There stood, in the ravine which separated Storm hill from the property
that had formerly belonged to Jacques Benoix, a roofless, tumbledown
stone cabin which had been from childhood Jacqueline's own particular
playground, as sacred to her as the eyrie to her mother. She called it,
grandiloquently, the Ruin. The place had a sinister reputation, and was
sedulously avoided by both negroes and whites of the neighborhood; which
suited Jacqueline's purposes excellently. All dreamers feel the need of
a hidden place where they may retire, free from the gaze of a not too
sympathetic world; and the Ruin made a strong appeal to the imagination
of Jacqueline.
If the place was haunted, as the neighborhood averred, it was perhaps
not without reason. The cabin had once been a slave-house where an
earlier Kildare kept certain human livestock to be fattened like hogs
for the market, overcrowding and neglecting them, however, as he would
not have dared to neglect and overcrowd hogs, so that the venture was
not altogether successful. Recently, workmen laying drainage pipes
through the ravine had uncovered a long trench filled with many bones,
ghastly witness to the folly of neglecting livestock, human or
otherwise. Cholera was the first ghost to haunt that spot, but it had
left others which were heard about the cabin on windy nights, moaning
and rattling chains and, because they were the ghosts of negroes,
singing.
Jacqueline, unaware of this episode in the proud Kildare history, had
nevertheless been faithfully warned by the negroes of "ha'nts" in the
ravine, which added materially to her pleasure in the place. Not every
budding genius has at her private disposal a haunted ruin; and at this
period of her career Jacqueline was being a budding genius.
Their mother had recently taken both girls to a near-by city for their
first taste of grand opera, completing the effect by the purchase of a
graphophone and opera records. Since that time Jacqueline had nourished
the more or less secret ambition of becoming the world's greatest
_diva_. She had taken to singing in church with an impassioned ardor
which startled, even while it titillated, the ear of the congregation.
As Mrs. Sykes put it, "Folks hadn't ought to sing hymns as if they was
love-songs, no matter how nice it sounds."
Jacqueline had not taken her family, even her adored mother, entirely
into her confidence, having a shrewd conviction that her ambition would
meet with slight encouragement from them. Of late, since the disturbance
about Philip's father, both Jemima and her mother were too _distrait_,
too absorbed in their own affairs, to pay much attention to Jacqueline.
Whatever confidences trembled on her lips, remained unsaid. She felt
that they had more important things to think about. Once, indeed, she
had ventured to join her voice to that of the Victrola in the mad scene
from "Lucia," acting at the same time her conception of the part; and
her family, staring in amazement, had suddenly roared with laughter, the
first laughter heard in that house for many a day.
So Jacqueline and her hurt dignity sought refuge in the Ruin, there to
rehearse her art hereafter untroubled by the jeers of an untemperamental
world. Her faithful audience and inseparable companion was Mag's baby,
who crowed and gurgled impartially over the woes of _La Tosca_,
_Camille_ or _Manon_, having inherited the easy-going placidity of her
mother. Sometimes Kate, coming and going about her work, paused to
listen, smiling at the arias soaring up out of the ravine, and thought,
"It is a good thing that child has all outdoors at her disposal!
Whatever should I do with her between four walls?"
Here, on the afternoon following her raid upon the raiders, Jacqueline
posed and strutted happily, making the welkin ring with the piteousness
of _Madame Butterfly_. From without came distant, languid, sounds of
late summer, grass-mowers whirring in the hay-meadows, a stallion
nickering in his stall for the freedom of the pasture, crickets and
katydids shrilling their cheerful dirge for the summer that was passing.
All of these sounds the girl knew and savored in the intervals between
her singing. Now and then a bird hopped down from the branches that hung
over the roofless cabin, and searched fearlessly for provender at her
very feet. Mag's baby, on a bed of moss and leaves, crooned to herself,
kicking fat legs toward heaven and clutching at stray sunbeams with
futile hands.
Jacqueline broke off. "Oh, dear, I could sing so much better if somebody
would listen!" she complained aloud to the birds and the baby and the
world at large. "It takes two to make real music, a singer and a
listener."
She began again. Suddenly, just outside, a very passable tenor took up
the air just where a tenor should. Jacqueline was startled but not
nonplussed; she had been hoping a miracle might occur that day. At
seventeen, the age of miracles has not passed. She finished her share of
the duet with a flourish, and on the last note of his, Percival Channing
appeared in the doorway.
"Weren't we splendid together?" she greeted him. "Just like the
Victrola. Let's do it again!"
They did it again, and afterwards shook hands in mutual congratulation.
"What you said was quite true--music without some one to share it is
only half music," he remarked. "But whom did you say it to?" He looked
about him curiously.
