The express train going south on the Northern Central Railroad, March
3d, 186-, carried perhaps a score of newly-elected Congressmen,
prepared to take their seats on the first day of the term. For every
Congressman there were at least five followers, adventurers or
clients, some distinguished by their tighter-fitting faces, signifying
that they were men of commerce; others, by their unflagging and
somewhat overstrained amiability, not to say sycophancy, signifying
that out of the aforesaid Congressmen they expected something "fat."
Of the former class the hardest type was unquestionably Jabel Blake,
and the business which he had in hand with the freshly Honorable
Arthur MacNair, who sat at his side reading the Pittsburg news-paper,
was the establishment of a national bank at the town of Ross Valley,
Pennsylvania.
Jabel Blake had as little the look of a bank president as had his
representative the bearing of a politician. MacNair was a thin, almost
fragile young person, with light-red hair and a freckled face and
clear blue eyes, which nearly made a parson of him--a suggestion
carried out by his plain guard and silver watch and his very sober,
settled expression. The Honorable Perkiomen Trappe, who had served
three terms from the Apple-butter District, remarked of him, from the
adjoining seat, "Made his canvass, I s'pose, by a colporterin'
Methodist books, and stans ready to go to his hivinly home by way of
the Injin Ring!"
But, in reality, the Congressman belonged to the same faith with his
constituent and client--both Presbyterians like their great-grandfathers,
who were Scotch pioneers among the spurs of the Alleghenies; and there
still lived these twain, in fashion little changed--MacNair a lawyer at
the court-house town, and Jabel Blake the creator, reviver, and
capitalist of the hamlet of Ross Valley. Jabel was hard, large, bony, and
dark, with pinched features and a whitish-gray eye, and a keen, thin,
long voice high-pitched, every separate accent of which betrayed the love
of money.
"It's an expensive trip," said Jabel Blake; "it's a costly trip. More
men are made poor, Arthur MacNair, by travellin' than by sickness.
Twice a year to Pittsburg and twice to Phildelfy is the whole of my
gadding. I stop, in Phildelfy, at the Camel Tavern, on Second Street,
and a very expensive house--two dollars a day. At Washington they rob
everybody, I'm told, and I shall be glad to get away with my clothes."
"Tut! Jabel," said MacNair, "brother Elk has taken rooms for me at
Willards', and for the little time you stay at the capital you can
lodge with us. A man who has elected a Congressman in spite of the
Pennsylvania Railroad shouldn't grudge one visit in his life-time to
Washington."
"Oh!" said Jabel, "I don't know as I begrudge that, though your
election, Arty, cost me four hundred and seven dollars and--I've got
it here in a book."
"I know that," said MacNair quietly; "don't read it again, Jabel. You
behaved like a sturdy, indignant man, paid all my expenses, though you
protested against an election in a moral land involving the
expenditure of a dime, and though you pass for the closest man west of
the mountains. And here we are, going upon errands of duty, as little
worldly as we can be, yet not anxious to belittle ourselves or our
district."
"I'd cheerfully given more, Arty, to beat that corporation. A
twenty-dollar bill or so, you know! But money is tight. I've scraped
and scraped for years to start my bank at Ross Valley, and every
dollar wasted retards the village. You boys have cost me a sight of
money. There's Elk's sword and horse, and the schooling of both of
you, and the burying of your father, Jim MacNair, eighteen years ago
this May. Dear! dear!"
The Honorable Perkiomen Trappe, catching a part of this remark,
observed that Jabel Blake, judging by his appearance, shouldn't have
buried MacNair's father, but devoured him. Jabel's unfeeling remark
gave MacNair no apparent pain; but he said:
"Jabel, don't speak to Elk about father. He is not as patient as he
should be, and perhaps in Washington they disguise some of the matters
which we treat bluntly and openly. There's Kitty Dunlevy, you know,
and she is a little proud."
The glazed, whitish eye of Jabel bore the similitude of a beam of
satisfaction.
"It's nothing agin you boys," he said, "that Jim MacNair, your father,
didn't do well. He wronged nobody but himself, as I made the
stonecutter say over his grave. _That_ cost me upwards of eleven
dollars, so I did _my_ duty by him. You boys don't seem to have his
appetite for liquor. You are a member of Congress, and Elk was one of
the bravest ginerals in the war; and I don't see, if he saves his
money and his health, but he is good enough even for Judge Dunlevy's
girl."
