We then tossed to see who should pay for the lunch and who should tip
the head waiter. I lost and had to tip the head waiter. We separated,
and as I walked down the Avenue, it seemed as though to the proprietor
of every shop I passed I owed money. Owing them the money I did not so
much mind; what most distressed me was that they were so polite about
it. I had always wanted to reward their patience. A favorite dream of
mine was to be able to walk down Fifth Avenue, my pockets stuffed with
yellow bills, paying off my debts. Compared with my steadily decreasing
income, how enormous my debts appeared; but when compared with the
income of a man worth--say-five million dollars, how ridiculous! I had
no more than reached my apartment, than a messenger-boy arrived with an
envelope. It contained a ticket for a round trip on the New Bedford Line
boat leaving that afternoon, a ticket for a stateroom, and a note from
Curtis Spencer. The latter read: “The boat leaves at six to-night.
You arrive at New Bedford seven to-morrow morning. New Bedford and
Fairharbor are connected by a bridge. CROSS IT!”
I tore the note in tiny fragments, and tossed them through the open
window. I was exceedingly angry. As I stood at the window adding to the
name of Curtis Spencer insulting aliases, the street below sent up hot,
stifling odors: the smoke of taxicabs, the gases of an open subway, the
stale reek of thousands of perspiring, unwashed bodies. From that one
side street seemed to rise the heat and smells of all New York. For
relief I turned to my work-table where lay the opening chapters of
my new novel, “The White Plume of Savoy.” But now, in the light
of Spencer's open scorn, I saw it was impudently false, childish,
sentimental. My head ached, the humidity sapped my strength, at heart
I felt sick, sore, discouraged. I was down and out. And seeing this,
Temptation, like an obsequious floorwalker, came hurrying forward.
“And what may I show you to-day?” asked Temptation. He showed me the
upper deck of the New Bedford boat feeling her way between the green
banks of the Sound. A cool wind swept past me bearing clean, salty
odors; on the saloon deck a band played, and from the darkness the
lighthouses winked at me, and in friendly greeting the stars smiled.
Temptation won. In five minutes I was feverishly packing, and at
five-thirty I was on board. I assured myself I had not listened to
Temptation, that I had no interest in Fairharbor. I was taking the trip
solely because it would give me a night's sleep on the Sound. I promised
myself that on the morrow I would not even LOOK toward Harbor Castle;
but on the evening following on the same boat, return to New York.
Temptation did not stop to argue, but hastened after another victim.
I turned in at nine o'clock and the coolness, and the salt air, blessed
me with the first sleep I had known in weeks. And when I woke we were
made fast to the company's wharf at New Bedford, and the sun was well
up. I rose refreshed in body and spirit. No longer was I discouraged.
Even “The White Plume of Savoy” seemed a perfectly good tale of
romance and adventure. And the Farrells were a joke. Even if I were at
Fairharbor, I was there only on a lark, and at the expense of Curtis
Spencer, who had paid for the tickets. Distinctly the joke was on Curtis
Spencer. I lowered the window screen, and looked across the harbor. It
was a beautiful harbor. At ancient stone wharfs Jay ancient whalers
with drooping davits and squared yards, at anchor white-breasted yachts
flashed in the sun, a gray man-of-war's man flaunted the week's laundry,
a four-masted schooner dried her canvas, and over the smiling surface of
the harbor innumerable fishing boats darted. With delight I sniffed
the odors of salt water, sun-dried herring, of oakum and tar. The shore
opposite was a graceful promontory crowned with trees and decorous
gray-shingled cottages set in tiny gardens that reached to the very edge
of the harbor. The second officer was passing my window and I asked what
the promontory was called.
“Fairharbor,” he said. He answered with such proprietary pride and
smiled upon Fairharbor with such approval that I ventured to guess it
was his home.
“That's right,” he said; “I used to live at the New York end of the
run-in a flat. But never again! No place for the boy to play but in the
street. I found I could rent one of those old cottages over there for
the same money I paid for the flat. So I cut out New York. My boy lives
in a bathing suit now, and he can handle a catboat same as me. We have
a kitchen garden, and hens, and the fishermen here will give you all
the fish you can carry away--fish right out of the water. I guess I've
smashed the high cost of living problem all right. I wouldn't go back to
living in New York now--not if they gave me the PILGRIM.”
As though trying to prod my memory, I frowned. It was my conception of
the part of a detective. “Hasn't Fletcher Farrell,” I asked, “a house in
Fairharbor?”
“Harbor Castle,” said the mate promptly. “It's on the other side of the
point I'd as soon live in a jail!”
“Why?” I exclaimed.
But he was no longer listening. He pointed at the shore opposite.
“See that flag running up the staff in that garden?” he cried. “That's
my boy signalling. I got to get to the boat deck and wave back!”
I felt as a detective. I had acquired important information. The mate,
a man of judgment, preferred Fairharbor to New York. Also, to living in
Harbor Castle, he preferred going to jail.
The boat on which I had arrived was listed to start back at six the same
evening on her return trip to New York. So, at the office of the line I
checked my valise, and set forth to explore New Bedford.
