GUILDFORD
Carolina never forgot that morning. She was up at four o'clock, and, by
a previous arrangement with old Aunt Calla, the cook, she had a cup of
coffee at dawn. Aunt Calla brought it into the dining-room herself.
"'Scuse me, honey, fer waiting awn you myself, but do you reckon I could
'a' got dat no 'count fool, Lily, to git up en wait awn ennybody at dis
time in de mawnin'? Not ef she knowed huh soul gwine be saved by doin'
it. Dese yere chillen ob mine is too fine to wuk lake dere mammy does."
"But how did you manage to wake up so early?" asked Carolina.
"Lawd, honey, I'se done nussed sick chillen tell I sleeps wid one eye
open from habit. En when I see what a pretty day it gwine turn out, en
when I see dat en de fust five minutes you laid eyes awn him, you done
cotched de beau what half de young ladies in Souf Calliny done set dere
caps for, I says to myself, 'Ole 'ooman, ef you wants to see courtin' as
is courtin', you jes' hump doze ole rheumatiz laigs ob yours, en get dar
'fore dey suspicion it demselves!' Law, Mis' Calline, how you is
blushing! Ump! ump!"
"Here, Aunt Calla, take this for your trouble, and go and see if Mr. La
Grange has come," cried Carolina.
"Why, Mis' Calline, dis yere will buy me a new bunnet! Thank you,
_ma'am_. Yas'm, dah he is! I kin tell de way Mist' Moultrie rides wid
my eyes shut. He rides lake one ob dese yere centipedes!"
Old Calla made it a point to see the riders mount. The sun was just
coming into view, sending the mists rolling upwards in silvery clouds,
when Carolina stepped out of the door. Her habit was of a bluish
violet, so dark that it was almost black. It matched the colour of her
eyes. Her hair caught the tinge of the sun and held it in its shining
meshes.
Moultrie La Grange was waiting for her at the foot of the steps.
He held the mare Araby by the bridle, and leaned on the saddle of his
own mare, Scintilla, shielding his eyes.
"Good morning,--Moultrie."
"Is that you, Miss Carolina? The sun, or something blinds me."
Carolina had heard it all many times before. Why, then, this difference?
She pretended to herself that she did not know, but she did know, and
was happy in the knowing. He was so handsome! She gloried in his looks.
She felt as she had felt when she stood before the Hermes of Praxiteles,
and wondered, if such glorious beauty should ever come to life, how she
could _bear_ it!
Moultrie La Grange was not considered handsome by everybody. His beauty
was too cold--too aloof--for the multitude to appreciate. But does the
ordinary tourist go to Olympia?
Carolina had rather dreaded the four miles to Enterprise, if their way
should lie over the dusty highway of yesterday. But she was not
surprised; in fact, it seemed in keeping with what she had expected of
him when he struck off through the woods, and she found herself, not
only on the most perfect animal she had ever ridden, but in an enchanted
forest.
Moultrie led the way both in conversation and in direction, and Carolina
found herself glad to follow. His sarcasm, his wit, and the poetry of
his nature were displayed without affectation. She kept looking at him
eagerly, gladly, and yet expectantly. What was she waiting for? He
discussed men but not deeds; amusements but not occupation; designs but
not achievements. She wondered what he did with his time. He was
strong, magnetic, gentle, charming. His voice was melodious. His manner
full of the fineness of the old South.
Yet there was a vague lack in him somewhere. He just failed to come up
to her ideal of what a man should be. Wherein lay this intangible lack?
Suddenly they emerged from the woods and struck the highway, and in
another moment they were in Enterprise.
Not a breath of life was anywhere visible. Although it was six o'clock,
not a wreath of smoke curled upward from any chimney. They rode through
the sleeping town in silence.
"Now here," said Moultrie, "is a very remarkable town. It is, I may
say, the only town in the world which is completely finished. Most
towns grow, but not a nail has been driven in Enterprise, to my
knowledge, since I was born. This town is perfectly satisfactory to its
inhabitants _just as it is_!"
Against her will Carolina laughed. His tone was irresistible.
"Ought you to make fun of your own--your home town?" she asked.
"My more than that! Enterprise yields me my bread--sometimes."
Carolina looked at him. He pointed with his whip at the shed on the
railroad platform.
"I am telegraph operator there six months in the year. I teach a
country school in winter."
