SMOULDERING COALS
The night wind sighed through the old sycamores of Kennedy Square. A
soft haze, the harbinger of the coming spring, filled the air. The cold
moon, hanging low, bleached the deserted steps of the silent houses to
a ghostly white.
In the Horn mansion a dim light burned in Richard's room and another in
the lower hall. Everywhere else the house was dark.
Across the Square, in Miss Clendenning's boudoir, a small wood fire,
tempering the chill of the April night, slumbered in its bed of ashes,
or awakened with fitful starts, its restless blaze illumining the
troubled face of Margaret Grant. The girl's eyes were fixed on the
dying coals, her chin in her hand, the brown-gold of her wonderful hair
gold-red in the firelight. Now and then she would lift her head as if
listening for some approaching footstep. Miss Clendenning sat beside
her, leaning over the hearth in her favorite attitude, her tiny feet
resting on the fender.
The years had touched the little lady but lightly since that night when
she sat in this same spot and Oliver had poured out his heart to her.
She was the same dainty, precise, lovable old maid that she had been in
the old days of Kennedy Square, when the crocuses bloomed in the
flower-beds and its drawing-rooms were filled with the wit and fashion
of the day. Since that fatal night when Richard had laid away his
violin and brother had been divided against brother, and Kennedy Square
had become the stamping ground of armed men, she had watched by the
bedsides of a thousand wounded soldiers, regardless of which flag they
had battled under. The service had not withered her. Time had simply
stood still, forgetting the sum of its years, while it marked her with
perennial sweetness.
"I'm afraid he's worse," Margaret said, breaking the silence of the
room, as she turned to Miss Clendenning, "or Ollie would have been here
before this. Dr. Wallace was to go to the house at eleven, and now it
is nearly twelve."
"The doctor may have been detained," Miss Clendenning answered. "There
is much sickness in town."
For a time neither spoke. Only the low muttering of the fire could be
heard, or the turning of some restless coal.
"Margaret," Miss Clendenning said at last--it had always been
"Margaret" with the little lady ever since the day she had promised
Oliver to love the woman whom he loved; and it was still "Margaret"
when the women met for the first time in the gray dawn at the station
and Miss Clendenning herself helped lead Richard out of the
train--"There is a bright side to every trouble. But for this illness
you would never have known Oliver's mother as she really is. All her
prejudices melted away as soon as she looked into your face. She loves
you better every day, and she is learning to depend on you just as
Richard and Oliver have done."
"I hope she will," the young woman answered, without moving. "It breaks
my heart to see her suffer as she does. I see my own mother in her so
often. She is different in many ways, but she is the same
underneath--so gentle and so kind, and she is so big and broad-minded
too. I am ashamed to think of all the bitter feelings I used to have in
my heart toward her."
She stopped abruptly, her hands tightly folded in her lap, her
shoulders straightened. Margaret's confessions were always made in this
determined way, head thrown back like a soldier's, as though a new
resolve had been born even while an old sin was being confessed.
"Go on," said Miss Clendenning. "I understand. You mean that you did
not know her."
"No; but I thought her narrow and proud, and that she disliked me for
influencing Oliver in his art, and that she wanted to keep him from me
and from my ideals. Oh, I've been very, very wicked!"
"Not wicked, my dear--only human. You are not the first woman who did
not want to divide a love with a mother."
"But it wasn't exactly that, dear Cousin Lavinia. I had never met
anyone who obeyed his mother as Ollie did, and--and--I almost hated her
for being his guide and counsel when--oh, not because she did not love
him too, just as I did--but because I thought that I could really help
him most--because I believed in his talent and she did not, and because
I knew all the time that she was ruining him, keeping him back,
spoiling his career, and--"
Again she stopped and straightened herself, her beautiful head held
higher. Those who knew Margaret well would have known that the worst
part of her confession was yet to come.
