Early in the morning I arose and kindled a fire and sat beside it,
waiting for my master to awake. The day was still and cold, and what
was unusual with us, a dark fog lay low on the land, like the skeleton
of night left hanging in the air of dawn. Master turned over and I
looked round at him. He did not notice me; he lay upon his back with
one arm under his head, his great brown eyes wide open, a graceful curl
of hair upon his classic brow. A piece of poplar kindling snapped--and
he looked at me.
"Dan," he said, rising up, and propping his shoulders against the
head-board, "what was it you said last night about John Marston?"
"I repeated what Miss May said; that she was going to marry him."
"Why, he hasn't been here very often."
"But that doesn't seem to have made much difference," I replied.
He smiled at me. "Love comes once and is ever present afterward," he
said, half musingly. And then rousing himself he added: "I am so
much pleased to know that she is beyond the artifices of that nimble
wolf that the prospect of her marriage with anyone else seems almost
a blessing. But I wonder what father will say. I don't know but that
he may look at it very much as I do, though I don't suppose he had an
inkling that Bates was striving to win her."
"And how about your mother?" I asked.
I was looking straight at him, and I thought that his face darkened. "I
could never understand her liking for him," he said.
"Neither can we understand a woman's liking for any man," I ventured
to suggest, and he laughed as he got out of bed. He pulled off the
snow-white counterpane and wrapped it about his shoulders, and stood
before me a Greek poet, ennobled with the pride of a conquered prize.
When we went down to the breakfast table, Dr. Bates was not in his
accustomed place, but Miss May was there and her face was as bright as
if nothing had happened. "I wonder why the doctor doesn't come on?"
said Old Miss. And then she turned to me: "Dan, step up to his room and
tell him that breakfast is ready."
"I object," Young Master cried, setting himself back from the table,
and Old Master gave him a sharp look. "Robert, what do you mean, sir?
Object to what?"
"Pardon me, sir," said Young Master, bowing. "I was thinking of
something else and didn't really know what I was saying. Yes, Dan, go
tell the doctor to come to breakfast. But here he comes now."
The doctor came in smiling. "Glad to see everyone looking so well," he
said, sitting down opposite Miss May and beside Young Master. "General,
you appear to have enjoyed a good night's rest, and madam, (speaking
to Old Miss) to look at you always takes me back ten years. I met old
Tom Marshal not long ago, and he told me that at one time you were the
most bewitching woman in Kentucky; and with captivating graciousness he
added that in one hand you might carry the cares of the present, but
that with the other you held up the glowing lamp of the romantic past.
And I must be permitted to fancy that Miss May stands as a reproduction
of your earlier days. Bob, how are you this morning?"
"A great man has said that one can be below as well as above flattery,
and I am one or the other; I shall not say which," Young Master
answered. Miss May smiled, Old Master pretended not to hear, but Old
Miss heard, and I thought that the wrinkles on her brow grew deeper.
The doctor laughed. "Let us say above, Bob."
"All right, sir; if you desire to be very near the truth."
"But," the doctor added, "let us not agree that you are above truth
itself. General, don't you think that his shrewd sophistry more than
ever fits him for the law?" And before Old Master could reply, Young
Master spoke up. "The law has kept abreast with all human advancement,
but I know of a profession that lags in disputatious ignorance, wagging
its head at a Harvey and denouncing a Jenner--bleeding the already
bloodless patient--"
"Robert!" Old Master cried, dropping his fork with a clang upon his
plate, "if you find it impossible to be agreeable, leave the table,
sir."
But Young Master was not to be thus driven away. "If I am disagreeable
I beg your pardon."
The doctor was laughing. "His words may be disagreeable to some ears,
but not to mine," he said. "There is truth in what he says, and that is
one of the reasons why I have practically abandoned my profession."
And then Old Mistress spoke. "And I am very sorry you have," she said.
"To heal the sick is the most noble of all arts--one that our Saviour
practiced."
