_ house?" Genevieve whispered, as she alighted, her eyes +full of tears. + +But Dolly, to whom she spoke, limped in without answering, and Mrs. +Franklin paid no more heed to her daughter-in-law, who had followed her, +than as though she did not exist. Genevieve, quivering from her grief, +turned to Horace Chase. + +He put his arm round her, and led her from the sitting-room. "Give way +to her, Gen," he said, in a low tone. "She isn't well--don't you see it? +She isn't herself; she has been walking beside that hearse for the last +hour! Let her do whatever she likes; it's her only comfort. And now I am +going to take you straight home, and you must go to bed; if you don't, +you won't be able to get through the rest--and you wouldn't like that. +I'll come over at noon and arrange with you about the funeral; to-morrow +morning will be the best time, won't it?" And half leading, half +carrying her, for Genevieve was now crying helplessly, he took her +home. + +When he came back, Dolly was in the hall, waiting for him. + +There was no one in the sitting-room save Mrs. Franklin; he could see +her through the half-open door. She was sitting beside the coffin, with +her head against it, and one arm laid over its top. Her dress was +stained with mud; she had not taken off her bonnet; her gloves were +still on. Dolly closed the door, and shut out the sight. + +"You ought to see to her; she must be worn out," Chase said, +expostulatingly. + +"I'll do what I can," Dolly answered. "But mother has now no desire to +live--that will be the difficulty. She loves Ruth, and she loves me. But +not in the same way. Her father, her husband, and her son--these have +been mother's life. And now that the last has gone, the last of the +three men she adored, she doesn't care to stay. That is what she is +thinking now, as she sits there." + +"Come, you can't possibly know what she is thinking," Chase answered, +impatiently. + +"I always know what is in mother's mind; I wish I didn't!" said Dolly, +her features working convulsively for a moment. Then she controlled +herself. "I am sorry you came all the way back with us, Mr. Chase. It +wasn't necessary as far as _we_ were concerned. We could have crossed +the mountain perfectly well without you. But Ruth--that is another +affair, and I wish you had gone for her yourself, instead of sending Mr. +Hill! You must be prepared to see Ruth greatly changed. I should not be +surprised if she should arrive much broken, and even ill. She was very +fond of Jared. She will be overwhelmed--" Here, feeling that she was +saying too much, the elder sister abruptly disappeared. + +Chase, left alone, went out to see to the horses. The men were waiting +at the gate, the carriages and the hearse were drawn up at a little +distance; the undertaker and his assistants were standing in the garden. +"Get your breakfast at the hotel; I'll send for you presently," he said +to the latter. Then he paid the other men, and dismissed them. "You go +and tell whoever has charge, to have that bad bit of road put in order +to-day," he directed. "Tell them to send up a hundred hands, if +necessary. I'll pay the extra." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +The morning after the funeral, Chase, upon coming down to breakfast, +found Mrs. Franklin already in the sitting-room. She had not taken the +trouble to put on the new mourning garb which had been hastily made for +her; her attire was a brown dress which she had worn in Florida. She sat +motionless in her easy-chair, with her arms folded, her feet on a +footstool, and her face had the same stony look which had not varied +since she was told, upon her arrival at Raleigh, that her son was dead. + +"Well, ma'am, I hope you have slept?" Chase asked, as he extended his +hand. + +She gave him hers lifelessly. + +"Yes; I believe so." + +"Ruth will soon be here now," her son-in-law went on, as he seated +himself. "I told Hill not to let her travel straight through, for it +would only tire her; and she needs to keep well, ma'am, so as to be of +use to you. I'm going to drive over to Old Fort to-day, starting +late--about six o'clock, I guess. I've calculated that if Ruth spent a +night in New York (as she probably did, waiting for Hill to get there), +and if she stops over one night on the way, she would reach Old Fort +to-morrow noon. Then I'll bring her right on to L'Hommedieu." + +"Yes, bring her. And let her stay." + +"As long as ever you like, ma'am. I can't hold on long myself just now, +but I'll leave her with you, and come for her later. I am thinking of +taking a house at Newport for the summer; I hope that you and Miss Dolly +will feel like spending some time there with Ruth? Say August and +September?" + +"I shall travel no more. Leave her with me; it won't be for long." + +"You must cheer up, ma'am--for your daughters' sake." + +"Ruth has you," Mrs. Franklin responded. "And _you_ are good." Her tone +remained lifeless. But it was evident that her words were sincere; that +a vague sense of justice had made her rouse herself long enough to utter +the commendation. + +"That's a mistake. I've never laid claim to anything of _that_ sort," +Chase answered rather curtly, his face growing red. + +"When I say '_good_' I mean that you will be good to Ruth," said the +mother; "it is the only sort of goodness I care for! At present you +don't like Dolly. But Dolly is so absolutely devoted to her sister that +you will end by accepting her, faults and all; you won't mind her little +hostilities. I can therefore trust them both to you--I do so with +confidence," she added. And, with her set face unchanged, she made him a +little bow. + +"Why talk that way, ma'am? We hope to have you with us many years +longer," Chase answered. "A green old age is a very fine thing to see." +(He thought rather well of that phrase.) "My grandmother--she stuck it +out to ninety-eight, and I hope you'll do the same." + +"Probably she wished to live. I have no such desire. As I sat here +beside my son the morning we arrived, I knew that I longed to go, too. I +want to be with him--and with my husband--and my dear father. My life +here has now come to its end, for _they_ were my life." + +"That queer Dolly knew!" thought Chase. "But perhaps they've talked +about it?" He asked this question aloud. "Have you told your daughter +that, ma'am?" + +"Told my poor Dolly? Of course not. Please go to breakfast, Mr. Chase; I +am sure it is ready." Chase went to the dining-room. A moment later +Dolly came in to pour out the coffee. + +"Is there anything I can do for you this morning?" Chase asked, as he +took a piece of Zoe's hot corn-bread. "I am going to drive over to Old +Fort this afternoon, and wait there for Ruth, for I've calculated the +trains, and I reckon that she and Hill will reach there to-morrow." + +Dolly looked at him for a moment. Then she said: "You have a great deal +of influence with Genevieve; perhaps you could make her understand that +for the present it is better that she should not try to see mother. Tell +her that mother is much more broken than she was yesterday; tell her +that she is very nervous; tell her, in short, anything you please, +provided it keeps her away!" Dolly added, suddenly giving up her long +effort to hide her bitter dislike. + +Chase glanced at her, and said nothing; he ate his corn-bread, and +finished his first cup of coffee in silence. Then, as she poured out the +second, he said: "Well, she might keep away entirely? She might leave +Asheville? She has a brother in St. Louis, and she likes the place, I +know; I've heard her say so. If her property here could be taken off her +hands--at a good valuation--and if a well-arranged, well-furnished house +could be provided for her there, near her brother, I guess she'd go. I +even guess she'd go pretty quick," he added; "she'd be a long sight +happier there than here." For though he had no especial affection for +Genevieve, he at least liked her better than he liked Dolly. + +Dolly, however, was indifferent to his liking or his disliking. "_Oh!_" +she said, her gaze growing vague in the intensity of her wish, "if it +could only be done!" Then her brow contracted, she pushed her plate +away. "But we cannot possibly be so much indebted to you--I mean so much +_more_ indebted." + +"You needn't count yourself in, if it worries you," Chase answered with +his deliberate utterance. "For I should be doing it principally for +Ruth, you know. When she comes, the first thing she'll want to do, of +course, is to make her mother comfortable. And if Gen's clearing out, +root and branch, will help that, I rather guess Ruth can fix it." + +"You mean that _you_ can." + +"Well, we're one; I don't think that even _you_ can quite break that up +yet," Chase answered, ironically. Then he went on in a gentler tone: "I +want to do everything I can for your mother. She has always been very +kind to me." + +And Dolly was perfectly well aware that, as he looked at her (looked at +her yellow, scowling face), his feeling for her had become simply pity, +pity for the sickly old maid whom no one could possibly please--not even +her sweet young sister. + +Soon after breakfast Chase went to the Cottage. Genevieve received him +gratefully. Her cheeks were pale; her eyes showed the traces of the +tears of the previous day, the day of the funeral. + +Her visitor remained two hours. Then he rose, saying, "Well, I must see +about horses if I am to get to Old Fort to-night. I shall tell Ruth +about this new plan of ours, Gen. She'll be sure to like it; she'll +enjoy going to St. Louis to see you; we'll both come often. And you'll +be glad of a change yourself. The other house, too, is likely to be shut +up. For, though they don't say so yet, I guess the old lady and Dolly +will end by spending most of their time with Ruth, in New York." + +"I must go over and see mamma at once," answered Genevieve. "I must have +her opinion, first of all. I shall ask mamma's advice more than ever +now, Horace; it will be my pleasure as well as my duty. For Jay was very +fond of his mother; he often told me--" Her voice quivered, and she +stopped. + +"Now, Gen, listen to me," said Chase, taking her hand. "Don't go over +there at all to-day. And, when you go to-morrow, and later, don't try to +see the old lady; wait till she asks for you. For she is all unhinged; +I've just come from there, and I know. She is very nervous, and +everything upsets her. It won't do either of you any good to meet at +present; it would only be a trial to you both. And Dolly says so, too. +Promise me that you'll take care of yourself; promise me especially that +you won't leave the house at all to-day, but stay quietly at home and +rest." + +Genevieve promised. But after he had gone, the sense of duty that was a +part of her nature led her to reconsider her determination. That her +husband should have been laid in his grave only twenty-four hours +before, and that she, the widow, should not see his bereaved mother +through the whole day, when their houses stood side by side; that they +should not mingle their tears, and their prayers also, while their +sorrow was still so new and so poignant--this seemed to her wrong. In +addition, it seemed hardly decent. The mother was ill and broken? So +much the more, then, was it her duty to go to her. At four o'clock, +therefore, she put on her bonnet and its long crape veil, and her black +mantle, and crossed the meadow towards L'Hommedieu. + +Mrs. Franklin was still sitting in the easy-chair with her arms folded, +as she had sat in the morning when Chase came in. The only difference +was that now a newspaper lay across her lap; she had hastily taken it +from the table, and spread it over her knees, when she recognized her +daughter-in-law's step on the veranda. + +Genevieve came in. She was startled at first by the sight of the brown +dress, which happened to have red tints as well as brown in its fabric. +But it was only another cross to bear; her husband's family had always +given her so many! "I hope you slept last night, mamma?" she said, +bending to kiss Mrs. Franklin's forehead. + +"Yes, I believe so," the elder woman answered, mechanically, as she had +answered Chase. She was now indefinitely the elder. Between the wife of +forty, and the slender, graceful, vivacious mother of fifty-eight, there +had been but the difference of one short generation. But now the mother +might have been any age; her shoulders were bent, her skin looked +withered, and all the outlines of her face were set and sharpened. + +Genevieve took off her crape mantle, folding it (with her habitual +carefulness) before she laid it on a chair. "You must let me see to your +mourning, mamma," she said, as she thus busied herself. "I suppose your +new dress doesn't fit you? It was made so hastily. I shall be sitting +quietly at home for the present, day after day, and it will occupy me +and take my thoughts from myself to have some sewing to do. And I know +how to cut crape to advantage also, for I was in mourning so long when +I was a girl." + +Mrs. Franklin made no reply. + +Her daughter-in-law, seating herself beside her, stroked back her gray +hair. "You look so tired! And I am afraid Dolly is tired out also, as +she isn't with you?" + +"I sent her to bed half an hour ago; for I am afraid one of her attacks +is coming on," Mrs. Franklin answered, her lips compressing themselves +as she endured the caress. Genevieve's touch was gentle. But Mrs. +Franklin did not like to have her hair stroked. + +"Poor Dolly! But, surely, it is not surprising. I must see her before I +go back. But shall I go back, mamma? As you are alone, wouldn't it be +better for me to stay with you for the rest of the day? I could read to +you; I should love to do it. It seems providential that my dear copy of +_Quiet Hours_ should have come back from Philadelphia only yesterday; I +had sent it to Philadelphia, you know, to be rebound. But there have +been greater providences still; for instance, how I was able to get to +Raleigh in time to see our dear one. For the stage had gone when +Horace's telegram came, and Mr. Bebb's having arranged, by a mere +chance, to drive to Old Fort with that pair of fast horses at the very +_moment_ I wished to start--surely that was providential? But you look +so white; do let me get you some tea? Or, better still, won't you go to +bed? I should so love to undress you, and bathe your face with cologne." + +Mrs. Franklin shook her head; through her whole life she had detested +cologne. On the top of her dumb despair, on the top of her profound +enmity, rose again (a consciousness sickening to herself) all the petty +old irritations against this woman; against her "providential"; her +_Quiet Hours_; her "surely"; her "cutting crape to advantage"; and even +her "cologne." She closed her eyes so that at least she need not _see_ +her. + +"I have had a letter from my sister," Genevieve went on. "I brought it +with me, thinking that you might like to hear it, for it is so +_beautifully_ expressed. As you don't care to lie down, I'll read it to +you now. My sister reminds me, mamma, that in the midst of my grief I +ought to remember that I have had one great blessing--a blessing not +granted to all wives; and that is, that from the first moment of our +engagement to his last breath, dear Jay was perfectly devoted to me; he +never looked--he never cared to look--at any one else!" + +Mrs. Franklin refolded her arms; her hands, laid over her elbows, +tightened on her sleeves. + +Genevieve began to read the letter. But when she came to the passage she +had quoted, the tears began to fall. "I won't go on," she said, as she +wiped them away. "For we must not dwell upon our griefs--don't you think +so, mamma? Not _purposely_ remind ourselves of them; surely that is +unwise. I have already arranged to give away Jay's clothes, for +instance--give them to persons who really need them. For as long as they +are in the house I can't help cr-crying whenever I see them." Her voice +broke, and she stopped; her effort at self-control, both here and at +home, was sincere. + +She replaced the letter in her pocket. And as she did so, the crape of +her sleeve, catching on the edge of the newspaper which lay over Mrs. +Franklin's knees, drew it so far to one side that it fell to the floor. +And there, revealed on the mother's lap, lay a little heap: a package of +letters in a school-boy hand; a battered top, and one or two other toys; +a baby's white robe yellow with age; some curls of soft hair, and a +little pair of baby shoes. + +"Oh, mamma, are you letting yourself brood over these things? Surely it +is not wise? Let me put them away." + +But Mrs. Franklin, gathering her poor treasures from Genevieve's touch, +placed them herself in her secretary, which she locked. Then she began +to walk to and fro across the broad room--to and fro, to and fro, her +step feverishly quick. + +After a minute, Genevieve followed her. "Mamma, try to be resigned. Try +to be calm." + +Mrs. Franklin stopped. She faced round upon her daughter-in-law. "You +dare to offer advice to me, you barren woman? You tell me to be +resigned? What do _you_ know of a mother's love for her son--you who +have never borne a child? You can comprehend neither my love nor my +grief. Providential, is it, that you reached Raleigh in time? Providence +is a strange thing if it assists _you_. For you have killed your +husband--killed him as certainly as though you had given him slow +poison. You broke up his life--the only life he loved; you never rested +until you had forced him out of the navy. And then, your greed for money +made you urge him incessantly to go into business--into business for +himself, which he knew nothing about. You gave him no peace; you drove +him on; your determination to have all the things _you_ care for--a +house of your own and a garden; chairs and tables; handsome clothes; +money for _charities_" (impossible to describe the bitterness of this +last phrase)--"these have been far more important to you than anything +else--than his own happiness, or his own welfare. And, lately, your +process of murder has gone on faster. For he has been very ill all +winter (I know it _now_!) and you have not been near him; you have +stayed here month after month, buying land with Ruth's money, filling +your pockets and telling him nothing of it, adding to your house, and +saying to yourself comfortably meanwhile that this wise course of yours +would in the end bring him round to your views. It _has_ brought him +round--to his death! His life for years has been wretched, and you were +the cause of the misery. For it was his feeling of being out of his +place, his gradual discouragement, his sense of failure, that finally +broke down his health. If he had never seen _you_, he might have lived +to be an old man, filling with honor the position he was fitted for. +Now, at thirty-nine, he is dead. He was faithful to you, you say? He +was. And it is my greatest regret! I do not wish ever to see your face +again. For he was the joy of my life, and you were the curse of his. +Go!" + +These sentences, poured out in clear, vibrating tones, had filled +Genevieve with horror. And something that was almost fear followed as +the mother, coming nearer, her eyes blazing in her death-like face, +emphasized her last words by stretching out her arm with a gesture that +was fiercely grand--the grandeur of her bereavement and her despair. + +Genevieve escaped to the hall. Then, after waiting for a moment +uncertainly, she hurried home. + +When the sound of her footsteps had died away, Mrs. Franklin went to the +secretary and took out again the dress and the top, the little shoes and +the baby-curls; seating herself, she began to rearrange them. But her +hands only moved for a moment or two. Then her head sank back, her eyes +closed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +As it happened, Horace Chase was the next person who entered the parlor. +He was touched when he saw the old-looking figure, with the pathetic +little heap in its lap. But when he perceived that the figure was +unconscious, he was much alarmed; summoning help, he sent hastily for a +doctor. After being removed to her own room, Mrs. Franklin was extremely +restless; she moved her head incessantly from side to side on the +pillow, and she seemed to be half blind; her mind wandered, and her +voice, as she spoke incoherently, was very weak. Then suddenly she sank +into a lethargic slumber. The doctor waited to see in what condition she +would waken; for there were symptoms he did not like. Miss Billy, +meanwhile, was installed as nurse. + +Mrs. Kip, Maud Muriel, and Miss Billy had visited this house of mourning +many times since the arrival of the funeral procession two days before, +with the mother walking beside the coffin of her son. And now that this +poor mother was stricken down, they all came again, anxious to be of +use. Chase, who had always liked her gentle ways, selected Miss Billy. + +Dolly knew nothing of her mother's prostration; for her pain (her old +enemy), having been deadened by an opiate, she was sleeping. In order +that she should not suspect what had happened, Miss Billy did not show +herself at all in Dolly's room; Rinda, who was accustomed to this +service, was established there on a pallet, ready to answer if called. + +Chase had decided that he would wait for the doctor's report before +starting on his drive across the mountain; it would be satisfactory to +have something definite to tell Ruth. It was uncertain when that report +would come. But as he intended to set out, in spite of the darkness, the +first moment that it was possible, there was no use in going to bed. +Alone in the parlor, therefore, he first read through all the newspapers +he could find. Then, opening the window, he smoked a cigar or two. +Finally, his mind reverted, as it usually did when he was alone, to +business; drawing a chair to the table, he took out some memoranda and +sat down. Midnight passed. One o'clock came. Two o'clock. He still sat +there, absorbed. Mrs. Franklin's reading-lamp, burning brightly beside +him, lighted up his hard, keen face. For it looked hard now, with its +three deeply set lines, one on each side of the mouth, and one between +the eyes; and the eyes themselves were hard and sharp. But though the +business letter he was engaged upon was a masterpiece of shrewdness (as +those who received it would not fail to discover sooner or later), and +though it dealt with large interests that were important, the faintest +sound upstairs would have instantly caught the attention of its writer. +On a chair beside him were railroad time-tables, and a sheet of +commercial note-paper with two lines of figures jotted down in orderly +rows side by side; these represented the two probabilities regarding the +trains which his wife might take--their hours of departure and their +connections. He had received no telegrams, and this had surprised him. +"What can the little chap be about?" he had more than once thought. His +adjective "little" was not depreciatory; Malachi Hill was, in fact, +short. In addition, his fresh, pink-tinged complexion and bright