"I suppose I was hurt too," she said, slowly accentuating each pause
with a slight movement of the head. "That I was LITTLE enough and MEAN
enough and HORRID enough for that. But he was always talking of his
mother as though she never did anything but sit still in that white
shawl of hers, listening to music, while everybody waited on her and
came to her for advice. And I always thought that she couldn't
understand me nor any other woman who wanted to work. When Ollie talked
of you all, and of what you did at home, I couldn't help feeling she
must think that I and all my people belonged to some different race and
that when she saw me she would judge me by some petty thing that
displeased her, the cut of my skirt, or the way I carried my hands, or
something else equally trivial, and that she would use that kind of
thing against me and, perhaps, tell Ollie, too. Father judged Oliver in
that way. He thought that Ollie's joyousness and his courtesy, even his
way of taking off his hat, and holding it in his two hands for a
moment--you've seen him do it a hundred times--was only a proof of his
Southern shiftlessness--caring more for manners than for work. Mother
didn't; she understood Ollie better, and so did John, but father never
could. That's why I wouldn't come when you asked me. You wouldn't have
judged me, I know, but I thought that she would. And now--oh, I'm so
sorry I could cry."
"It was only another of the mistakes and misunderstandings that divided
us all at that time, my dear," Miss Clendenning answered. "This
dreadful war could have been averted, if people had only come together
and understood each other. I did not think so then, but I do now."
"And you don't think me wicked, Cousin Lavinia?" Margaret asked with a
sudden relaxation of her figure and something infinitely childlike and
appealing in her tone. "You really don't think me wicked, do you?"
"Not wicked, dear; only human, as I said a moment ago. Yet you have
been stronger than I. You have held on and won; I let go and lost."
Margaret bent forward and laid her finger on Miss Clendenning's knee.
"Lost what, Cousin Lavinia?" she asked, in surprise.
"My lover."
"When?"
"When I was just your age."
"Did he die?" asked Margaret in awed tones, overcome all at once with
the solemnity of the hour and a strange new note in Miss Lavinia's
voice.
"No, he married someone else."
"He never--never loved you, then." There was a positiveness now in her
intonations.
"Yes, he did, with all his heart. His mother came between us."
Again silence fell on the room. Margaret would not look at Miss
Clendenning. The little old maid had suddenly opened the windows of her
heart, but whether to let a long-caged sorrow out or some friendly
sympathy in, she could not tell.
"May I know about it!" There was a softer cadence now in the girl's
voice.
"It would only make you unhappy, dear. It was all over forty years or
more ago. Sallie, when she saw you, put her arms about you. You had
only to come together. The oftener she sees you, the more she will love
you. My lover's mother shut the door in my face."
"In your face? Why?"
Margaret moved closer to Miss Clendenning, stirred by a sudden impulse,
as if she could even now protect her from one who had hurt her.
Miss Lavinia bent forward and picked up the brass tongs that lay on the
fender at her feet. She saw Margaret's gesture, but she did not turn
her head. Her eyes were still watching the smouldering embers.
"For no reason, dear, that you or any other Northern woman could
understand. An old family quarrel that began before I was born."
Margaret's cheeks flushed and a determined look came into her face.
"The coward! I would not have cared what his mother or anybody else
did, or how they quarrelled. If I loved you I would have married you in
spite of everything."
"And so would he." She was balancing the tongs in her hand now, her
eyes still on the fire. She had not looked at Margaret once.
"What happened then?"
Miss Clendenning leaned forward, spread the tongs in her little hands,
lifted an ember and tucked it closer to its neighbor. The charred mass
crumbled at the touch and fell into a heap of broken coals.
"I am a Clendenning, my dear; that is all," she answered, slowly.
Margaret stared at her with wide-open eyes. That a life should be
wrecked for a mere question of family pride was something her mind
could not fathom.
"Have you regretted it since, Cousin Lavinia?" she asked, calmly. She
wanted to follow it out now to the end.
Miss Clendenning heaped the broken coals closer together, laid the
tongs back in their place on the fender, and, turning to Margaret,
said, with a sigh:
"Don't ask me, my dear. I never dare ask myself, but do you keep your
hand close in Oliver's. Remember, dear, close--close! Then you will
never know the bitterness of a lonely life."
