THE FAIR AND THE BRAVE.
At breakfast next morning the conversation turned naturally upon the
arrival of Maria Semple. The Elder showed far the most enthusiasm
concerning it. He wondered, and calculated, and supposed, till he felt
he had become tiresome and exhausted sympathy, and then he subsided into
that painful attitude of disappointment and resignation, which is, alas,
too often the experience of the aged? His companions were not in
sympathy with him. Madame was telling herself she must not expect too
much. Once she had set her heart upon a beautiful girl who was to become
Neil's wife, and her love had been torn up by the roots: "maist women
carry a cup of sorrow for some one to drink," she thought, "and I'm
feared for them." As for Neil, he felt sure the girl was going to be a
tie and a bore, and he considered his brother exceedingly selfish in
throwing the care of his daughter upon his aged parents.
It was not a pleasant meal, but in good hearts depression and doubt find
no abiding place. When Neil had gone to his affairs, the Elder looked at
his wife, and she gave him his pipe with a smile, and talked to him
about Maria as she put away her china. And she had hardly turned the key
of the glass closet, when the knocker of the front door fell twice--two
strokes, clear, separate, distinct. The Elder rose quickly and with much
excitement. "That is Bradley's knock," he said; "I never heard it
before, but it is just the way he would call any one."
He was going out of the room as he spoke, and Madame joined him. When
they entered the hall the front door was open, and a short, stout man
was standing on the threshold, holding a young girl by the hand. He
delivered her to the Elder very much as he would have delivered a
valuable package intrusted to his care, and then, as they stood a few
moments in conversation, Maria darted forward, and with a little cry of
joy nestled her head on her grandmother's breast. The confiding love of
the action was irresistible. "You darling!" whispered the old lady with
a kiss; "let me look at you!" And she put her at arm's length, and gazed
at the pretty, dark face with its fine color, and fine eyes, charmingly
set off by the scarlet hood of her traveling cloak.
"What do you think o' your granddaughter, Elder?" she asked, when he
joined them, and her voice was trembling with love and pride.
"I think she is yoursel' o'er again; the vera same bonnie Janet Gordon I
woo'd and loved in Strathallen nearly fifty years syne. Come and gie me
twenty kisses, bairnie. You are a vera cordial o' gladness to our
hearts."
Madame had swithered in her own mind before the arrival of Maria about
the room she was to occupy--the little one in the wing, furnished in
rush and checked blue and white linen; or the fine guest room over the
best parlor. A few moments with her grandchild had decided her. "She
shall hae the best we have," she concluded. "What for would I gie it to
my cousin Gordon's wife, and lock my ain flesh and blood out o' it?" So
she took Maria to her best guest chamber, and when the girl stood in the
center of it and looked round with an exclamation of delight, she was
well rewarded.
"This is the finest room I ever saw," said Maria. "I love splendid
rooms, and mahogany makes any place handsome. And the looking glasses! O
grandmother, I can see myself from top to toe!" and she flung aside her
cloak, and surveyed her little figure in its brown camblet dress and
long white stomacher, with great satisfaction.
"And where are your clothes, Maria?" asked Madame.
"I brought a small trunk with me, and Mr. Bradley will send it here this
morning; the rest of my trunks were sent with Captain De Vries. I dare
say they will be here soon."
"They are here already, De Vries arrived yesterday, but the rest o' your
trunks, how many more have you, lassie?"
"Three large, and one little one. Father told me I was to get
everything I wanted, and I wanted so many things. I got them all,
grandmother--beautiful dresses, and mantillas, and pelerines; and dozens
of pretty underwear. I have had four women sewing for me ever since last
Christmas."
"But the expense o' it, Maria!"
"Mrs. Charlton said I had simply received the proper outfit for a young
lady entering society."
"But whatever did your father say?"
"He whistled very softly. There are many ways of whistling, grandmother,
and my father's whistle was his form of saying he was astonished."
"I hae no doubt he was astonished."
"I had to have summer and winter dresses, and ball dresses, and home
dresses, and street dresses; and all the little things which Mrs.
Charlton says are the great things. Father is very generous to me, and
he has ordered Lambert and Co. to send me thirty pounds every month. He
told me that food and wood and every necessity of life was very dear in
New York, and that if I was a good girl I would do my full share in
bearing the burden of life."
This was her pretty way of making it understood that she was to pay
liberally for her board, and then, with a kiss, she added, "let us go
downstairs. I want to see all the house, grandmother. It is like home,
and I have had so little home. All my life nearly has been spent at
school. Now I am come home."
They went down hand in hand, and found the Elder walking about in an
excited manner. "I think I shall bide awa' from business to-day," he
said; "I dinna feel like it. It isna every day a man gets a
granddaughter."
