A LITTLE LUNCHEON PARTY ON THE YACHT "CYPRIANI"
The expectation appeared thoroughly conservative: not a cloud so large
as a man's hand any longer darkened the horizon. At two o'clock next day
Mr. Carstairs's _Cypriani_ rode gayly at her old anchorage. At the rail
stood Varney and Maginnis, hosts of pleasant and guileless mien, their
eyes upon the trim gig which came dancing over the water toward them. In
the gig sat J. Pinkney Hare and his sister, Mrs. Marne, blithely coming
to lunch aboard with their two new friends.
The yacht's return to Hunston had been in all ways different from her
going. She had slipped away like the hunted thing she was, running to
cover with a hold full of fears, shying at every craft that passed, and
yelled after from the shore by a stoutish young man with inimical
opinions in his eye. She had steamed back, early this morning, not
merely without fear, but proudly, her whistle screaming for the
lime-light, her fore-truck flying, so to say, the burgee of vindication;
and the stoutish and inimical young man had come aboard for breakfast
with his new employer at nine o'clock sharp. Such was the measure of the
whitewashing work accomplished by three columns in Mr. Maginnis's
_Gazette_ that morning.
Of the "news value" of those astonishing columns, "the author's double"
(as the _Gazette's_ converted reporters felicitously dubbed him) had had
abundant evidence in the many glances that followed him upon the streets
of Hunston that morning. Varney's errand in town had had to do with
Tommy Orrick. Some search was needed to find the transient tenant of
Kerrigan's loft; but when he was finally located the matter of homes in
New York was discussed and settled in the most satisfactory way in the
world. It was decided that Tommy should remove his Penates to the city
that very evening, where he was to be met at Forty-second Street by a
Mr. Horace O'Hara, an interesting personage who had once been a burglar
but was now in the fish and vegetable way at Fulton Market. Together
they would make their way to the Home. Future plans had to do with an
educative course at the graded schools and other matters so strange and
exalted that one could not hear them mentioned without experiencing the
most benumbing abashment.
The two good friends parted with a handshake, enforced by the young
man--a unique ceremonial which filled the small breast of Thomas with a
conflict of strange emotions; and Varney, having dispatched a telegram
to Mr. O'Hara, and another to Mrs. Marie Duval, who had the home with no
boys in it on 117th Street, had at once turned his face back to the
yacht. He chose the woodland path for his walk, which struck straight
down from the handsome residence street and skirted the river at a
point near the _Cypriani's_ anchorage; and here an incident of interest
befell him. As he sauntered down the path, conscious of a sudden curious
loss of spirits, his attention was caught by the blurred sound of voices
from the street, some fifty yards behind him; and presently the vague
rumble crystallized into something like this:
"... Infernal absence of livery ... Far ... station-master fellow say
it was, Henry?"
The voice was masculine, carefully modulated, decidedly elegant. A
different sort of voice gave answer:
"'E said, sir ... mile, but knowing the hodd way they count distances
away from the cities, sir, I'm 'ardly 'oping to see it under two
mile--hif that."
Varney idly turned. The woods were thick just ahead of him, cutting off
all view of the street; but further on, to the north, there was a break
in the leafy wall, revealing a small slit of patent cement sidewalk.
Soon, as he watched, two pedestrians stepped into view within this frame
of foliage: a tall immaculate-looking man swinging a trim cane, and
behind him a stocky, middle-sized, black-garbed fellow struggling along
under two suit-cases and a roll of umbrellas. In three steps they had
passed across the little open space and were again lost behind the
trees, their voices running once more into an indistinguishable rumble.
Varney, halting in the path, had little doubt who the tall man was. It
was Ferris Stanhope, returning to the home of his boyhood and sublimely
unaware of the nature of the reception which awaited him.