She rose from her seat, bent down, and, taking Margaret's cheeks
between her palms, kissed her on the forehead.
Margaret put her arms about the little lady, and was about to draw her
nearer, when the front door opened and a step was heard in the hall.
Miss Lavinia raised herself erect, listening to the sound.
"Hark!" she cried, "there's the dear fellow, now"--and she advanced to
meet him, her gentle countenance once more serene.
Oliver's face as he entered the room told the story.
"Not worse?" Margaret exclaimed, starting from her chair.
"Yes--much worse. I have just sent word to Uncle Nat"--and he kissed
them both. "Put on your things at once. The doctor is anxious."
Miss Lavinia caught up her cloak, handed Margaret her shawl, and the
three hurried out the front-door and along the Square, passing the
Pancoast house, now turned into offices, its doors and windows covered
with signs, and the Clayton Mansion, surmounted by a flag-pole and
still used by the Government. Entering the park, they crossed the site
of the once lovely flower-beds, now trampled flat--as was everything
else in the grounds--and so on to the marble steps of the Horn Mansion.
Mrs. Horn met them at the top of the stairs. She put her arms silently
about Margaret, kissed her tenderly, and led her into Richard's room.
Oliver and Miss Clendenning stood at the door.
The master lay under the canopy of the four-post bedstead, his eyes
closed, the soft white hair lost in the pillows, the pale face tinged
with the glow of the night lamp. Dr. Wallace was standing by the bed
watching the labored breathing of the prostrate man. Old Hannah sat on
the floor at Richard's feet. She was rocking to and fro, making no
sign, crooning inaudibly to herself listening to every sound.
Margaret sank to her knees and laid her cheek on the coverlet. She
wanted to touch something that was close to him.
The head of the sick man turned uneasily. The doctor bent noiselessly
down, put his ears close to the patient's breast, touched his pulse
with his fingers, and laid his hand on his forehead.
"Better send for some hot water," he whispered to Mrs. Horn when he had
regained her side. Margaret overheard, and started to rise from her
knees, but Mrs. Horn waved her back. "Hannah will get it," she said,
and stooped close to the old woman to give the order. There was a
restrained calmness in her manner that sent a shiver through Margaret.
She remembered just such an expression on her mother's face when her
own father lay dying.
The old servant lifted herself slowly, and with bent head and crouching
body crept out of the room without turning her face toward her master.
The superstition of the negroes about the eyes of a dying man kept hers
close to the floor--she did not want Richard to look at her.
Dr. Wallace detected the movement--he knew its cause--and passed out of
the sick chamber to where Oliver stood with Miss Clendenning.
"Better go down, Oliver, and see that the hot water is sent up right
away," he said. "Poor old Hannah seems to have lost her head."
"Has there been any further change, Doctor!" Oliver asked, as he
started for the stairs.
"No, not since you went. He is holding his own. His hands feel cold,
that is all." To Miss Lavinia he said: "It is only a question of
hours," and went back into the room.
Oliver hurried after Hannah. He intended to send Malachi up with the
hot water and then persuade the old woman to go to bed. When he reached
the lower hall it was empty; so were the parlors and the dining-room.
At the kitchen-door he met Hannah. She had filled the pitcher and had
turned to carry it upstairs. Oliver stopped her.
"Where is Malachi, aunty?"
Hannah pointed through the open door to Richard's little shop in the
back yard and hurried on. Oliver walked quickly through the damp,
brick-paved yard, now filled with the sombre shadows of the night, and
pushed open the green door. The place was dark except for a slant of
moonlight which had struggled through the window-pane and was
illumining the motor where it rested in its customary place under the
sash.
"Malachi, are you here?"
A sob was the only answer.
Oliver stepped inside. The old man was on his knees, his head and arms
lying flat on Richard's work-bench. Oliver bent down and laid his hand
on the old servant's head.
"Mally!"
"I hear ye, Marse Ollie, an' I hearn Hannah. I tell you same as I tol'
her--ain't no use fetchin' no water; ain't no use no mo' for no doctor,
ain't no use, ain't no use. I ain't never goin' to say no mo' to him,
'Chairs all ready, Marse Richard.' I ain't never goin' to wait on him
no mo', Come close to me, Marse Ollie; get down an' let me tell ye,
son."
