there he found Dr. Paltravi still alive, but very low and very much
troubled because he had not heard from Jaqui. The latter soon perceived
it would be utterly useless to try to deceive or in any way to mislead
the old man, who, although in sad bodily condition, still preserved his
acuteness of mind. Jaqui had to tell him everything, and he began with
Florino and ended with himself, not omitting to tell how the lady had
recognized the situation, and what she had said. Then, fearing the
consequences of this revelation, he put his hand into his leathern bag
to take out a bottle of cordial. But Dr. Paltravi waved away medicine,
and sat up in bed.
"'Did you say,' he cried, 'she is growing old, and that you believe she
will continue to do so until she appears to be the lady of threescore
and ten she really is?'
"'Yes,' said Jaqui; 'that is what I said, and that is what I believe.'
"'Then, by all the holy angels,' cried Dr. Paltravi, jumping out of bed,
'she shall be my wife, and nobody else need concern himself about her.'"
"Hurrah!" cried the Daughter of the House, involuntarily springing to
her feet. "I was so afraid you would not come to that."
"I was bound to come to that, miss," said John Gayther.
"And did they really marry again?" asked the Mistress of the House.
"No," was the reply; "they did not. There was no need of it. The priests
assured them most emphatically that there was not the slightest need of
it. And so they came together again after this long interval, which had
been forty years to him, but which she had lived in forty days. If they
had been together all the time they could not have loved each other more
than they did now. To her eyes, so suddenly matured, there appeared a
handsome, stately old gentleman seventy years of age; to his eyes, from
which the visions of youth had been so suddenly removed, there appeared
a beautiful, stately old lady seventy-one years of age. It was just as
natural as if one of them had slept all day while the other had remained
awake; it was all the same to them both in the evening.
"She soon ceased to think how cruelly she had sent him away from her,
for she had been so young when she did it. And he now gave no thought to
what she had done, remembering how young she was when she did it. They
were as happy as though she had had all the past that rightfully
belonged to her, for he had had enough for both of them."
"And Jaqui?" asked the Mistress of the House.
"Oh, Jaqui was the happiest of the three of them, happy himself, and
happy in their happiness. Never again did he wish the lady in her box.
He looked no further for a smaller house which should contain but two
floors; he was as glad to stay where he was as they were to have him.
They were three very happy people, all of them greatly interested in the
progress of scientific investigation."
"And not one of them deserved to be happy," said the Daughter of the
House.
"But you must remember, miss, this is a story about realities," said the
gardener.
She sighed a little sigh; she knew that where realities are concerned
this sort of thing generally happens.
"That is a very good story, John," said the Mistress of the House,
rising from her seat; "but it seems to me that while you were talking
you sometimes thought of yourself as Jaqui."
"There is something in that, madam," answered the gardener; "it may have
been that during the story I sometimes did think that I myself might
have been Jaqui."
"Mamma," said the Daughter of the House, as the two walked out of the
garden, "don't you think that John Gayther is very intelligent?"
"I have always thought him remarkably intelligent," her mother replied.
"I have noticed that gardeners generally are a thoughtful, intelligent
race of men."
"I don't think it is so much the garden as because he has travelled so
much," said the young lady, "and I have a strange feeling that he has a
story of his own in the past. I wonder if he will ever tell it to me."
"If he has such a story," said the elder lady, "he will never tell it to
you."
THIS STORY IS TOLD BY
THE MISTRESS OF THE HOUSE
AND IS CALLED
THE COT AND THE RILL
IV
THE COT AND THE RILL
A week or so later the Daughter of the House came skipping down one of
the broad paths. John Gayther stood still and looked at her, glad to see
her coming, as he always was, no matter on what errand she came.
"John," she cried, before she reached him, "you are to stop work!" Then,
as she came up to him, she continued: "Yes; there is to be story-telling
this morning. We have told papa about it, and he is coming to what he
calls the story-telling place with us, and mamma feels inspired to tell
the story. So you may take that troubled look out of your face. Please
put the big easy garden-chair in the shade of the summer-house. Papa
does so like to be comfortable. And the view from there is so fine, you
know--a beautiful land view. Papa must be tired of sea views and shore
views, and here he will enjoy the mountains!"
