When a woman has ceased to be quite the same to us, it matters not how
different she becomes.--W. S. LANDOR.
The house is still. Every one is shut in with his or her thoughts.
Floyd Grandon goes to the bed of his little girl, where Jane sits
watching in an uncertain state, since everything is so new and strange.
How lovely the child is! The rosy lips are parted, showing the pearly
teeth, the face is a little flushed with warmth, one pale, pink-tinted
ear is like a bit of sculpture, the dimpled shoulder, the one dainty
bare foot outside the spread, seem parts of a cherub. He presses it
softly; he kisses the sweet lips that smile. Is it really the sense of
ownership that makes her so dear?
He has never experienced this jealous, overwhelming tenderness for
anything human. He loves his mother with all a son's respect, and has a
peculiar sympathy for her. If his father were alive he knows they would
be good comrades to stand by each other, to have a certain positive
faith and honor in each other's integrity. His brother and
sisters--well, he has never known them intimately, even as one gets to
know friends, but he will take them upon trust. Then there are two
women,--the mother of his child, and that affluent, elegant being
across the hall. Does his heart warm to her? And yet she might have
been mistress here and the mother of his children. The "might have
been" in his thought would comfort his mother greatly, who is
wondering, as she moves restlessly on her pillow, if it may not yet be.
Floyd Grandon's story comprehends all the rest, so I will give that.
Some sixty years before this, two sturdy Englishmen and their sister
had come to the New World, with a good deal of energy and some money.
The freak that led them up the river to this place was their love of
beautiful scenery. Land was cheap, and at first they tried farming, but
presently they started a carpet factory, their old business, and being
ingenious men, they made some improvements. Ralph Stanwood, another
Englishman, joined them. They placed their business two miles farther
up, where there were facilities for docks and the privileges they
desired.
William Grandon married, but only one of his children reached maturity.
James and his sister Marcia lived in an old farm-house, single,
prudent, turning everything into money, and putting it into land. When
James died he left his business to his brother and his share of the
farm to Marcia. When William died the business went to his son James,
except the small share belonging to Stanwood.
James married a stylish young woman who never quite suited Aunt Marcia.
They lived in the new village in a pretentious house, and came out now
and then to the farm. There were five children, and the second girl was
named after the great-aunt, who dowered her with a hundred dollars, to
be put in the bank, and a handsome christening robe, then took no
further special notice of her.
But she liked Floyd, the eldest son, and he was never weary of roaming
about the old place and listening through the long evenings to matters
she had known of in England, and places she had seen.
"Aunt Marcia," he said one day, "just up on that ridge would be a
splendid place to build a castle. All the stone could be quarried out
around here. I wish you'd let me build it when I am a man."
She laughed a little, and took a good survey of the place.
Some days after she questioned her nephew about his plans.
"Bring Eugene up to the business," she said, briefly. "Four will be
enough for your purse. I will look after Floyd."
Miss Grandon might be queer and unsocial, but she was no niggard. All
the friends of her own day were gone, and she had no gift for making
new ones, but her grand-nephew grew into her heart.
His mother watched this with a curious jealousy.
"If she had only taken one of the girls! Marcia ought to belong there."
"Nonsense!" replied her husband. "It would be a dull home for a girl.
Let her have Floyd. The lad is fond of her, and she loves him. I never
knew her to love one of her own sex."
Floyd was sent to college, but the idea of the castle grew in Aunt
Marcia's brain. Towns and villages were spreading up the river, and one
day she was offered what seemed a fabulous sum for her old home of
rocky woodlands. She was still shrewd, if she had come to fourscore,
and offered them half, on her own terms, holding off with the most
provoking indifference until they came to an agreement. Then she
announced her intention of building a home for Floyd, who was to be her
heir.
"The property ought to be yours, James," Mrs. Grandon said, with some
bitterness. "Why should she set Floyd above all the rest?"
"My dear,--as if it really made any difference!"
But the mother did look on with a rather jealous eye. Floyd came home,
and they discussed plans, viewed every foot of soil, selected the
finest spot, had the different kinds of rock examined, and finally
discovered the right place for a quarry. There was so much preliminary
work that they did not really commence until the ensuing spring, and
the foundation only had been laid when Floyd's vacation came around
again. Meanwhile, houses below them seemed to spring up as if by magic.