He had lifted his head now, and was looking up into Oliver's eyes, the
tears streaming down his face.
"He freed me; he gimme a home. He ain't neber done nothin' but love me
an' take care o' me. When I bin sick he come in an' he set by me. 'You
got a fever, I think, Malachi,' he say. 'Go to bed dis minute. Cold, is
you? Git dat blanket out'n my room an' put it on yo' bed. Don't let me
hab to tell ye dat agin, Malachi.' 'Marse Richard,' I'd say to him, 'I
ain't got no coat fit to wear.' Dat was in de ol' days, when you warn't
nuffin but a chile, Marse Ollie. 'Who says so, Malachi,' he say. 'I say
so, Marse Richard.' 'Lemme see,' he'd say. 'Dat's so, dat ain't fit fer
nobody to wear. Go upstairs to my closet, Malachi, an' git dat coat I
was a-wearin' yisterday. I reckon I kin git on widout it."
Malachi had his head in his hands now, his body swaying from side to
side. Oliver stood silent.
"When he come home de udder day an' I lif' him in de bed, he say,
'Don't you strain yo'se'f, Malachi. 'Member, you ain't spry as you
was.' Oh, Gawd! Oh, Gawd! What's Malachi gwine to do?"
Oliver sat down beside him. There was nothing to say. The old servant's
grief was only his own.
"Ebery night, Marse Ollie, sence he bin sick, I git so lonesome dat I
wait till de house git still an' den I git out'n de bed and crope
down-stairs an' listen at de bedroom door. Den I hear de mistis say:
'In pain, dear?' and he say, 'No, Sallie.' An' den I crope up agin an'
go to bed kind o' comforted. I was down agin las' night--mos'
mawnin'--a-listenin', an' de mistis say: 'Kin I do sumpin' to ease de
pain, dear?' an' he don't answer, only groan, and den I hear de bed
creak, an' dat SHORT BREF COME. Pat's the sign! I knows it. In de
mawnin' he'll be gone. Can't fool Malachi; I knows de signs."
A gentle tap at the front door on the street sounded through the
stillness. Oliver had left all the intervening doors between the
dining-room and the shop open in his search for Malachi.
The old servant, with the lifelong habit upon him, started up to answer
the summons.
"No, Mally, stay here," said Oliver. "I'll go. Some neighbor, perhaps,
wanting to know how father is."
Oliver walked rapidly through the yard, tiptoed through the hall, and
carefully turned the knob.
Amos Cobb stepped in.
"I saw the light, Oliver," he said, in a low tone, "and I knew you were
up. I have an important telegram from New York in answer to one I sent
this morning from my office here. Would it be possible for me to see
your father? I know it is very late, but the matter is most urgent."
"I'm afraid not, Mr. Cobb. He is very low."
"Not serious?" Amos exclaimed, in alarm.
"Doctor Wallace thinks it is."
"You don't tell me so! I had no idea he was so ill!"
"Nor did we, sir; a change for the worse set in this evening."
Amos leaned back against the wall, his hat in his hand. The light from
the eight-sided hall lamp fell on his thick-set shoulders and square,
determined, honest face. The keen-eyed, blunt Vermonter's distress at
the news was sincere, and heartfelt.
"Could I attend to it, Mr. Cobb?" asked Oliver.
"Perhaps so. I've got those fellows now where the hair is short, and
I'm going to make 'em pay for it."
"What is it about?"
Amos Cobb took a double telegram from his pocket. It was closely
written and contained a long message.
"It's about your father's patents. This telegram is from the attorneys
of the Gorton--"
Oliver laid his fingers on the open telegram in Cobb's hand, and said,
in a positive tone:
"He will not rob this man of his rights, Mr. Cobb."
