A LETTER TO HONG-KONG
THERE are some subjects one hesitates to discuss with one's family. It
is easier to seek information from strangers or servants, who do not
feel free to come back at you with the disconcerting question, "But why
do you ask?"
It was with the half-formed resolution of leading up to a certain one of
these difficult subjects if she could, that Georgina wandered down the
beach next morning to a little pavilion near the Gray Inn. It was
occupied by Peggy Burrell, her baby brother and the colored nurse
Melindy.
Georgina, sorely wanting companionship now that Richard and Captain Kidd
were off on their yachting trip, was thankful that Mrs. Triplett had met
Captain Burrell the day before at the Bazaar, and had agreed with him
that Georgina and Peggy ought to be friends because their fathers were.
Otherwise, the occupants of the pavilion would have been counted as
undesirable playmates being outside the pale of her acquaintance.
Peggy welcomed her joyfully. She wasn't strong enough yet to go off on a
whole morning's fishing trip with brother and Daddy, she told Georgina,
and her mother was playing bridge on the hotel piazza. Peggy was a
little thing, only eight, and Georgina not knowing what to do to
entertain her, resurrected an old play that she had not thought of for
several summers. She built Grandfather Shirley's house in the sand.
It took so long to find the right kind of shells with which to make the
lanterns for the gate-posts, and to gather the twigs of bayberry and
beach plum for the avenues (she had to go into the dunes for them), that
the question she was intending to ask Melindy slipped from her mind for
a while. It came back to her, however, as she scooped a place in the
wall of pebbles and wet sand which stood for the fence.
"Here's the place where the postman drops the mail."
Then she looked up at Melindy, the question on the tip of her tongue.
But Peggy, on her knees, was watching her so intently that she seemed to
be looking straight into her mouth every time it opened, and her courage
failed her. Instead of saying what she had started to say, she
exclaimed:
"Here's the hole in the fence where the little pigs squeezed through."
Then she told the story that went with this part of the game. When it
was time to put in the bee-hives, however, and Peggy volunteered to look
up and down the beach for the right kind of a pebble to set the
bee-hives on, Georgina took advantage of the moment alone with Melindy.
There wasn't time to lead up to the question properly. There wasn't
even time to frame the question in such a way that it would seem a
casual, matter-of-course one. Georgina was conscious that the blood was
surging up into her cheeks until they must seem as red as fire. She
leaned forward toward the sand-pile she was shaping till her curls fell
over her face. Then she blurted out:
"How often do husbands write to wives?"
Melindy either did not hear or did not understand, and Georgina had the
mortifying experience of repeating the question. It was harder to give
utterance to it the second time than the first. She was relieved when
Melindy answered without showing any surprise.
"Why, most every week I reckon, when they loves 'em. Leastways white
folks do. It comes easy to them to write. An' I lived in one place where
the lady got a lettah every othah day."
"But I mean when the husband's gone for a long, long time, off to sea or
to another country, and is dreadfully busy, like Captain Burrell is when
he's on his ship."
Melindy gave a short laugh. "Huh! Let me tell you, honey, when a man
_wants_ to write he's gwine to write, busy or no busy."
Later, Georgina went home pondering Melindy's answer. "Most every week
when they love's 'em. Sometimes every other day." And Barby had had no
letter for over four months.
Something happened that afternoon which had never happened before in all
Georgina's experience. She was taken to the Gray Inn to call. Mrs.
Triplett, dressed in her new black summer silk, took her.
"As long as Barbara isn't here to pay some attention to that Mrs.
Burrell," Tippy said to Belle, "it seems to me it's my place as next of
kin. The Captain couldn't get done saying nice things about Justin."
Evidently, she approved of both Mrs. Burrell and Peggy, for when each
begged that Georgina be allowed to stay to supper she graciously gave
permission.
"Peggy has taken the wildest fancy to you, dear," Mrs. Burrell said in
an aside to Georgina. "You gave her a beautiful morning on the beach.
The poor little thing has suffered so much with her lame knee, that we
are grateful to anyone who makes her forget all that she has gone
through. It's only last week that she could have the brace taken off.