The whaling vessels moored to a nearby wharf, I inspected from hatches
to keels, and by those on board was directed to a warehouse where were
stored harpoons, whalebone, and wooden figure-heads. My pleasure in
these led to my being passed on to a row of “antique” shops filled with
relics of the days of whaling and also with genuine pie-crust tables,
genuine flint-lock muskets, genuine Liverpool pitchers. I coveted
especially old-time engravings of the whalers, and was told at
Hatchardson's book-store on the main street others could be found in
profusion.
Hatchardson's proved to be a place of great delight. As you entered
there were counters for magazines and post-cards, popular music, and
best-selling novels, while in the rear of the shop tables and shelves
were stocked with ancient volumes, and on the wall surrounding them hung
engravings, prints and woodcuts of even the eighteenth century. Just as
the drugstore on the corner seemed to be a waiting station for those
of New Bedford who used the trolley-cars, so for those who moved in
automobiles, or still clung to the family carriage, Hatchardson's
appeared to be less a shop than a public meeting-place. I noticed that
the clerks, most of whom were women, were with the customers on a most
friendly footing, addressing them, and by them being addressed by name.
Finding I was free to wander where I pleased, I walked to the rear of
the shop and from one of the tables picked up a much-worn volume. It was
entitled “The Log of the JOLLY POLLY”, and was illustrated with wood cuts
showing square-rigged ships and whales Spouting. For five minutes, lost
to my Surroundings, I turned the pages; and then became conscious that
across the table some one was watching me. I raised my eyes and beheld a
face of most surprising charm, intelligence and beauty. It was so lovely
that it made me wince. The face was the fortune, and judging from the
fact that in her hand she held a salesbook, the sole fortune, of a tall
young girl who apparently had approached to wait on me. She was looking
toward the street, so that, with the book-shelves for a back-ground, her
face was in profile, and I determined swiftly that if she were to wait
on me she would be kept waiting as long as my money lasted. I did not
want “The Log of the JOLLY POLLY,” but I did want to hear the lovely
lady speak, and especially I desired that the one to whom she spoke
should be myself.
“What is the price of this?” I asked. With magnificent self-control I
kept my eyes on the book, but the lovely lady was so long silent that I
raised them. To my surprise, I found on her face an expression of
alarm and distress. With reluctance, and yet within her voice a certain
hopefulness, she said, “Fifty dollars.”
Fifty dollars was a death blow. I had planned to keep the young lady
selling books throughout the entire morning, but at fifty dollars a
book, I would soon be owing her money. I attempted to gain time.
“It must be very rare!” I said. I was afraid to look at her lest my
admiration should give offense, so I pretended to admire the book.
“It is the only one in existence,” said the young lady. “At least, it is
the only one for sale!”
We were interrupted by the approach of a tall man who, from his playing
the polite host and from his not wearing a hat, I guessed was Mr.
Hatchardson himself. He looked from the book in my hand to the lovely
lady and said smiling, “Have you lost it?”
The girl did not smile. To her, apparently, it was no laughing matter.
“I don't know--yet,” she said. Her voice was charming, and genuinely
troubled.
Mr. Hatchardson, for later I learned it was he, took the book and showed
me the title-page.
“This was privately printed in 1830,” he said, “by Captain Noah Briggs.
He distributed a hundred presentation copies among his family and
friends here in New Bedford. It is a most interesting volume.”
I did not find it so. For even as he spoke the young girl, still with a
troubled countenance, glided away. Inwardly I cursed Captain Briggs and
associated with him in my curse the polite Mr. Hatchardson. But, at his
next words my interest returned. Still smiling, he lowered his voice.
“Miss Briggs, the young lady who just left us,” he said, “is the
granddaughter of Captain Briggs, and she does not want the book to go
out of the family; she wants it for herself.” I interrupted eagerly.
“But it is for sale?” Mr. Hatchardson reluctantly assented.
“Then I will take it,” I said.
Fifty dollars is a great deal of money, but the face of the young lady
had been very sad. Besides being sad, had it been aged, plain, and
ill-tempered, that I still would have bought the book, is a question I
have never determined.
To Mr. Hatchardson, of my purpose to give the book to Miss Briggs, I
said nothing. Instead I planned to send it to her anonymously by mail.
She would receive it the next morning when I was arriving in New York,
and, as she did not know my name, she could not possibly return it.
At the post-office I addressed the “Log” to “Miss Briggs, care of
Hatchardson's Bookstore,” and then I returned to the store. I felt I
had earned that pleasure. This time, Miss Briggs was in charge of the
post-card counter, and as now a post-card was the only thing I could
afford to buy, at seeing her there I was doubly pleased. But she was
not pleased to see me. Evidently Mr. Hatchardson had told her I had
purchased the “Log” and at her loss her very lovely face still showed
disappointment. Toward me her manner was distinctly aggrieved.
But of the “Log” I said nothing, and began recklessly purchasing
post-cards that pictured the show places of New Bedford. Almost the
first one I picked up was labelled “Harbor Castle. Residence of Fletcher
Farrell.” I need not say that I studied it intently. According to the
post-card, Harbor Castle stood on a rocky point with water on both
sides. It was an enormous, wide-spreading structure, as large as a
fort. It exuded prosperity, opulence, extravagance, great wealth. I felt
suddenly a filial impulse to visit the home of my would-be forefathers.
“Is this place near here?” I asked.
Miss Briggs told me that in order to reach it I should take the ferry to
Fairharbor, and then cross that town to the Buzzards Bay side.