Cordially as Varney loathed the great author, he had no wish to see him
taken by surprise and beaten to a pulp by mob-law. Moreover, if anything
like that happened, he and Peter would be largely responsible, since the
present excitement of feeling had been largely worked up for their
benefit. He had half a mind to go straight after the _insouciant_
visitor now, unpleasant as it would be to have to speak to him, and give
him the fair warning he was entitled to. But he dismissed the impulse as
plainly overdoing his duty: the man was in no possible danger in broad
daylight, and Peter had already promised that he would attend to the
warning business himself.
Now, as they stood calmly chatting at the rail under the brilliant sky,
he told Peter of the author's arrival, and dutifully reminded him of
that promise. Peter renewed it, without enthusiasm. His eyes rested on
the approaching gig with a kind of fascination; and Varney followed his
gaze.
"Isn't Hare dressy, though! Frock-coat and all that ..."
"Yes ... He'll add a needed touch of elegance to the somber setting of
the drama."
"By the way," said Varney presently, "how did Hammerton get away last
night? I believe Ferguson's been dodging me all day, but the fact is
I've never given it a thought."
Peter laughed.
"He's sharp as a tack, that boy is. He played dead till old Ferguson got
first interested, then nervous, and lastly careless. Lay there two hours
without moving; breathed as little as he could do with, and at long
intervals fluttered one eyelid and took a peep how the land lay. After a
while there came a time when the door was left wide open and only one
deckhand in sight. Hammerton floored him with a chair from behind, and
jumped over the rail. She happened to be moving close inshore at the
time, and he was in the woods before the fatheads even got a boat down."
Varney echoed his laugh absently. All morning, since his return from
Hunston, he had felt himself enfolded by a mysterious despondency, which
he had seemed unable either to account for or to shake off. But now, as
the final climax of his business drew near to summon him, he felt his
spirits inexplicably rising again. A certain excitement possessed him;
he was glad that at last his hour had come.
Hardly listening to Peter, he was running over in the most business-like
way the little scheme, mapped out and rehearsed together that morning,
by which the two superfluous guests, the mere "sleepers" in the
orchestra, were to be detached at the proper moment. Yes, certainly; it
was sound and would hold water. So would everything else. Peter's things
had gone ashore two hours before, for he was to remain in Hunston.
Everything had been provided for; the last detail systematically
arranged. A surer scheme and a clearer coast could not possibly have
been contrived or desired.
"At breakfast," continued Peter, "Hammerton suddenly blurted out that,
while he wasn't crazed with conscientiousness as a rule, one thing had
kept him awake last night. Demanded whether we had the nerve to think
that we had simply bought him off with a job. 'Perish the thought,
Charlie,' said I, looking kind of hurt at the bare suggestion. 'Thank
you, Maginnis,' said he, dignified as the President. 'It's an honest
fact that I gave up the chase because I felt all along that you two
fellows couldn't possibly be mixed up in anything underhanded.' Aha!
thinks me to myself ... Eh, Laurence?"
"Just exactly."
"Well, cheer up. It's done every day by our best families. And speaking
of doing underhanded things," said Peter, "our guests approach rapidly.
Up, guards, and at them!"
He took off his terrible Panama and waved it in a friendly manner.
"How-de-do, Mrs. Marne! Morning, candidate! Welcome aboard."
The sister and brother came up the stair, and were cordially greeted by
their hosts.
"Ashore again!" ordered Varney over the side. "There is another guest."
"So we have not kept you waiting after all," cried Mrs. Marne, flashing
a triumphant eye upon her brother. "Mary is not here yet--the prinker!"
She was dark, vivacious for a chaperon, easily on the correct side of
thirty, and arrayed in very light mourning indeed. She had a will: for
it was she who had baited J. Pinkney Hare with sociology and politics to
abandon the law in New York, at which he was doing rather well, and
follow her to Hunston. This was when her husband, a member of Hunston's
oldest family--for there was aristocracy in the town--had left her
widowed the year of their marriage.
"Three times," Hare elucidated to Varney, "did she tell me, 'I'll be
ready in a minute.' And a ten-minute interval elapsed each time, by my
grandfather's trusted chronometer."
"Oh, well," said Varney, "who'd put any trust in a woman who was ready
when she said she'd be? Let's get into the shade."