blue +eyes gave him a boyish air. To Horace Chase, who was over six feet in +height, and whose dark face looked ten years older than it really was, +the young missionary (whom he sincerely liked) seemed juvenile; his +youthful appearance, in fact, combined with his unmistakable "grit" (as +Chase called it), had been the thing which had first attracted the +notice of the millionaire. + +A little before three there was a sound. But it was not from upstairs, +it was outside; steps were coming up the path from the gate. The man in +the parlor went into the hall; and as he did so, to his surprise the +house-door opened and his wife came in. + +Behind her there was a momentary vision of Malachi Hill. The clergyman, +however, did not enter; upon seeing Horace Chase, he closed the door +quietly and went away. + +Ruth's face, even to the lips, was so white that her husband hastily +put his arm round her; then he drew her into the sitting-room, closing +the door behind them. + +"Where is he?" Ruth had asked, or rather, her lips formed the words. +"Didn't you _wait_ for me?" + +"My darling, he was buried yesterday," Chase answered, sitting down and +drawing her into his arms. "Didn't Hill tell you?" + +"Yes, but I didn't believe it. I thought you would wait for me; I +thought you would _know_ that I wanted to see him." + +"No one saw him after we left Raleigh, dear. The coffin was not opened +again." + +"If I had been here, mother would have--_mother_ would have--" + +"It was your mother who arranged everything," Chase explained gently, as +with careful touch he took off her hat, and then her gloves; her hands +were icy, and he held them in his to warm them. + +"Where _is_ mother? And Dolly? Weren't they expecting me? Didn't they +_know_ I would come?" + +"Your mother is sick upstairs. No, don't get up--you can't see her now; +she is asleep, and mustn't be disturbed. But the first moment she wakes +up the doctor is to let me know, and then you shall go to her right +away. Miss Breeze is up there keeping watch. Dolly has broken down, too. +But Dolly's case is no worse than it has often been before, and you'd +better let her sleep while she can. And now, will you stay here with me, +Ruthie, till the doctor comes? Or would you rather go to bed? If you'll +go, I promise to tell you the minute your mother wakes." He put his hand +on her head protectingly, and kissed her cheek. Her face was cold. Her +whole frame had trembled incessantly from the moment of her entrance. +"My darling little girl, how tired you are!" + +"Tell me everything--everything about Jared," Ruth demanded, feverishly. + +Though she was so white, it was evident that she had not shed tears; her +eyes were bright, her lips were parched. Her husband, with his +rough-and-ready knowledge of women, knew that it would be better for her +to "have her cry out," as he would have phrased it; it would quiet her +excitement and subdue her so that she would sleep. As she could not eat, +he gave her a spoonful of brandy from his own flask, and wrapped her +cold feet in his travelling-shawl; then, putting her on the sofa, he sat +down beside her, and, holding her tenderly in his arms, he told her the +story of Jared's last hours. + +His account was truthful, save that he softened the details. In his +narrative Mrs. Nightingale's shabby house became homelike and +comfortable, and Jared's bare attic a pleasant place; Mrs. Nightingale +herself (here there was no need for exaggeration) was an angel of +kindness. He dwelt upon Jared's having agreed to go with him to New +York. "I had planned to start at nine o'clock the next morning, Ruthie, +having a doctor along without his knowing it; and I had ordered a +private car--a Pullman sleeper--to go through to New York; once there, I +thought you could make him take a good long rest. That kind woman had +been sitting up at night in the room next to his. So I fixed that by +taking the same room myself. I didn't undress, but I guess I fell +asleep; and I woke up hearing him talking. And then he walked about the +room, and he even climbed out on the roof; but we soon got him back all +right. Everything possible was done, dear; the best doctor in Raleigh, +and a nurse--two of 'em. But it was no use. It was brain-fever, or +inflammation of the brain rather, and after it had left him he was too +weak to rally. They thought everything of him at Raleigh; your mother +wanted him brought here, and when we went to the depot, everybody who +had ever known him turned out, so that there was a long procession; and +all the ladies of his boarding-house brought flowers. At Old Fort, I had +intended to let Hill (I had wired to him to meet us there) take charge +of them across the mountains, for I wanted to go to New York to get +_you_. But the night was dark, and the road is always so bad that I +thought, on the whole, you'd rather have me stay with your mother. And +she has been tolerably well, too, until this afternoon, when she had an +attack of some sort. But I guess it's only that she is overtired; the +doctor will probably come down and tell us so before long." + +"I _wanted_ to see him," repeated Ruth, her eyes still dry and bright. +"It was very little to do for me, I think. If I could have just taken +his poor hand once--even if it _was_ dead! Everybody else got there in +time to speak to him, to say good-by." + +"No; your mother didn't get there," Chase explained. + +"She didn't get there? And Genevieve _did?_ I know it by your face. Let +me go to mother--poor mother! Let me go to her, and _never_ leave her +again." + +"You shall go the instant she wakes; you shall stay with her as long as +you like," Chase answered, drawing her down again, and putting his cheek +against her head as it lay on his breast. "There is nothing in the world +I wouldn't do for your mother; you have only to choose. And for Dolly, +too. You shall stay with them; or they can go with you; or anything you +think best, my poor little girl." + +Ruth still trembled, and no tears came to her relief. + +Her cry, "And Genevieve _did?_" had struck him. "How they all hate her?" +he thought. + +He had seen Genevieve since Mrs. Franklin's attack; he had gone over for +a moment to tell her what had happened. + +Genevieve, when driven from L'Hommedieu, had taken refuge in her own +room at the Cottage; here, behind her locked door, she had spent a long +hour in examining herself searchingly, examining her whole married life. +Her hands had trembled as she looked over her diaries, and as she +turned the pages of her "Questions for the Conscience." But with all her +efforts she could not discern any point where she had failed. Finally, +at the end of the examination, she summed the matter up more calmly: "It +_was_ best for Jared to be out of the navy; he was forming habits there +that I understood better than his mother. And I _know_ that I am not +avaricious. I know that I have always tried to do what was best for him, +that I have tried to elevate him and help him in every way. I have +worked hard--hard. I have never ceased to work. It is all a falsehood, +or, rather, it is a delusion; for she is, she _must_ be, insane." Having +reached this conclusion (with Genevieve conclusions were final), she put +away her diaries and went down-stairs to tea. When Chase came in and +told what had happened, she said, with the utmost pity, "I am _not_ +surprised! When she comes out of it, I fear you will find, Horace, that +her mind is affected. But surely it is natural. Mamma's mind--poor, dear +mamma!--never was very strong; and, in this great grief which has +overwhelmed us all, it has given way. We must make every allowance for +her." She told him nothing of her terrible half-hour at L'Hommedieu. She +never told any one. Silence was the only proper course--a pitying +silence over Jay's poor mother, his crazed mother. + +Ruth had paid no heed to her husband's soothing words, his promise to do +everything that he possibly could for her mother and Dolly. "What did +Jared say? You were with him before he was ill. Tell me everything, +everything!" + +He tried to satisfy her. Then he attempted to draw her thoughts in +another direction. "How did you get here so soon, Ruthie? I told Hill to +make you stop over and sleep." + +"Sleep!" repeated Ruth. "I only thought of one thing, and that was to +get here in time to see him." She left the sofa. "You ought to have +waited for me. It would have been better if you had. _Jared_ was the one +I cared for. One look at his face, even if he _was_ dead. Where did they +put him when they brought him home? For I know mother had him here, here +and not at the Cottage. It was in this room, wasn't it? In the centre of +the floor?" She walked to the middle of the room and stood there. +"_Jared_ could have helped me," she said, miserably. "Why did they take +my _brother_--the one person I had!" + +The door opened and the doctor entered. "_You_ here, Mrs. Chase? I +didn't know you had come." He hesitated. + +"What is it?" said Ruth, going to him. "Tell me! _Tell_ me." + +The doctor glanced at Chase. + +Chase came up, and took his wife's hand protectingly. "You may as well +tell her." + +"It is a stroke of paralysis," explained the doctor, gravely. + +"But she'll _know_ me?" cried Ruth in an agony of tears. + +"She _may_. You can go up if you like." + +But the mother saw nothing, heard nothing on earth again. She might live +for years. But she did not know her own child. + +Chase came at last, and took his wife away. + +"Oh, be good to me, Horace, or I shall die! I think I _am_ dying now," +she added in sudden terror. + +She clung to him in alarm. His immense kindness was now her refuge. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +In spite of all there was to see that afternoon, Dolly Franklin had +chosen to remain at home; she sat alone in the drawing-room, adding +silken rows to her stocking of the moment. Wherever Ruth was, that was +now Dolly's home; since Mrs. Franklin's death, two years before, Dolly +had lived with her sister. The mother had survived her son but a month. +Her soul seemed to have departed with the first stroke of the benumbing +malady; there was nothing but the breathing left. At the end of a few +weeks, even the breathing ceased. Since then, L'Hommedieu had been +closed, save for a short time each spring. Horace Chase had bought a +cottage at Newport, and his wife and Dolly had divided their time +between Newport and New York. This winter, however, Chase had reopened +his Florida house, the old Worth place, at St. Augustine; for Ruth's +health appeared to be growing delicate; at least she had a dread of the +cold, of the icy winds, and the snow. + +"Well, we'll go back to the land of the alligators," said Chase; "we'll +live on sweet potatoes and the little oysters that grow round loose. You +seem to have forgotten that you own a shanty down there, Ruthie?" + +At first Ruth opposed this idea. Then suddenly she changed her mind. +"No, I'll go. I want to sail, and sail!" + +"So do I," said Dolly. "But why shouldn't we try new waters? The Bay of +Naples, for instance? Mr. Chase, if you cannot go over at present, you +could come for us, you know, whenever it was convenient?" Dolly expended +upon her idea all the eloquence she possessed. + +But Horace Chase never liked to have his wife beyond the reach of a +railroad. He himself often made long, rapid journeys without her. But he +was unwilling to have her "on the other side of the ferry," as he called +it, unless he could accompany her; and at present there were important +business interests which held him at home. As Ruth also paid small heed +to Dolly's brilliant (and wholly imaginary) pictures of Capri, Ischia, +and Sorrento, the elder sister had been forced (though with deep inward +reluctance) to yield; since December, therefore, they had all been +occupying the pleasant old mansion that faced the sea-wall. + +To-day, four o'clock came, and passed. Five o'clock came, and passed; +and Dolly still sat there alone. At last she put down her knitting, and, +taking her cane, limped upstairs and peeped into her sister's +dressing-room. Ruth, who was lying on the lounge with her face hidden, +appeared to be asleep. Dolly, therefore, closed the door noiselessly and +limped down again. Outside the weather was ideally lovely. The +beautiful floral arch which had been erected in the morning still filled +the air with its fragrance, though the tea-roses of which it was +composed were now beginning to droop. St. Augustine, or rather the +visitors from the North, who at this season filled the little Spanish +town, had set up this blossoming greeting in honor of a traveller who +was expected by the afternoon train. This traveller had now arrived; he +had passed through the floral gateway in the landau which was bringing +him from the station. The arch bore as its legend: "The Ancient City +welcomes the great Soldier." The quiet-looking man in the landau was +named Grant. + +At length Dolly had a visitor; Mrs. Kip was shown in. A moment later the +Reverend Malachi Hill appeared, his face looking flushed, as though he +had been in great haste. Mrs. Kip's eyes had a conscious expression when +she saw him. She tried to cover it by saying, enthusiastically, "How +_well_ you do look, Mr. Hill! You look so fresh; really _classic_." + +The outline of the clergyman's features was not the one usually +associated with this adjective. But Mrs. Kip was not a purist; it was +classic enough, in her opinion, to have bright blue eyes and golden +hair; the accidental line of the nose and mouth was less important. + +"Yes, my recovery is now complete," Malachi answered; "I must go back to +my work in a day or two. But I wish it hadn't been measles, you know. +Such a ridiculous malady!" + +"Oh, don't say that; measles are so sweet, so domestic. They make one +think of dear little children; and lemons," said Mrs. Kip, +imaginatively. "And then, when they are getting well, all sorts of +toys!" + +While she was speaking, Anthony Etheridge entered. And he, too, looked +as if he had been making haste. "What, Dolly, neither you nor Ruth out +on this great occasion? Are you a bit of a copperhead?" + +"No," Dolly answered. "I haven't spirit enough. _My_ only spirit is in a +lamp; I have been making flaxseed tea and hot lemonade for Ruth, who has +a cold." + +"Does she swallow your messes?" Etheridge asked. + +"Never. But I like to fuss over them, and measure them out, and _stir_ +them up!" + +"Just as I do for Evangeline Taylor," remarked Mrs. Kip, affectionately. + +"Lilian, isn't Evangeline long enough without that Taylor?" Dolly +suggested. "I have always meant to ask you." + +"I do it as a remembrance of her father," replied Lilian, with solemnity +"For I myself am a Taylor no longer; _I_ am a Kip." + +"Oh, is that it? And if you should marry again, what then could you do +(as there is no second Evangeline) for your present name?" Dolly +inquired, gravely. + +"I have thought of that," answered the widow. "And I have decided that +I shall keep it. It shall precede any new name I may take; I should make +it a condition." + +"You are warned, gentlemen," commented Dolly. + +Etheridge for an instant looked alarmed. Then, as he saw that Malachi +had reddened violently, he grew savage. "Kip-Hill? Kip-Larue? +Kip-Willoughby?" he repeated, as if trying them. "Walter Willoughby, +however, is very poor dependence for you, Mrs. Lilian; for he is +evidently here in the train of the Barclays. He arrived with them +yesterday, and he tells me he is going up the Ocklawaha; I happen to +know that the Barclays are taking that trip, also." + +Walter Willoughby's name had rendered Mrs. Kip visibly conscious a +second time. The commodore's allusion to "the Barclays," and to Walter's +being "in their train," had made no impression upon her. They were +presumably ladies; but Lilian's mind was never troubled by the +attractions of other women, she was never jealous. One reason for this +immunity lay in the fact that she was always so actively engaged in the +occupation of loving that she had no time for jealousy; another was that +she had in her heart a soft conviction, modest but fixed, regarding the +power of her own charms. As excuse for her, it may be mentioned that the +conviction was not due to imagination, it was a certainty forced upon +her by actual fact; from her earliest girlhood men had been constantly +falling in love with her, and apparently they were going to continue it +indefinitely. But though not jealous herself, she sympathized deeply +with the pain which this tormenting feeling gave to others, and, on the +present occasion, she feared that Malachi might be suffering from the +mention of Walter Willoughby's name, and that of Achilles Larue, in +connection with her own; she therefore began to talk quickly, as a +diversion to another subject. "Oh, do you know, as I came here this +afternoon I was reminded of something I have often meant to ask you--ask +all of you, and I'll say it now, as it's in my mind. Don't you know that +sign one so often sees everywhere--'Job Printing'? There is one in +Charlotte Street, and it was seeing it there just now as I passed that +made me think of it again. I suppose it must be some especial kind of +printing that they have named after Job? But it has always seemed to me +so odd, because there was, of course, no printing at all, until some +time after Job was dead? Or do you suppose it means that printers have +to be so _very_ patient (with the bad handwriting that comes to them), +that they name _themselves_ after Job?" + +Dolly put down her knitting. "Lilian, come here and let me kiss you. You +are too enchanting!" + +Mrs. Kip kissed Dolly with amiability. She already knew--she could not +help knowing--that she was too enchanting. But it was not often a +woman's voice that mentioned the fact. "It is late, I must go," she +said. "Mr. Hill, if you--if you want those roses for Mrs. Chase's +bouquet, this is the best time to gather them." + +Malachi Hill found his hat with alacrity, and they went out together. +And then Etheridge took refuge in general objurgations. "I'm dead sick +of Florida, Dolly! It's so monotonous. So flat, and deep in sand. No +driving is possible. One of the best drives I ever had in my life was in +a sleigh; right up the Green Mountains. The snow was over the tops of +the fences, and the air clear as a bell!" + +"Do the Green Mountains interest the little turtle-dove who has just +gone out?" Dolly inquired. + +"Little turtle-fool! She makes eyes at every young idiot who comes +along." + +"Oh no, she only coos. It's her natural language. I won't answer as to +Achilles Larue, commodore, for that is a long-standing passion; she +began to admire his fur-lined overcoat, his neat shoes, his 'ish,' and +his mystic coldness within a month after the departure of her second +dear one. But as to her other flames, I think you could cut them out in +her affections if you would give your mind to it seriously; yes, even +the contemporary Willoughby. But you'll never give your mind to it, +you're a dog in the manger! You have no intention of marrying her +yourself. Yet you don't want any one else to marry her. Isn't it +tremendously appropriate that she happens to own an orange-grove? +Orange-blossoms always ready." + +"Contemporary?" Etheridge repeated, going back to the word that had +startled him. + +"Yes. Haven't you noticed how vividly contemporary young fellows of +Walter's type are? They have no fixed habits; for fixed habits are +founded in retrospect, and they never indulge in retrospect. Anything +that happened last week seems to them old; last year, antediluvian. They +live in the moment, with an outlook only towards the future. This makes +them very 'actual' wooers. As my brother-in-law would phrase it, they +are 'all there!'" + +"Nonsense!" said Etheridge. But as he went home to his own quarters (to +take a nap so as to be fresh for the evening), he turned over in his +thoughts that word "contemporary!" And he made up his mind that from +that hour he would mention no event which had occurred more than one +year before; he would tell no story which dated back beyond the same +period of time; he would read only the younger authors (whom he loathed +without exception); he would not permit himself to prefer any particular +walking-stick, any especial chair. At the club he would play euchre +instead of whist; and if there was any other even more confoundedly +modern and vulgar game, he would play that. Habits, indeed? Stuff and +nonsense! + +Left alone, Dolly went upstairs a second time. But Ruth's door was now +locked. The elder sister came back therefore to the drawing-room. Her +face was anxious. + +She banished the expression, however, when she heard her +brother-in-law's step in the hall; a moment later Horace Chase entered, +his hands full of letters, and newspapers piled on his arm; he had come +from the post-office, where the afternoon mail had just been +distributed. "Where is Ruth? Still asleep?" he asked. + +"I think not; I heard Felicite's voice speaking to her just now, when I +was upstairs," Dolly answered. + +"They're taking another look at that new frock," Chase suggested, +jocosely, as he seated himself to reread his correspondence (for he had +already glanced through each letter in the street). "Where is Hill?" he +went on rather vaguely, his attention already attracted by something in +the first of these communications. + +"He came in, after the welcoming ceremonies, red in the face from +chasing Mrs. Kip. And the commodore appeared a moment later, also +breathless, and in search of her. But Malachi was selected to walk home +with the fair creature. And then the commodore trampled on Florida, and +talked of the Green Mountains." + +Dolly's tone was good-natured. But beneath this good-nature Chase +fancied that there was jealousy. "Eh--what's that you say?" he +responded, bringing out his words slowly, while he bestowed one more +thought upon the page he was reading before he gave her his full +attention. "The little Kip? Well, Dolly, she is a very sweet little +woman, isn't she?" he went on, reasonably, as if trying to open her eyes +gently to a fact that was undeniable. "But I didn't know that Hill had +a fancy in that quarter. If he has, we must lend him a hand." + +For Chase had a decided liking for Malachi; the way the young clergyman +had carried through that rapid journey to New York and back, after Jared +Franklin's death, had won his regard and admiration. Malachi had not +stopped at Salisbury; his train went no farther, but he had succeeded in +getting a locomotive, by means of which, travelling on all night, he had +made a connection and reached New York in time after all to meet Ruth's +steamer. As it came in, there he was on the dock, dishevelled and +hungry, but there. + +And then when Ruth, frenzied by the tidings he brought (for it really +seemed to him almost frenzy), had insisted upon starting on her journey +to L'Hommedieu without an instant's delay, he had taken her, with +Felicite, southward again as rapidly as the trains could carry them. His +money was exhausted, but he did not stop; he travelled on credit, +pledging