The Blairs met about the breakfast table next morning at the usual
time; a matter of four hours for sleep instead of eight would have
been insufficient excuse to Austen for further upsetting of routine;
and there was none of the chit-chat that would seem natural on a
morning following the giving of a large social affair.
Aunt Harriet was dumb and Uncle Austen tense, or so it seemed to the
third and youngest Blair about the board. She had been conscious of
sharp interchange checked as she entered. Uncle Austen even forgot to
look up at her interrogatively as she came in, though she was a moment
late.
Was the trouble still about the Major? Was Aunt Harriet determined to
go with him Friday evening?
Whatever the cause, Friday came, with the strained relations between
sister and brother unrelieved.
The town was in the midst of its social season, the Blair reception
being one of several crowding each other. On this Friday Harriet and
Alexina were to attend an afternoon affair, and later Alexina was to
go to an evening occasion with her uncle, who had consented icily, as
though to emphasize the fact that it was Harriet's engagement which
made it necessary for him to take the girl.
Alexina, coming down a little before five, found Harriet standing in
the parlour, ready, gloves on and wrap on a chair. To be young is to
be ardent. Not all youthful things are young. Alexina was young.
"You are beautiful, Aunt Harriet," she declared.
But it was as if Harriet did not hear. Was it premonition, that
strained absorption?
"A moment, Alexina," she was saying. "Listen, was that the bell?"
"John, probably," said Alexina, "to let us know the carriage is
waiting."
But it was Major Rathbone who came in upon them in his quick fashion a
moment later. His overcoat was a cape affair which somehow seemed to
suit his personality, and ever after Alexina could see him throwing
the cavalier-like drapery back with impatient gesture.
"You are not gone then, Harriet," he said; "I am glad for that."
Quickly as the words were spoken, the Harriet on his lips was not lost
upon Alexina. She turned to go, quite hot and with impulsive haste,
but the Major, putting out a hand, detained her.
"No, Miss Alexina; I'd really rather you would stay if you will be so
kind," he said, then turned to the older woman. "I have just had some
words with your brother on the club-house steps and I knocked him
down. I came on straight here, preferring you should hear my regret
from myself. I lost my temper."
He was facing Harriet, who had taken a step towards him at his
entrance, then had stopped. Looking at her he went on rapidly:
"There is this I want to say. Yesterday I thought never to have the
right to say it since I was too poor to ask you to listen. To-night I
came here to say that I love you from my soul, and near you or away
from you, alive or dead, will go on loving you and wanting you. Had
you been poor I would have fought like any man to make you care; as it
is I knocked your brother down for saying I was trying to do it
because you are rich, to further my political ambition. I knocked him
down for that, and for some other, older reasons. There is nothing
more to say; no, in the divine bigness of your nature don't think you
have to speak. I cannot come here any more, even if you would permit
me, after what has happened, and I can't expect you to go to-night of
course. But if ever I can serve you I am yours, soul and body, and
will be while there is life in me. That's all at last. What," as he
turned, "crying, Miss Alexina? For me? Or for him? I assure you there
was little hurt but his arrogance. Dare I ask you to shake hands?"
And he was gone in his abruptly quick fashion and the latch of the
outer door was heard clicking behind him.
It aroused Harriet and she came to herself. She was trembling, but on
her face was a look of one who has entered Heaven. Then it seemed to
come to her that he was gone.
"I must--oh, stop him, Alexina. He must know--"
The girl ran into the hall, but the outer door was heavy, and in her
haste she was awkward getting it open. As it gave finally the rush of
wind drove her inward. The steady rainfall of the day, freezing as it
touched the ground, had changed to finely driven sleet. The steps
glared with ice. But already the Major was at the gate, and through
the dusk she could see his umbrella lowered against the wind as he
turned and started up the street. She called after him impulsively,
beseechingly, but realized the futility of it through the fierce rush
of wind and sleet. John was just driving out the carriage-way from the
stable. Indeterminate, she closed the door and turned back to the
parlour.
Harriet had sunk upon a chair, and in her eyes, looking far off, was a
light, a smile, or was it tears?
She sprang up and turned, her face one heavenly blush, as Alexina
entered. Had she thought it would be he?
"Gone? Oh, Alexina, I must--I have to tell him. Ring the bell. John
must go for him. After what has happened I cannot stand it that the
knowledge should all be mine."
But she was already pulling the bell-cord herself, then turned to
Alexina blushing and radiant.
"I am thirty-eight years old, Alexina; I am not even young, and yet
he cares for me."
The bell had rung; both had heard the far-off sound of it, but no one
answered, maid or man-servant.
She rang again. "I had no time, the words would not come, I tried to
tell him," she said pleadingly to Alexina, as if the girl were
arraigning her, then suddenly dropped into the chair by the bell-cord,
and with her face in her hands against its back went into violent
weeping.
Alexina stood hesitant. There are times for silence. She would go and
find Katy.
But she met her hurrying from the kitchen towards the parlour, the
shawl over her head full of sleet and wet. She was panting and her
eyes were large. Alexina was vaguely conscious of the cook, breathing
excitement, somewhere back in the length of the hall, and behind her
some trades-boy, his basket on his arm, his mouth gaping.
"It's Major Rathbone," said Katy, panting; "John ran into him coming
out the carriage gate. The horses slipped and he had his umbrella down
and didn't see. I was coming from the grocery."
"Oh," said Alexina; "Katy, oh--"
Harriet had heard and was already in the hall and struggling with the
outer door. "I can't--it won't--oh, Alexina, help me!"
Katy had reached the door too, and put her hand on the knob. "They've
already started to the infirmary with him, Miss Harriet, John and that
young doctor across the street, before I came in. He told them to take
him there himself. He was half up, holding to the fence, before John
was off the box. 'Stop the doctor there getting in his buggy,' he
said to John, 'and get me around to the infirmary.'"
"And the doctor--what did he say?" demanded Alexina.
"He said 'Good Lord, man!' and he swore just awful at John being so
slow helping get him in the carriage."
Harriet all at once was herself, perfectly controlled.
"Go get me my long cloak, please, Katy," she said.
"Oh, Miss Harriet," from Katy; "you ain't thinking of goin' out--it's
sleetin' awful--without the carriage!"
But Harriet already had reached the stairs going for the wrap herself.
Alexina followed her. "What is it, Aunt Harriet?" she begged. "Where
are you going?"