"Miss Kent, it is quite evident that you do not approve of us."
"Will you be so kind as to explain to whom 'us' refers?"
"Our great social world, including government, congressional and
diplomatic circles, club life, and all that 'progress' stands for.
Instead of moving abreast with the 'advance' current, you have drifted
aside into an eddy as contracted, as pitiably narrow as--pardon me, we
emancipated new women dare now to speak the brazen truth--as narrow as
the hands and feet you Southerners boast as sign of aristocratic blood."
Eglah lifted her grey-gloved hand, examined its outlines critically, and
placed it within a few inches of the broad, thick palm which Ethelberta
Higginbottom had laid on her own lap as she sat in the gallery of the
Senate chamber.
"Thank you very much, Miss Higginbottom. It is traditional in my family
to admire slender fingers, but we are not so intolerant as to deny
others the privilege of occupying as much space as their digits can
cover, and we never brand people as absolutely disreputable because they
wear number six shoes and number seven-and-a-half gloves. If degrees of
latitude determine the height of insteps, what manifest injustice has
been meted out to longitudinal lines that you Westerners so proudly
claim? Probably you have forgotten that my father is from New England,
and he owns a silver caddy--two hundred years old--that was empty at one
time because 'fish drank tea in Boston harbor.'"
"Oh, but your mother was Southern and you represent not heredity, but
sheredity, a sociological factor of immense potency, which must be
reckoned with, let me tell you, in the near future, when women fully
emancipated come to enjoyment of all the rights so long withheld from
them. Then mothers, and not fathers will wield the destiny of this great
country; and already female colleges are fast spreading the blessed
gospel of free and equal rights. Last week some one asserted that you
were a graduate of ---- College, but I contradicted it flatly, as
impossible and absurd."
"I am sorry I do my dear _Alma Mater_ such lamentable discredit; but,
unfortunately, we were not taught to wear our diplomas on our hats as
advertisements of scholarship."
"You certainly amaze me!"
"Perhaps you will excuse my frankness in assuring you that sensation at
least is mutual."
"With your educational advantages, to lock up your mind in a stockade of
provincialism! Desectionalize yourself!"
"May I ask whether you spell your last verb with an x or a ct? I should
prefer first to ascertain which process is demanded of me."
"Your Southern bigotry is a mill-stone around your neck. The very word
'emancipation' is a red rag to old slaveholders and their progeny. You
never can forgive us for breaking the shackles of groaning millions held
in bondage."
Eglah laughed.
"Pardon me, but it certainly is ludicrous that one possessing your
'broad culture and desectionalized' horizon of thought should really
believe in that old worn-out 'raw-head and bloody-bones' figure of
speech which has done duty so long. It surely is entitled to decent
interment where all dilapidated scarecrows cease from troubling. We
Southern people no more want our negroes back as slaves than you desire
the return of hordes of Indians whom you so completely dispossessed of
their native lands in your 'wild and rapacious West,' and whom a 'white,
fatherly' government is rapidly reducing to extinction by its beneficent
agencies. The white South is 'emancipated' from the moral responsibility
of elevating the black race now so happy in 'national' tutelage, where
their guardians taught them the system of bookkeeping and all the subtle
processes of the 'Freedmen's Bureau.'"
"How lonely you must feel in Washington. You have no more regard for the
rights of your own sex than for--" She stammered and coughed.
"Indeed, I have the most affectionate and jealous regard for every right
that inheres in my dower of American womanhood. I claim and enjoy the
right to be as cultured, as learned, as useful, and--if you please--as
ornamental in society and at home as my individual limitations will
permit. I have no wrongs, no grievances, no crying need to usurp lines
of work that will break down the barriers God set between men and women.
I am not in rebellion against legal statutes, nor the canons of
well-established decency and refinement in feminine usage, and, finally,
I am so inordinately proud of being a well-born Southern woman, with a
full complement of honorable great-grandfathers and blue-blooded,
stainless great-grand-mothers, that I have neither pretext nor
inclination to revolt against mankind."
"Miss Kent, you have rather pretty eyes, but you are so steeped in
Southern--what do you call it--_dolce far niente_, or _laissez faire_,
or semi-stagnation of soul that you are too lazy to open them wide
enough to see the thrilling vista of woman's triumph that illumines----"
"Thank you; my much flattered eyes are sufficiently open at this moment
to perceive the behavior of that nondescript creature in feminine
garments who is flirting so undisguisedly with Senator Smallweed yonder,
on your right; one of the early emancipated--an advanced lobbyist."