his watch; it was because he had no money that he had not +telegraphed. At Old Fort he procured a horse and light wagon, also on +trust, and though he had already spent four nights without sleep, he did +not stop, but drove Ruth across the mountains in the darkness on a sharp +trot, with the utmost skill and daring, leaving Felicite to follow by +stage. The sum which Chase had placed in the envelope with the ticket +had been intended merely for his own expenses; the additional amount +which was now required for Ruth and her maid soon exhausted it, +together with all that he had with him of his own. Ruth's state of +tension--for she was dumb, white, and strange--had filled him with the +deepest apprehension; she did not think of money, and he could not bear +to speak to her of it. Such a contingency had not occurred to Chase, who +knew that his wife had with her more money than the cost of half a dozen +such journeys; for her purse was always not only full, but over-full; it +was one of his pleasures to keep it so. When, afterwards, he learned the +facts (from Ruth herself, upon questioning her), he went off, found +Malachi, and gave him what he called "a good big grip" of the hand. +"You're a trump, Hill, and can be banked on every time!" Since then he +had been Malachi's friend and advocate on all occasions, even to the +present one of endeavoring to moderate the supposed jealousy of his +sister-in-law regarding Lilian Kip. + +After this kindly meant attempt of his, Dolly did not again interrupt +him; she left him to finish his letters, while she went on with her +knitting in silence. + +Mrs. Franklin's prophecy, that Chase would end by liking Dolly for +herself, had not as yet come true. Ruth's husband accepted the presence +of his wife's sister under his roof; as she was an invalid, he would not +have been contented to have her elsewhere. Dolly's life now moved on +amid ease and comfort; she had her own attendant, who was partly a +lady's-maid, partly a nurse; she had her own phaeton, and, when in New +York, her own coupe. If she was to live with Ruth at all, there was, +indeed, no other way; she could not do her own sister the injustice of +remaining a contrast, a jarring note by her side. Chase was invariably +kind to Dolly. Nevertheless Dolly knew that her especial combination of +ill-health and sarcasm seemed to him incongruous; she could detect in +his mind the thought that it was odd that a woman so sickly, with the +added misfortune of a plain face, should not at least try to be amiable, +since it was the only role she could properly fill. Her little +hostilities, as her mother had called them, were now necessarily +quiescent. But she had the conviction that, even if they had remained +active, her tall brother-in-law would not have minded them; he would +have taken, probably, a jocular view of them; and of herself as well. + +When the last letter was finished, and she saw her companion begin on +his newspapers, she spoke again: "I don't think Ruth ought to go to that +reception to-night; she is not well enough." + +"Why, I thought it was nothing but a very slight cold," Chase said, +turning round, surprised. "She mustn't think of going if she's sick. She +_wants_ to go; she telegraphed for that dress." + +"Yes; last week. But that was before--before she felt ill. If she goes +now, it will be only because _you_ care for it." + +"Oh, shucks! _I_ care for it! What do I care for that sort of thing? +I'll go and tell her to give the whole right up." He rose, leaving his +newspapers on the floor (Chase always wanted his newspapers on the +floor, and not on a table), and went towards the door. But, at the same +instant, Ruth herself came in. "I was just going up to tell you, Ruthie, +that I guess we won't turn out to-night after all--I mean to that show +at the Barracks. I reckon they can manage without us?" + +"Oh, but I want to see it," said Ruth. "If you are tired, I can go with +Mrs. Kip." + +"Well, who's running this family, anyway?" Chase demanded, going back to +his seat, not ill-pleased, however, that Dolly should see that her +information concerning her sister was less accurate than his own. But +his care regarding everything that was connected with his wife made him +add, "You'll give it up if I want you to, Ruthie?" + +"You don't. It's Dolly!" Ruth declared. "Dolly-Dulcinea, I have changed +my mind. I did not want to go this morning; I did not want to go this +noon. But, at half-past five o'clock precisely, I knew that I must go or +perish! Nothing shall keep me away." And, gayly waving her hand to her +sister, she went into the music-room, which opened from the larger +apartment, and, seating herself at the piano, began to play. + +Chase returned to his reading; his only comment to Dolly was, "She seems +to _look_ pretty well." And it was true that Ruth looked not only well, +but brilliant. After a while they heard her begin to sing: + + "My short and happy day is done; + The long and dreary night comes on; + And at my door the Pale Horse stands, + To carry me to unknown lands. + + "His whinny shrill, his pawing hoof, + Sound dreadful as a gathering storm; + And I must leave this sheltering roof, + And joys of life so soft and warm." + +"_Don't_ sing that!" called Dolly, sharply. + +"Why not let her do as she likes?" suggested Chase, in the conciliatory +tone he often adopted with Dolly. To him all songs were the same; he +could not tell one from the other. + +At this moment Malachi Hill entered, with his arms full of roses. "Long +stalks?" said Ruth, hurrying to meet him. "Lovely! Now you shall help me +make my posy. What shall I bring home for you in my pocket, Mr. Hill? +Ice-cream?" + +"Well, the truth is I am thinking of going myself," answered Malachi, +coloring a little. "It has been mentioned to me that I ought to go--as a +representative of the clergy. It is not in the least a ball, they tell +me; it is a reception--a reception to General Grant. The young people +may perhaps dance a little; but not until after the general's +departure." + +"Capital idea," said Chase, adding a fourth to his pile of perused +sheets on the floor. "And don't go back on us, Hill, by proposing to +escort some one else. Ruth wants to make an impression on the general, +and, three abreast, perhaps we can do it." + +Suddenly Ruth went to her sister. "Dolly, you must go too. Now don't say +a word. You can go early and have a good seat; and as to dress, you can +wear your opera-cloak." + +"Oh no--" began Dolly. + +But Ruth stopped her. "You must. I want you to _see_ me there." + +"Well, who's conceited, I'd like to know?" commented Chase, as he read +on. + +But Ruth's face wore no expression of conceit; its expression was that +of determination. With infinite relief Dolly saw this. "I'll go," she +said, comprehending Ruth's wish. + +The reception was given by a West Point comrade of General Grant's, who +happened to be spending the winter in Florida. As he had left the army +many years before, he was now a civilian, and the participation of St. +Francis Barracks in the affair was therefore accidental, not official. +For the civilian, being a man of wealth, had erected for the occasion a +temporary hall or ball-room, and had connected it by a covered passage +with the apartments of his brother, who was an artillery officer, +stationed that winter at this old Spanish post. At ten o'clock, this +improvised hall presented a gay appearance, owing to the flowers with +which it was profusely decorated, to the full dress of the ladies, and +to the uniforms; for the army had been reinforced by a contingent from +the navy, as two vessels belonging to the Coast Survey were in port. + +The reticent personage to whom all this homage was offered looked as if +he would like to get rid of it on any terms. He had commanded great +armies, he had won great battles, and that seemed to him easy enough. +But to stand and have his hand shaken--this was an ordeal! + +A lane had been kept open through the centre of the long room in order +to facilitate the presentations. At half-past ten, coming in his turn up +this avenue, the tall figure of Horace Chase could be seen; his wife was +with him, and they were preceded by the Rev. Malachi Hill. Chase, +inwardly amused by the ceremony, advanced towards Grant with his face +very solemn. But for the moment no one looked at him; all eyes were +turned towards the figure by his side. + +Half an hour earlier, as he sat alone in his drawing-room, waiting (and +reading another newspaper to pass away the time), Ruth had come to him. +As he heard her enter, he had looked up with a smile. Then his face +altered a little. + +"What! no diamonds?" he said. + +Ruth wore the new dress about which he had joked, but no ornaments save +a string of pearls. + +"It shall be just as you like," she answered, in a steady voice. + +"Oh no, Ruthie; just as _you_ like." + +He admired diamonds, and now that she was nearly twenty-three, he had +said to himself that even her mother, if she had lived, would no longer +have objected to her wearing them. He had therefore bought for her +recently a superb necklace, bracelets, and other ornaments, and he had +pleased himself with the thought that for this official occasion they +would be entirely appropriate. Ruth, reading his disappointment in his +eyes, went out, and returned a few minutes later adorned with all his +gifts to the very last stone. And now, as she came up the lane in the +centre of the crowded room, the gems gleamed and flashed, gleamed on her +neck, on her arms, in her hair, and in the filmy lace of her dress. +Always tall, she had grown more womanly, and she could therefore bear +the splendor. To-night, in addition, her own face was striking, for her +color had returned, and her extraordinarily beautiful eyes were at their +best--lustrous and profound. It had always been said of Ruth that her +beauty came and went. To-night it had certainly come, and to such a +degree that it spurred Etheridge to the exclamation, in an undertone: + +"Too many diamonds. But, by George, she shines them down!" + +After the presentation was over Chase stepped aside, and, with his wife, +joined Dolly. Dolly had a very good place; draped in her opera-cloak, +which was made of a rich Oriental fabric, she looked odd, ugly, and +distinguished. + +"Everybody is here except the Barclays," Etheridge announced. "There +can't be a soul left in any of the hotels. And all the negroes in town +are on the sea-wall outside, ready to hurrah when the great man drives +away." + +"Here's Walter. He is coming this way--he is looking for _us_," said +Chase. "How are you, Walter?" + +"Mrs. Chase! Delighted to meet you again," said Willoughby, shaking +hands with Ruth with the utmost cordiality. + +"My sister is here also," Ruth answered, moving aside so that he could +see Dolly. And then Walter greeted Miss Franklin with the same extreme +heartiness. + +"Bless my soul, what enthusiasm!" commented Etheridge. "One would +suppose that you had not met for years." + +"And we haven't," said Ruth, surveying Walter, coolly. "Mr. Willoughby +has changed. He has a sort of Chinese air." + +"Willoughby has been living in California for two years, commodore; +didn't you know that?" Chase explained, inwardly enjoying his wife's +sally. "_I've_ been to California four times since then. But as he +hasn't been east, the ladies have lost sight of him." + +"Are you returning to the Pacific?" Etheridge inquired of the younger +man, "so as to look more Chinese still?" + +"The Celestial air I have already caught will have to do," Walter +answered, laughing. "California is a wonderfully fascinating country. +But I am not going back; the business which took me there is concluded." + +Horace Chase smiled, detecting the triumph under these words. For his +Pacific-coast enterprise had been highly successful, and Walter had +carried out his part of it with great energy and intelligence, and had +profited accordingly. That particular partnership was now dissolved. + +When the dancing began, Ruth declined her invitations. "It isn't +necessary to stay any longer, is it?" Dolly suggested in a low tone. +"The carriage is probably waiting." + +Here Chase, who had left them twenty minutes before, came up. "I've been +seeing the general off," he said. "Well--he appeared middling glad to +go! No dancing, Ruthie?" For he always remembered the things that amused +his wife, and dancing, he knew, was high on her list. + +And then, with that overtouch which it is so often the fate of an elder +sister to bestow, Dolly said, "I really think she had better not try it. +She is not thoroughly strong yet--after her cold." + +This second assertion of a knowledge superior to his own annoyed Chase. +And Ruth perceived it. "I am perfectly well," she answered. And, +accepting the next invitation, she began to dance. She danced with +everybody. Walter Willoughby had his turn with the rest. + +A week later, Chase, coming home at sunset, looked into the +drawing-room. His wife was not there, and he went upstairs in search of +her. He found her in her dressing-room, with a work-basket by her side. +"Well! I've never seen you _sew_ before," he declared, amused by this +new industry. + +"I've had letters that make it necessary for me to go north, Ruthie. +You'll be all right here, with Dolly, won't you?" He had seated himself, +and was now glancing over a letter. + +"Don't go," said Ruth, abruptly. And she went on sewing with her +unnecessarily strong stitches; her mother had been wont to say of her +that, if she sewed at all, the results were like iron. + +Petie Trone, Esq., aged but still pretty, had been reposing on the +lounge by her side. But the moment Chase seated himself, the little +patriarch had jumped down, gone over, and climbed confidently up to his +knees, where, after turning round three times, he had finally settled +himself curled up like a black ball, with his nose on his tail. + +"Oh, I must," Chase answered. "There's something I've got to attend to." +And he continued to study the letter. + +"Take me with you, then," said Ruth, going on with her rocklike seam. + +"What's that? Take you?" her husband responded, still absorbed. "Not +this time, I guess. For I'm going straight through to Chicago. It would +tire you." + +"No; I should like it; I don't want to stay here." She put down her +work; going to one of the tables, she stood there with her back towards +him, turning things over, but hardly as though she perceived what they +were. Chase finished his letter. Then, as he replaced it in his pocket, +he saw that she had risen, and, depositing Mr. Trone on the lounge, he +went to her and put his arm round her shoulders. + +"I'd take you if I could, Ruthie," he said, indulgently, beginning a +reasonable argument with her. "But my getting to Chicago by a certain +date is imperative, and to do it I've got to catch to-night's train and +go through, and that would be too hard travelling for you. Besides, you +would lose all the benefit of your Southern winter if you should hurry +north now, while it is still so cold; that is always a mistake--to go +north too early. Your winter here has done you lots of good, and that's +a great pleasure to me. I want to be proud of you next summer at +Newport, you know." And he pinched her cheek. + +Ruth turned and looked at him. "_Are_ you proud of me?" + +"Oh no!" answered Chase, laughing. "Not at all!" Then, after a moment, +he went on, his tone altering. "I like to work a big deal through; I'm +more or less proud of that, I reckon. But down below everything else, +Ruthie, I guess my biggest pride is just--_you_." He was a man without +any grace in speech. But certain tones of his voice had an eloquence of +their own. + +Ruth straightened herself. "I will do what you wish. I will stay +here--as you prefer it. And you must keep on being proud of me. You must +be proud of me always, _always_." + +This made her husband laugh a second time. "It's a conceit that's come +to stay, Mrs. Chase. You may put your money on it!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +As he walked down the sea-wall to his hotel after the Grant reception, +Walter Willoughby said to himself that Mrs. Chase's coldness was the +very thing he desired, the thing he had been hoping for, devoutly, for +more than two years. The assertion was true. But though he had hoped, he +had hardly expected that her indifference would have become so complete. +If he did not exactly enjoy it, it had at least the advantage of leaving +him perfectly free. For purposes of his own (purposes which had nothing +to do with her), he had found it convenient to come to Florida this +winter. And now that St. Augustine was reached, these same private +purposes made him desire to remain there rather longer than he had at +first intended. After the Grant reception he told himself with relief +that there was now no reason, "no reason on earth," why he should not +stay as long as it suited him to do so. He therefore remained. He joined +in the amusements of the little winter-colony, the riding, driving, +sailing, walking, and fishing parties that filled the lovely days. Under +these conditions two weeks went by. Horace Chase had not as yet +returned; he was engaged in one of those bold enterprises of a +speculative nature which he called "a little operation;" occasionally +he planned and carried through one of these campaigns alone. + +On the last night of this second week Ruth came into her sister's room. +It was one o'clock, but Dolly was awake; the moonlight, penetrating the +dark curtains, showed her who it was. "Is that you, Ruth?" + +"Yes," Ruth answered. "Dolly, I want to go away." + +Dolly raised herself, quickly. "Whenever you like," she answered. "We +can go to-morrow morning by the first train; they can pack one trunk, +and the rest can be sent after us. I shall be quite well enough to go." +For Dolly had been in bed all day, suffering severely; it was the only +day for two weeks which she had not spent, hour by hour, with her +sister. "You will have had a telegram from Mr. Chase," she went on; "we +can say that as explanation." + +Ruth turned away. She left the details to her sister. + +"Oh, don't go off and shut yourself up. Stay here with me," pleaded +Dolly, entreatingly. + +"I'd rather be alone," Ruth began. But her voice broke. "No, I'm afraid! +I _will_ stay here. But you mustn't talk to me, Dolly." + +"Not a word," Dolly responded; "if you will tell me, first, where you +have been?" + +"Oh, only at Andalusia, as you know," Ruth answered, in the same +exhausted tone. "It isn't very late; every one stayed till after +twelve. And I came home as I went; that is, with Colonel and Mrs. +Atherton; they left me just now at the door." + +"Alone?" + +"No; with Walter Willoughby. But he did not come in; he only stood there +on the steps with me for a moment; that's all." While Ruth was saying +this, she had taken off her hat and gloves; then, in the dim light, +Dolly saw her sink down on the divan, and lie there, motionless. The +elder sister crept towards her on the outside of the bed (for the divan +was across its foot), and covered her carefully with a warm shawl; then, +faithful to her promise, she returned to her place in silence. And +neither of them spoke again. + +On the divan Ruth was not fighting a battle; she had given up, she was +fleeing. + +When, two years before, absorbed in her love for Walter, she had +insisted upon that long, solitary voyage northward from Charleston, so +that she could give herself up uninterruptedly to her own thoughts, +alone with them and the blue sea, the tidings which had met her at New +York as she landed--the tidings of her brother's death--had come upon +her almost like a blinding shaft of lightning. It was as if she, too, +had died. And she found her life again only partially, as she went +southward in the rushing trains, as she crossed the mountains in the +wagon, and arrived by night at dimly lighted L'Hommedieu. Sleepless +through both journeys--the voyage northward and the return by +land--worn out by the intense emotions which, in turn, had swept over +her, she had reached her mother's door at last so exhausted that her +vital powers had sunk low. Then it was that the gentle care of the man +who knew nothing of the truth had saved her--saved her from the +dangerous tension of her own excitement, and, later, from a death-like +faintness which, if prolonged, would have been her end. For when she +beheld the changed, drawn, unconscious face of her mother, that "mother" +who had seemed to her as much a fixed part of her life as her own +breath, her heart had failed her, failed not merely in the common +meaning of the phrase, but actually; its pulsations grew so weak that a +great dread seized her--the instinctive shrinking of her whole young +being from the touch of death. In her terror, she had fled to her +husband, she had taken refuge in his boundless kindness. "Oh, I am +dying, Horace; I _must_ be dying! Save me!" was her frightened cry. + +For she was essentially feminine. In her character, the womanhood, the +sweet, pure, physical womanhood, had a strong part; it had not been +refined away by over-development of the mental powers, or reduced to a +subordinate position by ascetic surroundings. It remained, therefore, +what nature had made it. And it gave her a great charm. But its presence +left small place for the more masculine qualities, for stoical fortitude +and courage; she could not face fear; she could not stand alone; and +she had always, besides, the need to be cherished and protected, to be +held dear, very dear. + +This return to her husband was sincere as far as it carried her. From +one point of view, it might be said that she had never left him. For her +love for Walter had contained no plan; and her girlish affection for +Horace Chase remained what it always had been, though the deeper +feelings were now awake underneath. + +Time passed; the days grew slowly to months, and the months at last +became a long year, and then two. Little by little she fell back into +her old ways; she laughed at Dolly's sallies, she talked and jested with +her husband. She sometimes asked herself whether those buried feelings +would ever rise and take possession of her again. But Walter remained +absent--that was the thing that saved her. A personal presence was with +her always a powerful influence. But an absence was equally powerful in +its quieting effect; it produced temporarily more or less oblivion. She +had never been able to live on memories. And she had a great desire at +all times to be happy. And, therefore, to a certain degree, she did +become happy again; she amused herself with fair success at Newport and +New York. + +And then Walter had re-entered the circle of her life. And by a fatality +this had come to her at St. Augustine. On the morning of the day of the +Grant reception, she had suddenly learned that he was in town. And she +knew (it came like a wave over her) that she dreaded the meeting. + +There had been no spoken confidences between the sisters. But Dolly had +instantly extended all the protection that was in her power, and even +more; for she had braved the