"Oh, to my familiars!" She waved an airy hand. "This place is haunted,
you know; but the ghosts run when they see a stranger.--You _do_ make
unexpected appearances, Mr. Channing!"
"Nothing compared with yours. The banister-rail, riding bareback 'out of
the night,' as the romantics love to say--But unexpected? Come now, Miss
Jacqueline--" he smiled quizzically--"surely you did expect me to
inquire for your health?"
She dimpled. "Yes--but not quite so soon."
"You do yourself an injustice!" He added, with an air of formality, "I
have come to make my dinner call. Is your mother at home?"
"You know very well that she's away, because you heard Philip say so
last night! There's Jemima, though."
"Is your sister at home?" he asked politely.
"She's making pickle this afternoon, and she's always rather cross when
she makes pickle. But I'm sure she'll see you, if you wish."
"I don't," said Channing.
"I thought not," murmured Jacqueline, and made a place for him to sit
down beside her. "Look out--you'll squash the baby!"
Channing jumped. "A baby? Beg pardon, infant--" he poked a finger toward
young Kitty, who promptly conveyed it to her mouth. "It's biting me," he
said plaintively. "Call it off--What are you doing with a baby?"
"I'm winning it away from its mother so that she'll let me keep it for
good," said Jacqueline in confidence.
"Humph! Rather a high-handed proceeding, that."
"Oh, no--I don't think Mag really wants a baby much, not like I do.
She's fond of it in a way, just as cats are fond of their kittens; but
they soon outgrow it, you know. Why, once we had a cat who ate her
kittens!"
"Shocking of her," said Channing.
"I suppose it was because she didn't want to have them--any more than
Mag did. She never had a husband, you see, and that makes it so
awkward."
"Meaning the cat?" murmured Channing.
The author of erotic novels was rather pink about the gills. He wondered
how much of the girl's naïveté was natural and how much pose. On the
whole, judging from her antecedents and environment, he decided that it
was largely pose, but thought none the less of her for that. The
artificial always interested him more than the natural.
He looked at the baby again with a certain distaste. He had heard from
Farwell the story of Mag's adoption into the Storm household, and it had
rather shocked him. What was the woman thinking of to surround her young
daughters with such influences? Naturally one would not expect prudery,
conventionality, from the mistress of Storm, but in his experience quite
_declasée_ women guarded more carefully than this the morals of their
young.
"I can't think why you want to keep the infant," he said.
Jacqueline looked at him in surprise. "Why, she's perfectly sweet! Look
at her precious little curls, and her chubby feet, and all!" She
gathered the small Kitty up in her arms protectively. "Didn't the bad
old man admire her, then? Bless its heart! Just shows what a stupid he
is--Why, Mr. Channing, everybody wants a baby!"
He murmured, "Yes? But in the natural course of events, surely--"
"I might have some of my own, you mean? I hope so--oh, I do hope so!
Lots and lots of them. But I might not, you know. The natural course of
events doesn't always happen. I might be an old maid. Or I might be
wedded to my Art. 'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.' Have
you ever thought how perfectly _awful_ it would be to go through life
without any children at all?"
Mr. Channing admitted that he had not, and changed the subject. "What
particular Art are you thinking of being wedded to?"
Jacqueline looked at him reproachfully, hurt. "I should think you'd
know. Didn't you hear me practising?"
The author did not smile. Crude and untrained as it was, he had
recognized in that young contralto a quality that made him start. He was
always very quick to recognize talent.
"I was going to speak to you about that," he said seriously. "Do you
know that you have quite a remarkable voice, Miss Jacqueline?"
"Of course I know it! But what's the use if nobody else does? A voice
with nobody to listen to it is--is like being pretty with nobody to tell
you so."
"Does nobody tell you _that_?" he murmured.
She dimpled again, flushing under his frank gaze. "They think I'm too
young for compliments! As for my voice, it's getting so strong that
Mummy and the Blossom are always saying to me, 'Not so loud.' If I let
it out in the house, they put their fingers in their ears. If I let it
out in church, Jemmy says I'm drowning the soprano--and so I am. What
can I do?"
"Learn to use it," said Channing. "You must have lessons, of course."
"Oh, I've had them. The best singing-teacher in Lexington came here once
a week all last winter."
"Lexington!" Channing smiled.
"You think I ought to have one from Louisville or Cincinnati?" she asked
anxiously. "I didn't really seem to learn very much from the Lexington
one."
Channing smiled again. "I'm afraid you won't get the sort of training
you need this side of Europe. Your mother must send you to Germany, or
at least to New York."
She made a gesture of despair. "Then there's no use talking about it.
I'll never leave mother, never! I'll just have to go on practising out
here as best I can, with nobody to listen to me."
"I'll listen to you," consoled Channing, "whenever you'll let me."
"But you'll be going away soon."
