A CHANCE FOR LOUIS
Contrary to our expectations, Zebedee did not tease us at all for
engaging board without knowing what it was. He said he was in thorough
sympathy with all of us for shying at the subject, and for his part he
was perfectly willing to trust the dear old ladies to do exactly the
right thing.
He blew in, his usual manner of arriving, while we were at luncheon, and
as we might have known, took the Misses Laurens by storm. The hereditary
pokers melted as if by magic and even Miss Judith succumbed to his
charms and promised to go to a moving picture show with him some night.
As for Miss Arabella: her poker was only an imitation one, anyhow, and
it did not take much to limber her up. It was rather astonishing,
though, to find her unbending to the extent that she and Zebedee sang
Gilbert and Sullivan operas together that evening in the garden, Zebedee
doing Dick Deadeye with his usual abandon and Miss Arabella singing:
"I'm called little Buttercup, dear little Buttercup,
Though I could never tell why--
But still I'm called Buttercup, dear little Buttercup,
Sweet little Buttercup, I."
"I wouldn't be at all astonished to see Miss Judith dance a jig after
this," whispered Dum to me. "Isn't our young father a wonder?"
He was certainly that. Professor Green looked on in envy and amazement,
still bitterly regretting the sugar-on-the-rice episode. It is a strange
thing what makes a "mixer." Professor Green was quite as kind as
Zebedee, and quite as eager to make people happy. He was as intelligent,
as well-bred, better educated, more traveled, but when the time came to
make old persons forget their dignity and years or make young persons
forget their youth and callowness, Zebedee certainly could put it all
over the learned professor. I remember hearing one of the twins say
that he could make crabs and ice cream agree, and surely I believe he
could.
"I have never met any one like him but once," said Mrs. Green as the
singers finished a duet from "Pinafore" and began humming some tunes
from "Patience," while Miss Judith sat smiling, and even occasionally
supplying a missing word. "I used to know a young newspaper man named
Jimmy Lufton, and he could keep a crowd happy and make the most
impossible people mingle and enjoy themselves. It is only a very
kind-hearted person who can do it, but of course, having a kind heart
does not mean you have that power."
"Thank you, my dear, for that," said Professor Green, smiling
whimsically if somewhat ruefully. "I remember very well how miserable
that very Jimmy Lufton made me on that hay ride we went on in Kentucky,
you remember, when it poured so that the creek almost carried us away,
four-horse wagon and all. He made everybody gay and happy but me. I was
so green with jealousy I almost sprouted."
Mrs. Green blushed one of her adorable blushes that always made her look
so lovely, we did not blame her husband for gazing at her as though she
were a ripe peach and meant to be eaten up that moment.
"If you girls go to New York to pursue your studies I am going to write
to Jimmy Lufton and send him a letter of introduction to you, that is,
if you would care to meet him."
"If he is anything like Zebedee, I should say we would!" exclaimed Dee.
"I don't mean he is like him in every way, but just that he has that
quality of mixing. I don't know how it is done. It is a talent as
elusive as that of a born mayonnaise maker. I have seen persons who
labored to have guests enjoy themselves, taking the greatest pains to
seat them a certain way and introduce subjects congenial to all present,
and still have the most dismal and doleful failures of parties; while
others seem to be perfectly haphazard in their methods, and with a
certain social charm make the lion and the lamb get on finely. The same
way with mayonnaise makers--some people can have the oil ice cold, the
eggs on ice for days, chill the bowl and the fork even, drop the oil in
half a minim at the time and beat and stir like the demented, and still
turn out runny dressing, not fit for axle grease. Others can waive all
precautions of having everything cold and pour in oil with perfect
recklessness, stirring leisurely, dump in vinegar or lemon at the
psychological moment with a pinch of salt and a dash of cayenne, and,
behold! a smooth, beautiful mayonnaise is the result."
"Speaking of lemons! Who's here?" from Dum.