"Pinky," said Mrs. Marne, sister-wise, as she turned with Varney, "gets
his ideas about women from the comic weeklies."
They sauntered aft, Peter and Hare in the rear.
"Committee meeting at five-thirty?"
"Precisely. And by the bye," began Hare....
The candidate, in his tiny frock coat, with pale gray spats and scarf to
match, looked overdressed in the brilliant sunshine. Yet probably Peter,
whose purple tie blossomed too gorgeously above a blue silk "fancy vest"
of a cut a good deal affected in the early nineties, looked the more
striking of the two.
"He's a fool," declared Peter presently. "The chances are that Ryan has
a barrel of votes salted down where we'll have the devil's own time
tapping them. You can't smoke out a skunk in a minute, I tell you."
Mrs. Marne, in a cushioned chair, was being markedly agreeable to her
host.
"It's my _début_ on a yacht," she was rattling away. "Is there any
special etiquette? Coach me from time to time when you see me fumbling,
won't you? And if there _is_ a code, there is one thing that I move
shall go into it, here and now. Politics is--or are--_barred_ for the
day! Will you make it a rule that whoever mentions it--or them--forfeits
butter, Mr. Varney?"
Varney laughed. "A rank outsider myself," said he, "I'm absolutely
willing. But I fear that in a division the nays would have it."
"You and I," she said, "against Mr. Maginnis and Pinky. A tie. Mary
would have the deciding vote."
"Then you'd lose out," said her brother, whose social manner, it was
developing, differed somewhat from that of his official moments.
"I know women," said Mrs. Marne. "I could lobby Mary over in exactly two
minutes, Mr. Varney. Besides, she is absent at roll-call, you know."
"The point is well taken," said Varney, to whom the thought was anything
but a novelty.
"There she is now," said Peter over their shoulders.
Varney turned and looked ashore at the point where the gig was patiently
waiting. There was no sign of anybody there.
"Upstream," added Peter, and the sudden honk of a motor-horn punctuated
the observation like a full stop.
Two hundred yards above them, a narrow driveway circled down to the
river to an ancient boat-house, and here the gaze of the little party
turned. Where the road curved at the water's edge, there stood a great
white touring-car, shining in the sun like a new pin. Upon the driver's
seat sat a bare-headed young man with a brown face and light sunburned
hair, brushed back. On the farther side of him, gloved hand holding to
the seat back, stood a young girl in a blue linen dress and a rather
conspicuously large hat, also of blue. Both of them were looking off
toward the _Cypriani_. Now the horn tooted again in salutation; and the
girl, catching their eyes, waved her hand and smiled, making a little
gesture indicative of her lack of equipment to navigate the intervening
stretch of water.
Mrs. Marne answered the salute in kind. Reassuring gesticulations were
duly wafted ashore.
"Who's the new swain, Pinky?" demanded Mrs. Marne thoughtfully.
Pinky did not know. The sailing-master, at a word from Varney, hurled an
order to the gig ashore. Then he swept his megaphone upstream, pointing
it straight at the motor:
"The gig is on the way to you now, Miss."
"That's an awfully sweet hat she's wearing," said Mrs. Marne. "I wonder
where she found that shape."
Miss Carstairs nodded her thanks to the sailing-master. The bare-headed
young man sprang down, assisted her to descend, waited with her at the
water's edge, assisted her most thoroughly into the _Cypriani's_ gig. He
was a handsome boy. He stood on the shore looking after the departing
boat, laughing and calling out something.
"We wanted to have luncheon on deck," said Varney, abruptly, to Mrs.
Marne, "as the day is so uncommonly fine. But about noon there came up a
little cloud no larger than a man's hand--it took a telescope to see
it--and the steward, a pronounced conservative, begged us not to trifle
with our luck. It seems too bad to go indoors on such a glorious day."
"But if we were to stay outdoors," she laughed, "would it have been such
a glorious day? These are the questions that make cynics of us all. I am
unhappy, Mr. Varney, because I have to fly the moment luncheon is over.