The mystery and fame of the "castle" helped. No one knew quite what it
was going to be, and the strange old lady intensified the whole.
There was no special haste about it, though Floyd was so interested
that he had half a mind to throw up his last year at college, but Aunt
Marcia would not agree, and he graduated with honors. Meanwhile the
house progressed, and if it did not quite reach the majesty of a
castle, it was a very fine, substantial building. Floyd threw himself
into the project now with all his energy. They would be quite detached
from their neighbors by the little grove Aunt Marcia had left standing.
There were walks and drives to build, lawns to lay out, new gardens to
plan, but before it was all completed Aunt Marcia, who had been a
little ailing for several weeks, dropped suddenly out of life, fondly
loved and deeply regretted by her grand-nephew.
Her will showed that she had planned not to have her name perish with
her. The house and several acres of ground were to constitute the
Grandon estate proper. This was to be used by Floyd during his life and
then to descend to his eldest son living. If he left no sons, and
Eugene should have a male descendant, he was to be the heir. If neither
had sons, it was to go in the female line, provided such heir took the
name of Grandon. The rest of the property was left unconditionally to
Floyd, with the exception of one thousand dollars apiece to the
children.
Floyd was at this period two-and-twenty, a rather grave and reserved
young man, with no special predilection for society. And yet, to the
great surprise of his mother, Irene Stanwood captured him and rather
cruelly flaunted her victory in the faces of all the Grandons. Yet
there really could be no objection. She was a handsome, well-educated
girl, with some fortune of her own and a considerable to come from her
mother.
Mrs. Stanwood and her daughter went abroad, where Floyd was to meet
them presently, when whatever they needed for foreign adornment of
their house would be selected. They heard of Miss Stanwood being a
great success at Paris, her beauty and breeding gaining her much favor.
And then, barely six months later, an elegant Parisian count presented
a temptation too great to be resisted. Miss Stanwood threw over Floyd
Grandon and became Madame la Comtesse.
Essentially honest and true himself, this was a great shock to Floyd
Grandon, but he learned afterward that principle and trust had been
more severely wounded than love. His regard had been a young man's
preference rather than any actual need of loving. Indeed, he was rather
shocked to think how soon he did get over the real pain, and how fast
his views of life changed.
Meanwhile Gertrude lived out a brief romance. A fascinating lover of
good family and standing, a little gay and extravagant, perhaps, but
the kind to win a girl's whole soul, and Gertrude gave him every
thought. While the wedding day was being considered, a misdeed of such
magnitude came to light that the young man was despatched to China with
all possible haste to avoid a worse alternative, and Gertrude was left
heart-broken. Then Marcia, young and giddy, half compromised herself
with an utterly unworthy admirer, and Mrs. Grandon's cup of bitterness
was full to overflowing.
Floyd leased his quarry on advantageous terms, and offered to take his
mother and two sisters abroad. This certainly was some compensation.
Marcia soon forgot her griefs, and even Gertrude was roused to
interest. At some German baths the ladies met Madame la Comtesse, and
were indebted to her for an act of friendliness. At Paris they met her
again, and here Floyd had occasion to ask himself with a little caustic
satire if he had really loved her? She had grown handsomer, she was
proud of her rank and station and the homage laid at her feet.
The Grandons returned home and took possession of Floyd's house. He
went on to Egypt, the Holy Land, and India. He was beginning to take
the true measure of his manhood, his needs and aims, to meet and mingle
with people who could stir what was best in him, and rouse him to the
serious purposes of life, when another incident occurred that might
have made sad havoc with his plans.
While at an English army station he met a very charming widow, with a
young step-daughter, who was shortly to return to England. Cecil
Trafford admired him with a girl's unreason, and at last committed such
an imprudence that the astute step-mother, seeing her opportunity,
proposed the only reparation possible,--marriage. Cecil was a bright,
pretty, wilful girl, and he liked her, yet he had a strong feeling of
being outgeneralled.
That she loved him he could not doubt, and they were married, as he
intended to return to England. But her fondness was that of a child,
and sometimes grew very wearisome. She was petulant, but not
ill-tempered; the thing she cried for to-day she forgot to-morrow.