She hasn't been able to run and play like other children for two years,
but we're hoping she may outgrow the trouble in time."
The dining-room of the Gray Inn overlooked the sea, and was so close to
the water one had the feeling of being in a boat, when looking out of
its windows. There were two South American transports in the harbor.
Some of the officers had come ashore and were dining with friends at the
Gray Inn. Afterwards they stayed to dance a while in the long parlor
with the young ladies of the party.
Peggy and Georgina sat on the piazza just outside one of the long French
windows, where they could watch the gay scene inside. It seemed almost
as gay outside, when one turned to look across the harbor filled with
moving lights. Captain and Mrs. Burrell were outside also. They sat
farther down the piazza, near the railing, talking to one of the
officers who was not dancing. Once when the music stopped, Peggy turned
to Georgina to say:
"Do you hear Daddy speaking Spanish to that officer from South America?
Doesn't he do it well? I can understand a little of what they say
because we lived in South America a while last year. We join him
whenever he is stationed at a port where officers can take their
families. He says that children of the navy have to learn to be regular
gypsies. I love going to new places. How many languages can your father
speak?"
Georgina, thus suddenly questioned, felt that she would rather die than
acknowledge that she knew so little of her father that she could not
answer. She was saved the mortification of confessing it, however, by
the music striking up again at that moment.
"Oh, I can play that!" she exclaimed. "That's the dance of the
tarantula. Isn't it a weird sort of thing?"
The air of absorbed interest with which Georgina turned to listen to the
music made Peggy forget her question, and listen in the same way. She
wanted to do everything in the same way that Georgina did it, and from
that moment that piece of music held special charm for her because
Georgina called it weird.
The next time Georgina glanced down the piazza Mrs. Burrell was alone.
In her dimly-lighted corner, she looked like one of the pretty summer
girls one sees sometimes on a magazine cover. She was all in white with
a pale blue wrap of some kind about her that was so soft and fleecy it
looked like a pale blue cloud. Georgina found herself looking down that
way often, with admiring glances. She happened to have her eyes turned
that way when the Captain came back and stood beside her chair. The blue
wrap had slipped from her shoulders without her notice, and he stooped
and picked it up. Then he drew the soft, warm thing up around her, and
bending over, laid his cheek for just an instant against hers.
It was such a fleeting little caress that no one saw it but Georgina,
and she turned her eyes away instantly, feeling that she had no right to
look, yet glad that she had seen, because of the warm glow it sent
through her. She couldn't tell why, but somehow the world seemed a
happier sort of place for everybody because such things happened in it.
"I wonder," she thought wistfully, as her eyes followed the graceful
steps of the foreign dancers and her thoughts stayed with what she had
just witnessed, "I wonder if that had been Barby and my father, would
_he_?"----
But she did not finish even to herself the question which rose up to
worry her. It came back every time she recalled the little scene.
On the morning after her visit to the Gray Inn she climbed up on the
piano stool when she had finished practising her scales. She wanted a
closer view of the portrait which hung over it. It was an oil painting
of her father at the age of five. He wore kilts and little socks with
plaid tops, and he carried a white rabbit in his arms. Georgina knew
every inch of the canvas, having admired it from the time she was first
held up to it in someone's arms to "see the pretty bunny." Now she
looked at it long and searchingly.
Then she opened the book-case and took out an old photograph album.
There were several pictures of her father in that. One taken with his
High School class, and one with a group of young medical students, and
one in the white service dress of an assistant surgeon of the navy. None
of them corresponded with her dim memory of him.
Then she went upstairs to Barby's room, and stood before the bureau,
studying the picture upon it in a large silver frame. It was taken in a
standing position and had been carefully colored, so that she knew
accurately every detail of the dress uniform of a naval surgeon from the
stripes of gold lace and maroon velvet on the sleeves, to the eagle on
the belt buckle and the sword knot dangling over the scabbard. There
were various medals pinned on his breast which had always interested
her.