The Married Women's Culture Club meets at four o'clock. Only fancy!--I
am to read a paper on Immanuel Kant."
Peter, who had known no women in his life and was oppressed with the
thought that Hare's sister was his personal responsibility for the day,
was strolling moodily about the deck, hands thrust deep in his trousers
pocket. Hare hung at the rail, his neat glasses turned upstream.
The gig came alongside and Miss Carstairs mounted the steps, the party
gathered at the head of them to meet her. Peter, as it chanced, greeted
her first. He had been introduced to her, in passing, the night of the
meeting, but now he was dimly conscious that he had rather
underestimated her appearance.
"I am dreadfully sorry to be late," she said. "We went for the shortest
little drive, and all at once it was two o'clock and we were three miles
away."
"You must have done something to the speed-limit, madam," said Peter in
his stiffest manner, "for you are in ample time."
"How do you do, Mr. Hare?"
"Excellently well, thank you, Mary. It is supererogatory to ask you."
"Pinky," said Mrs. Marne, "have that word and I met? I don't seem to
recognize it."
"Good-morning, Mr. Varney." Mary offered him her hand; but, greeting
her, he had turned to pull a chair out of her way, and so missed seeing
it.
"It is a great pleasure to welcome you aboard the yacht, Miss
Carstairs."
"If I seem at all addicted to melancholia to-day," said Mary, "you won't
be surprised, will you? My mother isn't well--really! When I left her an
hour ago, you might have supposed that we were parting for a year. And
then, besides I had an omen--a mysterious warning...."
Varney's gaze became fixed. "A warning?"
She laughed. "A rather queer and scary one! I'll tell you presently."
"My dear," said Mrs. Marne, when Varney had turned to explain the
working of the boat-falls to Hare, "_who_ is he? He is simply
cunning!"
Mary laughed. Hare, who was listening to boat matters with one ear only,
thought it was rather a conscious laugh.
"Only John Richards. He came up in his car yesterday to spend a day with
us. How do you like my hat?"
"It's a love," said Mrs. Marne. "A great big love."
"I trimmed it myself. You recognize the feather, of course?"
They went down to luncheon. The ladies cried out with pleasure at the
prettiness of the little saloon.
The room was darkened, through half-drawn shades, to a pleasant
dimness. The table was round, red, and bare. It was a splendid mass of
flowers. In the center was a great blossoming thing in a silver
basket-frame, so large and high that when they were seated, Hare, who
was neither, could just see Mary over the top of it. About it were four
tall vases of cut roses, two of white, two of red. Button-holes in white
and red lay at three covers, gigantic American Beauties, red, with
flowing white ribbons, at two. And napery, silver, iridescent glass, all
the materialities, were well worthy of so pretty a floral setting.
In short, it was a most alluring bait that Uncle Elbert's yacht had
flung out for Uncle Elbert's daughter.
"These roses," said Mary, raising hers to her lips, "were never grown in
Hunston."
"I want to explain a rule that Mr. Varney and I adopted just now, Mr.
Maginnis," said Mrs. Marne. "Did you hear it? It concerns the two
subjects of butter and politics."
Hare lifted a glass of the _Cypriani's_ excellent sherry and caught his
host's eye. "Mr. Varney! By a pleasant coincidence, we happen to be
gathered here within a day or two of the birthday of one member of our
charming party. The little discrepancy of date is immaterial--am I
right? Why may I not propose the health and great happiness of Miss
Carstairs?"
"Standing!" cried Mrs. Marne, pushing back her chair. "Bravo!"
They stood, glasses raised, turned toward Miss Carstairs, bowing,
saluting her according to their several kinds; and she sat, looking up
at them, laughing, flushed, prettily pleased by the little rite. For
Varney, conscious of the mockery of his felicitations, there had been no
escape. But Hare, who noticed everything, observed that he did not touch
his glass to his lips.
