OAKHURST.
On a Saturday morning in early June, about five months after Duncan's
visit to Chicago, Rennsler Van Vort, attired in tweeds and carrying a
bag in one hand and a bundle of coats and sticks in the other, pushed
rapidly past the ticket collector of a Jersey City ferry. He was on his
way to spend Sunday with the Osgoods at their place near Morristown, and
his haste was inspired by the knowledge that if he missed the next boat
he would be left to wander about the most unattractive portion of New
York for at least another half-hour. He managed, however, to reach the
ferry-boat just before she started, and was congratulating himself on
his good fortune, when he observed a man with a bag in each hand,
running in hot haste down the incline leading to the boat. The iron
gates were closed; the windlasses were clicking rapidly as the mooring
hawsers were being wound around, and the great paddle wheels had begun
to stir the waters of the slip to seething foam. The man at the windlass
tried to restrain the tardy passenger's efforts to reach the boat, but
he brushed past him and leapt onto her deck, just as she had begun to
move out from the slip.
"Great Scot! Duncan, did you drop from the clouds?" said Van Vort, as
the breathless runner, aided by a deck hand, clambered over the iron
gate.
"No, I beat the gate-keeper," replied Duncan, as he came to a stop
beside Rennsler and deposited his bags on the deck. "He was just
shutting the stile, and called to me to stop, but I didn't care to bask
on the docks for an hour, so I gave him the slip and here I am."
"That explains your flying leap on the boat, but did you jump across the
pond also?" asked Van Vort. "The last time I saw you, you were going to
Chicago; then I heard you were in London, and now you make an amazing
appearance on a Jersey ferry. You must have taken up jugglery, old
chap."
"An old loafer like you doesn't know anything about business; if you did
you might appreciate my flights."
"Never mind if I don't," answered Van Vort, resting his arm on the rail
and gazing into the water as it surged under the paddle wheels. "Tell me
what took you to London and what brought you back."
"Well, I went to Chicago, as you know," answered Duncan, "to look after
an elevator syndicate. I was there a week, got things straightened up,
took the 'Limited' on Thursday, reached New York Friday night, spent
Saturday morning at the office, and sailed that afternoon, on the
Umbria, to look after the London end of the scheme."
"That was last January. How have you been eluding your friends ever
since?"
"I was in London until two weeks ago. I came in on the Etruria this
morning; we should have landed Sunday, but we broke our shaft and had to
be towed in."
"Well, Duncan, I am glad to see you back; but you must give an account
of yourself. What did you do in London besides business?"
"During February and March I was groping about in the fog after Britons
to invest in Chicago elevators, or following the hounds in the Shires.
London in winter is the beastliest place in Christendom, and when I
could get away I was in the country."
"Yes; I know London in the winter," put in Van Vort. "Fogs and
suffocation, rain and muddy boots, slush and colds, sleet and influenza,
all combine to make a dreary mackintosh and umbrella existence, which
you can vary in-doors by shivering before fires that won't burn."
"I see you've been there," answered Duncan; "but you want to add
something about empty theatres and clubs, and say it is a city deserted
by every person who can buy, borrow, or steal a railway ticket to the
country. But for one guardian angel, I should not be here to tell this
tale."
"I can name that angel," said Van Vort; "it is Scotch whiskey."
"Right!" answered Duncan.
"I thought so. All sufferers seek the same cure; but April and May were
better, weren't they?"
"I should think so."
"Did you meet many people?"
"Plenty. I fell in with Lady Brock on the steamer, and she came in
handy. I knew some people when I was there before, and took out some
good letters; and then there is the American colony."
"Yes, the American colony," said Van Vort; "who are they?"
"Some of them are people one doesn't know at home, but the English don't
mind that, so why should we? You remember Mrs. Raynor, that pretty woman
who used to be about New York, and afterward so scandalized the prudes
by an affair with a Russian Grand Duke that no one received her when she
came home?"
"Of course; did you run across her?"
