_The Englishman's Check_
An hour later I found Fitz flat on the grass under one of the
apple-trees behind the house, completely broken up by the discoveries
of the morning.
After all his work, here was the colonel worse off than ever. Nobody
could tell what a woman would do. Aunt Nancy was better than the average
(Fitz was a bachelor), but then she had peculiar old family notions
about selling land, and ten chances to one she would not sell a foot
of it, and there right in the house sat a man with his pocket full of
blank checks, any one of which was good for a million of pounds
sterling. Even if she did sell it, she would pension the dear old
fellow off on a stipend instead of an establishment. He wanted somebody
to dig a hole and cover Fitzpatrick up. Anybody could see that the
railroad scheme was deader than a last year's pass, the farm hopeless,
and the house fast becoming a ruin. It was enough to make a man jump
off a dock.
Fitz's tirade was interrupted by Chad, who appeared with a message.
The colonel wanted everybody in the library.
When we entered, the judge occupied the head of the table, surrounded
by law papers, all of which were opened. The agent was bending over
him, reading attentively, and entering extracts in his notebook. Every
one became seated.
"Mr. Fitzpatrick," said the agent, "I have spent an hour with Judge
Kerfoot going over the title of this property, and I am prepared to
make a proposition for its purchase. I have reduced it to
writing,"--picking up a half-sheet of foolscap from the table,--"and
I submit it to the owners through you."
Fitz read it without changing a muscle, and handed it to the colonel.
Yancey and the judge craned forward to catch the first syllables.
The colonel read it to the end, getting paler and paler as its meaning
became clear, and then, with a certain pathos in his voice that was
childlike, it was so genuine, said:--
"If this is accepted, I presume, suh, you will not look any further
into my road?"
"You are right. My instructions cover only the purchase of this deposit.
I have room for only one operation."
The colonel rose from his chair, steadied himself on the low
window-sill, and looked out across the Tench. The silence was
oppressive--only the ticking of the clock in the next room and the
bees among the flowers outside.
"Wait until I return," he said, crumpling the paper.
In a moment he was back, leading in his aunt by the hand. Miss Nancy
entered with a half-puzzled look on her face, which deepened into
certain anxiety as she began to realize the pronounced formality of
the proceedings. The colonel cleared his throat impressively.
"Nancy, an investigation begun in New York by my dear friend Fitz, and
completed here to-day, results in the discov'ry that what you have
always considered as slight outcroppin's of coal, and wuthless, is
really of vehy great value." The colonel here unbuttoned his coat, and
threw out his chest. "A syndicate of English capitalists have, through
our guest, offered you the sum of one hundred thousand dollars for the
coal-hill, with a royalty of ten cents per ton for every ton mined
over a certain amount, one thousand dollars to be paid now and the
balance on the search of title and signin' of the contract. I believe
I have stated it correctly, suh?"
The agent bowed his head, and scrutinized Miss Nancy's face with the
eye of a hawk.
The dear lady sank into a chair. For a moment she lost her breath.
Yancey handed her a fan with a quickness of movement never seen in him
before, and the colonel continued:--
"This will of course still leave you, Nancy, this house and about half
of the farm property transferred to you by me at the fo'closure sale."
The little woman looked from one to the other in a dazed sort of way,
and her eye rested on Fitz.
"What shall I do, Mr. Fitzpatrick? It seems to me a grave step to sell
any part of the estate."
Fitz blushed at the mark of her confidence, and said that with the
royalty clause he thought the proposition a favorable one.
"And you, George?" turning to the colonel.
The colonel bowed his head. He must advise its acceptance.
"When do you want an answer, sir?"
"To-day, Madam," said the Englishman, who had not taken his eyes from
her face.
"You shall have it in half an hour," she said gently, then rose hastily,
and left the room.
I looked at the colonel. Whatever great wave of disappointment had
swept over him when his own idol was broken, there was no trace of it
in his face. Even the change this sudden influx of wealth into the
family might make in his own condition never seemed to have crossed
his mind. He did not follow her. He simply waited. Between his own
plans and his aunt's good fortune there was but one course for him.
The room took on the whispered silence of a court awaiting an overdue
jury. Fitz was still incredulous and still anxious, saying to me in
an undertone that he felt sure she would either refuse it altogether
or couple it with some conditions that the agent could not accept;
either would be fatal. Yancey and the judge, who had been partly
paralyzed at the rapidity of the transaction, conferred in a corner,
while the agent proceeded to make a copy of the proposition with as
much composure as if he bought a coal-mine every day. The colonel sat
by himself, his chair tilted back, his eyes half closed.
In the midst of this uncertainty Chad entered with a message. "Miss
Nancy wants de colonel." In five minutes more he entered with another.
Miss Nancy wanted Fitz and me.