The luncheon progressed merrily. It was evident from the beginning that
it was to be a pronounced success. Only Peter was stiff and bored; and
even he grew somewhat enlivened before the ceremonies ended. There was
Scotch and soda for the gentlemen, and he did not spurn it when the
decanters passed. Varney, whose want of appetite pained McTosh, was a
conversational tower of strength. But his talk was false-faced talk, his
mirth was lying mirth, his smile a painted smile. Uncle Elbert's
daughter sat at his left, as befitted a guest of honor. Her eyes, when
she looked at him, were kind and friendly, but it early became his habit
not to meet them; for he always saw behind that--saw them changed as he
was destined to see them within the hour....
"So you're quite alive and well to-day!" she said to him presently.
"Will you believe that I picked up the _Gazette_ this morning with fear
and trembling?"
"Oh--thank you--yes! We eluded Mr. Hackley's well-meant attentions with
marvelous dexterity and success."
"Ah, you still don't take it seriously, I see. I'm going to make one
more effort to frighten you to-day--but I'm afraid you are one of these
terribly reckless people who think being safe is too tame to be
interesting. What do you think of our poor little city, Mr. Varney?"
"I? I assure you," he said, turning a gay face toward her, "I think it
positively the most exciting town I ever saw in my life. But then, of
course, I 've had unusual privileges. What is much more important--what
do you think of it?"
"Of course, I love it. My mother went here to boarding school a great,
great many years ago. No, not that--some years ago. She fell in love
with the place on account of the scenery, and the air, which she says is
fresher than you can get in other places. Personally, I believe that the
same quality can be had elsewhere, but she says not at all. So when
we--left New York, nothing would do for her but to come straight here."
"But don't you find it a little dull?"
"Dull! Why," she cried, after a moment, "you talk exactly the way she
does."
"May I offer you an olive?"
She took it daintily in her fingers, bit it and resumed: "I suppose your
metropolitan idea is that a person would be buried alive in Hunston?"
A sunny shaft broke in from without and became entangled with her hair,
which was in some ways so curiously like it. McTosh, whose eye was
everywhere, promptly lowered a shade two inches--the one blunder he made
that day.
"Isn't it?"
"That would depend altogether on the person."
"Me."
"I do think so, decidedly."
"Really you and my mother would be very congenial."
"McTosh, the bread," said Peter's cool voice.
Mrs. Marne, who had been interested by Peter's taciturnity and
fascinated by his waistcoat, had been leading that ordinarily masterful
man something of a conversational dance. Detached for the moment by his
demand for provender, she called across the table: "Mary, I herewith
invite you to attend the Culture Club meeting at four o'clock this
afternoon, to lead the applause for my paper on Immanuel Kant. Pinky
wrote it and--"
"Before any court in the land," said Hare, lifting his glance above
squab _en casserole_, "I am prepared to establish my innocence of this
charge."
"If he positively will not take no for an answer," continued Mrs. Marne,
"you may bring John Richards along. No claret, thank you, Mr. Maginnis.
Men, it is true, are not admitted to the sacred mysteries, but I will
arrange to have him seated on the piazza where he may eavesdrop the
whole thing through the long French window."
"Unfortunately," said Mary, "he has to go to Albany this afternoon, I
believe."
"To resume our conversation, Mrs. Marne," said Peter.
"I shouldn't if I were you," Hare recommended. "If memory serves, it was
hardly worth it. Why not, instead, permit me to tell the story of the
seven fat men of Kilgore?"
McTosh, of the gum-shoe tread, shuffled courses dextrously. An
under-steward assisted in the presentation of the viands, another
manipulated dishes in the hidden precincts of the pantry. The service
was swift and noiseless, but not more so than the passage of time. The
hands of the little clock fastened against the forward bulkhead already
stood at quarter after three.
Mary's eyes, which had been resting on the candidate, turned back to
Varney, and they were shining. "Seriously, Mr. Varney," she said in a
lowered voice--"how could any one possibly be buried in a town where
Mr. Hare is?"
"Mr. Hare?"
She nodded. "Because he is so _alive_! Why just to live in the same town
with him is an inspiration. To be friends with him--well, that is all
you ever need to keep from feeling buried alive! He isn't listening, is
he?"