Having delivered all this very volubly, the Daughter of the House
skipped away. And as John Gayther busied himself in making the
"story-telling place" attractive he felt glad that there were others
besides himself who liked to tell stories. There was such a thing as
overworking a mine. He was that rare thing, a story-teller who is also a
good listener. Moreover, John felt very diffident about telling one of
his stories before the Master of the House, who was a man prone to speak
his mind. Not that John disliked the Master of the House. Far from it.
He, with the family, was pleased when the Master of the House returned
from a long cruise and proceeded immediately to make himself very much
at home. For the Master of the House was a captain in the navy, and as
hearty, bluff, and good-natured as a captain should be.
The captain had been at home some days, and had been in the garden
several times, and now John Gayther was filled with admiration as he saw
this fine, sturdy figure, clad all in white, approach the summer-house.
With an air of supreme content this figure partly stretched itself in
the big garden-chair, while the two ladies seated themselves on the
bench. John Gayther stood respectfully until the Master of the House
motioned to him to sit on his stool.
"Good morning, John," he cried heartily. "We've piped all hands to
yarns. I have heard what you can do in this line, and we shall call upon
you before long. This time you are privileged to listen. You can let
somebody else cut your asparagus and dig your potatoes this morning."
"Papa," said his daughter, "it is too late for asparagus and too early
for potatoes. I am afraid you forget about these things when you are at
sea."
"Not at all," said her father. "On shipboard we cut our asparagus at any
time of the year. The steward does it with a big knife, which he jabs
through the covers of the tin cans. As for potatoes, they are always
with us."
The Mistress of the House was now prepared to tell her story.
"I am going to tell my story in the first person," she began.
"There is no better person," interrupted the Master of the House.
"I do not intend to describe my hero who is to tell the story,"
continued his wife. "I will only say that he is moderately young and
moderately handsome. Various other things about him you will find out as
the story goes on. Now, then, he begins thus: I was driving my wife in a
buggy in a mountainous region, and when we reached the top of a little
rise in the road, Anita put her hand on my arm. 'Stop,' she said; 'look
down there! That is what I like! It is a cot and a rill. You see that
cot--not much of a house, to be sure, but it would do. And there, just
near enough for the water to tumble over rocks and gurgle over stones to
soothe one to sleep on summer nights, is the rill--not much of a rill,
perhaps, but I think it could be arranged with a shovel. And then, all
the rest is enchanting. I had been looking at it for some time before I
spoke. There is a smooth meadow stretching away to a forest, and behind
that there are hills, and in the distance you can just see the
mountains. Now this is the place where I should like to live. Isn't
there any way of making those horses stand still for a minute?'
"I tried my persuasive powers on the animals, and succeeded moderately.
'To live?' I asked. 'And for how long?'
"'Until about the 3d of August,' she replied. 'That will be about three
weeks.'
"'You mean,' I said in surprise, 'something like this.'
"'I do not,' answered Anita. 'I mean this very spot. To find something
like it would require months. What I want, as I have told you over and
over again, is a real cot with a real rill, to which we can go now and
live for a little while that unsophisticated life for which my soul is
longing.'
"Anita and I were taking a summer outing together, and were trying to
get into free nature, away from people we knew, and had been several
days at a mountain hotel, and were driving about the country. My black
cobs now declined to stand any longer.
"'Drive them down into the valley. There must be a road to that house,'
said Anita.
"I drove on for a short distance, and soon came to a wagon-track which
descended to the little house. 'Anita,' said I, 'I cannot go down that
road; it is too rough and rocky, and we should break something. But why
do you want to go down there, anyhow? You are not in earnest about
living in such a place as that?'
"'But I am in earnest,' she answered sweetly but decisively. 'I want to
stay in this region and explore it. We both of us hate hotels, and I
could be very happy in a cot like that (a little arranged, perhaps)
until the 3d of August, when we have to go North. But I won't ask you to
go down that road, of course. Suppose we come again to-morrow with some
quieter horses.'
"'I am sorry,' said I, 'but I cannot do that. Mr. Baxter comes
to-morrow. You know it was planned that he should always come Tuesdays.'