_"Tuts!_ Nonsense, Alexander! Go your ways to the store, then you can
talk to your acquaintance o' your good fortune. Maria and I will hae
boxes to unpack, and clothes to put away; and you might as weel call at
De Vries, and tell him to get Miss Semple's trunks here without
sauntering about them. Batavius is a slow creature. And Neil must hae
the news also, so just be going as quick as you can, Alexander."
He was disappointed; he had hoped that Maria would beg him to stay at
home, but he put on his long coat with affected cheerfulness, and with
many little delays finally took the road. Then the two women went
through the house together, and by that time Bradley had sent the small
trunk, and they unpacked it, and talked about the goods, and about a
variety of subjects that sprang naturally from the occupation.
All at once Madame remembered to ask Maria where she had spent the
previous night, and the girl answered, "I slept at the Bradley's. It was
quite twilight when we reached their house, and Mr. Bradley said this
road was beset by thieves and bad people after dark, and he also thought
you retired early and would not care to be disturbed."
"Vera considerate o' Mr. Bradley, I am sure; perhaps mair so than
necessary. Maria, my dear, I hope you are not very friendly wi' his
daughter."
"Not friendly with Agnes Bradley! Why, grandmother, I could not be happy
without her! She has been my good angel for three years. When she came
to Mrs. Charlton's I had no friends, for I had such a bad temper the
girls called me 'Spitfire' and 'Vixen' and such names, and I was proud
of it. Agnes has made me gentle and wishful to do right. Agnes is as
nearly an angel as a woman can be."
"Fair nonsense, Maria! And I never was fond o' angelic women, they dinna
belong to this world; and your grandfather dislikes John Bradley, he
will not allow any friendship between you and Agnes Bradley. That is
sure and certain."
"What has Mr. Bradley done wrong to grandfather?"
"Naething; naething at all! He just does not like him."
"I shall have to explain things to grandfather. He ought not to take
dislikes to people without reason."
"There's no one can explain things to your grandfather that he does not
want to understand. I know naething o' John Bradley, except that he is a
Methodist, and that kind o' people are held in scorn."
"I think we can use up all our scorn on the Whigs, grandmother, and let
the Methodists alone. Mr. Bradley is a Tory, and trusted and employed by
the Government, and I am sure he preached a beautiful sermon last Sunday
at Stamford."
"Your grandfather said he would preach at Stamford."
"He preached on the green outside the town. There were hundreds to
listen to him. Agnes led the singing."
"Maria Semple! You don't mean to tell me you were at a field preaching!"
"It was a good preaching and----"
"The man is a saddle-maker! I hae seen him working, day in and day out,
in his leather apron."
"St. Paul was a tent-maker; he made a boast of it, and as he was a
sensible man, I have no doubt he wore an apron. He would not want to
spoil his toga."
_"Hush! Hush!_ You must not speak o' Saint Paul in that tempered and
common way. The Apostles belong to the Kirk. Your father was brought up
a good Presbyterian."
"Dear grandmother, I am the strictest kind of Presbyterian. I really
went to hear Agnes. If you had seen her standing by her father's side on
that green hill and heard her sing:
'Israel, what hast thou to dread?
Safe from all impending harms,
Round thee, and beneath thee, spread,
Are the everlasting arms.'
you would have caught up the song as hundreds did do, till it spread to
the horizon, and rose to the sky, and was singing and praying both.
People were crying with joy, and they did not know it."
"I would call her a dangerous kind o' girl. Has she any brothers or
sisters?"
"Her brother went to an English school at the beginning of the war. He
was to finish his education at Oxford. Annie Gardiner--one of the
schoolgirls--told me so. He was her sweetheart. She has no sisters."
"Sweetheart?"
"Just boy and girl sweethearting. Agnes seldom spoke of him; sometimes
she got letters from him."
"Has Agnes a sweetheart?"
"There was a young gentleman dressed like a sailor that called on her
now and then. We thought he might be an American privateer."
"Then Agnes Bradley is for the Americans! Well, a good girl, like her,
would be sure to take the right side. Nae doubt the hymn she sung
referred to the American army."
"I am sure people thought so; indeed, I fear Agnes is a little bit of a
rebel, but she has to keep her thoughts and feelings to herself."
"Plenty o' folks hae to do the same; thought may be free here, but
speech is bond slave to His Majesty George o' Hanover, or England, or
Brunswick, or what you like."
"Or America!"
"Nae, nae! You may make that last statement wi' great reservation,
Maria. But we must make no statements that will vex your grandfather,
for he is an auld man, and set in his ways, and he does not believe in
being contradicted."