If he had struck her in the face with that same riding-whip, the red
would not have flamed into Carolina's cheeks with more sudden fury. She
dug her spurless heel into Araby's side, and the mare jumped with a
swerve which would have unseated most riders. Moultrie looked at her in
swift admiration, but she would not look at him. She struck her horse,
and, with a mighty stride, Araby got the lead and kept it for a mile,
even from Scintilla. Then the man overtook her and reached out and laid
a hand on Carolina's bridle hand, and looked deep into her eyes and
said:
"Why did you do that? Why did you try to escape from me? Don't you
know that you _never can_?"
And all the time Carolina's heart was beating heavily against her side,
and her brain was spinning out the question over and over, over and
over:
"Oh, how can he? How can he be satisfied with that? How can he endure
himself!"
It was not the lack of money, it was the lack of ambition in the man at
her side, which stung her pride until it bled.
"Better go West on a cattle ranch," she thought, with bitter passion.
"Better hunt wolves for the government. Better take the trail with the
Indians than to lie down and rot in such a manner! And _such_ a man!"
But suddenly a realization came to her of how marked her resentment
would seem to him if he should discover its cause, and she hastened to
play a part. But he was in no danger of discovering, because he did not
even suspect. All the young fellows he knew, no matter how aristocratic
their names, were at work for mere pittances at employments no
self-respecting men would tolerate for a moment, because they offered no
hope of betterment or promotion. Men with the talent to become lawyers,
artists, bankers, and brokers were teaching school for less than Irish
bricklayers get in large cities. Therefore, it could not be alleged
that they were incapable of earning more or of occupying more dignified
positions. It was simply the lack of ambition--the inertia of the
South--which they could not shake off. It is the heritage of the
Southern-born.
Presently Moultrie again pointed with his whip:
"Over yonder is Sunnymede, our place. Poor old Sunnymede! Mortgaged to
its eyes, and with all its turpentine and timber gone! Guildford is
intact. We just skirt the edge of Sunnymede riding to Guildford. And
right where you see that tall blasted pine standing by itself is where I
made one of my usual failures. I'm like the man with the ugly mule, who
always backed. He said if he could only hitch that mule with his head
to the wagon, he could get there. So, if my failures were only turned
wrong side out, I'd be wealthy."
Carolina tried to smile. Moultrie continued:
"Once I thought I'd try to make some money, so I sold some timber to a
Yankee firm who wanted fine cypress, and with the money I constructed a
terrapin crawl. I knew how expensive terrapin are, and, if there is one
thing I do know about, it is terrapin. So I canned a few prize-winners,
and sent them to New York, and got word that they would take all I could
send. Well, with that I began to feel like a Jay Gould. I could just
see myself drinking champagne and going to the opera every night. So I
immediately raised some mo' money in the same way,--out of the
Yankees,--organized a small company, and built a canning factory. The
lumber company was interested with me and advanced me all the money I
wanted. So I got the thing well started, and left special word with the
foreman, a cracker named Sharpe, to be sure and not can the claws, then
I went off to New York to enjoy myself. I stayed until all my money was
gone and then came home, intending to enjoy the wealth my foreman had
built up in my absence. But what do you reckon that fool had done? Why,
he had turned the work over to the niggers, and they had canned the
terrapin just so,--claws, eyebrows, and all! Well, of course, the New
York people went back on me,--wrote me the most impudent letters I ever
got from anybody. It just showed me that Yankees can never hope to be
considered gentlemen. Why, they acted as if I had cheated them! Said
they had advertised largely on my samples, and had lost money and credit
by my dishonest trickery. Just as if _I_ were to blame! Then, of
course, the Yankee lumbermen got mad, too, and foreclosed the mortgage
and liquidated the company, and left me as poor as when I went in. I
believe they even declare that I owe them money. Did you ever hear of
such a piece of impudence?"
"Never," said Carolina, coolly, "if you mean on your part! You did
everything that was wrong and nothing that was right. And the worst of
it is that you are morally blind to your share of the blame."
"Why, Miss Carolina, what do you mean? I didn't go to lose their money.
It hit me just as hard as it did them. I didn't make a cent."
"But the money that you lost wasn't yours to lose," cried Carolina,
hotly.
"No, but I didn't do wrong intentionally. You can't blame a man for a
mistake."
