_Madame Seeks Counsel_
There are many evil things in the world which are best obviated by being
let severely alone.
The clumsy-minded Hercules had to be taught this fact. Tradition relates
that at one time he met an insignificant-looking toad in his path which
he would have passed by in disdain had it not been for its particularly
ugly appearance. Thinking to do the world a service by destroying it he
thumped the reptile with his club, when, to his surprise, instead of
being crushed by the impact, the beast grew to twice its former size.
Repeated and heavier blows only multiplied its dimensions and ugliness,
until at length the thoroughly frightened hero divested himself of his
clothing with the intention of putting an end to his antagonist. His
formidable club was again raised, but before it could descend, he was
counselled to wait. This he did, and to his greater surprise the ugly
beast began to shrink, and finally disappeared.
Pierre had no convenient goddess to instruct him in critical moments, so
he depended on his own wit. Of this he had inherited a liberal portion,
and this by diligent cultivation had been added to manyfold. So it
happened that after Madame's surprising exhibition of an unsuspected
will of her own, and her declaration of her intention to enforce it,
Pierre had studiously let her alone.
This course of action was as surprising to Madame as it was
disconcerting. The consequences were such as her wily husband had
foreseen. Encountering no externally resisting medium, its force was
wasted by internal attrition, so that Madame was being reduced to a
nervous wreck, all of which was duly appreciated by Pierre.
This particular instance, being expanded into a general law, teaches us
that oftentimes the nimble wit of an agile villain prevails against the
clumsy brains of a lofty-minded hero.
Madame had had long years of patient endurance to train her in waiting;
but the endurance had been passive and purposeless, rather than active,
and with a well-defined object. Now that an object was to be attained by
action the lessons of patient endurance counted for naught. Instead of
determined action against her open revolt, Pierre had been smilingly
obsequious and non-resisting.
She knew very well that Pierre had been neither cowed into submission
nor frightened from his purpose; but his policy of non-interference
puzzled and terrified her. She knew not at what moment he might confront
her with a move that she would have neither time nor power to check. In
this state of mind day after day passed by with wearing regularity. She
felt the time going, every moment fraught with the necessity of action,
but without the slightest suggestion as to what she ought to do.
Pierre's toast might be burned to a crisp, his eggs scorched, or his
coffee muddy, but there was no word of complaint. Regular or irregular
hours for meals were passed over with the same discomposing smiles. She
did not dare unburden her mind to Elise, for fear of letting drop some
untimely word which would immediately precipitate the impending crisis.
For the first time in her life Elise was subjected to petulant words and
irritating repulses by the sorely perplexed woman.
One evening, after a particularly trying day during which Elise had been
stung into biting retorts, an inspiration came to Madame that rolled
every threatening cloud from her mind.
The next morning, after long waiting, Pierre came to the dining-room,
but found neither breakfast nor Madame, and for the best of reasons.
With the first grey light of morning, Madame had slipped from the door
of the Blue Goose, and before the sun had gilded the head of Ballard
Mountain she was far up the trail that led to the Inferno.
Zephyr was moving deliberately about a little fire on which his
breakfast was cooking, pursing his lips in meditative whistles, or
engaged in audible discussion with himself on the various topics which
floated through his mind. An unusual clatter of displaced rocks brought
his dialogue to a sudden end; a sharp look down the trail shrank his
lips to a low whistle; the sight of a hard knob of dingy hair, strained
back from a pair of imploring eyes fringed by colourless lashes, swept
his hat from his head, and sent him clattering down to Madame with
outstretched hands.
"You're right, Madame. You're on the right trail, and it's but little
farther. It's rather early for St. Peter, it's likely he's taking his
beauty sleep yet; but I'll see that it's broken, unless you have a
private key to the Golden Gates, which you deserve, if you haven't got
it." His address of welcome had brought him to Madame's side.
Her only reply was a bewildered gaze, as she took his hands. With his
help she soon reached the camp, and seated herself in a rude chair which
Zephyr placed for her.
Zephyr, having seen to the comfort of his guest, returned to his
neglected breakfast.