"Greatly to the insult of the recognized medicine of His time," Young
Master declared.
Old Miss cleared her throat and was going to say something but the
doctor cut in ahead of her. "Yes," said he, "but it was the lawyers who
condemned Him to death."
I stepped back, expecting to see Young Master spring up in wrath, but
he didn't; and he was quiet in his answer: "And it was oratory that
spread the great news of redemption--the native force of Peter and the
cultivated grace of Paul. Yes, the men of the text book condemned Him
to death, but borne upon the eloquence that flew from the heart of
impulsive man, His name was carried to the ends of the earth."
I thought that the doctor gave him a look of admiration, but it might
have been a trick of his hypocritical nature. But Old Miss looked at
him proudly, and I saw a warm light glow in Old Master's eye; and this
show of respect for the young man influenced the doctor to change the
subject. "I am going to town this morning," said he. "Has anyone a
commission to give me? Miss May, can I bring you anything?"
"No, I thank you. I am going myself after a while."
"When did you stop calling her May?" Old Mistress inquired.
"I don't know when and I don't know why," the doctor made answer,
looking at the young woman. "I suppose it was when I discovered that
she had lost her sisterly regard for me, though I don't know exactly
when that was."
"Wasn't it last night?" Miss May asked, giving him a straight look.
But not in the least was he daunted by it. "Last night? Let me see,"
he went on, pretending to muse. "Oh, I don't know but it was. We had a
little dispute then," he added, turning to Old Miss. "But it was not
serious."
"What is it?" Old Miss asked, looking up at a house-maid who had just
entered.
"Mr. Marston is in the parlor," the maid answered. Miss May jumped up
and ran to her room to adorn herself for his reception, and the doctor,
following her with his eyes as she ran up the stairway in the hall,
could not conceal the dark bitterness in his heart. Old Master looked
on and was silent until Miss May had quite disappeared upon the upper
landing and then coming out of his muse with a sudden jerking of his
hand which lay upon the table, he said: "It appears to me that his
visits are becoming frequent, Madam."
Old Miss smiled, as I had seen her smile some time before when it was
incidentally mentioned by someone that the man Marston owned a large
sugar plantation in Louisiana. "Yes," she replied, "and for one, I must
say that I am pleased." And thereupon the doctor turned his head slowly
and gave her a searching look. "I mean it," she said, smiling at him.
But he did not smile in return; he rattled his fork upon his plate and
sat in silence. My young master was turned about so that I could see
his face. The sullen discomfiture of the doctor was pleasing to him,
and with a sudden motion of his hand, a forensic gesture which was now
unconscious with him (so surely was oratory taking possession of him)
said straight at Old Master:
"I don't see why so much import should attach to a few visits. One
might suppose that my sister had been living apart from social
influences when the fact is that young men have for years ridden from
the valleys and the knobs to call upon her. I hope you do not wish to
get her off your hands?"
Old Master was rolling a bit of bread between his thumb and finger,
a habit with him. And he looked up, still rolling it, and with a
mischievous light in his eye, asked if anyone had seen his daughter
posted for sale.
"I won't put up with such talk as this," Old Miss declared. "Robert,
you and your father would make me out a heathen. Offered for sale,
indeed. General, I am ashamed of you."
The old man rolled his bolus of bread and chuckled softly. "I don't
know," he said, his eyes blinking, "that anyone has tried to make
you out a heathen. In fact, I think you give strong evidences of an
advanced state of civilization. The heathen mother would be caught by
feathers and paint but it takes a sugar plantation to sweeten your
smile."
Young master roared and was still laughing when Miss May passed the
door on her way to the parlor. Old Miss was so furious that she would
not trust herself to say anything; her face changed from one hue to
another, and her eyes looked young with fire, but she held her peace,
with her teeth set upon her thin lip. It was now time for the doctor
to say something, and with the sympathetic smile of the scoundrel he
turned to her. "Nothing is too sacred to escape a man's joke," said he.