"You mean that piquant, charming little Mrs. Morrison? Dear soul! She is
a pathetically tragic object lesson. Had to get a divorce from a brutal
husband and become a bread-winner. Why should not women lobby? They are
so nimble witted, nature fitted them admirably for such work."
"And gave them the adroitly nimble fingers to fit the pockets they
pick."
"That is some cowardly man's cruel slander. My creed is always to defend
my own sex; it is only Christian charity and genuine feminine justice."
"Provided it be not merely lax morality. Sometimes the distinction is
not clear to very 'advanced,' zealous people."
"At least your father does not share your narrow harshness. He and Mrs.
Morrison are quite 'chummy,' and I happen to know he sees her often."
"How could he avoid it? Shoals of sharks swim in Washington, and since
your friend belongs to the 'emancipated' variety, doubtless she indulges
an 'elective affinity' for the largest senatorial prey in sight, and
hungrily shadows him. Yesterday that 'Bison Head' bill she is working
for came to grief in committee, and will be buried to-day. Even sharks
occasionally miss a meal."
"Oh, you are not up to date! Before the decision was announced one of
the committee weakened, asked for reconsideration; another hurried
meeting was held last night, and the bill will not be reported this
session. Not killed you understand, just tenderly pigeon-holed, securely
wrapped up in parliamentary camphor to scare away opposition moths, and
allowed to sleep while its pretty guardian angel has another session in
which to smooth the way for its final passage."
At this moment a messenger boy brought a note to Miss Higginbottom, and
Eglah rose.
"You do not suspect who the _weakening_ member was?"
"If I cared to ask, I dare say your fair _divorcee_ friend would be able
to enlighten me, but the petty political schemes engineered by lobbyists
do not interest me."
"One moment, Miss Kent. You did not come to my _musicale_. I have only
one olive twig left. We entertain a few friends to-morrow night in honor
of a famous Western woman, who will lecture next season on 'Civic
Problems,' for the purpose of raising money to build a vast, up-to-date
club temple, where women can proclaim their views on female right to
suffrage and expansion. May I have the pleasure of presenting you?"
"You are very kind, Miss Higginbottom, but as we leave Washington at the
end of the week, I regret that I shall not have time for any new
engagements. Pray accept my thanks for several courtesies."
"I used to wonder why you are so unpopular, but it soon ceased to be a
mystery, and it will be no sacrifice to you to give up Washington, in
retiring from public life. When Senator Kent formally resigns--as is the
burden of a little bird's song that utters no false notes--he will,
doubtless, consign you to a more congenial circle of friends."
"In saying good-bye, I shall find some solace in the assurance that at
least you will not mourn inconsolably because of my final departure.
Please present my best wishes to Mrs. Higginbottom, who has shown me
much kindness, and whom I may not be able to see again. Good-bye."
She stood a few seconds, smiling mischievously into the florid face of
the large-featured woman of most certain age, whose light-yellow eyes
flashed back unmistakable malice, then, amid the roar of applause that
greeted the peroration of a white-haired senator in the chamber below,
she quietly stole out of the Capitol, and sought a favorite corner of
the Smithsonian grounds.
Walking slowly, she asked in a spirit of self-chastisement why she had
allowed waspish stings to provoke a retaliatory tone, at variance with
that cool repose of well-bred urbanity and imperturbable courtesy on
which she prided herself; and was not the condescension of retort an
unladylike and mortifying weakness?
Now and then come radiant days when a noon sun shines hot, and no
faintest film flecks the stainless blue, yet one grows vaguely conscious
of waning brightness, and gradually the horizon blanches to a deadly
grey, while leaden clouds creep into view like spectral fingers of some
vast hand groping across the sky to smother the sun. Shadows projected
by the invisible unnerve natures that fearlessly face tangible,
well-defined danger, as 'the sallow, weird light preceding an eclipse is
more menacing than its total darkness, where friendly stars still
shine.' For Eglah, the clock of fate had begun to chime that _mauvais
quart d'heure_ which Mrs. Maurice had known would inevitably overtake
her, and the preliminary whirring of the hidden cogs had found her
unprepared. Blind faith in her father's sagacity, political
steadfastness, and incorruptibility, had built a pedestal from which he
smiled down benignantly upon her, making life a festival; but when the
needle of doubt pricked the fine veil love spun across her vision, and
she dared allow herself to question, a shivering and nameless dread
shook her happy young heart, as unexpectedly blighting as a shower of
sleet on an August passion-flower. When Jove nods his worship wanes.