“You can't miss it,” she said. “It's a big stone house, with red and
white awnings. If you see anything like a jail in ruffles, that's it.”
It was evident that with the home I had rejected Miss Briggs was
unimpressed; but seeing me add the post-card to my collection, she
offered me another.
“This,” she explained, “is Harbor Castle from the bay. That is their
yacht in the foreground.”
The post-card showed a very beautiful yacht of not less than two
thousand tons. Beneath it was printed “HARBOR LIGHTS; steam yacht owned
by Fletcher Farrell.” I always had dreamed of owning a steam yacht, and
seeing it stated in cold type that one was owned by “Fletcher Farrell,”
even though I was not that Fletcher Farrell, gave me a thrill of guilty
pleasure. I gazed upon the post-card with envy.
“HARBOR LIGHTS is a strange name for a yacht,” I ventured. Miss Briggs
smiled.
“Not for that yacht,” she said. “She never leaves it.”
I wished to learn more of my would-be parents, and I wished to keep
on talking with the lovely Miss Briggs, so, as an excuse for both, I
pretended I was interested in the Farrells because I had something I
wanted to sell them.
“This Fletcher Farrell must be very rich,” I said. “I wonder,” I asked,
“if I could sell him an automobile?” The moment I spoke I noticed that
the manner of Miss Briggs toward Me perceptibly softened. Perhaps, from
my buying offhand a fifty-dollar book she had thought me one of the
rich, and had begun to suspect I was keeping her waiting on me only
because I found her extremely easy to look at. Many times before, in a
similar manner, other youths must have imposed upon her, and perhaps,
also, in concealing my admiration, I had not entirely succeeded.
But, when she believed that, like herself, I was working for my living,
she became more human.
“What car are you selling?” she asked. “I am TRYING to sell,” I
corrected her, “the Blue Bird, six cylinder.”
“I never heard of it,” said Miss Briggs.
“Nor has any one else,” I answered, with truth. “That is one reason why
I can't sell it. I arrived here this morning, and,” I added with pathos,
“I haven't sold a car yet!”
Miss Briggs raised her beautiful eyebrows skeptically. “Have you tried?”
she said.
A brilliant idea came to me. In a side street I had passed a garage
where Photaix cars were advertised for hire. I owned a Phoenix, and
I thought I saw a way by which, for a happy hour, I might secure the
society of Miss Briggs.
“I am an agent and demonstrator for the Phoenix also,” I said glibly;
“maybe I could show you one?”
“Show me one?” exclaimed Miss Briggs. “One sees them everywhere! They
are always under your feet!”
“I mean,” I explained, “might I take you for a drive in one?”
It was as though I had completely vanished. So far as the lovely Miss
Briggs was concerned I had ceased to exist. She turned toward a nice old
lady.
“What can I show you, Mrs. Scudder?” she asked cheerily; “and how is
that wonderful baby?”
I felt as though I had been lifted by the collar, thrown out upon a
hard sidewalk, and my hat tossed after me. Greatly shaken, and mentally
brushing the dust from my hands and knees, I hastened to the ferry and
crossed to Fairharbor. I was extremely angry. By an utter stranger I
had been misjudged, snubbed and cast into outer darkness. For myself I
readily found excuses. If a young woman was so attractive that at the
first sight of her men could not resist buying her fifty-dollar books
and hiring automobiles in which to take her driving, the fault was hers.
I assured myself that girls as lovely as Miss Briggs were a menace to
the public. They should not be at large. An ordinance should require
them to go masked. For Miss Briggs also I was able to make excuses. Why
should she not protect herself from the advances of strange young men?
If a popular novelist, and especially an ex-popular one, chose to go
about disguised as a drummer for the Blue Bird automobile and behaved
as such, and was treated as such, what right had he to complain? So
I persuaded myself I had been punished as I deserved. But to salve my
injured pride I assured myself also that any one who read my novels
ought to know my attitude toward any lovely lady could be only
respectful, protecting, and chivalrous. But with this consoling thought
the trouble was that nobody read my novels.
In finding Harbor Castle I had no difficulty. It stood upon a rocky
point that jutted into Buzzards Bay. Five acres of artificial lawn and
flower-beds of the cemetery and railroad-station school of horticulture
surrounded it, and from the highroad it was protected by a stone wall so
low that to the passerby, of the beauties of Harbor Castle nothing was
left to the imagination. Over this wall roses under conflicting banners
of pink and red fought fiercely. One could almost hear the shrieks
of the wounded. Upon the least thorny of these I seated myself and in
tender melancholy gazed upon the home of my childhood. That is, upon the
home that might-have-been.
When surveying a completed country home, to make the owner thoroughly
incensed the correct thing to say is, “This place has great
possibilities!”
Harbor Castle had more possibilities than any other castle I ever
visited. But in five minutes I had altered it to suit myself. I had
ploughed up the flower-beds, dug a sunken garden, planted a wind screen
of fir, spruce, and Pine, and with a huge brick wall secured warmth and
privacy. So pleased was I with my changes, that when I departed I was
sad and downcast. The boat-house of which Mrs. Farrell had spoken
was certainly an ideal work-shop, the tennis-courts made those at
the Newport Casino look like a ploughed field, and the swimming-pool,
guarded by white pillars and overhung with grape-vines, was a cool
and refreshing picture. As, hot and perspiring, I trudged back through
Fairharbor, the memory of these haunted me. That they also tempted me,
it is impossible to deny. But not for long. For, after passing through
the elm-shaded streets to that side of the village that faced the
harbor, I came upon the cottages I had seen from the New Bedford shore.