"Of course, the General meant nothing, but it gives me the opportunity
to say that of all mothers I have known, I think you are the noblest."
Young Master looked at him. "My mother needs no one to defend her
against a pleasantry uttered at her own board," said he.
"Tut, tut," Old Master cried, slapping his hand upon the table. "It was
all nonsense and should have been taken as such. Dan, tell Sam to get
my leggings and bring my horse round. I'm going to ride."
During the forenoon, though the air was sharp, I saw Mr. Marston and
Miss May walking about the place, along the banks of the smoking creek,
in the woods, where the cold birds fluttered; I heard them laugh, and
I saw him leading her by the hand as they strolled down the lane. Only
twice during the day did I catch sight of the doctor, once as he stood
leaning moodily against a tree in the yard, and later as he walked to
and fro near the stable, lashing his leg with a riding whip. Old Master
rode abroad and remained long away, and when he returned just before
the dinner hour, I heard negro Sam tell him that the doctor wished to
speak to him in the library. I know not what passed at the interview,
but I remember that as I went through the hall I heard Old Master say,
"It is a matter, sir, that should concern you very little. You may
regard yourself as a member of the family, but I am at the head of
the household, sir." I imagined that the doctor was advising against
Marston and that Old Master had thus shut him up.
That night Bob and I were in our room, studying an immortal oration,
when there came a tap at the door. The young man frowned at the
interruption and putting aside his book, went himself to the door.
"Come in," he said, stepping back stiffly. And the doctor entered. It
was the first time for years that I had seen him in that room and all
three of us felt the embarrassment of the visit. "Sit down," my master
invited, placing a chair for him. He took the seat, leaned for a moment
toward the cheerful blaze, then straightening up, remarked upon the
coldness of the night. Master said something in reply and I knew that
they were skirmishing; that something must soon follow--through their
politeness I saw a deadly hatred.
"How long does that man expect to stay?" the doctor asked.
"What man?" master spoke up, with an air of surprise.
"Marston, of course."
"Why of course?"
The doctor turned nervously, looked at me and said: "Will you please
move a little?" motioning with his hand, "You are too close to me."
"Dan," said master, "sit over there."
I went over to the window, the place where I had stood one night and
looked down upon a quarrel between Old Master and the doctor.
"Why of course?" master repeated.
"Thought you knew the man I meant."
"He and almost all other men had passed out of my mind, sir," said the
young man, leaning with his elbow upon the table. "There are times when
I don't think of man, but of what man has said."
The doctor coughed. "Don't you think there's just a little pretense in
all that--this learned abstraction?"
"If there's any pretense at all it is just a little. I know men who
have more than a little pretense."
For a time they were silent, listening to the crackling of the fire.
"But I didn't come to bicker," said the doctor.
"Didn't you? Have the revivalists brought about a change of heart?"
"I have come to tell you good-bye," said the doctor, graciously
overlooking my master's remark.
"Oh, to tell me good-bye? When do you expect to go?"
"Possibly to-night--surely in the morning."
"Expect to be gone long?"
"I may never return."
"You expect to be gone then some time?"
They looked at each other. "It would seem so," said the doctor. And
then he added: "I am going South."
"That's all right," said master. "It really makes no difference which
way you go."
"You are getting old enough to pass from annoyance to insult," the
doctor replied.
"Yes," said master, "one is supposed to progress."
"True," replied the doctor, "but premature progress argues premature
decay. Kentucky is full of the dusty shells of young hopefuls.
Sometimes at nineteen a boy gives promise of becoming a great orator;
at twenty-five he is a haggler--at forty, forgotten. I have known it to
be the case."
"Yes," said master, leaning heavier upon the table, "some men change
while others are always the same--with low instincts and only the
sharpness that appears to be the inheritance of the scoundrel."
I stepped forward. Master noticed me and motioned me back to my place.
The doctor did not even wince. He sat gazing into the fire. "I came to
make you a proposition," said he.
"All right. Let it be a short one."
"It will not take long to state it."
