ALFRED BARTON BETWEEN TWO FIRES.
For some days after Dr. Deane's visit, Old-man Barton was a continual
source of astonishment to his son Alfred and his daughter Ann. The
signs of gradual decay which one of them, at least, had watched with the
keenest interest, had suddenly disappeared; he was brighter, sharper,
more talkative than at any time within the previous five years. The
almost worn-out machinery of his life seemed to have been mysteriously
repaired, whether by Dr. Deane's tinkering, or by one of those freaks of
Nature which sometimes bring new teeth and hair to an aged head, neither
the son nor the daughter could guess. To the former this awakened
activity of the old man's brain was not a little annoying. He had been
obliged to renew his note for the money borrowed to replace that which
had been transferred to Sandy Flash, and in the mean time was concocting
an ingenious device by which the loss should not entirely fall on
his own half-share of the farm-profits. He could not have endured his
father's tyranny without the delight of the cautious and wary revenges
of this kind which he sometimes allowed himself to take. Another
circumstance, which gave him great uneasiness, was this: the old
man endeavored in various ways, both direct and indirect, to obtain
knowledge of the small investments which he had made from time to time.
The most of these had been, through the agency of the old lawyer at
Chester, consolidated into a first-class mortgage; but it was Alfred's
interest to keep his father in ignorance of the other sums, not because
of their importance, but because of their insignificance. He knew that
the old man's declaration was true,--“The more you have, the more you'll
get!”
The following Sunday, as he was shaving himself at the back
kitchen-window,--Ann being up-stairs, at her threadbare toilet,--Old
Barton, who had been silent during breakfast, suddenly addressed him:
“Well, boy, how stands the matter now?”
The son knew very well what was meant, but he thought it best to ask,
with an air of indifference,--
“What matter, Daddy?”
“What matter, eh? The colt's lame leg, or the farrow o' the big sow?
Gad, boy! don't you ever think about the gal, except when I put it into
your head?”
“Oh, that!” exclaimed Alfred, with a smirk of well-assumed
satisfaction--“that, indeed! Well, I think I may say, Daddy, that all's
right in that quarter.”
“Spoken to her yet?”
“N-no, not right out, that is; but since other folks have found out what
I'm after, I guess it's plain enough to her. And a good sign is, that
she plays a little shy.”
“Shouldn't wonder,” growled the old man. “Seems to me _you_ play a
little shy, too. Have to take it in my own hands, if it ever comes to
anything.”
“Oh, it isn't at all necessary; I can do my own courting,” Alfred
replied, as he wiped his razor and laid it away.
“Do it, then, boy, in short order! You're too old to stand in need o'
much billin' and cooin'--but the gal's rayther young, and may expect
it--and I s'pose it's the way. But I'd sooner you'd step up to the
Doctor, bein' as I can only take him when he comes here to me loaded
and primed. He's mighty cute and sharp, but if you've got any gumption,
we'll be even with him.”
Alfred turned around quickly and looked at his father.
“Ay, boy, I've had one bout with him, last Sunday, and there's more to
come.”
“What was it?”
“Set yourself down on that cheer, and keep your head straight a bit, so
that what goes into one ear, don't fly out at the t'other.”
While Alfred, with a singular expression of curiosity and distrust,
obeyed this command, the old man deliberated, for the last time, on the
peculiar tactics to be adopted, so that his son should be made an ally,
as against Dr. Deane, and yet be prevented from becoming a second foe,
as against his own property. For it was very evident that while it was
the father's interest to exaggerate the son's presumed wealth, it was
the latter's interest to underrate it. Thus a third element came into
play, making this a triangular game of avarice. If Alfred could have
understood his true position, he would have been more courageous; but
his father had him at a decided advantage.
“Hark ye, boy!” said he, “I've waited e'en about long enough, and it's
time this thing was either a hit or a flash in the pan. The Doctor's
ready for 't; for all his cunnin' he couldn't help lettin' me see that;
but he tries to cover both pockets with one hand while he stretches
out the t'other. The gal's money's safe, ten thousand of it, and we've
agreed that it'll be share and share; only, your'n bein' more than
her'n, why, of course he must make up the difference.”
The son was far from being as shrewd as the father, or he would have
instantly chosen the proper tack; but he was like a vessel caught in
stays, and experienced considerable internal pitching and jostling. In
one sense it was a relief that the old man supposed him to be worth
much more than was actually the case, but long experience hinted that
a favorable assumption of this kind often led to a damaging result. So
with a wink and grin, the miserable hypocrisy of which was evident to
his own mind, he said:
“Of course he must make up the difference, and more too! I know what's
fair and square.”