It was his Eminence of the Tum Tum, in all the glory of a starched pique
vest, followed by Claire and Louis, both of them rather ill at ease in
their father's presence. Miss Judith introduced the paying and
non-paying guests with all the ceremony of a presentation at the Court
of St. James.
"Now I am afraid Mr. Tucker's mayonnaise is going back on him,"
whispered Mrs. Green to me; "I don't believe he and Jimmy Lufton
together could beat in that old man and make him into a smooth,
palatable mixture."
But I was betting on Zebedee.
Miss Judith and Miss Arabella were looking around for their pokers so
they could swallow them again, but Zebedee had hidden them, and with his
inimitable good nature and tact he drew old Mr. Gaillard into his
charmed circle. By some strange legerdemain he soon had the stiff old
man telling tales of Charleston before the earthquake. He drew from him
his opinion of the political situation of South Carolina and agreed with
him that it was a pity that politics was no longer a gentleman's game. I
happened to know that he felt it was the duty of every man to make it
his game, but he evidently deemed it not the part of wisdom to voice his
conviction to the old man.
We had agreed that we would do all in our power to make Mr. Gaillard
like us, as in that way we hoped to be of some use to Louis. Zebedee and
Professor Green had been discussing the boy quite seriously that very
afternoon, and had thought of several ways to benefit him. They had
decided, however, to make friends with the father first and not spring
their plans too suddenly.
Mr. Gaillard was evidently enjoying himself hugely. The Greens were most
flattering in their attention as he pompously recounted his tales. Mrs.
Green was looking her loveliest, and one could see with half an eye that
he soon began to direct his conversation to her. He pulled down his
starched vest that had an annoying way of riding up over his rotundity,
and smoothed his freshly shaven double chin with the air of being quite
a ladies' man. Tweedles and I drew Claire and Louis over to the summer
house away from their father's disconcerting presence. Their easy
manners returned then and we spent a merry, happy hour.
Professor Green joined us after a while. He seemed anxious to make
friends with Louis and to fathom the boy. I felt sure he had some plan
for helping him and was sounding him, in a way. Louis was natural and
simple in his attitude toward Professor Green, and I could see was
making a very good impression.
"You would like to go to college, would you not?"
"Beyond everything. I am prepared to enter college now, but I am
nineteen and feel if I do not go soon it will be too late. I am rather
late graduating at the high school but had to miss a year because of an
illness."
"I think nineteen is a very proper age to enter college," said the
professor kindly. "I wonder if you would like my old college, Exmoor? It
is a small college, but of excellent standing."
"I am sure I should like any college," and Louis sighed.
"I am commissioned by the faculty of Exmoor to find a young Southern
gentleman to take pity on a scholarship that has been endowed for their
college. It seems that this scholarship can only be used by a
Southerner, and he must be a gentleman born and bred. It was presented
four years ago by a man whose only son was rescued from drowning by a
daring young Southern boy. The father had more money than he could use,
and he wanted to send the brave youth to college to show in some measure
his appreciation of what he had done. To make the gift one that the boy
could not hesitate to accept, he established a permanent scholarship at
Exmoor. Of course no one is too proud or high-born to accept a
scholarship. That boy graduates this year with high honors after four
very creditable years at college, and now the faculty must find another
Southerner to fill his place. The president asked me to be on the
lookout for one while I am on this trip, and if you would like to take
it, I should be proud and gratified to be the means of presenting it to
you."
Through this long speech Louis stood wide-eyed and flushed. Claire
caught him by one hand and impulsive Dee by the other.
"Oh, sir!" was all he could falter.
"You must, you must!" exclaimed Dee.
"Louis, Louis, if you only can!" and Claire raised his hand to her
cheek.
"But what will my father say?"
"We are going to leave him to Mr. Tucker, at least he is going to
prepare the way. I have had a long talk with Tucker this afternoon, and
we have mapped out a plan of campaign."
"But your father surely could have no objection," said Dum. "A
scholarship is something that everybody accepts."
"But father is very--very--well--proud, I might say," and poor Claire
looked exceedingly uncomfortable.