"Longer to get to it, I presume?"
"It's this," said the doctor. "You are going into the law and I have
no doubt that you will make your mark. I don't believe that you are
ambitious to acquire wealth, but I feel that you would like to hold
intact your father's estate. A part of the estate, you must know, will
fall to me. I don't suppose there will be money enough to satisfy my
claim, without a division of the land, so to avoid this, I will agree
to take a small amount in ready money as part payment, and Dan as the
remainder."
A cold shiver ran over me, not that I was afraid of the issue, but
because that man's determination to possess me was freezing my blood.
Master did not change his position, neither did he look up. He made
this simple answer: "When the time comes, you may take what belongs to
you, even to the estate itself. I will keep Dan."
"But I have consulted with your mother and I act upon her advice."
"You may take the estate when the time comes, but I will keep Dan."
The doctor got up. "Bob Gradley," said he, "when you were a child,
you toddled into my way, and now that you are nearly a man, you
persistently obstruct my path."
Master sprawled flat upon the table and laughed.
"Well, if this isn't gall!" he cried. "I was born on my father's
plantation to stand in your way." He got off the table and laughed as
he walked up and down the room. "Toddled into your way? And didn't my
mother apologize, and didn't my father try to make excuses for me,
doctor?" he said, facing about. "Doctor, the first light of reason that
fell upon my mind brought the knowledge that I hated you. Once I cut my
finger and looking at the blood, wondered if your blood were not black
instead of red. And I'd like to satisfy myself upon that point now.
Here, (tossing a pen-knife upon the table) prick yourself and let me
see if the ooze is not black. I'll bet it is, and what a proclamation
the devil could write with such ink, and with a pen made of a lizzard's
claw!" This idea brought back his mirth, and laughing he walked up and
down the room, the doctor's eyes following him with a sullen gaze.
After a time master came back to the table and sat down. "I am much
obliged to you for this entertainment," he said.
"Make the most of it," the doctor replied.
"Oh, I will; I have been known to make much out of poor material."
"And you have been known to make too much out of a negro that ought to
be in the corn field."
"Yes, more out of him than could have been made out of some white men."
"Look here, sir; do you mean to draw a comparison between me and that
negro?"
"Oh, no; not at all, and I beg your pardon for inadvertantly producing
that impression. I wouldn't go so far as that."
"I should hope not," said the doctor.
"Oh, surely not," master replied. "I am sometimes wild but I am never
frantic. I wouldn't compare you with Dan. I have too high an opinion of
him."
"I will not stand this!" the doctor cried springing to his feet. "No
gentleman in the State of Kentucky would put up with it and you'll have
to take it back or--" He took out his watch and glanced at it. "That
was the worst insult I have ever known, Bob Gradley, and I will give
you just five minutes to take it back."
"What time have you?" master asked, taking out his watch.
"Fourteen minutes of ten, sir."
"You are just a little slow. I'm fifteen. Fortunate that my derringers
are loaded--don't believe I could load them in five minutes." He pulled
open a drawer and took out two pistols. "And now," said he, "in the
event that I should drop off to sleep, wake me up when the time is out."
"Braggart," muttered the doctor.
I heard Old Master walking in the hall. Once he halted at our door--I
heard his hand upon the knob. I hastened to the door and opened it
and the old man stepped into the room. Young Master gathered up the
pistols and put them into the drawer, and the doctor snapped his watch
which he had continued to hold open in his hand. The antipathy that
lay between Bob and the doctor was felt by every member of the family,
and I saw the old General stiffen with surprise upon discovering the
doctor in the room, but he gave no mouth to his astonishment; he sat
down upon the chair which his son sprang up to give him, looked from
one to another of us, and rubbing his thin hands said that he had a
piece of news for us. The doctor, as if he already divined the news and
did not care to hear it uttered in words, hastily quitted the room;
and then Old Master, paying no attention to the abrupt departure of
his son-in-law, told us that he had given his daughter to the man from
Louisiana.