"Yes; she is in London now, the smartest of the smart; the friend of the
prince and the envy of American turf hunters. They wouldn't have her in
New York, but now they flock to her house because she is in the London
smart set, and she is clever enough to receive them and forget the
malarious past."
"I suppose you went there; the malarious past didn't frighten you away."
"Of course not. I was her right-hand man, and used to help entertain
the people at her Wednesday afternoons. Not only that, but I was
hand-in-glove with Mrs. Smallpage."
"What! the wife of the late furniture dealer on Fifth Avenue?"
"Yes; I didn't know her in New York, but she has a house in Mayfair and
hobnobs with half the peerage. Good looks and money, that's all the
Londoners care for. I heard a countess say that all Americans are alike.
We have no aristocracy, therefore our social distinctions are absurd.
The reception of an American in London depends on whether he is rich
enough to entertain, good looking enough to be attractive, or queer
enough to be amusing."
"I say, Duncan, we are just getting into the slip," said Van Vort,
looking forward, "and you haven't told me yet where you are going, and
what brought you aboard this ferry."
"Why, I met Harry Osgood this morning, just after I landed, and he asked
me out to his place for Sunday. I hate New York on the blessed Sabbath,
so here I am."
"I am bound for the Osgoods, too," answered Van Vort. "I am in luck to
find some one going out. But come on, we must hurry or we sha'n't get
seats in the train."
The ferry-boat brushed violently against the side of the slip, and most
of the passengers, losing their balance, were compelled to grasp each
other unconventionally for support. The engine-room bell clanged
furiously; there were more jars and creakings as the boat scraped past
the great piles and reached her moorings; then the restless van horses
stamped, the chains rattled over the windlasses, and the passengers
crowded forward to the bows. The iron gates were opened, and the living
sea of people flowed rapidly up the incline toward the railway station.
It was the mighty ebbing of the human tide which daily floods the great
city across the river. Could one stand there, watching the weary throng
come forth, and, like the Spanish student of old, find a willing
Asmodaeus at one's elbow, what stories of hopes and disappointments, what
tales of trouble and misery could he not unfold for inspection. Pallid
shop-girls and weary seamstresses were there; grimy laborers with their
tools, tired clerks, toiling mothers with their babes, and pale,
careworn children, early driven to the wheel, with here and there a
face on whom prosperity had set her seal, and perhaps a few, like
Duncan, whose lives are passed in that dazzling upper world, so
hopelessly closed to the toiling masses. All these, and more, streamed
off the ponderous ferry, hurrying to their homes. But Duncan and Van
Vort had no time to moralize, and being anxious to get seats in the
smoking car they pushed rapidly to the front of the moving mass of
people, showed their tickets to the inspector, and passed through the
station door to the platform.
The Morristown train was drawn up on the right-hand track. They found it
already well filled with people brought over by the first boat; and
after wandering the entire length of the smoking car they were about
despairing of finding seats when they were hailed by a familiar voice:
"Hello, fellows, where are you going?" Looking around they saw
Howard-Jones, with a yellow-covered novel under his arm and a freshly
lighted cigar between his lips, standing on the station platform and
looking the picture of masculine content.
"We are trying to find a seat, but the place is full," said Duncan.
"Are you going on this train?"
"Yes; going out to Osgood's."
"So are we," put in Van Vort, "but we don't want to stand up all the
way. You look as unconcerned as though you were sporting a private car."
"So I am," replied Howard-Jones carelessly. "Just go into the car ahead
and find Waterman; mention the fact that you are friends of mine, and
perhaps he will give you a seat, but be sure you speak politely.
Waterman won't stand impertinence."
"Well, if you and he have seats in there, and there are no more to be
had," said Duncan, "you might as well make up your mind to stand up.
Come on, Rennsler, let's see if Howard-Jones is trying to do us." Saying
this, Duncan started into the next car and was closely followed by Van
Vort. This car had been kept till the last moment, so they found it just
filling up, and at the farther end they discovered Waterman, trying to
stretch himself over four seats and convince the numerous comers that
they were engaged.
"I beg pardon, but can a lady have this seat?" said Duncan, coming up
behind Waterman.