"There is such a thing as criminal negligence," said the girl,
deliberately. "You had no business to trust an affair where your honour
was pledged to an incompetent cracker foreman, and go to New York on the
company's money, even if you did think you would earn the money to pay
it back. How do you ever expect to pay it?"
"I don't expect to pay it at all, and I reckon those Yankees don't
expect it, either."
"No, I don't suppose they do," said Carolina, bitterly.
"Well, if they are satisfied to lose it, and have forgotten all about
it, would you bother to pay it back if you were in my place?"
"I would pay it back if I had to pay it out of my life insurance and be
buried in a pine coffin in the potter's field! And as to those
Northerners having forgotten it,--don't you believe it! They have
simply laid it to what they call the to-be-expected dishonesty of the
South when dealing with the North. The South calls it 'keeping their
eyes peeled,' 'being wide-awake,' 'not being caught napping,' or catch
phrases of that order. But the strictly honest business man calls it
dishonest trickery, and mentally considers all Southerners inoculated
with its poison. Do you know what Southern credit is worth in the
North?"
Moultrie only looked sulky, but Carolina went on, spurred by her own
despair and disillusionment.
"Well, you wouldn't be proud of it if you did! And just such a tolerant
view of a thoroughly wrong transaction as you have thus divulged is
responsible. Colonel Yancey was right. The South is heart-breaking!"
"Do you care so much?" asked Moultrie, softly.
Carolina lifted herself so proudly that the mare danced under her. She
saw that she had gone too far. She also felt that error had mocked her.
She had despaired of Moultrie's blind and false point of view when the
Light of the world was at hand. Immediately her thought flew upwards.
But with Carolina absorbed in her work, and Moultrie puzzling over the
sudden changes in her behaviour, it could not be said that the remainder
of the ride was proving as pleasant as each had hoped. However, a
perfect day, a fine animal, and the spirits of youth and enthusiasm are
not to be ignored for long, and presently Carolina began to feel
Guildford in the air. She looked inquiringly at Moultrie, and he
answered briefly:
"In another mile." But there was a look in his eyes which made
Carolina's heart beat, for it was the glance of comprehension which one
soul flings to another in passing,--sometimes never to meet again,
sometimes which leads to mating.
In another five minutes Moultrie raised his arm.
"There!"
Carolina reined in and Araby stood, tossing her slim head, raising her
hoofs, champing her bit, and snuffing at the breeze which came to her
red nostrils, laden with the breath of piny woods and balsam. Moultrie,
sitting at parade rest on Scintilla and watching Carolina catch her
breath almost with a sob, said to himself: "She feels just as that horse
acts."
Carolina could find no words, nor did she dare trust herself. She was
afraid she would break down. She lifted her gauntleted hand and the
horses drew together and moved forward.
For more than a mile an avenue as wide as a boulevard led in a straight
line, lined on each side by giant live-oaks. Ragged, unkempt shrubbery,
the neglect of a lifetime, destroyed the perfectness of the avenue, but
the majesty of those monarchs of trees could not be marred. The sun was
only about an hour high, and the rays came slantingly across meadows
whose very grasses spoke of fertility and richness. The glint of the
river occasionally flashed across their vision, and between the
bird-notes, in the absolute stillness, came the whispering of the
distant tide.
At the end of the avenue lay the ruined stones of Guildford.
Carolina sprang down, flung her bridle-rein to Moultrie, and ran
forward. She would not let him see her eyes. But she stumbled once,
and by that he knew that she was crying. They were, however, tears of
joy and thanksgiving. Guildford! Her foot was on its precious turf.
These stones had once been her father's home. And she was free, young,
strong, and empowered to build it up, a monument to the memory of her
ancestors. Every word which Mrs. Goddard had prophesied had come true,
and Carolina's first thought was a repetition of her words:
"See what Divine Love hath wrought!"
When she came back, instead of a tear-stained face, Moultrie saw one of
such radiance that her beauty seemed dazzling. Where could be found
such tints of colouring, such luminous depths in eyes, such tendrils of
curling hair, such a flash of teeth, such vivid lips, and such a
speaking smile? As he bent to receive her foot in his hand, he trembled
through all his frame, and, as he felt her light spring to her mare's
back, he would not have been at all surprised to discover that she had
simply floated upward and vanished from his earthly sight to join her
winged kindred. But, as she gathered up her reins and watched him
mount, it was a very businesslike angel who spoke to him, and one whose
brain, if the truth must be told, was full of turpentine.
