At the end of this week Horace Chase returned. And the next morning he
paid a visit to his mother-in-law. He still used his "ma'am" when
talking to her; she still called him "Mr. Chase." In mentioning him to
others, she sometimes succeeded in bringing out a "Horace." But when the
tall, grave-looking business man was before her in person, she never got
beyond the more formal title.
"My trip to Savannah, ma'am, was connected with business," Chase began,
after he had gone through his usual elaborate inquiries about her health
and "the health of Miss Dolly." "One of my friends, David Patterson by
name, and myself, have been engaged for some time in arranging a new
enterprise in which we are about to embark in California. Matters are
now sufficiently advanced for me to mention that about May next we shall
need a confidential man in New York to attend to the Eastern part of it.
It is highly important to me, ma'am, to have for that position some one
I know, some one I can trust. Mr. Patterson will go himself to
California, and remain there, probably, a year or more. Meanwhile I, at
the East, shall need just the right man under me; for _I_ have other
things to see to; I cannot give all my time to this new concern. Do you
think, ma'am, that Mr. Franklin could be induced to take this place?
Under the circumstances, I should esteem it a favor." And here he made
Jared's mother a little bow.
"You are very kind," answered Mrs. Franklin. Having refused to know
anything of the correspondence between Ruth and Genevieve, she had had
until now no knowledge of the proposed New York place. "Jared's present
position is certainly most wretched drudgery," she went on; "far beneath
his abilities--which are really great."
"Just so. And what should you recommend, ma'am, as the best way to open
the subject? Shall I take a run up to Raleigh? Or shall I drop him a
line? Perhaps you yourself would like to write?"
The mother reflected. "If I do," she thought, "Jared will fancy that I
have begged the place for him. If Ruth writes, he will be sure of it. If
Mr. Chase writes, Jared will answer within the hour--a letter full of
jokes and friendliness, but--declining. If Chase goes to Raleigh in
person, Jared will decline verbally, and with even more unassailable
good-humor. No, there is only one person in the world who could perhaps
make him yield, and that person is Genevieve!" At this thought, her
face, which always showed like a barometer her inward feelings, changed
so markedly that her son-in-law hastened to interpose. "Don't bother
about the ways and means, ma'am; I guess I can fix it all right." He
spoke in a confident tone, in order to reassure her; for he had a liking
for the "limber old lady," as he mentally called her. His confidence,
however, was in a large measure assumed; where business matters were in
question, the "offishness," as he termed it, of this ex-naval officer
had seemed to him such a queer trait that he hardly knew how to grapple
with it.
"I was only thinking that my daughter-in-law would perhaps be the best
person to speak to Jared," replied Mrs. Franklin at last. (The words
came out with an effort.)
"Gen? So she would; she is very clear-headed. But if she is to be the
one, I must first let her know just what the place is, and all about it,
and how can that be done, ma'am? Wouldn't Mr. Franklin see my letter?"
"No. For she isn't in Raleigh with her husband; she is at Asheville."
"Why, how's that?" inquired Chase, who had seen, from the first, Jared's
deep attachment to his wife.
"How indeed!" thought the mother. Her lips quivered. She compressed them
in order to conceal it. The satisfaction which she had, for a time, felt
in the idea that Genevieve was learning, at last, that she could not
always control her husband--this had now vanished in the sense of her
son's long and dreary solitude. For the wife had not been in Raleigh
during the entire winter; Jared had been left to endure existence as
best he could in his comfortless boarding-house. "My daughter-in-law has
been very closely occupied at Asheville," she explained, after a moment.
"They are improving their house there, you know, and she can superintend
work of that sort remarkably well."
"That's so," said Chase, agreeingly.
"She is also much interested in a new wing for the Colored Home,"
pursued Mrs. Franklin; and this time a little of her deep inward
bitterness showed itself in her tone.
"Gen's pretty cute!" thought Chase. "She's not only feathering her own
nest up there in Asheville, but at the same time she is starving out
that wrong-headed husband of hers." Then he went on aloud: "Well, ma'am,
if it's to be Mrs. Jared who is to attend to the matter for me, I guess
I'll wait until I can put the whole thing before her in a nutshell, with
the details arranged. That will be pretty soon now--as soon as I come
back from California. For I must go to California myself before long."
"Are you going to take Ruth? How I shall miss her!" said the mother,
dispiritedly.
"We shall not be gone a great while--only five or six weeks. On second
thoughts, why shouldn't you come along, ma'am?--come along with us? I
guess I could fix it so as you'd be pretty comfortable."