Judge Dunlevy was the beau ideal of Jabel Blake, as the one eminent
local statesman of the region round Ross Valley--the County Judge when
Jabel was a child, the Supreme Justice of the State, and now a
District Justice of the United States in a distant field. His
reputation for purity, dignity, original social consideration, moral
intrepidity, and direct Scotch sagacity had made his name a tower of
strength in his native State. To Jabel's clannish and religious nature
Judge Dunlevy represented the loftiest possibilities of human
character; and that one of the two poor orphans--the sons of a
wood-cutter and log-roller on the Alleghenies, and the victim of
intemperance at last--whom Jabel had watched and partly reared,
should now be betrothed to Catharine Dunlevy, the judge's only
daughter, affected every remaining sentiment in Jabel's heart.
Absorbed in the contemplation of this honorable alliance, Jabel took
out his account-book and absently cast up the additions, and so the
long delay at Baltimore caused no remarks and the landscapes slipped
by until, like the sharp oval of a colossal egg, the dome of the
Capitol arose above the vacant lots of the suburbs of Washington.
A tall, handsome, manly gentleman in citizen black, standing
expectantly on the platform of the station, came up and greeted
MacNair with the word,
"Arthur!"
"Elk!"
And the brothers, legislator and soldier, stood contrasted as they
clasped hands with the fondness of orphans of the same blood. They had
no superficial resemblances, Arthur being small, clerical, freckled,
and red-haired, with a staid face and dress and a stunted, ill-fed
look, like the growth of an ungracious soil; Elk, straight and tall,
with the breeding and clothing of a metropolitan man, with black eyes
and black hair and a small "imperial" goatee upon his nether lip; with
an adventurous nature and experience giving intonation to his regular
face, and the lights and contrasts of youth, command, valor,
sentiment, and professional associations adding such distinction that
every lady passenger going by looked at him, even in the din of a
depot, with admiration.
To Jabel Blake, who came up lugging an ancient and large carpet-bag,
and who repelled every urchin who wanted the job of carrying it, Elk
MacNair spoke cordially but without enthusiasm.
"Jabel," he said, "if I hear you growl about money as long as you are
here, I'll take you up to the Capitol and lose you among the
coal-holes."
"It took many a grunt to make the money," said Jabel Blake, "and it's
natural to growl at the loss of it."
By this time they had come to the street, and there in a livery
barouche were the superb broad shoulders, fringed from above with
fleece-white hair, of Judge Dunlevy. Health, wisdom, and hale,
honorable age were expressed attributes of his body and face, and by
his side, the flower of noble womanhood, sat Catharine, his child,
worthy of her parentage. Both of them welcomed Arthur MacNair with
that respectful warmth which acknowledged the nearness of his
relationship to the approaching nuptials, and the Judge said:
"Great credit to Jabel Blake as a representative citizen, in that his
eyes have seen the glory of these fine boys, to whom he has been so
fast a friend!"
Jabel's glassy eyes shone, and his mouth unclosed like a smile in a
fossil pair of jaws.
"It's the nighest I ever come to being paid for my investment in Arty
and Elk," he said, "to get sech a compliment from Judge Dunlevy! They
_are_ good boys, though they've cost me a powerful lot, and I hope
they'll save their money, stick to their church, and never forgit Ross
Valley, which claims the honor of a buildin' 'em up."
"Get up here, Jabel, and ride!" cried Elk. "Remember that coal-hole,
old man!"
"No! no!" cried Jabel; "I can walk. These fine carriages is expensive
luxuries. They'll do for politicians, I 'spose, but not for business
men with limited means."
The Judge made Jabel Blake sit facing him, however, and they rattled
off to the hotel, where Elk MacNair had secured a parlor and suite for
his brother in the retired end of the structure, commanding a view of
Newspaper Row upon one side and of the Treasury façade on the other.
