PEACHY
NEVERTHELESS, in spite of Ambrose's intentionally truthful declaration
to Miner, for the rest of that afternoon and evening he was never wholly
able to get free from the thought of Peachy. However, he did not then
stir from his first shelter in the woods, finding endless refreshment in
the beauty of the Kentucky river landscape, nor did he surrender himself
readily to the lure of the feminine; but poor Ambrose was a victim of
the strange force that lies embodied within a universal idea.
A bird appearing on the branch of a tree above his head and bending
over, peeped into his face twittering: "Pe-che, Pe-che," as impudently
as any small Susan; then, catching his eye, with a little mocking
courtesy, flew away. A robin hopping on the grass near the boy's side,
pecked at the crumbs left over from his luncheon; her full breast, her
air of concentrated domesticity somehow recalled the image of his latest
affection--Peachy, the youthful mistress of the Red Farm.
Now in setting out on this spring pilgrimage nothing had been farther
from the traveller's intention than any dallying with his familiar
weakness. Girls--why, the years behind Ambrose Thompson blossomed with
them; never could he recall a season since his extremest boyhood when he
had not been enchantingly in love. But actually there was little reason
why Peachy Williams should be thrust upon him more than another save
that he was growing older and had been devoting some time to her of
late. Besides which, she was comely.
Toward nightfall the bird songs became such intimate revelations of love
that several times the listener put his fingers into his ears in his
effort to fight their suggestions away. And yet it was not until next
morning that his decision actually broke.
And then it was not so much a matter of emotion. But he had had an
uncomfortable night of fitful dreaming and awakened with yesterday's
spiritual elation gone and with an intense desire for human
companionship.
Rising first on one elbow, Ambrose made a remark which has probably been
considered by the greater portion of the male creation. "I wonder now,"
he asked himself, "ef bein' looked after and made over ain't sometimes
better'n bein' free?"
A very little while after this the boy cooked his own breakfast, with
extremely poor results, and then making as pleasing a toilet as his
reflection in the river permitted, immediately set out in the direction
of the Red Farm. And no longer did Ambrose's face show signs of
struggle: his air had now become one of peaceful acquiescence in the
laws of nature. He had no idea of committing himself definitely,
however, by this visit to Peachy; his mind was not wholly made up and he
desired nothing abrupt or startling; it was simply that at present a day
of solitary musing did not appear so appealing as her companionship, and
moreover, Ambrose shared the universal masculine delusion that his was
the important mind to be made up.
A sense of humour means a sense of proportion and therefore an
appreciation of values, so Ambrose Thompson, the young Kentucky Romeo,
was not without a certain thrifty streak. In driving along it was not
disagreeable to reflect that the Red Farm was the richest tobacco farm
in the county and that Peachy was its sole heiress. Not that Peachy by
herself was insufficient; Ambrose also had pleasure in recalling the
firmness of her young bosom, the sheen of her auburn hair, the whiteness
of her teeth--and then--how frequently and how delightfully she laughed.
That her laugh was non-committal had not up to this time troubled her
admirer, who yearned for a feminine audience and had not yet learned to
ask that this audience be discriminating.
Even feeding chickens may be made an alluring picture, or at least
Ambrose thought so, when he had driven unobserved into the farmyard and
waited there watching Peachy, with her sleeves rolled back, flinging the
corn to the ground. Also with his accustomed sensitiveness to
impressions the boy realized that the girl herself was not unlike one of
her own creamy leghorn hens; she, too, was both red and white with her
clear healthy skin, red hair, and red-brown eyes--and then the fulness
of her figure! The young man laughed delightedly, when turning and
catching sight of him the girl started running toward him with short,
uneven steps that yet got over the ground very quickly, and actually
when she spoke, there was a little cluck to her voice.