"Now, let's explore," she said. "I have paid my respects to the shrine
of my forefathers, now let's see what I have to sell my turpentine
farmers."
"Your what?" asked the man, with the amused smile a man saves for the
pretty woman who talks business.
"I am going to sell the orchard turpentine rights of Guildford to get
money for building," she said, in a matter-of-fact tone.
"And I was thinking of you in a white robe playing a harp!" he said,
with a groan.
"I often wear a white robe, and I play a harp quite commendably,
considering that I have studied it since I was nine years old, but when
I am working, I don't wear my wings. They get in my way."
Carolina by instinct rode to an elevation which commanded a view of the
pine forests of Guildford.
"How much do I own?" she asked.
"As far as you can see in that direction. Over here your property runs
into ours just where you see that broad gap."
"Why don't you rebuild Sunnymede?"
"No money!" he said, with a shrug.
"You have plenty of fallen timber and acres of stumpage to sell to the
patent turpentine people."
"I don't know. I have never heard it discussed. We wouldn't sell to
Yankees. We feel that we wouldn't have come to grief with the terrapin
affair if we had been dealing with Southerners."
"Who are there to discuss? Who owns it with you?" asked Carolina,
calmly ignoring the absurdity of his remarks.
"My brother and sister--" He paused abruptly, and then said: "You are
sure to hear it from others, so I will tell you myself. The La Grange
family skeleton shall be shown to you by no less a hand than my own! My
brother has made a very--I hardly know what to call it. It is an
unfortunate marriage, since no one knows who the girl is. When you saw
me in New York, I was hoping to prevent their marriage, but it was too
late. They had eloped and had been married immediately on arriving in
New York. As soon as her aunt, with whom she lived, learned that Flower
had eloped with my brother, she sent for me. She had been a great
invalid, and the excitement had upset her so that when I arrived she
looked as if she had not an hour to live. She caught me by the arm and
said: 'Flower must not marry a La Grange. She is not my niece nor any
relative of mine. Her mother was--' and with that her speech failed.
She struggled as I never saw a being struggle to speak the one word
more,--the one word needful,--and, failing, she fell back against her
pillow--dead!"
Carolina's face showed her horror. He felt soothed by her understanding
and went on, in a low, pained voice.
"It ruined my life. And it has ruined Winfield's."
"And the girl," said Carolina, in a tense voice, "Flower!"
"It has ruined hers. They are the most unhappy couple I ever saw. And
more so since the baby came."
"It will all come right," declared Carolina, straightening herself.
"You will discover that Flower is entitled to a name, and that your
worst fears are incorrect."
"My worst fears--" began Moultrie. Then he stopped abruptly. "I cannot
explain them to you," he said.
"I know what you mean. But remember that I, too, have seen Flower. I
saw her that day, and I say to you that not one drop of negro blood
flows in that girl's veins, and your brother's child is safe."
"You think so?" he exclaimed, moved by the earnestness of her voice and
the calm conviction of her manner. Then he shook his head.
"It seems too good to be true."
"I can understand," she said, "the terrible strain you are all under,
but, believe me, it will all come out right."
"They think the baby is bewitched,--that he has been voodooed,--if you
know what that means. The negroes declare that an evil spirit can be
seen moving around whatever spot the child inhabits."
"What utter nonsense!" cried Carolina. "I hope your brother has too
much sense, too much religion, to encourage such a belief."
"My poor brother believes that the devil has marked him for his own."
"Does your brother believe in a devil?" asked Carolina.
"Why, don't you?" asked Moultrie, in a shocked tone.
"I was not aware that any enlightened person did nowadays," answered
Carolina, with a lift of her chin.
The movement irritated her companion far more than her words, just as
Carolina had intended it to.
There are some subjects which cannot be argued. They must be obliterated
by a contempt which bites into one's self-love.
The mare saved the situation by a soft whinny. She turned her head
expectantly, and, following her eyes, the riders saw the tall, lithe
figure of a man making his way toward them through the underbrush.
Moultrie gave vent to an exclamation.
"What is it?" asked Carolina.
"Oh, only a bad negro who haunts places where he has no business to. He
is a perfect wonder with horses, and broke in that mare you are riding,
who will follow him anywhere without a bridle, pushing her nose under
his arm like any dog who thrusts a muzzle into your palm. He is always
up to something. From present appearances, I should say that he had
probably been bleeding your trees."