“Shut your mouth, boy, till I give you leave to open it. Do you
hear?--the gal's ten thousand dollars must be put ag'inst the ten
thousand you've saved off the profits o' the farm; then, the rest you've
made bein' properly accounted for, he must come down with the same
amount. Then, you must find out to a hair what he's worth of his
own--not that it concerns you, but _I_ must know. What you've got to do
is about as much as you've wits for. Now, open your mouth!”
“Ten thousand!” exclaimed Alfred, beginning to comprehend the matter
more clearly; “why, it's hardly quite ten thousand altogether, let alone
anything over!”
“No lies, no lies! I've got it all in my head, if you haven't. Twenty
years on shares--first year, one hundred and thirty-seven dollars--that
was the year the big flood swep' off half the corn on the bottom; second
year, two hundred and fifteen, with interest on the first, say six on
a hundred, allowin' the thirty-seven for your squanderin's, two hundred
and twenty-one; third year, three hundred and five, with interest,
seventeen, makes three hundred and twenty-two, and twenty, your half of
the bay horse sold to Sam Falconer, forty-two; fourth year”--
“Never mind, Daddy!” Alfred interrupted; “I've got it all down in my
books; you needn't go over it.”
The old man struck his hickory staff violently upon the floor. “I _will_
go over it!” he croaked, hoarsely. “I mean to show you, boy, to your
own eyes and your own ears, that you're now worth thirteen thousand two
hundred and forty-nine dollars and fifteen cents! And ten thousand of it
balances the gal's ten thousand, leavin' three thousand two hundred and
forty-nine and fifteen cents, for the Doctor to make up to _you!_ And
you'll show him your papers, for you're no son of mine if you've put out
your money without securin' it. I don't mind your goin' your own road
with what you've arned, though, for your proper good, you needn't ha'
been so close; but now you've got to show what's in your hand, if you
mean to git it double!”
Alfred Barton was overwhelmed by the terrors of this unexpected dilemma.
His superficial powers of dissimulation forsook him; he could only
suggest, in a weak voice:
“Suppose my papers don't show that much?”
“You've made that, or nigh onto it, and your papers _must_ show it! If
money can't stick to your fingers, do you s'pose I'm goin' to put
more into 'em? Fix it any way you like with the Doctor, so you square
accounts. Then, afterwards, let him come to me--ay, let him come!”
Here the old man chuckled until he brought on a fit of coughing, which
drove the dark purple blood into his head. His son hastened to restore
him with a glass of brandy.
“There, that'll do,” he said, presently; “now you know what's what. Go
up to the Doctor's this afternoon, and have it out before you come home.
I can't dance at your weddin', but I wouldn't mind help nuss another
grandchild or two--eh, boy?”
“Damme, and so you shall, Dad!” the son exclaimed, relapsing into his
customary swagger, as the readiest means of flattering the old man's
more amiable mood. It was an easier matter to encounter Dr. Deane--to
procrastinate and prolong the settlement of terms, or shift the
responsibility of the final result from his own shoulders. Of course the
present command must be obeyed, and it was by no means an agreeable one;
but Alfred Barton had courage enough for any emergency not yet arrived.
So he began to talk and joke very comfortably about his possible
marriage, until Ann, descending to the kitchen in her solemn black gown,
interrupted the conference.
That afternoon, as Alfred took his way by the foot-path to the village,
he seated himself in the shade, on one end of the log which spanned the
creek, in order to examine his position, before venturing on a further
step. We will not probe the depths of his meditations; probably
they were not very deep, even when most serious; but we may readily
conjecture those considerations which were chiefly obvious to his mind.
The affair, which he had so long delayed, through a powerful and perhaps
a natural dread, was now brought to a crisis. He could not retreat
without extreme risk to his prospects of inheritance; since his father
and Dr. Deane had come to an actual conference, he was forced to assume
the part which was appropriate to him. Sentiment, he was aware, would
not be exacted, but a certain amount of masculine anticipation belonged
to his character of lover; should he assume this, also, or meet Dr.
Deane on a hard business ground?
It is a matter of doubt whether any vulgar man suspects the full extent
of his vulgarity; but there are few who are not conscious, now and then,
of a very uncomfortable difference between themselves and the refined
natures with whom they come in contact. Alfred Barton had never been so
troubled by this consciousness as when in the presence of Martha Deane.
