AT DR. DEANE'S.
As she dismounted on the large flat stone outside the paling, Martha
Deane saw her father's face at the window. It was sterner and graver
than usual.
The Deane mansion stood opposite the Unicorn Tavern. When built, ninety
years previous, it had been considered a triumph of architecture; the
material was squared logs from the forest, dovetailed, and overlapping
at the corners, which had the effect of rustic quoins, as contrasted
with the front, which was plastered and yellow-washed. A small portico,
covered with a tangled mass of eglantine and coral honeysuckle, with a
bench at each end, led to the door; and the ten feet of space between
it and the front paling were devoted to flowers and rose-bushes. At each
corner of the front rose an old, picturesque, straggling cedar-tree.
There were two front doors, side by side,--one for the family
sitting-room, the other (rarely opened, except when guests arrived) for
the parlor. Martha Deane entered the former, and we will enter with her.
The room was nearly square, and lighted by two windows. On those sides
the logs were roughly plastered; on the others there were partitions of
panelled oak, nearly black with age and smoke, as were the heavy beams
of the same wood which formed the ceiling. In the corner of the room
next the kitchen there was an open Franklin stove,--an innovation at
that time,--upon which two or three hickory sticks were smouldering into
snowy ashes. The floor was covered with a country-made rag carpet,
in which an occasional strip of red or blue listing brightened the
prevailing walnut color of the woof. The furniture was simple and
massive, its only unusual feature being a tall cabinet with shelves
filled with glass jars, and an infinity of small drawers. A few bulky
volumes on the lower shelf constituted the medical library of Dr. Deane.
This gentleman was still standing at the window, with his hands clasped
across his back. His Quaker suit was of the finest drab broadcloth,
and the plain cravat visible above his high, straight waistcoat, was
of spotless cambric. His knee-and shoe-buckles were of the simplest
pattern, but of good, solid silver, and there was not a wrinkle in the
stockings of softest lamb's-wool, which covered his massive calves.
There was always a faint odor of lavender, bergamot, or sweet marjoram
about him, and it was a common remark in the neighborhood that the sight
and smell of the Doctor helped a weak patient almost as much as his
medicines.
In his face there was a curious general resemblance to his daughter,
though the detached features were very differently formed. Large,
unsymmetrical, and somewhat coarse,--even for a man,--they derived much
of their effect from his scrupulous attire and studied air of wisdom.
His long gray hair was combed back, that no portion of the moderate
frontal brain might be covered; the eyes were gray rather than blue, and
a habit of concealment had marked its lines in the corners, unlike the
open, perfect frankness of his daughter's. The principal resemblance was
in the firm, clear outline of the upper lip, which alone, in his face,
had it been supported by the under one, would have made him almost
handsome; but the latter was large and slightly hanging. There were
marked inconsistencies in his face, but this was no disadvantage in a
community unaccustomed to studying the external marks of character.
“Just home, father? How did thee leave Dinah Passmore?” asked Martha, as
she untied the strings of her beaver.
“Better,” he answered, turning from the window; “but, Martha, who did I
see thee riding with?”
“Does thee mean Gilbert Potter?”
“I do,” he said, and paused. Martha, with her cloak over her arm and
bonnet in her hand, in act to leave the room, waited, saying,--
“Well, father?”
So frank and serene was her bearing, that the old man felt both relieved
and softened.
“I suppose it happened so,” he said. “I saw his mother with Friend
Fairthorn. I only meant thee shouldn't be seen in company with young
Potter, when thee could help it; thee knows what I mean.”
“I don't think, father,” she slowly answered, “there is anything
against Gilbert Potter's life or character, except that which is no just
reproach to _him_.”
“'The sins of the parents shall be visited upon the children, even to
the third and fourth generation.' That is enough, Martha.”
She went up to her room, meditating, with an earnestness almost equal
to Gilbert's, upon this form of the world's injustice, which he was
powerless to overcome. Her father shared it, and the fact did not
surprise her; but her independent spirit had already ceased to be
guided, in all things, by his views. She felt that the young man
deserved the respect and admiration which he had inspired in her mind,
and until a better reason could be discovered, she would continue so to
regard him. The decision was reached rapidly, and then laid aside for
any future necessity; she went down-stairs again in her usual quiet,
cheerful mood.
During her absence another conversation had taken place.
