Why the Misses Woodhouse, and Mr. Dale, and Mr. Denner should go to the
rectory for their Saturday night games of whist was never very clear to
any of them. The rector did not understand the game, he said, and it was
perhaps to learn that he watched every play so closely. Lois, of course,
had no part in it, for Mrs. Dale was always ready to take a hand, if one
of the usual four failed. Mrs. Dale was too impatient to play whist from
choice, but she enjoyed the consciousness of doing a favor.
Lois's only occupation was to be useful. Ashurst was strangely behind the
times in thinking that it was a privilege, as it ought to be a pleasure,
for young people to wait upon their elders and betters.
True, Mr. Denner, with old-fashioned politeness, always offered his
services when Lois went for the wine and cake at close of the rubber; but
the little gentleman would have been conscious of distinct surprise had
she accepted them, for Lois, in his eyes, was still a little girl. This
was perhaps because Mr. Denner, at sixty-two, did not realize that he had
ceased to be, as he would have expressed it, "a gentleman in middle
life." He had no landmarks of great emotions to show him how far the
sleepy years had carried him from his youth; and life in Ashurst was very
placid. There were no cases to try; property rarely went out of families
which had held it when Mr. Denner's father wrote their wills and drew up
their deeds in the same brick office which his son occupied now, and it
was a point of decency and honor that wills should not be disputed.
Yet Mr. Denner felt that his life was full of occupation. He had his
practicing in the dim organ-loft of St. Michael's and All Angels; and
every day when dinner was over, his little nephew slipped from his chair,
and stood with his hands behind him to recite his _rego regere_; then
there were always his flies and rods to keep in order against the season
when he and the rector started on long fishing tramps; and in the
evenings, when Willie had gone to bed, and his cook was reading "The
Death Beds of Eminent Saints" by the kitchen fire, Mr. Denner worked out
chess problems by himself in his library, or read Cavendish and thought
of next Saturday; and besides all this, he went once a week to Mercer,
and sat waiting for clients in a dark back office, while he studied his
weekly paper.
But though there seemed plenty to do, sometimes Mr. Denner would sigh,
and say to himself that it was somewhat lonely, and Mary was certainly
severe. He supposed that was because she had no mistress to keep an eye
on her.
These weekly games of whist were a great pleasure to him. The library at
the rectory was cheerful, and there was a feeling of importance in
playing a game at which the rector and Mrs. Dale only looked on. It was
understood that the gentlemen might smoke, though the formality of asking
permission of the ladies, and being urged by them, always took place. Mr.
Denner's weekly remark to the Misses Woodhouse in this connection, as he
stood ready to strike a match on the hearth of the big fireplace, was
well known. "When ladies," he would say, bowing to each sister in turn,
with his little heels close together and his toes turned well out,--"when
ladies are so charitable to our vices, we will not reform, lest we lose
the pleasure of being forgiven." Mr. Denner smoked a cigar, but Mr. Dale
always drew from his pocket a quaint silver pipe, very long and slender,
and with an odd suggestion of its owner about it; for he was tall and
frail, and his thin white hair, combed back from his mild face, had a
silvery gleam in the lamplight. Often the pipe would be between the pages
of a book, from the leaves of which Lois would have to shake the loose
ashes before putting it back in his pocket.
The whist party sat in high-backed chairs about a square mahogany table,
whose shining top betokened much muscle on the part of Sally. At each
corner was a candle in a tall silver candlestick, because Miss Deborah
objected to a shadow on the board, which would have been cast by a
hanging lamp. The August night was hot, and doors and windows were open
for any breath of air that might be stirring in the dark garden. Max had
retreated to the empty fireplace, finding the bricks cooler than the
carpeted floor. All was very still, save when the emphatic sweep of a
trump card made the candle flames flicker. But the deals were a
diversion. Then the rector, who had tiptoed about, to look over the
shoulder of each player, might say, "You didn't answer Miss Ruth's call,
Denner;" or, "Bless my soul, Dale, what made you play a ten-spot on that
second hand round? You ought not to send a boy to take a trick, sir!"