"I am sorry, but it's engaged," grunted the latter without looking up.
"This is a smoker anyway."
"Well, this lady is going to sit on your lap, you old brute."
"Hello, Duncan," said Waterman, looking up somewhat startled. "Osgood
told me you were back; I am deuced glad to see you."
"Pull down those feet and give us some room, and then I'll talk,"
answered Duncan.
Waterman made room for his friends, and depositing their luggage on the
floor they sat down opposite him. As the train moved slowly out of the
station, Howard-Jones sauntered into the car and took the seat
remaining, next to Waterman.
"Well, how is Chicago?" Waterman asked Duncan.
"Don't talk to him about Chicago," interrupted Van Vort. "Don't you know
he has just come from London?"
"Of course I do, but I know all about London. I want to hear about Mr.
Breezy and Miss Lakeside, and all the other queer people one reads
about in _Life_ and _Puck_. Don't you remember the last time we saw
Duncan? He was going gunning for elevators, and I want to hear about
them. How are the pork-packers, Duncan?"
"I didn't meet any."
"What, and you went to Chicago!"
"Exactly," Duncan replied. "They say there that one has to go away to
meet them. The right sort don't seem to know them."
"What were the people like, anyway?" asked Howard-Jones.
"The women are dears, some of the men are queer, most of them are
passable, and a few are the whitest chaps I ever came across. I was
treated like a prince. I lived at the City Club, and they could not do
enough for me there."
"Did you get anything fit to eat?" asked Howard-Jones dubiously.
"You must imagine the people out there eat jerked venison and dine in
their shirt-sleeves," replied Duncan. "They don't live in wigwams, and
buffalo don't run wild in the streets."
"Don't get huffy, Duncan; I was only judging by what I had heard. You
remember what Waterman said about Chicago."
"Yes, and I repeat again," replied that worthy, "it is the beastliest
hole it has ever been my luck to get stranded in."
"Then you display your ignorance," said Duncan.
"I admit I have heard something about Chicago being the centre of the
universe," retorted Waterman, "but I thought that opinion was confined
to the breezy inhabitants of the windy city."
"Well, in my opinion," said Duncan, "Chicago isn't a half bad place.
'Tisn't New York, of course, but you can't expect that. They've got most
of the things there that we have, and some that we haven't. There's one
thing about the people, too, that I like; they keep awake when the rest
of the world is dozing, and that is bound to tell in the end."
"That's right, Duncan," echoed Van Vort.
"Sit down on sectional ignorance and prejudice. New Yorkers are getting
to be as provincial as Parisians, and it is time they learned that the
sun doesn't rise and set on Manhattan Island."
"You are all wrong, Rennsler," answered Howard-Jones. "Duncan is drawing
a big salary for booming Chicago real estate; you'd do the same thing if
you got paid for it."
"No back talk, Hyphenated-Jones," said Duncan facetiously. "Just crawl
behind that French novel and don't let me hear from you again."
"I will if you will shut up about Chicago; you make me weary."
"Anything to keep you quiet," answered Duncan.
The four friends gradually settled themselves behind afternoon papers or
novels, and remained silent. The train rattled on through small suburban
towns and now and then drew up before a dainty, vine-covered station,
with low walls and high gabled roofs, where the brakeman put his head
inside the door and called off some name in unintelligible accents.
People got out hurriedly, their arms filled with packages of all
descriptions, the door slammed, the train started, the newsboy passed
through with the papers, pop-corn, puzzles, and everything else that
nobody wanted, the conductor poked dozing passengers for their tickets,
the atmosphere grew blue with smoke, and the minutes passed with the
exasperating slowness of time spent on a suburban train.
"I say, Duncan," said Waterman, yawning behind his paper, "how would you
like to take this trip twice a day?"
"I'd rather die a natural death and be done with it, if I did not have a
private opinion that Hades is a suburban town, where the Devil tortures
his victims by making them bolt breakfast in two minutes and run to
catch a train, only to be brought back again after dark just in time to
sleep and take the next train in the morning."