At close range they appeared even more attractive than when pointed
out to me by the mate of the steamboat. They were very old, very
weather-stained and covered with honeysuckle. Flat stones in a setting
of grass led from the gates to the arched doorways, hollyhocks rose
above hedges of box, and from the verandas one could look out upon the
busy harbor and the houses of New Bedford rising in steps up the sloping
hills to a sky-line of tree-tops and church spires. The mate had told
me that for what he had rented a flat in New York he had secured one of
these charming old world homes. And as I passed them I began to pick out
the one in which when I retired from the world I would settle down. This
time I made no alterations. How much the near presence of Miss Briggs
had to do with my determination to settle down in Fairharbor, I cannot
now remember. But, certainly as I crossed the bridge toward New Bedford,
thoughts of her entirely filled my mind. I assured my self this was
so only because she was beautiful. I was sure her outward loveliness
advertised a nature equally lovely, but for my sudden and extreme
interest I had other excuses. Her in dependence in earning her living,
her choice in earning it among books and pictures, her pride of family
as shown by her efforts to buy the family heirloom, all these justified
my admiration. And her refusing to go joy-riding with an impertinent
stranger, even though the impertinent stranger was myself, was an act I
applauded. The more I thought of Miss Briggs the more was I disinclined
to go away leaving with her an impression of myself so unpleasant as
the one she then held. I determined to remove it. At least, until I had
redeemed myself, I would remain in New Bedford. The determination gave
me the greatest satisfaction. With a light heart I returned to the
office of the steamboat line and retrieving my suit-case started with it
toward the Parker House. It was now past five o'clock, the stores were
closed, and all the people who had not gone to the baseball game with
Fall River were in the streets. In consequence, as I was passing the
post-office, Miss Briggs came down the steps, and we were face to face.
In her lovely eyes was an expression of mingled doubt and indignation
and in her hand freshly torn from the papers in which I had wrapped it,
was “The Log of the JOLLY POLLY.” In action Miss Briggs was as direct
as a submarine. At sight of me she attacked. “Did you send me this?” she
asked.
I lowered my bag to the sidewalk and prepared for battle. “I didn't
think of your going to the post-office,” I said. “I planned you'd get
it to-morrow after I'd left. When I sent it, I thought I would never see
you again.”
“Then you did send it!” exclaimed Miss Briggs. As though the book were
a hot plate she dropped it into my hand. She looked straight at me, but
her expression suggested she was removing a caterpillar from her pet
rosebush.
“You had no right,” she said. “You may not have meant to be impertinent,
but you were!”
Again, as though I had disappeared from the face of the earth, Miss
Briggs gazed coldly about her, and with dignity started to cross the
street. Her dignity was so great that she glanced neither to the left
nor right. In consequence she did not see an automobile that swung
recklessly around a trolley-car and dived at her. But other people saw
it and shrieked. I also shrieked, and dropping the suit-case and the
“Log,” jumped into the street, grabbed Miss Briggs by both arms, and
flung her back to the sidewalk. That left me where she had been, and the
car caught me up and slammed me head first against a telegraph pole.
The pole was hard, and if any one counted me out I did not stay awake to
hear him. When I came to I was conscious that I was lying on a sidewalk;
but to open my eyes, I was much too tired. A voice was saying, “Do you
know who he is, Miss?”
The voice that replied was the voice of the lovely Miss Briggs. But now
I hardly recognized it. It was full of distress, of tenderness and pity.
“No, I don't know him,” it stammered. “He's a salesman--he was in the
store this morning--he's selling motor-cars.” The first voice laughed.
“Motor-cars!” he exclaimed. “That's why he ain't scared of 'em. He
certainly saved you from that one! I seen him, Miss Briggs, and he most
certainly saved your life!”
In response to this astonishing statement I was delighted to hear a
well-trained male chorus exclaim in assent.
The voices differed; some spoke in the accents of Harvard, pure and
undefiled, some in a “down East” dialect, others suggested Italian
peanut venders and Portuguese sailors, but all agreed that the life of
Miss Briggs had been saved by myself. I had intended coming to, but
on hearing the chorus working so harmoniously I decided I had better
continue unconscious.
Then a new voice said importantly: “The marks on his suitcase are 'F.
F., New York.”
I appreciated instantly that to be identified as Fletcher Farrell meant
humiliation and disaster. The other Fletcher Farrells would soon return
to New Bedford. They would learn that in their absence I had been spying
upon the home I had haughtily rejected. Besides, one of the chorus
might remember that three years back Fletcher Farrell had been a popular
novelist and might recognize me, and Miss Briggs would discover I was
not an automobile agent and that I had lied to her. I saw that I must
continue to lie to her. I thought of names beginning with “F,” and
selected “Frederick Fitzgibbon.” To christen yourself while your eyes
are shut and your head rests on a curb-stone is not easy, and later I
was sorry I had not called myself Fairchild as being more aristocratic.