It was in one of these pauses that Mrs. Dale, drawing a shining
knitting-needle out of her work, said, "I suppose you got my message this
morning, brother, that Arabella Forsythe didn't feel well enough to come
to-night? I told her she should have Henry's place, but she said she
wasn't equal to the excitement." Mrs. Dale gave a careful laugh; she did
not wish to make Mrs. Forsythe absurd in the eyes of one person present.
"You offered her my place, my dear?" Mr. Dale asked, turning his blue
eyes upon her. "I didn't know that, but it was quite right."
"Of course it was," replied Mrs. Dale decidedly, while the rector said,
"Yes, young Forsythe said you sent him to say so."
Mrs. Dale glanced at Lois, sitting in one of the deep window-seats,
reading, with the lamplight shining on her pretty face.
"I asked him to come," continued the rector, "but he said he must not
leave his mother; she was not feeling well."
"Quite right, very proper," murmured the rest of the party; but Mrs. Dale
added, "As there's no conversation, I'm afraid it would have been very
stupid; I guess he knew that. And I certainly should not have allowed
Henry to give up his seat to him." As she said this, she looked at Mr.
Denner, who felt, under that clear, relentless eye, his would have been
the seat vacated, if Dick Forsythe had come. Mr. Denner sighed; he had no
one to protect him, as Dale had.
"I wonder," said Miss Deborah, who was sorting her cards, and putting all
the trumps at the right side, "what decided Mr. Forsythe to spend the
summer here? I understood that his mother took the house in Ashurst just
because he was going to be abroad."
Mrs. Dale nodded her head until her glasses glistened, and looked at
Lois, but the girl's eyes were fastened upon her book.
"I think," remarked Mr. Dale, hesitating, and then glancing at his wife,
"he is rather a changeable young man. He has one view in the morning, and
another in the afternoon."
"Don't be so foolish, Henry," said his wife sharply. "I hope there's
nothing wrong in the young man finding his own country more attractive
than Europe? To change his mind in that way is very sensible." But this
was in a hushed voice, for Mr. Denner had led, and the room was silent
again.
At the next deal, Miss Deborah looked sympathetically at Mr. Dale. "I
think he is changeable," she said; "his own mother told me that she was
constantly afraid he'd marry some unsuitable young woman, and the only
safety was that he would see a new one before it became too serious. She
said it really told upon her health. Dear me, I should think it might."
Mrs. Dale tossed her head, and her knitting-needles clicked viciously;
then she told Lois that this was the rubber, and she had better see to
the tray. The young girl must have heard every word they said, though
she had not lifted her bright eyes from her book, but she did not seem
disturbed by the charge of fickleness on the part of Mr. Forsythe. He had
not confided to her his reasons for not going abroad; all she knew was
that the summer was the merriest one she had ever spent. "I feel so
young," little Lois said; and indeed she had caught a certain careless
gayety from her almost daily companion, which did not belong to Ashurst.
But she gave no thought to his reason for staying, though her father and
Mrs. Dale did, and with great satisfaction.
"What do you hear from Helen, brother?" Mrs. Dale asked, as Lois rose to
do her bidding. Mrs. Dale was determined to leave the subject of Dick
Forsythe, "for Henry has so little sense," she thought, "there is no
knowing what he'll say next, or Deborah Woodhouse either. But then, one
couldn't expect anything else of her."
"Ah,--she's all right," said Dr. Howe, frowning at Miss Ruth's hand, and
then glancing at Mr. Dale's, and thrusting out his lower lip, while his
bushy eyebrows gathered in a frown.
"What is Ward?" asked Mr. Dale, sorting his cards. "Old or new school?"
"I'm sure I don't know the difference," said Dr. Howe; "he's a blue
Presbyterian, though, through and through. He didn't have much to say
for himself, but what he did say made me believe he was consistent; he
doesn't stop short where his creed ceases to be agreeable, and you know
that is unusual."