"She sighed. 'I suppose everything must give way to business,' she said,
'and I shall have to wait until Wednesday. But one thing must certainly
be agreed upon: when we get to that cot there must be no more Mr. Baxter;
you can certainly plan for that, can't you?'
"I made no immediate reply, because I was busy turning the horses in
rather an awkward place; but when we were on the smooth highway and were
trotting gayly back to the hotel, I discussed the matter more fully with
Anita, and I found that what she had been talking about was not a mere
fancy. Before coming to this picturesque mountain region she had set her
heart upon some sort of camping out in the midst of real nature, and
this cot-and-rill business seemed to suit her exactly.
"'I want to go there and live,' she said; 'but I do not mean any Marie
Antoinette business, with milk-pails decked with ribbons, and dainty
little straw hats. I want to live in a cot like a cotter--that is, for
us to live like two cotters. As for myself, I need it; my moral and
physical natures demand it. I must have a change, an absolute change,
and this is just what I want. I would shut out entirely the world I live
in, and it is only in a real and true cot that this can be done as I
want to do it.'
"She talked a great deal more on the same subject, and then I told her
that if it suited her it suited me, and that on the day after to-morrow
we would drive out again and examine the cot. For the rest of the day
and the greater part of the evening Anita talked of nothing but her
projected life in the valley; and before I went to sleep I was quite as
much in love with it as she was. The next day it rained, but Mr. Baxter
came all the same; weather never interfered with him."
"Who in the name of common sense is Mr. Baxter?" asked the Master of the
House. "I like to know who people are when I am being told what they
do."
"I had hoped," said the Mistress of the House, "that I should be able
to tell my story so you would find out for yourselves all about the
characters, just as in real life if you see a man working in a garden
you know he is a gardener."
"But he may not be," said her husband; "he may be a coachman pulling
carrots for his horses."
"But, as you wish it," continued the Mistress of the House, "I do not
mind telling you that Mr. Baxter was my hero's right-hand man and
business manager. And now he will go on:
"After Baxter and I had finished our business I told him about the cot,
for if we carried out Anita's plan it would be necessary for him to know
where we were. Then, putting on waterproof coats, we rode over to the
place which had excited my wife's desire to become a cotter. We found
the house small but in good order, with four rooms and an adjunct at one
end. There were vines growing over it, and at the side of it a garden--a
garden with an irregular hedge around two sides; it was a poor sort of a
garden, mostly weeds, I thought, as I glanced at it. The stream of water
was a pretty little brook, and Baxter, who rode to the head of it, said
he thought it could be made much better.
"The house was the home of a widow with a grown-up daughter and a son
about fifteen. We talked to them, asking a great many questions about
the surrounding country, and then retired to consult. We did not
consider long; in less than ten minutes I had ordered Baxter to buy the
house and everything in it, if the people were willing to sell; and then
to purchase as much land around it as would be necessary to carry out my
plans, which I then and there imparted to him in a general way, leaving
him to attend to the details."
"Your nameless hero," said the Master of the House, "must have been in
very comfortable circumstances."
"I am glad to see that my story is explaining itself," remarked his
wife, and she continued:
"Baxter looked serious for a moment, and said it was a big piece of
work; but he did not decline it. Baxter never declined anything.
"'How much time can you give me?' he asked.
"'My wife will want to look at the place to-morrow,' I replied; 'that
is, if it does not rain: for she says she does not want to see it first
in bad weather.'
"'That's a help,' said Baxter. 'The Weather Bureau promises east winds
and rains for to-morrow and perhaps the next day. And, anyway, I know
now what you want. I will go back to town by the one-o'clock train and
start things going.'
"'There is one thing I object to,' said I, when we were on the country
road from which Anita had first seen the cot and the rill: 'the house
is in full view from this road. Before we know it we will be making
ourselves spectacles to parties from the hotel who happen to discover
us and drive out to see how we are getting on.'
"Baxter reflected. 'Oh, I can arrange that,' said he. 'I know this road;
it turns again into the highway not far below here. It is really a
private road for the benefit of this house and two others nearly a mile
farther on. I will include those places in the purchase, and close up
the road. Then I will make it a private entrance to this place, with a
locked gate. Will that do?'
"'Very well,' said I, laughing. 'But I suppose people could cut across
the country and come in at the other end of the road if they really
wanted to look into the valley?'