"No," said Varney, "he is, I believe, telling the story of the seven fat
men of Kilgore."
"If you wish to hand bouquets to Pinky for a while," called Mrs. Marne,
aside, "I will see that you are not disturbed, Mary."
"Thank you, Elsie, but it's your sisterly duty to listen to the story.
Mr. Hare," she presently went on, to Varney, "had a great career ahead
of him in New York--Judge Prentiss told me so--and he kicked it over
without a quiver and came up here where there isn't any glitter or
fireworks, but only plain hard work. Politics is only an incident with
him. No one will ever understand all that he has done for Hunston,
without any thought of return--working with all his heart and his head
and his hands."
"Ha! Ha!" said Peter down the table. "That reminds me--"
"You have known him a long time, I suppose?" asked Varney.
"Yes," she laughed, "but he has known me longer--ever since I was a
very little girl. That is why he calls me by my name, which gives him a
great moral advantage. I call him Mister because I didn't know him when
he was a very little boy. I have figured it all out, and I couldn't
have, because he was thirteen when I was born. Besides, you can't begin
to know people till you have reached a certain age. Can you?"
"Not to say know, I should think."
"Say six," said Miss Carstairs. "That's liberal, I think. Well, he was
nineteen _then_, and I never even saw him till seven years afterwards,
anyway. That made him twenty-six, which was much too late. Now he says
that I should call him by his name, but of course I'm not going to do
it."
"It is hard to change an old habit in a thing like that."
"Oh, I don't mind the hardness of it. But whoever heard of calling a
Mayor by his first name? Call a Mayor Pinky! The thought is ridiculous.
Isn't it, Mr. Hare?"
But Hare was engrossed with a conversation of his own, now turned upon
economic lines.
"Everything in the world that goes up must come down," he was saying
didactically, "except prices. They alone defy the laws of gravity."
Peter challenged the aphorism, wordily. Mrs. Marne smiled at Mary across
the flower-sweet table.
"No," answered Hare presently. "Money isn't everything, but it is most.
It makes the mare go; also the nightmare. It talks, it shouts, and in
the only language that needs no interpreter. I may describe it, without
fear of contradiction, as the Esperanto of commerce."
"Clever, Pinky!" called his sister, derisively. "Confess that you
rehearsed this before a mirror."
The luncheon ended. If anything had been wanting to prove how agreeable
it had been, it appeared now in the pretty reluctance with which the
ladies rose. There was the customary pushing back of chairs, smoothing
down of garments, recovering of handkerchiefs from beneath the board.
The room and the table were the objects of new compliments, given in
farewell.
"Who would have dreamed," said Mary, looking back from the door at her
father's perfectly appointed room, "that yachts were as nice as this?"
"And to think," said Mrs. Marne, "that it was all done by a Mere Man."
McTosh, the mere man in question, blushed violently behind his deft
hand.
They stepped up on deck into the shade of a great striped awning, and
loitered along the side, caught by the beauty of the late summer scene.
Sky and water and green wood blended into practised perfectness. The
rippling water was blue as the heavens, which was very blue indeed. The
sun kissed it like a lover.
"Will some one kindly tell me," demanded Hare, referring to his sister's
remark, "how the superstition arose that men have no taste?"
"I have read," said Mary idly, her back against the rail, "that it was
invented by the authority who started the slander about women's having
no sense of humor."
"Why, they haven't, have they?"
"You're wrong there, Hare," said Peter, out of his fathomless ignorance.
"For my part I think that women are often more amusing than men."
"Of course, Maginnis, of course. The point is that it never dawns on
them."
They were strung out along the after deck, a gay and friendly company,
exactly as Varney had pictured them in his thoughts. From the hatch
emerged the stewards, in stately processional, bearing coffee and
cigars, their paraphernalia and appurtenances. Twenty feet away, on the
other side, was to be seen the sailing-master's wife, sitting under
orders, sedate, matronly, knitting a pale blue shawl and giving to the
bright scene an air of indescribable domesticity.
