And so Mrs. Kildare had her second interview with a man who wanted, not
herself, but one of her children. It made her feel very old, as if she
were becoming a looker-on at life, almost an outsider.
Jemima had firmly led her choice to the door of the office and left him
there, with reassuring whispers that were quite audible to the mother
within. It was evident that she was bestowing counsel, and straightening
his tie, and otherwise preparing him for conquest.
"Well, old Jim?" Kate looked up as he entered with a tremulous smile
that drove from his mind irrevocably the fine speech he had prepared.
The professor was attired in new and dapper tweeds; the eye-glasses upon
his aristocratic nose had dependent from them a rather broad black
ribbon; and the shirtfront across which it dangled was of
peppermint-striped silk, its dominant color repeated in silk socks
appearing above patent-leather shoes. But dazzling raiment did not seem
to produce in the inner man that careless courage which, as a
psychologist, he had been led to expect.
"To think of coming to this house, to this room, and asking your
permission to--to marry some one else! Kate," he blurted out, "I never
felt such a fool in all my life!"
"And you never looked so handsome. Why, Jim, you're a boy again!" She
rose and put her two hands on his shoulders, studying his sensitive,
plain face, forcing his embarrassed eyes to meet hers. "My dear friend,
my dear friend--So after all I am able to give you your happiness," she
said softly, and kissed him for the first time in their acquaintance.
In such fashion was her consent to his marriage with Jemima asked and
granted; and with it full forgiveness for his treachery to a devotion of
over twenty years.
They turned their attention hastily away from sentiment to settlements.
Thorpe was astonished by the amount of the dower Kate spoke of settling
upon Jemima.
"Why, it is a small fortune! How did you make all this money?"
"Mules," she said. "Also hogs and dairy products, my three specialties.
Mustn't the old horse-breeding Kildares turn over in their graves out
there at the desecration? When I came into the property, I soon saw that
racing stock was a luxury we could not afford, so I used the grass lands
for mules instead. We have been lucky. Storm mules have the reputation
now that Storm thoroughbreds used to have in Basil's day: and they sell
at a far surer profit.
"Then I sent to an agricultural college for the best scientific farmer
they had, and the best dairyman--a big expense, but they have paid.
Also, we sell our products at city prices, since I persuaded the
railroad to give us a spur here. We've cleared most of the land that
Basil kept for cover, now, and are using every acre of it.--Oh, yes, I
have made money, and I will make more. When I die the girls are going to
be rich. The original Storm property will be divided between them then,
according to Basil's will, you remember."
"I do remember it," said Thorpe, quietly. "There was another provision
in that will.... The girls will never inherit Storm, my dear, because
some day Benoix will come back to you."
She looked away out of the window. "I have given up hope, Jim. Months
now, and no word from him. He has gone. Philip thinks so, too.--But you
are right. If he does come, the girls will not inherit, because I shall
marry him. Even if we are old people, I shall marry him."
She had lifted her head, and her voice rang out as it had rung through
the prison when she cried to her lover that she would wait.
Thorpe kissed her hand. "And when that happens," he said gently, "I want
you to know that Jemima will understand. I can promise that. I shall
teach my wife to know her mother better."
She smiled at him, sadly. She suspected that he was promising a miracle
he could not perform, counting upon an influencing factor that did not
exist. "Was he fatuous enough to believe that Jemima loved him? Her
fears for her child's happiness suddenly became fears for the happiness
of this life-long friend. She felt that she must warn him.
"I wonder if you know just the sort of woman you are marrying, Jim?
Jemima is very intelligent, and like many intelligent people she is a
little--ruthless. Honorable, clear-sighted; but hard. She is more her
father's child than mine. I do not always understand her, but--I do know
that she is not sentimental, Jim dear."
