"Telling won't do, sir, when doing tells another story. Here are your
directors astonished and vexed at you for coming back with not a word as
to why you've come. O, how do I know it? It's the talk o' the town! They
bid you go back to the field of work you chose yourself, and you tell
_them_--business men--financiers--that you're 'tired and anyhow----' By
Jupiter! John March----"
"General, stop! I'll manage my own business my own way, sir! It's no
choice of mine to speak so to you, General Halliday, but I swear I'll
not widen my confidences--no, nor modify my comings and goings--to
provide against the looks of things. It's the culpable who are careful,
sir."
"Yes--yes--and 'the simple pass on and are punished.' I don't ask you to
widen your confidences to include me, John."
"Shan't widen them to include anyone, under pressure, General. But it's
a pity when you know so much about these things, you don't know more."
"I do, John. I know that when Jeff-Jack left here he left his proxy--at
your solicitation--with John Wesley Garnet!"
"Which, he gave me to understand, was just what he intended to do,
anyhow."
"O, gave you to understand, of course! But it wasn't, John. Jeff-Jack's
still got too many uses for Garnet, to cross him without a good excuse.
But he knows what Gamble's influence is, and a different request from
you would have put his proxy in safer hands. He would have saved you,
John, if you hadn't yourself rushed in and spoken for Garnet."
"And why should you assume that Garnet's holding the proxy has made----"
"Oh, bah! Why, John, d'ye reckon I don't see that he and Bulger have
gone over to Gamble, and are out-voting you--hauling you in hand over
fist? It's written in large letters and hung up where all Susie can read
it--except yourself!"
"Where?"
"In your face. And now you're staying here to stare at a lost game. O,
John, for your own sake, get away! Clear out to-night! You can at least
hide your helplessness. If you will, I'll call you back as soon as you
can gain anything by coming. Yes, and I'll turn in and fight these
fellows for you in the meantime!"
"Thank you, General, but you're mistaken; the game _isn't_ lost. The
moment Jeff-Jack and I----"
"Ah! John, the moment's gone! Ask yourself! Will Jeff-Jack ever join the
forlorn hope of a man who won't dance to his fiddle? _His_
self-sacrifices are not that sort."
"And yet that's the very sacrifice you think I ought to let you make for
me!"
"By Joe! sir, it wouldn't be a sacrifice! If it will just get you out of
town it will suit me perfectly!"
"Then, sir, you'll not be suited! I'm going to stay here and see what my
enemies are up to; and if they're up to what I think they are, I'll
break their backs if I have to do it single-handed and alone! Good-day,
sir."
"Good-day, John; that's the way you'll have to do it, sir."
"Devil take him," added the General as he found himself alone, "_he's_
crossed the bar. It's his heart that's safe. O, Fan, my poor child!"
LXVII.
PROBLEM: IS AN UNCONFIRMED DISTRUST NECESSARILY A DEAD ASSET?
John went away heavy and bitter. Yet he remembered, this time, to take
more care of his facial expression. He met Shotwell and Proudfit coming
out of the best saloon. They stopped him, complimented his clothes and
his legs, asked a question or two of genuine interest, poked him in the
waistband, and regretted not meeting him sooner. Proudfit suggested,
with the proper anathema, to go back and take a _re_-invigorator with
Vice-President March. But the pleasant Shotwell said:
"You forget, Colonel, that ow a-able young friend belongs to Gideon's
ba-and, now, seh."
Proudfit made a vague gesture of acknowledgment. "And anyhow"--his
tongue thickened and his head waggled playfully--"anyhow, Shot, a
ladies' man's just _got_ to keep his breath sweet, ain't he?"
Shotwell looked as though the rolling earth had struck something. March
paled, but he took the Captain's cigar to light his own as he remarked:
"I don't get the meaning of that expression as clear as I wish you'd
make it, Colonel."
Shotwell pretended to burst with merriment. "Why, neither does the
Colonel! That was only a sort o' glittering generality to hide his
emba'assment--haw, haw, haw!"
Proudfit smiled modestly. "Shot, you're right again! He's right again,
John. It was only one o' my grittlin' gen--my grilterin' geren--aw!
Shot, hush yo' fuss! you confu-use me!"