"Well," remarked the older man, "he might be consistent and belong to
either school. I am told the difference consists merely in the fact that
the old school have cold roast beef on the Sabbath, and the new school
have hot roast beef on Sunday. But doubtless both unite on hell for other
sects."
The rector's quick laugh was silenced by the game, but at the next pause
he hastened to tell them what John Ward had said of slavery. "Fancy such
a speech!" he cried, his face growing red at the remembrance. "Under the
circumstances, I couldn't tell him what I thought of him; but I had my
opinion. I wonder," he went on, rattling a bunch of keys in his pocket,
"what would be the attitude of a mind like his in politics? Conservative
to the most ridiculous degree, I imagine. Of course, to a certain extent,
it is proper to be conservative. I am conservative myself; I don't like
to see the younger generation rushing into things because they are new,
like Gifford,--calling himself a Democrat. I beg your pardon, Miss
Deborah, for finding fault with the boy."
"Ah, doctor, ladies don't understand politics," answered Miss Deborah
politely.
"But really," said the rector, "for a boy whose father died for the
Union, it's absurd, you know, perfectly absurd. But Ward! one can't
imagine that he would ever change in anything, and that sort of
conservatism can be carried too far."
"Well, now," said Mr. Denner, "I should say, I should be inclined to
think, it would be just the opposite, quite--quite the contrary. From
what you say, doctor, it seems to me more likely that he might be an
anarchist, as it were. Yes, not at all a conservative."
"How so?" asked the rector. "A man who would say such a thing as that the
Bible, his interpretation of it, was to decide all questions of duty (a
pretty dangerous thing that, for a man must have inclinations of his own,
which would be sure to color his interpretation! What?), and who would
bring all his actions down to its literal teachings without regard to
more modern needs? No, Denner; you are wrong there."
"Not altogether," Mr. Dale demurred in his gentle voice. "Ward would
believe in a party only so long as it agreed with his conscience, I
should suppose, and his conscience might make him--anything. And
certainly the Bible test would not leave him content with democracy,
doctor. Communism is literal Christianity. I can fancy he would leave any
party, if he thought its teachings were not supported by the Bible. But I
scarcely know him; my opinion is very superficial."
"Why do you express it, then?" said Mrs. Dale. "Don't you see Deborah has
led? You are keeping the whole table waiting!"
They began to play. Mr. Denner, who was facing the open door, could see
the square hall, and the white stair-rail across the first landing, where
with the moon and stars about its face, the clock stood; it was just five
minutes to nine. This made the lawyer nervous; he played a low trump, in
spite of the rector's mutter of, "Look out, Denner!" and thus lost the
trick, which meant the rubber, so he threw down his cards in despair. He
had scarcely finished explaining that he meant to play the king, but
threw the knave by mistake, when Lois entered, followed by Sally with the
big tray, which always carried exactly the same things: a little fat
decanter, with a silver collar jingling about its neck, marked, Sherry,
'39; a plate of ratifia cakes, and another of plum-cake for the rector's
especial delectation; and a silver wire basket full of home-made candy
for Mr. Dale, who had two weaknesses, candy and novels. Of late Mrs. Dale
had ceased to inveigh against these tastes, feeling that it was hopeless
to look for reformation in a man nearly seventy years old. "It is bad
manners," she said, "to do foolish things if they make you conspicuous.
But then! it is easier to change a man's creed than his manners."
The candles stood in a gleaming row on the mantelpiece, where Lois had
placed them to make room for the tray on the whist-table; for it was
useless to think of putting anything on the rector's writing-table, with
its litter of church papers, and sporting journals, and numbers of Bell's
"Life," besides unanswered letters. The ladies, still sitting in the
high-backed chairs, spread white doilies over their laps, and then took
their small glasses of wine and delicate little cakes, but the gentlemen
ate and drank standing, and they all discussed the last game very
earnestly. Only Lois, waiting by the tray, ready to hand the cake, was
silent. It was a peculiarity of Ashurst that even after childhood had
passed young people were still expected to be seen, and not heard; so her
silence would only have been thought decorous, had any one noticed it.