"That's the joy of living in the country," replied Waterman. "However, I
can tell you how to pass the time to-day."
"How?" asked Duncan.
"Go back and talk to the Simpson girls. I saw them getting into the last
car, and I think they are going out to Osgood's, too."
"None of that for me."
"Better send Rennsler to look after them," suggested Waterman; "I think
I can recommend him as a safe and suitable chaperon."
"What's that?" said Van Vort, glancing over his paper at the sound of
his name.
"We think you had better go back and talk to the charming Miss Simpson,"
said Duncan.
"Which? The one with freckles, or the one who squints."
"Both," replied Waterman.
"From such a fate, good Lord deliver us," answered Van Vort contritely.
"Your prayer is answered," said Duncan, "for here we are at the
getting-off place. I never remember the name of it, so I always book
through to Morristown, and look out for that red barn over there."
The engine slackened its pace while the four friends hurriedly gathered
their things together and walked toward the car door. When the train
stopped they passed out and alighted on the deserted platform of a small
country station. The village consisted of three or four houses and a
barn, and the station was merely a covered shed and platform, without
the usual complement of station-master, baggageman, etc. It was of so
little importance that trains did not stop there except by signal or
request, and the Osgoods made use of it merely because it was nearer
their place than was Morristown. On this occasion, however, there was no
one there to meet the travelers, and it seemed to them that they had
been forgotten. The train had pulled out immediately, and they were left
to their own resources in a small, New Jersey hamlet, four miles from
their destination. There was no one in sight except the Simpson girls,
who had alighted at the other end of the platform, and the four men felt
it their duty to wander toward them and proffer such civilities as the
occasion demanded.
"We had no idea you were on the train," said Duncan, as they reached the
place where the girls were standing. "I suppose you are bound for the
Osgoods?"
"Yes," replied the elder Miss Simpson, "but we seem to be stranded here.
What shall we do?"
"Wait until we are rescued," said Van Vort. "I don't believe Osgood is
cruel enough to leave us here long."
"No, by Jove! for there are his leaders," interposed Waterman, as a team
of chestnuts and a smart char-a-bancs, driven by Harry Osgood himself,
with his wife on the box seat, swept rapidly around the corner of
Duncan's red barn. There were two girls sitting behind the Osgoods, whom
they recognized as Miss Warner and Miss Reine Merrit,--two of their
set,--and the men had just time to take off their hats before the trap
was driven up beside the platform.
"Been waiting long?" called Osgood, as he pulled up his team. "My near
leader picked up a stone, and I have the stage timed so close that any
delay makes me late."
"It will teach you to take more time, Harry," said his wife, as, without
accepting the proffered aid of a servant, she jumped to the ground. "How
do you do, everybody," she continued, when she lighted on the platform.
"Why, Duncan Grahame! Where in heaven's name did you come from?"
"From London, to see you, but I don't seem to be expected," replied
Duncan.
"I forgot to tell Helen I had asked you, but it's all right," called
Harry Osgood from his high seat.
"Of course it is," replied his wife, "but I wish you wouldn't shock me
so again. I thought I had seen a ghost."
"Never mind ghosts, but get the people up," said her husband.
Harry Osgood's char-a-bancs was a vehicle he had had constructed for use
over the rough country roads. It was built somewhat like the two boots
of a drag put together without the body, and had seats for ten persons,
besides the servants, placed in three rows, and all facing forward,
while its lightness rendered it very convenient for the purpose for
which it was designed. The servants stowed the luggage away and Mrs.
Osgood assigned places to the party. The elder Miss Simpson was given
the box seat, the next was occupied by Reine Merrit, Waterman,
Howard-Jones, and the younger Miss Simpson, while Miss Warner, Van Vort,
Duncan and Helen Osgood mounted to the remaining one.
"Let em go," shouted Osgood as he shoved the brake back. The grooms
jumped from the horses heads, the wheelers sprang into their collars,
and the trap rolled away from the station. "Oakhurst," the Osgood place,
was a short four miles distant, and the road, a fairly good one for
America, ran, for the most part, through a forest of maples, broken here
and there by the country seat of some New Yorker, or an occasional farm.
