OLD AUNT PATSEY.
Like a boy in his yearning to have Santa Claus come, I went early to bed
to force the dawning of another day. I resorted to the tricks that men
have employed to induce drowsiness; I counted sheep bounding over a
fence, a hundred, a thousand, until their number exceeded the
Patriarch's fold, and yet I lay there wide awake, with my nerves
starting at every noise, before it reached my ears. I strove to trace
the filmy thread that lies between consciousness and sleep, and I
fancied that it was a raveling from a rainbow, with one end in the
sunset, the other in the sunrise. I reached a place where the thread was
broken and now the world was dark, but, feeling about, I found the two
ends of the silken line, and put them together, and when they touched,
the world flashed up in a blaze of light--the sun was shining.
No exact hour had been fixed for the meet at the Senator's house, and I
was beset by the fear that a desire not to be early might make me late.
Common sense dictated a middle resort, but in my nervous anxiety I had
no common sense. Why so sensitive and timorous now when I had been so
bold a few days before? I had promised the negro preacher and myself
that this day should see the end of a relationship.
I set out earlier than the time I had fixed, expecting to loiter along
the road, to breathe sweet air beneath the roses that hung above the old
garden walls; but, giving no heed to the roses, I passed them hurriedly,
as a hasty reader skips a beautiful sentence in eagerness to snatch the
excitement of a closing scene. I passed the lamp-post and thought of the
negro's black hand, a knot on the iron; I came abreast of the old
chimney and the thicket, the lair of the goblins at night. And here I
halted to gaze at the Senator's house, the pillared portico, the cool
yard, the martin box on a tall pole, the magnolia garden. And now my
progress toward the gate was slow, with the minute and senseless
observation of little things; a bit of sheep's wool on a brier bush; an
old shoe half buried in the sandy drain beside the road; the heavy
gate-latch, made by a clumsy blacksmith; the uneven bricks in the short
walk between the gate and the portico; a stone and a shell on the step,
where someone had cracked a nut.
I was admitted by the negress whose motto was "suspicion." She gave me a
broad grin and nodded toward the parlor; and I heard strange voices and
laughter. Just as I reached the door, Mrs. Estell stepped out into the
hall. A magnolia bloom fell from her hand, and she laughed as she
stooped to pick it up, and when she looked at me her face was red,
though not with embarrassment, but with stooping, for she spoke and her
voice was deep and clear and her eyes were not abashed.
"Oh, you are just in time, Mr. Belford. I want you to meet some friends
of mine, and my aunt is here, too. I know you'll like her, she's so
queer."
I would have staid to ask her why she supposed me to be attracted by
queer persons, but she touched my arm, and as an automaton I turned
toward the parlor and stepped into the room, to meet Mr. Elkin, a frail
and timid-looking young fellow with plastered hair; Miss Rodney, a
pinkish creature of uncertain age, the "splendid catch" which Mrs.
Estell had set aside for me; and Mrs. Braxon, the aunt. She looked
queer, and I could not have denied that she interested me. She was very
tall, straight and stiff, with eyes that suggested a savage. Into her
aged mouth the artifice of the dentist had put the teeth of youth, and,
not yet accustomed to them, she imposed upon her lips the double
exertion of talking with her jaws shut.
"Well," she said, looking hard at me, "and you are the man that Giles
has been telling me so much about? But, conscience alive, he ought to
have something to talk of besides politics."
"You are his favorite sister, I believe," I replied, with the giggle of
Miss Rodney in my ears.
"Do you? Well, I married his brother, if that's what you mean."
"Is he living?" I inquired.
"Florence," she said, "it's strange that you haven't told Mr.
What's-his-name anything about me. Every time I come here I come as a
stranger, a rank stranger."
"Why, Aunt Patsey, I told him--"
"She told me a great deal about you, Mrs. Braxon," I put in, "but my
memory is, you might say, not good."
"Oh, yes, and I suppose Giles Talcom told you all about me, too; told
you that I was his favorite sister, didn't he? Well, it's all right.
Miss Rodney, what _are_ you giggling about?"
"Why, nothing at all, Mrs. Braxon," the young woman declared, growing
pinker. The old lady looked at Elkin, and he started and slammed his
knees together. I glanced at Mrs. Estell, and she hid her eyes from me,
afraid to laugh.
