A MATTER OF BUSINESS.
In the library, after supper, I waited for the Senator to introduce the
talk which we were to have on business; but he wandered off into a
political reminiscence of a day when a man found out what his
convictions were and then looked about for a chance to defend them with
his life. He told me, as comfortably he sat with his feet in the
slippers which his daughter had brought for him, that he could recall an
old fellow who wrote out his principles in blood drawn from his breast.
"Yes, Sir, and it created a big hurrah at the time. Copies of his creed
were sought after, in the original ink, and so many of them were sent
out that the suspicions of a young doctor were aroused. He calculated
that the amount of blood thus put in outward circulation would leave an
insufficient circulation within, though the body of the politician still
appeared to be strong and active. And it was then that a most startling
discovery was made. The rascal had not used his own blood, but a red
powder and the juice of the pokeberry. Well, Sir, this stirred up the
community from one end to the other; the people swore that they had been
defrauded, and they demanded that he should make good the counterfeits
or get out of the race. His circulating medium was not strong enough to
warrant the output, so he retired in disgrace. Yes, Sir. Belford, do you
know that I can see that fellow Petticord's hand every time I go to a
political meeting? I can. He is all the time trying to tunnel under me,
and it keeps me busy stepping about to keep from falling in. I am
afraid, Sir, that sooner or later I'll have to kill that scoundrel."
"Father!" spoke his daughter, turning from the window.
"I beg your pardon, Florence. I don't mean to kill
him--er--er--offensively, you understand, but, perhaps, necessarily. Of
course we are inflicted more or less as we journey through this life,
but I can't reconcile myself to the belief that we are called upon to
stand everything. Let us say that sometimes the devil giveth and the
Lord taketh away. Now, if I could only provoke him into a fight--I beg
your pardon."
Mrs. Estell had put her hand on his shoulder. She looked at me with a
smile, but the Senator glanced up to meet an expression of reproof.
"Provoke him into a fight?" she said.
"Figuratively, you understand. I wouldn't provoke him except
figuratively. But I don't see why my footsteps are to be constantly
dogged by that red wolf. Why doesn't he come out in his paper and give
me a chance? What are you going to do?" She had stepped upon a chair and
was taking down the foils. "Belford, I reckon you'll have to defend
yourself. I won't fight; I'm a noncombatant."
I fenced with her, having had some little experience, but she was too
quick and too skillful for me. The Senator laughed, and his face was
aglow with pride to see her drive me into a corner, where I was willing
enough to surrender.
"He isn't strong enough yet," she said, in excuse of my defeat.
"Oh, yes, he is," the Senator cried. "He's as strong as a deck hand, but
he hasn't the skill. Just feel of that girl's arm, Belford. Don't be
afraid of her--she won't hurt you."
I put my hand on her arm, so round and firm, so warm through the gauze
sleeve she wore; and I thought it well for me that neither the father
nor the daughter observed my agitation.
A negro came to tell the Senator that a Mr. Spencer wanted to speak to
him at the gate. "Politics," said the law maker, as he took up his hat.
"And that fellow wouldn't get off his horse to meet the President. Stay
right where you are till I come back, Belford. I want to have a talk
with you--on business."
He went out and Mrs. Estell sat down in his armchair. Her face was
flushed and her eyes were a delight to behold.
"I'll be glad when this miserable campaign is over," she said. "It
upsets everything, spoils our evenings, and bores everybody that comes
to the house."
"It doesn't bore me," I replied.
"No; I gave him his orders not to talk politics to you."
"That's a compliment, surely."
"Oh, I don't know. I told him he ought to see that you didn't understand
the political situation. And after he'd converted you he was willing
enough to grant you freedom. Mr. Belford, why haven't you told me more
about yourself?"
And this gave me the opportunity to ask her why she had not told me more
about herself, her days of romance.
"I have had no such days," she said. "I was born here and I live here
and that is all. But you have been everywhere; you came from an old and
poetic country."
"And you," I replied, "have always lived in a poetic country."
"No, dreamy and visionary, but hardly poetic. Poetry means action and
adventure. You have never told me about _her_?"
"Her? What her do you mean?"
"Oh, any her. There must have been one."
"No; I can't recall one."
"Really? And you so sentimental?"
"I'm not sentimental. A sentimentalist would tint the truth while I
would rather view it in its natural color, be it dun or even black. Do
you believe we ought to be held responsible for everything?"
"Yes, nearly everything."
"But suppose a man forgets to lock the door of his heart, and a woman
out in the dark, feeling about, accidentally lifts up the latch and
comes in. She is pure and innocent and she does not know that she is
warming herself at the hearth of a heart. Ought he to put her out and
shut the door?"
"No, he should make the fire still warmer and brighter, if she has come
out of the cold and the dark."
"But suppose her lawful place is beside another fire?"
"Then she would not stray from it."
"But say that she is walking in her sleep?"
"She would run away as soon as she awakes."
"Ah, but suppose she does not awake. Should he put her out?"
"I--I don't know. He must not leave his door unlocked--he should--should
even bar his windows."
We heard the Senator coming down the hallway and were silent. "Now what
do you reckon that fool fellow wanted? Well, Sir, it beats anything.
Told me that he had named a boy for me--said that it ought to be worth
five dollars and a barrel of flour. Why, dog my cats--beg your pardon
(bowing to Mrs. Estell). But I say, if it were to get out--no, keep your
seat, I'll sit over here--get out that I am giving five dollars and a
barrel of flour for each boy named for me, why, I'd be broke in six
months. A long time ago a yellow-looking chap from the swamps came to
tell me that he had given my name to as fine a boy as the country ever
saw. I was a little easier flattered in those days than I am now, and it
tickled me mightily; and what did I do but give the fellow a
twenty-dollar gold piece. Well, Sir, about six months after that he went
to a friend of mine, a candidate to fill an unexpired term of county
clerk, and declared that he had just named a splendid specimen of a boy
for him. And now what do you suppose we found out? The villain changed
that boy's name every time a campaign came along. Yes, Sir, and he was
about ten years old when he was given my name."
"By the way, there was something you wanted talk to me about," I said,
to remind him that the hour was growing late. "Something on business, I
understood you to say."
"Yes, but there's plenty of time. Let me see, now, what it was I had on
my mind. Something I wanted to say about--well, Sir, it has escaped me."
"Then it couldn't have been very important," said Mrs. Estell.
"It couldn't, eh? Now that's where you are wrong. In this life we are
prone to forget the most important things. My old grandfather used to
forget his wife when she went visiting with him, and go on home without
her. But come to consider more closely, it wasn't exactly a business
matter I wanted to talk to you about, Belford. I wanted to tell you that
day after to-morrow we'll go fox-hunting. I sent over to the plantation
to have the hounds put in good condition, and they'll be ready for us.
Ever ride after the hounds?"
"Only in a mimic chase--a bag of anis-seed."
"Oh, what nonsense! Do you know what ought to be done with a man that
would get up such a disgrace on the greatest of all sport? Ought to be
deprived of his citizenship, his vote; and I don't know of anything much
worse than that. Now, you be here day after to-morrow morning, and I'll
show you what it is to live like a white man."
He was so earnest and so set in his conviction that no work, however
important, should be permitted to stand as a stumbling-block in the road
leading to the field of this essential sport, that I yielded, but
reluctantly, until Mrs. Estell dropped a word of persuasion, and then I
could not have found the moral nerve to urge even the most courteous
objection.
When I took my leave, soon afterward, the Senator walked out with me,
through the gate and down the road; and when he halted to turn back, I
looked round and saw Mrs. Estell standing on the portico, with a lamp
held aloft to light his way.