Since the night of the cotillon, several inexplicable circumstances,
comparatively slight yet cumulative, had perplexed this fond and loyal
daughter, who began to find the maze of Senator Kent's political methods
too tortuous for her exploration.
Startled by his abrupt reversal of judgment on more than one important
question involving party allegiance, she had sought an explanation,
which he laughingly evaded, and, when she pressed the matter, his
avoidance was marked by an irritability of speech and gesture hitherto
unknown in the domestic circle. The undisguised graciousness of his
demeanor toward Mrs. Morrison had surprised and annoyed her, and she was
painfully astonished by his efforts to conciliate Senator Higginbottom,
who belonged to the opposite party, and was a loud, aggressive, and
hirsute apostle of the silver gospel so dear to his constituency, and so
conducive to his individual interest as a mine owner. Mrs. Higginbottom,
a plain, kind-hearted, motherly old woman, who knew much more of
sheep-shearing and beehives than of fashionable etiquette and diplomatic
technicalities, Eglah had found it possible to receive cordially, but
the daughter, Ethelberta, was an intolerable offence to all her feminine
instincts, and when Judge Kent insisted, with some asperity, that the
"Higginbottoms must be cultivated," the ordeal of playing hostess to
this "advanced and emancipated new woman" proved peculiarly unpleasant.
A certain watchful restlessness in her father's manner did not escape
her notice, nor the recent accession of sphinx-like non-committalism in
Mr. Metcalf, and she pondered uneasily a question of Mrs. Mitchell's:
"Dearie, did it ever occur to you that in some way Judge Kent seems
rather afraid of Mr. Herriott, or perhaps I should say is always so
guarded in his presence?"
"Never! Impossible and absurd. He has supreme confidence in him, and
once, not long ago, he scolded me sharply because I could not consider
him head and shoulders above all other men."
The session of Congress was within two days of its close, and that
morning, as Senator Kent rose from an untasted breakfast, he astounded
Eglah and Eliza by the ejaculation, "God knows, I shall be glad to get
out of this grind!"
Fearing sickness had robbed him of his appetite, Eglah followed him to
the library, but he waved her back.
"Metcalf is waiting to show me a paper, and I must not be interrupted.
My dear, my time is not my own--even for you."
Hitherto she had never been an interruption, and it seemed as if some
iron door was shut suddenly between her life and his. "The Bison Head"
purchase bill, for which Mrs. Morrison flitted to and fro, had been
fought by Senator Kent in committee room, where the contest was close,
but Senator Higginbottom was chairman, and when Miss Ethelberta
announced that a member had "weakened" and the bill might be saved by
postponement, Eglah knew who had changed front, and she began to realize
how ancient pilgrims felt when, at Delphi, the oracle said no to-day and
yes to-morrow. Idolatrous habit was strong; the pedestal trembled, but
it was a far cry to its overthrow, and she wrestled stubbornly to defend
inconsistencies that humiliated and staggered her. Time, the master
magician, would perhaps show her the Senator's reasons woven into a
crown of laurel--as unexpected as the garland of glowing roses that
spring out of a naked sword blade, at the gesture of a juggler. To-day
she recalled her grandmother's softened face with eyes of tender
compassion on that morning when the news of the second marriage had been
brought to Nutwood. After all, was there just cause for the old lady's
contempt and aversion, and were the rumors rife in Y---- shadows of grim
and disgraceful facts that must cling to her father's name, fateful as
the philter of Nessus? The thought stifled her, and she put her hand to
her throat with the old childish habit that always betrayed intolerable
pain. She could not go home--must not meet Eliza's eyes until she
strangled this crouching horror. Through the Smithsonian she wandered,
apparently examining its treasures, but now she saw only the pitying
countenance of her grandmother, and now the malicious triumph in Miss
Higginbottom's eyes, as she exulted in some impending misfortune.
"Formal resignation"--adumbrated by more than one innuendo--portended
the summary collapse of a political career that she had believed would
culminate in elevation to a Cabinet seat during the next administration.
For her, obstinate confidence was to-day the sole refuge, and she set
her teeth as she verified Mrs. Maurice's prediction: "'Though he slay
me, yet will I trust him.' My own father cannot betray the faith of his
loyal child."