displeasure of her brother-in-law by +maintaining that his wife was ill, and that she (Dolly) knew more of the +illness than he did. And then, suddenly, this elder sister was put in +the wrong. For Ruth herself appeared, declaring gayly that she was well, +perfectly well. The gayety was assumed. But the declaration that she was +well was a truthful one; she was not only well, but her heart was +beating with excitement. For the idea had taken possession of her that +this was the very opportunity she needed to prove to herself (and to +Dolly also) that she was changed, that she was calm and indifferent. And +it would be a triumph also to show this indifference to Walter. Her +acts, her words, her every intonation should make this clear to him; +delightfully, coldly, brilliantly clear! + +Yet, into this very courage had come, as an opposing force, that vague +premonition which had made her suddenly begin to sing "The Stirrup Cup." + +But a mood of renewed gayety had followed; she had entered the +improvised ball-room with pulses beating high, sure that all was well. + +Before the evening was over she knew that all was ill; she knew that at +the bottom of everything what had made her go thither was simply the +desire to see Walter Willoughby once more. + +When, a few days later, her husband told her that he was going north, +with one of her sudden impulses she said, "Take me with you." He had not +consented. And she knew that she was glad that he had not. Certain tones +of his voice, however, when he spoke of his pride in her, had touched +her deeply; into her remembrance came the thought of all he had done for +her mother, all he had done for Jared, and she strengthened herself +anew: she would go through with it and he should know nothing; he should +remain proud of her always, always. + +But this was not a woman who could go on unmoved seeing daily the man +she loved; those buried feelings rose again to the surface, and she was +powerless to resist them. All she could do (and this required a constant +effort) was to keep her cold manner unaltered. + +Walter, meanwhile, was not paying much heed to Mrs. Chase. At the Grant +reception, he had been piqued by her sarcasms; he had smarted under the +surprise which her laughing coolness and gayety gave him. But this +vexation soon faded; it was, after all, nothing compared with the great +desire which he had at this particular moment to find himself entirely +free from entanglements of that nature. He was therefore glad of her +coldness. He continued to see her often; in that small society they +could not help but meet. And occasionally he asked himself if there was +nothing underneath this glittering frost? No least little scrap left of +her feeling of two years before? But, engrossed as he was with his own +projects, this curiosity remained dormant until suddenly these projects +went astray; they encountered an obstacle which for the time being made +it impossible for him to pursue them further. This happened at the end +of his second week in St. Augustine. Foiled, and more or less irritated, +and having also for the moment nothing else to do, he felt in the mood +to solace himself a little with the temporary entertainment of finding +out (of course in ways that would be unobserved by others) whether there +was or was not anything left of the caprice which the millionaire's +pretty wife had certainly felt for him when he was in Florida before. + +For that was his idea of it--a caprice. He saw only one side of Ruth's +nature; to him she seemed a thoughtless, spoiled young creature, highly +impressionable, but all on the surface; no feeling would last long with +her or be very deep, though for the moment it might carry her away. + +What he did was so little, during this process of finding out, and what +he said was so even less, that if related it would not have made a +narrative, it would have been nothing to tell. But the woman he was +studying was now like a harp: the lightest touch of his hand on the +strings drew out the music. And when, therefore, upon that last night, +taking advantage of the few moments he had with her alone at her door, +after her friends from the Barracks had passed on--when he then said a +word or two, to her it was fatal. His phrase meant in reality nothing; +it was tentative only. But Ruth had no suspicion of this; her own love +was direct, uncomplicated, and overmastering; she supposed that his was +the same. She looked at him dumbly; then she turned, entering the house +with rapid step and hurrying up the stairs, leaving the sleepy servant +who came forward to meet her to close the door. Fatal had his words been +to her; fatally sweet! + +The two sisters left St. Augustine the next morning; in the evening they +were far down the St. John's River on their way to Savannah. They sat +together near the bow of the steamer, watching in silence the windings +of the magnificent stream; the moonlight was so bright that they could +see the silvery long-moss draping the live-oaks on shore, and, in the +tops of signal cypresses, bare and gaunt, the huge nests of the +fish-hawks, like fortifications. + +"Poor Chase! covering her with diamonds, and giving her everything; +while _I_ can turn her round my finger!" Walter said to himself when he +heard they had gone. + +On the day of his wife's departure--that sudden departure from St. +Augustine of which he as yet knew nothing, Horace Chase, in Chicago, was +bringing to a close his "little operation"; by six o'clock, four +long-headed men had discovered that they had been tremendously +out-generalled. Later in the evening, three of these men happened to be +standing together in a corridor of one of the Chicago hotels, when the +successful operator, who was staying in the house, came by chance +through the same brightly lighted passage-way. + +"I guess you think, Chase, that you've got the laugh on us," said one of +the group. "But just wait a month or two; we'll make you walk!" + +"Oh, the devil!" answered Chase, passing on. + +"He's as hard as flint!" said the second of the discomfited trio, who, +depressed by his losses (which to him meant ruin), had a lump in his +throat. "There isn't such a thing as an ounce of feeling in Horace +Chase's _whole_ composition, damn him!" + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +His little campaign over, Horace Chase made his preparations for +returning to Florida. These consisted in hastily throwing into a valise +the few things which he had brought with him, and ringing the bell to +have a carriage called so that he could catch the midnight train. As he +was stepping into this carriage, a telegram was handed to him. "Hold on +a minute," he called to the driver, as he opened it. "We are on our way +to Savannah," he read. "You will find us at the Scriven House. Ruth not +well." And the signature was "Dora Franklin." "Drive on," he called a +second time, and as the carriage rolled towards the station he said to +himself, "That Dolly! Always trying to make out that Ruth's sick. I +guess it's only that she's tired of Florida. She wanted to leave when +_I_ came north; asked me to take her." + +But when he reached Savannah, he found his wife if not ill, at least +much altered; she was white and silent, she scarcely spoke; she sat hour +after hour with her eyes on a book, though the pages were not turned. +"She isn't well," Dolly explained again. + +"Then we must have in the doctors," Chase answered, decisively. "I'll +get the best advice from New York immediately; I'll wire at once." + +"Don't; it would only bother her," objected Dolly. "They can do no more +for her than we can, for it is nothing but lack of strength. Take her up +to L'Hommedieu, and let her stay there all summer; that will be the best +thing for her, by far." + +"That's the question; will it?" remarked Chase to himself, reflectively. + +"Do I know her, or do I not?" urged Dolly. "I have been with her ever +since she was born. Trust me, at least where _she_ is concerned; for she +is all I have left in the world, and I understand her every breath." + +"Of course I know you think no end of her," Chase answered. But he was +not satisfied; he went to Ruth herself. "Ruthie, you needn't go to +Newport this summer, if you're tired of it; you can go anywhere you +like, short of Europe (for I can't quite get abroad this year). There +are all sorts of first-rate places, I hear, along the coast of Maine." + +"I don't care where I go," Ruth answered, dully, "except that I want to +be far away from--from the tiresome people we usually see." + +"Well, that means far away from Newport, doesn't it? We've been there +for two summers," Chase answered, helping her (as he thought) to find +out what she really wanted. "Would you like to go up the lakes--to +Mackinac and Marquette?" + +"No, L'Hommedieu would do, perhaps." + +"Yes, Dolly's plan. Are you doing it for _her_?" + +"Oh," said Ruth, with weary truthfulness, "don't you know that I never +do things for Dolly, but that it's always Dolly who does things for me?" + +Her husband took her to L'Hommedieu. + +She seemed glad to be there; she wandered about and looked at her +mother's things; she opened her mother's secretary and used it; she sat +in her mother's easy-chair, and read her books. There was no jarring +element at hand; Genevieve, beneficent, much admired, and well off, had +been living for two years in St. Louis; her North Carolina cottage was +now occupied by Mrs. Kip. + +Chase had the inspiration of sending for Kentucky Belle, and after a +while Ruth began to ride. This did her more good than anything else; +every day she was out for hours among the mountains with her husband, +and often with the additional escort of Malachi Hill. + +One morning they made an expedition to the wild gorge where the squirrel +had received his freedom two years before; Ruth dismounted, and walked +about under the trees, looking up into the foliage. + +"He's booming; he's got what _he_ likes," said Chase--"your Robert the +Squirrel; or Robert the Devil, as Dolly called him." + +"Oh, I don't want him back," Ruth answered; "I am glad he is free. Every +one ought to be free," she went on, musingly, as though stating a new +truth which she had just discovered. + +"I came out nearly every week, Mrs. Chase, during the first six months, +with nuts for him," said Malachi, comfortingly. "I used to bring at +least a quart, and I put them in a particular place. Well--they were +always gone." + +As they came down a flank of the mountain overlooking the village, Chase +surveyed the valley with critical eyes. "If we really decide to take +this thing up at last--Nick and Richard Willoughby, and myself, and one +or two more--my own idea would be to have a grand combine of all the +advantages possible," he began. "In the United States we don't do this +thing up half so completely as they do abroad. Over there, if they have +mountains--as in Switzerland, for instance--they don't trust to that +alone, they don't leave people to sit and stare at 'em all day; they add +other attractions. They have boys with horns, where there happen to be +echoes; they illuminate the waterfalls; girls dressed up in costumes +milk cows in arbors; and men with flowers and other things stuck in +their hats, yodel and sing. All sorts of carved things, too, are +constantly offered for sale, such as salad-forks, paper-cutters, and +cuckoo clocks. Then, if it isn't mountains, but springs, they always +have the very best music they can get, to make the water go down. It +would be a smart thing to have the sulphur near here brought into town +in pipes to a sort of park, where we could have a casino with a hall for +dancing, and a restaurant where you could always get a first-class meal. +And, outside, a stand for the band. And then in the park there ought to +be, without fail, long rows of bright little stores for the ladies--like +those at Baden-Baden, Ruthie? No large articles sold, but a great +variety of small things. Ladies always like that; they can drink the +water, listen to the music, and yet go shopping too, and buy all sorts +of little knick-knacks to take home as presents; it would be extremely +popular. The North Carolina garnets and amethysts could be sold; and +specimens of the mica and gold and the native pink marble could be +exhibited. Then those Cherokee Indians out Qualla way might be +encouraged to come to the park with their baskets and bead-work to sell. +And there must be, of course, a museum of curiosities, stuffed animals, +and mummies, and such things. There's a museum opposite that lion cut in +the rock at Lucerne Hill--I guess you've heard of it? It attracts more +interest than the lion himself; I've watched, and I know; ten out of +twelve of the people who come there, look two minutes at the lion, and +give ten at least to the museum. Then it wouldn't be a half-bad idea to +get hold of an eminent doctor; we might make him a present of half a +mountain as an inducement. Larue, by the way, won't be of much use to +our boom, now that he isn't a senator any longer. Did they kick him out, +Hill, or freeze him out?" + +"Well--he resigned," answered Malachi, diplomatically. "You see, they +wanted the present senator--a man who has far more magnetism." + +"Larue never _was_ 'in it'; I saw that from the first," Chase +commented. "Well, then, in addition, there must, of course, be a +hospital in the town, so that the ladies can get up fairs for it each +year at the height of the season; they find the _greatest_ interest in +fairs; I've often noticed it. Then I should give _my_ vote for a good +race-course. And, finally, all the churches ought to be put in tip-top +condition--painted and papered and made more attractive. But that, Hill, +we'll leave to you." + +Malachi laughed. He admired Horace Chase greatly, but he had long ago +despaired of making him pay heed to certain distinctions. "I think I +won't meddle with the other churches if you will only help along ours," +he answered; "our Church school here, and my mountain missions." + +"All right; we'll boom them all," said Chase, liberally. "There might be +a statue of Daniel Boom in the park, near the casino," he went on in a +considering tone; "he lived near here for some time. Though, come to +think of it, his name was Boone, wasn't it?--just missed being +appropriate! Well, at any rate, we can have a statue of Colonel David +Vance, and of Dr. Mitchell, who is buried on Mitchell's Peak. And of +David L. Swain." + +"Have you any especial sculptor in view?" inquired Malachi, who was not +without a slight knowledge of art. + +"No. But we could get a good marble-cutter to take a contract for the +lot; that would be the easiest way, I reckon." + +Malachi could not help being glad, revengefully glad, that at least +there was no mention of Maud Muriel. Only the day before the sculptress +had greeted him with her low-breathed "Manikin!" as he came upon her in +a narrow winding lane which he had incautiously entered. A man may be as +dauntless as possible (so he told himself), but that does not help him +when his assailant is a person whom he cannot knock down--"a striding, +scornful, sculping spinster!" "She had better look out!" he had thought, +angrily, as he passed on. + +His morning ride over, Chase took a fresh horse after lunch, and went +down to Crumb's. Nicholas Willoughby, struck by the wildness and beauty +of these North Carolina mountains, had built a cottage on the high +plateau above Crumb's, the plateau which Chase had named "Ruth's +Terrace" several years before. During the preceding summer, Nicholas had +occupied this house (which he called The Lodge) for a month or more. +This year, having lent it to some friends for August and September, he +had asked Chase to see that all was in order before their arrival. + +While Chase was off upon this errand, Ruth and Dolly were to go for a +drive along the Swannanoa. But first Dolly stopped at Miss Mackintosh's +barn; her latest work was on exhibition there. This was nothing less +than a colossal study in clay of the sculptress's own back from the nape +of the neck to the waist; Dolly, who had already had a view of this +masterpiece, was now bringing Ruth to see it, with the hope that it +would make her laugh. It did. Her old mirth came back for several +minutes as she gazed at the rigidly faithful copy of Maud Muriel's +shoulder-blades, her broad, gaunt shoulders, and the endless line of +conscientiously done vertebrae adorning her spine. + +Mrs. Kip was there, also looking. "Maud Muriel, how could you _see_ your +back?" she inquired. + +"Hand-glass," replied the sculptress, briefly. + +"Well, to me it looks hardly proper," commented Mrs. Kip; "it's +so--_exposed_. And then, without any head or arms, it seems so +mutilated; like some awful thing from a battle-field! I don't think it's +necessary for lady artists to study anatomy, Maud Muriel; it isn't +expected of them; it doesn't seem quite feminine. Why don't you carve +angels? They _have_ no anatomy, and, of course, they need none. Angels, +little children, and flowers--I think those are the most appropriate +subjects for _lady_ artists, both in sculpture and in painting." Then, +seeing Maud Muriel begin to snort (as Dolly called the dilation of the +sculptress's nostrils when she was angry), Mrs. Kip hurried on, changing +the subject as she went. "But sculpture certainly agrees with you, +Maudie dear. I really think your splendid hair grows thicker and +thicker! You could always earn your living (if you had occasion) by just +having yourself photographed, back-view, with your hair down, and a +placard--'Results of Barry's Tricopherus.' Barry would give _anything_ +to get you." + +Maud Muriel was not without humor, after her curt fashion. "Well, +Lilian," she answered, "_you_ might be 'Results of Packer's Granulated +Food,' I'm sure. You look exactly like one of the prize health-babies." + +"Oh no!" cried Mrs. Kip, in terror, "I'm not at _all_ well, Maud Muriel. +Don't tell me so, or I shall be ill directly! Neither Evangeline Taylor +nor I are in the _least_ robust; we are _both_ pulmonic." + +At this moment Evangeline herself appeared at the door, accompanied by +her inseparable Miss Green, a personage who was the pride of Mrs. Kip's +existence. This was not for what she was, but for her title: "Evangeline +Taylor and her governess"--this to Mrs. Kip seemed almost royal. She now +hurried forward to meet her child, and, taking her arm, led her away +from the torso to the far end of the barn, where two new busts were +standing on a table, one of them the likeness of a short-nosed, +belligerent boy, and the other of a dreary, sickly woman. "Come and look +at these _sweet_ things, darling." + +And then Ruth broke into a second laugh. + +"Mrs. Chase," said Maud Muriel, suddenly, "I wish _you_ would sit to +me." + +"No. Ask her husband to sit," suggested Dolly. "You know you like to do +men best, Maud Muriel." + +"Well, generally speaking, the outlines of a man's face are more +distinct," the sculptress admitted. "And yet, Dolly, it doesn't always +follow. For, generally speaking, women--" + +"Maud Muriel, I am _never_ generally speaking, but always particularly," +Dolly declared. "Do Mr. Chase. He will come like a shot if you will +smoke your pipe; he has been dying to see you do it for three years." + +"I have given up the pipe; I have cigars now," explained Maud, gravely. +"But I do not smoke here; I take a walk with a cigar on dark nights--" + +"Sh! Don't talk about it now," interrupted Mrs. Kip, warningly. For +Evangeline Taylor, having extracted all she could from the "sweet +things," was coming towards them. There was a good deal to come. Her +height was now six feet and an inch. Her long, rigid face wore an +expression which she intended to be one of deep interest in the works of +art displayed before her; but as she was more shy than ever, her eyes, +as she approached the group, had a suppressed nervous gleam which, with +her strange facial tension, made her look half-mad. + +"Dear child!" said the mother, fondly, as Ruth, to whom the poor young +giant was passionately devoted, made her happy by taking her off and +talking to her kindly, apart. "She has the true Taylor eyes. So +profound! And yet so dove-like!" Here the head of Achilles Larue +appeared at the open door, and Lilian abandoned the Taylor eyes to +whisper quickly, "Oh, Maud Muriel, do cover that dreadful thing up!" + +"Cover it up? Why--it is what he has come to see," answered the intrepid +Maud. + +The ex-senator inspected the torso. "Most praise-worthy, Miss +Mackintosh. And, in execution, quite--quite fairish. Though you have +perhaps exaggerated the anatomical effect--the salient appearance of the +bones?" + +"Not at all. They are an exact reproduction from life," answered Maud, +with dignity. + +Lilian Kip, still apprehensive as to the influence of the torso upon a +young mind, sent her daughter home to play "battledoor and shuttlecock, +dear" (Evangeline played "battledoor and shuttlecock, dear," every +afternoon for an hour with her governess, to acquire "grace of +carriage"); Larue was now talking to Ruth, and Lilian, after some +hesitation, walked across the barn and seated herself on a bench at its +far end (the only seat in that resolute place); from this point she +gazed and gazed at Larue. He was as correct as ever--from his straight +nose to his finger-tips; from his smooth, short hair, parted in the +middle, to his long, slender foot with its high in-step. Dolly, tired of +standing, came after a while and sat down on the bench beside the widow. +They heard Achilles say, "No; I decided not to go." Then, a few minutes +later, came another "No; I decided not to do that." + +"All his decisions are _not_ to do things," commented Dolly, in an +undertone. "When he dies, it can be put on his tombstone: 'He was a verb +in the passive voice, conjugated negatively.' Why, what's the matter, +Lilian?" + +"It's nothing--I am only a little agitated. I will tell you about it +some time," answered Mrs. Kip, squeezing Dolly's hand. Ruth, tired of +the senator, looked across at Dolly. Dolly joined her, and they took +leave. + +Maud Muriel followed them to the door. "I _should_ like to do your head, +Ruth." + +"No; you are to do Mr. Chase's," Dolly called back from the phaeton. +"She has been in love with your husband from the first," she went on to +her sister, as she turned her pony's head towards the Swannanoa. And +then Ruth laughed a third time. + +But though Dolly thus made sport, in her heart there was a pang. She +knew--no one better--that her sister's face had changed greatly during +the past three months. Now that his wife was well again, Chase himself +noticed nothing. And to the little circle of North Carolina friends Ruth +was dear; they were very slow to observe anything that was unfavorable +to those they cared for. To-day, however, Maud Muriel's unerring scent +for ugliness had put her (though unconsciously) upon the track, and, for +the first time in all their acquaintance, she had asked Ruth to sit to +her. It was but a scent as yet; Ruth was still lovely. But the elder +sister could see, as in a vision, that with several years more, under +the blight of hidden suffering, her beauty might disappear entirely; her +divine blue eyes alone could not save her if her color should fade, if +the sweet expression of her mouth should alter to confirmed +unhappiness, if her face should grow so thin that its irregular +outlines would become apparent. + +Two hours later there was a tap at Miss Billy Breeze's door, at the Old +North Hotel. + +"Come in," said Miss Billy. "Oh, is it you, Lilian? I am glad to see +you. I haven't been out this afternoon, as it seemed a little coolish!" + +Mrs. Kip looked excited. "Coolish, Billy?" she repeated, standing still +in the centre of the room. "Ish? _Ish?