John was laughing before he knew it. "Gentlemen, I've got to get along
home. I slept at Tom Hersey's hotel last night, and haven't seen my
mother yet. O--eh--Captain----"
Shotwell left Proudfit and walked away with March. Persons rarely asked
advice of the ever-amiable Captain; they went by him to Charley
Champion, whom he reverenced as well as loved. And so he was thoroughly
pleased when John actually let Champion pass them and asked him, in
confidence, what he thought of Proudfit's construction company.
"Well, of co'se, John, you know how fah Proudfit is fum being an a-able
man; and so does he. He's evm fool enough to think he can sharpen his
wits with whiskey, which _you_ know, March, that if that was so I'd
myself be as sharp as a ra-azor. But _I_ don't suspicion but what
everything's clean and square--Oh, I wouldn't swear nobody does; you
know, yo'self, what double-ba'lled fools some men ah. I reckon just
about everybody likes the arrangement, though; faw whetheh one company
aw the otheh, aw both, make money, the money sta-ays. Yes, of co'se, we
know he owes it to Garnet's influence, but I suspicion Garnet done as he
did mo' to gratify Miz Proudfit's ambitions than fum any notion o' they
being big money in it faw anybody; you know how fawnd Garnet's always
been of both of 'em, you know. Oh, no, whateveh the thing is, it's
square! You might know that by Pettigrew bein' its seccata'y; faw to eh
is _human_--which Pettigrew _ain't_."
John mounted a horse and started for Widewood. He had to stop and shake
hands with Parson Tombs over his front palings, and make an honest
effort to feel annoyed by the old man's laughter-laden compliments on
his energy, enterprise, and perspicacity. At the Halliday cottage he saw
Fannie clipping roses from the porch trellis for Martha Salter, who
stood by. She waved her hand.
"John March, I do believe you were going to gallop right a-past us
without stopping!" said Fannie, as he tardily wheeled and rode slowly up
to the low gate.
He answered awkwardly, and when she gave him a rose, looked across at
Miss Salter, whose gravity increased his discomfort. A dash up the slope
beyond the Academy was a partial relief only while it lasted, and at the
top, where his horse dropped into a trot, he lifted the flower as if to
toss it over the hedge, but faltered, bent forward, and stuck it into
the animal's head-stall. As he straightened up he found himself in the
company of a tall rider going his way, whom he had passed on the
slope--the president of Suez University.
"I believe you're not often overtaken, once you're in the saddle, Mr.
March."
John "reckoned that was so," and said that as he came up the hill he had
been so busy thinking, that he had not recognized the quiet gray man in
time to salute him. The poverty-chastened gentleman had "seen how it
was," and began to speak of the great changes impending over Widewood
and in Suez, principally due, he insisted with a very agreeable dignity,
to Mr. March's courageous and untiring perseverance.
"It's true you couldn't have succeeded without some support from such
resolute and catholic spirits as Major Garnet and President Gamble; but
when I lately spoke to them they said emphatically that, in comparison
with you, they had done nothing; and Mr. Leggett, who was present,
confirmed them and included himself. He had brought them to me to urge
me to take a few shares which were for the moment available. The holder,
I believe, was the lady who teaches French here in the Academy,
Mademoiselle Eglantine; yes. I have no money to invest, however, and Mr.
Leggett tells me she has changed her mind again and will keep the stock,
which I am sure is wise. The Construction Company?--I think it an
excellent idea; admirable! I mustn't detain you, Mr. March, though I
have a request to make. Possibly you know that our more advanced
students gather for an hour or so once a week in what we've named our
Social Hall, for various forms of profitable entertainment? Now and then
we have the good fortune to have some man of mark address us informally,
and if you, Mr. March, would do so, there's no one else in this region
whom our young people would be so pleased to hear."
John thanked the president for the honor. If there was only something,
anything, on which he was really qualified to speak--but----
"Mr. March, speak on the imperative need of organized effort
harmoniously combined, for the accomplishment of almost all large
undertakings! Or on the growing necessity men find to trust their
interest in one another's hands! Oh! you can hardly be at a loss for a
theme, I'm sure; but those are points which, it seems to me, our state
of society here makes it especially needful to emphasize. Don't you
think so, Mr. March?"
Mr. March thought so; ahem! There was a pause, and then they talked of
the loveliness of the season. The temperature, they decided, must be
about seventy-seven. And what a night the last one had been! Mr. March
had attended a meeting of the land company's board, which did not
adjourn until very late, but he simply had to take a long walk in the
starlight afterward, and even when that was done he stayed up until an
absurd hour writing a description of the glorious Southern night to a
friend in New England who was still surrounded by frozen hills and
streams.