"You are very kind. But I could not leave Dolly."
"Of course not. I didn't mean that, ma'am; I meant that Miss Dolly
should come along too. That French woman of Ruth's--Felicity--she's
capital when travelling. Or we could have a trained nurse? They have
very attractive nurses now, ma'am; real ladies; and good-looking too,
and sprightly."
"You are always thoughtful," answered Mrs. Franklin, amused by this
description. "But it is impossible. Dolly can travel for two or three
days, if we take great precautions; but a longer time makes her ill.
Ruth is coming to lunch, isn't she? With Malachi? I am so glad you
brought him; he doesn't have many holidays."
"Well, ma'am, he was there in Savannah, buying a bell, or, rather,
getting prices. A church bell, as I understood. He'd about got through,
and was going back to Asheville, when I suggested to him to come along
down to St. Augustine for three or four days. 'Come and look up your
wandering flock'--that is what I remarked to him. For you know, ma'am,
that with yourself and Miss Dolly, the commodore and Mrs. Kip, you make
four--four of his sheep in Florida; including Miss Evangeline Taylor,
four sheep and a first-prize lamb."
Mrs. Franklin smiled. But she felt herself called upon to explain a
little. "We are not of his flock, exactly; Mr. Hill has a mission
charge. But though he is not our rector, we are all much attached to
him."
"He's a capital little fellow, and works hard; I've great respect for
him. But somehow, ma'am, he's taken a queer way lately of stopping short
when he is talking. Almost as though he had choked!"
"So he has--choked himself off," answered Mrs. Franklin, breaking into a
laugh. "When with you, he is constantly tempted to ask for money for the
Mission, he says. He knows, however, that the clergy are always accused
of paying court to rich men for begging purposes, and he is determined
to be an exception. But he finds it uncommonly difficult."
"How much does he want?" inquired Chase. Then he paused. "Perhaps his
notions take the form of a church?" he went on. "I've been thinking a
little of building a church, ma'am. You see, my mother was a great
church-goer; she found her principal comfort in it. I've been very far
from steady myself, I'm sorry to say; I haven't done much credit to her
bringing-up. And so I've thought that I'd put up a church some day, as a
sort of memory of her. Because, if she'd lived, she would have liked
that better than anything else."
"Do you mean an Episcopal church?" inquired Mrs. Franklin, touched by
these words.
"Well, she was a Baptist herself," Chase replied. "So perhaps I have
rather a prejudice in favor of that denomination. But I'm not set upon
it; I should think it might be built so as to be suitable for all
persuasions. At any rate, I guess Hill and I could hit it off together
somehow."
Here Dolly came in, and a moment afterwards Ruth appeared with the Rev.
Malachi Hill. Dolly greeted the young missionary with cordiality. "How
is Asheville?" she inquired. "How is Maud Muriel?"
Malachi's radiant face changed. "She is the same. When I see her coming,
I do everything I can to keep out of the way. But sometimes there is no
corner to turn, or no house to go into, and I _have_ to pass her. And
then I know just how she will say it!" And, tightening his lips, he
brought out a low "Manikin!"
"Brace up," said Dolly. "You must look back at her and look her down;
make her falter."
"Oh, falter!" repeated poor Malachi, hopelessly.
Another guest now appeared--Mrs. Kip. For Mrs. Franklin had invited them
all to lunch before the jessamine hunt, which had been appointed for
that afternoon. As it happened, Mrs. Kip's first question also was, "How
is Miss Mackintosh?"
"Unchanged. At least, she treats _me_ with the same contumely," answered
the clergyman.
"If you indulge yourself with such words as 'contumely,' Mr. Hill,
people will call you affected," said Dolly, in humorous warning.
"Now, Dolly, don't say that," interposed Mrs. Kip. "For unusual words
are full of dignity. I don't know what I wouldn't give if _I_ could
bring in, just naturally and easily, when I am talking, such a word, for
instance, as jejune! And for clergymen it is especially distinguished.
Though there is _one_ clerical word, Mr. Hill, that I do think might be
altered, and that is closet. Why should we always be told to meditate in
our closets? Generally there is no room for a chair; so all one can
think of is people sitting on the floor among the shoes."
Every one laughed. Mrs. Kip, however, had made her remark in perfect
good faith.