"Where do you live?" I inquired of the old lady.
"Up in the Tennessee hills, and every time I come down in this low
ground I want to get back. The laziest folks I ever saw in my life, and
the niggers ain't worth their salt. And the way Giles pets that black
preacher makes me sick, a-buying of his church bells to keep folks awake
at night. I'd make him chop down them good-for-nothing trees out there
and plant onions. That's what I'd do with him. Florence, where did Giles
go?"
"Why, he sent word over to the plantation to have his hounds brought
last night, but, somehow, the message wasn't delivered, and so he has
gone after them himself. We want to start from here--"
"After the hounds? Start where?"
"Fox-hunting."
The old woman cleared her throat with an ach, ach. "Fox-hunting? Is it
possible that he keeps up that foolishness? Chasing a fox, when there's
so much to be done in this world? I read in a paper yesterday that a
woman had starved to death in New Orleans, and here you all are, going
to chase a fox."
"Why, Mrs. Braxon," the young man spoke up, "we can't help that. If we
let the fox go it won't bring the woman back to life."
She looked at him and his knees flew together. "But you could be raising
something for folks to eat."
"Yes, ma'am, but we raise more now than we can sell."
She looked at him with a bow and a smirk of contempt. "More than you can
sell. Yes, of course. More than you can sell to a woman that's starving.
Yes, of course."
"But nobody starves to death in Bolanyo, Aunt Patsey," Mrs. Estell
remarked. "We take care of our poor; and it was a mere accident that the
woman starved in New Orleans."
"Oh, you do? A mere accident. Of course. Are you going to chase a fox?"
the old woman asked, with her eyes on Miss Rodney.
"I have been invited to go, and--"
"Of course. But, go on, and don't let anything I say prevent you. I
staid at home, year in and year out, and never went anywhere, while my
husband was a-galloping over the country, a-blowing of his horn and
a-chasing of foxes; and folks in a town not more than twenty miles away
were as hungry as they could be. But, after he died, I didn't stay at
home, I tell you. I went out and looked for hungry folks, and I fed 'em,
too. Talk to me about chasing a fox."
"Auntie," said Mrs. Estell, smiling upon the old lady, indeed,
approaching her and bending with graceful tenderness over her chair,
"you try to make people believe that you are hard to get along with, but
you are the sweetest thing. She snaps and snarls to hide the tenderness
of her heart, Mr. Belford."
"I do nothing of the sort. For goodness' sake, child, take your hands
off me. Stop fussing with me. Go over there and sit down. A body would
think that I'm so old that you are standing here ready to catch me when
I start to fall over. Go along with you!"
Mrs. Estell, laughing, pressed her radiant cheek against the widow's
whitening hair. "I like to have half tearful fun with you, Aunt Patsey,"
she said.
"Oh, you do. Well, get away and don't pretend that you think anything of
me. I have no money to leave you."
Elkin laughed. The old woman looked at him and he clapped his knees
together. "I--I--beg your pardon," he stammered.
"She's so delightful," said Miss Rodney, leaning toward me. "Quite a
character for the stage, papa says. And when does your house open?"
"Not before October," I answered.
"And not until he can get a good company," said Mrs. Estell, standing in
front of us. "I have enough interest in the house to demand that much.
Oh, there comes father with the hounds and I'm not ready yet."
She ran away, and though the sun was in the window, the room was darker
now, and a shadow seemed to lie where she had stood. We heard the
Senator's horn and the impatient cry of the hounds.
"I'd rather hunt a bear than a fox," said the young man. "I went with a
party of fellows down in the canebrake last fall and a bear killed four
dogs. Just grabbed 'em up like this (hugging himself) and crushed 'em.
Just broke their bones. Just grabbed 'em up this way and mashed 'em.
Didn't look like it was any trouble at all. Just--just squeezed the life
out of 'em. I had--I had a dog named Ring--great big dog--and he
grabbed him up this way, the bear did, and old Ring just gave one howl
and that was the end of it. Bear didn't appear to mind it. Just seemed
like he was enjoying himself, but we hadn't agreed to keep him in all
the dogs he wanted to kill, so we shot him."
"You did?" said the old lady, smirking at him. "Do tell. And you'd
rather stand there and see him kill those poor dogs than to chase a
fox."