"Not very soon," he said. He did not add that he had decided on the
moment to remain Farwell's guest until he had exhausted this new
interest thoroughly. Channing was not the man to deny himself the luxury
of any passing sensation.
He had found himself pleasurably wakeful during the night, thinking of
the picture the girl made as she rode into the glare of lamplight,
skirts and hair in disarray, laughing like a young Bacchante, the spirit
of youth and joy incarnate. Now he drew her out very skilfully, so that
he might watch the changing expressions on her vivid face as she talked,
or smiled, or bent broodingly over the child in her arms. Here, he
thought, was temperament as well as talent. Properly handled, the girl
had a career before her.
Nor was his curiosity about her entirely impersonal. Channing, as a
rule, felt rather at a loss with girls. Occasionally in his work he
found it necessary to introduce the young person, chiefly by way of
contrast, and then he did extravagant justice to her rose-white flesh
and her budding curves, and got her as speedily as possible into the
arms of the villain; after which she became interesting. His natural
taste in heroines was for the lady with a past, preferably several
pasts. The blot on the woman's character was as piquant to him as the
mole upon her shoulder. He had spent an impressionable youth in Paris.
But this Bouncing Bet of the Banister, as he had called her, this young
wildwoods creature with all the instincts and none of the experience of
his own class, gave an effect of warmth, of vitality, that thrilled him.
His gaze kindled as he watched her. She promised to be even lovelier
than she was, never as beautiful as the mother, perhaps, but quite
beautiful enough to be disturbing, with her soft, thick-lashed eyes, her
tender mouth, her slender, straight, finely molded body; no finished
product this, but a bit of virgin soul-clay waiting to be modeled; an
empty, exquisite vase waiting to be filled with life.
He thought suddenly of that matchless nude of Ingres', "La Source."
Young Jacqueline Kildare might have posed for it.
Percival Channing; at thirty-four, had moments of regretting that he had
not conserved his energies more carefully, been more truly "wedded to
his Art," to use the girl's quaint phrase. He felt latterly a little
stale, a little jaded and world-worn. It had occurred to him during the
night that contact with so vital a personality might refresh him, might
do for him what contact with the earth did for the giant Antæus. Indeed,
to his imagination she suggested the earth, field and pasture and wooded
stream, nature in her abundance, promise. She was the very essence of
this Kentucky, this half-tamed wilderness that he had come to study and
to portray.
There is no more charming companion than your temperamentalist, when
once the spark is struck. Jacqueline for the first time in her life
enjoyed that most subtle flattery of being understood. Here was a
person, a thoroughly "grown-up" person, who did not pet and humor her,
and tease her as if she were a child; who on the other hand did not
demand of her the impossible formalities of young ladyhood. Famous
author as he was, he accepted her just as he found her, and liked her
that way. She compared him with Philip, always suggesting some change,
always trying to improve her; and after all Philip was nothing but a
country clergyman!
When she had exhausted her own eager confidences, Mr. Channing paid her
the compliment of talking about himself. He made confidences in return.
She learned that he, like her, had suffered and was still suffering from
a lack of sympathy on the part of his family. They failed completely to
appreciate the necessities, the difficulties, of the artistic
temperament. In fact, he had practically given up his family, and was a
homeless wanderer upon the face of the earth, seeking his encouragement
among strangers.
"But surely they must appreciate you now," cried Jacqueline. "Why, you
are famous!"
He admitted it, rather sadly. "Famous--and lonely," he said.
She gave him an impulsive hand by way of sympathy. "I'd be willing to be
lonely, if I could be famous. But I wouldn't be willing to have mother
lonely," she added. "I never could make up my mind to leave her here
alone."
"Alone? But there's your sister."
"No, there isn't. Not now. She's here, of course, but--" The girl's face
shadowed, but she did not explain. The shock of that terrible scene
between the two beings she loved best was a thing that did not bear
thinking of, much less speaking of. Sometimes at night she woke
trembling and sobbing with the memory of it, as from a nightmare. But by
day she put it from her determinedly, and tried to pretend that
everything was as it always had been in her home.
"Have you told your mother about this ambition of yours?" he asked
curiously.
She shook her head. "No. I've hinted, but they--they laughed at me, and
Jemmy said that it wouldn't be lady-like to go on the stage, even in
grand opera."
Channing smiled. "The standards of the world, fortunately, vary somewhat
from the standards of rural Kentucky. Some of the greatest 'ladies' I
have known happened to be on the stage, and not always in grand opera."
He went on to speak of various singers and actors and painters and
writers of his acquaintance, of studios and greenrooms, customs in
European countries, famous friendships between royalty and artists; and
she had her first glimpse of a world that made her own seem as barren
and desolate as some desert isle.