And yet, somehow, Peachy did not seem to feel the same degree of
surprise that her visitor did at his own unexpected appearance. She
blushed when he kissed her hand with an ardour peculiar to Ambrose
though foreign to custom in the "Pennyrile," but she betrayed no wonder
at his visit in the broad daylight when plainly he should have been at
work in his store. Neither did she ask questions. Notwithstanding, after
a few words of greeting, Ambrose had the impression of being shooed into
the house, Peachy using her white apron for the purpose.
Yet this had not been his intention, for indeed he had arrived at the
farm an hour before dinner, with the idea of taking Peachy out for a
walk and then possibly confiding to her the original purpose of his
escape from Pennyroyal; surely _she_ could be made to understand better
than any one else, and his mood was now one requiring sympathy. Instead,
however, there was something mysterious the matter with the girl's
costume, so that Ambrose shortly found himself divested of his hat and
duster and shut up in a sticky parlour with the family album on his lap
for entertainment, and only one window open to give him just enough
light to be able faintly to see and air to keep barely alive. On
entering the room his first impulse naturally had been to fling open
wide all the windows, but hearing his hostess's cries of horror, both
his arms and his inclination had weakened. Although truly the lawn about
the Red Farm house was exquisitely green and free from dust, yet the
thought of possible desecration to the best parlour had the effect of
reality.
Now although Ambrose was miserably settled according to Peachy's
directions, and in spite of having expressed the desire to change her
dress at once, the girl still lingered on, her face wearing a look that
troubled her suitor as it was so unlike her usually placid and admiring
one. Her red lips were drawn, her brow puckered, her atmosphere one of
extreme disapproval. Under the circumstances Ambrose's forehead was
naturally moist with perspiration and his face not overly clean, yet his
clothes, notwithstanding being somewhat crumpled and dusty, were plainly
his Sunday best.
"What is it, Peachy?" he asked, first studying himself solicitously.
Then, following her shuddering gaze across the crimson splendour of the
Brussels carpet, he beheld a track of mud made with footprints so large
that they could belong to no other feet than his. His eyes dropped.
Surely his feet were caked with mud--mud from the shadowy cool depth of
the woods, from the banks of that celestial river so lately deserted by
him. Yet, seeing the girl's unhappiness, again the young man surrendered
and so for a longtime (it was hard to tell how long) continued sitting
in the same place. Peachy had gone away, to remain perhaps till dinner
time, and taken his shoes with her. So Ambrose's feet were now encased
in a pair of hot carpet slippers, a whole size too small for him, so
that he could not even shuffle without crumpling his toes or else
walking about in his socks.
Several times he sighed, pushing back his long hair, a gesture with him
expressive of mental unrest. Why, oh, why, had he given up his original
plan of two days' solitary freedom and companionship with nature? Peachy
had never seemed less alluring, and as for physical comfort or even the
pleasure of her society, had he gained either? Cold shivers every now
and then had their way up and down the young man's spine in the course
of his meditations, notwithstanding the warmth of the room. For he knew
himself to be easily stirred, so supposing that he and Peachy had taken
the walk together that morning and something serious had happened! By
and by young Ambrose began to feel as utterly uninterested in female
charms, as cool and remote as a snow-capped mountain, and at about this
moment Peachy returned to the room.
She was wearing a pure white dress and, moving over into a dark corner,
smiling at her suitor, she sat down on a small sofa. Here, by dint of
pinning his toes down into his slippers, and letting his heels rise
above them, Ambrose managed to arrive a few seconds later. He was close
up beside her, as comfortably near as Peachy's starched clothes
permitted, liking the clean smell of her dress, the perfume of her body;
there were odours about her of warm new milk, of fresh honey, of
ripening fruits.
And quite by accident, it seemed to him, the girl's plump hand was laid
near his, so that a moment later it required pressing. Then the kerchief
about her full breast, rising and falling softly, showed a hint of
something whiter and softer beneath. With surprising rapidity the boy's
recent regret for his lost holiday began slipping away from him. The
room was still close, but a breeze blowing in from the partly raised
window fanned them both. Perhaps Ambrose's head was swimming from
fatigue and drowsiness, perhaps from his sense of his companion's
nearness, of her readiness to fall into his arms with his first desiring
touch.