We followed the old servant up the winding staircase and down the long
hall, past the old-fashioned wardrobe and the great chintz-covered
lounge, waited until Chad knocked gently, and entered the dear lady's
bedroom.
She sat near the window by the side of the high post bedstead, rocking
gently to and fro. The colonel was standing with his back to the light,
coat open, thumbs in his armholes, face beaming.
"I sent for you," she began, "because I want you both to hear my answer
before I inform the agent. The land only was mine, and but for your
love and devotion to the colonel would still be a wild hill. The coal,
therefore, belongs to him. Go and tell the Englishman I accept his
offer. The land and all the coal I give to George."
* * * * *
When, an hour later, the transaction was complete, the receipts and
preliminary contracts signed, and the small, modest-looking check--the
first instalment--had been transferred from the plethoric bank-book
of the agent to the narrow, poverty-stricken pocket of the colonel,
and the fact began to dawn simultaneously upon everybody that at last
the dear old colonel was independent, an enthusiasm took possession
of the room that soon became uncontrollable.
Fitz caught him in his arms, and began hugging him in a way that
endangered every rib in his body, calling out all the time that he had
never felt so good in all the days of his life. Yancey and Kerfoot,
who had stood one side appalled by the magnitude of the sum paid, and
who during the signing of the papers had looked at the colonel with
the same sort of silent awe with which they would have regarded any
other potentate rolling in estates, mines, and millions, broke through
the enforced reserve, and exclaimed, with an outburst, that the South
was looking up, and that a true Southern gentleman had come into his
own, the judge adding with emphasis that the colonel had never looked
so much like his noble father as when he stooped over and signed that
receipt. Even the Englishman, hard, practical fellow that he was,
congratulated him on his good fortune in a few short words that jumped
out hot from his heart.
With this atmosphere about him it is not to be wondered that the colonel
lost the true inwardness of the situation. The fact that his aunt's
boundary line included every acre of valuable land on the plantation,
while his own poor portion only bordered the Tench, was to him simply
one of those trifling errors which sometimes occur in the partition
of vast landed estates. And although when the gift was made he felt
more than ever her loving-kindness, he could not now, on more mature
reflection and after hearing the encomiums of his friends, really see
how she could have pursued any other course.
And yet, with the sale accomplished and he rich beyond his wildest
dreams, he was precisely the same man in bearing, manner, and speech
that he had been in his impecunious days in Bedford Place. He was rich
then--in hopes, in plans, in the reality of his dreamland. He was no
richer now. The check in his pocket made no difference.
The only perceptible change was when he recounted to me his plans for
the restoration of the homestead and the comfort of its inmates. "I
shall rebuild the barns and cabins, and lay out a new lawn. The
po'ch"--looking up--"needs some repairs, and the ca'iage-house must
be enlarged. The coaching days are not over yet, Major; Nancy must
have"--
Chad, entering with a luncheon for the exhausted circle, diverted the
colonel's train of thought, cutting short his summary. For a moment
he watched his old servant musingly, then following him into the next
room he called him to one side, and with marked tenderness in his
manner unfolded the Englishman's check.
The old servant put down the empty tray, adjusted his spectacles, and
examined it carefully.
"What's dis, Marsa George?"
"A thousand dollars, Chad."
"Golly! Monst'ous quare kind o' money. Jes a scrap. Ain't big enough
to wad a gun, is she? An' Misser Englishman gib ye dis for dat ole
brier patch?"
Chad was trembling all over, full to the very eyelids.
The colonel held out his hand. The old servant bent his head, his
master's hand fast in his. Then their eyes met.
"Yes, Chad, for you and me. There's no hard work for you any mo', old
man. Go and tell Henny."
That night at dinner, Fitz on the colonel's right, the Englishman next
to aunt Nancy, Kerfoot, Yancey, and I disposed in regular order, Chad
noiseless and attentive, the colonel arose in his chair, radiant to
the very tip ends of his cravat, and, in a voice which trembled as it
rose, said:--
"Gentlemen, the events of the day have unexpectedly brought me an
influx of wealth far beyond my brightest anticipations. This is due
in great measure to the untirin' brain and vast commercial resources
of my dear friend Mr. Fitzpatrick, who has labored with me durin' my
sojourn Nawth in the development of these properties, and who now,
with that unselfishness which characterizes his life, refuses to accept
any share in the result.
"They have also strengthened the tie existin' between my old friend
the major on my left, who oftentimes when the day was darkest has
cheered me by his counsel and companionship.
"But, gentlemen, they have done mo'." The colonel's feet now barely
touched the floor. "They have enabled me to provide for one of the
loveliest of her sex,--she who graces our boa'd,--and to enrich her
declinin' days not only with all the comforts, but with many of the
luxuries she was bawn to enjoy."
"Fill yo' glasses, gentlemen, and drink to the health of that greatest
of all blessings,--a true Southern lady!"