"DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE?"
Judging from the result, this question might far better have been put to
rather than by Peterkin, as he stood puffing, and hot, and indignant in
the Tramp House, looking down upon Jerrie, who was sitting upon the
wooden bench, with her aching head resting upon a corner of the old
table standing against the wall just where it stood that stormy night
years ago, when death claimed the woman beside her, but left her
unharmed.
After saying good-by to Maude, Jerrie had walked very slowly through the
park, stopping more than once to rest upon the seats scattered here and
there, and wondering more and more at the feeling which oppressed her
and the terrible pain in her head, which grew constantly worse.
"I'm afraid I'm going to be sick," she said to herself, "I never felt
this way before; and no wonder, with all I have gone through the last
few weeks. The getting ready for the commencement, the coming home, and
all the excitement which followed, with three men, one after another,
offering themselves to me, and the drenching that night in the rain, and
then watching by Maude without a wink of sleep, it is enough to make a
behemoth sick, and I am so dizzy and hot--"
She had reached the Tramp House by this time, and feeling that she could
go no farther without resting, she went in, and seating herself upon the
bench, laid her aching head upon the table, and felt again for a few
moments that strange sensation as if the top of her head were rising up
and up until she could not reach it with her hand, for she tried, and
thought of Ann Eliza, with her hair piled so high on her head.
"The loss of an inch or two might improve me," she said, "though I'd
rather keep my scalp."
Then she seemed to be drifting away into the realms of sleep, and all
around her was confusion and bewilderment.
The window, across which the woodbine was growing, changed places with
the door; the floor rose up and bowed to her, while the room was full of
faces, beckoning to and smiling upon her. Faces like the one she knew so
well, the pale face in the chair; faces like her own, as she remembered
it when a child; faces like the dark woman dead so long ago and buried
in the Tracy lot, and faces like Arthur's as she had seen him oftenest,
when he spoke so lovingly, and called her little Cherry. Then the scene
changed, and the old Tramp House was full of wondrous music, which came
floating in at every crevice and through the open door and windows,
while she listened intently in her dreams as the grand chorus went on.
It was as if Arthur, from the top of the highest peak beyond the Rocky
Mountains, and Gretchen, from her lonely grave in far-off Germany, were
calling to each other across two continents, their voices meeting and
mingling together in the Tramp House in a jubilistic strain, now wild
and weird like the cry of the dying woman looking out into the stormy
night, now soft and low as the lullaby a fond mother sings to her
sleeping child, and now swelling louder and louder, and higher and
higher, until the rafters rang with the joyous music, and the whole
world outside was filled with the song of gladness.
Wake up, Jerrie! Wake from the dream of rapture to a reality far more
rapturous, for the time is at hand, the hour has come, heralded by the
shadow which falls over the floor as Peterkin's burly figure crosses the
threshold and enters the silent room.
After Peterkin's conversation with his son concerning his future wife,
Jerrie had grown rapidly in the old man's favor. It is true she had
neither name nor money, the latter of which was scarcely necessary in
this case, but he was not insensible to the fact that she possessed
other qualities and advantages which would be a help to the house of
Peterkin in its efforts to rise. No girl in the neighborhood was more
popular or more sought after than Jerrie, or more intimate with the
big-bugs, as he styled the St. Claires, and Athertons, and Tracys.
Jerrie would _draw_; Jerrie would _boost_; and he found himself forming
many plans for the young couple, who were to occupy the south wing; and
in fancy he saw Arthur at Le Bateau half the time at least, while the
rest of the time the carriages from Grassy Spring, and Brier Hill, and
Tracy Park were standing under the stone arch in front of the door. How
then was he disappointed, and enraged, too, when told by Billy that
Jerrie had refused him?
Peterkin had been in Springfield nearly a week, and after his return
home had waited a little before broaching the subject to his son; so
that it was not until the morning before the day of the lawsuit that he
learned the truth by closely questioning Billy, who shielded and
defended Jerrie as far as possible.
"Not have you! Refused you! Don't love you! Don't care for money!
Thunderation! What does the girl mean! Is she crazy? Is she a fool? Is
she in love with some other idiot?"
"I th-think so, yes; th-though it did not occur to me then," Billy
answered, very meekly; "and if so she ca-can't care for me any mo-more
than I ca-can care for any other girl."
"And you are a fool, too," was the affectionate rejoinder. "I'll be
dummed if you ain't a pair! Who is the lucky man? Not that dog, Harold,
who is goin' to swear agin us to-morrow? If it is, I b'lieve I'll shoot
him."