But this morning it was not the uniform or the decorations which claimed
her attention. It was the face itself. She was looking for something in
the depths of those serious dark eyes, that she had seen in Captain
Burrell's when he looked at Peggy; something more than a smile,
something that made his whole face light up till you felt warm and happy
just to look at him. She wondered if the closely-set lips she was
studying could curve into a welcoming smile if anybody ran to meet him
with happy outstretched arms. But the picture was baffling and
disappointing, because it was a profile view.
Presently, she picked it up and carried it to her own room, placing it
on the table where she always sat to write. She had screwed up her
courage at last, to the point of writing the letter which long ago she
had decided ought to be written by somebody.
Once Barby said, "When you can't think of anything to put in a letter,
look at the person's picture, and pretend you're talking to it."
Georgina followed that advice now. But one cannot talk enthusiastically
to a listener who continues to show you only his profile.
Suddenly, her resentment flamed hot against this handsome, averted face
which was all she knew of a father. She thought bitterly that he had no
business to be such a stranger to her that she didn't even know what he
looked like when he smiled. Something of the sternness of her old
Pilgrim forbears crept into her soul as she sat there judging him and
biting the end of her pen. She glanced down at the sheet of paper on
which she had painstakingly written "Dear Father." Then she scratched
out the words, feeling she could not honestly call him that when he was
such a stranger. Taking a clean sheet of paper, she wrote even more
painstakingly:
"Dear Sir: There are two reesons----"
Then she looked up in doubt about the spelling of that last word. She
might have gone downstairs and consulted the dictionary but her
experience had proved that a dictionary is an unsatisfactory book when
one does not know how to spell a word. It is by mere chance that what
one is looking for can be found. After thinking a moment she put her
head out of the window and called softly down to Belle, who was sewing
on the side porch. She called softly so that Tippy could not hear and
answer and maybe add the remark, "But why do you ask? Are you writing to
your mother?"
Belle spelled the word for her, and taking another sheet of paper
Georgina made a fresh start. This time she did not hesitate over the
spelling, but scribbled recklessly on until all that was crowding up to
be said was on the paper.
"Dear Sir: There are two reasons for writing this. One is about your
wife. Cousin Mehitable says something is eating her heart out, and I
thought you ought to know. Maybe as you can cure so many strange
diseeses you can do something for her. The other is to ask you to send
us another picture of yourself. The only ones we have of you are looking
off sideways, and I can't feel as well acquainted with you as if I could
look into your eyes.
"There is a lovely father staying at the Gray Inn. He is Peggy
Burrell's. He is a naval officer, too. It makes me feel like an orfan
when I see him going down the street holding her hand. He asked me to
tell him all about where you are and what you are doing, because you
cured him once on a hospital ship, and I was ashamed to tell him that I
didn't know because Barby has not had a letter from you for over four
months. Please don't let on to her that I wrote this. She doesn't know
that I was under the bed when Cousin Mehitable was talking about you,
and saying that everybody thinks it is queer you never come home. If you
can do only one of the things I asked, please do the first one. Yours
truly, Georgina Huntingdon."
Having blotted the letter, Georgina read it over carefully, finding two
words that did not look quite right, although she did not know what was
the matter with them. So she called softly out of the window again to
Belle:
"How do you spell diseases?"
Belle told her but added the question, "Why do you ask a word like that?
Whose diseases can you be writing about?"
Georgina drew in her head without answering. She could not seek help in
that quarter again, especially for such a word as "orfan." After
studying over it a moment she remembered there was a poem in "Songs for
the Little Ones at Home," called "The Orphan Nosegay Girl."
A trip downstairs for the tattered volume gave her the word she wanted,
and soon the misspelled one was scratched out and rewritten. There were
now three unsightly blots on the letter and she hovered over them a
moment, her pride demanding that she should make a clean, fair copy. But
it seemed such an endless task to rewrite it from beginning to end, that
she finally decided to send it as it stood.
Addressed, stamped and sealed, it was ready at last and she dropped it
into the mail-box. Then she had a moment of panic. It was actually
started on its way to Hong-Kong and nothing in her power could stop it
or bring it back. She wondered if she hadn't done exactly the wrong
thing, and made a bad matter worse.