And at this moment they heard the Elder's voice and step. He came in so
happily, and with such transparent excuses for his return home, that the
women could not resist his humor. They pretended to be delighted; they
said, "how nice it was that he had happened to arrive just as dinner was
ready to serve;" they even helped him to reasons that made his return
opportune and fortunate. And Batavius arriving with the trunks
immediately after the meal, Madame made unblushing statements about her
dislike of the man, and her satisfaction in the Elder being at hand to
prevent overcharges, and see to the boxes being properly taken upstairs.
Then Maria begged him to remain and look at her pretty things, and that
was exactly what he wished to do; and so, what with exhibiting them, and
trying some of them on, and sorting, and putting them into drawers and
wardrobes, the afternoon slipped quickly away. The Elder had his pipe
brought upstairs, and he sat down and smoked it on the fine sofa Mrs.
Gordon had covered with her own needlework when she occupied the room;
and no one checked him or made discouraging demurs. He had his full
share of the happy hours; and he told himself so as the ladies were
dressing; and he sat waiting for Neil, alone with his pleasant thoughts
and anticipations.
"Auld age has its compensations," he reflected. "They wouldna hae let
Neil sit and smoke amid their fallals; and it was the bonniest sight to
watch them, to listen to their _Ohs!_ and _Ahs!_ and their selfish bits
o' prattle, anent having what no ither woman was able, or likely to
have. Women are queer creatures, but, Oh, dear me, what a weary world it
would be without them!"
And when Maria came down stairs in a scarlet gown over a white silk
petticoat, a string of gold beads round her neck, and her hair dressed
high and fastened with a gold comb, he was charmed afresh. He rose with
the gallantry of a young man, to get her a chair, but she made him sit
down and brought a stool to his side, and nestled so close to him that
he put his arm across her pretty shoulders. And it added greatly to his
satisfaction that Neil came suddenly in, and discovered them in this
affectionate attitude.
"One o' the compensations o' auld age," he said in happy explanation.
"Here is your niece, Maria Semple, Neil; and proud you may be o'
her!"--and Maria rose, and made her uncle a sweeping courtesy, and then
offered him her hand and her cheek. The young man gave her a warm
welcome, and yet at the same moment wondered what changes the little
lady would bring to the house. For he had sense and experience enough to
know that a girl so attractive would irresistibly draw events to her.
In two or three days the excitement of her advent was of necessity put
under restraint. Age loves moderation in all things, and Maria began to
feel the still, stately house less interesting than the schoolroom.
Whigs and Tories, however unequally, divided that ground, and the two
parties made that quarrel the outlet for all their more feminine
dislikes. Her last weeks at school had also been weeks full of girlish
triumphs; for she was not only receiving a new wardrobe of an elaborate
kind, but she was permitted to choose it; to have interviews with
mantua-makers and all kinds of tradespeople; and above all, she was
going to New York. And New York at that time was invested with all the
romance of a mediaeval city. It was the center around which the chief
events of the war revolved. Within her splendid mansions the officers of
King George feasted, and danced, and planned warlike excursions; and in
her harbor great fleets were anchored whose mission was to subjugate the
whole Southern seaboard. This of itself was an interesting situation,
but how much more so, when Whig and Tory alike knew, that just over the
western shore every hilltop, and every lofty tree held an American
sentinel, while Washington himself, amid the fastnesses of New Jersey,
watched with unerring sagacity and untiring patience the slightest
military movement on Manhattan Island.
Thus, the possibilities and probabilities of her expected change of life
had made her the envy of romantic girls; for all of them, no matter what
their political faith, had their own conception of the great things
which might be achieved in a city full of military and naval officers.
It was the subject on which conversation was always interesting, and
often provocative; thus, in the very last talk she had with her
schoolmates, one little Tory maid said:
"O, the dear officers! How delightful it will be to dance with brave men
so magnificently dressed in scarlet and gold! How I wish that I was you,
Maria!"
"O, the hateful creatures!" ejaculated another girl of different
opinions. "I would not dance a step with one of them; but if I did, I
should be saying to myself all the time: very soon my fine fellow, some
brave man in homespun blue will kill you."
"If I was Maria," said another, "and had a British officer for my
servant, I would coax him to tell me what General Clinton was going to
do; and then I would send word to General Washington."
"O, you mean girl!" answered Maria, "would you be a spy?"
"Yes, I would."
"And so would I!"
"And I!"
"And I!"
"And I!" And then an equal chorus of "What a shame! Just like Whigs!"