Certain racial inheritances awoke in her and clamored. Her mother's
family had been people of culture and travel and wide social
affiliations. It had not occurred to her before that her life was
singularly empty. She would have said that her friends were legion. The
horses, the dogs, the negroes, the humbler country folk of the
neighborhood, the tenants on her mother's property--all accepted the
Madam's youngest daughter as one of themselves, and loved her
accordingly. But of intercourse with her own kind, she had none. Her
mother, Philip, Professor Thorpe, even Jemima--regarded Jacqueline as a
playful, happy, charming tomboy, whose sole duty in life was to amuse
herself and them. Philip, indeed, was beginning to observe the deeper
instincts stirring in her; but Charming was the first of her equals to
treat her quite as an equal, and the fact that she looked upon him as a
dazzlingly superior order of being made his recognition of her as a
kindred spirit a rather heady thing. Jacqueline was capable, as only
seventeen may be, of a vast and uncritical hero-worship, that gave with
both hands and never tired of giving.
"Oh!" she said at last, with a long sigh. "Listening to you is just like
reading the most exciting book, all about crowned heads, and far
countries, and society, and things like that. Jemmy ought to hear you. I
wonder why Professor Jim has never sent us any of your novels? He is
always giving us books."
"I told you," remarked Charming, "that my family did not appreciate me."
He was not quite sure whether it was a disappointment or a relief to
realize that this wide-eyed girl had not, after all, read his books.
"Will you send me some?" she asked eagerly.
"I will not," he said decidedly. "But if you care for verse--" he
hesitated.
"What? You write poetry, too?" Jacqueline clasped her hands. "Recite
some for me at once!"
He chose one of his less erotic sonnets, and spoke it well and simply,
with the diffidence which occasionally besets the most confident of
authors with regard to their own performances.
Jacqueline listened dreamily. At last she said, "That's very musical.
I'd like to sing it."
The comment pleased him exceedingly, musical phrases being his
specialty. "You shall," he said. "I'll set it to music for you."
Her eyes opened wide. "You don't mean to say you're a composer as well
as an author and a poet, Mr. Charming? That's _too_ much! It isn't
fair."
He blushed quite boyishly. It is a curious fact that people are often
more avid of praise for the thing they cannot do, than for the thing
they can. Channing, who had met with no small success as a novelist,
secretly yearned to win impossible laurels as a composer of parlor
music. "Talents usually go in pairs," he said modestly.
She commanded an instant performance, which he refused, explaining that
his songs were never written for men's voices. "They have no thrill, no
appeal. Who wants to hear a bull bellowing?"
"Or a cow lowing, for that matter?" she laughed.
"But that is very different. A cow lowing makes one think of twilight
and the home pastures, of little stumbling, nosing calves, of the
loveliest thing in life, maternity--"
She smiled, drawing the sleeping Kitty close. "You can say things like
that, and yet you wonder why I want to keep this baby! You're a fraud,
Mr. Channing!"
"A poet--The same thing," he murmured cynically. "We wear our sentiments
on our sleeves for publishers to peck at." (he made a mental note of
this epigram for future use.) "I've an idea! Suppose you run home with
me now and try over some of my songs, will you? There's a lot of stuff
that might interest you. I've got one of Farwell's machines down in the
road."
"Go over to Holiday Hill in an automobile?" Her eyes sparkled. "But
could I take the baby?"
His face fell. "Why--er--won't it have to be fed or something? I'm
afraid Farwell's bachelor establishment, complete as it is, offers no
facilities for the feeding of infants."
"Oh, it's a bottle baby," she said casually. "But perhaps you're
right--I'll take her up to the house.--No, if I do that, Jemmy'll want
to know where I'm going, and stop me."
"Don't tell her."
"You don't know Jemmy!--I have it. Lige shall come and get the baby."
Cupping her hands about her mouth she let out a peculiar, clear yodel
that promptly brought an answering call from the top of the ravine. In
response to Jacqueline's peremptory, "Come here!" her faithful
lieutenant descended with manifest reluctance.
Ten yards from the cabin he halted. "I dassent come no furder, Miss
Jacky, not for nobody," he pleaded.
"Don't be a coward! The ha'nts won't hurt you. I come here every day,
and they never hurt me."
"No 'm, reck'n dey knows dere place--Dey's culled ha'nts," explained
Lige, and stayed where he was.
But as Jacqueline put the child in his arms, he suddenly let out a
frightened yell. "I sees smoke--oh, my Lawd! I sees smoke an' fire an'
brimstone comin' out'n dat cabin!" he gasped, and fled, clutching the
placid Kitty.
Jacqueline chuckled. "He saw the smoke from your cigarette," she
explained to Channing. "Naturally he thought that it was a little
manifestation from hell for his benefit. He's got religion, you see. So
much the better. Now we'll never be disturbed here!"
The "we" amused Channing. It was evident that he was expected to call
again at the Ruin.