CUPID TAKES AIM.
"Mother, my friend, Miss March."
Mrs. Arnold came forward on the rose-embroidered veranda. An old look
crept into her face. Her brow darkened. Her heart froze. But love
conquered jealousy, and for Harry's sake she took both hands of the
young woman whom she knew he loved, and smiled.
"And Mr. Tristram March."
"Welcome to Hillsborough. Will you not come inside?"
"Let's sit on the veranda," said Harry, throwing himself on a seat.
"It's cooler here."
The others became seated and submitted their foreheads to the cool
caresses of the breeze.
"I enjoy your road from the station so much, Mrs. Arnold. It winds like
a river all the way," said Tristram March.
"A narrow river, I fear, and rough in parts," answered the lady.
"Do you know I like a soft country road. It seems padded for the horse's
hoofs," said Miss March.
"Rosalie is a philanthropist, you know. She is vice-president--one of
the vice-presidents--I believe there are nineteen--of the ladies' league
for the abolition of race dissension in the south by the universal
whitewashing of negroes."
"Mrs. Arnold knows better than to believe that."
"A chimerical plan, I should call it," said Mrs. Arnold.
"Not at all," added Tristram. "Most scientific. The whitewash is
indelible. All charity fads must be scientific nowadays."
"Brother Tristram plays the cynic, Mrs. Arnold," said Rosalie. "But he
has an excellent heart of his own."
"It is a burned-out crater," said Tristram, solemnly, at which Harry
burst into a laugh and the sister smiled.
Watching her furtively, Mrs. Arnold saw that she was as exquisite a
masterpiece as nature had ever put forth. Her figure was virginal and
full; her manner, auroral; her age, Hebe's, the imperceptible poise of
the ascending ball before it begins to descend, which in woman is
earlier by a decade than in man; her coloring, a mixture of the wild
rose and gold. Art seconded nature; she was faultlessly dressed. In that
instant of inspection the mother knew that her son's heart had been
weaned from her forever. She had always felt that it would be a blonde
woman. Are they charged with opposite magnetisms from northern and
southern poles, that they attract each other so, the dark type and the
fair?
"Will you never be serious, Tristram?" cried Rosalie.
"Well, dear, the crater has humming-birds' nests built along its inner
sides, like the old volcano of Chocorua, and the little winged jewels
flash out sometimes and land in Sister Rosalie's lap."
"What is this?"
"You prefer rubies. I picked those up at a sale in the city. Did you
ever meet such stones--perfect bulbs?"
"How can I ever rebuke you again?"
"Then I needn't try to be serious?"
"Oh, if it's a bribe----"
"Look at the name on the plate behind--'Alice.'"
"That will have to be changed," said Harry, coming nearer to glance at
the brooch. "Why!" he snatched at the jewels, but caught himself in
time. His mother looked at him in an eloquent appeal for silence.
"Where did you get them?" he asked.
"Rabofsky. An old bric-a-brac man. Why, do you fancy they're stolen?"
"Oh, no. I congratulate your sister. The name made me start. It is my
mother's, you know."
"I was Alice Brewster," said Mrs. Arnold.
"Speaking of philanthropists, Rosalie," said Tristram, to change the
subject, "how did you like the noble Earl of Marmouth?"
"The most overbearing person."
"With the courtesy of a snapping-turtle," said Tristram.
"And the humor of a comic valentine," added Harry.
"Still there is something grand about the title of earl," said Mrs.
Arnold, who chose to forget that the original Brewster of Lynn was a
yeoman.
"Mme. Violet interested me more," said Rosalie. "Rumor is linking their
names, you know. I feel that she and I might become friends."
"She has just the saving spark of deviltry that you lack, Rosalie."
"It isn't every brother who can call his sister an angel so happily,"
said Mrs. Arnold.
"Nothing was farther from his thoughts than to compliment me, Mrs.
Arnold. You should hear him abuse me in private. I am a philistine, a
prude. But I grow accustomed to his taunts."