The long, tarnished mirrors, the faded tapestry, and the heavy,
soiled, damask curtains impressed Jabel Blake as parts of the wild
extravagance of official society, and gave him many misgivings as to
the amount of his bill. He retained enough of his Scotch temperament,
however, to make no ceremony about a glass of punch, which the General
ordered up for the old man, Arthur MacNair only abstaining, and the
beauty and amiability of the Judge's daughter, who sat at his side and
beguiled him to speak of his idolized village, his mills, his
improvements, and his new bank, softened his hard countenance as by
the reflection of her own, and touched him with tender and gratified
conceptions of the social opportunities of his _protégés_. Miss
Dunlevy's face, with the clear intellectual and moral nature of her
father calmly looking out, expressed also a more emotional and more
sympathetic bias. A pure and strong woman, whose life had ripened
among the families and circles of the best in condition and influence,
she had never crossed to the meaner side of necessity, nor appreciated
the fact, scarcely palpable, even to her father, that he was poor. An
entire life spent in the public service had allowed neither time nor
propriety for improving his private fortune; and as his salary
continued over the war era at the same modest standard which had
barely sufficed for cheaper years, he had been making annual inroads
upon his little estate, which was now quite exhausted. His daughter
might have ended his heartache and crowned his wishes by availing
herself of any of several offers of marriage which had been made to
her; but the soldierly bearing, radiant face, and fine intellect of
Elk MacNair had conquered competition when first he sought, through
her father's influence, a lieutenancy in the army.
His career had been brilliant and fortunate, and when he was brought
in from the field dangerously wounded, her womanly ministrations at
the hospital had helped to set him upon his horse again, with life
made better worth preserving for the promise of her hand, surrendered
with her father's free consent. It was a love-match, without
reservations or inquiries, the _rapport_ and wish of two equal
beings, kindred in youth, sympathy, and career, earnest to dwell
together and absorbed in the worship of each other. Folded in full
union of soul as perfectly as the leaves of a book, which are in
contact at every point equally, they felt at this period the wistful
tenderness of a marriage near at hand, and their eyes anticipated it,
seeking each other out. She was cast in the large stature of her
father, and her dark brown hair and eyes betokened the stability of
her character, while her graces of movement and speech no less
revealed her adaptability to the social responsibilities which she had
solely conducted since her mother's death. Together, Catharine and her
affianced made a couple equal to the fullest destiny, and they won
praise without envy from all.
"It is a happy fortuity," said Judge Dunlevy, putting aside his glass;
"Catharine's marriage to a worthy man, native to my own part of the
country; Arthur's induction into national life; and hard-working Jabel
Blake's final triumph with his bank! There is no misgiving in the mind
of any of us. The way is all smooth. Perfect content, perfect love, no
stain upon our honors or our characters: with such simple family
democracies all over the land we vindicate the truthfulness of our
institutions, and grow old without desponding of our country!"
"I feel almost religiously happy," said Arthur, the Congressman; "not
for myself, particularly; not for my mere election to Congress, for in
our district there are many abler men to make representatives of--I
hope none with more steadfast good intentions!--but Elk here always
had so much health, blood, wayward will, and brilliancy that I
sometimes feared he might abandon the safe highways of labor and
self-denial and try some dangerous short-cut to fortune. To see him
survive the battle-field and begin the longer campaigns of peace with
a profession, a reputation, no entanglements, and such a wife, makes
me a religious man. God bless you, brother Elk!"
General MacNair said, in a jesting way, that Arthur was the truest,
most old-fashioned, and most ridiculously scrupulous brother that ever
grew up among the daisies; but he was affected, as were they all.
"Elk MacNair," asked Jabel Blake, in his hard, incisive, positive,
business voice, "what do you mean to do after you are married?"
The General looked at Jabel as if he were a little officious and with
large capacities for being disagreeable.
"I have arranged to buy a partnership in a legal firm having the
largest practice in the North west. This is better than beginning
alone and waiting to make a business."
"How much will that cost?" persisted Jabel Blake, not remarking the
growing repulsion with which the General answered, after some little
embarrassment:
"One hundred and sixty thousand dollars."
"Why!" cried Jabel Blake, "that is nearly as much as it takes to start
the Ross Valley bank. Take care! Take care! Beware, Elk MacNair, of
getting into debt at your time of life. It makes gray hairs come. It
breaks up domestic pleasure. It mortgages tranquil years. Neither a
borrower nor a lender be! That's Bible talk, and the Bible is not only
the best book for the family, but the best business book besides."
"I don't mean to run in debt," said the General, with a look, perhaps
surly; "I mean to buy into the firm with cash."
"Bosh!" said Jabel Blake, rising up, "where did you get one hundred
and sixty thousand dollars, Elk MacNair?"
"If you were not claiming to its fullest extent the privilege of my
father's friend, Jabel, I should tell you that it was none of your
business! I will have made the money by the practice of law in the
City of Washington."
"Dear me, Elk," said his brother, quietly; "I don't presume to be
worth five thousand dollars, all told. But I suppose you have genius
and opportunity, and the times are wondrous for men of acquaintance
and enterprise."
Jabel Blake stared at Elk MacNair a long while without speaking.