"'Not after I have finished the job,' said Baxter; and I asked no
further questions."
"May I inquire," said the captain, "if that Mr. Baxter is in want of a
position?"
"I am afraid, papa," said the Daughter of the House, "that you would
have to own a navy before you could employ him."
The gardener smiled. A story built upon these lines interested him. The
Mistress of the House went on without regard to the interruptions:
"I found Anita in earnest consultation with her maid Maria and the
mistress of the hotel, and it was at least an hour before she could see
me. When I told her I had secured the cot, or at least arranged to do
so, she was pleased and grateful, especially as I had had to go out into
the rain to do it. 'I knew, of course,' she said, 'that Baxter would
settle that all right, and so I have been making my arrangements. But
there is one favor I want you to grant me: I don't want you to ask me
anything about how I am going to manage matters. I don't want to deceive
you in any possible way, and so if you do not ask me any questions it
will make it easier for me.'
"'Very good,' I replied; 'and I shall ask a similar favor of you.'
"'All right,' said Anita. 'And now that matter is settled.'
"The prophecies of the weather were correct. The next day, Wednesday, it
rained, and it also rained on Thursday and Friday; but on Saturday it
looked as if it might clear in the afternoon.
"'I am not going to-day,' said Anita. 'I have been working very hard
lately, and to-morrow I will take a good rest, and we will start in on
Monday.'
"Baxter was very glad of the four days of delay occasioned by the stormy
weather, and said that without working on Sunday he could finish
everything to his satisfaction. I went down to the cot the next day to
see how he was getting on; but Anita asked me no questions, and I asked
none of her. I had never known her to be so continuously occupied. As I
stood with Baxter in front of the cottage, where there was a fine view
of the surrounding country, I asked him how much land he had thought it
desirable to purchase.
"'Over there,' he said, 'I bought just beyond that range of trees, about
half a mile, I should say. But to the west a little more, just skirting
the highroad. To the north I bought to the river, which is three
quarters of a mile. But over there to the south I included that stretch
of forest-land which extends to the foot-hills of the mountains; the
line must be about a mile from here.'
"'That is a very large tract,' said I. 'How did you manage to buy it so
quickly?'
"'I had nine real-estate agents here on Thursday morning,' he replied,
'and the sales were all consummated this morning. They all went to work
at once, each on a separate owner. We bought for cash, and no one knew
his neighbor was selling.'
"I laughed, and asked him how he was going to keep this big estate
private for our use. 'We want to wander free, you know, anywhere and
everywhere.'
"'That is what I thought,' said he, 'and that is why I took in such a
variety of scenery. Nobody will interfere with you. There will be no
inhabited house on the place except your own, and I am putting up a
fence of chicken-yard wire around the whole estate. There is nothing
like chicken-yard wire. It is six feet high and very difficult to climb
over, and it is also troublesome to cut.'
"I exclaimed in amazement: 'That will take a long time!'
"'I have contracted to have it done by Saturday morning,' replied
Baxter. 'The train with the wire fence and posts is scheduled to arrive
here at eleven o'clock to-night, and work will begin immediately. Paulo
Montani, the Italian boss who has worked for me before, has taken this
contract, and will put twelve hundred men on.'
"'The train will arrive here?' said I. 'What do you mean?'
"'The M. B. & T. line runs within a mile and a half of this place, and
my trains will all be switched off at a convenient place near here.'
"'I would not have supposed there was a side-track there,' I remarked.
"'Oh, no,' he replied, 'there was none; but I am now having two built.
All the different gangs of men will sleep on the freight-cars, which
have been fitted up with bunks. The wood-cutters and the landscape-men,
hedgers, sodders, and all that arrived about an hour ago, and I am
expecting the mechanics' train late this afternoon. The gardeners will
not arrive until to-morrow; but if it keeps on raining, that will give
them time enough. They want wet weather for their work.'"
"Excuse me," said the Master of the House, who had now finished his
cigar and was sitting upright in his chair, "but didn't you omit to
state that your hero was the King of Siam?"
"I have nothing of the kind to state," answered his wife. "He is merely
an American gentleman.