The entrance of Walter Willoughby completed the party, and lunch was
announced. When the meal was over, and they came back to the parlor,
they found Felicite in waiting with Petie Trone, Esq. Felicite, a French
woman with a trim waist and large eyes, always looked as though she
would like to be wicked. In reality, however, she was harmless, for one
insatiable ambition within her swallowed up all else, namely, the
ambition not to be middle-aged. As she was forty-eight, the struggle
took all her time. "I bring to madame le petit trone for his promenade,"
she said, as, after a respectful salutation to the company, she detached
the leader from the dog's collar.
"Must that fat little wretch go with us?" Chase inquired, after the maid
had departed.
For answer, Ruth took up Mr. Trone and deposited him on her husband's
knee. "Yes; and you are to see to him."
"Is the squirrel down here too?" inquired Walter. "I haven't seen him."
"Robert the Squirrel--" began Chase, with his hands in his trousers
pockets; then he paused. "That's just like Robert the Devil, isn't it? I
mean an opera, ma'am, of that name that they were giving in New York
last winter," he explained to Mrs. Franklin, so that she should not
think he was swearing.
"Robert the Devil will do excellently well as a nickname for Bob," said
Dolly. "It's the best he has had."
"Well, at any rate, Robert the Squirrel isn't here," Chase went on. "He
boards with Mr. Hill for the winter, Walter; special terms made for
nuts. And, by-the-way, Hill, you haven't mentioned Larue; how is the
senator? I'm keeping my eye on him for future use in booming our resort,
you know. The Governor of North Carolina remarking to the Governor of
South Carolina--you've heard that story? Well, sir, what we propose now
is to have the _senator_ from North Carolina remark to the senator from
South Carolina (and to all the other senators thrown in) that Asheville
is bound to be the Lone Star of mountain resorts south of the
Catskills."
Lilian Kip's heart had given a jump at Larue's name; to carry it off,
she took up a new novel which was lying on the table. (For Chase's order
had been a perennial one: "all the latest articles in fiction," pursued
Mrs. Franklin hotly, month after month.) "Oh, I am sure you don't like
_this_," said Lilian, when she had read the title.
"I have only just begun it," answered Mrs. Franklin. "But why shouldn't
I like it? It is said to be original and amusing."
"It is not _at all_ the book I should wish to put into the hands of
Evangeline Taylor," replied Mrs. Kip, with decision.
"The one unfailing test of the American mother for the entire literature
of the world!" commented Dolly.
The search for the first jessamine was in those days one of the regular
amusements of a St. Augustine winter. Where St. George Street ends,
beyond the two pomegranate-topped pillars of the old city gate, Mrs.
Franklin's party came upon the other members of the searching
expedition, and they all walked on together along the shell road. On the
right, Fort San Marco loomed up, with the figures of several Indians on
its top outlined against the sky. Beyond shone the white sand-hills of
the North Beach. At the end of the road the searchers entered a long
range of park-like glades; here the yellow jessamine, the loveliest wild
flower of the Florida spring, unfolds its tendrils as it clambers over
the trees and thickets, lighting up their evergreen foliage with its
bell-shaped flowers. Dolly and Mrs. Franklin had accompanied the party
in a phaeton. "I think I can drive everywhere, even without a road, as
the ground is so level and open," Dolly suggested. "But you must serve
as guide, Ruth. Please keep us in sight."
But after a while Ruth forgot this injunction. Mrs. Franklin, always
interested in whatever was going on, had already disappeared, searching
for the jessamine with the eagerness of a girl. Dolly, finding herself
thus deserted, stopped. But her brother-in-law, who had had his eye on
her pony from the beginning, soon appeared. "What, alone?" he said,
coming up.
Upon seeing him, Dolly cleared her brow. "I don't mind it; the glades
are so pretty."
Chase examined the glades; but without any marked admiration in his
glance.
"Where is Ruth?" Dolly went on.
"Just round the corner--I mean on the other side of that thicket. Walter
has found some of the vine they are all hunting for, and she's in a
great jubilation over it; she wanted to find it ahead of that Mr. Kean,
who always gets it first."
"Please tell her to bring me a spray of it. As soon as she can."
Assuring himself that the pony felt no curiosity about the absence of a
road under his feet, Chase, with his leisurely step, went in search of
his wife. He found her catching jessamine, which Walter, who had climbed
into a wild-plum tree, was throwing down. She had already adorned
herself with the blossoms, and when she saw her husband approaching she
went to meet him, and wound a spray round his hat.
"Your sister wants some; she told me to tell you. She's back there a
little way--on the left," said Chase. "Hullo! here comes a wounded
hero;" for Petie Trone, Esq., had appeared, limping dolefully. "Never
mind; I'll see to the little porpoise if you want to go to Dolly." He
stooped and took up the dog with gentle touch. "He has probably been
interviewing some prickly-pears."
