A TALK ON THE WHARF.
"Long have I lingered where the marshlands are,
Oft hearing in the murmur of the tide
The past, alive again and at my side,
With unrelenting power and hateful war."
J. F. H.
"There goes the priest of the parish in his buggy," said Mrs. Nimmo. "He
must have a sick call."
She sat on a garden chair, crocheting a white shawl and watching the
passers-by on the road.
"And there are some Sisters of Charity from one of the convents and an
old Indian with a load of baskets is begging from them--Don't you want
to look at these bicyclists, Vesper? One, two, three, four, five, six.
They are from Boston, I know, by the square collars on their jerseys.
The Nova Scotians do not dress in that way."
Vesper gave only a partial though pleased attention to his mother, who
had picked up an astonishing amount of neighborhood news, and as he lay
on a rug at her feet, with his hat pulled over his brows, his mind
soared up to the blue sky above him. During his illness he had always
seemed to be sinking down into blackness and desolation. With returning
health and decreased nervousness his soul mounted upward, and he would
lie for hours at a time bathed in a delicious reverie and dreaming of "a
nest among the stars."
"And there is the blacksmith from the corner," continued Mrs. Nimmo,
"who comes here so often to borrow things that a blacksmith is commonly
supposed to have. Yesterday he wanted a hammer. 'Not a hammer,' said
Célina to me, 'but a wife.'"
Vesper's brain immediately turned an abrupt somersault in a descent from
the sky to earth. "What did you say, mother?"
"Merely that the blacksmith wishes to marry our landlady. It will be an
excellent match for her. Don't you think so?"
"In some respects,--yes."
"She is too young, and too handsome, to remain a widow. Célina says that
she has had a great many admirers, but she has never seemed to fancy any
one but the blacksmith. She went for a drive with him last Sunday
evening. You know that is the time young Acadiens call on the girls they
admire. You see them walking by, or driving in their buggies. If a
girl's _fiancé_ did not call on her that evening she would throw him
over--There she is now with your beef tea," and Mrs. Nimmo admiringly
watched Rose coming from the kitchen and carefully guarding a dainty
china cup in her hand.
Vesper got up and took it from her. "Don't you think it is nonsense for
me to be drinking this every morning?" he asked.
Rose looked up at him as he stood, tall, keen-eyed, interested, and
waiting for her answer. "What does madame, your mother, say?" she asked,
indicating Mrs. Nimmo, by a pretty gesture.
"His mother says," remarked Mrs. Nimmo, indulgently, "that her son
should take any dose, no matter how disagreeable, if it has for its
object the good of his health."
Vesper glanced sharply at her, then poured the last few drops of his tea
on the ground.
"Ah," said Mrs. Rose, anxiously, "I feared that I had not put in enough
salt. Now I know."
"It was perfect," said Vesper. "I am only offering a libation to those
pansies," and he inclined his dark head towards Narcisse, who was seated
cross-legged in the hammock.
Rose took the cup, smiled innocently and angelically on her child and
the young man and his mother, and returned to the house.
Agapit presently came hurrying by the fence. "Ah, that is good!" he
exclaimed, when he saw Vesper sauntering to and fro; "do you not think
you could essay a walk to the wharf?"
"Yes," said Vesper, while his mother anxiously looked up from her work.
"Then come,--let me have the honor of escorting you," and Agapit showed
his big white teeth in an ecstatic smile.
Vesper extended a hand to Narcisse, and, lifting his cap to his mother,
went slowly down the lane to the road.
Agapit could scarcely contain his delight. He grinned broadly at every
one they met, tried to accommodate his pace to Vesper's, kept forgetting
and striding ahead, and finally, cramming his hands in his pockets, fell
behind and muttered, "I feel as if I had known you a hundred years."
"You didn't feel that way six weeks ago," said Vesper, good-humoredly.
"I blush for it,--I am ashamed, but can you blame me? Since days of long
ago, Acadiens have been so much maligned. You do not find that we are
worse than others?"
"Well, I think you would have been a pretty ticklish fellow to have
handled at the time of the expulsion."
"Our dear Lord knew better than to bring me into the world then," said
Agapit, naïvely. "I should have urged the Acadiens to take up arms.
There were enough of them to kill those devilish English."
"Do all the Acadiens hate the English as much as you do?"
"_I_ hate the English?" cried Agapit. "How grossly you deceive
yourself!"
"What do you mean then by that strong language?"
Agapit threw himself into an excited attitude. "Let you dare--you
youthful, proud young republic,--to insult our Canadian flag. You would
see where stands Agapit LeNoir! England is the greatest nation in the
world," and proudly swelling out his breast, he swept his glance over
the majestic Bay before them.