Miss Betsy Lavender (who was a fast friend of Martha, and generally
spent her Sundays at the Doctor's,) was sitting before the stove, drying
her feet. She was silent until Martha left the room, when she suddenly
exclaimed:
“Doctor! Judge not that ye be not judged.”
“Thee may think as thee pleases, Betsy,” said he, rather sharply: “it's
thy nature, I believe, to take everybody's part.”
“Put yourself in his place,” she continued,--“remember them that's in
bonds as bound with 'em,--I disremember exackly how it goes, but no
matter: I say your way a'n't right, and I'd say it seven times, if need
be! There's no steadier nor better-doin' young fellow in these parts
than Gilbert Potter. Ferris, down in Pennsbury, or Alf Barton, here, for
that matter, a'n't to be put within a mile of him. I could say something
in Mary Potter's behalf, too, but I won't: for there's Scribes and
Pharisees about.”
Dr. Deane did not notice this thrust: it was not his habit to get angry.
“Put _thyself_ in _my_ place, Betsy,” he said. “He's a worthy young man,
in some respects, I grant thee, but would thee like _thy_ daughter to
be seen riding home beside him from Meeting? It's one thing speaking for
thyself, and another for thy daughter.”
“Thy daughter!” she repeated. “Old or young can't make any difference,
as I see.”
There was something else on her tongue, but she forcibly withheld the
words. She would not exhaust her ammunition until there was both a
chance and a necessity to do some execution. The next moment Martha
reentered the room.
After dinner, they formed a quiet group in the front sitting-room. Dr.
Deane, having no more visits to make that day, took a pipe of choice
tobacco,--the present of a Virginia Friend, whose acquaintance he had
made at Yearly Meeting,--and seated himself in the arm-chair beside the
stove. Martha, at the west window, enjoyed a volume of Hannah More, and
Miss Betsy, at the front window, labored over the Psalms. The sun shone
with dim, muffled orb, but the air without was mild, and there were
already brown tufts, which would soon be blossoms, on the lilac twigs.
Suddenly Miss Betsy lifted up her head and exclaimed, “Well, I never!”
As she did so, there was a knock at the door.
“Come in!” said Dr. Deane, and in came Mr. Alfred Barton, resplendent
in blue coat, buff waistcoat, cambric ruffles, and silver-gilt buckles.
But, alas! the bunch of seals--topaz, agate, and cornelian--no longer
buoyed the deep-anchored watch. The money due his father had been
promptly paid, through the agency of a three-months' promissory note,
and thus the most momentous result of the robbery was overcome. This
security for the future, however, scarcely consoled him for the painful
privation of the present. Without the watch, Alfred Barton felt that
much of his dignity and importance was lacking.
Dr. Deane greeted his visitor with respect, Martha with the courtesy due
to a guest, and Miss Betsy with the offhand, independent manner, under
which she masked her private opinions of the persons whom she met.
“Mark isn't at home, I see,” said Mr. Barton, after having taken his
seat in the centre of the room: “I thought I'd have a little talk with
him about the wagon-house. I suppose he told you that I got Hallowell's
new barn for him?”
“Yes, and we're all greatly obliged to thee, as well as Mark,” said the
Doctor. “The two jobs make a fine start for a young mechanic, and I hope
he'll do as well as he's been done by: there's luck in a good beginning.
By the bye, has thee heard anything more of Sandy Flash's doings?”
Mr. Barton fairly started at this question. His own misfortune had been
carefully kept secret, and he could not suspect that the Doctor knew it;
but he nervously dreaded the sound of the terrible name.
“What is it?” he asked, in a faint voice.
“He has turned up in Bradford, this time, and they say has robbed Jesse
Frame, the Collector, of between four and five hundred dollars. The
Sheriff and a posse of men from the Valley hunted him for several days,
but found no signs. Some think he has gone up into the Welch Mountain;
but for my part, I should not be surprised if he were in this
neighborhood.”
“Good heavens!” exclaimed Mr. Barton, starting from his chair.
“Now's your chance,” said Miss Betsy. “Git the young men together who
won't feel afraid o' bein' twenty ag'in one: you know the holes and
corners where he'll be likely to hide, and what's to hinder you from
ketchin' him?”
“But he must have many secret friends,” said Martha, “if what I have
heard is true,--that he has often helped a poor man with the money which
he takes only from the rich. You know he still calls himself a Tory, and
many of those whose estates have been confiscated, would not scruple to
harbor him, or even take his money.”