When Ruth had gone, Walter's interest in the jessamine vanished. He
swung himself down to the ground. "Mrs. Chase has been telling me that
you are thinking of going to California very soon?" he said,
inquiringly.
"Yes; I guess we shall get off next week," Chase answered, examining
Trone's little paws.
"I am going to be very bold," Walter went on. "I am going to ask you to
take me with you."
Chase's features did not move, but his whole expression altered; the
half-humorous look which his face always wore when, in the company of
his young wife, he was "taking things easy," as he called it, gave place
in a flash to the cool reticence of the man of business. "Take you?" he
inquired, briefly. "Why?"
And then Willoughby, in the plainest and most direct words (a directness
which was not, however, without the eloquence that comes from an intense
desire), explained his wish to be admitted to a part, however small, in
the California scheme. He allowed himself no reserves; he told the whole
story of his father's spendthrift propensities, and his own small means
in consequence. "I have a fixed determination to make money, Mr. Chase.
I dare say you have thought me idle; but I should not have idled if I
had had at any time the right thing to go into. Work? There is literally
no amount of work that I should shrink from, if it led towards the
fortune upon which I am bent. I can, and I will, work as hard as ever
you yourself have worked."
"I'm afraid you're looking for a soft snap," said Chase, shifting Mr.
Trone to his left arm, and putting his right hand into his trousers
pocket, where he jingled a bunch of keys vaguely.
"If you will let me come in, even by a little edge only, I am sure you
won't regret it," Walter went on. "Can't you recall, by looking back,
your own determination to succeed, and how far it carried you, how
strong it made you? Well, that is the way I feel to-day! You ought to be
able to comprehend me. You've been over the same road."
"The same road!" repeated Chase, ironically. "Let's size it up a little.
I was taken out of school before I was fourteen--when my father died.
From that day I had not only to earn every crumb of bread I ate, but
help to earn the bread of my sisters too. Before I was eighteen I had
worked at half a dozen different things, and always at the rate of
thirteen or fourteen hours a day. By the time I was twenty I was old; I
had already lived a long and hard life. Now your side: A good home;
every luxury; school; college; Europe!"
"You think that because I have been through Columbia, and because I once
had a yacht (the yacht was in reality my uncle's), I shall never make a
good business man," replied Walter. "Unfortunately, I have no means of
proving to you the contrary, unless you will give me the chance I ask
for. I don't pretend, of course, to have anything like your talents;
they are your own, and unapproached. But I do say that I have ability; I
_feel_ that I have."
"It's sizzling, is it?" commented Chase. "Why don't you put it into the
business you're in already, then; the steamship firm of Willoughby,
Chase, & Co.? Boom that; put on steam, and boom it for all you're worth;
your uncles and I will see you through. You say you only want a chance;
why on earth don't you take the one that lies before you? If you wish to
convince me you know something, _that's_ the way."
"The steamship concern is too slow for me; I have looked into it, and I
know. I might work at it for ten years, and with the small share I have
in it I should not be very rich," Walter answered. "I'm in a hurry! I am
willing to give everything on my side--all my time and my strength and
my brains; but I want something good on the other."
"Now you're shouting!"
"The steamship firm is routine--regular; that isn't the way you made
_your_ money," Walter went on.
"My way is open to everybody. It isn't covered by any patent that I know
of," remarked Chase, in his dry tones.
"Yes, it is," answered Walter, immediately taking him up. "Or rather it
was; the Bubble Baking-Powder was very tightly patented."
Chase grinned a little over this sally. But he was not moved towards the
least concession, and Walter saw that he was not; he therefore played
his last card. "I have a great deal of influence with my uncles, I
think; especially with my uncle Nicholas."
"Put your money on Nicholas Willoughby, and you're safe, every time,"
remarked Chase, in a general way.
"I don't know whether you and Patterson care for more capital in
developing your California scheme?" Walter went on. "But if you do, I
could probably help you to some."
Chase looked at him. The younger man's eyes met his, bright as steel.
The millionaire walked over to a block of coquina, which had once formed
part of a Spanish house; here he seated himself, established Petie Trone
comfortably on his knee, and lifting his hand, tilted back still farther
on his head his jessamine-decked hat. "You've been blowing about being
able to work, Walter. But we can get plenty of hard workers without
letting 'em into the ring. And you've been talking about being sharp.