He touched her hand reassuringly. "She has told me that she is not
marrying me for love, if that is what you are trying to say. She has
given me to understand, quite conscientiously, that she is merely
accepting the opportunities I can offer her--I, a dull, middle-aged,
dyspeptic don in a backwater college!" he chuckled. "But," he added--and
the glow in his eyes was quite boyish--"I have had occasion to observe
in Jemima certain symptoms--a proprietary interest in my belongings, for
instance, my rooms, my welfare, my health, my--er--personal
appearance--which lead me to believe that her regard for me is not
entirely intellectual. In fact, I know rather more about Jemima's inner
workings, so to speak, than she knows herself. One is not a psychologist
for nothing! The--er--the tender passion manifests itself in various
ways. Some women love with their emotions, as it were; some, God bless
them! with their capable hands and brains."
Kate was deeply touched. "Perhaps you're right, Jim. I hope so, my dear.
I do hope so!"
Jacqueline received the news of her sister's engagement with shouts of
glee. "What a joke on you, Mummy! _What_ a joke! Old Faithful carried
off under your very nose, by your own child! And Jemmy, of all people!
That's the way she did to that young man at Goddy's party. Good old
Jemmy! When she warms up, I tell you she can trot a heat with the best."
"Jacky, hush!" Kate laughed despite herself. "You're getting too big to
use that stable-talk. You would suppose Jemima had actually tried to
entice him out of my clutches!"
"And didn't she, didn't she just? Why, you blessed innocent, she's had
this up her sleeve for some time! I _thought_ she was being mighty
attentive to Goddy, teaching him to dance, and making him ties and
all--only it never occurred to me she'd want--this!--Gracious!" she
said, suddenly grave, "you don't suppose she kisses him, Mummy?"
"I hope so, dear. Why not? You've kissed him often enough yourself."
"And shall again, the funny old lamb! But not that way. Ugh!"
Mrs. Kildare winced to realize how far the education of her youngest had
proceeded without her supervision.
Jacqueline's volatile thoughts had taken a new direction. "That means
Jemmy is going away to live. 'Way off to Lexington."
Kate sighed. "Farther than that, if I know Jemima."
"Then," said the girl, slowly, "when--if--I ever go away, you'd be here
all alone, Mummy!"
"Mothers expect that, dear. Always we know that some day we shall be
left alone. But we do not mind, we are even glad. We risk our lives to
give life to our children, and we want them to have it all, life at its
fullest. Otherwise we feel that we have been failures, somehow. Breath
is such a small part of life!--So when your time comes, too, my girlie,
you are not to hesitate because of me. Take your future in your two
hands--just as all your many mothers have done before you.--Women have
even less right to show cowardice than men" (it was a favorite theme
with her), "because they have to be the mothers of men, and the maternal
strain is nearly always the dominant--or so Jim Thorpe says--But I don't
believe that you, at least, will ever go very far away from your
mother!"
She was thinking, of course, of Philip.
Jacqueline was rather pale. Her eyes dropped. "I'm not so sure. I've
been thinking lately--Mummy, could I possibly go to New York? I'm _so_
tired of home!"
Kate was troubled. This restlessness was the first indication she had
noticed that the affair with Channing might have left its effect. But
she said, as if the girl's wish were very natural, "To New York? That's
not impossible. It's a long time since I have been out of the State
myself, and I've been thinking for some time of taking you and Jemmy for
a trip. Suppose we go to New York, all three of us, and buy Jemmy's
trousseau? And we'll take Philip, too--it's always pleasant to have a
man about. We'll have a regular old orgy of theaters and shops and
galleries, such as I used to have sometimes with my father and mother,
years ago. Would that please you?"
"Oh, it would be wonderful! But--" the girl crimsoned, "that is not
quite what I meant, Mummy darling. When I go to New York, I want to
stay. For years."
"_Years!_ But why?"
"To study music. To begin my career."
Kate sat down in the nearest chair. Since childhood Jacqueline had been
talking at intervals about this career of hers, an ambition varying in
scope from journalism to, more latterly, the operatic stage. It was a
favorite family joke, Jacqueline's career. And here it stared her
suddenly in the face, no longer a joke. Jacqueline was in earnest.