"Dear Rosalie, you are only not esthetic because you are so divinely
moral. Just think, she objects to my marble cupids, that they are not
ashamed of their innocence."
"Surely that is going far," interposed Harry, who had long been silent.
"The modeling was capital. Most little cupids are just doughy duplicates
of each other. But yours have character--baby-face wisdom--Puck and
Ariel linking arms."
"Say two Pucks, Harry, or Rosalie will moralize. Ariel was a wicked
little sprite. He used to go on bats."
Rosalie lifted a finger of reproof.
"But from my standpoint a dash of wickedness is just the sine qua non in
art. How fascinating the Inferno is! And how tame the Paradiso! In art,
do I say? In religion itself? What the horizon line is to the
landscape--a rare pageant you have before you, Mrs. Arnold--such is the
fall in the garden to the faith of our fathers."
"Do you mean that it separates earth from heaven?" laughed Harry.
"You would think, to hear this grumbler, it was his strait-laced sister
and not his own laziness that prevented him from--" Rosalie hesitated.
"From amounting to something. Say it out. Ah, Rosalie, you have indeed
achieved. Your Rosalind is divine, Carp says--and surely Carp knows."
"And Portia," added Harry.
"While my medallions----"
"Would be glorious if they were ever finished. But come," continued
Harry, "I must dress for my wager. Where's Indigo?"
"He is about the house, Harry."
"What a name! Your valet, I suppose?" asked Tristram.
"And secretary. That is, he answers my duns."
"And so spares you the blues?"
"Punning again, Tristram," said Rosalie. "And you profess not to
consider word-plays respectable."
"Right, always right, Rosalie."
The party passed inside, and the Marches were escorted to their rooms,
while Harry went in quest of Indigo. When he returned he found his
mother alone in the front room. She seemed to be awaiting him.
"The rubies, mother?"
"They were mine. Sit down, Harry. I must speak with you."
Her manner was sad, and Harry thought in the strong light her face
looked careworn.
"We are very much pressed for money--temporarily, of course. As soon as
your uncle's estate is settled our income will be larger than ever; and
even without that, Mr. Hodgkins has hopes----"
"But mother, you did not sell the rubies?"
"I have sold all my jewels, Harry."
Harry stood up. His mother gave him a long look. She had made this
sacrifice for him. He understood and colored when he remembered the fate
of the money his mother's rubies had brought. It was luck alone which
had saved their name from a blot on the evening when McCausland raided
the Dove-Cote.
"I must curtail my expenses," he said, rising to go.
"There is another matter, Harry," said his mother, still sadly but
gently. "I saw Mr. McCausland in town today. He desires you to testify
at your cousin's trial."
"Testify against Bob!"
"It is in relation to the will--the disinheriting of your cousin."
"Why, he admits that himself."
"He may deny it if his conviction hangs upon that point Mr. McCausland
wishes to leave no weak link in the chain."
"Hang it, mother, I don't want to be mixed up in it. Think of the
looks."
"All he wants is a word. You heard your cousin say he was disinherited
under the will."
"Yes, that is--why, of course, I knew it. He told me at the jail that
day."
"Then I will write to Mr. McCausland that your testimony covers that
point----"
"No, but mother----"
Rosalie March re-entered at this moment. Her first glance was toward
Harry and his toward her. Their thoughts had been traveling the same
route and meeting half-way all during the talk on the veranda, when
Harry was so unwontedly silent. Alas, he knew well that he was unfit
even to look at her.
In their outward demeanor to each other he was embarrassed and she
reserved. The religious difference seemed likely to be permanent. For
Rosalie was a Catholic, the daughter of an eminent Maryland family, as
historic and proud as the Brewsters and more wealthy than even the
Arnolds. But this barrier between them only acted with the charm of a
material fence over which or through which a rustic couple are plighting
forbidden troth.
"All ready to win my wager," cried Tristram, following his sister in.
He, also, had changed his attire, and looked very handsome in his
curling Vandyke beard of the cut which artists affect.
"What wager is that?" asked Mrs. Arnold.
"We passed the river coming down, and I offered to canoe the rapids."