Maria missed these encounters. She saw that her grandmother usually
deprecated political conversation, and that her uncle and grandfather
did not include her in the discussion of any public event. On the
fourth day she began to feel herself of less importance than she
approved; and then there followed naturally the demoralizing luxury of
self-pity:
"Because I am a girl, and a very young girl, no one appears to think I
have common sense. I am as loyal to the King as any one. I wish
grandmother would speak out. I believe she is a Whig. Uncle Neil said he
would take me to some entertainments; he has not done so. I am not
tired--that is just an excuse--I want to go out and I want to see Agnes.
I will not give up Agnes--no one, no one shall make me--she is part of
my heart! No, I will not give up Agnes; her father may be a saddler--and
a Methodist--I am above noticing such things. I will love who I
like--about my friends I will not yield an inch--I will not!"
She was busy tatting to this quite unnecessary tirade of protestations
and her grandmother noticed the passionate jerk of the shuttle
emphasizing her thoughts. "What is vexing you, dearie?" she asked.
"Oh, I am wretched about Agnes," she answered. "I am afraid grandfather
has been rude in some way."
"You needna be afraid on that ground, Maria; your grandfather is never
rude where women are concerned."
"But he is unkind. If he was not, there could be no objections to my
calling on Agnes."
"Is it not her place to call on you? She is at home--born and bred in
New York--you are a stranger here. She is older than you are; she seems
to have assumed some kind of care or oversight----."
"She has been my guardian angel."
"Then I think she ought to be looking after a desolate bairn like you;
one would think you had neither kith nor kin near you, Maria." Madame
spoke with an air of offense or injury, and as the words were uttered,
the door was softly moved inward, and Agnes Bradley entered.
She courtesied to Madame, and then stretched out her hands to Maria. The
girl rose with a cry of joy, and all her discontent was gone in a
moment. Madame could not forget so easily; in fact, her sense of
unkindness was intensified by the unlooked-for entrance of its cause.
But there was no escaping the influence of Agnes. She brought the very
atmosphere of peace into the room with her. In ten minutes she was
sitting between Madame and Maria, and both appeared to be alike happy in
her society. She did not speak of the war, or the soldiers, or the
frightful price of food and fuel, or the wicked extravagance of the Tory
ladies in dress and entertainments, or even of the unendurable impudence
of the negro slaves. She talked of Maria, and of the studies she ought
to continue, and of Madame's flowers and needlework, and a sweet feeling
of rest from all the fretful life around was insensibly diffused. In a
short time Madame felt herself to be under the same spell as her
granddaughter, and she looked at the charmer with curious interest; she
wondered what kind of personality this daughter of tranquility
possessed.
A short scrutiny showed her a girl about nineteen years old, tall, but
not very slender, with a great deal of pale brown hair above a broad
forehead; with eyebrows thick and finely arched, and eyelids so
transparent from constant contact with the soul that they seemed to have
already become spiritual. Her eyes were dark grey, star-like, mystical,
revealing--when they slowly dilated--one hardly knew what of the unseen
and heavenly. Her face was oval and well shaped, but a little heavy
except when the warm pallor of its complexion was suddenly transfigured
from within; then showing a faint rose color quickly passing away. Her
movements were all slow, but not ungraceful, and her soft voice had
almost a caress in it. Yet it was not these things, one, or all of them,
that made her so charmful; it was the invisible beauty in the visible,
that delighted.
Without question here was a woman who valued everything at its eternal
worth; who in the midst of war, sheltered life in the peace of God; and
in the presence of sorrow was glad with the gladness of the angels. An
hour with Agnes Bradley made Madame think more highly of her
granddaughter; for surely it was a kind of virtue in Maria to love the
goodness she herself could not attain unto.
Nearly two hours passed quickly away. They walked in the garden and
talked of seeds, and of the green things springing from them; and down
at the lily bed by the river, Madame had a sudden memory of a young
girl, who had one Spring afternoon gone down there to meet her fate; and
she said to Agnes--with a note of resentment still in her voice:
"A lassie I once loved dearly, came here to gather lilies, and to listen
to a lover she had nae business to listen to. She would sit doubtless on
the vera step you are now sitting on, Maria; and she made sorrow and
suffering enough for more than one good heart; forbye putting auld
friends asunder, and breeding anger where there had always been love. I
hope you'll never do the like, either o' you."
"Who was she, grandmother?"
"Her name was Katherine Van Heemskirk. You'll hae heard tell o' her,
Miss Bradley?"
"I saw her several times when she was here four years ago. She is very
beautiful."
Madame did not answer, and Maria stepped lower and gathered a few lilies
that were yet in bloom, though the time of lilies was nearly over. But
Agnes turned away with Madame, and both of them were silent; Madame
because she could not trust herself to begin speech on this subject, and
Agnes because she divined, that for some reason, silence was in this
case better than the fittest words that could be spoken.