"Father," Billy cried, in alarm, "b-be quiet; if I can st-stand it, you
can."
But Peterkin swore he wouldn't stand it. He'd do something, he didn't
know what; and all the morning he went about the house like a madman,
swearing at his wife, because she wasn't _up to snuff_, and couldn't hoe
her own with the 'ristocrats; swearing at Billy because he was a fool,
and so small that 'twas no wonder a bean-pole like Jerrie wouldn't look
at him, and swearing at Ann Eliza because her hair was so red, and
because she had sprained her ankle for the sake of having Tom Tracy
bring her home, hoping he would keep calling to see her, and thus give
her a chance to rope him in, which she never could as long as the world
stood.
"Neither you nor Bill will ever marry, with all your money, unless you
take up with a cobbler, and he with a washwoman," was his farewell
remark as he finally left the house about three o'clock and started for
the village, where he had some of his own witnesses to see before taking
the train for Springfield at five.
His wife had ventured to suggest that he go in the carriage, as it was
so warm; but he had answered savagely:
"Go to thunder with your carriage and coat-of-arms! What good have they
ever done us only to make folks laugh at us for a pack of fools? Nothing
under heaven gives us a h'ist, and I'm just goin' to quit the folderol
and pad it on foot, as I used to when I was cap'n of the 'Liza Ann--dum
it!"
And so, with his bag in his hand, he started rapidly down the road in
the direction of Shannondale. But the sun was hot, and he was hot, and
his bag was heavy, and, cursing himself for a fool that he had not taken
the carriage, he finally struck into the park as a cooler, if longer,
route to the station.
As he came near the Tramp House, which gave no sign of its sleeping
occupant, something impelled him to look in at the door. And this he did
with a thought of Jerrie in his heart, though with no suspicion that she
was there; and when he saw her he started suddenly and uttered an
exclamation of surprise, which roused her from her heavy slumber.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, but whatever else she might have said was prevented
by his outburst of passion, which began with the question:
"Do you know what you have done?"
Jerrie looked at him wonderingly, but made no reply, and he went on:
"Yes, do you know what you have done?--you, a poor, unknown girl, who,
but for the Tracys, would have gone to the poor-house, sure as guns,
where you orter have gone! Yes, you orter. You refuse my Bill! you, who
hadn't a cent to your name; and all for that sneak of a Harold, who will
swear agin me to-morrer. I know he's at the root on't, though Bill
didn't say so, and I hate him wuss than pizen; he, who has been at the
wheel in my shop! he to be settin' up for a gentleman and a cuttin' out
my Bill, who will be wuth more'n a million--yes, two millions, probably,
and you have refused him! Do you hear me, gal?"
"Yes, I hear you," she said. "You are talking of Harold, and saying
things you shall not repeat in my presence."
"Hoity-toity, miss! What's to hinder me repeatin' in your presence that
Harold Hastings is a sneak and a snob, a hewer of wood, a drawer of
water, and a----"
Jerry had risen to her feet, and stood up so tall and straight that it
seemed to Peterkin as if she towered even above himself, while something
in the flash of her blue eyes made him think of Arthur when he turned
him from the house for accusing Harold of theft, and also of the little
child who had attacked him so fiercely on that wintry morning when the
dead woman lay stretched upon the table at the Park House, with her dark
face upturned to the ceiling above.
"I shall hinder you," she said, her voice ringing clear and distinct;
"and if you breathe another word against Harold, I'll turn you from this
room. The Tramp House is mine; Mr. Arthur gave it to me, and you cannot
stay in it with me."
"Heavens and earth! hear the girl! One would s'pose she was the Queen of
Sheby to hear her go on, instead of a beggar, whose father was the Lord
only knows who, and whose mother was found in rags on this 'ere table.
Drat the dum thing!" Peterkin roared, bringing his fist down with such
force upon the poor old rickety table that it fell to pieces under the
blow and went crashing to the floor.
Jerrie's face was a face to fear then, and Peterkin was afraid, and
backed himself from the room, with Jerrie close to him, never speaking a
word, but motioning him to the door, through which he passed swiftly,
and, picking up his bag, walked rapidly away, growling to himself:
"There's the very old Harry in that gal's eye. Bill did well to get shet
of her; and yit, if she'd married him, how she would have rid over all
their heads! Well, to be sure, what a dum fool she is!"