HOW RICHARD AND DOROTHY SAILED AWAY
There came but the one name before the convention, and Governor
Obstinate was nominated for the Presidency by acclamation. Senator
Hanway wired his warm congratulations, and to such earnest length did
they extend themselves that it reduced the book of franks conferred upon
Senator Hanway by the telegraph company by five stamps. Governor
Obstinate thanked Senator Hanway through the eye-glassed Mazarin, who
seized upon the occasion to say that Governor Obstinate was more than
ever resolved in event of his election--which was among things sure--to
avail himself of Senator Hanway's known abilities touching public
finance in the rôle of Secretary of the Treasury.
Senator Hanway and Mr. Harley, the Georgian Bay-Ontario Canal still
rankling in the popular regard, did not attend the convention. This
permitted those gentlemen to be present at the nuptials of Dorothy and
Richard, a negative advantage which otherwise might have been denied.
Mrs. Hanway-Harley, basing it on grounds of duty, assumed formal charge
of the marriage arrangements in the later hours. She asked Richard to
name those among his friends whom he desired as guests at the wedding.
Richard gave her Mr. Bayard, Mr. Sands, and Inspector Val. Mrs.
Hanway-Harley pursed her lips. Mr. Bayard? yes; but why ask Mr. Sands,
printer, and Inspector Val of the police?
"They are my friends," said Richard.
Mrs. Hanway-Harley shook her head in proud dejection as she meditated on
the strangeness of things. Her daughter's wedding; and a detective and a
journeyman printer among the honored guests! The homely disgrace of it
quite bowed the heart of Mrs. Hanway-Harley. She was taken doubly aback
when she learned that Mr. Gwynn was on his way to England, and therefore
not to attend.
"It would have pleased me," said Mrs. Hanway-Harley mournfully, "had Mr.
Gwynn been present. His absence is peculiarly a blow."
"I'm sure," said Richard, putting on a look of innocent slyness, like a
lamb engaged in intrigue, "had I known that you might feel Mr. Gwynn's
going away, I would have kept him with us."
Mrs. Hanway-Harley elevated her polite brows. Richard would have kept
Mr. Gwynn with them! What manner of mystery was this?
Richard's present to Dorothy was a superb, nay a matchless set of
rubies, the like of which did not dwell in the caskets of Queen or
Empress. Mrs. Hanway-Harley, herself no apprentice in the art of gems,
could not estimate their value. They lay in her hands like red
fire--jewels above price! Mrs. Hanway-Harley could only gaze and gaze,
while Richard's look of slyness gained in lamblike intensity.
Mr. Bayard came down from New York the day before; he must have a
business talk with Richard. It would be impossible, in releasing Mr.
Harley and Senator Hanway from their obligations as members of the
osprey pool, to avoid an explanation. In running over the affair in his
mind, Mr. Bayard was convinced that the reprieved pair must be told the
truth of their capture and release.
Richard, whose powers of original judgment had diminished in exact
proportion as he neared the wedding day, and who now, with the ceremony
only hours away, owned no judgment at all, gave Mr. Bayard leave to do
as he would. He was to tell Mr. Harley and Senator Hanway, Mr. Sands and
Inspector Val, as much or as little as he chose. Richard drew relief
from the reflection that, whatever the disclosures, he, Richard, at the
time they were made would be safe on the wide Atlantic.
The wedding offered a rich study in expression. Richard was pale but
firm, and if his knees shook the aspen disgrace of it didn't show in his
face. Dorothy was radiantly happy--beautiful and unabashed. Somehow, a
wedding never fails to bring out the strength of your true woman. Bess
was splendidly responsible; she showed plainly that she considered the
wedding the work of her hands, and was bound to see justice done it. Her
supporting damsels, taking their cue from certain bridesmaids who had
adorned a recent wedding of mark, wept bitterly. Mr. Bayard was
interested in a courteous way; Mr. Harley was patronizing, Senator
Hanway benign. Inspector Val, ineffable as to garb, was distinguished by
that sleepy, well-bred stare which was his common expression when off
duty. Only once did he rouse, and that was when Mrs. Hanway-Harley,
deluded by his elegant reserve, over which was thrown just an aroma of
the military, addressed him as Captain Burleigh of the English legation.
Mr. Sands of all who were there was probably the one most coolly
composed; being in profound contrast to Mr. Fopling, whose eye was
glassy and whose cheek was ashes.
"Stawms," whispered Mr. Fopling, tremulous with agitation, "if I'm as
weak as this at your wedding, what do you weckon I'll be at my own? 'Pon
my word, I think I'll have to be bwought to church in an invalid's
chair; I do, weally!"
"Bless you, my boy, bless you!" exclaimed Mr. Harley, grasping Richard's
hand. Mr. Harley had absorbed the impression, probably from the
theaters, that this was the phrase for him. "And you, my child; God
bless you! Be happy!" continued Mr. Harley, kissing Dorothy and exuding
a burgundian tear.