After a short pause, Agnes said, "My home is but a quarter of a mile
from here, and it is already orderly and pleasant. Will you, Madame,
kindly permit Maria to come often to see me! I will help her with her
studies, and she might take the little boat at the end of your garden,
and row herself along the water edge until she touches the pier in our
garden."
"She had better walk."
In this way the permission was granted without reserves or conditions.
Madame had not thought of making any, and as soon as she realized her
implied approval, she was resolved to stand by it. "The lassie requires
young people to consort wi'," she thought, "and better a young lass than
a young lad; and if her grandfather says contrary, I must make him
wiser."
With this concession the visit ended, but the girls went out of the
parlor together, and stood talking for some time in the entrance hall.
The parting moment, however, had to come, and Maria lifted her lips to
her friend, and they were kissing each other good-bye, when Neil Semple
and a young officer in the uniform of the Eighty-fourth Royal
Highlanders opened the door. The picture of the two girls in their
loving embrace was a momentary one, but it was flooded with the colored
sunshine pouring on them from the long window of stained glass, and the
men saw and acknowledged its beauty, with an involuntary exclamation of
delight. Maria sheltered herself in a peal of laughter, and over the
face of Agnes there came and went a quick transfiguring flush; but she
instantly regained her mental poise, and with the composure of a goddess
was walking toward the door, when Neil advanced, and assuming the duty
of a host, walked with her down the flagged path to the garden gate.
Maria and the young soldier stood in the doorway watching them; and
Madame at the parlor window did the same thing, with an indescribable
amazement on her face.
"It isna believable!" she exclaimed. "Neil Semple, the vera proudest o'
mortals walking wi' auld Bradley's daughter! his hat in his hand too!
and bowing to her! bowing to his vera knee buckles! After this, the
Stuarts may come hame again, or any other impossible thing happen. The
world is turning tapsalterie, and I wonder whether I am Janet Sample, or
some ither body."
But the world was all right in a few minutes; for then Neil entered the
room with Maria and Captain Macpherson, and the mere sight of the young
Highlandman brought oblivion of all annoyances. Madame's heart flew to
her head whenever she saw the kilt and the plaid; she hastened to greet
its wearer; she took his plumed bonnet from his hand, and said it was
"just out o' calculation that he should go without breaking bread with
them."
Captain Macpherson had no desire to go. He had seen and spoken with
Maria, and she was worth staying for; besides which, a Scot in a strange
land feels at home in a countryman's house. Macpherson quickly made
himself so. He went with Neil to his room, and anon to the garden, and
finally loosed the boat and rowed up the river, resting on the oars at
the Bradley place, hoping for a glance at Agnes. But nothing was to be
seen save the white house among the green trees, and the white shades
gently stirring in the wind. The place was as still as a resting wheel,
and the stillness infected the rowers; yet when Macpherson was in
Semple's garden, the merry ring of his boyish laughter reached Madame
and Maria in the house, and set their hearts beating with pleasure as
they arranged the tea-table, and brought out little dishes of hoarded
luxuries. And though Madame's chickens were worth three dollars each,
she unhesitatingly sacrificed one to a national hero.
When the Elder came home he was equally pleased. He loved young people,
and the boyish captain with his restless, brimming life, was an element
that the whole house responded to. His heart had a little quake at the
abundance of the meal, but it was only a momentary reserve, and he
smiled as his eyes fell on the motto carved around the wooden
bread-plate--_"Spare Not! Waste Not! Want Not!"_
Madame looked very happy and handsome sitting before her tray of pretty
china, and the blended aromas of fine tea and hot bread, of broiled
chicken, and Indian preserves and pickles were made still more
appetizing by the soft wind blowing through the open window, the perfume
of the lilacs and the southernwood. Madame had kept the place at her
right hand for Macpherson; and Maria sat next to him with her
grandfather on her right hand, so that Neil was at his mother's left
hand. Between the two young men the old lady was radiantly happy; for
Macpherson was such a guest as it is a delight to honor. He ate of all
Madame had prepared for him, thoroughly enjoyed it, and frankly said so.
And his chatter about the social entertainments given by Generals
Clinton and Tryon, Robertson and Ludlow was very pleasant to the ladies.
Neil never had anything to say about these affairs, except that they
were "all alike, and all stupid, and all wickedly extravagant;" and such
criticism was too general to be interesting.
