NEW HOPE
“Miss Sibby!” exclaimed the assembled party, in one breath, as they all
arose to welcome her.
“Oh, yes!” said the good woman, after she had shaken hands all around,
and had sunk breathless into the nearest easy chair. “It is all mighty
fine to cry out ‘Miss Sibby,’ as if you were overjoled at the sight of
me; but deeds speak louder than words, sez I. And them as runs away to
the city and leave me behind, sez I, and then pretends to be glad to see
me, sez I, is nothing but ‘sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal,’ sez I.
Yes, it’s you I mean, Sam Grandiere!”
“But, Miss Sibby, I didn’t run away and leave you, ma’am,” pleaded the
young fellow.
“And plenty of room in the carryall, too, as might have incommodated me
very well. The old saying sez as ‘Where there is a will there is a way,’
and I sez, correspondimentally, sez I, ‘where there is a way, sez I,
there out to be a will,’ sez I. Yes! I’m talking to you, Sam Grandiere.
You had the way to take me, but you hadn’t got the will.”
“Indeed, Miss Sibby, I didn’t know you wanted to come. I should have
been glad enough to take you.”
“Why didn’t you ask me, then? You might a knowed, soon as the news
reached our neighborhood as all the folks had come back from furrin
parts, and Gideon Grandiere among ’em, as I would want to come up and
hear news of my lad. But you run away and left me behind. And when I
found it out I just said to myself, sez I, I’ll just harness up my old
mule, sez I, and I won’t be long behind ’em, sez I. And so here I am.”
“How did you find us out?” inquired Capt. Grandiere.
“In the funniest way as ever you see. As I was a-driving slowly up the
Pennsylwany Avenue who should I see but that dog, Joshua, a-walking as
majestical down the street as if the whole city belonged to him. I
knowed him at once, and naterally looked to see who was along of him.
And then who should I see but that nigger a-walking down the street
behind the dog as if the whole country belonged to him, if you please.
So I stopped the mule and hollered to him. And the wust of hollering
after anybody on Pennsylwany Avenue is that everybody in hearing thinks
as you’re hollering after them. So everybody had to turn and look at me
and my mule. And the nigger stood and stared. And I had to holler after
him again to ax him where his master was a-putting up. And he come to
the side of the cart and told me, and axed me to let him get in and
drive me to the hotel, ’cause, he said, every one was a-staring at me.”
“And so Dickson drove you here, did he, ma’am?” inquired the old
skipper.
“He did. But as for the people staring at me, sez I to that nigger, if I
am a show, I’m a free show, sez I, and it will cost ’em nothing, sez I,
and it ain’t often as the poor white trash in the city gets a good
chance to stare at the descendant of the great duke, sez I, and you may
lay your life on that, sez I. So that nigger got in and drove the mule,
and Joshua marched behind as solemn as a funeral procession. And so we
got here. And now how is my boy? My adopted neffy? And where is he?”
“Roland is in good health. He is at present—ahem!—living on Capitol
Hill,” answered the old salt, who was unwilling at this juncture to
enter into explanations with Miss Sibby as to Roland’s real state.
“And why isn’t the boy staying here with you all?” inquired the old
lady.
“Oh, he—there is no room here. We are fearfully crowded. The four young
ladies have to sleep two in a bed, in a double-bedded room.”
“That’s ruinous to health. Why don’t you all go to some other hotel?”
“Because they are all more crowded than this.”
“Then what am I to do?”
“Oh, Sam and I are going out to hunt for lodgings now. We have to find
lodgings for my two nieces and nephew. We will hunt up a place for you
also. Of course, you will stay here to-day.”
“It is perfectly dreadful! If I had a knowed all this I’d a-never have
left home. I had room enough to turn round in there, anyways. When
people’s well off, sez I, they ought to be content, sez I. But how is
Abel Force and his wife and Odalite? I don’t see any of ’em round.”
“Mrs. Force is not well, and Mr. Force is with her, I believe. Odalite
went to show my two nieces to a room to take off their things,”
discreetly answered the old sailor.
“What’s the matter along of Elfrida Force?”
“Well—she——I really don’t know. Not much, I hope.”
“I know. It’s trotting around so much. There’s where it is. When people
gets to be past their prime, sez I, they ought to take care of what’s
left of them, sez I. ‘Dancing bears,’ sez I, ‘must pay for their airs,’
sez I.”
“What sort of a time have you had since the war began, Miss Sibby?”
inquired the old salt, with a view to take the visitor off dangerous
ground.
But he “fell from the frying pan into the fire.”
The old lady’s face flushed, and her eyes snapped.
“Don’t ask me what sort of a time I’ve had! Old Scratch’s own time! What
with being raided by first one party and then another, I have hardly a
sheep or a pig or a duck or a hen left on the place. And what with being
called a rebel by the Unioners and a traitor by the Confederers, I have
hardly a morsel of self-respect or Christian charity left in my heart.
And I haven’t a bit of respect for either party—not I! Clapper-clawing
each other like a pack o’ wild cats for nothing in this world, as I can
see, ’less it is because they haven’t got no furriners to clapper-claw.