"I am sorry," said Richard, as Senator Hanway bid him and Dorothy an
affectionate farewell, "I am sorry the event of the convention
disappointed us."
"It is as one who wishes his party and his country well would have it,"
returned Senator Hanway, with Roman elevation. "Governor Obstinate is a
patriot, and an able man. He will call to his Cabinet safe men--true
advisers. The nation could not be in purer hands."
Bess made Dorothy promise to have Richard back for her own wedding in
October; Mr. Fopling gave Richard a pleading glance as though he himself
would require support on that occasion.
"Stawms, don't fail me," said Mr. Fopling. "Weally, I shall need all the
couwage my fwiends can give me. And you know, Stawms, I stood by you."
Mrs. Hanway-Harley supposed the happy ones were to take the B. & O. for
New York; Richard explained that they would have a boat.
"In fact," said Richard, "the captain has just sent me word that the
yacht is anchored off the Navy Yard, awaiting our going aboard."
"Yacht?" said Mrs. Hanway-Harley. "Oh, I see; Mr. Gwynn's."
"No, not Mr. Gwynn's. Ours."--And Richard looked more lamblike than
ever.
Mrs. Hanway-Harley became sorely puzzled. The truth was slowly soaking
into her not over-porous comprehension.
As the launch, with the wedding party, rounded the yacht's stern to
reach her gangway on the off-shore side, Mrs. Hanway-Harley read in
letters of raised gilt: _Dorothy Storms_. She called Dorothy's attention
to the phenomenon in a misty way. Mrs. Hanway-Harley, once aboard, went
over the _Dorothy Storms_, forward and aft, speaking no word. The yacht,
Clyde-built, was a swift ocean-going vessel of twelve hundred tons. Her
fittings were the fittings of a palace. Mrs. Hanway-Harley cornered
Richard on the after-deck.
"Richard," said Mrs. Hanway-Harley, "what took Mr. Gwynn abroad?"
"Why," responded Richard, with a cheerful manner of innocence, "you see
there's a deal for Mr. Gwynn to do. There's the country house in Berks,
and the house in London; then there's the Paris house and the villa at
Nice, and lastly the place in the mountains back of Naples;--Mr. Gwynn
will have to put them in order. The one near Naples--a kind of old
castle, it is--has been in bad hands; there will be plenty of work in
that quarter for Mr. Gwynn, I fancy. You know, mother,"--and Richard
donned an air of filial confidence,--"since this is Dorothy's first look
at them, I'm more than commonly anxious she should be given a happy----"
Where the wretched Richard would have maundered to will never be known,
for he was broken in upon by Mrs. Hanway-Harley.
"Richard, who is Mr. Gwynn?" This with a severe if agitated gravity.
"Who is Mr. Gwynn?"
"Who is Mr. Gwynn?" repeated Richard, blandly. "Well, really, I suppose
he might be called my major-domo; or perhaps butler would describe him."
"You told me that Mr. Gwynn had had about him the best society of
England."
Mrs. Hanway-Harley's manner bordered upon the tragic, for it bore upon
her that she had given a dinner of honor to Mr. Gwynn.
"Why, my dear mother, and so he has had. I can't remember all their
noble names, but one time and another Mr. Gwynn has been butler for the
Duke of This and the Earl of That--really Mr. Gwynn's recommendations
read like a leaf from 'Burke's Peerage.' I myself had him from the Baron
Sudley."
Mrs. Hanway-Harley was for the moment dumb. Dorothy and Bess appeared,
having completed a ransack of staterooms and cabins. The sight of her
daughter restored to Mrs. Hanway-Harley the power of speech.
"Dorothy," she cried, raising her hands limply, "Dorothy, I believe our
Richard's rich!" And Mrs. Hanway-Harley wept.
"I shall always love him, whatever he is!" exclaimed Dorothy, all
tenderness and fresh alarm.
Dorothy did not understand.
It was ten o'clock; the Potomac lay between its soft banks like a river
of silver. There was the throb of the engines, and the talk of the water
against her bows, as the _Dorothy Storms_ with her two passengers, they
and their love, swept onward through the moonlight. Dorothy, her head on
Richard's shoulder, and thinking on her mother and Bess and all she had
left behind, watched the V-shaped wake as it spread away in ripples to
either bank. Now and then a shore-light slipped by, to snuff out astern
as distance or a bend in the river extinguished it. Dorothy crept more
and more into the Pict arms.
"Dear, when did you name the _Dorothy Storms_?"
"The day after you precipitated yourself into my arms--and my heart."
"I think you were shamefully confident," whispered Dorothy, with a
delicious sigh.
Richard the brazen replied to the attack as became a lover and
gentleman.
And so they sailed away.
THE END
* * * * *
By the same Author
THE BOSS
A Story of the Inner Life of New York
"The most complete and remarkable exposition that has yet been
produced."--_New York Times._
"Is not only a book to read, it is a book that every man who has
an interest in his country--and in himself for that matter--must
read."--_Chicago Evening Post._