By and by, when she saw she was not needed, she slipped out to the front
porch, and sat down on the steps. Max followed her, and thrust his cold
nose under her hand.
She propped her chin upon her little fist, and began to think of what had
been said of Ashurst's visitors. With a thrill of subtile satisfaction,
she remembered how pleased Mrs. Forsythe always was to see her. "She
won't have any anxiety this summer which will injure her health!" And
then she tried to disguise her thought by saying to herself that there
were no girls in Ashurst who were not "suitable."
"Good-evening," some one said gayly. It was Mr. Forsythe, who had come so
quietly along the path, dark with its arching laburnums and syringas, she
had not heard him.
"Oh," she said, with a little start of surprise, "I did not know we were
to see you to-night. Is your mother"--
"I'm like the man in the Bible," he interrupted, laughing. "He said he
wouldn't, then he did!" He had followed her to the library, and stood,
smiling, with a hand on each side of the doorway. "I started for a walk,
doctor, and somehow I found myself here. No cake, thank you,--yes, I
guess I'll have some sherry. Oh, the whist is over. Who is to be
congratulated, Mrs. Dale? For my part, I never could understand the
fascination of the game. Euchre is heavy enough for me. May I have some
of Mr. Dale's candy, Miss Lois?"
Except Mrs. Dale, the little party of older people seemed stunned by the
quick way in which he talked. His airy manner and flimsy wit impressed
them with a sense of his knowledge of life. He represented the world
to them, the World with a capital W, and they were all more or less
conscious of a certain awe in his presence. His utter disregard of the
little observances and forms which were expected from Ashurst young
people gave them a series of shocks, that were rather pleasant than
otherwise.
Mr. Dale looked confused, and handed him the candy with such nervous
haste, some of it fell to the floor, which gave the young man a chance
for his frequent light laugh. Miss Deborah began in an agitated way to
pick up the crumbs of cake from her lap, and ask her sister if she did
not think Sarah had come for them. Mr. Denner stopped talking about a new
sort of fly for trout, and said he thought--yes, he really thought, he
had better be going, but he waited to listen with open-mouthed admiration
to the ease with which the young fellow talked.
Mr. Forsythe's conversation was directed to Mrs. Dale, but it was for
Lois; nor did he seem aware of the silence which fell on the rest of
the company. Mrs. Dale enjoyed it. She answered by nods, and small
chuckles of approval, and frequent glances about at the others, as much
as to say, "Do you hear that? Isn't that bright?" and a certain air of
proprietorship, which meant that she thoroughly approved of Mr. Forsythe,
and regarded him as her own discovery.
"This is the time we miss Gifford," said Miss Deborah, who had gone out
into the hall to put on her overshoes. "He was such a useful child." Lois
came to help her, for Mr. Denner was far too timid to offer assistance,
and the rector too stout, and Mr. Dale too absent-minded. As for Mr.
Forsythe, he did not notice how Miss Deborah was occupied, until Lois had
joined her; and then his offer was not accepted, for Miss Deborah felt
shy about putting out her foot in its black kid slipper, tied about the
ankle with a black ribbon, in the presence of this young man, who was,
she was sure, very genteel.
Mr. Forsythe's call was necessarily a short one, for, charming as he was,
Ashurst custom would not have permitted him to stay when the party had
broken up. However, he meant to walk along with the Dales, and hear her
aunt talk about Lois.
The Misses Woodhouse's maid was waiting for them, her lantern swinging in
her hand. Mr. Denner had secretly hoped for a chance of "seeing them
home," but dared not offer his unnecessary services in Sarah's presence.
Dr. Howe and his daughter went as far as the gate with their guests, and
then stood watching them down the lane, until a turn in the road hid the
glimmer of the lantern and the dark figures beside it.
"Bless my soul!" said the rector, as they turned to go back to the house.