“Take his money. That's a fact,” remarked Miss Betsy, “and now I
dunno whether I want him ketched. There's worse men goin' round, as
respectable as you please, stealin' all their born days, only cunnin'ly
jukin' round the law instead o' buttin' square through it. Why, old Liz
Williams, o' Birmingham, herself told me with her own mouth, how she was
ridin' home from Phildelphy market last winter, with six dollars, the
price of her turkeys--and General Washin'ton's cook took one of 'em, but
that's neither here nor there--in her pocket, and fearful as death when
she come to Concord woods, and lo and behold! there she was overtook by
a fresh-complected man, and she begged him to ride with her, for she had
six dollars in her pocket and Sandy was known to be about. So he rode
with her to her very lane-end, as kind and civil a person as she ever
see, and then and there he said, 'Don't be afeard, Madam, for I, which
have seen you home, is Sandy Flash himself, and here's somethin' more
to remember me by,'--no sooner said than done, he put a gold guinea into
her hand, and left her there as petrified as Lot's wife. Now _I_ say,
and it may be violation of the law, for all I know, but never mind,
that Sandy Flash has got one corner of his heart in the right place, no
matter where the others is. There's honor even among thieves, they say.”
“Seriously, Alfred,” said Dr. Deane, cutting Miss Betsy short before she
had half expressed her sentiments, “it is time that something was done.
If Flash is not caught soon, we shall be overrun with thieves, and there
will be no security anywhere on the high roads, or in our houses. I
wish that men of influence in the neighborhood, like thyself, would come
together and plan, at least, to keep Kennett clear of him. Then other
townships may do the same, and so the thing be stopped. If I were
younger, and my practice were not so laborious, I would move in the
matter, but thee is altogether a more suitable person.”
“Do you think so?” Barton replied, with an irrepressible reluctance,
around which he strove to throw an air of modesty. “That would be the
proper way, certainly, but I,--I don't know,--that is, I can't flatter
myself that I'm the best man to undertake it.”
“It requires some courage, you know,” Martha remarked, and her glance
made him feel very uncomfortable, “and you are too dashing a
fox-hunter not to have that. Perhaps the stranger who rode with you to
Avondale--what was his name?--might be of service. If I were in your
place, I should be glad of a chance to incur danger for the good of the
neighborhood.”
Mr. Alfred Barton was on nettles. If there were irony in her words his
intellect was too muddy to detect it: her assumption of his courage
could only be accepted as a compliment, but it was the last compliment
he desired to have paid to himself, just at that time.
“Yes,” he said, with a forced laugh, rushing desperately into the
opposite extreme, “but the danger and the courage are not worth talking
about. Any man ought to be able to face a robber, single-handed, and as
for twenty men, why, when it's once known, Sandy Flash will only be too
glad to keep away.”
“Then, do thee do what I've recommended. It may be, as thee says, that
the being prepared is all that is necessary,” remarked Dr. Deane.
Thus caught, Mr. Barton could do no less than acquiesce, and very much
to his secret dissatisfaction, the Doctor proceeded to name the young
men of the neighborhood, promising to summon such as lived on the lines
of his professional journeys, that they might confer with the leader of
the undertaking. Martha seconded the plan with an evident interest,
yet it did not escape her that neither her father nor Mr. Barton had
mentioned the name of Gilbert Potter.
“Is that all?” she asked, when a list of some eighteen persons had been
suggested. Involuntarily, she looked at Miss Betsy Lavender.
“No, indeed!” cried the latter. “There's Jabez Travilla, up on the
ridge, and Gilbert Potter, down at the mill.”
“H'm, yes; what does thee say, Alfred?” asked the Doctor.
“They're both good riders, and I think they have courage enough, but we
can never tell what a man is until he's been tried. They would increase
the number, and that, it seems to me, is a consideration.”
“Perhaps thee had better exercise thy own judgment there,” the Doctor
observed, and the subject, having been as fully discussed as was
possible without consultation with other persons, it was dropped,
greatly to Barton's relief.
But in endeavoring to converse with Martha he only exchanged one
difficulty for another. His vanity, powerful as it was, gave way before
that instinct which is the curse and torment of vulgar natures,--which
leaps into life at every contact of refinement, showing them the gulf
between, which they know not how to cross. The impudence, the aggressive
rudeness which such natures often exhibit, is either a mask to conceal
their deficiency, or an angry protest against it. Where there is a
drop of gentleness in the blood, it appreciates and imitates the higher
nature.
