HARD QUESTIONS.
Dr. Sevier had a simple abhorrence of the expression of personal
sentiment in words. Nothing else seemed to him so utterly hollow as
the attempt to indicate by speech a regard or affection which was not
already demonstrated in behavior. So far did he keep himself aloof from
insincerity that he had barely room enough left to be candid.
"I need not see your wife any more," he said, as he went down the stairs
with the young husband at his elbow; and the young man had learned him
well enough not to oppress him with formal thanks, whatever might have
been said or omitted upstairs.
Madame Zenobie contrived to be near enough, as they reached the lower
floor, to come in for a share of the meagre adieu. She gave her hand
with a dainty grace and a bow that might have been imported from Paris.
Dr. Sevier paused on the front step, half turned toward the open door
where the husband still tarried. That was not speech; it was scarcely
action; but the young man understood it and was silent. In truth, the
Doctor himself felt a pang in this sort of farewell. A physician's way
through the world is paved, I have heard one say, with these broken
bits of other's lives, of all colors and all degrees of beauty. In
his reminiscences, when he can do no better, he gathers them up,
and, turning them over and over in the darkened chamber of his
retrospection, sees patterns of delight lit up by the softened rays of
bygone time. But even this renews the pain of separation, and Dr. Sevier
felt, right here at this door-step, that, if this was to be the last of
the Richlings, he would feel the twinge of parting every time they came
up again in his memory.
He looked at the house opposite,--where there was really nothing to look
at,--and at a woman who happened to be passing, and who was only like a
thousand others with whom he had nothing to do.
"Richling," he said, "what brings you to New Orleans, any way?"
Richling leaned his cheek against the door-post.
"Simply seeking my fortune, Doctor."
"Do you think it is here?"
"I'm pretty sure it is; the world owes me a living."
The Doctor looked up.
"When did you get the world in your debt?"
Richling lifted his head pleasantly, and let one foot down a step.
"It owes me a chance to earn a living, doesn't it?"
"I dare say," replied the other; "that's what it generally owes."
"That's all I ask of it," said Richling; "if it will let us alone we'll
let it alone."
"You've no right to allow either," said the physician. "No, sir; no," he
insisted, as the young man looked incredulous. There was a pause. "Have
you any capital?" asked the Doctor.
"Capital! No,"--with a low laugh.
"But surely you have something to"--
"Oh, yes,--a little!"
The Doctor marked the southern "Oh." There is no "O" in Milwaukee.
"You don't find as many vacancies as you expected to see, I
suppose--h-m-m?"
There was an under-glow of feeling in the young man's tone as he
replied:--
"I was misinformed."
"Well," said the Doctor, staring down-street, "you'll find something.
What can you do?"
"Do? Oh, I'm willing to do anything!"
Dr. Sevier turned his gaze slowly, with a shade of disappointment in it.
Richling rallied to his defences.
"I think I could make a good book-keeper, or correspondent, or cashier,
or any such"--
The Doctor interrupted, with the back of his head toward his listener,
looking this time up the street, riverward:--
"Yes;--or a shoe,--or a barrel,--h-m-m?"
Richling bent forward with the frown of defective hearing, and the
physician raised his voice:--
"Or a cart-wheel--or a coat?"
"I can make a living," rejoined the other, with a needlessly
resentful-heroic manner, that was lost, or seemed to be, on the
physician.
"Richling,"--the Doctor suddenly faced around and fixed a kindly severe
glance on him,--"why didn't you bring letters?"
"Why,"--the young man stopped, looked at his feet, and distinctly
blushed. "I think," he stammered--"it seems to me"--he looked up with a
faltering eye--"don't you think--I think a man ought to be able to
recommend _himself_."
The Doctor's gaze remained so fixed that the self-recommended man could
not endure it silently.
"_I_ think so," he said, looking down again and swinging his foot.
Suddenly he brightened. "Doctor, isn't this your carriage coming?"
"Yes; I told the boy to drive by here when it was mended, and he might
find me." The vehicle drew up and stopped. "Still, Richling," the
physician continued, as he stepped toward it, "you had better get a
letter or two, yet; you might need them."
The door of the carriage clapped to. There seemed a touch of vexation in
the sound. Richling, too, closed his door, but in the soft way of one in
troubled meditation. Was this a proper farewell? The thought came to
both men.
"Stop a minute!" said Dr. Sevier to his driver. He leaned out a little
at the side of the carriage and looked back. "Never mind; he has gone
in."
The young husband went upstairs slowly and heavily, more slowly and
heavily than might be explained by his all-day unsuccessful tramp after
employment. His wife still rested in the rocking-chair. He stood against
it, and she took his hand and stroked it.
"Tired?" she asked, looking up at him. He gazed into the languishing
fire.
"Yes."
"You're not discouraged, are you?"
"Discouraged? N-no. And yet," he said, slowly shaking his head, "I can't
see why I don't find something to do."
"It's because you don't hunt for it," said the wife.
He turned upon her with flashing countenance only to meet her laugh, and
to have his head pulled down to her lips. He dropped into the seat left
by the physician, laid his head back in his knit hands, and crossed his
feet under the chair.
"John, I do _like_ Dr. Sevier."
"Why?" The questioner looked at the ceiling.
"Why, don't you like him?" asked the wife, and, as John smiled, she
added, "You know you like him."
The husband grasped the poker in both hands, dropped his elbows upon his
knees, and began touching the fire, saying slowly:--
"I believe the Doctor thinks I'm a fool."
"That's nothing," said the little wife; "that's only because you married
me."
The poker stopped rattling between the grate-bars; the husband looked at
the wife. Her eyes, though turned partly away, betrayed their mischief.
There was a deadly pause; then a rush to the assault, a shower of
Cupid's arrows, a quick surrender.
But we refrain. Since ever the world began it is Love's real, not his
sham, battles that are worth the telling.