_ And I, too, have said it; I +don't pretend to deny it. But it is over at last, and I am free! I have +been--been different for some time. But I did not know _how_ different +until this very afternoon. I met him at Maud Muriel's barn, soon after +two. And I sat there, and looked at him and _looked_ at him. And +suddenly it came across me that _perhaps_ after all I didn't care +_quite_ so much for him. I was so nervous that I could scarcely speak, +but I did manage to ask him to take a little stroll with me. For you see +I wanted to be perfectly _sure_. And as he walked along beside me, +putting down his feet in that precise sort of way he does, and every now +and then saying 'ish'--like a great light in the dark, like a falling +off of _chains_, I knew that it was at last at an end--that he had +ceased to be all the world to me. And it was such an _enormous_ relief +that when I came back, if there had been a circus or a menagerie in +town, I give you my word I should certainly have gone to it--as a +celebration! And then, Billy, I thought of _you_. And I made up my mind +that I would come right straight over here and ask you--_Is_ he worth +it? What has Achilles Larue ever done for either of us, Billy, but just +snub, snub, snub? and crush, crush, crush? If you could only feel what a +joy it is to have that tiresome old ache gone! And to just _know_ that +he is hateful!" And Lilian, much agitated, took Billy's hand in hers. + +But Billy, dim and pale, drew herself away. "You do him great injustice, +Lilian. But he has never expected the ordinary mind to comprehend him. +Your intentions, of course, are good, and I am obliged to you for them. +But I am not like you; to me it is a pleasure, and always will be, as +well as a constant education, to go on admiring the greatest man I have +ever known!" + +"Whether he looks at you or not?" demanded Lilian. + +"Whether he looks at me or not," answered Billy, firmly. + +"If you had ever been _married_, Wilhelmina, you would know that you +could not go on forever living on _shadows_!" declared the widow as she +took leave. "Shadows may be all very well. But we are human, after all, +and we need _realities_." Having decided upon a new reality, her step +was so joyous that Horace Chase, coming home from his long ride to +Crumb's, hardly recognized her, as he passed her in the twilight. At +L'Hommedieu he found no one in the sitting-room but Dolly. "Ruth is +resting after our drive," explained the elder sister. "I took her first +to the barn to see Maud Muriel's torso, and that made her laugh +tremendously. Well, is The Lodge in order?" + +"Yes, it's all right; Nick's friends can come along as soon as they +like," Chase answered. + +"And are none of the Willoughbys to be there this summer?" Dolly went +on. + +"No; Nick has gone to Carlsbad--he isn't well. And Richard is off +yachting. Walter has taken a cottage at Newport." + +Dolly already knew this latter fact. But she wished to hear it again. + +Rinda now appeared, ushering in Malachi Hill. The young clergyman was so +unusually erect that he seemed tall; his face was flushed, and his eyes +had a triumphant expression. He looked first at Dolly, then at Chase. +"I've done it!" he announced, dashing his clerical hat down upon the +sofa. "That Miss Mackintosh has called me 'Manikin' once too often. She +did it again just now--in the alley behind your house. And I up and +kissed her!" + +"You didn't," said Chase, breaking into a roaring laugh. + +"Yes; I did. For three whole years and more, Mr. Chase, that woman has +treated me with perfectly outrageous contempt. She has seemed to think +that I was nothing at all, that I wasn't a man; she has walked on me, +stamped on me, shoved me right and left, and even kicked me, as it were. +I have felt that I couldn't stand it _much_ longer. And I have tried to +think of a way to take her down. Suddenly, just now, it came to me that +nothing on earth would take her down quite so much as that. And so when +she came out with her accustomed epithet, I just gave her a hurl, and +did it! It is true I'm a clergyman, and I have acted as though I had +kept on being only an insurance agent. But a man is a man after all, in +spite of the cloth," concluded Malachi, belligerently. + +"Oh, don't apologize," said Dolly. "It's too delicious!" And then she +and Horace Chase, for once of the same mind, laughed until they were +exhausted. + +Meanwhile the sculptress had appeared in Miss Billy's sitting-room. She +came in without knocking, her footfall much more quiet than usual. +"Wilhelmina, how old are you?" she demanded, after she had carefully +closed the door. + +"Why--you know. I am thirty-nine," Billy answered, putting down with +tender touch the book she was reading (_The Blue Ridge in the Glacial +Period_). + +"And I am forty," pursued Maud, meditatively. "It is never too late to +add to one's knowledge, Wilhelmina, if the knowledge is accurate; that +is, if it is observed from life. And I have stopped in for a moment, on +my way home, to mention something which _is_ so observed. You know all +the talk and fuss there is in poetry, Wilhelmina, about kisses (I mean +when given by a man)? I am now in a position to tell you, from actual +experience, what they amount to." She came nearer, and lowered her +voice. "They are _very far indeed_ from being what is described. There +is nothing in them. Nothing whatever!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +Horace Chase spent the whole summer at L'Hommedieu, without any journeys +or absences. His wife rode with him several times a week; she drove out +with Dolly in the phaeton; she led her usual life. Usual, that is, to a +certain extent; for, personally, she was listless, and the change in her +looks was growing so much more marked that at last every one, save her +husband, noticed it. When September came, Chase went to New York on +business. He was absent two weeks. When he returned he found his wife +lying on the sofa. She left the sofa for a chair when he came in; but, +after the first day, she no longer made this effort; she remained on the +couch, hour after hour, with her eyes closed. Once or twice, when her +husband urged it, she rode out with him. But her figure drooped so, as +she sat in the saddle, that he did not ask her to go again. He began to +feel vaguely uneasy. She seemed well; but her silence and her pallor +troubled him. As she herself was impenetrable--sweet, gentle, and +dumb--he was finally driven to speak to Dolly. + +"You say she seems well," Dolly answered. "But that is just the trouble; +she seems so, but she is not. What she needs, in my opinion, is a +complete change--a change of scene and air and associations of all +kinds. Take her abroad for five or six years, and arrange your own +affairs so that you can stay there with her." + +"Five or six years? That's a large order; that's _living_ over there," +Chase said, surprised. + +"Yes," answered Dolly, "that is what I mean. Live there for a while." +Then she made what was to her a supreme sacrifice: "_I_ will stay here. +I won't try to go." This was a bribe. She knew that her brother-in-law +found her constant presence irksome. + +"Of course I wouldn't hesitate if I thought it would set her up," said +Chase. "I'll see what she says about it." + +"If you consult her, that will be the end of the whole thing," answered +Dolly; "you will never go, and neither will she. For she will feel that +you would be sure to dislike it. You ought to arrange it without one +syllable to her, and then _do_ it. And if I were you, I wouldn't +postpone it too long." + +"What do you talk that way for?" said Chase, angrily. "You have no right +to keep anything from me if you _know_ anything. What do you think's the +matter with her, that you take that tone?" + +"I think she is dying," Dolly answered, stolidly. "Slowly, of course; it +might require three or four years more at the present rate of progress. +If nothing is done to stop it, by next year it would be called nervous +prostration, perhaps. And then, the year after, consumption." + +Chase sprang up. "How dare you sit there and talk to me of her dying?" +he exclaimed, hotly. "What the hell do you mean?" + +Dolly preserved her composure unbroken. "She has never been very strong. +Nobody can know with absolute accuracy, Mr. Chase; but at least I am +telling you exactly what I think." + +"I'll take her abroad at once. I'll live over there forever if it will +do any good," Chase answered, turning to go out in order to hide his +emotion. + +"Remember, if you tell her about it beforehand, she will refuse to go," +Dolly called after him. + +Always prompt, that same afternoon Chase started northward. He was on +his way to New York, with the intention of arranging his affairs so that +he could leave them for several years. It would be a heavy piece of +work. But work never daunted him. The very first moment that it was +possible he intended to return to L'Hommedieu, take his wife, and go +abroad by the next steamer, allowing her not one hour for demur. In the +meanwhile, she was to know nothing of the project; it was to take her by +surprise, according to Dolly's idea. + +Dolly spent the time of his absence in trying to amuse her sister, or at +least in trying to occupy her and fill the long days. These days, out of +doors, were heavenly in their beauty; the atmosphere of paradise, as we +imagine paradise, was now lent to earth for a time; a fringe of it lay +over the valley of the French Broad. The sunshine was a golden haze; the +hue of the mountains was like violet velvet; there was no wind, the air +was perfectly still; in all directions the forest was glowing and +flaming with the indescribably gorgeous tints of the American autumn. +For a time Ruth had seemed a little stronger; she had taken two or three +drives in the phaeton. Then her listlessness came back with double +force. One afternoon Dolly found her lying with her head on her arm +(like a flower half-broken from its stalk, poor Dolly thought). But the +elder sister began bravely, with a laugh. "Well, it's out, Ruth. It is +announced to-day, and everybody knows it. I mean the engagement of +Malachi and the fair Lilian. But somebody ought really to speak to them, +it is a public matter; it ought to be in the hands of a Society for the +Prevention of Cruelty to the Future. Think of her profile, and then of +his, and imagine, if you can, a combination of the two let loose upon an +innocent world!" + +Ruth smiled a little, but the smile was faint. She lay for some minutes +longer with closed eyes, and then, wearily, she sat up. "Oh, I am so +tired of this room! I believe I'll go out, after all. Please call +Felicite, and order the phaeton." + +"A drive? That is a good idea, as it is such a divine afternoon," said +Dolly. "I will go with you." + +"Oh no--with your lame arm." (For rheumatism had been bothering Dolly +all day.) "If you are afraid to have me go alone, I can take Felicite." + +"Very well," said Dolly, who thwarted Ruth now in nothing. "May I sit +here while you dress?" + +"If you like," answered Ruth, her voice dull and languid. + +Dolly pretended to knit, and she made jokes about the approaching +nuptials. "It is to come off during Christmas week, they say. The bishop +is to be here, but he will only pronounce the benediction, for Lilian +prefers to have Mr. Arlington perform the ceremony. You see, she is +accustomed to Mr. Arlington; she usually has him for her marriages, you +know." But in Dolly's heart, as she talked, there were no jokes. For as +Felicite dressed Ruth, the elder sister could not help seeing how wasted +was the slender figure. And when the skilful hand of the Frenchwoman +brushed and braided the thick hair, the hollows at the temples were +conspicuous. Felicite, making no remark about it, shaded these hollows +with little waving locks. But Ruth, putting up her hands impatiently, +pushed the locks all back. + +When she returned from her drive two hours later, the sun was setting. +She entered the parlor with rapid step, her arms full of branches of +bright leaves which she had gathered. Their tints were less bright than +her cheeks, and her eyes had a radiance that was startling. + +Dolly looked at her, alarmed, though (faithful to her rule) she made no +comment. "Can it be fever?" she thought. But this was not fever. + +Ruth decorated the room with her branches. She said nothing of +importance, only a vague word or two about the sunshine, and the beauty +of the brilliant forest; but she hummed to herself, and finally broke +into a song, as with the same rapid step she went upstairs to her room. + +A few moments later Miss Billy Breeze was shown in. "I couldn't help +stopping for a moment, Dolly, because I am so perfectly delighted to see +that dear Ruth is _so_ much better; she passed me a little while ago in +her phaeton, looking really brilliant! Her old self again. After all, +the mountain air _has_ done her good. I was so glad that (I don't mind +telling you)--I went right home and knelt down and thanked God," said +the good little woman, with the tears welling up in her pretty eyes. + +Miss Billy stayed nearly half an hour. Just before she went away she +said (after twenty minutes of excited talk about Lilian and Malachi), +"Oh, I saw Mr. Willoughby in the street this afternoon; he had ridden up +from The Lodge, so Mr. Bebb told me. I didn't know he was staying +there?" + +"Why, has he come back from Carlsbad?" asked Dolly, surprised. + +"Oh, I don't mean Mr. Nicholas Willoughby," answered Billy, "I mean +Walter; the nephew, you know. The one who was groomsman at Ruth's +wedding." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +Ruth had seen Walter. It was this which had given her that new life. +Tired of Felicite's "flapping way of driving," as she called it, she had +left the phaeton for a few moments, and was sitting by herself in the +forest, with her elbow on her knee and her chin resting on the palm of +her hand; her eyes, vaguely fixed on a red bush near by, had an +indescribably weary expression. Her figure was out of sight from the +place where the phaeton and the maid were waiting; her face was turned +in the other direction. In this direction there was at some distance a +second road, and along this track she saw presently a man approaching on +horseback. Suddenly she recognized him. It was Walter Willoughby. He +slackened his speed for a moment to say a word or two to a farmer who +was on his way to Asheville with a load of wood; then, touching his +horse with his whip, he rode on at a brisk pace, and in a moment more +was out of sight. + +Ruth had started to her feet. But the distance was too great for her to +call to him. Straight as the flight of an arrow she ran towards the +wagon, which was pursuing its way, the horses walking slowly, the wheels +giving out a regular "scrunch, scrunch." + +"The gentleman who spoke to you just now--do you know where he is +staying?" + +"Down to Crumb's; leastways that new house they've built on the mountain +'bove there. He 'lowed I might bring him down some peaches! But +_peaches_ is out long ago," replied the man. Ruth returned home. She +went through the evening in a dream, listening to Dolly's remarks +without much answer; then, earlier than usual, she sought her own room. +She fell asleep instantly, and her sleep was so profound that Dolly, who +stole softly to the door at midnight and again at one o'clock, to see if +all was well, went back to her room greatly cheered. For this was the +best night's rest which Ruth had had for months. The elder sister, +relieved and comforted, soon sank into slumber herself. + +Ruth's tranquil rest came simply from freedom, from the end of the long +struggle which had been consuming her strength and her life. The sudden +vision of the man she loved, his actual presence before her, had broken +down her last barrier; it had given way silently, as a dam against which +deep water has long pressed yields sometimes without a sound when the +flood rises but one inch higher. She slept because she was going to him, +and she knew that she was going. + +She had been vaguely aware that she could not see Walter again with any +security. It was this which had made her take refuge in her mother's old +home in the mountains, far away from him and from all chance of meeting +him. She could not trust herself, but she could flee. And she had fled. +This, however, was the limit of her force; her will had not the power to +sustain her, to keep her from lassitude and despair; and thus she had +drooped and faded until to her sister had come that terrible fear that +the end would really be death. When Walter appeared, she was powerless +to resist further, she went to him as the needle turns to the pole. Her +love led her like a despot, and it was sweet to her to be thus led. Her +action was utterly uncalculating; the loss of her home was as nothing to +her; the loss of her good-repute, nothing; her husband, her sister, the +whole world--all were alike forgotten. She had but one thought, one +idea--to go to him. + +She woke an hour before dawn; it was the time she had fixed upon. She +left her bed and dressed herself, using the brilliant moonlight as her +candle; with soft, quick steps she stole down the stairs to the kitchen, +and taking a key which was hanging from a nail by the fireplace, she let +herself out. The big watch-dog, Turk, came to meet her, wagging his +tail. She went to the stable, unlocked the door, and leaving it open for +the sake of the light, she saddled Kentucky Belle. Then she led the +gentle creature down the garden to a gate at its end which opened upon +the back street. Closing this gate behind her so that Turk should not +follow, she mounted and rode away. + +The village was absolutely silent; each moonlit street seemed more still +than the last. When the outskirts were left behind, she turned her +horse towards the high bridle-path, whose general course was the same as +that of the road along the river below, the road which led to the Warm +Springs, passing on its way the farm of David Crumb. + +As she did these things, one after the other, she neither thought nor +reasoned; her action was instinctive. And the ride was a revel of joy; +her cheeks were flushed with rose, her eyes were brilliant, her pulses +were beating with a force and health which they had not known for +months; she sang to herself little snatches of songs, vaguely, but +gayly. + +The dawn grew golden, the sun came up. The air was perfectly still and +softly hazy. Every now and then a red leaf floated gently down from its +branch to the ground; the footfalls of Kentucky Belle were muffled in +these fallen leaves. + +The bridle-path, winding along the flanks of the mountain, was longer +than the straighter road below. It was eight o'clock before it brought +her in sight of Crumb's. "I must leave Kentucky Belle in good hands," +she thought. A steep track led down to the farm. The mare followed it +cautiously, and brought her to Portia's door. "Can your husband take +care of my horse for an hour or two?" she asked, smiling, as Portia came +out. "Is he at home?" + +"He's at home. But he ain't workin' to-day," Mrs. Crumb replied; "he's +ailin' a little. But _I'll_ see to yer mare." + +Ruth dismounted; patting Kentucky Belle, she put her cheek for a moment +against the beautiful creature's head. "Good-bye," she whispered. "I am +going for a walk," she said to Portia. + +"Take a snack of sump'n' nerrer to eat first?" Portia suggested. + +But Ruth shook her head; she was already off. She went down the river +road as though she intended to take her walk in that direction. But as +soon as the bend concealed her from Portia's view she turned into the +forest. The only footpath to the terrace, "Ruth's Terrace," where +Nicholas Willoughby had built his cottage, was the one which led up from +Crumb's; Ruth's idea was that she should soon reach this track. But +somehow she missed it; she gave up the search, and, turning, went +straight up the mountain. This slope also was covered with the fallen +leaves, a carpet of red and gold. She climbed lightly, joyously, pulling +herself up the steepest places by the trunks of the smaller trees. Her +color brightened. Taking some of the leaves, she twisted their stalks +round the buttons of her habit so as to make a red-and-gold trimming. + +When she reached the summit she knew where she was, for she could now +see the cliffs on the other side of the French Broad. They told her that +she had gone too far to the left; and, turning, this time in the right +direction, she made her way through the forest along the plateau, +keeping close to its verge as a guide. As the chimneys of the Lodge came +into view, she reminded herself that she wished to see Walter +first--Walter himself, and not the servants. She had already paid +several visits to The Lodge; she knew the place well. A good +carriage-road led to it through a ravine which opened three miles below +Crumb's; Nicholas Willoughby had constructed this new ascent. But he had +not built any fences or walls, and she could therefore approach without +being seen by keeping among the trees. At the side there was a thicket, +which almost touched one end of the veranda; she stole into this +thicket, and noiselessly made her way towards the house. When she +reached the nearest point which she could attain unseen, she paused; her +idea was to wait here until Walter should come out. + +For he would be sure to come before long. The veranda was always the +sitting-room; it commanded that wide view of the mountains far and near +which had caused Nicholas Willoughby, at the cost of much money and +trouble, to perch his cottage just here. The friends to whom he had lent +The Lodge had left it ten days before, as Ruth knew. A man and his wife +were always in charge, but when they were alone the front of the house +was kept closed. To-day the windows were all open, a rising breeze +swayed the curtains to and fro, and there were numerous other signs of +Walter's presence; on the veranda were several easy-chairs and a lounge, +besides a table with books and papers. And wasn't that the hat he had +worn when she saw him talking to the farmer the day before? Yes, it was +the same. "What time can it be?" she thought. She had not her watch +with her--the costly diamond-decked toy which Horace Chase had given +her; she had left it with her rings on the toilet-table at L'Hommedieu. +Her wedding-ring was there also. But this was not from any plan about +it; she