"When I heard of the great works that were going on, I exclaimed: 'Look
here, Baxter, you must be careful about what you are doing. If you make
this place look like a vast cemetery, all laid out in smooth grass and
gravelled driveways, my wife won't like it. She wants to live in a cot,
and she wants everything to be cottish and naturally rural.'
"'That is just what I am going to make it,' said he. 'The highest grade
of true naturalism is what I am aiming at in house and grounds.
To-morrow afternoon you can look at the house. Everything will be done
then, and the furniture will all be in place, and if you want any change
there will be time enough.'
"The next day I went to the cot; but before I reached it I stopped.
'Baxter,' I said, 'you have done very well with this rill; it is quite a
roaring little torrent.'
"'Yes,' said he; 'and down below they are working on some waterfalls,
but they are not quite finished.'
"When I reached the house I did not exactly comprehend what I saw; it
was the same house, and yet it was entirely different. It seemed to have
grown fifty years older than it was when I first saw it. Its color was
that of wood beautifully stained by age. There was a low piazza I had
not noticed, which was covered with vines. Bright-colored old-fashioned
flowers were growing in beds close to the house, and there was a
pathway, bordered by box bushes, which led from the front door to a
gateway in a stone wall which partly surrounded the green little yard. I
had not noticed before the gateway or the stone wall, on which grew
bitter-sweet vines and Virginia creeper.
"'Now, you see,' said Baxter, 'this grass here is not smooth green turf,
fresh from the lawn-mower. It is natural grass, with wild flowers in it
here and there. Nearly all of it was brought from a meadow about a mile
away from here. But now step inside a minute. Everything there is of the
period of 1849: horsehair, you see, lots of black walnut, color all
toned down, and all the ornaments covered with netting to keep the flies
off.'
"I was interested and amused; but I told Baxter I did not want to see
everything now; I wished to enjoy the place with my wife when we should
come to it. He was doing admirably, and I would leave everything to him.
As I stood on the little portico and looked over the valley, I saw what
seemed to be a regiment of men coming out of the woods and crossing a
field.
"'That is the first division of the wire-fence men,' said Baxter,
'going to supper. They are divided into three sections, and one gang
relieves another, so that the work is kept going all night by
torchlight.'
"As I went away Baxter called my attention to the gate at the entrance
of our road. It was of light iron, and it could be opened into a clump
of bushes where it was not likely to be noticed. 'If this gate is
locked,' said I, 'it might make trouble; it may be necessary for some
one to go in or out.'
"'Oh,' said Baxter, 'I have provided for all that. You know Baldwin, who
used to superintend your Lake George gardens? I have put him in charge
of this gate, and have lodged him in a tent over there in the woods. He
will know who to let in.'
"On Monday morning Anita rose very early, and was dressed and ready for
breakfast before I woke. The day was a fine one, and her spirits were
high. 'You have not the slightest idea,' she said, 'how I am going to
surprise you when we get to the cot.' I told her I had no doubt her
surprise would be very pleasant, and there I let the matter drop. Soon
after breakfast we drove over to the cot, this time with a coachman on
the box. When we arrived at the gate, which was open and out of sight, I
proposed to Anita that she should send the carriage back and walk to the
cot.
"'Good,' said she; 'I do not want to see a carriage for two weeks.'
"I have not time to speak of Anita's delight at everything she saw. She
was amazed that plain people such as I had told her owned the house
should have lived in such a simple, natural way. 'Everything exactly
suits everything else,' she said. 'And it is all so cheap and plain.
There is absolutely nothing that does not suit a cot.' She was wild with
excitement, and ran about like a girl; and when I followed her into the
garden, which I had not seen, I found her in one of the box-bordered
paths, clapping her hands. The place was indeed very pretty, filled with
old-fashioned flowers and herbs and hop-poles, and all sorts of country
plants and blossoms.
"At last we returned to the house. 'Now, Anita,' said I, 'we are here in
our little cot--'
"'Where we are going to be as happy as two kittens,' she interrupted.
"'And as I want everything to suit you,' I continued, 'I am going to
leave the whole matter of the domestic arrangements in your hands. You
have seen the house, and you will know what will be necessary to do.
Mention what servants you want, and I will send for them.'
"'First tell me,' said Anita, 'what you did with the people who were
here? You said there were three of them.'