She had one sister much older than herself, married to a clergyman and
settled in Devonshire. Floyd sought them out, and found them a most
charming household. Mr. Garth was a strongly intellectual man, and his
house was a centre for the most entertaining discussions. Mrs. Garth
had a decided gift for music, and was a well-balanced, cultivated
woman. They lingered month after month, gravitating between London and
the Garths', until Cecil's child was born. A few weeks later Cecil's
imprudence cost her life. Floyd Grandon came down from London to find
the eager, restless little thing still and calm as any sculptured
marble. He was so glad then that he had been indulgent to her whims and
caprices.
He was quite at liberty now to join an expedition to Africa that he had
heroically resisted before. Mrs. Garth kept the child. Announcing his
new plans to his mother, he set off, and for the next four years
devoted himself to the joys and hardships of a student traveller.
He was deep in researches of the mysterious lore of Egypt when a letter
that had gone sadly astray reached him, announcing his father's death
and the necessity of his return home. Leaving a friend to complete one
or two unfinished points, he reluctantly tore himself away, and yet
with a pang that after all it was too late to be of any real service to
his father, that he could never comfort his declining years as he had
Aunt Marcia's.
He had some business in Paris, and crossing the channel he met Madame
Lepelletier. She was a widow and childless. The title and estate had
gone to a younger son, though she had a fair provision. She had
received the announcement of Mr. Grandon's death and the notice of
settlement, and was on her way to America. A superbly handsome woman
now, but Grandon had seen many another among charming society women. He
was not in any sense a lady's man. His little taste of matrimony had
left a bitter flavor in his mouth.
She admitted to herself that he was very distinguished looking. The
slender fairness of youth was all outgrown. Compact, firm, supple, with
about the right proportion of flesh, bronzed, with hair and beard
darker than of yore, and that decisive aspect a man comes to have who
learns by experience to rely upon his own judgment.
"I am on my way thither," he announced, in a crisp, business-like
manner. "It is high time I returned home, though a man with no ties
could spend his life amid the curiosities of the ancient civilizations.
But my mother needs me, and I have a little girl in England."
"Ah?" with a faint lifting of the brows that indicated curiosity.
"I was married in India, but my wife died in England, where our child
was born," he said briefly, not much given to mysteries. "An aunt has
been keeping her. She must be about five," he adds more slowly.
Madame Lepelletier wondered a little about the marriage. Had the grief
at his wife's death plunged him into African wilds?
They spent two or three days in London, and she decided to wait for the
next steamer and go over with him, as he frankly admitted that he knew
nothing about children, except as he had seen them run wild. So he
despatched a letter home, recounting the chance meeting and announcing
their return, little dreaming of the suspicions it might create.
Floyd Grandon found a lovely fairy awaiting him in the old Devonshire
rectory. Tall for her age, exquisitely trained, possessing something
better than her mother's infantile prettiness. Eyes of so dark a gray
that in some lights they were black, and hair of a soft ripe-wheat
tint, fine and abundant. But the soul and spirit in her face drew him
toward her more than the personal loveliness. She was extremely shy at
first, though she had been taught to expect papa, but the strangeness
wore off presently.
They were very loth to give her up, and Mrs. Garth exacted a promise
that in her girlhood she might have her again. But when they were
fairly started on their journey Cecil was for a while inconsolable.
Grandon was puzzled. She seemed such a strange, sudden gift that he
knew not what to do. At Liverpool they met Madame Lepelletier, but all
her tenderness was of no avail. Cecil did not cry now, but utterly
refused to be comforted by this stranger.
It was to her father that she turned at last. That night she crept into
his arms of her own accord, and sobbed softly on his shoulder.
"Can I never have Auntie Dora again?" she asked, pitifully.
"My little darling, in a long, long while. But there will be new
aunties and a grandmamma."
"I don't want any one but just you." And she kissed him with a
trembling eagerness that touched his heart. Suddenly a new and
exquisite emotion thrilled him. This little morsel of humanity was all
his. She had nothing in the world nearer, and there was no other soul
to which he could lay entire claim.
After that she was a curious study to him. Gentle, yet in some respects
firm to obstinacy, with a dainty exclusiveness that was extremely
flattering, and that somehow he came to like, to enjoy with a certain
pride.