"I hardly know an easier way to delight a New Englander's fancy at this
time of year," said the gray president. "Or is your friend a Southern
man?"
"Oh--eh--no, sir, she's a Southern girl. I--well, I had to write her on
business, anyhow, and I just yielded to the impulse--wrote it, really,
more to myself than----"
Mr. March dreamed a moment and presently spoke again.
"It's barely possible I shall have to leave town to-morrow or next day,
sir; if I don't I'll try to meet your wish. Well, sir, good-day." He
galloped on.
John had often before left Suez and crossed the old battle-field
benumbed with consternation and galled with doubts of himself; but he
had always breathed in new strength among the Widewood hills. Not so
to-day. When once or twice he let his warm horse walk and his thought
seek rest, the approbations of Proudfit and Shotwell, Parson Tombs, the
president of Suez University, and such--Oh! they only filled him with
gaspings. He tried to think what man of real weight there still was with
whose efforts he might "harmoniously combine" his own; but he knew well
enough there was not one who had not, seemingly through some error of
his, drifted beyond his hail.
As the turnings of the mountain road led him from each familiar vista to
the next, more and more grievously bore down upon his spirit the sacred
charge which he had inherited along with this majestic forest. His
father's presence and voice seemed with him again as at one point he
halted a moment because it had been the father's habit to do so, and
gazed far down and away upon Suez and off in the west where Rosemont's
roof and grove lay in a flood of sunlight.
"Oh, son," he could almost hear the dear voice say again, as just there
it had once said, "I do believe it's fah betteh to get cheated once in a
while than to be afraid to trust those who're not afraid to trust us.
Why, son, we wouldn't ever a-been father and son at all, only for the
sweet trustfulness of yo' dear motheh. Think o' that, son; you an' me
neveh bein' any relation to each otheh!"
The rider's bosom heaved. But the next moment he was hearkening. A
distant strain of human mirth came softly from farther up in the wooded
hills; one and no more, as if those who made it had descended from some
swell of the land into one of its tangled hollows. He listened in vain.
All he heard was that beloved long-lost voice saying once more in his
lonely heart, "Make haste and grow, son." He put in the spur.
Down a long slope, up a sudden rise, over a level curve where a
fox-squirrel leaped into the road and scampered along it; up again, down
into a hollow, across the ridge beyond--so he was going, when voices
sounded again, then hoofs and wheels, and flashing and darkling in the
woodland's afternoon shadows came a party of four, two under hats, two
under bonnets, drawn by Bulger's handsome trotters in Garnet's carryall.
Garnet drove. Beside him sat Mrs. March luminous with satisfaction, and
on the back seat with Bulger was a small thin woman whose flaxen hair
was flattened in quince-seed waves on her pretty temples, and whom John
knew slightly as Mrs. Gamble. Bulger and the ladies waved hands. Only
Garnet's smile showed restraint.
In the board meeting of the night before, though surprise and annoyance
at John's presence and attitude were obvious, only the Major and he had
openly struck fire. When Gamble, Garnet, and Bulger were left alone,
Bulger, who had all along been silent, remarked to Garnet:
"I never drive with a whip. There's lots of horse in a young fellow like
March, and I never blame a horse for not liking what he don't
understand. I give him lump-sugar. If he's vicious, that's another
thing; but when he's only nervous--Got a match, Gamble?--Thanks. Now,
I'll tell you what let's do first thing to-morrow morning." And this,
with one or two happy modifications suggested by Garnet and Gamble, was
now being done.
LXVIII.
FAREWELL, WIDEWOOD
John was lost in a conflict of strong emotions. Sore beset, he forced
them all aside for the moment and yielded only to a grateful wonder as
he looked upon his pretty mother with her lap full of spring flowers.
For the first time in their acquaintance her shapely ear was not waiting
to receive, nor her refined lips to reject, his usual rough apologies.
Her tone of resignation was almost playful as she said that the first
news of his return had come to her through her present kind companions.
Mrs. Gamble put in that she had induced Mrs. March to join them, on
their return from their mountain drive, by telling her that her son was
so full of his work in his, her, and their common interest, that she
could not expect him to come to her.