"Peachy," Ambrose was whispering, when stealthily the door of the
parlour opened, and there stood Peachy's father, his red face wearing
such an expression of amusement and coarse understanding that instantly
Ambrose felt a return of his former coldness. His boots having been
cleaned and returned to him five minutes later, he followed the farmer
and his daughter into their dining-room.
There the meal was a hideous one to him despite his hunger and the good
and plentiful food. For seated at the family table, were several farm
hands, white overseers of the negro labourers, and they made stupid
jokes, shoving their elbows into one another and grinning idiotically
from Peachy to him. Their ugly thoughts were like palpable close
presences in the room, destroying all possible illusions for the boy,
and yet the girl herself seemed not to mind. Instead, she blushed and
bridled, sending challenging looks at Ambrose across the spring
freshness of his piled-up plate of new potatoes, jowl, and spring greens
each time he attempted putting his fork up to his mouth.
So that after a while, inch by inch, the boy felt himself being pushed
into a corner where he had meant to walk one day of his own accord. And
by the time dinner was over, not only had all desire passed from him,
but apparently all will power as well. For next he allowed Peachy to
lead him to an enclosed summer house. This summer house was some
distance away from the big place and so shut in by carefully trained
vines that it allowed no opportunity for distracting views or vistas
beyond. It was what one under some circumstances might have called, "a
chosen spot."
[Illustration: "The Village"]
Now there is no reasonable explanation of why Peachy Williams, the chief
heiress of "the Pennyrile," had so set her heart upon the possession of
Ambrose Thompson. Lovers were plentiful, and among them the rich owner
of the place adjoining her father's, and Ambrose had no fortune worth
mentioning, and, moreover, was distinctly homely; but perhaps Peachy was
drawn as many another woman has been before--by the lure of the unknown;
for never could she have any proper understanding of Ambrose Thompson's
temperament. Times were when he appeared more ardent than any of her
other suitors, and then his attention being distracted, both physically
and mentally he faded from sight. Now in contrast Peachy's own
disposition was direct and simple. At a distance from the Red Farm to
the village she recognized that her lover might be difficult to control,
but near at hand she believed him tractable, and in a measure this was
true, for Ambrose could always be managed by his friends up to a certain
point--only the trouble was that at this time of life Peachy Williams
did not understand where this point ended.
Like a long tallow candle slowly melting from the heat, the young man
was now lolling idly on the narrow circular bench of the summer house
appearing so limp and dispirited that he seemed incapable of any kind of
opposition.
Would the afternoon never pass? Could he ever remember having been
forced to remain so long in the society of any one woman? So long that
he ceased to have anything he desired to say or any possible idea that
he wished to express; indeed his mind felt as clean and empty as a slate
wiped by a wet rag. Why in heaven's name didn't Peachy herself have
something to say once in a while? Before this day his calls had been
short evening ones, when he had had opinions of his own and to spare.
Could the time ever come in a man's life when he might want a girl to be
inspiration as well as audience, to have an idea of her own now and
then?
"Oh, Lord," Ambrose groaned half aloud. If only he could think of some
plan of escape, but in the rash enthusiasm of his arrival at the farm
had he not promised Peachy to remain all day? And now in his exhausted
condition even his imagination had deserted him. Certainly he could
think of no excuse for getting away at once.
Yet more and more depressing were Peachy's long silences, her frequent
laugh more irritating, since Ambrose could find no reasonable excuse for
laughter in the dulness of the interminable May afternoon with nothing
to look at but the ground at his feet, or the lacing of leaves overhead,
except Peachy, stitching, stitching everlastingly on something so white
and weblike that Ambrose felt he too was being sewed in, made prisoner
for life.