"Oh, I--I don't mean that I like to see the dogs killed, Mrs. Braxon, I
mean I--"
"Would rather see a bear with his arms full of poor dogs than to chase a
fox. Yes, I know what you mean."
In came the Senator. He bowed to the ladies, cried "Ha!" to the young
man and seized my hand as if a year had elapsed since we parted.
"Belford, I've got a horse for you that can clear any fence in the
State."
"With me on his back?" I asked.
"Yes, I hope so. You can try, you know, and if you can't keep your seat
why you must fall as easily as you can. Sister Patsey, you look as
bright as a dollar."
"Go on with your blarney, Giles. I've got no dollar to leave to you."
"And bless your life, I'm glad of it. But it's time we were going.
Where's Florence?"
"Gone to get ready for your nonsense," Mrs. Braxon answered. "Oh, you
men! Not half of you are worth your salt."
"No," said the Senator. "And if there comes a time when men are worth
their salt and women are worth their pepper, humanity will be well
seasoned, eh, Belford? But we must be making a move. Elkin, help Miss
Rodney to mount, please."
"Yes, and I guess I've got to buckle my girth tighter," said the young
man. "Come, Miss Minnie, and let me help you up."
Just as they passed out there came a slow step down the hall. "Why, it's
Estell!" cried the Senator. "Why, hello, Tom, we didn't expect you for a
week. And, Sir, here's your Aunt Patsey."
Estell was carrying a cane in his right hand and he stuck out one
finger for me to shake. But when in the same manner he presumed to greet
the old lady, she stormed at him: "Look here, Tom Estell, don't give me
no one finger to shake. Andrew Jackson gave me his whole hand when I was
a child, and I want no one finger now. That's like it," she added, as he
put his cane under his arm and gave her his hand.
Mrs. Estell entered the room. "Why, you old surprise party," she cried.
He stepped forward, but, catching sight of her riding habit, he halted.
"What does all this mean?" he asked.
"Why, we were going fox-hunting, dear."
"You--you going?"
"Why, yes. You have never objected."
"But I do now."
"Very well," she replied, beginning to pull at her gloves.
"Tom," cried the Senator, "what the devil--I mean the deuce--is the
matter with you?"
And then Aunt Patsey broke out, jumping from her chair and shaking her
finger at Estell: "You are trying to smother the God-given spirit of
that child, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself. You hate to see her
run--you want to see her dodder about like an old man. What earthly harm
can there be in her going fox-hunting? Better men than you ever dared be
have chased foxes and have let their wives go, too. Don't you dare say a
word to me--don't you dare!"
Estell turned about and strode with sullen step to the foot of the
stairs, the Senator passing him without saying a word. I was standing at
the door, and I stepped aside to let Mrs. Estell pass, but she lingered
in the parlor, as if to speak to her aunt, as if, in truth, she would
put her arms about the old woman's neck; and I turned my back, to face
the State Treasurer, standing at the foot of the stairs. Our eyes met,
but he was silent, and I had nothing to say. Mrs. Estell came out into
the hall, but returned almost instantly to the old woman, and Estell
trod wearily to the upper floor. His wife came out, and she looked up
with duty's self-conscious smile.
"May I speak a word?" I asked. "Just one?"
"Two," she answered.
"I promised to read my play to you."
"Yes; and you will--"
"Not keep my promise."
We were walking slowly toward the stairway, she slightly in advance. But
now her feet were quick, until she reached the stair, and then she
halted, turned to me, and said:
"Mr. Belford, any man can make a promise, but sometimes it requires a
_gentleman_ to break one."
I had no reply to make; I was the interloper. I bowed to her, and,
snatching my hat from the halltree, I passed out upon the portico.
"Yes, I am mighty sorry," the Senator was saying to Elkin and Miss
Rodney, who sat upon their horses at the gate--"sorry as I ever was in
my life, but my horse stuck a nail in his foot and can hardly walk. Of
course I could get another horse, but take Felix out of the chase and
the whole thing falls flat. And my best hound is sick, too. Sometimes it
does seem that everything stands in the way. But we'll have it, now,
very soon. Get down, and stay to dinner. Ah, Belford, you going? Well,
I'll see you in a day or two."