"It takes a pretty cute angel to catch me unawares," he glanced at
Madame; "but you've got the drop on me this time. Come from an
unexpected direction, too. I've heard tell of Jacob's vision of angels
passing up and down, but I mostly allowed it was a pipe dream. I shall
have to annotate my ideas again, which is no uncommon experience,
statements to the contrary notwithstanding." Zephyr paused from his
labours and looked inquiringly at Madame.
Madame made no reply. Her bewildered calm began to break before the
apparent necessity of saying or doing something. Not having a clear
perception of the fitting thing in either case, she took refuge in a
copious flood of tears.
Zephyr offered no impediment to the flow, either by word or act. He was
not especially acquainted with the ways of women, but being a close
observer of nature and an adept at reasoning from analogy, he assumed
that a sudden storm meant equally sudden clearing, so he held his peace
and, for once, his whistle.
Zephyr's reasoning was correct. Madame's tears dried almost as suddenly
as they had started. Zephyr had filled a cup with coffee, and he
tendered it deferentially to Madame.
"A peaceful stomach favours a placid mind," he remarked, casually;
"which is an old observation that doesn't show its age. From which I
infer that it has a solid foundation of truth."
Madame hesitatingly reached for the proffered coffee, then she thought
better of it, and, much to Zephyr's surprise, again let loose the
fountains of her tears. Zephyr glanced upward with a cocking eye, then
down the steep pass to where the broken line of rock dropped sheer into
Rainbow Gulch where lay Pandora and the Blue Goose.
"About this time look for unsettled weather," he whispered to himself.
Zephyr had dropped analogy and was reasoning from cold facts. He was
thinking of Elise.
Tears often clear the mind, as showers the air, and Madame's tears, with
Zephyr's calm, were rapidly having a salubrious effect. This time she
not only reached for the coffee on her own initiative, but, what was
more to the purpose, drank it. She even ate some of the food Zephyr
placed before her.
Zephyr noted with approval.
"Rising barometer, with freshening winds, growing brisk, clearing
weather."
Madame looked up at Zephyr's almost inaudible words.
"How?" she ventured, timidly.
"That's a fair question," Zephyr remarked, composedly. "The fact is, I
get used to talking to myself and answering a fool according to his
folly. It's hard sledding to keep up. You see, a fellow that gets into
his store clothes only once a year or so don't know where to hang his
thumbs."
Madame looked somewhat puzzled, began a stammering reply, then, dropping
her useless efforts, came to her point at once.
"It's about Elise."
Zephyr answered as directly as Madame had spoken.
"Is Elise in trouble?"
"Yes. I don't know what to do." Madame paused and looked expectantly at
Zephyr.
"Pierre wants her to marry that Morrison?"
Madame gave a sigh of relief. There was no surprise in her face.
"Pierre says she shall not go to school and learn to despise him and me.
He says she will learn to be ashamed of us before her grand friends. Do
you think she will ever be ashamed of me?" There was a yearning look in
the uncomplaining eyes.
Zephyr looked meditatively at the fire, pursed his lips, and,
deliberately thrusting his hand into the bosom of his shirt, drew forth
his harmonica. He softly blew forth a few bars of a plaintive melody,
then, taking the instrument from his lips, began to speak, without
raising his eyes.
"If my memory serves me right, I used to know a little girl on a big
ranch who had a large following of beasts and birds that had got into
various kinds of trouble, owing to their limitations as such. I also
remember that that same little girl on several appropriate occasions
banged hell--if you will excuse a bad word for the sake of good
emphasis--out of two-legged beasts for abusing their superior kind. Who
would fly at the devil to protect a broken-winged gosling. Who would
coax rainbows out of alkali water and sweet-scented flowers out of hot
sand. My more recent memory seems to put it up to me that this same
little girl, with more years on her head and a growing heart under her
ribs, has sat up many nights with sick infants, and fought death from
said infants to the great joy of their owners. From which I infer, if by
any chance said little girl should be lifted up into heaven and seated
at the right hand of God, much trouble would descend upon the Holy
Family if Madame should want to be near her little Elise, and any of the
said Holies should try to stand her off."