But then it was too late. As Fitzgibbon I had come back to life, and as
Fitzgibbon I must remain.
When I opened my eyes I found the first voice belonged to a policeman
who helped me to my feet and held in check the male chorus. The object
of each was to lead me to a drink. But instead I turned dizzily to Miss
Briggs. She was holding my hat and she handed it to me. Her lovely eyes
were filled with relief and her charming voice with remorse.
“I--I can't possibly thank you,” she stammered. “Are you badly hurt?”
I felt I had never listened to words so original and well chosen. In
comparison, the brilliant and graceful speeches I had placed on the lips
of my heroines became flat and unconvincing.
I assured her I was not at all hurt and endeavored, jauntily, to replace
my hat. But where my head had hit the telegraph pole a large bump had
risen which made my hat too small. So I hung it on the bump. It gave me
a rakish air. One of the chorus returned my bag and another the “Log.”
Not wishing to remind Miss Briggs of my past impertinences; I guiltily
concealed it.
Then the policeman asked my name and I gave the one I had just invented,
and inquired my way to the Parker House. Half the chorus volunteered to
act as my escort, and as I departed, I stole a last look at Miss Briggs.
She and the policeman were taking down the pedigree of the chauffeur
of the car that had hit me. He was trying to persuade them he was
not intoxicated, and with each speech was furnishing evidence to the
contrary.
After I had given a cold bath to the bump on my head and to the rest of
my body which for the moment seemed the lesser of the two, I got into
dry things and seated myself on the veranda of the hotel. With a cigar
to soothe my jangling nerves, I considered the position of Miss Briggs
and myself. I was happy in believing it had improved. On the morrow
there was no law to prevent me from visiting Hatchardson's Bookstore,
and in view of what had happened since last I left it, I had reason to
hope Miss Briggs would receive me more, kindly. Of the correctness of
this diagnosis I was at once assured. In front of the hotel a district
messenger-boy fell off his bicycle and with unerring instinct picked
me out as Mr. Fitzgibbon of New York. The note he carried was from Miss
Briggs. It stated that in the presence of so many people it had been
impossible for her to thank me as she wished for the service I had
rendered her, and that Mrs. Cutler, with whom she boarded, and herself,
would be glad if after supper I would call upon them. I gave the
messenger-boy enough gold to enable him to buy a new bicycle and in my
room executed a dance symbolizing joy. I then kicked my suit-case under
the bed. I would not soon need it. Now that Miss Briggs had forgiven me,
I was determined to live and die in New Bedford.
The home of Mrs. Cutler, where Miss Briggs lodged and boarded, was in
a side street of respectable and distinguished antiquity. The street
itself was arched with the branches of giant elms, and each house was an
island surrounded by grass, and over the porches climbed roses. It was
too warm to remain indoors, so we sat on the steps of the porch, and
through the leaves of the elms the electric light globe served us as a
moon. For an automobile salesman I was very shy, very humble.
Twice before I had given offense and I was determined if it lay with
me, it would not happen again. I did not hope to interest Miss Briggs
in myself, nor did I let it appear how tremendously I was interested
in her. For the moment I was only a stranger in a strange land making
a social call. I asked Miss Briggs about New Bedford and the whaling,
about the books she sold, and the books she liked. It was she who
talked. When I found we looked at things in the same way and that the
same things gave us pleasure I did not comment on that astonishing fact,
but as an asset more precious than gold, stored it away. When I returned
to the hotel I found that concerning Miss Briggs I had made important
discoveries. I had learned that her name was Polly, that the JOLLY POLLY
had been christened after her grandmother, that she was an orphan, that
there were relatives with whom she did not “hit it off,” that she was
very well read, possessed of a most charming sense of humor, and that I
found her the most attractive girl I had ever met.
The next morning I awoke in an exalted frame of mind. I was in love with
life, with New Bedford, and with Polly Briggs. I had been in love before
but never with a young lady who worked in a shop, and I found that
loving a lady so occupied gives one a tremendous advantage. For when you
call she must always be at home, nor can she plead another engagement.
So, before noon, knowing she could not deny herself, I was again at
Hatchardson's, purchasing more postal-cards. But Miss Briggs was not
deceived. Nor apparently was any one else. The BEDFORD MERCURY had told
how, the previous evening, Frederick Fitzgibbon, an automobile salesman
from New York, had been knocked out by an automobile while saving Miss
Polly Briggs from a similar fate; and Mr. Hatchardson and all the old
ladies who were in the bookstore making purchases congratulated me. It
was evident that in Miss Briggs they took much more than a perfunctory
interest. They were very fond of her. She was an institution; and I
could see that as such to visitors she would be pointed out with pride,
as was the new bronze statue of the Whaleman in Court House Square. Nor
did they cease discussing her until they had made it quite clear to me
that in being knocked out in her service I was a very lucky man. I did
not need to be told that, especially as I noted that Miss Briggs was
anxious lest I should not be properly modest. Indeed, her wish that in
the eyes of the old ladies I should appear to advantage was so evident,
and her interest in me so proprietary, that I was far from unhappy.