Very different was Macpherson's description of the last ball at General
Tryon's; he could tell all its details--the reception of the company
with kettle drums and trumpets--the splendid furniture of his
residence, its tapestries, carpets, and silk hangings--the music, the
dancing, the feasting--the fine dressing of both men and women--all
these things he described with delightful enthusiasm and a little
pleasant mimicry. And when Madame asked after her acquaintances,
Macpherson could tell her what poplins and lutestrings, and lace and
jewels they wore. Moreover, he knew what grand dames crowded William
Street in the mornings and afternoons, and what merchants had the
largest display of the fashions and luxuries of Europe.
"John Ambler," he said, "is now showing a most extraordinary cargo of
English silks and laces, and fine broadcloths, taken by one of Dirk
Vandercliff's privateers. Really, Madame, the goods are worth looking
at. I assure you our beauties lack nothing that Europe can produce."
"Yes, there is one thing the privateers canna furnish you, and that is
fuel. You shivered all last winter in your splendid rooms," said the
Elder.
"True," replied Macpherson. "The cold was frightful, and though General
Clinton issued one proclamation after another to the farmers of Long
Island to send in their wood, they did not do it."
"Why should they?" asked Madame.
"On the King's service, Madame," answered the young man with a final
air.
"Vera good," retorted Madame; "but if the King wanted my forest trees
for naething, I should say, 'your Majesty has plenty o' soldiers wi'
little to do; let them go and cut what they want.' They wouldna waste it
if they had it to cut. But the wastrie in everything is simply sinful,
and I canna think where the Blacks and Vanderlanes, and all the other
'Vans' you name--and whom I never heard tell of in our kirk--get the
money."
"Privateering!" said Macpherson with a gay laugh. "Who would not be a
roving privateer? I have myself longings for the life. I have thoughts
of joining Vandercliff's fleet."
"You are just leeing, young man," interrupted Madame. "It would be a
thing impossible. The Macphersons have nae salt water in their blood.
Could you fling awa' your tartans for a sailor's tarry coat and
breeches? How would you look if you did? And you would feel worse than
you looked."
Macpherson glanced at his garb with a smile of satisfaction. "I am a
Macpherson," he answered, proudly, "and I would not change the colors of
my regiment for a royal mantle; but privateering is no small temptation.
On the deck of a privateer you may pick up gold and silver."
"That is not very far from the truth," said Neil. "In the first year of
the war the rebel privateers took two hundred and fifty West Indiamen,
valued at nearly two millions of pounds, and Mr. Morris complained that
the Eastern states cared for nothing but privateering."
"Weel, Morris caught the fever himself," said the Elder. "I have been
told he made nearly four hundred thousand dollars in the worst year the
rebel army ever had."
"Do the rebels call that patriotism?" asked Macpherson.
"Yes," answered the Elder, "from a Whig point of view it is vera
patriotic; what do you think, Neil?"
"If I was a Whig," answered Neil, "I should certainly own privateers.
Without considering the personal advantage, privateering brings great
riches into the country; it impoverishes the enemy, and it adds
enormously to the popularity of the war. The men who have hitherto gone
to the Arctic seas for whales, find more wealthy and congenial work in
capturing English ships."
"And when men get money by wholesale high-seas robbery----"
"Privateering, Madame," corrected Macpherson.
"Weel, weel, give it any name you like--what I want to say is, that
money got easy goes easy."
"In that, Madame, you are correct. While we were in Philadelphia that
city was the scene of the maddest luxury. While the rebels were begging
money from France to feed their starving army at Valley Forge, every
kind of luxury and extravagance ran riot in Philadelphia. At one
entertainment there was eight hundred pounds spent in pastry alone."
"Stop, Macpherson!" cried Madame, "I will not hear tell o' such
wickedness," and she rose with the words, and the gentlemen went into
the parlor to continue their conversation.
Madame had been pleased with her granddaughter's behavior. She had not
tittered, nor been vulgarly shy or affected, nor had she intruded her
opinions or feelings among those of her elders; and yet her
self-possession, and her expressive face had been full of that charm
which showed her to be an interested and a comprehending listener. Now,
however, Madame wished her to talk, and she was annoyed when she did
not do so. It was only natural that she should express some interest in
the bright young soldier, and her silence concerning him Madame regarded
as assumed indifference. At last she condescended to the leading
question:
"What do you think o' Captain Macpherson, Maria?"
"I do not know, grandmother."
"He is a very handsome lad. It did my heart good to see his bright
face."
"His face is covered with freckles."
"Freckles! Why not? He has been brought up in the wind and the sunshine,
and not in a boarding-school, or a lady's parlor."
"Freckles are not handsome, however, grandmother."
Madame would not dally with half-admissions, and she retorted sharply:
"Freckles are the handsomest thing about a man; they are only the human
sunshine tint; the vera same sunshine that colored the roses and ripened
the wheat gave the lad the golden-brown freckles o' rich young life.