"Well, this can make him prouder than ever," I put in. "He can be proud
that his son is chosen to have this scholarship because of his being the
nice Southern gentleman he is."
By this time Louis could command his voice, and he said:
"I can hardly tell you, sir, how much I appreciate the interest you have
shown in me and your kindness in making this offer, and I hope to be
able to accept it. I wish it might have been because of something I am
in myself, and not just because I am the descendant of gentlemen."
"But you are what you are partly because of that descent," I insisted.
"Persons of low extraction accomplish something in spite of it
sometimes; but I must say it is pleasant to have scholarships thrust
upon one because of being a Southern gentleman. I think in this day and
generation our ancestors do precious little for us--just sit back in
their gilt frames and make us uncomfortable--I am glad for some of them
to be getting to work."
Louis laughed and said he didn't know but that I was right. We all of us
wanted to hear more of Exmoor, and Professor Green told us it was a
small college, quite old and of excellent standing among educators, and
that it was in walking distance of Wellington, where he occupied the
chair of English. It turned out, however, that the professor was a great
walker, and that Exmoor and Wellington were more than ten miles apart.
"Exmoor has a very fine course in agriculture and one of the greatest
landscape gardeners in the United States is a graduate of that college,
and boasts that he got his start there."
"Oh, Louis, that will be splendid, and you can specialize in that and
come back to Charleston and do all the things you dream of doing!"
exclaimed Dee, who still had Louis by the hand but was totally oblivious
of the fact.
She was so excited over the offer Professor Green had made her friend
that she might even have hugged him without knowing she was doing it.
Louis was not quite so unconscious as Dee, but was making the best of
his opportunity. Dee's attitude toward Louis was very much one that she
had toward Oliver, the kitten she saved from drowning our first year at
boarding-school, a purely maternal feeling, looking upon herself as his
protector and elderly friend (being about two years his junior). Louis,
however, was tumbling head over heels in love with her, as Dum and I
could plainly see. There had not been many meetings, but when there were
he stuck much closer than a brother to her side.
Claire could see it as plainly as we could, and no doubt went through
all the heartaches an only sister would. She evidently liked Dee very
much, however, and was willing to efface herself completely if it would
make Louis happy. But Dee would have been quite as astonished if the
kitten, Oliver, had stood up on his hind legs and sworn undying love for
her; or Pharaoh's daughter, if the infant Moses had burst forth in
amorous rhapsodies from his wicker basket after she had saved him from
the waters of the Nile. She dropped his hand to pick up Grimalkin, and I
am sure at the time she had no more sensations about the one than the
other.
"If I might advise you young people," said Professor Green, "I think it
will be just as well to say nothing to your father yet about the
scholarship, but wait and Mr. Tucker and I will formally suggest it to
him and ask his permission."
Of course the young Gaillards agreed heartily with Professor Green, and
glad they were, no doubt, to have the office of approaching their
pompous relative delegated to someone else. In the meantime, the pompous
relative was making himself vastly agreeable, and the two arch
conspirators, Molly and Zebedee, were doing all in their power to
flatter and soft-soap him with a view to gaining his confidence and
putting in an entering wedge toward helping his son.
"Claire," said his Eminence of the Tum Tum, "have you extended an
invitation to tea in the garden of our home to the Misses Laurens and
their guests?"
We had joined the rest of the party, attracted by the gay laughter and
evident enjoyment of the older members.
"No, father," said Claire timidly. I haven't a doubt that he had told
her not to ask us until he found out whether we were worthy or not. "We
shall be most pleased to have all of you to afternoon tea tomorrow."
Of course we were most pleased to accept, as no doubt that would be the
occasion on which Louis' fate would be decided. Zebedee and the
professor could put it up to him then.
"Mrs. Green, I came mighty near hugging your husband tonight," declared
Dee, after the guests had departed and the dear old ladies had taken
their bedroom candles and gone to their Colonial couches, with strict
admonitions to Zebedee to lock up. Already they were trusting him with
that sacred rite of locking up.
"Why did you only come near doing it?" laughed the young wife.