The afternoon I spent in Fairharbor. From a real estate agent I obtained
keys to those cottages on the water-front that were for rent, and I
busied myself exploring them. The one I most liked I pretended I had
rented, and I imagined myself at work among the flower-beds, or with
my telescope scanning the shipping in the harbor, or at night seated
in front of the open fire watching the green and blue flames of the
driftwood. Later, irresolutely, I wandered across town to Harbor Castle,
this time walking entirely around it and coming upon a sign that read,
“Visitors Welcome. Do not pick the flowers.”
Assuring myself that I was moved only by curiosity, I accepted the
invitation, nor, though it would greatly have helped the appearance of
the cemetery-like beds, did I pick the flowers. On a closer view Harbor
Castle certainly possessed features calculated to make an impecunious
author Stop, look, and listen. I pictured it peopled with my friends. I
saw them at the long mahogany table of which through the French window
I got a glimpse, or dancing in the music-room, or lounging on the wicker
chairs on the sweeping verandas. I could see them in flannels at tennis,
in bathing-suits diving from the spring-board of the swimming pool,
departing on excursions in the motor-cars that at the moment in front
of the garage were being sponged and polished, so that they flashed like
mirrors. And I thought also of the two-thousand-ton yacht and to what
far countries, to what wonderful adventures it might carry me.
But all of these pictures lacked one feature. In none of them did
Polly Briggs appear. For, as I very well knew, that was something the
ambitions of Mrs. Farrell would not permit. That lady wanted me as a son
only because she thought I was a social asset. By the same reasoning,
as a daughter-in-law, she would not want a shop-girl, especially not one
who as a shop-girl was known to all New Bedford. My mood as I turned my
back upon the golden glories of Harbor Castle and walked to New Bedford
was thoughtful.
I had telegraphed my servant to bring me more clothes and my Phoenix
car; and as I did not want him inquiring for Fletcher Farrell had
directed him to come by boat to Fall River. Accordingly, the next
morning, I took the trolley to that city, met him at the wharf, and sent
him back to New York. I gave him a check with instructions to have it
cashed in that city and to send the money, and my mail, to Frederick
Fitzgibbon. This ALIAS I explained to him by saying I was gathering
material for an article to prove one could live on fifty cents a day.
He was greatly relieved to learn I did not need a valet to help me prove
it.
I returned driving the Phoenix to New Bedford, and as it was a Saturday,
when the store closed at noon, I had the ineffable delight of taking
Polly Briggs for a drive. As chaperons she invited two young friends of
hers named Lowell. They had been but very lately married, and regarded
me no more than a chauffeur they had hired by the hour. This left Polly
who was beside me on the front seat, and myself, to our own devices.
Our devices were innocent enough. They consisted in conveying the
self-centred Lowells so far from home that they could not get back for
supper and were so forced to dine with me. Polly, for as Polly I now
thought of her, discovered the place. It was an inn, on the edge of a
lake with an Indian name. We did not get home until late, but it had
been such a successful party that before we separated we planned another
journey for the morrow. That one led to the Cape by way of Bourne and
Wood's Hole, and back again to the North Shore to Barnstable, where we
lunched. It was a grand day and the first of others just as happy. After
that every afternoon when the store closed I picked up the Lowells; and
then Polly, and we sought adventures. Sometimes we journeyed no farther
than the baseball park, but as a rule I drove them to some inn for
dinner, where later, if there were music, we danced, if not, we returned
slowly through the pine woods and so home by the longest possible route.
The next Saturday I invited them to Boston. We started early, dined at
the Touraine and went on to a musical comedy, where I had reserved seats
in the front row. This nearly led to my undoing. Late in the first act
a very merry party of young people who had come up from Newport and
Narragansett to the Coates-Islip wedding filled the stage boxes and
at sight of me began to wave and beckon. They were so insistent that
between the acts I thought it safer to visit them. They wanted to know
why I had not appeared at the wedding, and who was the beautiful girl.
The next morning on our return trip to New Bedford Polly said, “I read
in the papers this morning that those girls in that theatre party last
night were the bridesmaids at the Coates-Islip wedding. They seemed to
know you quite well.”
I explained that in selling automobiles one became acquainted with many
people.
Polly shook her head and laughed. Then she turned and looked at me.
“You never sold an automobile in your life,” she said.
With difficulty I kept my eyes on the road; but I protested vigorously.
“Don't think I have been spying,” said Polly; “I found you out quite by
accident. Yesterday a young man I know asked me to persuade you to turn
in your Phoenix and let him sell you one of the new model. I said
you yourself were the agent for the Phoenix, and he said that, on the
contrary, HE was, and that you had no right to sell the car in his
TERRITORY.” I grinned guiltily and said:
“Well, I HAVEN'T sold any, have I?”
“That is not the point,” protested Polly. “What was your reason for
telling me you were trying to earn a living selling automobiles?”
“So that I could take you driving in one,” I answered.
“Oh!” exclaimed Polly.
There was a pause during which in much inward trepidation I avoided
meeting her eyes. Then Polly added thoughtfully, “I think that was a
very good reason.”
In our many talks the name of the Fletcher Farrells had never been
mentioned. I had been most careful to avoid it. As each day passed, and
their return imminent, and in consequence my need to fly grew more near,
and the name was still unspoken, I was proportionately grateful. But
when the name did come up I had reason to be pleased, for Polly spoke
it with approval, and it was not of the owner of Harbor Castle she was
speaking, but of myself. It was one evening about two weeks after we
had met, and I had side-stepped the Lowells and was motoring with Polly
alone. We were talking of our favorite authors, dead and alive.
