NEW LIGHT ON LOYALTY
A quick thrill of pleasure swept over Eveley as she looked into the face
of her young guest.
"Duty?" No, it would be a joy to teach this soft and lovely creature the
glorious principles of freedom, justice and equality. This was Eveley's
sphere--she felt it--she knew it. She took Marie's slender hands in both
of hers, and squeezed them rapturously.
"Oh, I am so happy," she cried ecstatically. "I think you are adorable."
For Marie's soft dark eyes, the soft waves of dark hair drooping over the
low forehead, the slender oval of the olive tinted face, the crimson
curving lips, the shrinking figure presented such a picture of exquisite
helplessness that Eveley's brave and buoyant soul rose leaping to the
appeal.
She removed the dark cape from Marie's shoulders, and took her bag,
leading her into the small east bedroom which had been so charmingly
dressed for her.
"This is your home now, Marie, I hope for a long, long time. It is your
home, and you are as free as a bird. You are not my servant, but my
sister and my friend. I want you to be happy. You are to think as you
like, do as you like, go or stay as you like. You are mistress of your
own life, now and all the time."
"It is very lovely," said Marie softly. "And you are an angel from
Heaven."
"Not a bit of it," laughed Eveley. "You do not know me. I am the humanest
thing you ever saw in your life." She lifted Marie's bag lightly to a low
table. "Now, this door opens to the bath--my bedroom door leads into it
from the opposite side. And this is your closet, and these drawers are
all empty, so use them as you wish. Why don't you put on a negligee, now,
and rest? And while you are alone for a minute, to collect yourself and
unpack your bag, I shall run out and put on the chocolate. We must have a
hot luncheon after our cold ride. Are you very cold? I think I'd better
light the fire in your grate--it is all ready. There, that is better now.
If I ever do get married I must certainly have wonderful luck, if there
is any faith in signs, for I do build the fieriest fires. Now, do not
hurry, I'll come back in a few minutes. I think I shall put on a negligee
too," she added, as Marie drew a silk gown from her bag. "And then we'll
be surely settled down and right at home together."
With a warm and dazzling smile, she ran out to put the chocolate on the
grill, and arrange the sandwiches and fruit and cake on the table around
the bowl of drooping roses, and then, humming blithely, hurried into her
own room to change from her heavy dress to a soft house gown.
When, a few moments later, she returned to Marie, she found her standing
pensively in the center of the room, the heavy folds of a dark red gown
falling about her graceful figure, her head sunk on her breast in
reverie. Eveley put her arms around her tenderly.
"You are beautiful," she said. "Don't worry, dear. You are going to be
very happy, even yet. Just trust me--and--do you know the song of the
Belgian girl--Well, we shall make an American Beauty of you, sure enough.
Just try to be happy, and have confidence in me, Marie. I shall never go
back on you. My, how quick you were! Your bag is all unpacked, isn't it?"
She glanced with quickly appraising eyes at the heavy silver articles of
toilet laid out on the dressing-table, and at the gowns swinging from the
pole in the closet.
"Come along, baby sister," she said affectionately, "or the chocolate
will run all over the grill."
There was deep if unvoiced appreciation in Marie's eyes as she observed
the fine heavy furniture of the little dining-room, the lace doilies on
the mahogany table, the fine pieces of china, and the drooping roses.
Eveley led her gaily to her place at the table, and sat down beside her.
"We really ought to ask a blessing," she said. "I feel such a fountain of
gratitude inside of me. My own sister was ten years older than I, and
there were no babies afterward for me to make a fuss over. This is a
brand-new experience, and I am just bubbling over."
"But I am no baby," said Marie, smiling the wistful smile that suggested
tears and heartaches. "I think I am quite as old as you."
"Oh, impossible," gasped Eveley. "Why, I am twenty-five years old."
"Really!" mocked Marie, and she laughed--and Eveley realized it was the
first time Marie had laughed. "Well, I am twenty-three and a half."
"Oh, you can't be. Mr. Hiltze said you were a child, and you are so
little and slim and young."
"You have been a woman, living a woman's life, with all a woman's
interests. But our women are sheltered, kept away from life, and that is
why I am like a child in facing the world--because I have never faced it.
I look young, and act young, because--well, with us, our women marry
early. If they do not, they must retain the charm of youth until they do.
That is what we are taught, it is our business as women to be young and
lovely until we marry."
"I love to hear you talk," said Eveley irrelevantly. "You are just like a
chapter out of a new and thrilling story--See, I have let my chocolate
grow cold just looking at you, and listening. I am very glad you are
nearly as old as I--we can not only be sisters, but twins if you like."
Marie sipped her chocolate, daintily, dreamily. Then she looked at Eveley
searchingly.
"Is this your patriotism?" she asked at last. "To throw open your home on
a moment's notice, to a stranger from a strange land?"
"We call it Americanization," said Eveley. "We call it the assimilation
of--of--" She hesitated, not wishing to speak of "flotsam and jetsam" to
this soft and pliant creature. "We call it the assimilation of the whole
world into American ideals."