His long legs twitched, fairly his body ached with his longing to be
off, until by and by even the girl was made to realize that things were
not going as she had reasonably expected.
"What is it ails you this afternoon, Ambrose?" she asked at last,
wistful if he had but known it. "Wasn't there something special you
wanted to say to me to-day, else why did you come so out of your regular
time?"
"Why had he come?" Barely was Ambrose able to repress another groan.
For the life of him he could not now have told what had drawn him that
morning to the Red Farm. Whatever desires or emotions had then stirred
him were gone, his head was heavy, his blood moved languidly, even the
necessary domestic noises of farm life were inexpressibly annoying.
Could Peachy ever have spelled romance? Sighing aloud Ambrose put up his
hand to wipe fresh moisture from his brow, and then coloured.
"I'm afeard you're ill," the girl continued, suddenly solicitous, and
again with a movement that suggested a motherly hen: "You're so quiet
and unlike yourself and yet so nervous and wriggly."
Ambrose yawned. "I slep' out last night, so mebbe I'm tired," he
confessed unadvisedly; then immediately observed the same expression on
Peachy's face that had been brought there by the presence of his muddy
boots in her parlour. Her lips had tightened, though her brow was
smooth; it was that gentle but awful look of the born manager.
"I knowed you'd been doin' something foolish," she stated calmly.
"Anybody else'd remember there is chills and fever out of doors these
spring nights. It's the spring that has set in on you; your blood needs
thinnin'. I'll get you some sassafras tea." Relieved by Ambrose's
revelation, Peachy was for at once starting off, but the young man
caught at her skirts.
Truly the spring was not at present working on him nor did his blood at
this hour require thinning.
"Don't go, Peachy; it ain't sassafras I'm needin', thank you just as
kindly," he said, touched and a bit shamed by her interest. "To tell you
the truth, I'm beginnin' to feel restless wantin' to get back to the
woods ag'in. I'll come back to see you soon," he pleaded, observing that
her head was being shaken with unmoved persistence. Her reply was final:
"You'll do no such thing, Ambrose Thompson; you'll stay right here till
your queerness has wore off. Haven't I been worryin' over you ever since
dinner? Think I'll let you go moonin' off now by yourself with no one to
look after you?" Like young Juno both in her majesty and plenitude,
Peachy did this time move out of sight, leaving her victim greatly
shaken.
In a few moments Ambrose knew that a bitter herb compound would be
poured down his reluctant throat; later he might be placed in bed
between hot blankets and more sweat drawn from his lean frame. Really
there was no limit to Peachy's particular kind of mothering femininity,
and since her intentions were kind--Ambrose knew himself of old--before
kindness he would go down like a struck ten-pin. Already he could feel
the blankets closing in over him, and now in truth he shook with a
chill.
Soon after his tall form arose, and then crouched as it crept forth from
the summer house, stopping only long enough to pin a white paper to the
outside arbour, when with leaps and bounds it disappeared inside the
stable, to reappear a few moments later with old Liza hitched to his
high gig. Driving as rapidly as possible he soon got past the outside
farm gate leading into the road.
So when Peachy returned with cup and spoon in hand she found her shrine
deserted and instead read this note pinned outside among the vines and
scrawled in the handwriting of Ambrose Thompson:
You were right, Peachy dear, I'm not myself
to-day. I _am_ cold and my heart action is
uncommon feeble, so I think I'd best not stay to
worry you. Maybe I'll be coming back to the farm
some day when I'm feeling different.
Your respectful
AMBROSE.
However, safe on the road, Ambrose, looking back and catching a far
image of Peachy with his letter in her hand, decided that never again
should he return to the Red Farm. For not only was Ambrose fleeing, but
knew the reason why. Peachy was a manager, and had that moment in the
parlour before dinner been longer--well, thank God and old Liza, he was
still free.
"Good Lord, deliver me!" the boy prayed, though being a good Baptist he
knew no litany save that of his own soul.