"Women," said Mrs. Marne to Varney, "have a splendid sense of humor. I
am a woman and I know. True, we keep a tight grip on our wit when we are
with men, because, whatever men may say in moments like these, they do
loathe and despise a comical woman. But when we are alone together--ah,
dearie me, what funny things we do say! Don't we, Mary?"
Varney, to show himself how cool he was, was lighting a cigarette, and
had just perceived with annoyance that his hand shook.
"At least," he answered easily, "no man will ever disprove that, since
no man has ever had the pleasure of being present when women are alone
together. I can recommend the Invincibles, Hare."
Peter, as one sensitive to the duties of host, now begged Mrs. Marne to
let him show her something of the yacht. He mentioned the crew's
quarters and the--er--butler's pantry as points which he particularly
desired to bring to her attention.
"I'd _love_ to see them! Oh--I must take just one peep before I fly."
The trio started forward in a whirl of her animated talk, Peter leading
with a dutiful face, Hare strutting solemnly along in the rear. Mary
glanced at Varney.
"Aren't you going to show me your butler's pantry, too?"
"Rather!" he said, starting with her up the deck. "But I want you to see
the whole ship, you know, much more thoroughly than Mrs. Marne has time
for--and to take a little spin--"
He was interrupted by an exaggerated cry from the lady last mentioned,
who, happening to glance down at her watch, had stopped short at the
cabin-hatch in great dismay.
Now she turned back to Varney crying: "Oh! oh! Mr. Varney, it's _twenty
minutes to four_! I must fly to my Culture _this instant_!"
At that, for Varney, the little party lost the last traces of its false
good-fellowship and stood out for what it was. Mrs. Marne's hurried
departure slightly dislocated his carefully-laid plans; it was evident
that her brother had no intention of going with her. Over her
unconscious head, his eye caught Peter's in a faint sweep which
indicated the little candidate.
"Oh--must you, Mrs. Marne?" said Varney, with civil regret.
"I _must_! I wish--oh, how I wish!--that culture had never been
invented. The world lasted a long time without it, I'm sure. I detest to
eat and run, yet what else can possibly be done by the author of
'_Ideals of Immanuel Kant_'?"
"It is too bad," said Varney, "but if duty really calls, I suppose there
is nothing for it but to have your boat ready at once."
"I ought to go, too," said Mary.
A chorus of protests annihilated the thought. Mrs. Marne declared that
she would never, no, never, forgive herself if she broke up so
delightful a party. It was unanimously decided that the other guests
were to remain long enough to be shown something of the yacht. Mention
of a little spin down the river was once more casually thrown out.
Events moved swiftly. The gig was manned, waiting. Varney under cover of
issuing orders, found opportunity to say a hurried word to Peter. Mrs.
Marne approached Mary, who was discussing yachts with Hare, to make
adieu. Suddenly the large face of Maginnis loomed over her shoulder.
"Good-bye, Miss Carstairs--you'll excuse me, won't you?" said he,
briefly. "I--I thought perhaps I'd just walk in with Mrs. Marne."
Mary repressed an inclination to smile. "Certainly, Mr. Maginnis.
Good-bye. I've enjoyed it a great, great deal." And to Pinkney Hare she
added: "You are going over the yacht with us, of course?"
Mrs. Marne embarked in a shower of farewells. Peter, however, loitered
at the head of the stairs, and the gig waited at the foot of them.
Varney stood at Miss Carstairs's elbow, cool, smiling, controlling the
situation with entire and easy mastery.
"It occurs to me, Miss Carstairs," he said, "that I should begin our
tour by showing you our sailing-master's wife, Mrs. Ferguson--decidedly
the cultured member of the ship's household. She reads Shakespeare. She
recites Browning. I dare say that she even sings a little Tennyson. You
would enjoy meeting her, I am sure. Will you step around the other side
for a moment?"
"How exceedingly interesting," murmured Hare, falling in beside them.
"Years ago, I used to read quite a bit of poetry myself."