"This gayety has made me almost forget my sermon. I must not put it off
so, next week."
This remark of Dr. Howe's was almost as regular as the whist party
itself.
Miss Deborah and Miss Ruth trotted behind Sarah, whose determined stride
kept them a little ahead of the others; Dick Forsythe had joined Mrs.
Dale at once, so Mr. Dale and Mr. Denner walked together. They were only
far enough behind to have the zest one feels in talking about his
neighbors when there is danger of being overheard.
"He is a very fine conversationalist," said Mr. Denner, nodding his head
in Dick's direction; "he talks very well."
"He talks a great deal," observed Mr. Dale.
"He seems to feel," Mr. Denner continued, "no--ah, if I can so express
it--timidity."
"None," responded Mr. Dale.
"And I judge he has seen a great deal of the world," said Mr. Denner;
"yet he appears to be satisfied with Ashurst, and I have sometimes
thought, Henry, that Ashurst is not, as it were, gay." As he said this,
a certain jauntiness came into his step, as though he did not include
himself among those who were not "gay." "Yet he seems to be content.
I've known him come down to the church when Lois was singing, and sit a
whole hour, apparently meditating. He is no doubt a very thoughtful young
man."
"Bah!" answered Mr. Dale, "he comes to hear Lois sing."
Mr. Denner gave a little start. "Oh," he said--"ah--I had not thought of
that." But when he left Mr. Dale, and slipped into the shadows of the
Lombardy poplars on either side of his white gate-posts, Mr. Denner
thought much of it,--more with a sort of envy of Mr. Forsythe's future
than of Lois. "He will marry, some time (perhaps little Lois), and then
he will have a comfortable home."
Mr. Denner sat down on the steps outside of his big white front door,
which had a brass knocker and knob that Mary had polished until the paint
had worn away around them. Mr. Denner's house was of rough brick, laid
with great waste of mortar, so that it looked as though covered with many
small white seams. Some ivy grew about the western windows of the
library, but on the north and east sides it had stretched across the
closed white shutters, for these rooms had scarcely been entered since
little Willie Denner's mother died, five years ago. She had kept house
for her brother-in-law, and had brought some brightness into his life;
but since her death, his one servant had had matters in her own hands,
and the house grew more lonely and cheerless each year. Mr. Denner's
office was in his garden, and was of brick, like his house, but nearer
the road, and without the softening touch of ivy; it was damp and
mildewed, and one felt instinctively that the ancient law books must have
a film of mould on their battered covers.
The lawyer's little face had a pinched, wistful look; the curls of his
brown wig were hidden by a tall beaver hat, with the old bell crown and
straight brim; it was rarely smooth, except on Sundays, when Mary brushed
it before he went to church. He took it off now, and passed his hand
thoughtfully over his high, mild forehead, and sighed; then he looked
through one of the narrow windows on either side of the front door, where
the leaded glass was cut into crescents and circles, and fastened with
small brass rosettes; he could see the lamp Mary had left for him,
burning dimly on the hall table, under a dark portrait of some Denner,
long since dead. But he still sat upon what he called his "doorstones;"
the August starlight, and the Lombardy poplars stirring in the soft wind,
and the cricket chirping in the grass, offered more companionship, he
thought, than he would find in his dark, silent library.
The little gentleman's mind wandered off to the different homes he knew;
they were so pleasant and cheerful. There was always something bright
about the rectory, and how small and cosy Henry Dale's study was. And how
pretty the Woodhouse girls' parlor looked! Mr. Denner was as slow to
recognize the fact that Miss Deborah and Miss Ruth were no longer young
as they were themselves. Just now he thought only of the home-life in
their old house, and the comfort, and the peace. What quiet, pleasant
voices the sisters had, and how well Miss Deborah managed, and how
delightfully Miss Ruth painted! How different his own life would have
been if Gertrude Drayton--Ah, well! The little gentleman sighed again,
and then, drawing his big key from his pocket, let himself into the
silent hall, and crept quietly up-stairs.