He was afraid of her; he foresaw that she, as his wife, would place him
in a more painful subjection than that which his father now enforced. He
was weary of bondage, and longed to draw a free, unworried breath. With
all his swagger, his life had not always been easy or agreeable. A year
or two more might see him, in fact and in truth, his own master. He was
fifty years old; his habits of life were fixed; he would have shrunk
from the semi-servitude of marriage, though with a woman after his own
heart, and there was nothing in this (except the money) to attract him.
“I see no way!” he suddenly exclaimed, after a fit of long and
unsatisfactory musing.
“Nor I neither, unless you make room for me!” answered a shrill voice at
his side.
He started as if shot, becoming aware of Miss Betsy Lavender, who had
just emerged from the thicket.
“Skeered ye, have I?” said she. “Why, how you do color up, to be sure!
I never was that red, even in my blushin' days; but never mind, what's
said to nobody is nobody's business.”
He laughed a forced laugh. “I was thinking, Miss Betsy,” he said, “how
to get the grain threshed and sent to the mills before prices come down.
Which way are you going?”
She had been observing him through half-closed eyes, with her head a
little thrown back. First slightly nodding to herself, as if assenting
to some mental remark, she asked,--
“Which way are _you_ goin'? For my part I rather think we're changin'
places,--me to see Miss Ann, and you to see Miss Martha.”
“You're wrong!” he exclaimed. “I was only going to make a little
neighborly call on the Doctor.”
“On the Doctor! Ah-ha! it's come to that, has it? Well, I won't be in
the way.”
“Confound the witch!” he muttered to himself, as she sprang upon the log
and hurried over.
Mr. Alfred Barton was not acquainted with the Greek drama, or he would
have had a very real sense of what is meant by Fate. As it was, he
submitted to circumstances, climbed the hill, and never halted until he
found himself in Dr. Deane's sitting-room.
Of course, the Doctor was alone and unoccupied; it always happens so.
Moreover he knew, and Alfred Barton knew that he knew, the subject to be
discussed; but it was not the custom of the neighborhood to approach
an important interest except in a very gradual and roundabout manner.
Therefore the Doctor said, after the first greeting,--
“Thee'll be getting thy crops to market soon, I imagine?”
“I'd like to,” Barton replied, “but there's not force enough on our
place, and the threshers are wanted everywhere at once. What would you
do,--hurry off the grain now, or wait to see how it may stand in the
spring?”
Dr. Deane meditated a moment, and then answered with great deliberation:
“I never like to advise, where the chances are about even. It depends,
thee knows, on the prospect of next year's crops. But, which ever way
thee decides, it will make less difference to thee than to them that
depend altogether upon their yearly earnings.”
Barton understood this stealthy approach to the important subject, and
met it in the same way. “I don't know,” he said; “it's slow saving on
half-profits. I have to look mighty close, to make anything decent.”
“Well,” said the Doctor, “what isn't laid up _by_ thee, is laid up _for_
thee, I should judge.”
“I should hope so, Doctor; but I guess you know the old man as well as
I do. If anybody could tell what's in his mind, it's Lawyer Stacy, and
he's as close as a steel-trap. I've hardly had a fair chance, and it
ought to be made up to me.”
“It will be, no doubt.” And then the Doctor, resting his chin upon his
cane, relapsed into a grave, silent, expectant mood, which his guest
well understood.
“Doctor,” he said at last, with an awkward attempt at a gay,
confidential manner, “you know what I come for today. Perhaps I'm rather
an old boy to be here on such an errand; I've been a bit afraid lest
you might think me so; and for that reason I haven't spoken to Martha at
all, (though I think she's smart enough to guess how my mind turns,)
and won't speak, till I first have your leave. I'm not so young as to be
light-headed in such matters; and, most likely, I'm not everything that
Martha would like; but--but--there's other things to be considered--not
that I mind 'em much, only the old man, you know, is very particular
about 'em, and so I've come up to see if we can't agree without much
trouble.”
Dr. Deane took a small pinch of Rappee, and then touched his nose
lightly with his lavendered handkerchief. He drew up his hanging
under-lip until it nearly covered the upper, and lifted his nostrils
with an air at once of reticence and wisdom. “I don't deny,” he said
slowly, “that I've suspected something of what is in thy mind, and I
will further say that thee's done right in coming first to me. Martha
being an only d--child, I have her welfare much at heart, and if I had
known anything seriously to thy discredit, I would not have permitted
thy attentions. So far as that goes, thee may feel easy. I _did_ hope,
however, that thee would have some assurance of what thy father intends
to do for thee--and perhaps thee has,--Elisha being established in his
own independence, and Ann not requiring a great deal, thee would inherit
considerable, besides the farm. And it seems to me that I might justly,
in Martha's interest, ask for some such assurance.”