"It's not that! It is the other way. The attorneys of the Gorton
Company refuse to rob your father of HIS rights. Further, the bankers
will not endorse the Gorton stock until your father's patent--I think
it is No. 18,131"--and he examined the telegram closely--"yes, August
13, 1856, 18,131--is out of the way. They are prepared to pay a large
price for it at once, and have asked me to see your father and arrange
it on the best terms I can. The offer is most liberal. I don't feel
like risking an hour's delay; that's why I'm here so late. What had I
better do?"
Oliver caught Mr. Cobb's hand in his and a flash of exultant joy passed
over his face as he thought of his father's triumph and all it meant to
him. Then Margaret's eyes looked into his and next his mother's; he
knew what it meant to them all. Then the wasted figure of his father
rose in his mind, and his tears blinded him.
Amos stood watching him, trying to read his thoughts. He saw the tears
glistening on Oliver's lashes, but he misunderstood the cause. Only the
practical side of the situation appealed to the Vermonter at the
moment. These New York men had cast discredit on his endorsement of
Richard's priority in the invention and had tried to ignore them both.
Now he held them tight in his grasp. Horn was a rich man.
"I'll be very quiet, Oliver," he continued, in a half-pleading tone,
"and will make it as short as I can. Just let me go up. It can't hurt
him"--and he laid his hand on Oliver's shoulder with a tenderness that
surprised him. "I would never forgive myself if he should pass away
without learning of his success. He's worked so hard."
Before Oliver could reply another low tap was heard at the door. Cobb
turned the knob gently and Nathan stepped inside the hall. The old man
had gone home and to bed, tired out with his ceaseless watching by
Richard's bedside, and was only half dressed.
"Still with us?" he asked in trembling tones, his eyes searching
Oliver's face. "Oh, thank God! Thank God! I'll go up at once"--and he
passed on toward the stairway. Amos and Oliver followed.
As Nathan's foot touched the first step Doctor Wallace's voice sounded
over the bannisters.
"Oliver! Malachi! Both of you--quick!" The three bounded noiselessly
up-stairs and entered the room. Richard lay high up on the pillows, the
face in shadow, his eyes closed. Margaret was still on her knees, her
head on the coverlet. Mrs. Horn stood on the other side of the bed, the
same calm, fixed expression on her face, as if she was trying to read
the unknowable. Dr. Wallace sat on a chair beside his patient, his
fingers on Richard's pulse.
"Is he gone?" asked Oliver, stepping quickly to his father's side, his
voice choking.
Dr. Wallace shook his head.
Amos Cobb drew near, and whispered in the doctor's ear. The old
physician listened quietly, and nodded in assent. Then he leaned over
his patient.
"Mr. Cobb has some good news for you, Richard," he said, calmly. "The
bankers have recognized your patents, and are ready to pay the money--"
The dying man's eyes opened slowly.
Amos stepped in front of the doctor, and bent down close to the bed.
"It's all right, Horn--all right! They can't get along without your
first patent. Here's the telegram." He spoke with an encouraging
cheeriness in his voice, as one would in helping a child across a
dangerous place.
The brow of the dying man suddenly cleared; the eyes burned with their
old steadiness, then the lips parted.
"Read it," he muttered. The words were barely audible.
Cobb held the paper so the dim light should fall upon it and read the
contents slowly, emphasizing each word.
"Raise me up."
The voice seemed to come from his throat, as if his lungs were closed.
Oliver started forward, but Cobb, being nearer, slipped his arm under
the wasted figure, and with the tenderness of a woman, lifted him
carefully, tucking the pillows in behind the thin shoulders for better
support. Oliver sank softly to his knees beside Margaret.
Again the thin lips parted.
"Read it once more." The voice came stronger now.
Amos held the paper to the light, and the words of the telegram, like
the low tick of a clock, again sounded through the hushed room.
For a brief instant the inventor's eyes sought each face in turn. As
his gaze rested on Margaret and Oliver, he moved his thin white hand
slowly along the coverlet, and laid it first on Oliver's and next on
Margaret's head. Then, with a triumphant look lighting his face, he
lifted his arms toward his wife.
"Sallie!" he called, and fell back on his pillow, lifeless.