Dreading Eliza's scrutiny, it was with a feeling of temporary relief
that she recollected an engagement to attend a "lawn party" held that
afternoon at a residence whose owner was laboring to raise an endowment
fund for a local charity. When she reached home, a change of costume
gave time to marshal all her defensive forces; and, as she came
downstairs to join her waiting chaperon, Mrs. Mitchell forbore to
comment on the unusual color that burned in her cheeks.
"Little mother, don't sit up for me. I promised Mrs. Ellerbee to assist
at the flower table, and may be kept late. Be sure you get your beauty
sleep."
Dinner was delayed an hour beyond the usual time, but Senator Kent did
not appear, and as such deviations from domestic rule had recently
occurred often, and were explained by congestion of business at the
Capitol, incident to approaching adjournment, Mrs. Mitchell took her
meal alone. It was prayer-meeting evening at the Methodist Church in her
neighborhood, and, after the exercises ended, she walked home, took up a
magazine, and tried unsuccessfully to read. The political atmosphere was
so charged with electricity that she felt a crisis was imminent, and
only the extent of the storm was conjectural. How much Eglah suspected
the foster-mother merely surmised, because some inexplicable barrier
seemed, within the past fortnight, built up to limit their free
interchange of thought. It was a sultry, sombre night; city walls and
pavements sent up their garnered heat in quivering waves, and the stars
were blurred and faint as they retreated behind a dim haze that was not
mist. At eleven o'clock the street corner light showed her Senator Kent
walking rapidly. She went into the dining-room to arrange the salad and
cold tea he always enjoyed after missing his dinner, and while he
lingered in the hall Eglah returned. She was bare-headed, very pale, and
her lips fluttered, but a brave, tender smile lighted her eyes, and she
put her arms about his neck and kissed him twice.
"How tired you poor national Solons must be! But I know one whose day's
work is not yet ended, and who must pick a whole flock of crows with me,
right now. Why did you change your vote on the 'Bison Head' purchase?"
"Who says I did?"
His face was deeply flushed, but he laughed and pinched her white cheek.
"The chairman has a daughter."
"A leaky gossip. Congressmen ought to be bachelors or childless
widowers; but then, my dear, how could I possibly exist without you?"
"Father, what induced you to favor a measure you have condemned so
emphatically?"
"Several good reasons I am much too tired to discuss. Don't forget your
Emerson, who says 'a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little
minds, adored by little statesmen,' and remember, also, 'a wise man
sometimes changes his mind, a fool never.' The bill will not be reported
till next session, and conditions alter, so _apres moi le deluge_!"
She walked toward the dining-room, and on the threshold Eliza saw her
put both hands to her throat. Drawing her breath quickly, she turned
back and threw her arms around him.
"Oh, father! Was it kind, was it merciful to let me learn by chance from
strangers that you have determined to resign your senatorship, to end a
glorious career in which you know my dearest hopes and pride centre?"
For a moment he made no reply, only clasped her closely, pillowed her
head on his breast, and kissed her cold cheek repeatedly.
Then he spoke in a husky tone, as a nervous surgeon might, uncertain of
his own diagnosis.
"My darling girl, I confess it was a cowardly dread of the pain I knew
my decision would cause you, and I very weakly put off the evil day as
long as possible. Immediately after adjournment I intended to tell you
all the plans that seem best for our future, and did not anticipate this
premature disclosure, which is presumptuous impertinence in its author.
In quitting public life even temporarily, my brightest compensation is
the prospect of spending my time in the sweet companionship of my
precious, incomparable daughter. Forgive your old father the arrant
cowardice of keeping silent for a few days."
She clung to him like a frightened child, and he felt her trembling as
one in an ague.
"Why must you resign? Why step down when you have a right to expect the
new administration will offer you a place in the Cabinet? Why? Don't
keep back anything from me now."
"My love, I don't wish to distress you; I shrink from exciting any
alarm, but you certainly have a right to the truth. My health does not
permit the amount of canvassing work that I believe will be required for
my re-election, because our State legislature will be much divided this
presidential campaign over vital issues, both local and national. As my
term expires soon, I think it best to resign now, and avoid grave
complications that threaten our party organization in the State
legislature. Recently I have had premonitions that drove me to consult
Dr. McLemore, and he advises me to withdraw from active political life,
at least for a season. He believes complete rest and freedom from public
responsibility are all that my health demands. I did not wish you to
know this, but you are such an inquisitive monkey, such an arbitrary
minx, that nothing less than the whole truth will satisfy your exacting
reason. Now kiss me, my pretty chestnut burr, and let us pick no more
crows."