"And you all were bringing mother in to see me?" exclaimed John.
"Certing!" said blithe Mrs. Gamble, while Garnet faltered a smiling
disclaimer, and the son wondered what hidden influence was making
endurable to his mother the company of a woman who declared he would
soon have this wilderness turned into a "frewtful garding." But as Mrs.
Gamble turned from him and engaged Mrs. March's and Bulger's attention,
Garnet gave him a beckoning nod, and as he came round, the Major leaned
out and softly said, with a most amiable dignity:
"We were really looking for you, too. Don't you want, just for three or
four hours, to forget last night's discord and come along with Sister
March and us? We've got a pleasant surprise for her, and we'll enjoy it
more, and so will she, if you take part in it."
"Why, Major Garnet--hm!--I can forget; I only can't recede, sir.
But----"
"Better speak a little lower."
"Yes, sir. Where's mother going with you, sir? I suppose she knows that,
of course?"
"O yes, she knows that. President Gamble and his wife have invited a few
of us--the two Miss Kinsingtons, Mademoiselle, Brother and Sister Tombs,
Proudfit, Sister Proudfit, Launcelot Halliday, and Fannie----"
"Professor Pettigrew?" asked John.
"No, just a few of us--to a sort of literary evening. But Sister March
doesn't know that I've been asked to read a number of her poems; you'll
be expected to recite others, and the evening will close with the
announcement that we--that is, Mrs. Gamble, Bulger, and I--I'm afraid
you'll think we've taken a great liberty in your absence, Brother March;
I----"
"What have you been doing, Major Garnet?"
"Why, John, we've outrun your intended efforts and--partly by mail,
partly by telegraph--the news only came this morning--we've found Sister
March a publisher."
"Why, Major Garnet!" whispered John, with girlish tenderness. Tears
sprang to his eyes.
"They're a new house, just starting," continued Garnet, "but they'll
print the poems at once."
"In Boston or New York?" interrupted John.
"Pittsburg."
"But how did they decide, Major, without seeing the poems?"
"They didn't; Sister March loaned me some of her duplicates."
"I hope you got good terms, did you?"
"Excellent. Thirty-three and a third per cent. royalty after the first
five thousand. Why, John, Dixie alone will want that many."
John "reckoned so" and backed his horse. Mrs. Gamble ratified the
Major's invitation, and the horseman replied to the smiling four that he
must go home for one or two matters, but would make haste to join them
in Suez. As Garnet lifted the reins Mrs. March settled herself anew at
his side with a sweet glance into his face which disturbed her son, it
seemed so fondly personal. But this disquietude quickly left him as he
rode away, when he remembered the Major's daughter having lifted just
such a look at himself, for whom, manifestly, she cared nothing, except
in the most colorless way.
* * * * *
Daphne Jane, at Widewood, swinging on the garden-gate and cackling
airily to a parting visitor, slipped to the ground as Widewood's master
suddenly appeared, although just then the first light-hearted smile of
that day broke upon his face. It was the parting visitor, also mounted,
whose presence pleased him in a degree so unexpected even to himself
that he promptly abated his first show of delight.
"Why, Johanna, you important adjunct! To what are we indebted for"--the
tone grew vacant--"this--pleasure?" His gay look darkened to one of
swift reflection and crushing inference. "Do--do you want to see me?" he
blurted, and somewhere under her dark skin Johanna blushed. "No, of
course you don't."
As he dismounted--"Jane," he said, "you no need to come in; finish your
confab." Upstairs he tried to recall the errand that had brought him
there, but Barbara's maid filled all his thought. He saw her from a
window and silently addressed her.
"You're not yourself! You're your mistress and you know it! You're she,
come all the way back from the land of snow to counsel me; and you're
welcome. There's balm, at least, in a sweet woman's counsel, womanly
given. Balm; ah, me! neither she nor I have any right--O! what am I
looking for in this drawer?--No, I'll take just this word from her and
then no more!" Down-stairs he paused an instant in passing his mother's
portrait. "No, dear," he said, "we'll mix nothing else with our one good
dream--Widewood filled with happy homes and this one, with just you and
me in it, the happiest of them all!"