Sharp you may be. But I rather guess that when it comes to _that_, Dave
Patterson and I don't need any help. Capital, however, is another
matter; it's always another matter. By enlarging our scheme at its
present stage by a third (which we could do easily if your uncle
Nicholas came in), we should make a much bigger pile."
There was no second block of coquina; Walter remained standing. But his
compact figure looked sturdy and firm as he stood there beside the other
man. "I could not go to my uncle without knowing what I am to tell him,"
he remarked, after a moment.
"Certainly not!" Chase answered. Then, after further reflection (this
time Walter did not break the silence), he said: "Well, see here; I may
as well state at the outset that unless your uncle will come in to a
pretty big tune, we don't want him at all; 'twouldn't pay us; we'd
prefer to play it alone. Now your uncles don't strike me as men who
would be willing to take risks. You say you have influence with 'em, or
rather with Nick. But I've got no proof of that. Of course it's
possible; Nick has brought you up; he's got no son--only girls; perhaps
he'd be willing to do for you what he'd do for a son of his own; perhaps
he really would take a risk, to give you a first-class start. But I
repeat that I've no proof of your having the least influence with him.
What's more, I've a healthy amount of doubt about it! Oh, I dare say
_you_ believe you've got a pull; you're straight as far as that goes. My
notion is simply that you're mistaken, that you're barking up the wrong
tree; Nicholas ain't that sort! However, as it happens to be the moment
when we _could_ enlarge (and double the profits), I'll give you my
terms. You have convinced me at least of one thing, and that is that
you're very sharp set yourself as to money-making; you want tremendously
to catch on. And it's _that_ I'm going to take as my security. In this
way. In order to learn whether your uncle Nicholas, to oblige _you_, is
willing to come in with Patterson and myself in this affair, you must
first know what the affair is (as you very justly remarked); I must
therefore tell you the whole scheme--show all my hand. Now, then, if I
do this, and your uncle _doesn't_ take it up, then not only you don't
get in yourself, but if I see the slightest indication that my
confidence has been abused, I sell out of that steamship firm instanter,
and, as I'm virtually the firm, you know what that will mean! And the
one other property you have--that stock--you'll be surprised to see how
it'll go down to next to nothing on the street. 'Twon't hurt _me_, you
know. As for you, you'll deserve it all, and more, too, for having been
a dunderhead!"
"I accept the terms," answered Willoughby. "Under the circumstances,
they're not even hard. If I fail, I _am_ a dunderhead!--I shall be the
first to say it. But I sha'n't fail." (Even at this moment, though he
was intensely absorbed, his eye was struck by the contrast between the
keen, hard expression of Horace Chase's face and his flower-decked hat;
between the dry tones of his voice and the care with which he still held
his wife's little dog, who at this instant, after a long yawn,
affectionately licked the hand that held him, ringing by the motion the
three small silver bells with which his young mistress had adorned his
collar.) "If I am to go to California with you next week, I have no time
to lose," he went on, promptly. "For I must first go to New York, of
course, to see my uncle."
"Well, rather!" interpolated Chase.
"Couldn't you tell me now whatever I have to know?" Walter continued.
"This is as good a place as any. We might walk off towards that house on
the right, near the shore; there is no danger of there being any
jessamine _there_."
Here Ruth appeared. "Haven't you found any more?" she asked, surprised.
"Mr. Willoughby, you pretended to be so much interested! As for you,
Horace, where is your spirit? I thought you liked to be first in
everything?"
"First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen,"
quoted Chase. "Here--you'd better put your monkey in the phaeton," he
went on, passing over Mr. Trone. "He has a little rheumatism in his paw.
But you must try to bear it." His voice had again its humorous tones;
the penetrating look in his eyes had vanished. His wife standing there,
adorned with jessamine, her face looking child-like as she stroked her
dog, seemed to change the man of a moment before into an entirely
different being. In reality it did not do this; but it brought out
another part of his nature, and a part equally strong. Ruth had taken
off her gloves; the gems which her husband had given her flashed on her
hands as she lifted Mr. Trone to her shoulder and laid her cheek against
his little black head. "We are going for a short walk, Willoughby and
I," Chase said--"over towards that house on the shore. We'll be back
soon."
"That house is Dalton's," answered Ruth, looking in that direction.
"Mrs. Dalton makes the loveliest baskets, Horace; won't you get me one?
They are always a little one-sided, and that makes them much more
original, you know, than those that are for sale in town."
"Oh, it makes them more original, does it?" repeated Chase.
When he returned, an hour later, he brought the basket.
Walter Willoughby started that night for New York.