It seemed to Hertha as she sat at the open window after the others had
gone to bed that it was the most beautiful night she had ever known.
Utterly still, except for the eternal sound of the wind among the pines,
it yet was full of music; for, borne on the breeze from the river, some
one was calling, beseechingly, insistently, and she was answering in her
heart.
The young moon was sinking in the west. She could not see it, but she
could see the fleecy clouds that reflected its light. How lovely they
were, moving wherever the light wind, high in the heavens, might desire.
They had no will, these clouds, but were wafted into the shadow or the
silvery brightness, living as they had the right to live, pliant to the
spirit of the strong wind.
The house was perfectly still. The little watch that Ellen had given her
when she went away to school told her that it lacked but a few minutes
of the hour when he had called her to come. All day she had questioned
and doubted and hesitated. She had asked her black mother to tell her
the story of her adoption that she might surely guard her virtue and
resist temptation; but now, looking into the night, she refused to
believe that this was temptation, rather it was a glorious opportunity
to give generously, without stint or questioning.
She slipped a coat over the white dress she was wearing, walked
stealthily into the hallway, lifted the latch and was under the stars.
No one had heard her, and she ran swiftly across the open yard, bright
in the moonlight, to the darkness of the trees.
Standing in the gloom of the path and looking back at the cabin she
hesitated. There were the roses by the porch and the goldenrod and
aster, bits of bright weed, growing in the sand. Close to her were the
chickens asleep upon their perches. She was leaving this friendly,
familiar home to enter the white world; and to enter, not even at the
kitchen door, but through a dark, hidden passage that no one but herself
could tread. She did not want to say good-by. Doubting, she took a step
toward the little house, and then the wind from the river blew in her
face and she fancied some one called her by name.
No, she would not go back. His love lifted her above her home, above her
doubting self, on, up to the clouds, the moon, to paradise. Love was an
immense power that hewed its way through the routine of life. It was
eternal, from the creation of the world.
The way was very dark to the grove, but overhead were the stars, and if
for a moment she felt fear, she stopped peering through the trees to
look to them for reassurance. There is no starlight so beautiful as that
of the southern sky where the heavenly bodies are not cold, sparkling
pinpricks, as in the North, but luminous globes that breathe a soft
radiance to the warm earth. They are companions, and the slave who
followed the North Star through the swamp and bed of the black stream
must have felt warmed and comforted by its near and tremulous light,
only later to see it grow distant and cold. So Hertha looked to the
stars for light and courage and with pounding heart at length reached
her trysting-place.
He had not come. It was the hour, she felt sure, for she had set her
watch by the clock in the living-room of the great house. He had never
been late in the morning. Perhaps Miss Patty had detained him, or his
father; sometimes they sat up for a long time, though, she thought,
never so late as this. But he must soon arrive when she would no longer
be alone, but safe from fear with him.
Waiting, she cheered her heart recalling the many pretty things that he
had said to her. Whether, knowing her station as a servant, he realized
that she was happy to be wholly lifted from it, or whether he believed
her really to be above any other woman, he never failed to call her by
some new and lovely name. Yesterday she had been the good fairy who
brought him her best gift in her outstretched hands. Though it was
chill, she threw off her dark coat and in her white dress ran for a
minute out beyond the cypress into the grove. She longed to dance, to
sing, to call him to her in the stillness of the night. Moving a little
among the trees and peering down the long vista of straight trunks and
arching branches, within her heart she pleaded with him to hurry, not to
let her stay here alone. But no figure came to meet her, only a firefly
twinkled in the distance, and above her head a mockingbird gave a sleepy
chirp. The earth was asleep, breathing deep, fragrant breaths, wrapped
in the soft air of night. She only was alert, listening, a vivid spirit
of wakefulness in the deserted grove.
Returning to the gloom of the cypress she put on her coat and waited,
slow-ticking minute following slow-ticking minute, until the young moon
set and the chill wind made her shiver and crouch in terror and
loneliness and miserable shame.
The night that had been so still as she crept back was full of evil
noises. The sand crackled under her feet, and the twigs upon which she
stepped gave a quick, explosive sound. Sometimes she imagined she heard
people coming toward her and left the path for the trees, to wait in
trembling terror until the fancied tread had died away. In one of these
manoeuvers she lost her bearing and stood for many minutes close to
the path, not recognizing it, terrified to go or to remain. And when at
length she found her way again and walked ahead, her little mouth and
childish chin working in a paroxysm of fright, a screech owl called and
made her almost scream with terror. Then she pulled herself together.
She and Tom had often listened to the owls and he had mimicked them. The
thought of him gave her courage and she went on, trembling and
determined, until the end of the path was reached and she could look
upon the open yard and home.
Then she did hear people coming. Off to the right were voices, a girl's
loud, coarse laughter and a man's rough tones. She crouched down that
her white dress might not show among the trees. The figures came into
sight, Maranthy, with old Jim, an ill-natured, ugly fellow, known to
neglect his wife and children. The two walked boldly over the white
sand, and as Hertha watched them the man caught the girl and hugged her
hard. She laughed and swore, pushing him away, and then, with an
animal-like motion, sidled up to him. Together they moved across the
yard, his arm tight about her waist, while she, lolling on his shoulder
and calling on Christ and God to damn him, gave him a smacking kiss upon
the mouth.
The room was reached at last. Hertha tore off her clothes, slipped into
her nightdress, and lay, a little huddled mass of shame and woe, upon
her bed. Her feet and hands were icy cold, her teeth were chattering,
but her brain was on fire. Pride and shame took equal possession of her
spirit. She had risked everything, she had been ready to give
everything, only to find herself despised. Ellen was right, her place
belonged with her own race. She was black, and she must never again
trust the white race that felt for her only an amused tolerance or
scorn. She was black, and hers was the black man's table, the black
man's home, the black man's burial-place. Never again would she think to
enter the white man's world.
And the beauty of her love was wholly gone. The courage with which her
lover had armed her had disappeared, and her affection, that had seemed
to her something pure and delicate, almost holy, became a common lust
that this man had awakened and then, disgusted at his choice of anything
so cheap, had cast aside. Nothing was left to her of the glory and
gladness of the morning.
But while shame and hurt pride swept over her, there came in their wake
an inexpressible relief. She was safe from harm. She was not like
Marantha but just Hertha Williams who had slipped out of her room to see
the stars and then slipped back again. She was safe here, in Tom's room,
at home.
Kneeling beside her bed she prayed for strength, strength to be good
though she was young and pretty and colored. She could not see ahead,
probably it would be wise to go away somewhere, she wished it might be
near Tom--it was hard to be alone; but she must never again trust the
white man's world.
Back in her bed terror crept over her once more and she shook with fear;
but at length, in sheer exhaustion, she lay quiet, and when the first
morning light entered the room it found her asleep.