The gig still waited at the foot of the stairs. Mrs. Marne, waving
upward last adieus to Mary and Varney, called: "Do hurry, Mr. Maginnis.
I'm outrageously late."
But Peter, who had more important matters than Kant on his mind at that
moment, answered in a low, hurried voice: "Don't be alarmed, Mrs.
Marne--but I _must_ see your brother at once about--a critical matter.
Oh, I say, Hare."
The candidate, now some distance up the deck with the others, stopped
and looked back.
"May I have a word with you, please?"
Hare turned, with only a polite show of reluctance to his host and Miss
Carstairs, and drew near. Politics interested him far more than the
staunchest ship that ever sailed.
Five minutes later when Varney, having launched Miss Carstairs and the
sailing-master's wife upon a strictly innocuous conversation, came
around the deck-house again, neither the candidate nor his sister was
anywhere to be seen. Peter--he who had engaged to accompany the
lady--stood alone on the sunny deck, staring off at the returning gig,
his great hands clenched in his coat-pockets. He met his friend with a
calm face.
"It's all over but the shouting," he said. "They've just landed. I told
Hare that there was a plot on against your life--which is very likely
true by the way--said he and I must have a conference at once without
alarming Miss Carstairs. I had to draw it pretty strong, you can bet, to
make him go without telling her good-bye."
"You've got the letters," said Varney hurriedly. "Go to see Mrs.
Carstairs the first thing--make the explanations. Call up Uncle Elbert
and tell him six-thirty for the carriage at the dock. Be sure to explain
to Hare and Mrs. Marne at once--prearranged visit to her father, kept
quiet for--any good reason."
"Of course," said Peter. "Well, I must hurry along. I promised to
overtake them in the woods. Oh, the lies I've told in this ten minutes!"
He turned and picked up his hat and cane to go.
To Varney, the simple act drove home with great force the stark fact
that he was face to face with his business at last. Peter, holding out
his hand to say good-bye, was struck to speculation by the look of that
eye.
"Well, good luck, Larry!"
"In heaven's name--what does that mean?"
"Hanged if I know," said Peter, frankly. "I'll see you in New York--if
not sooner." With which cryptic observation he clattered down the stairs
to the gig.
Varney beckoned the sailing-master from the quarter-deck.
"I am returning to New York, as I told you, Ferguson, with the young
lady, Mr. Carstairs's daughter. Start as soon as possible."
The sailing-master stared at the deck. "Ready at once, sir."
Mrs. Ferguson's fondness for classical poetry was no part of any stage
make-believe. Varney, having found her the day before sitting on a coil
of rope with Mr. Pope's _Odyssey_ from the ship's library, had conceived
a veneration for her taste. Now, as he drew near them again, she was
telling Mary that though Tennyson was fine for the purty language, it
was really Browning who understood the human heart. And down in the
engine room they had everything ready for the bell.
"Have you two settled the poets' hash yet?" asked Varney. "I hope you
didn't make the mistake of preferring Tennyson to Browning, Miss
Carstairs? Thank you very much for entertaining our guest so nicely,
Mrs. Ferguson."
"What a wonder that woman is!" said Mary, looking back at her as they
walked away. "I had thought that I was rather good at liking poetry, but
she leaves me feeling like the dunce at the kindergarten."
She turned and looked out over the water, caught anew by the shining
landscape. They stood side by side in the shade of the wide low awning.
Half a mile to their left huddled the town, whither the others were
already on their way; a few hundred yards behind them stood the big
white Carstairs house, handsomely cresting the hill. From many miles to
the northward a breeze danced down the river, and played capriciously
over their faces, and so whisked on about its business. All the world
looked smiling and very good.
Suddenly a bell tinkled. There was a slight splash, a faint rumble and
quiver.
Varney laughed. "The passion for poetry," said he, "is a curious and
complex thing. Its origin is shrouded in the earliest dawn of
civilization. It appears in man's first instinctive gropings toward
written self-expression--"
"Why," said Mary, in sudden surprise, "_we are going!"_