"You have been ill, and we--I--never suspected it?"
She caught her breath spasmodically, stifling a sob. Her father glanced
significantly at Eliza, who stood beside the table, lifting a pitcher of
iced tea that clinked against its sides in her nervous grasp.
"I see Mrs. Mitchell--always admirably reliable--has kept her promise to
me. Now she can tell you I had a very severe attack the night we were so
late at Secretary P----'s dinner, and you could not understand my delay
in dressing."
"Ma-Lila! You kept me in ignorance of father's danger, when you should
have warned me?"
"Your father positively forbade any mention of the matter to you, and as
I never saw or heard of a recurrence of what he assured me was merely
the result of imprudent indulgence in oysters, cheese, and beer, I had
no excuse for disobeying his command to keep silence."
The little woman's eyes sparkled, and an involuntary curl of her lip did
not escape Eglah's questioning sorrowful gaze.
"Come, my dear, do not quite strangle what is left of a very tired old
man. Now that explanations are completely over, I feel as happy as a boy
just returned from the dentist's where he left an aching tooth; and
since you know absolutely all that can be told, I should like some tea
dashed with cognac, for I have had a hard, tedious day."
He unwound her arms, patted her head, and took his seat at the table.
Eglah squeezed a lemon into a goblet of tea, Eliza stirred the
mayonnaise, and Judge Kent helped himself to an anchovy sandwich, while
he asked whether they had heard the sad news of the sudden death of a
popular attache of one of the legations, who had been killed an hour
before by the accidental discharge of his own pistol. Heroic efforts
were made by all to avoid the disturbing theme upon which the Senator
had peremptorily rung down the curtain, and to relieve the tension the
trio separated as soon as possible.
How much of the perfunctory explanation either woman credited neither
could determine, but each refrained from probing the other, and both
endeavored to bridge the crater by that golden silence that knows no
pangs of regretted speech. Lying wide awake, Mrs. Mitchell noted the
slow passage of the heavy hours, and day was just below the eastern sky
line when the sudden shrill trilling of a canary in the adjoining room
told that some restless movement of Eglah's had aroused it. Eliza longed
to go and comfort the suffering girl, but every heart has a sanctuary
which not even the tenderest affection should dare to violate, and the
subtle sympathy of the overseer's wife taught her love's duty was to
guard, not force the entrance. After a few moments, Eglah opened the
door and came on tiptoe to her bed.
"What is it, dearie? Nobody can sleep on such a suffocating night."
She sat up and put one arm around the white figure, which, instead of
yielding to her clasp, held back straight and stiff as steel.
"I thought I heard you stir, else I should not have ventured to disturb
you. Ma-Lila, the thought of father's ill health weighs terribly on my
heart. Will you please tell me the nature of that attack which you both
kept from me? What were the symptoms?"
"He had been dozing in his chair, and quite suddenly sprang up, pale,
and evidently much agitated. I wished to call you, and urged him to
abandon the idea of leaving the house, but he insisted I should not give
you even a hint, and asked for the decanter of brandy, which he was sure
would relieve a severe fit of indigestion caused by imprudence at
luncheon. He went to his room, and when he came out you saw no sign of
serious indisposition."
"He had been annoyed by no visitors?"
"He had seen no one but Watson and myself."
"Do you think there was heart trouble that night? Tell me frankly."
"Yes, most certainly there was; but, my baby, heart trouble comes from
various causes, and I really do not think your father's physical
condition justifies any serious uneasiness. He is evidently alarmed, but
nervous strain and mental worry are sufficient to produce all his
symptoms, and you will find that retirement from congressional
complications expedites recovery in such cases."
The girlish form relaxed, and a hot cheek was pressed against the
foster-mother's face.
"Don't comfort me with false hopes, unless you are sure I am unduly
frightened."
"Listen to me. I am absolutely certain that Judge Kent's health need
cause you no alarm in future. Now, shake off that nightmare, and go to
sleep like a good child, or I will certainly dose you with bromide."
She kissed her softly, and with an arm about her waist led her back to
her bed.
"Ma-Lila, I want to forget the last three weeks. Won't you help me?"