As for Madame Lepelletier, she was rather amused at first to have her
advances persistently repelled, her tempting bonbons refused, and
though she was not extravagantly fond of children, she resolved to
conquer this one's diffidence or prejudice, she could not quite decide
which.
One day, nearly at the close of their journey, she teased Cecil by her
persistence until the child answered with some anger.
"Cecil!" exclaimed Mr. Grandon, quickly.
The pretty child hung her head.
"Go and kiss Madame Lepelletier and say you are sorry. Do you know that
was very rude?" said her father.
"I don't want to be kissed. I told her so," persisted the child,
resolutely.
"It is such a trifle," interposed madame, with a charming smile. "And I
am not sure but we ought to train little girls to be chary of their
kisses. There! I will not see her teased." And the lady, rising, walked
slowly away.
"Cecil!" the tone was quietly grave now.
The large eyes filled with tears, but she made no motion to relent.
"Very well," he said. "I shall not kiss my little girl until she has
acted like a lady."
Cecil turned to Jane with a swelling heart. But an hour or two
afterward the cunning little thing climbed her father's knee, patted
his cheek with her soft fingers, parted the brown mustache, and pressed
her sweet red lips to his with arch temptation.
He drew back a trifle. "Do you remember what papa said, Cecil? Will you
go and kiss madame?"
The lip quivered. There was a long, swelling breath, and the lashes
drooped over the slightly flushed cheeks.
"Papa doesn't love me!" she uttered, like a plaint. "He wouldn't want
to give away my kisses if he did."
He took the little face in his hands, and said with a traitorous
tenderness, "My little darling, I _do_ hate to lose any of your kisses.
You see you are punishing me, too, by your refusal. I think you ought
to do what is right and what papa bids you."
"But I can't love to kiss her." And there was a great struggle in the
little soul.
"But you _can_ be sorry that you were rude."
The entreaty in the eyes almost melted him, but he said no more. She
slipped down very reluctantly, and went across to where madame was
playing chess.
"I am sorry I was rude," she said slowly. "I will kiss you now."
"You are a darling!" But for all that Madame Lepelletier longed to
shake her.
Her father received her with open arms and rapturous caresses. She gave
a little sob.
"You won't ask me again!" she cried. "I don't want anybody but just
you, now that Auntie Dora is away."
"And I want you to love me best of all. Heaven knows, my darling, how
dear you are!"
He spoke the truth. In this brief while he had grown to love her
devotedly.
Madame Lepelletier was very sweet, but she did not consider it wise to
rouse the child's opposition, since no one else could beguile favors
from her.
Before they reached New York she had allowed herself to be persuaded to
go at once to Grandon Park, and Floyd telegraphed, a little
ambiguously, used as he was to brief announcements. Madame Lepelletier
had made a half-resolve, piqued by his friendly indifference, that he
should own her charm. She would establish a footing in the family.
And now, in the quiet of the guest-chamber, where everything is more
luxurious than she has imagined, she resolves that she will win Floyd
Grandon back. She will make the mother and sisters adore her. She has
not been schooled in a French world for nothing, and yet it was not a
very satisfactory world. She will have more real happiness here; and
she sighs softly as she composes herself to sleep.
Floyd Grandon kisses his darling for the last time, then shutting his
door, sits down by the window and lights a cigar. He does not want to
sleep. Never in his life has he felt so like a prince. He has this
lovely house, and his child to watch and train, and, mayhap, some
little fame to win. He makes no moan for the dead young mother in her
grave, for he understands her too truly to desire her back, with all
her weakness and frivolity. He cannot invest her with attributes that
she never possessed, but he can remember her in the child, who shall be
true and noble and high of soul. They two, always.
Laura has fallen asleep over visions of bridal satin and lace that are
sure now to come true, but Gertrude tosses restlessly and sighs for her
lost youth. Twenty-nine seems fearfully old to-night, for the next will
be thirty. She does not care for marriage now; but she has an impending
dread of something,--it may be a contrast with that beautiful, blooming
woman.
"For I know she will _try_ to get Floyd," she says, with a bitter sigh.
This fear haunts the mother's pillow as well. Many aims and hopes of
her life have failed. She loves her younger son with a tender fervor,
but she does not desire to have the elder wrested out of her hands, and
become a guest in the home where she has reigned mistress.
Truly they are not all beds of roses.