"Yes, barring the United States of America."
"I cannot quarrel with you," said Agapit, and the fire left his glance,
and moisture came to his eyes. "Let us each hold to our own opinion."
"And suppose insults not forthcoming,--give me some further explanation
meantime."
"My quarrel is not with the great-minded," said Agapit, earnestly, "the
eagerly anxious-for-peace Englishmen in years gone by, who reinforced
the kings and queens of England. No,--I impeach the low-born upstarts
and their colonial accomplices. Do you know, can you imagine, that the
diabolical scheme of the expulsion of the Acadiens was conceived by a
barber, and carried into decapitation by a house painter?"
"Not possible," murmured Vesper.
"Yes, possible,--let me find you a seat. I shall not forgive myself if I
weary you, and those women will kill me."
They had reached the wharf, and Agapit pointed to a pile of boards
against the wooden breastwork that kept the waves from dashing over in
times of storm.
"That infamous letter is always like a scroll of fire before me," he
exclaimed, pacing restlessly to and fro before Vesper and the child. "In
it the once barber and footman, Craggs, who was then secretary of state,
wrote to the governor of Nova Scotia: 'I see you do not get the better
of the Acadiens. It is singular that those people should have preferred
to lose their goods rather than be exposed to fight against their
brethren. This sentimentality is stupid.' Ah, let it be stupid!"
exclaimed Agapit, breaking off. "Let us once more have an expulsion. The
Acadiens will go, they will suffer, they will die, before they give up
sentimentality."
"Hear, hear!" observed Vesper.
Agapit surveyed him with a glowing eye. "Listen to further words from
this solemn official, this barber secretary: 'These people are evidently
too much attached to their fellow countrymen and to their religion ever
to make true Englishmen.' Of what are true Englishmen made, Mr.
Englishman from Boston?"
"Of poor Frenchmen, according to the barber."
"Now hear more courtly language from the honorable Craggs: 'It must be
avowed that your position is deucedly critical. It was very difficult to
prevent them from departing after having left the bargain to their
choice--'"
"What does he mean by that?" asked Vesper.
"Call to your memory the terms of the treaty of Utrecht."
"I don't remember a word of it,--bear in mind, my friend, that I am not
an Acadien, and this question does not possess for me the moving
interest it does for you. I only know Longfellow's 'Evangeline,'--which,
until lately, has always seemed to me to be a pretty myth dressed up to
please the public, and make money for the author,--some magazine
articles, and Parkman, my favorite historian, whom you, nevertheless,
seem to dislike."
Agapit dropped on a block of wood, and rocked himself to and fro, as if
in distress. "I will not characterize Parkman, since he is your
countryman; but I would dearly love--I would truly admire to say what I
think of him. Now as to the treaty of Utrecht; think just a moment, and
you will remember that it transferred the Acadiens as the subjects of
Louis XIV. of France to the good Queen Anne of England."
Vesper, instead of puzzling his brain with historical reminiscences,
immediately began to make preparations for physical comfort, and
stretched himself out on the pile of boards, with his arm for a pillow.
"Do not sleep, but conversate," said Agapit, eagerly. "It is cool here,
you possibly would get cold if you shut your eyes. I will change this
matter of talk,--there is one I would fain introduce."
Vesper, in inward diversion, found that a new solemnity had taken
possession of the young Acadien. He looked unutterable things at the
Bay, indescribable things at the sky, and mysterious things at the cook
of the schooner, who had just thrust his head through a window in his
caboose.
At last he gave expression to his emotion. "Would this not be a fitting
time to talk of the wonderful letter of which madame, your mother,
hinted?"
Vesper, without a word, drew a folded paper from his pocket, and handed
it to him.
Agapit took it reverently, swayed back and forth while devouring its
contents, then, unable to restrain himself, sprang up, and walked, or
rather ran, to and fro while perusing it a second time.
At last he came to a dead halt, and breathing hard, and with eyes
aflame, ejaculated, "Thank you, a thousand, thousand time for showing me
this precious letter." Then pressing it to his breast, he disappeared
entirely from Vesper's range of vision.
After a time he came back. Some of his excitement had gone from his head
through his heels, and he sank heavily on a block of wood.
"You do not know, you cannot tell," he said, "what this letter means to
us."
"What does it mean?"
"It means--I do not know that I can say the word, but I will
try--cor-rob-oration."
"Explain a little further, will you?"
"In the past all was for the English. Now records are being discovered,
old documents are coming to light. The guilty colonial authorities
suppressed them. Now these records declare for the Acadiens."