This was the feeling which made Alfred Barton uncomfortable in the
presence of Martha Deane,--which told him, in advance, that natures so
widely sundered, never could come into near relations with each other,
and thus quite neutralized the attraction of her beauty and her ten
thousand dollars. His game, however, was to pay court to her, and in
so pointed a way that it should be remarked and talked about in the
neighborhood. Let it once come through others to the old man's ears,
he would have proved his obedience and could not be reproached if the
result were fruitless.
“What are you reading, Miss Martha?” he asked, after a long and somewhat
awkward pause.
She handed him the book in reply.
“Ah! Hannah More,--a friend of yours? Is she one of the West-Whiteland
Moores?”
Martha could not suppress a light, amused laugh, as she answered: “Oh,
no, she is an English woman.”
“Then it's a Tory book,” said he, handing it back; “I wouldn't read it,
if I was you.”
“It is a story, and I should think you might.”
He heard other words than those she spoke. “As Tory as--what?” he asked
himself. “As I am,” of course; that is what she means. “Old-man Barton”
had been one of the disloyal purveyors for the British army during its
occupancy of Philadelphia in the winter of 1777-8, and though the main
facts of the traffic wherefrom he had drawn immense profits, never could
be proved against him, the general belief hung over the family, and made
a very disagreeable cloud. Whenever Alfred Barton quarrelled with any
one, the taunt was sure to be flung into his teeth. That it came now,
as he imagined, was as great a shock as if Martha had slapped him in the
face with her own delicate hand, and his visage reddened from the blow.
Miss Betsy Lavender, bending laboriously over the Psalms, nevertheless
kept her dull gray eyes in movement. She saw the misconception, and
fearing that Martha did not, made haste to remark:--
“Well, Mr. Alfred, and do _you_ think it's a harm to read a story? Why,
Miss Ann herself lent me 'Alonzo and Melissa,' and 'Midnight Horrors,'
and I'll be bound you've read 'em yourself on the sly. 'T a'n't much
other readin' men does, save and except the weekly paper, and law enough
to git a tight hold on their debtors. Come, now, let's know what you
_do_ read?”
“Not much of anything, that's a fact,” he answered, recovering himself,
with a shudder at the fearful mistake he had been on the point of
making, “but I've nothing against women reading stories. I was rather
thinking of myself when I spoke to you, Miss Martha.”
“So I supposed,” she quietly answered. It was provoking. Everything
she said made him think there was another meaning behind the words;
her composed manner, though he knew it to be habitual, more and more
disconcerted him. Never did an intentional wooer find his wooing so
painful and laborious. After this attempt he addressed himself to Doctor
Deane, for even the question of circumventing Sandy Flash now presented
itself to his mind as a relief.
There he sat, and the conversation progressed in jerks and spirts,
between pauses of embarrassing silence. The sun hung on the western
hill in a web of clouds; Martha and Miss Betsy rose and prepared the
tea-table, and the guest, invited perforce, perforce accepted. Soon
after the meal was over, however, he murmured something about cattle,
took his hat and left.
Two or three horses were hitched before the Unicorn, and he saw some
figures through the bar-room window. A bright thought struck him; he
crossed the road and entered.
“Hallo, Alf! Where from now? Why, you're as fine as a fiddler!” cried
Mr. Joel Ferris, who was fast becoming familiar, on the strength of his
inheritance.
“Over the way,” answered the landlord, with a wink and a jerk of his
thumb.
Mr. Ferris whistled, and one of the others suggested: “He must stand a
treat, on that.”
“But, I say!” said the former, “how is it you're coming away so soon in
the evening?”
“I went very early in the afternoon,” Barton answered, with a
mysterious, meaning smile, as much as to say: “It's all right; I know
what I'm about.” Then he added aloud,--“Step up, fellows; what'll you
have?”
Many were the jests and questions to which he was forced to submit, but
he knew the value of silence in creating an impression, and allowed them
to enjoy their own inferences.
It is much easier to start a report, than to counteract it, when once
started; but the first, only, was his business.
It was late in the evening when he returned home, and the household
were in bed. Nevertheless, he did not enter by the back way, in
his stockings, but called Giles down from the garret to unlock the
front-door, and made as much noise as he pleased on his way to bed.
The old man heard it, and chuckled under his coverlet.