Madame did not fully understand, but what did it matter? Zephyr was on
her side. Of that she was satisfied. She vaguely gleaned from his words
that, in his opinion, Elise would always love her and would never desert
her. She hugged this comforting thought close to her cramped soul.
"But," she began, hesitatingly, "Pierre said that she should not go to
school, that she should marry right away."
"Pierre is a very hard shell with a very small kernel," remarked Zephyr.
"Which means that Pierre is going to do what he thinks is well for
Elise. Elise has got a pretty big hold on Pierre."
"But he promised her father that he would give back Elise to her
friends, and now he says he won't."
"Have you told Elise that Pierre is not her father?"
"No; I dare not."
"That's all right. Let me try to think out loud a little. The father and
mother of Elise ran away to marry. That is why her friends know nothing
of her. Her mother died before Elise was six months old, and her father
before she was a yearling. Pierre promised to get Elise back to her
father's family. It wasn't just easy at that time to break through the
mountains and Injuns to Denver. You and Pierre waited for better times.
When better times came you both had grown very fond of Elise. A year or
so would make no difference to those who did not know. Now Elise is
sixteen. Pierre realizes that he must make a choice between now and
never. He's got a very soft spot in his heart for Elise. It's the only
one he ever had, or ever will have. Elise isn't his. That doesn't make
very much difference. Pierre has never had any especial training in
giving up things he wants, simply because they don't belong to him. You
haven't helped train him otherwise." Zephyr glanced at Madame. Madame's
cheeks suddenly glowed, then as suddenly paled. A faint thought of what
might have been years ago came and went. Zephyr resumed: "As long as
Elise is unmarried, there is danger of his being compelled to give her
up. Well," Zephyr's lips grew hard, "you can set your mind at rest.
Elise isn't going to marry Morrison, and when the proper time comes,
which will be soon, Pierre is going to give her up."
Madame had yet one more episode upon which she needed light. She told
Zephyr of Pierre's threatened attack, and of Elise's holding him off at
the point of her revolver. She felt, but was not sure, that Elise by her
open defiance had only sealed her fate.
Zephyr smiled appreciatively.
"She's got her father's grit and Pierre's example. Her sense is rattling
round in her head, as her nonsense is outside of it. She'll do all right
without help, if it comes to that; but it won't."
Madame rose, as if to depart. Zephyr waved her to her seat.
"Not yet. You rest here for a while. It's a hard climb up here and a
hard climb down. I'll shake things up a little on my prospect. I'll be
back by dinner-time."
He picked up a hammer and drills and went still farther up the mountain.
Having reached the Inferno, he began his work. Perhaps he had no thought
of Jael or Sisera; but he smote his drill with a determined emphasis
that indicated ill things for Pierre. Jael pinned the sleeping head of
Sisera to the earth. Sleeping or waking, resisting or acquiescent,
Pierre's head was in serious danger, if it threatened Elise.
Zephyr loaded the hole and lighted the fuse, then started for the camp.
A loud explosion startled Madame from the most peaceful repose she had
enjoyed for many a day.
After dinner Zephyr saw Madame safely down the worst of the trail.
"Pierre is not all bad," he remarked, at parting. "You just _restez
tranquille_ and don't worry. It's a pretty thick fog that the sun can't
break through, and, furthermore, a fog being only limited, as it were,
and the sun tolerably persistent, it's pretty apt to get on top at most
unexpected seasons."
Madame completed the remainder of her journey with very different
emotions from those with which she had begun it. She entered the back
door of the Blue Goose. Pierre was not in the room, as she had half
expected, half feared. She looked around anxiously, then dropped into a
chair. The pendulum changed its swing. She was under the old influences
again. Zephyr and the mountain-top were far away. A thousand questions
struggled in her mind. Why had she not thought of them before? It was no
use. Again she was groping for help. She recalled a few of Zephyr's
words.
"Elise isn't going to marry Morrison, and Pierre's going to give her
up."
They did not thrill her with hope. She could not make them do so by oft
repeating. Confused recollections crowded these few words of hope. She
could not revivify them. She could only cling to them with blind,
uncomprehending trust, as the praying mother clings to the leaden
crucifix.