"And the river so low, Harry. It is rash."
"Would you have them set me down a boaster?" Harry was eager now. His
mother knew "them" meant "her," and her heart yearned more and more to
the son who was drifting away.
"Indigo!" he cried out the window to his valet.
"But the danger--was it not there the canoeist was drowned last year?"
said his mother, anxiously.
"Hang the danger! It's the prospect of scraping the bottom off my new
canoe that troubles me."
"Old age is privileged to prate, I suppose," said Mrs. Arnold, feebly
attempting to smile.
"Cut the fingers off that lemon-colored mitten, Indigo, and get me some
salve double quick. My oar blister's worse than ever."
Indigo sped up stairs for the scissors, and the party was soon on its
way.
At the bridge Harry left them, proceeding alone to the boat-house,
up-stream, while Indigo led the others to a rock below the rapids, where
they were to witness the feat. To look at the long slope, nowhere steep,
but white from end to end with foam, it did seem incredible that any
craft could live through such a surge. The murmur was audible far away
in the still countryside, and the air, even where the three onlookers
stood, was moist with impalpable spray.
"Looks as though that wager was mine," said Tristram. "He might as well
try to swim Niagara."
"Ought we not to have a rope in case of accident?" said Mrs. Arnold.
"By all means," cried Rosalie, and for an instant the two women were one
in sympathy.
"Indigo," said Mrs. Arnold, "go over to Farmer Hedge's and procure a
stout rope. If anything should happen----"
"Nothing will happen," said Indigo. But he obeyed her command, and
departed in the direction of the nearest farmhouse. The moments were
long drawn out with anxiety before he returned, until at last even
Tristram's sallies could not draw a smile from the two ladies. So he
coolly took out a pad of white paper, sharpened his pencil and sketched
off the rapids.
"There he comes," cried Rosalie, peering up-stream.
"Harry!" murmured Mrs. Arnold, as her son rounded a bend of the river
into view. Already he was coasting down without using his paddle. His
brown arms rested on the handle before him and his muscles, seemingly
relaxed, were tense for exertion.
A great log which had preceded him down had been whirled around like a
chip and finally submerged, reappearing only in the clear water forty
yards beyond. A similar fate surely awaited the light cockleshell which
bore the beloved life.
As his canoe half-turned, Harry pushed his paddle into the water.
Evidently it met a rock, for the prow righted at once and swept down a
narrow channel where the rush was swiftest, but the foam seemed parted
in two. Here again it caught, poised and spun around. It was fast on a
ledge, and the young athlete was straining every sinew to push it off.
While he was struggling in this peril, Indigo came down, staggering
under a coil of thick rope.
"Indigo," said Mrs. Arnold, excitedly, "throw him the rope."
Indigo stood on the bank, but instead of obeying, ran farther down to a
rock that jutted over the clear water where the rapids ended. On his way
he heard the ladies shrieking.
"His oar is broken."
"But he has worked himself free," said Tristram, nonchalantly sketching.
"He will win, confound it! Yet it's worth losing once to see that play
of his right deltoid."
Harry's paddle had indeed broken in the last successful shove, but it
was a double blade, and the half in his hand was used to good advantage.
As he came sweeping down, his eyes intent on the prow before him,
Tristram raised his hat and the ladies leaned forward, waving their
kerchiefs. Harry answered their salute by standing up in the boat. It
was a superb piece of bravado.
* * * * *
"He doesn't always wear a glove canoeing?" asked Mrs. Arnold of Indigo.
Harry had just put ashore an eighth of a mile down stream.
"No, the mate to that one's lost," replied the valet, "and Mr. Harry
told me to cut it up for his hand."
"When lost and where?" said Rosalie.
"I don't know that."
"Let me tell you."
"What a sibyl!" exclaimed brother Tristram.
"It was on Broad street, the afternoon of the fire. Don't you remember,
when we saw him crossing the street so hurriedly and I remarked he had
only one glove on."
"You must be mistaken," said Mrs. Arnold. "Harry was ill at home all
that day."