If Alfred Barton's secret thought had been expressed in words, it would
have been: “Curse the old fool--he knows what the old man is, as well
as I do!” But he twisted a respectful hypocrisy out of his whisker, and
said,--
“Ye-e-es, that seems only fair. How am _I_ to get at it, though? I
daren't touch the subject with a ten-foot pole, and yet it stands both
to law and reason that I should come in for a handsome slice o' the
property. You might take it for granted, Doctor?”
“So I might, if _thy_ father would take for granted what _I_ might be
able to do. I can see, however, that it's hardly thy place to ask him;
that might be left to me.”
This was an idea which had not occurred to Alfred Barton. A thrill of
greedy curiosity shot through his heart; he saw that, with Dr. Deane's
help, he might be able to ascertain the amount of the inheritance which
must so soon fall to him. This feeling, fed by the impatience of his
long subjection, took complete possession of him, and he resolved to
further his father's desires, without regard to present results.
“Yes, that might be left to me,” the Doctor repeated, “after the other
matter is settled. Thee knows what I mean. Martha will have ten thousand
dollars in her own right, at twenty-five,--and sooner, if she marries
with my approbation. Now, thee or thy father must bring an equal sum;
that is understood between us--and I think thy father mentioned that
thee could do it without calling upon him. Is that the case?”
“Not quite--but, yes, very nearly. That is, the old man's been so close
with me, that I'm a little close with him, Doctor, you see! He doesn't
know exactly how much I have got, and as he threatens to leave me
according to what I've saved, why, I rather let him have his own way
about the matter.”
A keen, shrewd smile flitted over the Doctor's face.
“But if it isn't quite altogether ten thousand, Doctor,” Barton
continued, “I don't say but what it could be easily made up to that
figure. You and I could arrange all that between our two selves, without
consulting the old man,--and, indeed, it's not _his_ business, in any
way,--and so, you might go straight to the other matter at once.”
“H'm,” mused the Doctor, with his chin again upon his stick, “I should
perhaps be working in thy interest, as much as in mine. Then thee can
afford to come up fair and square to the mark. Of course, thee has all
the papers to show for thy own property?”
“I guess there'll be no trouble about that,” Barton answered,
carelessly. “I lend on none but the best security. 'T will take a little
time--must go to Chester--so we needn't wait for that; 't will be all
right!”
“Oh, no doubt; but hasn't thee overlooked one thing?”
“What?”
“That Martha should first know thy mind towards her.”
It was true, he had overlooked that important fact, and the suggestion
came to him very like an attack of cramp. He laughed, however, took out
a red silk handkerchief, and tried to wipe a little eagerness into his
face.
“No, Doctor!” he exclaimed, “not forgot, only keeping the best for the
last. I wasn't sure but you might want to speak to her yourself, first;
but she knows, doesn't she?”
“Not to my direct knowledge; and I wouldn't like to venture to speak in
her name.”
“Then, I'll--that is, you think I'd better have a talk with her. A
little tough, at my time of life, ha! ha!--but faint heart never won
fair lady; and I hadn't thought of going that far to-day, though
of course, I'm anxious,--been in my thoughts so long,--and
perhaps--perhaps”--
“I'll tell thee,” said the Doctor, seeming not to notice Barton's
visible embarrassment, which he found very natural; “do thee come up
again next First-day afternoon prepared to speak thy mind. I will give
Martha a hint of thy purpose beforehand, but only a hint, mind thee; the
girl has a smart head of her own, and thee'll come on faster with her if
thee pleads thy own cause with thy own mouth.”
“Yes, I'll come then!” cried Barton, so relieved at his present escape
that his relief took the expression of joy. Dr. Deane was a fair judge
of character; he knew all of Alfred Barton's prominent traits, and
imagined that he was now reading him like an open book; but it was like
reading one of those Latin sentences which, to the ear, are made up of
English words. The signs were all correct, only they belonged to another
language.
The heavy wooer shortly took his departure. While on the return path, he
caught sight of Miss Betsy Lavender's beaver, bobbing along behind the
pickets of the hill-fence, and, rather than encounter its wearer in his
present mood, he stole into the shelter of one of the cross-hedges, and
made his way into the timbered bottom below.