Freckles! I consider them an improvement to any one. If you had a few
yoursel' you would be the handsomer for them."
"Grandmother!"
"Yes, and your friend likewise. She has scarce a mite o' color o' any
kind; a little o' the human sunshine tint--the red and gold on her
cheeks--and she might be better looking."
"Better looking! Why, grandmother, Agnes was the beauty of the school."
"Schoolgirls are poor judges o' beauty. She has a wonderfu' pleasant
way with her, but that isn't beauty."
"I thought you liked her, I am so sorry and disappointed."
"She is weel enough--in her way. There are plenty o' girls not as
pleasant; but she is neither Venus, nor Helen o' Troy. I was speaking o'
Captain Macpherson; when he stood in the garden with your uncle Neil,
his hand on his sword and the wind blowing his golden hair----"
"Grandmother! His hair is red."
"It is naething o' the kind, Maria. It is a bonnie golden-brown. It may,
perhaps, have a cast o' red, but only enough to give it color. And he
has a kindly handsome face, sweet-eyed and fearless."
"I did not notice his eyes. He seems fearless, and he is certainly
good-tempered. Have you known him a long time, grandmother?"
"I never saw him before this afternoon," the old lady answered wearily.
She had become suddenly tired. Maria's want of enthusiasm chilled her.
She could not tell whether the girl was sincere or not. Women generally
have two estimates of the men they meet; one which they acknowledge, one
which they keep to themselves.
When the gentlemen returned to the sitting-room a young negro was
lighting the fire, and Macpherson looked at him with attention. "A
finely built fellow," he said, when the slave had left the room; "such
men ought to make good fighters." Then turning to Madame he added,
"Captain de Lancey lost four men, and Mr. Bayard five men last week.
They were sent across the river to cut wood and they managed to reach
the rebel camp. We have knowledge that there is a full regiment of them
there now."
"They are fighting for their personal freedom," said the Elder, "and who
wouldna fight for that? Washington has promised it, if they fight to the
end o' the war."
"They have a good record already," said Macpherson.
"I have nae doubt o' it," answered the Elder. "Fighting would come
easier than wood cutting, no to speak o' the question o' freedom. I
heard a sough o' rumor about them and the Hessians; true, or not, I
can't say."
"It is true. They beat back the Hessians three times in one engagement."
"I'm glad o' it," said Madame, "slaves are good enough to fight hired
human butchers."
"O, you know, Madame, the Hessians are mercenaries; they make arms a
profession." He spoke with a languid air of defense; the Hessians were
not of high consideration in his opinion, but Madame answered with
unusual warmth:
"A profession! Well, it isn't a respectable one in their hands--men
selling themselves to fight they care not whom, or for what cause. If a
man fights for his country he is her soldier and her protector; if he
sells himself to all and sundry, he is worth just what he sells himself
for, and the black slave fighting for his freedom is a gentleman beside
him." Then, before any one could answer her tart disparagement, she
opened a little Indian box, and threw on the table a pack of cards.
"There's some paper kings for you to play wi'," she said, "and neither
George nor Louis has a title to compare wi' them--kings and knaves!
Ancient tyrants, and like ithers o' their kind, they would trick the
warld awa' at every game but for some brave ace," and the ace of hearts
happening to be in her hand she flung it defiantly down on the top of
the pack; and that with an air of confidence and triumph that was very
remarkable.
With the help of these royalties and some desultory conversation on the
recent alliance of France with the rebels, the evening passed away.
Madame sat quiet in the glow of the fire, and Maria, as Neil's partner,
enlivened the game with many bewitching airs and graces she had not
known she possessed, until this opportunity called them forth. And
whatever Macpherson gained at cards he lost in another direction; for
the little schoolgirl, he had at first believed himself to be
patronizing, reversed the situation. He became embarrassed by a
realization of her beauty and cleverness; and the sweet old story began
to tell itself in his heart--the story that comes no one knows whence,
and commences no one knows how. In that hour of winning and losing he
first understood how charming Maria Semple was.
The new feeling troubled him; he wished to be alone with it, and the
ardent pleasure of his arrival had cooled. The Elder and his wife were
tired, and Neil seemed preoccupied and did not exert himself to restore
the tone of the earlier hours; so the young officer felt it best to make
his adieu. Then, the farewell in a measure renewed the joy of meeting;
he was asked to come again, "to come whenever he wanted to come," said
Madame, with a smile of motherly kindness. And when Maria, with a
downward and upward glance laid her little hand in his, that incident
made the moment wonderful, and he felt that not to come again would be a
great misfortune.