"So--this letter, being from one on the opposite side, is valuable."
"It is like a diamond unearthed," said Agapit, turning it over;
"but,"--in sudden curiosity,--"this is a copy mutilated, for the name of
the captain is not here. From whom did you have it, if I am permitted to
ask?"
"From the great-grandson of the old fellow mentioned."
"And he does not wish his name known?"
"Well, naturally one does not care to shout the sins of one's
ancestors."
"The noble young man, the dear young man," said Agapit, warmly. "He will
atone for the sins of his fathers."
"Not particularly noble, only business-like."
"And has he much money, that he wishes to aid this family of Acadiens?"
"No, not much. His father's family never succeeded in making money and
keeping it. His mother is rich."
"I should like to see him," exclaimed Agapit, and his black eyes flashed
over Vesper's composed features. "I should love him for his sensitive
heart."
"There is nothing very interesting about him," said Vesper. "A sick,
used-up creature."
"Ah,--he is delicate."
"Yes, and without courage. He is a college man and would have chosen a
profession if his health had not broken down."
"I pity him from my heart; I send good wishes to his sick-bed," said
Agapit, in a passion of enthusiasm. "I will pray to our Lord to raise
him."
"Can you give him any assistance?" asked Vesper, nodding towards the
letter.
"I do not know; I cannot tell. There are many LeNoirs. But I will go
over my papers; I will sit up at night, as I now do some writing for
the post-office. You know I am poor, and obliged to work. I must pay
Rose for my board. I will not depend on a woman."
Vesper half lifted his drooping eyelids. "What are you going to make of
yourself?"
"I wish to study law. I save money for a period in a university."
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-three."
"Your cousin looks about that age."
"She is twenty-four,--a year older; and you,--may I ask your age?"
"Guess."
Agapit studied his face. "You are twenty-six."
"No."
"I daresay we are both younger than Rose," said Agapit, ingenuously,
"and she has less sense than either."
"Did your ancestors come from the south of France?" asked Vesper,
abruptly.
"Not the LeNoirs; but my mother's family was from Provence. Why do you
ask?"
"You are like a Frenchman of the south."
"I know that I am impetuous," pursued Agapit. "Rose says that I resemble
the tea-kettle. I boil and bubble all the time that I am not asleep,
and"--uneasily--"she also says that I speak too hastily of women; that
I do not esteem them as clever as they are. What do you think?"
Vesper laughed quickly. "Southerners all have a slight contempt for
women. However, they are frank about it. Is there one thought agitating
your bosom that you do not express?"
"No; most unfortunately. It chagrins me that I speak everything. I feel,
and often speak before I feel, but what can one do? It is my nature.
Rose also follows her nature. She is beautiful, but she studies nothing,
absolutely nothing, but the science of cooking."
"Without which philosophers would go mad from indigestion."
"Yes; she was born to cook and to obey. Let her keep her position, and
not say, 'Agapit, thou must do so and so,' as she sometimes will, if I
am not rocky with her."
"Rocky?" queried Vesper.
"Firmy, firm," said Agapit, in confusion. "The words twist in my mind,
unless my blood is hot, when I speak better. Will you not correct me?
Upon going out in the world I do not wish to be laughed."
"To be laughed at," said his new friend. "Don't worry yourself. You
speak well enough, and will improve."
Agapit grew pale with emotion. "Ah, but we shall miss you when you go!
There has been no Englishman here that we so liked. I hope that you will
be long in finding the descendants of the Fiery Frenchman."
"Perhaps I shall find some of them in you and your cousin," said Vesper.
"Ah, if you could, what joy! what bliss!--but I fear it is not so. Our
forefathers were not of Grand Pré."
Vesper relapsed into silence, only occasionally rousing himself to
answer some of Agapit's restless torrent of remarks about the ancient
letter. At last he grew tired, and, sitting up, laid a caressing hand on
the head of Narcisse, who was playing with some shells beside him.
"Come, little one, we must return to the house."
On the way back they met the blacksmith. Agapit snickered gleefully,
"All the world supposes that he is making the velvet paw to Rose."
"She drives with him," said Vesper, indifferently.
"Yes, but to obtain news of her sister who flouts him. She is down the
Bay, and Rose receives news of her. She will no longer drive with him if
she hears this gossip."
"Why should she not?"
"I do not know, but she will not. Possibly because she is no coquette."
"She will probably marry some one."
"She cannot," muttered Agapit, and he fell into a quiet rage, and out of
it again in the duration of a few seconds. Then he resumed a
light-hearted conversation with Vesper, who averted his curious eyes
from him.