AT THE MANSION ON THE HILL.
In Highland avenue, far removed from the crowded thoroughfares, the
congested tenements, the cheap homes of the middle class, the rush and
roar of industry--out where the wind and sun (when they combine together
to have a sky cleaning and an air purification) first lay hold with
brush and broom and water to scour away the smokage of the manufactories
of wealth--stands a mansion.
It is a dull gray mansion on a hill, with an outlook to the four
winds--over every hill and valley, park, suburb, town and
community--embracing everything that a prospect could possibly be
endowed with. Standing alone in a small private park, studded with oaks,
beech and maple trees, and brightened by a sward faultlessly maintained,
with gently sloping hillsides, rockeries, aquariums and flower beds, and
winding paths and roads and byways, it impresses one not much unlike
that of same landed member of nobility when men were masters of men even
with less harshness than now.
It does not resemble an ancient castle. It does not resemble a manor
house of England. It resembles nothing at all that ever was in the way
of abode of men. It resembles more the newer ideas of builders put into
stone and mortar and glass--a conglomeration of the old styles blended
into one more modern, more pleasing to the eye, more harmonious with the
colors of the air, the trees, the fields and all things
around--representing the craft and graft and greed of men of this age.
Without, on this November day, it seemed to be forsaken, cold, damp,
dull, forbidding, sombre in every delineation of its outline, rearing
through the haze of smoke and fog and rain like a stranded Adamaster in
a sea of penury, misery and woe, with the lesser lights of affluence
beaming dimly in its neighborhood. But within, there were the warmth of
the tropics, the effulgence of the Riviera, the glitter of the Orient,
the polish of the court of France in the hey-day of its kings, the
laughter of youth, the smile of the aged, the cheer of the domestic, and
over all the atmosphere of those brought into the world to conquer among
men in the science of business.
This is the home of Hiram Jarney of the firm of Jarney & Lowman, makers
of iron and steel. Here lived Miss Edith Jarney, the only child. She was
twenty-two, tall, willowy, graceful. She was raised as became a daughter
of a man of wealth; but she was not spoiled. She was not a sham, as many
such young ladies are. She was not affected. She was level-headed,
self-possessed, modest, kind, beautifully unselfish, lovable, very
handsome, very noble.
Mrs. Jarney was a buxom woman still, although gray was sprinkled well
through her hair. She must have been handsome when young, for yet her
cheeks were rosy, with the refining marks of motherhood toning them down
to the fading point. She was bouncing in her manner, lofty in her
speech, pleasant in her smile, and a little haughty in her bearing, but
always cheerful. She had come up from adversity with her husband,
climbing the ladder of success side by side with him, adjusting herself
to each rung as the dangers of the height increased, till at last she
sat, with him, on the top, and scornfully, although not willfully, cast
disparaging glances on those below seeking her altitudinous
environments.
The husband and father, Hiram Jarney, was a tall, clean-cut business
man, proud, vain, nice, neat, with a monumental ambition to accomplish
in every purpose he set out to do. And he had accomplished many.
When Edith Jarney took the taxicab for her home, after parting with
John Winthrope in the rain, she was in great good humor all the way, and
for some hours after arriving at her domicile. Thinking little of the
wet condition of her clothing, or her hat, or her shoes, or anything
else, she leaned back on the soft, dry cushions of the cab and laughed
and laughed, time after time, over the singular episode with that young
man. In truth, it raised her sense of risibility to such a degree so
often that she had to hold her sides for the pain of laughing.
Nothing in all her short and interesting life appealed to her as so
ridiculous, nothing so amusing, nothing so ludicrous, nothing so out of
the ordinary, nothing so new, nothing so out of the common run of
happenings in her daily ins and outs, as her encounter with this
unspoiled youth of the mountains. And the more she thought of it, the
more she laughed over her own discomposure, over the cheerful attitude
she had assumed toward him, over her apparent boldness, over her clever
mastery of a situation made possible only by the cheerless night.
Indeed, so forcibly was she impressed with the affair that she began
already, while riding in the cab, to write the incident down in the
tablet of her memory as one of the most extraordinary events of her
life. And more--the longer she thought of it, the more impressed she was
with John Winthrope. His politeness, his bearing, his voice, his face,
his size, appealed to her young idea of what constituted proper
proportions in a good young man. She gave no thought of him being a poor
employe of her father; she gave no thought whether he was possessed with
worldly riches; she gave no thought as to whether he had blooded
ancestry; or who, or what he was, any more than that he appeared to be
above the stuff of the average man with whom she had previously come in
contact.
"Ah, he must be a good young man," she said, almost aloud, during one of
her oft recurring spells of happiness. "He cannot be so bad," she
thought, "when he was so good to me. But still--"
The taxicab was at her home. The door was opened by the chauffeur, who
had raised her umbrella, and was standing waiting for her at the door.
It took a word from him to rouse her from her meditation.
"Oh, are we home?" she said, as she bounded out. She grasped the
umbrella, and ran up the pathway to the big piazza of the mansion.