On the gate Daphne Jane still prattled, but after half a dozen false
starts Johanna, for gentle shame's sake, had felt obliged to go. Her
horse paced off briskly, and a less alert nature than Daphne Jane's
would have fancied her soon far on her way. As John came forth again he
saw no sign that his mother's maid, slowly walking toward the house with
her eyes down, was not engaged in some pious self-examination, instead
of listening down the mountain road with both ears. But she easily
guessed he was doing the same thing.
"Well, Jane," he said as he loosed his bridle from the fence, "been
writing something for Johanna?" and when she said, "Yass, seh," he knew
the bashful lie was part of her complicity in a matter she did not
understand, but only hoped it was some rascality. A secret delight
filled her bosom as he mounted and walked his horse out of sight. She
stopped with lifted head and let her joy tell itself in a smiling
whisper:
"Trott'n'!" She hearkened again; the smile widened; the voice rose:
"Gallopin'!" Her eyes dilated merrily and she cried aloud:
"Ga-allopin', ga-allopin', lippetty-clip, down Zigzag Hill!" Her smile
became a laugh, the laugh a song, the song a dance which joined the
lightness of a butterfly with the grace of a girl whose mothers had
never worn a staylace, and she ran with tossing arms and willowy
undulations to kiss her image in Daphne's glass.
With a hundred or so of small stones rattling at his horse's heels John
reached the foot of "Zigzag Hill," turned with the forest road once or
twice more, noticed, by the tracks, that Johanna's horse was walking,
and at another angle saw her just ahead timorously working her animal
sidewise to the edge of the way.
"Johanna," he began as he dashed up--"O!--don't get scared--didn't you
come out here in hopes to somehow let me know"--he took on a look of
angry distress--"that the Suez folks are talking?"
The girl started and stammered, but the young man knitted his brows
worse. "Umhm. That's all right." His horse leaped so that he had to look
back to see her, as he added more kindly:
"I'm much obliged to you, Johanna--Good-by."
The face he had thus taken by surprise tried, too late, to smile away
the signs that its owner was grieved and hurt. A few rods farther on
John wheeled around and trotted back. Her pulse bounded with gratitude.
"Johanna, of course, if I stay here I shall keep entirely out of Mrs.
Ravenel's sight, or----"
The girl made a despairing gesture that brought John's frown again.
"Why, what?" he asked with a perplexed smile.
"Law! Mr. Mahch, you cayn't all of a sudden do dat; dey'll on'y talk
wuss."
"Well, Johanna--I'm not going to try it. I'm going to take the express
train this evening." He started on, but checked up once more and faced
around. "O--eh--Johanna, I'd rather you'd not speak of this, you
understand. I natu'ly don't want Mrs. Ravenel to know why I go; but I'm
even more particular about General Halliday. It's none o' his--hm! I
say I don't want him to know. Well, good-by. O--eh--Johanna, have
you no word--of course, you know, the North's a mighty sizable place,
and still it's just possible I might chance some day to meet up
with--eh--eh--however, it's aft' all so utterly improbable, that,
really--well, good-by!"
A while later Johanna stopped at that familiar point which overlooked
the valley of the Swanee and the slopes about Rosemont. The sun had
nearly set, but she realized her hope. Far down on the gray turnpike she
saw the diminished figure of John March speeding townward across the
battle-field. At the culvert he drew rein, faced about, and stood gazing
upon Widewood's hills. She could but just be sure it was he, yet her
tender spirit felt the swelling of his heart, and the tears rose in her
eyes, that were not in his only because a man--mustn't.
While she wondered wistfully if he could see her, his arm went slowly up
and waved a wide farewell to the scene. She snatched out her
handkerchief, flaunted it, and saw him start gratefully at sight of her
and reply with his own. Then he wheeled and sped on.
"Go," she cried, "go; and de Lawd be wid you, Mr. Jawn Mahch,
Gen'lemun!--O Lawd, Lawd! Mr. Jawn Mahch, I wisht I knowed a nigger like
you!"
LXIX.
IN YANKEE LAND
It was still early May when Barbara Garnet had been six weeks in
college. The institution stood in one of New England's oldest towns, a
place of unfenced greenswards, among which the streets wound and
loitered, hunting for historic gambrel-roofed houses, many of which had
given room to other sorts less picturesque and homelike. In the same
search great elms followed them down into river meadows or up among
flowery hills, casting off their dainty blossoms, putting on their
leaves, and waving majestic greetings to the sower as he strode across
his stony fields.