always took off her rings at night. She had simply forgotten to +put them on. + +After ten minutes of waiting her heart gave a leap--she heard Walter's +voice within the house. "That is a woman answering. He is talking to the +housekeeper," she said to herself. + +But presently there seemed to be three voices. "It is another servant," +she thought. Then, before she had time to recognize that the intonations +were not those of the mountain women (who were the only resource as +servants in this remote spot), Walter Willoughby himself came into view, +pushing aside the curtains of one of the long windows that opened on the +veranda. + +But before Ruth could detach herself from the branches that surrounded +her, he had drawn back again to make room for some one else, and a lady +came out. He followed this lady; he took his seat familiarly upon the +lounge where she had placed herself. It was Marion Barclay, the +handsome, inanimate girl who, with her father and mother, had spent some +weeks at St. Augustine during the preceding winter. + +Marion was no longer inanimate. The fault of her finely chiselled face +had been its coldness; but there was no coldness now as Walter +Willoughby took her hand and pressed it to his lips. + +At this moment Mrs. Barclay, Marion's mother, appeared. "Well, Darby and +Joan," she said, smiling, as she established herself in the most +comfortable chair. + +Mrs. Barclay had favored Walter's suit from the first. It was her +husband who had opposed it. Christopher Barclay had, in fact, opposed it +so strongly that at St. Augustine he had dismissed young Willoughby with +a very decided negative. It was while held at bay by this curt refusal +that young Willoughby had entertained himself for a time by a fresh +study of Mrs. Horace Chase. + +This, however, had been but a brief diversion; he had never had the +least intention of giving up Marion, and he had renewed his suit at +Newport as soon as the summer opened. This time he had been more +successful, and finally he had succeeded in winning Christopher Barclay +to the belief that he would know how to manage his daughter's fortune, +as, from the first, he had won Mrs. Barclay to the conviction that he +would know how to manage her daughter's heart. Marion herself meanwhile +had never had the slightest doubt as to either the one or the other. The +engagement was still very new. As Mr. Barclay had investments at +Chattanooga to look after, the little party of four had taken these +beautiful October days for an excursion to Tennessee. Mrs. Barclay had +heard that one of the elder Willoughbys had built a cottage "not far +from the Great Smoky Mountains," and as the paradisiacal weather +continued, with the forests all aglow and the sky a mixture of blue and +gold, she suggested that they should go over from Chattanooga and take a +look at it. Walter had therefore arranged it. From the Warm Springs he +himself had ridden on in advance, in order to have the house opened; +this was the moment when he had made his brief visit to Asheville for +the purpose of ordering supplies. The Barclays were to come no farther +eastward than The Lodge; they were to return in a day or two to Warm +Springs, and thence back to Chattanooga. Even if he had known that Ruth +Chase was at L'Hommedieu, Walter would not have been deterred from +pleasing Mrs. Barclay by any thought of her vicinity; but, as it +happened, he supposed that she was in New York. For a recent letter from +Nicholas Willoughby had mentioned that Chase himself was there, and that +he was going abroad with his wife for several years, sailing by the next +Wednesday's Cunarder. + +"Darby and Joan?" Walter had repeated, in answer to Mrs. Barclay's +remark. "That is exactly what I am after, mother. Come, let us settle +the matter now on the spot--the _bona fide_ Darby-and-Joan-ness. When +shall it begin?" + +"'Mother'!" commented Mrs. Barclay, laughing. "You have not lost much in +your life through timidity, Walter; I venture to say that." + +"Nothing whatever," Walter replied, promptly. "Shall we arrange it for +next month? I have always said I should select November for my wedding, +to see how my wife bears bad weather." + +"No, no. Not quite so soon as that," answered Mrs. Barclay. "But early +in the year perhaps," she went on, consentingly, as she looked at her +daughter's happy blushing face. + +Ruth heard every word; the veranda was not four yards distant; through +the crevices in the foliage she could see them all distinctly. + +She had immediately recognized the Barclays. Anthony Etheridge's speech +about Walter's being in their train came back to her, and other mentions +of their name as well. But this was mechanical merely; what held her, +what transfixed her, was Walter's own countenance. Marion Barclay, Mrs. +Barclay, all the rumors that Etheridge could collect, these would have +been nothing to her if it had not been for that--for Walter's face. + +And Walter was, in truth, very happy. Marion was everything that he +wished his wife to be: she was accomplished and statuesque; to those she +liked she could be charming; her features had the distinction which he +had always been determined that his wife should possess. He was not +marrying her for her fortune, though he was very glad she had that, +also. He was much in love with her, and it was this which Ruth had +perceived--perceived beyond a doubt. + +For ten minutes she stood there motionless, her eyes resting upon him. +Then, feeling a death-like chill coming, she had just sense enough, just +life enough left, to move backward noiselessly through the smooth leaves +until she had reached the open forest beyond. As a whole life passes +before the eyes of a drowning man, in the same way she saw as in a +vision her long mistake, and her one idea was to get to some spot where +he could not see her, where he would never find her, before she sank +down. She glanced over her shoulder; yes, the thicket concealed her in +that direction. Then she looked towards the verge; her hurrying steps +took her thither. Sitting down on the edge, she let herself slip over, +holding on by a little sapling. It broke and gave way. And then the +figure in the dark riding-habit, which was still adorned gayly with the +bright leaves, disappeared. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +Dolly Franklin woke soon after dawn. A moment later she stole to Ruth's +door and listened. There was no sound within, and, hoping that the +tranquil slumber still continued, the elder sister turned the +door-handle and looked in. + +The window-curtains were drawn widely aside, as Ruth had arranged them +several hours before, in order to let in the moonlight; the clear +sunshine showed that the bed was tenantless, the room empty. Dolly +entered quickly, closing the door behind her. But there was no letter +bearing her name fastened to the pin-cushion or placed conspicuously on +the mantel-piece, as she had feared. The rings, watch, and purse lying +on the toilet-table next attracted her attention; she placed them in a +drawer and locked it, putting the key in her pocket. Then, with her +heart throbbing, she looked to see what clothes had been taken. "The +riding-habit and hat. She has gone to The Lodge! She has found out in +some way that he is staying there. Probably she is on Kentucky Belle." + +After making sure that there were no other betrayals in Ruth's deserted +room, the elder sister returned to her own apartment and rang for her +English maid, Diana Pollikett. Diana was not yet up. As soon as +possible she came hurrying in, afraid that Miss Franklin was ill. "Call +Felicite," ordered Dolly. Then when the two returned together, the +sallow Frenchwoman muffled in a pink shawl, Dolly said: "Mrs. Chase has +gone off for an early ride. I dare say that she thought it would be +amusing to take me by surprise." And she laughed. But that there was +anger underneath her laugh was very evident. "Felicite, go down and see +if I am not right," she went on. "I think you will find that her horse +is gone." + +Her acting was so perfect--the feigned mirth, with the deep annoyance +visible beneath it--that the two maids were secretly much entertained; +Mrs. Chase's escapade and her sharp-eyed sister's discomfiture were in +three minutes known to everybody in the house. "Your mademoiselle, she +tr'ry to keep _my_ young madame a _leetle_ too tight," commented +Felicite in confidence to Miss Pollikett. + +Dolly, having set her story going, went through the form of eating her +breakfast. Then, as soon as she could, without seeming to be in too +great haste, she drove off in her own phaeton, playing to the end her +part of suppressed vexation. + +She was on her way to The Lodge. It was a long drive, and the road was +rough; the gait of her old pony was never more than slow; but she had +not dared to take a faster horse, lest the unusual act should excite +surprise. "Oh, Prosper, _do_ go on!" she kept saying, pleadingly, to +the pony. But with all her effort it was two o'clock before she reached +Crumb's, Prosper's jog-trot being hardly faster than a walk. + +As the farm-house at last came into sight, she brushed away her tears of +despair and summoned a smile. "My sister is here, or she has been here, +hasn't she?" she said, confidently, to Mrs. Crumb, who, at the sound of +the wheels, had come to the door. + +"Yes, she's been yere. She's gone for a walk," Portia answered. "She +left her mare; but she wouldn't stop to eat anything, though she must +have quit town mortial early." + +"Oh, she had breakfast before she started," lied Dolly, carelessly. "And +I have brought lunch with me; we are to eat it together. But I am very +late in getting here, my fat old pony is so slow! Which way has she +gone?" + +"Straight down the road," replied Portia. "An' when you find her, I +reckon you'd both better be thinkin' of gettin' todes home befo' long. +For the fine weather's about broke; there's a change comin'." + +"Down the road--yes," thought Dolly. "But as soon as she was out of +sight she went straight up the mountain! Oh, if I could only do it too! +It is _so_ much shorter." But as she feared her weak ankle might fail, +all she could do was to drive up by the new road, the road which +Nicholas Willoughby had built through the ravine below. She went on, +therefore; there were still three miles to cover before this new road +turned off. + +It was the only well-made carriage-track in the county. First it +followed the ravine, crossing and recrossing the brook at its bottom; +then, leaving the gorge behind, it wound up the remainder of the ascent +in long zigzags like those of the Alpine passes. The breeze, which had +stirred the curtains of The Lodge when Ruth was standing in the thicket, +had now grown into a wind, and clouds were gathering. But Dolly noticed +nothing. Reaching the new road at last, she began the ascent. + +When about a third of the way up, she thought she heard the sound of +wheels coming down. The zigzag next above hers was fringed with trees, +so that she could see nothing, but presently she distinguished the trot +of two horses. Was it Ruth with Walter Willoughby? Were they already +taking flight? Fiercely Dolly turned her phaeton straight across the +road to block the way. "She shall never pass me. I will drag her from +him!" The bend of the zigzag was at some distance; she waited, +motionless, listening to the wheels above as they came nearer and +nearer. Then round the curve into view swept a pair of horses and a +light carriage. The top of the carriage was down; she could see that it +held four persons; on the back seat was a portly man with gray hair, and +with him a comfortable-looking elderly lady; in front was a tall, +fair-haired girl, and by her side--Walter Willoughby. + +In the first glance Dolly had recognized Walter's companions. And the +radiant face of Marion Barclay, so changed, so happy, told her all. She +drew her pony straight, and, turning out a little so as to make room, +she passed them with a bow, and even with a smile. + +Walter seemed astonished to see her there. But he had time to do no more +than return her salutation, for he was driving at a sharp pace, and the +descent was steep. He looked back. But her pony was going steadily up +the zigzag, and presently turning the bend the phaeton disappeared. + +"This road leads only to The Lodge; I cannot imagine why Miss Franklin +is going there now," he commented. "Or what she is doing here in any +case, so far from L'Hommedieu." + +"L'Hommedieu? What is that? Oh yes, I remember; Anthony Etheridge told +me that the Franklins had a place with that name (Huguenot, isn't it?) +in the North Carolina mountains somewhere," remarked Mrs. Barclay. "What +has become, by-the-way, of the pretty sister who married your uncle's +partner, Horace Chase? She wasn't in Newport this summer. Is she +abroad?" + +"No. But she is going soon," Walter answered. "My last letter from my +uncle mentioned that Chase was in New York, and that he had taken +passage for himself and his wife in the Cunarder of next Wednesday." + +"Dear me! those clouds certainly look threatening," commented Mrs. +Barclay, forgetting the Chases, as a treeless space in front gave her +for a moment a wider view of the sky. + +It was this change in the weather which had altered their plans. +Nicholas Willoughby's mountain perch, though an ideal spot when the sky +was blue, would be dreary enough in a long autumn storm; the Barclays +and their prospective son-in-law were therefore hastening back to the +lowlands. + +Dolly reached the summit. And as the road brought her nearer to The +Lodge, she was assailed by sinister forebodings. The first enormous +relief which had filled her heart as she read the story told by the +carriage, was now darkened by dread of another sort. If Ruth too had +seen Marion, if Ruth too had comprehended all--where was she? From the +untroubled countenances of the descending party, Dolly was certain that +they, at least, had had no glimpse of Ruth; no, not even Walter. Dolly +believed that men were capable of every brutality. But Walter's +expression, when he returned her bow, had not been that of assumed +unconsciousness, or assumed anything; there was no mistaking it--he was +happy and contented; he looked as though he were enjoying the rapid +motion and his own skilful driving, but very decidedly also as though +all the rest of his attention was given to the girl by his side. "He has +not even seen her! And he cares nothing for her; it is all a mistake! +Now let me only find her and get her home, and no one shall _ever_ +know!" Dolly had said to herself with inexpressible relief. But then had +followed fear: _could_ she find her? + +When the chimneys of The Lodge came into sight she drove her pony into +the woods and tied him to a tree. Then she approached the house +cautiously, going through the forest and searching the carpet of fallen +leaves, trying to discover the imprint of footsteps. "If she came here +(and I _know_ she did), is there any place from which, herself +concealed, she could have had a glimpse of Marion? That thicket, +perhaps? It stretches almost to the veranda." And limping to this copse, +Dolly examined its outer edge closely, inch by inch. She found two +places where there was a track; evidently some one had entered at one of +the points, and penetrated to a certain distance; then had come out in a +straight line, backward. Dolly entered the thicket herself and followed +this track. It brought her to a spot whence she had a clear view of the +veranda. All signs of occupation were already gone; the chairs and +tables had been carried in, the windows had been closed and barred. "If +she stood here and saw them, and then if she moved backward and got +herself out," thought Dolly, "where did she go next?" When freed from +the thicket, she knelt down and looked along the surface of the ground, +her eyes on a level with it; she had seen the negroes find small +articles in that way--a button, or even a pin. After changing her place +two or three times, she thought she discerned a faint indication of +footsteps, and she followed this possible trail, keeping at some +distance from it at one side so that it should not be effaced, and every +now and then stooping to get another view of it, horizontally. For the +signs were so slight that it was difficult to see them--nothing but a +few leaves pressed down a little more than the others, here and there. +The trail led her to the edge of the plateau. And here at last was +something more definite--flattened herbage, and a small sapling bent +over the verge and broken, as though some one had borne a weight upon +it. "She let herself slip over the edge," thought Dolly. "She is down +there in the woods somewhere. Oh, how shall I find her!" + +The October afternoon would be drawing to its close before long, and +this evening there would be no twilight, for black clouds were covering +the sky, and the wind was beginning to sway the boughs of the trees +above. In spite of her lameness, Dolly let herself down over the edge. +There was no time to lose; she must find her sister before dark. + +The slope below was steep; she tried to check her sliding descent, but +she did not succeed in stopping herself until her clothes had been torn +and her body a good deal bruised. When at last her slide was arrested, +she began to search the ground for a second trail. But if there had been +one, the leaves obscured it; not only were they coming down in showers +from above, but the wind every now and then scooped up armfuls of those +already fallen, and whirled them round and round in eddying spirals. +Keeping the peeled sapling above her as her guide, Dolly began to +descend, going first to the right for several yards, then to the left, +and pausing at the end of each zigzag to examine the forest beyond. With +her crippled ankle her progress was slow. She lost sight, after a while, +of the sapling. But as she had what is called the sense of locality, she +was still able to keep pretty near the imaginary line which she was +trying to follow. For her theory was that Ruth had gone straight down; +that, once out of sight from that house, she had let herself go. Light +though she was on her feet, she must have ended by falling, and then, if +there was a second ledge below--"But I won't think of that!" Dolly said +to herself, desperately. + +She was now so far from the house that she knew she could not be heard. +She therefore began to call "Ruth! Ruth!" But there was no reply. "I +will count, and every time I reach a hundred I will call. Oh why, just +this one day, should it grow dark so early, after weeks of the clearest +twilight?" Drops began to fall, and finally the rain came down in +torrents. She crouched beside a large tree, using its trunk as a +protection as much as she could. Her hat and jacket were soon wet +through, but she did not think of herself, she thought only of +Ruth--Ruth, who had been fading for months--Ruth, out in this storm. +"But I'll find her and take her back. And no one shall ever know," +thought the elder sister, determinedly. + +After what seemed a long time the rain grew less dense. The instant she +could see her way Dolly resumed her search. The ground was now wet, and +her skirts were soon stained as she moved haltingly back and forth, +holding on by the trees. "Ruth! Ruth?" At the end of half an hour, when +it was quite dark, she came to a hollow lined with bushes. She +hesitated, but her determination to make her search thorough over every +inch of the ground caused her to let herself down into it by sense of +feeling, holding on as well as she could by the bushes. + +And there at the bottom was the body of her sister. + +"O God, _don't_ let her be dead!" she cried, aloud. Drying the palm of +her hand, she unbuttoned the soaked riding-habit and felt for the heart. +At first there seemed to be no beating. Then she thought she perceived a +faint throb, but she could not be sure; perhaps it was only her intense +wish transferred to the place. Ruth's hat was gone, her hair and her +cold face were soaked. "If I could only _see_ her! Poor, poor little +girl!" said Dolly, sobbing aloud. + +Presently it began to rain again with great violence; and then Dolly, in +a rage, seated herself on the soaked ground at the bottom of the hollow, +took her sister's lifeless form in her arms, and held it close. "She is +_not_ dead, for she isn't heavy; she is light. If she had been dead I +_couldn't_ have lifted her." She dried Ruth's face. She began to chafe +her temples and breast. After half an hour she thought she perceived +more warmth, and her cramped arm redoubled its effort. The rain was +coming down in sheets, but she did not mind it now, for she felt a +breath, a sigh. "Ruth, do you know me? It is Dolly; no one but Dolly." + +Ruth's eyes opened, though Dolly could not see them. Then she said, +"Dolly, he loves some one else." That was all; she did not speak again. + +The storm kept on, and they sat there together, motionless. Ruth's +clothes were so wet that they were like lead. At length the black cloud +from which that especial deluge had come moved away, and fitful +moonlight shone out. Now came the anxious moment: would Ruth be able to +walk? + +At first it seemed as if she could not even rise, her whole body was so +stiff. She was also extremely weak; she had eaten nothing since the +night before, and the new life which had inspired her was utterly gone. +But Dolly, somehow, made herself firm as iron; standing, she lifted her +sister to her feet and held her upright until, little by little, she +regained breath enough to take one or two steps. Then slowly they +climbed from the hollow. With many pauses they went down the mountain; +from this point, fortunately, its slope was not quite so steep. How she +did it Dolly never knew, but the moment came at last when she saw a +lighted window, and made her way towards it. And the final moment also +came when she arrived at a door. Her arm was still supporting her pale +young sister, who leaned against her. Ruth had not spoken; she had moved +automatically; her senses were half torpid. + +The lighted window was that of Portia Crumb. Portia had not gone to bed. +But she was not sitting up on their account; she supposed that they had +found shelter at one of several small houses that were scattered along +the river road in the direction which they had taken. She was sitting up +in order to minister to her "Dave." David Crumb's fits of drunkenness +generally lasted through two days. When he came to himself, his first +demand was for coffee, and his wife, who never could resist secretly +sympathizing a little with the relief which her surly husband was able +to obtain for a time from the grief which gnawed incessantly at her own +poor heart--his wife always remained within call to give him whatever he +needed. And, oddly enough, these vigils had become almost precious to +Portia. For occasionally at these moments David of his own accord would +talk of his lost boys--the only times he ever mentioned them or +permitted his wife to do so. And now and then he would allow her to read +her Bible to him, and even to sing a hymn perhaps, to which he would +contribute in snatches a growling repentant bass. + +Portia's coffee-pot now stood on the hot coals of her kitchen fireplace; +she had been occupying the time in spinning, and in chanting softly to +herself, as the rain poured down outside: + +[Illustration: musical notation: + +Je -_ru_ -sa-lem, my hap-py _home_, Name ev-er de-ar tu + +_me_, When _shell_ my la-ber-rs hev an end? Thy + +joys when shell I see ? Thy-y joys when _shell-el_ I see?] + +Then, hearing some one at the outer door, she had come to open it. + +"Good Lors! Miss Dolly! Here!