Maria was going to her room soon afterward but Neil detained her. "Can
you sit with me a little while, Maria?" he asked; "or are you also
sleepy?"
"I am not the least weary, uncle; and I never was wider awake in my
life. I will read to you or copy for you----"
"Come and talk to me. The fire still burns. It is a pity to leave its
warmth. Sit down here. I have never had a conversation with you. I do
not know my niece yet, and I want to know her."
Maria was much flattered. Neil's voice had a tone in it that she had
never before heard. He brought her a shawl to throw around her
shoulders, a footstool for her feet, and drawing a small sofa before the
fire, seated himself by her side. Then he talked with her about her
early life; about her father and mother, and Mrs. Charlton, and without
asking one question about Agnes Bradley led her so naturally to the
subject, and so completely round and through it, that he had learned in
an hour all Maria could tell concerning the girl whose presence and
appearance had that day so powerfully attracted him. He was annoyed when
he heard her name, and annoyed at her pronounced Methodism, which was
evidently of that early type, holding it a sin not to glory in the scorn
of those who derided it. Yet he could not help being touched by Maria's
enthusiastic description of the girl's sweet godliness.
"You know, uncle," she said, "Agnes's religion is not put on; it is part
of Agnes; it is Agnes. Girls find one another out, but all the girls
loved Agnes. We were ashamed to be ill-natured, or tell untruths, or do
mean things when she was there. And if you heard her sing, uncle, you
would feel as if the heavens had opened, and you could see angels."
Now there is no man living who does not at some time dream of a good
woman--a woman much better than himself--upon his hearthstone. Neil felt
in that hour this divine longing; and he knew also, that the thing had
befallen him which he had vowed never would befall him again. Without
resistance, without the desire to resist, he had let the vision of Agnes
Bradley fill his imagination; he had welcomed it, and he knew that it
would subjugate his heart--that it had already virtually done so. For
Maria's descriptions of the pretty trivialities of their school life was
music and wine to his soul. He was captivated by her innocent
revelations, and the tall girl with her saintly pallor and star-like
eyes was invisibly present to him. He had the visionary sense, the glory
and the dream of love, and he longed to realize this vision. Therefore
he was delighted when he heard that Maria had permission to continue her
studies under the direction of her friend. It was an open door to him.
It was at this point that Maria made her final admission: "I am obliged
to tell you, uncle, that I am sure Agnes is a Whig." This damaging item
in her idol's character Maria brought out with deprecating apologies
and likelihood of change, "not a bad Whig, uncle; she is so gentle, and
she hates war, and so she feels so sorry for the poor Americans who are
suffering so much, because, you know, they think they are right. Then
her father is a Tory, and she is very fond of her father, and very proud
of him, and she will now be under his influence, and of course do what
he tells her--only--only----"
"Only what, Maria? You think there is a difficulty; what is it?"
"Her lover. I am almost certain he is a rebel."
"Has she a lover? She is very young--you must be mistaken?" He spoke so
sharply Maria hardly knew his voice, and she considered it best to
hesitate a little, so she answered in a dubious manner:
"I suppose he is her lover. The girls all thought so. He sent her
letters, and he sometimes came to see her; and then she seemed so
happy."
"A young man?"
"Yes, a very young man."
"A soldier?"
"I think, more likely, he was a sailor. I never asked Agnes. You could
not ask Agnes things, as you did other girls."
"I understand that."
"He wore plain clothes, but all of us were sure he was a sailor; and
once we saw Agnes watching some ships as far as she could see them, and
he had called on her that day."
Neil did not answer her conjecture. He rose and stood silently on the
hearth, his dark eyes directed outward, as if he was calling up the
vision of the sea, and the ships and the girl watching them. For the
first time Maria realized the personal attractiveness of her uncle. "He
is not old," she thought, "and he is handsomer than any one I ever saw.
Why has he not got married before this?" And as she speculated on this
question, Neil let his eyes fall upon the dead fire and in a melancholy
voice said:
"Maria, my dear, it is very late, I did not remember--you have given me
two pleasant hours. Good-night, child."
He spoke with restraint, coldly and wearily. He was not aware of it, for
his mind was full of thoughts well-nigh unspeakable, and Maria felt
their influence, though they had not been named. She went away depressed
and silent, like one who has suddenly discovered they were no longer
desired.
Neil speedily put out the lights, and went to the solitude his heart
craved. He was not happy; but doubt and fear are love's first food. For
another hour he sat motionless, wondering how this woman, whom he had
not in any way summoned, had taken such possession of him. For not yet
had it been revealed to him, that "love is always a great invisible
presence," and that in his case, Agnes Bradley was but its material
revelation.