She was so gleeful that she bolted toward the door, which was not opened
soon enough to suit her impetuous haste to get within; and when it was
opened, she rushed in, forgetting to lower the umbrella. This action
caused the footman to look aghast at the dripping water and her much
bedraggled skirts. And not till she had gone to the center of the big
reception room, and had left a trail of water behind on the polished
floors and turkish rugs, on curtains, chairs and settees, much to their
ruination, did she notice her absentmindedness.
"Why, Edith!" exclaimed her mother, with uplifted hands.
"Oh, mamma! mamma!" exclaimed Edith, out of breath, almost.
"What is the matter, Edith?" asked her mother, excitedly, as she came
rushing toward her from her cozy corner, where she had been embowered
this dreary night, among richly-scented cushions. "One would think it
raining in here, Edith, from the way your umbrella is shedding water.
Put it down, and explain yourself, Edith!"
"My, oh, my," laughed Edith, for the first time realizing that she was
still carrying the umbrella.
"What is it, Edith? What has happened?" continued her mother. "My! Your
clothing are so wet! What has happened to that hat?"
"Enough for one night, mamma--enough," returned Edith, now lowering the
umbrella, and looking it over searchingly--at the handle, at the
material, at the ferrule, at the tassel, at the "J. W." on the silver
plated strip that formed a narrow ring around the briar root handle.
Then, without answering her mother definitely, she went into the great
hall and deposited "J. W.'s" rain shade into a glistening receptacle of
pottery with a dragon's head looking viciously at her from one side.
"Mamma! Mamma!" she exclaimed, joyfully, with soiled hat, wet coat and
soaked shoes still on.
"What is it, Edith? Do tell me! What has happened?" questioned her
mother for the third time, as she stood with her hands clasped before
her in expectation of hearing something terrible, and wringing them
sometimes to give vent to her wrought up feelings.
"I had a most extraordinary experience this evening, mamma," answered
Edith, slowly pulling off her wet gloves that seemed to want to adhere
to the flesh. Edith was looking down at her hands, with a very pleasant
smile lighting up her face, which she turned into gyratory expressions
now and then as she pulled and jerked at the clinging glove fingers.
"Tell me, Edith--tell me quickly, before something happens to me," said
her mother, now impatient at Edith's slowness.
"It was such an extraordinary affair, mamma," answered Edith, finally
getting off her gloves, and then reaching up to remove her hat, "that I
am still all excited about it, mamma--and the old hat is ruined--call
the maid to assist me into dry clothing--look at that hat, mamma; it
fell into the gutter," and she turned it round and round, just as John
had done, looking at it admiringly--not that she admired it for its
beauty in its present condition, oh, no; but for something else; and she
touched it in several spots with her little bare hands, which she could
not forbore doing on any other occasion.
"Edith! Why are you so procrastinating? I cannot tolerate your delay
longer! Answer me! What has happened?" demanded the little bouncing
mother, with some pretention toward exasperation.
"Oh, mamma," answered Edith, with charming affection, "I will, I will,
if you will only give me time. It was such an extraordinary event that I
want plenty of breath to proceed with the story. Nothing serious has
happened, mamma--but it was unusual."
"Go to your room, Edith, and then return to me with changed clothing,
and tell me what it is that excites you so," said her mother, now
reconciled and satisfied that her daughter had not met with any serious
mishap.
Edith, thereupon, kissed her mother, fondly patted her cheek, and then,
when her maid came, tripped lightly to her dressing room.
"Sarah, I never before felt like doing things for myself as I do now,"
said Edith to her maid, as she sat down to have her shoes removed.
"And would you?" meekly asked the maid, looking up at her mistress.
"Indeed, I would," returned Edith. "I would commence to learn at once
were it not for giving offense to my parents."
"And leave me without my lady to wait on and love?" asked the maid,
apprehensive of her position. "I could not bear it, dear lady. Why, Miss
Edith, I have been with you since you were a teeny baby, and I love you
so that I imagine sometimes you are my own dear child."
"Never mind, Sarah; don't be alarmed," returned Edith. "I will keep you
if I do learn to wait on myself. But I was thinking, Sarah, that you
cannot always tell what might happen. Every one of we mortals is a
possible subject for the poorhouse; and if it should come to anything
like that I should want to know how to bear my own burdens."
"Don't tell me, Edith," cried Sarah, now alarmed, "that it has come to
that!"
"Oh, no, indeed, Sarah," replied Edith, consolingly. "At least not that
I know of anything of the kind as being likely to happen. But that was
not it, Sarah--not it--why, what am I saying?--it is something else."
Sarah looked up quickly at Edith. Edith was half serious, half mirthful
in the little laugh that followed her words. And she toyed with Sarah's
graying hairs.
"Edith, are you keeping any secrets from me?" asked the suspicious
Sarah.
"Now, Sarah, do not be cross with me, will you, if I tell you?" asked
Edith, with some hesitancy about revealing what had so recently happened
to give her such a wonderful new vision of life.
"Never--never, Edith--unless you say," promised Sarah.