--lemme help you! Bring her right into the +kitchen, an' put her down on the mat clost to the fire till I get her +wet close off!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +HORACE CHASE, having by hard work arranged his far-stretching affairs so +that he could leave them, reached L'Hommedieu late in the evening of the +day of Ruth's flight. He had not telegraphed that he was coming; his +plan was to have his wife well on her way to New York and the Liverpool +steamer almost before she knew it. She had always been fond of the +unexpected; this fondness would perhaps serve him now. When he reached +the old house, to which his money had given a new freshness, there was +no one to meet him but Dolly's Diana. Diana, in her moderate, unexcited +way, began to tell him what had happened. But she was soon re-enforced +by Felicite, whose ideas (regarding the same events) were far more +theoretic. + +"Miss Franklin had a lunch prepared, and took it with her," Diana went +on. + +"Eet ended in a peekneek," interrupted Felicite. "The leaf was so red, +and the time so beautiful, monsieur; no clouds, and the sky of a blue! +Then suddenlee the rain ees come. No doubt they have entered in a house +to wait till morning." + +"Which road did my wife take?" inquired Chase, his tone anxious. + +"Ah, monsieur, no one _see_ herr, she go so early. Eet was herr joke--to +escape a leetle from herr sistare, if eet is permit to say eet; pardon." + +"Which way, then, did Miss Franklin go?" continued Chase, impatiently. + +Both women pointed towards the left. "She went _down_ the street. _That_ +way." + +"Down the street? That's no good. What I want to know is which road she +took after leaving town?" + +But naturally neither Felicite nor Miss Pollikett could answer this +question; they had not followed the phaeton. + +Chase rang the bell, and sent for one of the stablemen. "Let Pompey and +Zip go and ask at all the last houses (where the three roads that can be +reached from the end of this street turn off) whether any one noticed +Miss Franklin drive past this morning? They all know her pony and trap. +Tell Pompey to step lively, and if the people have gone to bed, he must +knock 'em up." + +The two negroes returned in less than fifteen minutes; they had found +the trace without trouble: Miss Franklin had taken the river road +towards Warm Springs. + +"Saddle my horse," said Chase; "and you, Jeff, as soon as I have +started, put the pair in the light carriage and drive down to Crumb's. +Have the lamps in good order and burning brightly, and see that the +curtains are buttoned down so as to keep the inside dry. Felicity, put +in shawls and whatever's necessary; the ladies are no doubt under cover +somewhere; but they may have got wet before reaching it. Perhaps one of +you had better go along?" he added, looking at the two women +reflectively, as if deciding which one would be best. + +"Yes, sir; I can be ready in a moment," said Diana, going out. + +"Ah! for _two_ there is not enough place," murmured Felicite, relieved. + +Chase ate a few mouthfuls of something while his horse was being +saddled; then, less than half an hour after his arrival, he was off +again. It was very dark, but he did not slacken his speed for that, nor +for the rough, stony ascents and descents, nor for the places where the +now swollen river had overflowed the track. The distance which Dolly's +slow old pony had taken five hours to traverse, this hard rider covered +in less than half the time. At one o'clock he reached Crumb's. It was +the first house in that direction after the village and its outskirts +had been left behind. Along the mile or two beyond it, farther towards +the west, were three smaller houses, and at one of the four he hoped to +find his wife. As he drew near Crumb's, he saw that the windows were +lighted. "They're here!" he said to himself, with a long breath of +relief. As he rode up to the porch, Portia, who had heard his horse's +footsteps, looked out. + +"They're here?" he asked. + +"Yes," answered Portia, "they be." + +"And all right?" + +"I reckon so, by this time. Mis' Chase, she was pretty well beat when +she first come; but she's asleep now, an' restin' well. And Miss Dolly, +she's asleep too." + +Chase dismounted. "Can my horse be put up? Just call some one, will +you?" + +"Well, Isrul Porter, who works here, has gone home," answered Mrs. +Crumb. "Arter Mis' Chase and Miss Dolly got yere, I sent Isrul arter +their pony, what they'd lef' in the woods more'n two miles off, an' he +'lowed, Isrul did, that he'd take him home with him for the night when +he found him, bekase the Porters's house is nearer than our'n to the +place where he was lef'. An' Dave, he ain't workin' ter-day; he's ailin' +a little. But _I_ kin see to yer hoss." + +"Show a light and I'll do it myself," Chase answered, amused at the idea +of his leaving such work to a woman. + +Portia returned to the kitchen, and came back with a burning brand of +pitch-pine, which gave out a bright flare. Carrying this as a torch, she +led the way to the stable, Chase following with the horse. "Your mare, +she's in yere erready," said the farmer's wife, pointing to Kentucky +Belle. + +Then, as they went back to the house by the light of the flaring brand, +she asked whether she should go up and wake Ruth. + +"Yes, and I'll go along; which room is it? Hold on, though; are you sure +my wife's asleep?" + +"When I went up the minute before you come, she was, an' Miss Dolly +too." + +"Well, then, I guess I won't disturb 'em just yet," said Chase, and he +went with Portia to her kitchen, where she brought forward her +rocking-chair for his use. "What time did they get here?" he inquired. + +Portia, seating herself on a three-legged stool, told what she knew. As +she was finishing her story there came a growl from the dark end of the +long room, the end where the loom stood. "It's only Dave wakin' up," she +explained, and she hastened towards her husband. But as she did so he +roared "Coffee!" in impatient tones, and, hurrying back, she knelt down +and blew up the fire. "I'm comin', Dave; it's all ready," she called. +Then as she continued to work the bellows quickly she went on in a low +voice to Chase: "He'll stay awake now fer an hour or two. An' he'll be +talkin', an' takin' on, p'raps. Mebbe you'd ruther set in the best room +for a whilst? There's a fire; an' the stairs mount right up from there +to the room where yer wife's asleep, so you kin go up whenever you like. +Relse you might lay down yourself, without disturbin' 'em at all till +mawnin'. There's a good bed in the best room; none better." + +"Coffee!" demanded the farmer a second time, and Portia quickly took the +cup, which stood waiting with sugar and cream already in it, and lifting +her pot from the coals, poured out the odorous beverage, the strong +coffee of Rio. Though she had an intense desire to be left alone with +"Dave," now that his precious waking-time had come, her inborn sense of +hospitality would never have permitted her to suggest that her guest +should leave her, if she had not believed with all her heart that her +best room was really a bower of beauty; she even had the feeling that +she ought to urge it a little, lest he should be unwilling to "use it +common." Chase, perceiving that she wished him to go, went softly out, +and, entering the bower, closed the door behind him. The fire was low. +He put on some pitch-pine splinters, and added wood; for, in spite of +his water-proof coat (which was now hanging before the fireplace in the +kitchen), his clothes were damp. He lifted the logs carefully, so as not +to waken the sleepers above; then he sat down and stretched out his legs +to the blaze. In spite of Portia's assertion that his wife was "all +right," he was very uneasy; he could scarcely keep himself from stealing +up to get a look at her. But sleeplessness had been for so long one of +her troubles that he knew it was far wiser to let her rest as long as +she could. One thought pleased him; it had pleased him since the moment +he heard it: her stealing off for a ride at dawn simply to tease Dolly. +That certainly looked as if she must be much stronger than she had been +when he left her. It was an escapade worthy of the days when she had +been the frolicking Ruth Franklin. On the other hand loomed up the +results of this freak of hers, namely, her having been out so long in +the storm. Portia's expression, "pretty well beat when she first +come"--that was not encouraging. Thus he weighed the possibilities, +sitting there with his chair tilted back, his eyes fixed on the reviving +flame. He knew that he could not sleep until he had seen her. Portia's +"best bed," therefore, did not tempt him. In addition, he wished to wait +for the carriage, in order to contrive some sort of shelter for it, and +to assist in putting up the horses, since there was no one else to do +it. After a while, with his hands clasped behind his head, he moved his +chair a little and looked vaguely round the room. Everything was the +same as when he had paid his former visit there during the excursion +which he had made over the Great Smoky Mountains with the Franklins and +poor Jared. The red patch-work quilt was spread smoothly over the bed; +the accordion was on the mantel-piece, flanked by the vase whose design +was a pudgy hand holding a cornucopia; on the wall was the long row of +smirking fashion-plates. This means of entertainment, however, was soon +exhausted, and after a while he took some memoranda from his pocket, +and, bending forward towards the fire, began to look them over. + +He had been thus engaged for nearly half an hour when a door opened +behind him, and Dolly Franklin came in. + +She had no idea that he was there. The bedroom above, whose flight of +steep stairs she had just descended, possessed windows only towards the +river; and the second-story floors of the old house were so thick that +no sound from below could penetrate them. She had not therefore heard +Chase ride up on the other side; she had not distinguished any sounds in +the kitchen. + +He jumped up when he saw her. "I'm _mighty_ glad you've come down, +Dolly. I've been afraid to disturb her. Is she awake?" + +Dolly closed the door behind her. "No; she is sleeping soundly. I +wouldn't go up just now if I were you. A good sleep is what she needs +most of all." + +"All right; I'll wait. But how in the world came she to be out so long +in the rain, and you too? That's the part I don't understand." + +Dolly's heart had stood still when she saw her brother-in-law. "I'll sit +here for a while," she suggested, in order to gain time. "Will you +please pull forward that chair--the one in the corner? I had no idea you +were here. I only came down for the pillows from this bed; they are +better than those upstairs." While she was getting out these words her +quick mind had flown back to L'Hommedieu, and to the impression which +she had left behind her there, carefully arranged and left as +explanation of their absence. The explanation had been intended for any +of their friends who might happen to come to the house during the day. +But it would do equally well for Horace Chase, and Felicite could be +safely trusted to have repeated it to him within five minutes after his +unexpected arrival! For Felicite was not fond of Miss Dora Franklin. The +idea that her young mistress had gone off for a ride at daylight would +be an immense delight to the Frenchwoman, not for the expedition itself +(such amusements in a country so "sauvage" being beyond her +comprehension), but for the annoyance to mademoiselle--mademoiselle +whose watchfulness over everything that concerned her sister (even her +sister's maid) was so insupportably oppressive. Their start, therefore, +Dolly reflected, both Ruth's at dawn and her own a little later, was +probably in a measure accounted for in Horace Chase's mind. But as +regarded the hours in the rain, what could she invent about that? For +Portia had evidently described Ruth's exhaustion and their wet clothes. +She had seated herself by the fire; arrayed in one of the shapeless +dresses of her hostess, with her hair braided and hanging down her back, +her plain face looked plainer than ever. Worn out though she was, she +had not been asleep even for a moment; she had been sitting by the +bedside watching her sister. Ruth had lain motionless, with her head +thrown back lifelessly, her breathing scarcely perceptible. Whenever +Portia had peeped in (and the farmer's wife had stolen softly up the +stairs three times) Dolly had pretended to be asleep; and she knew that +Portia would think that Ruth also was sleeping. But Ruth was not asleep. +And Dolly's mind was filled with apprehension. What would follow this +apathy? + +"As I understand it, Ruthie took a notion to go off for a ride at +daybreak," Horace Chase began, "and then, after breakfast, you followed +her. How did you know which way she went? I suppose you asked. But she +left her mare here as early as half-past eight this morning, the woman +of the house tells me, and you yourself got here at two; what happened +afterwards? How came you to stay out in the rain? Unless you got lost, I +don't see what you were about." + +"We _were_ lost for a while," answered Dolly, who had now arranged her +legend. "But that was afterwards. Our staying out was my fault, or, +rather, my misfortune." She put out her feet and warmed them calmly. +"After I drove on from here, I didn't find Ruth for some time. When at +last I came upon her, we took our lunch together, and then I tied the +pony to a tree and we strolled off through the woods, picking up the +colored leaves. Suddenly I had one of my attacks. And it must have been +a pretty bad one, for it lasted a long time. How long I don't know; but +when I came to myself it was dark. Ruth, of course, couldn't carry me, +poor child. And she wouldn't leave me. So there we stayed in the rain. +And when finally I was able to move, it took us ages to get here, for +not only was I obliged to walk slowly, but it was so dark that we +couldn't find the road. I am all right now. But meanwhile _she_ is +dreadfully used up." + +Here, from the kitchen, came the sound of Portia's gentle voice: + + "When _shell_ these eyes thy heavenly walls + An' peerly gates behold? + Thy buildin's with salvation strong, + An' streets of shinin' gold? + An'-an' streets of shi-i-_nin_' gold!" + +"Crumb has arrived at his religious stage, and his wife is celebrating," +commented Dolly. "He goes through them all in regular succession every +time he is drunk. Obstinacy. Savagery. Lethargy. And then, finally, +Repentance, for he isn't one of those unimportant just persons who need +none." + +Chase glanced at her with inward disfavor; cynicism in a woman was +extremely unpleasant to him. His mental comment, after she had explained +their adventures, had been: "Well, if _Dolly_ had let the whole job +alone, none of this would have happened; Ruth would have had her lark +out and come home all right, and that would have been the end of it. But +Dolly must needs have _her_ finger in the pie, and out she goes. Then of +course she gets sick, and the end is that instead of her seeing to Ruth, +Ruth has to see to her." But he kept these reflections to himself. He +brought forward instead the idea that was important to him: "Isn't it a +pretty good sign she's better, that she _wanted_ to go off for a ride in +that way? It's like the things she used to do when I first knew her. +Don't you remember how she stayed out so long that cold, windy night +without her hat, talking with Malachi Hill over the back fence about his +Big Moose masquerade? And how she even went on, bareheaded and in the +dark, half across the village to find Achilles Larue and get him to +come, so that she could tease Miss Billy?" He gave a short laugh over +the remembrance. "I cannot help thinking, Dolly, that she isn't half as +sick as you made out; in fact, I've never thought she was, though I've +more or less fallen in with your idea of giving her a change. I _had_ +made arrangements to start for New York to-morrow morning, so as to hit +the Cunarder of Wednesday. But, as things have turned out, I don't know +that we need pull up stakes so completely, after all. She's evidently +better." + +For one instant Dolly thought. Then she spoke: "No, carry out your plan. +Take her away to-morrow morning just as you intended. Even if she _is_ +somewhat stronger (though I think you'll find that she isn't), she needs +a change." She said this decidedly. But the decision was for her own +sake; it was an effort to make herself believe, by the sound of the +spoken words, that this course would still be possible. "It _shall_ be +possible," she resolved in her own mind. + +"Well, I guess I won't decide till I see her," Chase answered. "Perhaps +she's awake by this time?" + +Dolly got up quickly. "I will go and see; my step is lighter than yours. +If I do not come back, that will mean that she is still asleep, and that +I think it best not to disturb her. The moment she does wake, however, +I will come and call you. Will that do?" + +"All right," said Chase, briefly, a second time. He did not especially +enjoy the prospect of several years in Europe. But at least it would be +agreeable to have his wife to himself, with no Dolly to meddle and +dictate. + +After she had gone, he sat expectant for nearly fifteen minutes. But she +did not return; Ruth evidently had not wakened. He rose, gave a stretch, +and, going to the window, raised the curtain and looked out. The rain +was pouring down; there was no sign of the carriage; it was so dark that +he could not see even the nearest trees. Dropping the curtain again, he +walked about the room for a while. Then he started to go to the kitchen, +to see how his wet coat was coming on; but remembering Portia's vigil +(which nothing could have induced him to break in upon, now that he +understood its nature), he stopped. He looked at all the simpering +ladies of the fashion-plates, ladies whose bodies were formed on the +model which seems to be peculiar to such publications, and to exist only +for them; he lifted the vase and inspected it a third time; he even +tried the accordion softly. Finally he sat down by the fire, and, taking +out his memoranda again, he went back to business calculations. + +Dolly had gone swiftly up the stairs and along the entry which led to +the bedroom. Ruth was lying just as she had left her, with her eyes +shut, her head thrown back. Dolly closed the door and locked it; then +she came and leaned over her. + +"Ruth, do you hear me?" + +"Yes," answered Ruth, mechanically. + +Dolly sat down by the side of the bed and drew her sister towards her. + +"I have something to tell you," she whispered. "Your husband is +down-stairs." + +Ruth did not start. After a moment she opened her eyes and turned them +slowly towards her sister. + +"He came home unexpectedly," Dolly went on, in the same low tone. "He +reached L'Hommedieu this evening, and when they told him that we had not +returned he had inquiries made as to the road we had taken, and came +down here himself on horseback. At L'Hommedieu, Ruth, they think that +you slipped out at dawn for a ride, just to play me a trick, because I +have watched you so closely about your health lately that you were out +of all patience. I let them think this; or, rather, I made them think +it. And they have repeated it to your husband, who accepts it just as +they did. The only thing he could not understand was why we stayed out +so long in the storm, for Portia had evidently told him how late it was +when we came in, and how exhausted you looked. So I have just said that +after I found you we had our lunch together, and then, after tying the +pony to a tree, we strolled through the woods, picking up the colored +leaves. Suddenly one of my attacks came on, and it was a bad attack; I +was unconscious for a long time. You wouldn't leave me; and so there we +had to stay in the rain. When at last I could walk I had to come slowly. +And we couldn't find the road for a long while--it was so dark. All this +seems to him perfectly natural, Ruth; he suspects nothing. The only +point he is troubled about is your health--how that will come out after +the exposure. He is sitting by the fire down-stairs waiting for you to +wake, for I told him you were asleep. And here is something supremely +fortunate: his plan is to take you off to New York to-morrow morning, to +hit the Wednesday's Cunard steamer for Liverpool. He has had this idea +for some weeks--the idea of going abroad. That was the reason he went +away--to make ready. He didn't tell you about it, because he thought he +would take you by surprise. And he still hopes to sail on Wednesday, +provided you are well enough, it isn't to be a flying trip this time; he +is willing to stay over there for years if you like. Now, Ruth, listen +to me. You _must_ go. You need make no effort of any kind; just let +yourself slip on from day to day, passively. There is nothing difficult +about that. If there were, I should not ask you to do it, for I know you +could never play a part. But here there is no part; you need do no more +than you always have done. That has never been much, for from the first +the devotion has been on his side, not on yours, and he will expect no +more. Now try to sleep a little, and then at sunrise I will let him come +up. When he comes you needn't talk; you can say you are too tired to +talk. He is so uneasy about your health that he will fall in with +anything. Don't think about it any more. The whole thing's settled." + +Suiting her actions to her words, Dolly rearranged the coverlet over her +sister, and then, rising, she began to make a screen before the fire +with two chairs and a blanket, so that its light should not fall across +the bed. While she was thus engaged she heard a sound, and, turning her +head, she saw that Ruth was getting up. + +"What is it?" she said, going to her. "Do you want anything?" + +"Where are my clothes?" Ruth asked. She was sitting on the edge of the +bed, her bare feet resting on the rag mat by its side. + +"Portia is drying them. She left some of her things on that chair for +you. But don't get up now; the night isn't anywhere near over." + +Ruth went to the chair where lay the garments, coarse but clean; she +unbuttoned her night-gown (also one of Portia's). Then her strength +failed, and she sank down on the chair. "Come back to bed," said Dolly, +urgently. + +Ruth let her head rest on the chair-back for a moment or two. Then she +said: "I won't try to dress; I don't feel strong enough. But please get +me some stockings and shoes, and a shawl. That will be enough." + +"Are you tired of the bed? I can make you comfortable in that chair by +the fire, then," Dolly answered. "Here are stockings. And shoes, +too--Portia's. But I'm afraid they will drop off!" Kneeling down, she +drew on the stockings, and then Ruth, rising, stepped into the shoes. +Dolly went to spread a blanket over the chair, and while she was thus +engaged Ruth, seeing a homespun dress of Portia's hanging from a peg, +took it and put it on over her night-gown. + +"You need not have done that," commented Dolly; "here is a second +blanket to wrap you up in." + +But Ruth was going towards the door. Dolly hurried after her and caught +her arm. "You are not going down? What for?" + +"I don't know," answered Ruth, vaguely. Then, with quickened breath, she +added, "Yes, I _do_ know; I am going to tell--tell what I did." She was +panting a little; Dolly could hear the sound. + +The elder sister held her tightly. But Ruth did not struggle, she stood +passive. "What are you going to tell?" Dolly asked, sternly. "What _is_ +there to tell? You took a ride; you walked in the forest; you stood in a +thicket; you came back. That is all. No one saw you; no one on earth +knows anything more. And there _was_ nothing more, save in thought. Your +thoughts are your own affair, you are not required to tell them; it +would be a strange world indeed if we had to tell all our thoughts! In +your _acts_ as it has turned out, there has been nothing wrong. Leave it +so, then. Let it rest." + +Ruth did not reply. But in her clouded eyes Dolly thought she read +refusal. "Ruth, let me judge for you," she pleaded. "Could I possibly +advise you to do anything that was not your best course? Your very best? +If you force an account of your inward feelings upon your husband--who +does not ask for them or want them--you destroy his happiness, you make +him wretched. Don't you care for that? If I have never liked him--and I +may as well confess that I never have--at least I know his devotion to +you. If you tell, therefore, tell so unnecessarily, it will be a great +cruelty. Think of all he did for mother! Of all he did and tried to do +for Jared!" + +Two tears welled up in Ruth's eyes. But she did not speak. + +"And then there is another thing," Dolly went on. "If he knows the +truth, all the good in him will be changed to bitterness. And, besides, +he will be very harsh to you, Ruth; he will be brutal; and he will even +think that it is right that he should be so. For those are the ideas +of--of some people about wives who go wrong." To the woman who had +married Horace Chase Dolly could say no more. But if she had spoken out +all that was in her heart, her phrase would have been, "For those are +the ideas of common people about wives who go wrong." (For to Dolly, +Horace Chase's commonness--or what seemed to her commonness--had always +been the insupportable thing.) But what she was saying now about her +dread of his possible brutality was not in the least a fiction invented +to influence Ruth; she had in reality the greatest possible dread of it. + +Ruth, however, seemed either to have no fears at all, or else she was +all fear--fear that had reached the stage of torpor. + +"Think of _this_, too," urged Dolly, finally. "If you tell, have you the +slightest idea that your husband will be able to keep himself from +breaking off instantly all relations with the Willoughbys--with the +uncles as well as the nephew? And do you want Walter Willoughby to +suspect--as he certainly would suspect--the cause? Do you wish this +young fellow who has merely played with you, who from the beginning has +amused himself at your expense, and, no doubt, laughed at you over and +over again--do you wish him to have a fresh joke at the sight of your +imbittered husband's jealousy? Is he to tell the whole story to Marion +Barclay? And have _her_ laughing also at your hopeless passion for +him?--at the way you have thrown yourself at his head? If you are +silent, not only will your husband be saved from all his wretchedness, +but Walter Willoughby will have no story to tell!" + +For answer, Ruth gave a moan of physical weakness; she did not try to +free herself from her sister's hold; she stood motionless, her figure +drooping, her eyes closed. "Dolly," she murmured, "if you keep on +opposing me--and my strength won't hold out very long--you will end by +preventing it, preventing my telling. But there is something you won't +be able to prevent: I am so tired that I want to die! And I shouldn't +be afraid of _that_; I mean, finding a way." + +Dolly's hands dropped. + +And then Ruth, after a moment more of delay, pushed back the bolt, +passed along the entry, and began to go down the dark stairs. She went +slowly, a step at a time. A step; then a hesitation; then another step. +Finally she reached the bottom, and opened the door. + +Her descent had been noiseless; it was not until her hand touched the +latch that Chase turned his head. When he saw her, he sprang up. "_You_, +Ruthie!" he exclaimed, delightedly, as she entered, followed, after a +moment, by the frightened, wretched Dolly. "Are you well enough to be +up?" He put his arm round her and kissed her. "Come to the fire." + +But Ruth drew herself away; she moved off to a little distance. "Wait; I +have something to tell you," she answered. + +"At any rate, sit down," Chase responded, bringing the best arm-chair +and placing it before her. He had had a long experience regarding her +changing caprices; he never disputed them. + +But she did not seat herself; she only leaned on the back of the chair, +her hands grasping its top. "I did not take that ride this morning for +the reason you think," she began. "I was going to Walter Willoughby; I +knew he was at The Lodge." + +"Well, then, I wish you hadn't," replied Chase. He looked annoyed, but +not angry. "Fellows like Walter are conceited enough without that sort +of thing. If you wanted to see him, you could have sent a note, asking +him to come to L'Hommedieu. Or Dolly could have written it for you; that +would have been the best way. But don't stand there; sit down." + +Ruth took a fresh grasp of the chair. "You do not comprehend," she said, +her voice showing how little strength she had. But though she was weak +physically, there was no nervousness; she was perfectly calm. "You do +not comprehend. I was going to him because I loved him, Horace. I have +loved him for a long time. I loved him so that I _had_ to go!" + +As she said this her husband's face changed--changed in a way that was +pitiful to see. He looked stunned, stricken. + +"I did not mean to," Ruth went on. "I did not know what it was at first. +And then--it was too late. I thought he loved me; I was sure of it. And +so--I went to him." + +Dolly, hurrying forward, laid her hand restrainingly on Chase's wrist. +"He didn't see her, no one saw her. And she did no harm, no harm +whatever." + +But Chase shook Dolly off with a motion of his shoulder. Ruth, too, paid +no heed to her sister; she looked straight at her husband, not +defiantly, but drearily; she went on with her tale almost mechanically, +and with the same desperate calmness as before. "So I went to him; I +left my horse here, and went up through the woods. But he had Marion +Barclay there; I saw her. And I saw his face, the expression of his +face, as he talked to her; it is Marion he loves!" + +"I could have told you that. At least I could have told you that he has +been trying to get that girl for a long time," said Chase, bitterly. +"But there was nothing in that to hold him back as regards _you_. And it +hasn't held him back; it hasn't prevented him from--But he shall answer +for this! Answer to _me_." The rage in his face was deep; his eyes +gleamed; his hands were clinched. Dolly turned cold. "He will _kill_ +Walter," she thought. "Oh, what will he do to Ruth?" + +Ruth had left her chair; she came and stood before her husband. "He +isn't to blame, Horace. I would tell you if he were; I should like to +see Marion Barclay suffer! But if you go to him, he will only laugh at +you, and with reason; for he has never cared for me, and he has never +even pretended to care; I see that now. It is _I_ who have been in love +with _him_. It began that first winter we spent in Florida," she went +on. She had returned to her place behind the chair, and her eyes were +again fixed upon her husband's face. "And when he told me, suddenly, +that he was going to California, going for years, I could not breathe. +Then, when Jared died, and mother died, and you were so good to me, I +tried to forget him. But as soon as I saw him again I knew that it was +of no use--no sort of use!" + +"You'll never make me believe that _he_ did nothing all this time," said +Chase, savagely. "That he didn't profit--that he didn't take +advantage--" + +But Ruth shook her head. "No. Perhaps he amused himself a little. Once +or twice he said a few words. But that was all. And even this was called +out by me--by _my_ love. Left to himself, he always drew back, he always +stopped. But _I_--I never did! You must believe me about this--I mean +about its having been _my_ doing. How can I make you believe it? If I +say that by my mother's memory, by Jared's, what I have told you is +true, will you believe it then? Very well; I _do_ say so." Exhausted, +she put her face down upon her hands on the top of the chair-back. + +The firelight, which was now brilliant, had revealed her clearly. Her +figure in the homespun dress looked wasted; in her face there was now no +beauty, the irregularity of its outlines was conspicuous, the bright +color was gone, the eyes were dull and dead. + +Something in her bowed head touched Chase keenly. A memory of her as she +was when he married her came before him, the radiant young creature who +had given herself to him so willingly and so joyously. + +"Ruthie, we'll forget it," he said, in a changed voice. "I was too old +for you, I am afraid. I ought not to have asked you to marry me. But +it's done now, past mending, and we must make the best of it. But we'll +begin all over again, my poor little girl." For his wife had always +seemed to him a child, an impulsive, lovely child; a little spoiled, no +doubt, but enchantingly sweet and dear. Her affection for him, as far as +it went, had been sincere; he had comprehended that from the beginning. +And alluring though she was to him in her young beauty, he would not +have married her without it; her consent, even her willing consent, +would not have been enough. And now it seemed to him that he could go +back to that girlish liking, that he could foster it and draw it out. He +had not protected her from her own fancies, he had not guarded her or +guided her. Now he would make her more a part of his life; he would no +longer think of her as a child. + +He had come to her as he spoke. This time she did not draw herself away; +but, looking at him with the same fixed gaze, she went on. She had been +speaking slowly, but now her words came pouring forth in a flood as +though she felt that it was the only way in which she could get them +spoken at all; each brief phrase was hurried out with a quick pant. + +"Oh, you don't understand. You think it was a fancy. But it wasn't, it +wasn't; I _loved_ him! I was going to stay with him forever. I would +have gone to the ends of the earth with him. I would never have asked a +question. I hadn't the least hesitation; you mustn't think that I had. I +sang to myself as I rode out here, I was so happy and glad. I didn't +care what became of you; I didn't even think of you. If he had been +alone at The Lodge, I should have gone straight into his arms. And you +might have come in, and I shouldn't have minded; I shouldn't even have +known you were there! From the moment I started, you were nothing to +me--nothing; you didn't exist! I am as guilty as a woman can be. I had +every intention, every inclination. What was lacking was _his_ will; but +never mine! It was only twelve hours ago. I haven't changed in that +time. The only change is that now I know he doesn't care for _me_. I +would have accepted anything--yes, anything. It was only twelve hours +ago, and if he _had_ been alone at The Lodge, whether he really loved me +or not, he would not have--turned me out." + +"No; damn him!" answered Chase. + +"And _I_ should have been glad to stay," Ruth concluded, inflexibly. + +Her husband turned away. It was a strong man's anguish. He sat down by +the fire, his face covered by his hands. + +Into the pause there now came again the strains of Portia's hymn in the +kitchen--that verse about "the peerly gates" which she was hopefully +singing a second time to Dave. Then, in the silence that followed, the +room seemed filled with the rushing sound of the rain. + +Ruth had remained motionless. "I shall never be any better," she went on +with the same desperation; "I wish you to understand me just as I really +am. I might even do it a second time; I don't know. You may make +whatever arrangements you like about me; I agree to all in advance. And +now--I'll go." Turning, she went towards the door of the stairway, the +pale Dolly joining her in silence. + +Then Horace Chase got up. His face showed how profoundly he had +suffered; it was changed, changed for life. "After all this that you've +told me, Ruth, I don't press myself upon you--I never shall again; I +_couldn't;_ that's ended. You haven't got any father or mother, and +you're very young yet; so I shall have to see to you for the present. +But it can be done from a distance, and that's the way I'll fix it. You +mustn't think I don't feel this thing because I don't say much. It just +about kills me! But as to condemning, coming down on you out and out, I +don't do it, I haven't got the cheek! Who am I that I should dare to? +Have I been so faultless myself that I have any right to judge _you?_" +And as he said this, his rugged face had, for the moment, an expression +that was striking in its beauty; its mixture of sorrow, honesty, and +grandeur. + +Ruth gazed at him. Then she gave an inarticulate entreating cry, and ran +to him. + +But she was so weak that she fell, and Dolly rushed forward. + +Horace Chase put Dolly aside--put her aside forever. He lifted his wife +in his arms, and silently bent his head over hers as it lay on his +breast. + +THE END + + * * * * * + +BY CONSTANCE F. WOOLSON. + +JUPITER LIGHTS. 16mo, Cloth, $1 25. + +EAST ANGELS. 16mo, Cloth, $1 25. + +ANNE. Illustrated. 16mo, Cloth, $1 25. + +FOR THE MAJOR. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00. + +CASTLE NOWHERE. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00. + +RODMAN THE KEEPER. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00. + +There is a certain bright cheerfulness in Miss Woolson's writing which +invests all her characters with lovable qualities.--_Jewish Advocate_, +N. Y. + +Miss Woolson is among our few successful writers of interesting magazine +stories, and her skill and power are perceptible in the delineation of +her heroines no less than in the suggestive pictures of local +life.--_Jewish Messenger_, N. Y. + +Constance Fenimore Woolson may easily become the novelist +laureate.--_Boston Globe._ + +Miss Woolson has a graceful fancy, a ready wit, a polished style, and +conspicuous dramatic power; while her skill in the development of a +story is very remarkable.--_London Life._ + +Miss Woolson never once follows the beaten track of the orthodox +novelist, but strikes a new and richly-loaded vein, which so far is all +her own; and thus we feel, on reading one of her works, a fresh +sensation, and we put down the book with a sigh to think our pleasant +task of reading it is finished. The author's lines must have fallen to +her in very pleasant places; or she has, perhaps, within herself the +wealth of womanly love and tenderness she pours so freely into all she +writes. Such books as hers do much to elevate the moral tone of the +day--a quality sadly wanting in novels of the time.--_Whitehall Review_, +London. + +PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. + +==>_The above works sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the +United States, Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price._ + + * * * * * + +BY MARIA LOUISE POOL. + +THE TWO SALOMES. A Novel. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 25. + +A work of notable power and artistic feeling.--_Literary World_, Boston. + +The character conceptions of the story are all good and well wrought +out, the situations are all logical and expressive, and the interest in +the problem keeps fresh till the close of the book.--_Providence +Journal._ + +KATHARINE NORTH. A Novel. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 25. + +"Katharine North" is, from an artistic and literary standpoint, Miss +Pool's best work, and will take high rank among the novels of the year. +The story is an intensely interesting one, and is most skilfully +constructed.--_Boston Traveller._ + +MRS. KEATS BRADFORD. A Novel. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 25. + +Miss Pool's novels have the characteristic qualities of American life. +They have an indigenous flavor. The author is on her own ground, +instinct with American feeling and purpose.--_N. Y. Tribune._ + +ROWENY IN BOSTON. A Novel. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 25. + +Is a surprisingly good story.... It is a very delicately drawn story in +all particulars. It is sensitive in the matter of ideas and of phrase. +Its characters make a delightful company. It is excellent art and rare +entertainment.--_N. Y. Sun._ + +DALLY. A Novel. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 25; Paper, 50 cents. + +There is not a lay figure in the book; all are flesh and blood +creations.... The humor of "Dally" is grateful to the sense; it is +provided in abundance, together with touches of pathos, an inseparable +concomitant.--_Philadelphia Ledger._ + +PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. + +==>_The above works are for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent by_ +HARPER & BROTHERS, _postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, +Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price._ + + * * * * * + +BY JAMES M. LUDLOW. + +THE CAPTAIN OF THE JANIZARIES. A Tale of the Times of Scanderbeg and the +Fall of Constantinople. 16mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 50; Paper, 50 cents. + +Strong in its central historical character, abounding in incident, rapid +and stirring in action, animated and often brilliant in +style.--_Christian Union_, N. Y. + +Something new and striking interests us in almost every chapter. The +peasantry of the Balkans, the training and government of the Janizaries, +the interior of Christian and Moslem camps, the horrors of raids and +battles, the violence of the Sultan, the tricks of spies, the exploits +of heroes, engage Mr. Ludlow's fluent pen.--_N. Y. Tribune._ + +A KING OF TYRE. A Tale of the Times of Ezra and Nehemiah. 16mo, Cloth, +Ornamental, $1 00. + +It is altogether a fresh and enjoyable tale, strong in its situations +and stirring in its actions.--_Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette._ + +The picture of the life and manners of that far-away period is carefully +and artistically drawn, the plot is full of interest, and the whole +treatment of the subject is strikingly original, and there is a dramatic +intensity in the story which will at once remind the reader of +"Ben-Hur."--_Boston Traveller._ + +THAT ANGELIC WOMAN. A Novel. 16mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 00. + +The plot is skilfully drawn, the whole story shows dramatic power, and +the conclusion will satisfy those readers who prefer a happy ending of +an exciting tale.--_Observer_, N. Y. + +Dramatic, vivid in scene and action, it has many truthful touches, and +is written with the easy clearness and quick movement familiar to Dr. +Ludlow's readers.--_Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette._ + +PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. + +==>_The above works are for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent by +the publishers, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, +Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price._ + + * * * * * + +THE PRINCE OF INDIA; + +Or, Why Constantinople Fell. By LEW. WALLACE, Author of "Ben-Hur," "The +Boyhood of Christ," etc. Two Volumes. 16mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $2 50; +Half Leather, $4 00; Three-quarter Leather, $5 00; Three-quarter Calf, +$6 00; Three-quarter Crushed Levant, $8 00. (_In a Box._) + +General Wallace has achieved the (literary) impossible. He has struck +the bull's-eye twice in succession. After his phenomenal hit with +"Ben-Hur" he has given us, in "The Prince of India," another book which +no man will say shows the least falling off.... It is a great +book.--_N.Y. Tribune._ + +A great story. It has power and fire. We believe that it will be read +and re-read.--_N.Y. Sun._ + +For boldness of conception this romance is unique of its kind. The +amount of research shown is immense. The mere _mise en scene_ necessary +for the proper presentation of the Byzantine period alone involves a +life-long study.... There are incidents innumerable in this romance, and +all are worked up with dramatic effect.--_N.Y. Times._ + +Its human interest is so vivid that it is one of those historical novels +laid down reluctantly, only with the last page, with the feeling that +one turns away from men and women with whom for a while he lived and +moved.... A masterly and great and absorbing work of fiction.... +Dignity, a superb conjunction of historical and imaginative material, +the movement of a strong river of fancy, an unfailing quality of human +interest, fill it overflowingly.--_N.Y. Mail and Express._ + +In invention, in the power to make mind-impressions, in thrilling +interest, "The Prince of India" is not inferior to "Ben-Hur." The visit +to the grave of Hiram, King of Tyre, with which the story opens, at once +arouses the reader's keenest interest, which culminates in the closing +pages of the second volume with the downfall of Constantinople.--_Philadelphia +Inquirer._ + +PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. + +==>_For sale by all booksellers, or will be sent by mail, postage +prepaid, to any part of the United States, Canada, or Mexico, on receipt +of the price._ + + * * * * * + +The following typographical error was corrected by the etext +transcriber: + +Two woman joined them=>Two women joined them + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Horace Chase, by Constance Fenimore Woolson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HORACE CHASE *** + +***** This file should be named 39067.txt or 39067.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/0/6/39067/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images available at The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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