“You may laugh,” said Polly, and she said it defiantly, “and I don't
know whether you would call him among the dead or the living, but I am
very fond of Fletcher Farrell!”
My heart leaped. I was so rattled that I nearly ran the car into a stone
wall. I thought I was discovered and that Polly was playing with me. But
her next words showed that she was innocent. She did not know that the
man to whom she was talking and of whom she was talking were the same.
“Of course you will say,” she went on, “that he is too romantic, that he
is not true to life. But I never lived in the seventeenth century, so
I don't know whether he is true to life or not. And I like romance. The
life I lead in the store gives me all the reality I want. I like to read
about brave men and great and gracious ladies.”
“I never met any girls like those Farrell write about, but it's nice to
think they exist. I wish I were like them. And, his men, too--they make
love better than any other man I ever read about.”
“Better than I do?” I asked.
Polly gazed at the sky, frowning severely. After a pause, and as though
she had dropped my remark into the road and the wheels had crushed it,
she said, coldly, “Talking about books----”
“No,” I corrected, “we were talking about Fletcher Farrell.”
“Then,” said Polly with some asperity, “don't change the subject. Do you
know,” she went on hurriedly, “that you look like him--like the pictures
of him--as he was.”
“Heavens!” I exclaimed, “the man's not dead!”
“You know what I mean,” protested Polly. “As he was before he stopped
writing.”
“Nor has he stopped writing,” I objected; “his books have stopped
selling.” Polly turned upon me eagerly.
“Do you know him?” she demanded. I answered with caution that I had met
him.
“Oh!” she exclaimed, “tell me about him!”
I was extremely embarrassed. It was a bad place. About myself I could
not say anything pleasant, and behind my back, as it were, I certainly
was not going to say anything unpleasant. But Polly relieved me of the
necessity of saying anything.
“I don't know any man,” she exclaimed fervently, “I would so like to
meet!”
It seemed to me that after that the less I said the better. So I told
her something was wrong with the engine and by the time I had pretended
to fix it, I had led the conversation away from Fletcher Farrell as a
novelist to myself as a chauffeur.
The next morning at the hotel, temptation was again waiting for me. This
time it came in the form of a letter from my prospective father-in-law.
It had been sent from Cape May to my address in New York, and by my
servant forwarded in an envelope addressed to “Frederick Fitzgibbon.”
It was what in the world of commerce is called a “follow-up” letter. It
recalled the terms of his offer to me, and improved upon them. It made
it clear that even after meeting me Mr. Farrell and his wife were still
anxious to stand for me as a son. They were good enough to say they had
found me a “perfect gentleman.” They hoped that after considering their
proposition I had come to look upon it with favor.
As his son, Mr. Farrell explained, my annual allowance would be the
interest on one million dollars, and upon his death his entire fortune
and property he would bequeath to me. He was willing, even anxious, to
put this in writing. In a week he would return to Fairharbor when he
hoped to receive a favorable answer. In the meantime he enclosed a
letter to his housekeeper.
“Don't take anything for granted,” he urged, “but go to Fairharbor and
present this letter. See the place for yourself. Spend the week there
and act like you were the owner. My housekeeper has orders to take her
orders from you. Don't refuse something you have never seen!”
This part of the letter made me feel as mean and uncomfortable as a
wet hen. The open, almost too open, methods of Mr. Farrell made my own
methods appear contemptible. He was urging me to be his guest and I
was playing the spy. But against myself my indignation did not last.
A letter, bearing a special delivery stamp which arrived later in the
afternoon from Mrs. Farrell turned my indignation against her, and with
bitterness. She also had been spying. Her letter read:
The Pinkerton I employed to report on you states that after losing you
for a week he located you at New Bedford, that you are living under
the name of Fitzgibbon, and that you have made yourself conspicuous by
attentions to a young person employed in a shop. This is for me a
great blow and disappointment, and I want you to clearly understand Mr.
Farrell's offer is made to you as an unmarried man. I cannot believe
your attentions are serious, but whether they are serious or not, they
must cease. The detective reports the pair of you are now the talk of
Fairharbor. You are making me ridiculous. I do not want a shop-girl for
a daughter-in-law and you will either give up her acquaintance or give
up Harbor Castle!
I am no believer in ultimatums. In attaining one's end they seldom prove
successful. I tore the note into tiny pieces, and defiantly, with Polly
in the seat beside me, drove into the open country. At first we picked
our way through New Bedford, from the sidewalks her friends waved to
her, and my acquaintances smiled. The detective was right. We had indeed
made ourselves the talk of the town, and I was determined the talk must
cease.
We had reached Ruggles Point when the car developed an illness. I got
out to investigate. On both sides of the road were tall hemlocks and
through them to the west we could see the waters of Sippican Harbor in
the last yellow rays of the sun as it sank behind Rochester. Overhead
was the great harvest moon.
Polly had taken from the pocket of the car some maps and guide-books,
and while I lifted the hood and was deep in the machinery she was
turning them over.
“What,” she asked, “is the number of this car? I forget.”
As I have said, I was preoccupied and deep in the machinery; that
is, with a pair of pliers I was wrestling with a recalcitrant wire.