"Well, I just grabbed Louis' hand instead. It was so dear of him to
think of giving the scholarship to Louis. He was so lovely and gentle in
his way of doing it, too. Now nothing lies between Louis and certain
success. I just know if he can get the chance he will do something with
himself. It will develop him to get away from his old father, too. How
could anybody grow with that--that ponderous weight on him?"
"Mr. Gaillard is really not nearly so bad as I feared. He is very
agreeable and very gallant."
"Oh, Molly darling, I did not think you would be taken in by flattery,"
teased the husband.
"But I did like him, not just because he flattered me, but because he
was very nice to Miss Judith and Miss Arabella, too, and because---- Oh,
just because!"
The truth of the matter was that Mrs. Green had a tendency to like
everybody. It amounted to almost a fault with her, but since there were
degrees of liking and she did not like everybody in exactly the same
way, we could not quite put it down as a fault. I must say, though, that
I do like to see a little wholesome hatred possible in a character. I
like people, too, lots and loads of people, but there are some kinds of
people I just naturally don't like. I don't like horse-faced people with
their eyes set up too high in their heads; I don't like men who wear
club-toed button shoes, and I never could stand girls who toss their
curls. Now Mr. Gaillard did not come under any of those heads of hatred,
but somehow I did not like him one little bit: a case of Dr. Fell, I
fancy.
"I do not like thee, Dr. Fell!
The reason why I cannot tell.
But one thing 'tis, I know full well--
I do not like thee, Dr. Fell."
Father had certain types he could not stand. I have heard him say: "I
can stand a fool; I can stand a fat fool; but a fat fool with a little
mouth I can't abide." I think Mr. Gaillard came under his ban. He was
fat and had a little mouth, and certainly while he was not a fool on all
subjects, he was a big enough fool on the subjects he was a fool on to
spread over all the things he was not a fool on.
I dreaded going to tea with the Gaillards. I had a terrible feeling that
I might "sass" his Eminence of the Tum Tum. There was something about
the way he pulled down his vest and wiped off his chin that deprived me
of reason. I could well understand the temporary aberration that is the
plea of criminals who say that some instinct over which they have no
control compels them to commit murder. I could have punched Mr. Gaillard
one with all the joy on earth.
"I feel the same way," declared Zebedee, when I voiced the above
sentiments to him.
"Me, too! Me, too!" tweedled the twins.
"Do you know, Green, I think if Mrs. Green likes Mr. Gaillard, she had
better broach the subject of the scholarship for Louis."
"Oh, Mr. Tucker! You can do it so much better than I can."
"Now I don't want to be a shirker and will do it with joy, as I don't
regard the old cove one way or the other. I'd just as soon ask him to
come be printer's devil on my newspaper as not. But this is the thing:
We want him to consent and let Louis have this chance, and I believe
your husband will bear me out that it is good psychology for a person
who really likes another to ask a favor rather than one who only
pretends to. Now you say you like Mr. Gaillard----"
"So I do--that is, I don't dislike him, and I think he has some fine
points."
"It would take an X-ray to discover them through all that plumpness,"
put in Dee flippantly.
"You, as the wife of the man who was commissioned by the President of
Exmoor to bestow this honor on a Southern boy, would be the appropriate
person, anyhow--that is, unless Green himself will do it."
"Not I! I feel toward him just as Miss Page does, and speaking of
psychology--my astral body is at war with his astral body to such an
extent that a pricking in my thumb tells me he will grant no request of
mine and Molly must bell the cat."
"All right! I am willing to do anything my lord and master puts on me,
if you really think I can succeed."
"Succeed! Of course you can!" we chorused.
"Tomorrow afternoon, then, when we have tea with them in their garden,
will be 'the time, the place, and the girl.' He will have to be nice
under his own vine and fig tree," suggested Zebedee.
"There is one thing I ask of you," begged Dum.
"And what is that? I feel myself to be very important," and Mrs. Green
wasted another beautiful blush.
"Wear blue! Your own blue! I know he is the kind of old man who can't
resist a beautiful woman in blue."