She watched her mother's face anxiously. "I know it would be horribly
expensive, lessons and all. But we can afford to be expensive, can't
we?"
Kate's lips set. "We can, but we won't. Not in the matter of careers.
What put this into your head, my girl?"
"It's always been there, I think. But you remember Mr. Channing spoke to
you--"
"Ah, yes, Mr. Channing! I do remember; but that is hardly a
recommendation that appeals to me," said Kate, drily.
"Mr. Channing has heard all the great singers of the world, and knows
them, too." Jacqueline spoke with a firmness new to her. "And if he says
I have a voice, I have. I ought to waste no more time, Mother."
"I also have a 'voice,' my dear, and I've found it extremely useful
without having recourse to a career."
"How--useful!"
"Singing lullabies to my children, for one thing. It did not seem to me
a waste of time--No, no, my girlie, no stage women in this family! We've
been conspicuous enough without that."
"Would you really mind so very much?" asked Jacqueline, wistfully.
"So much," answered her mother, smiling but grave, "that I should lock
you into the cellar on a bread-and-water diet, at the first hint of such
a thing! Understand me, I forbid it absolutely. You may put this
nonsense out of your head."
Kate had rarely occasion to speak to her children in such a tone, and
Jacqueline looked at her, rather frightened. But she said nothing.
"Why, Jacqueline, little daughter, why should you spend your youth and
your loveliness on a public that will cast you aside like an old glove
when it is worn out? No, no, there's a larger purpose for you in life
than any mere career. Careers are for the women who miss the other
things, and who use in default the best they have. Fame, bah! It does
not outlast a generation--or if it does, you will not know it. What you
have to give will outlast many generations, will never die, will become
part of the muscle and sinew and back-bone of your nation. Sons! Big,
clean, lusty, well-born children!--Why, don't you suppose you and my
clever Jemima--yes, and even my little crippled Katharine--were better
gifts for me to bring the world than a mere passing pleasure in my
voice?--Ah, Jacky, there's just one career open to women like you and
me. You know very well what it is."
The girl was oddly stirred. When her mother spoke like this, she always
thought, for some reason, of a statue she had never seen, a great bronze
Liberty, with torch aloft, lighting into her safe harbor the ships of
all the world.
But she said, after a moment, "You put me on a par with Mag Henderson,
Mother. Has she fulfilled the purpose of her creation, then?"
Kate was startled anew. Jacqueline in the rôle of thinker was
unexpected. But she answered, honestly as always, "I believe she has.
Nature often makes use of unworthy vessels to accomplish her own
ends--poor little vessels! Mag is waste, perhaps. Her child will not be
waste.--I'll see to that. So the balance of economy is kept.--But you
are no unworthy vessel, Jacqueline, thank God!"
The girl went to the window and stood looking out, over the garden that
merged into a pasture, and so down gradually into the ravine where the
ruined slave-house stood.
"Suppose," she asked in a muffled voice, "suppose I couldn't marry? What
then?"
Kate believed she understood. The affair with Channing had left more of
a hurt than she had realized. Jacqueline, at seventeen, doubtless
considered herself a blighted being.--She controlled the smile that
twitched at her lips, and said cheerfully, "Then you will just have to
be a prop for my declining years. You won't begrudge me a prop, dear?
Surely _you_ don't want to go away from me?"
The unconscious emphasis on the pronoun went to Jacqueline's heart. She
remembered the day Jemima had shut them out into the world of people who
were not Kildares, she and her mother together....
She came back at a run, and plumped herself down on Kate's knees, great
girl that she was, hiding her face in that sheltering breast, holding
her mother tight, tight, as if she could never let her go.
Kate returned the embrace with interest. She, too, remembered.
"It will be something bigger than a career that takes you away from your
mother!" she whispered.
"Something bigger than a career," echoed Jacqueline, clinging closer.