"I met the finest young man this evening, Sarah," began Edith, slowly,
blushingly, still toying with Sarah's hair, Sarah still being on her
knees before her mistress. "There--I have let it out! Now, don't you
tell, Sarah. No, of course, you will not?"
"Since you have forbidden any of the young bloods of your own set coming
to see you, I am anxious to know just where you got your 'finest young
man,'" said Sarah, sarcastically.
"I found him!"
"Is he rich?" asked Sarah.
"Never thought of that!"
"Where did you find him, Edith?"
"Bumped into him in the streets--now, don't scold me, Sarah!"
"Why, Edith!" exclaimed Sarah, rising, and holding up her hands, and
opening wide her prudish eyes. Sarah's sense of the proper fitness of
things old-maidenishly would not permit her even to meditate on such a
horrible deed.
"Do not be unduly alarmed, Sarah," calmly remarked Edith. "It was an
accident--oh, such an extraordinary accident, Sarah, and so ridiculous
on my part that I still feel the effects of it on my mirthful nature."
"Tell me all about it, my dear Edith?" said Sarah, now buttoning up the
back of Edith's dinner gown.
"If you will not tell--promise?"
"You have my promise, Edith; but you wouldn't keep such a secret from
your mother, would you?"
"I do not want to, Sarah; but I am afraid, if I tell her, she will scold
me."
"Now, what did you do, Edith?" asked Sarah.
"Stood in the rain the longest time talking to the strange young man."
"Why, Edith!" exclaimed Sarah, for the fifth or sixth time.
"No why about it, Sarah. It was an unavoidable accident. I ran into him,
he into me. My hat fell off, rolled into the gutter, and my umbrella was
rendered limp in one of its poor wings. Now, could I help that, Sarah?"
"Perhaps not."
"Well, he recovered my hat, held his umbrella over me while I put it on
again, gave me his umbrella and he took my crippled one."
"Is that all?"
"We talked some."
"Talked? Good gracious!"
"Yes, talked, Sarah--really talked."
"Why, Edith!"
"Now, Sarah, be sensible, and listen. He was so polite, so courteous--"
"They're all that way," interrupted Sarah, a man hater.
"--but him," returned Edith, not meaning it in the same sense that
Sarah did. "I was going to say, Sarah, that I could not resist his good
face."
"Who is he?" asked Sarah, coldly.
"John Winthrope!"
"What does he do?"
"Works in my father's office!"
"Lordy!" exploded Sarah at this revelation, for really Sarah was the
snob instead of Edith. "And you stopped to talk with him in the street?"
"Sarah, you are mean--real mean--cruel, exasperating. Sarah, I will have
nothing more to do with you, if you talk that way any more! I will get a
new maid, or have none at all--that I will, Sarah! Now, take your
choice!"
This from Edith, who was usually so calm, so even tempered, and so
reasonable in all matters. But Sarah had aroused her dormant nature by
such a reference to class distinction, that Edith, in her liberal way of
looking at the world in general, could not reconcile Sarah's views with
justice, if each human being concerned was equally endowed morally,
physically and mentally.
"I will say no more, Edith," humbly surrendered the prudent Sarah.
Dinner was announced, and Edith descended to the brilliancy of the great
dining room, where her parents were awaiting her arrival to be seated
with them. Edith was charming in her changed habiliment. Could John but
see her now! But John had no password as yet to this rich home.
"Now, Edith, to the story," said Mrs. Jarney, after they had seated
themselves around the sumptuously provided table.
"What is that?" asked Mr. Jarney, looking at his wife, and for the first
time getting an inkling of Edith's experiences, then turning his eyes
questioningly upon Edith.
"Nothing serious, papa," said Edith, noting that he was surprised over
the manner in which her mother had put the question.
"Well, then, dear Edith, go on," said her father, in his usually kind
tone.
"Promise, papa, that you will not be hard on me?" pressed Edith.
"As long as you have done no wrong, Edith, I promise," he replied.
Then Edith related her tale, down to the minutest detail, even as to how
it affected her afterwards--except that she kept the impression that it
left upon her heart as her own inviolable secret.
"Edith," said her father, after she had finished, and after he had
pondered a few moments over the possible effect on the young man in the
office, and after smiling and laughing heartily, "Edith, it certainly is
a peculiar coincidence. I am glad to know the party turned out to be our
newest addition to the office force, and not a ruffian."
This ended the general conversation about John Winthrope. None of them
considered the event in any other light than if she had had a similar
encounter with the ash-man--except Edith. But still they did not cease
referring to the matter occasionally for some time, for after all they
could not help but marvel on it.
Edith was unusually cheerful after she found her parents were not vexed.
She sang and played on the piano, read a few pages in a novel, talked,
laughed, went up and down the rooms, wondering, wondering what it was
that agitated her so and raised her spirits to such a high tension.
Finally, after what appeared to be an age in passing, she became weary,
and went to bed, to sleep, and dream, perhaps, of a fair young man,
miles and miles below her station in life.
And the rain beat down upon the roof above her with the same homely
sound as it beat down upon the roofs above all mankind that night.