The country was quite rolling, and the road, running as it did over a
succession of small hills, made the driving a delight to Harry Osgood.
He was a coachman who had learned his trade in England, and having been
a subscriber to the _Guildford Coach_ for two seasons, he was able to
"sit his bench" like a veteran, and work his team with the smartness of
one who has done "out of London roading"; but, with all his experience
he was not a careful workman. He invariably made the four miles, from
the station to his house, a galloping stage, and it was his pride to do
the distance just under the twenty minutes; so, as soon as he turned the
corner by the red barn, he sprang his team into a gallop, and they
scarcely trotted another step of the way. Up hill and down the horses
scampered, while the trap rocked like a ship at sea, now to this side
and now to that, and when rounding the corners it often seemed as though
the vehicle would certainly be turned over and the entire party landed
in a hopeless muddle in the ditch; but nothing worse than a few feminine
screams occurred until they reached the place where the road entered the
Morristown turnpike.
Here Osgood espied another team coming up the main road, and as both
traps were about an equal distance from the fork, he considered it a
glorious chance for a race; so, giving his horses their heads, he urged
them into a run. The driver of the other four, as ready for sport as
Osgood, did the same, and the two traps came furiously on to where the
roads met. The men cheered while the women held on to their seats,
trembling with fright; and as the two traps came together at the fork,
the other coachman tried to crowd in front of Osgood by taking some of
the latter's road. There was no time to pull up, and seeing that his
only safety from a wicked upset was to beat his rival, Osgood called on
his horses for an extra spurt. The leaders were neck and neck, and the
stranger had crowded him so far toward the edge of the road that he felt
his hind wheel slipping down the embankment. The women shut their eyes
and screamed while the men prepared to jump, but Osgood, acting with
presence of mind, hit his rival's off-wheeler across the head with his
whip, and "toweled" his own wheelers a good stinging cut across the
shoulders. The wheel horse of the other trap, frightened at this sudden
attack, jumped toward the pole, and, with his weight, swayed the vehicle
toward the near side of the road, while Osgood's own wheelers sprang
forward under the lashing and drew the trap onto the road before it had
time to upset. Osgood darted ahead of his rival, and the party breathed
freer as all visions of broken limbs and mangled bodies vanished from
their frightened minds.
"Well done, old man," called Howard-Jones, who was himself a coaching
man. "I like sport, but such a lubberly bit of work as that ought not to
go unpunished."
"A man who will do a trick like that ought not to be trusted with a
donkey," replied Osgood, as he pulled his team together after the
excitement of the spurt.
"That's the trouble, nowadays," continued Howard-Jones. "After a lesson
or two in the park, at team work, chaps set up as experienced
coachmen."
"Who is the duffer, anyway?" called Duncan from behind.
"Jack Ashton. You know him, don't you?" replied Howard-Jones. "He has
the place just beyond Harry's."
"I ought to," said Duncan. "He was in my class at college. I didn't
recognize him, though."
"Do you always forget your friends so easily?" said Helen Osgood with an
ironical sparkle in her blue-black eyes.
"Sometimes I try to," Duncan answered.
"Are you always successful?" she asked.
"No, Helen," he whispered, "not always."
The trap had reached the stone gateway of the Osgood place. As they
turned in, a call was sounded on the horn to announce their coming to
the servants, and, after passing the lodge, they could see the low,
white country house, with rambling wings and numerous stables and
outhouses in the rear, standing on a rise of ground at the end of the
winding road. The place had been in the Osgood family for more than a
hundred years. The oak-covered grounds about the house, and the green,
rolling lawn in front, were typical of an English park; but the old
wooden, colonial house, with its rambling additions and green blinds,
its stately veranda and Doric columned portico, was American, of a type
fast disappearing before the modern house decorator with his tints and
_bibelots_.
The trap dashed up to the door, a knot of servants appeared, the grooms
placed the ladder against the steps, and the guests alighted and were
conducted to their apartments, where, for the next hour, the house party
was occupied in the task of dressing for dinner.