Unsuspiciously I answered: “Eight-two-eight.”
A moment later I heard a sharp cry, and raised my head. With eyes wide
in terror Polly was staring at an open book. Without appreciating my
danger I recognized it as “Who's Who in Automobiles.” The voice of Polly
rose in a cry of disbelief.
“Eight-two-eight,” she read, “owned by Fletcher Farrell, Hudson
Apartments, New York City.” She raised her eyes to mine.
“Is that true?” she gasped. “Are you Fletcher Farrell?” I leaned into
the car and got hold of her hand.
“That is not important,” I stammered. “What is important is this: Will
you be Mrs. Fletcher Farrell?”
What she said may be guessed from the fact that before we returned to
New Bedford we drove to Fairharbor and I showed her the cottage I liked
best. It was the one with the oldest clapboard shingles, the oldest box
hedge, the most fragrant honeysuckles, and a lawn that wet its feet in
the surf. Polly liked it the best, too.
By now the daylight had gone, and on the ships the riding lights were
shining, but shining sulkily, for the harvest moon filled the world with
golden radiance. As we stood on the porch of the empty cottage, in the
shadow of the honeysuckles, Polly asked an impossible question. It was:
“How MUCH do you love me?”
“You will never know,” I told her, “but I can tell you this: I love you
more than a two-thousand-ton yacht, the interest on one million dollars,
and Harbor Castle!”
It was a wasteful remark, for Polly instantly drew away.
“What DO you mean?” she laughed.
“Fletcher Farrell of Harbor Castle,” I explained, “offered me those
things, minus you. But I wanted you.”
“I see,” cried Polly, “he wanted to adopt you. He always talks of that.
I am sorry for him. He wants a son so badly.” She sighed softly, “Poor
uncle!”
“Poor WHAT!” I yelled.
“Didn't you know,” exclaimed Polly, “that Mrs. Farrell was a Briggs! She
was my father's sister.”
“Then YOU,” I said, “are the relation who was 'too high and mighty'!”
Polly shook her head.
“No,” she said, “I didn't want to be dependent.”
“And you gave up all that,” I exclaimed, “and worked at Hatchardson's,
just because you didn't want to be dependent!”
“I like my uncle-in-law very much,” explained Polly, “but not my aunt.
So, it was no temptation. No more,” she cried, looking at me as though
she were proud of me, “than it was to you.”
In guilty haste I changed the subject. In other words, I kissed her. I
knew some day I would have to confess. But until we were safely married
that could wait. Before confessing I would make sure of her first. The
next day we announced our engagement and Polly consented that it should
be a short one. For, as I pointed out, already she had kept me waiting
thirty years. The newspapers dug up the fact that I had once been a
popular novelist, and the pictures they published of Polly proved her so
beautiful that, in congratulation, I received hundreds of telegrams. The
first one to arrive came from Cape May. It read:
My dear boy, your uncle elect sends his heartiest congratulations to
you and love to Polly. Don't make any plans until you hear from me--am
leaving to-night. FLETCHER FARRELL.
In terror Polly fled into my arms. Even when NOT in terror it was a
practice I strongly encouraged.
“We are lost!” she cried. “They will adopt us in spite of ourselves.
They will lock us up for life in Harbor Castle! I don't WANT to be
adopted. I want YOU! I want my little cottage!”
I assured her she should have her little cottage; I had already bought
it. And during the two weeks before the wedding, when I was not sitting
around Boston while Polly bought clothes, we refurnished it. Polly
furnished the library, chiefly with my own books, and “The Log of
the JOLLY POLLY.” I furnished the kitchen. For a man cannot live on
honeysuckles alone. My future uncle-in-law was gentle but firm.
“You can't get away from the fact,” he said, “that you will be my nephew,
whether you like it or not. So, be kind to an old man and let him give
the bride away and let her be married from Harbor Castle.”
In her white and green High Flier car and all of her diamonds, Mrs.
Farrell called on Polly and begged the same boon. We were too happy to
see any one else dissatisfied; so though we had planned the quietest of
weddings, we gave consent. Somehow we survived it. But now we recall
it only as that terrible time when we were never alone. For once in the
hands of our rich relations the quiet wedding we had arranged became a
royal alliance, a Field of the Cloth of Gold, the chief point of attack
for the moving-picture men.
The youths who came from New York to act as my ushers informed me that
the Ushers' Dinner at Harbor Castle-from which, after the fish course,
I had fled--was considered by them the most successful ushers' dinner in
their career of crime. My uncle-in-Law also testifies to this. He ought
to know. At four in the morning he was assisting the ushers in throwing
the best man and the butler into the swimming-pool.
For our honeymoon he loaned us the yacht. “Take her as far as you like,”
he said. “After this she belongs to you and Polly. And find a better
name for her than Harbor Lights. It sounds too much like a stay-at-home.
And I want you two to see the world.” I thanked him, and suggested he
might rechristen her the JOLLY POLLY.
“That was the name,” I pointed out, “of the famous whaler owned by
Captain Briggs, your wife's father, and it would be a compliment to
Polly, too.”
My uncle-in-law-elect agreed heartily; but made one condition:
“I'll christen her that,” he said, “if you will promise to write a new
Log of the JOLLY POLLY.” I promised. This is it.