If free people can’t live peaceable in a free, healthy, plentiful
country, sez I, the sooner they get the Turkey of Constantinople to rule
over them the better, sez I.”
“You seem to be excited, Miss Sibby.”
“So would you be excited if you had suffered all that I have. First
comes the Unioners and carries off all my pigs, and calls me a rebel
because I object. And then comes the Confederers and carries off all my
fowls, and calls me a traitor because I don’t see the right of it.
Unioners and Confederers! I calls ’em Blue Bottle Flies and Gray Back
Bugs, I do!”
“Oh, Miss Sibby!”
“Well, then, I do! I hain’t no patience with neither party! A cutting
and a slashing at each other like Injuns! Only last week a lot of Blue
Bottles come riding up and searched the house after a spy—as if I would
harbor a spy!—and after eating up and drinking up everything in the
house, and putting me in fear of my life, they mounted and rode away,
telling me ‘to take care of myself’! ‘Take care of myself,’ indeed;
after scaring me almost to death.”
“Oh, Miss Sibby! I am afraid you are no——”
Whatever he was going to say was cut short by the sudden opening of the
door, and the reëntrance of Odalite Force, escorting Mrs. Hedge and Miss
Grandiere.
“You here, Miss Sibby?” exclaimed the three ladies, in a breath.
“What the Blue Bottles and the Gray Backs has left of me is here, as you
see,” replied Miss Bayard, rising to receive the welcome of the new
arrivals.
“And now, Sam, my boy, we will go out hunting lodgings; and if we can’t
find them in the city we will even go a little way into the country,”
said the old skipper, as he arose and bowed himself out of the room,
followed by his nephew.
When they had gone, Lord Enderby, who had been left out of the talk, now
fancied himself out of place. So he likewise arose and bowed himself
out.
When the half dozen women were left in the parlor, they drew their
chairs together and fell into a confidential talk.
Miss Sibby inquired more particularly into the nature of Mrs. Force’s
illness; and Wynnette, with her brusque frankness, told the truth—that
the shock of hearing of Roland Bayard’s arrest and imprisonment, under
the charge of piracy, had made the lady ill.
Miss Sibby just stared with incredulous amazement.
“Roland Bayard! My Roland—charged with piracy? Why, it is all a funny
mistake, you know, that must soon be set right! And that old gay
deceiver, Gideon Grandiere, to go and tell me that he was boarding on
Capitol Hill, when he was in prison there! What did he do it for? Was he
afeared of scaring me about my own Roland? Why, Lor’, sez I, when I know
my boy is innocent, sez I, I know his innocence is gwine to shine forth
like the sun at midday, sez I, and make his accusers ashamed, sez I.”
Here it was felt to be right Miss Sibby should be told of the real state
of the case. And so she had to hear all about the taking of the _Kitty_
by the _Argente_; when the skipper and his mate were made prisoners by
the pirate, who set the former at liberty on the coast of Cornwall, and
kept the latter a captive on board the _Argente_; and then of the
capture of the _Argente_ by the _Eagle_, and the bringing of the prize
into port with the pirate captain and his first officer on board; and,
finally, the identification of the two prisoners as Angus Anglesea,
alias Capt. Silver, and Roland Bayard, alias Craven Cloud; and the
alleged paternal claim of the former upon the latter, which now closed
the lips of the claimed son from saving himself by testifying against
the self-styled father.
Miss Sibby’s eyes opened, her brows raised, and her chin dropped in
sheer horrified amazement.
“Why, them’s all lies!” she indignantly exclaimed. “Abel Force knows
they’re lies! Why don’t he go and tell the boy better? As to that
Anglesea a-turning out to be no Anglesea at all, no English gentleman at
all, and no military officer at all, but just a pirate, after being a
thief and a forger, I’m not a bit surprised at that. No more would I be
surprised if he was found out to be Old Scratch himself, allowed to come
on earth in the human form in these very bad times. But as for anything
going amiss with my boy on account of his being stuffed with lies about
that pirate being of his own father, it shan’t be done! Me and Abel
Force will put a stop to that! Abel Force knows who that boy’s father
is; and I have my suspicions. There shan’t be a hair of his head hurt!
Mind that!” said the old lady, shaking her head.
“Oh, Miss Sibby!” pleaded little Rosemary, clasping her hands
prayerfully, and raising her large blue eyes to the speaker’s face. “Can
you—will you—save Roland?”
“Abel Force can, and he will, or I’ll know the reason why!” replied Miss
Bayard.
For hours longer the conversation ran on Roland Bayard and the net of
circumstances that had caught him in this perilous false position.
They were still talking when the two gentlemen returned, and reported
that they had found comfortable lodgings for the travelers, who might
take possession of their new quarters that evening.
“Where is Abel Force?” inquired the captain, as they all went down to
luncheon.
“Papa sent word down that he did not need luncheon, but would join us at
dinner in the evening,” replied Odalite.
And they began the meal.
And meanwhile where was Abel Force?