The negro, hearing voices, stopped, glanced in their direction, and
promptly disappeared. Carolina only had time to notice that he was very
black, but she followed him in thought, mentally denying dishonesty and
declaring that harm could not come to her through error in any form.
She was struck, too, by the manner in which her sensitive, high-bred
mare lifted her pretty head and looked after his retreating form, pawing
the earth impatiently and sending out little snuffling neighs which were
hardly more than bleatings. Surely, if a man had the power to call forth
devoted love from such an animal, there must be much good in him!
"What makes you so quiet?" asked Moultrie, breaking in on her thought.
Carolina looked at him abruptly and decided her course of action.
"You have told me of the skeleton in your closet. Let me be equally
frank and tell you of mine. I am a Christian Scientist."
"A what?"
"A Christian Scientist!"
"I never heard of one," said the young man, simply. "What is it?"
For the second time the girl's face flushed with a vicarious
mortification.
"It is a new form of religion founded on a perfect belief in the life of
Christ and a literal following of His commandments to His disciples,
regardless of time," said Carolina, slowly.
Moultrie allowed a deep silence to follow her words. Then he drew a
long breath.
"I think I should like that," he said. "Does it answer all your
questions?"
"All! Every one of them!" she answered, with the almost too eager
manner of the young believer in Christian Science. But an eagerness to
impart good news and to relieve apparent distress should be readily
forgiven by a self-loving humanity. Curiously, however, the most blatant
ego is generally affronted by it.
"I was raised a Baptist," he said, reluctantly, "but I reckon I never
was a very good one, for I never got any peace from it."
"My religion gives peace."
"And my prayers were never answered."
"My religion answers prayers."
"Not even when I lifted my heart to God in earnest pleading to spare my
brother the unhappiness I felt sure would follow his marriage. _How_ I
prayed to be in time to prevent it! God never heard me!"
"My religion holds the answer to that unanswered prayer."
"Not even when I prayed, lying on the floor all night, for the life of
my father."
"My religion heals the sick."
He turned to her eagerly.
"Do you believe so implicitly in Christ's teachings that you can
reproduce His miracles?" he cried.
"Christ never performed any miracles. He healed sickness through the
simplest belief in the world,--or rather an understanding of His
Father's power. That same privilege of understanding is open to me--and
to you. You have the power within you at this very moment to heal any
disease, if you only know where to look for the understanding to show
you how to use it."
"Do you believe that?"
"I do better than believe it. I understand it. I know it."
"Is there a book which will tell me how to find it?"
"Yes."
"Will you order it for me, or tell me where to order it?"
"It is a very expensive book," said Carolina, hesitatingly, thinking of
the telegraph-office.
"How expensive?"
"Three dollars."
"Do you call that expensive for what you promise it will do?"
When Carolina looked at him, he saw that she was smiling, but there were
tears in her eyes. And he understood.
"You only said that to try me."
And she nodded. Her heart was too full of mingled emotions for her to
speak. She had loved, despised, been proud of, and mortified for this
man,--all with poignant, pungent vehemence,--during this three-hour
ride, and at the last he had humbled and rebuked her by his childlike
readiness to believe the greatest truth of the ages. She sat her horse,
biting her lips to keep back the tears.
"Give me just one fact to go on," he begged.
"Do you read your Bible?"
"I used to, till I found I was getting not to believe in it. Then I
stopped for my dead father's sake. He believed in it implicitly."
"Then you have read the fourteenth chapter of John?"
"I got fifty cents when I was twelve years old for learning it by
heart."
"Then run it over in your own mind until you come to the twelfth verse.
When you get to that, say it aloud."
"'Verily, verily I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that
I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because
I go unto my Father.'"
He did not glance her way again, which Carolina noticed with gratitude.
It showed that he was not accepting it for her sake. Presently he spoke
again.
"Did you yourself ever heal any one?"
"Through my understanding of Divine Love, I healed Gladys Yancey," she
said, quietly.
The man's face flushed with his earnestness. He lifted his hat and rode
bareheaded.
"Do you remember what the father of the dumb child said? 'Lord, I
believe! Help thou mine unbelief!'"
When they rode in at the gates of Whitehall, Moultrie was astonished at
the radiance of the girl's countenance. She seemed transfigured by
love. Moultrie's ready belief had glorified her, and for the second time
her grateful thought ascended in the words, "See what Divine Love hath
wrought!"