"Then," said Marie slowly, dark eyes still searching Eveley's face, "I
suppose, having this vision of patriotism yourself, you can understand
patriotism of others from other lands? You can understand why people
plot, and steal, and kill--for love of country? My own land, for
instance--so many call us bloody butchers because we fight for our
country and for freedom. But you--you know what patriotism is. And you
can understand, can you not?"
"Of course I understand," said Eveley rather confusedly, for the Mexican
business was a terrible muddle to her. "I understand that your men must
fight to save their country from the rebels and anarchists who would
wreck and ruin her."
"Yes, but--it is the rebels and anarchists who would save her," said
Marie, with childish earnestness. "I--we--I am of the revolutionists. My
father was killed. My brothers were killed. My sisters were made captive.
But still the struggle goes on. The best of our men must fight and die.
Poor Mexico must struggle and blunder on from one disaster to another,
until at last she rises triumphant and free among the nations of the
world. It is those in power in her own land from whom Mexico has most to
fear--those who would sell her, body and soul, land and loyalty, to
foreign devils for gold. It is not against the outside world we fight--it
is the vile, the treacherous ones inside our borders."
"But how can you tell who is for, and who against?" asked Eveley
bewildered. "They all promise so much--and peace is assured--but there is
no peace. And who can tell where freedom really lies?"
"Alas, it is true," said Marie sadly. "But those with eyes that see and
hearts that love, know that Mexico is still in the hands of traitors, and
that the spirit of revolution must live."
"Of course you know more about it than I do," admitted Eveley. "We--we do
not understand the situation at all. I--think perhaps they are too shrewd
for us. Let's not talk of it--it excites you, dear. I want you to rest
and be quiet. I did not know that any one could love--Mexico--like that."
"Have you seen Mexico? Oh, not the dry, barren border country, but my
Mexico, rich with jewels and gold, studded with magnificent cities,
flowering with rare fruits and spices, a mellow, golden, matchless land,
peopled by those who are skilled in arts and science, lovers of beauty,
and--Ah, you do not know Mexico. You know only the half-breed savages who
run the borderland, preying on Mexican and American alike. You do not
know the real Mexico of beautiful women, and brave and gallant men. How
could you know?"
Then her voice became soft and dreamy again. "I visited here long years
ago. I was out in your Old Town, where the Indian maid Ramona lived. I
stood in the square there. Do you know the story, Eveley, of the early
days when your Captain Fremont and his band of soldiers stood there,
ready to lower the flag of Mexico and to raise in its place your Stars
and Stripes? As your soldier stepped forward to tear down our flag, a
little girl of Mexico, another Marie like me, who was watching with
aching heart from the window of the 'dobe house on the other side,
shocked at the outrage, leaped from the casement forgetting her fear of
the foreign soldiers, and with one tug of her sharp knife cut the rope.
As the flag of Mexico fell, she caught it in her bare hands, and pressed
it against her lips, her little form shaken with sobs. 'Forgive me,' she
said to the soldiers, but it is the flag of my country, I could not see
it dragged in the dust.'"
Eveley leaned over and put her hand on Marie's arm. "I have heard the
story many times, but I never caught the glory of it before. It was the
feeling in her that is in me now--that is in all America--only ours is
for America, and hers was for Mexico--as yours is."
"When I look at you, and know the tenderness of you, and the great heart
of you, I feel that America must be the heaven of all the world, and
Americans the angels." Then Marie's face darkened, and her lips became a
scarlet line. "But who then has stood heartlessly by, and watched the
writhing and anguish of my Mexico, withholding the hand of power that
could bring peace? Who has stood by and smiled while Mexico lay crushed
and bleeding beneath the heel of despotism and treachery?"
"We haven't understood, Marie," begged Eveley. "We could not understand.
We--we naturally trust people, we are like that, you know, and--"
"And whom can one trust? My faith has been as my faith in God--yet when
so many falter, and then turn back in betrayal--how can one trust?
Perhaps we are all deceived--perhaps every faction in my country is
seeking only to despoil and enslave." Then her face grew bright and
luminous as she said, "But there are those who are princes of sacrifice
and love, risking all their world, their lives, their honor, for my
Mexico. If there be any faith, it is in them. You call them bandits--Yes?
I call them sons of God."
Eveley changed the subject as quickly as she could. The bandits who had
been driven desperately from crag to cranny, berated in the press,
denounced in the pulpit, deprecated on the platform--were these the
princes of Marie's Mexico, the idols of their women's hearts, the saviors
of their faith, their hope of freedom? It was very confusing.
She told Marie how she worked every day down-town, and how the little
Cloud Cote would be her own all day, how she had friends coming often in
the evening, friends who would love Marie, but whom she never need to see
except when her heart desired. And she told of the lovely lawn, with its
pavilions and pergolas and crevices and vines, and of the canyon drifting
away down to the bay.
And Marie sat with her chin in her hands, her eyes soft and humble,
dog-like, on Eveley's face.