There had been considerable discussion among the ladies of the
Carroll family with regard to the necessary finery for Ina's bridal.
"It is all very well to talk about Ina's being married in four
weeks," said Anna Carroll to her sister-in-law, one afternoon
directly after the affair had been settled. "If a girl gets married,
she has to have new clothes, of course--a trousseau."
"Why, yes, of course! How could she be married if she didn't have a
trousseau? I had a very pretty trousseau, and so would you if you had
been married, Anna, dear."
Anna laughed, a trifle bitterly. "Good Lord," said she, "if I had to
think of a trousseau for myself, I should be a maniac! The trousseau
would at any time have seemed a much more difficult matter than the
bridegroom."
"Yes, I know you have had a great many very good chances," assented
Mrs. Carroll, "and it would have seemed most of the time much easier
to have just managed the husband part of it than the new clothes,
because one doesn't have to pay cash or have good credit for a
husband, and one does for clothes."
"Well," said Anna Carroll, "that is the trouble about Ina. It was
easy enough for her to get the husband. Major Arms has always had his
eye on her ever since she was in short dresses; but what isn't at all
easy is the new clothes."
"I don't see why, dear."
"Well, how is it to be managed, if you will be so good as to inform
me, Amy?"
"How? Why, just go to the dressmaker's and order them, of course."
"What dressmaker's, dear?"
"Well, I think that last New York dressmaker is the best. She really
has imagination like a French dressmaker. She doesn't copy; she
creates. She is really quite an artist."
"Madame Potoffsky, you mean?"
"Yes, dear. The dressmaker whose husband they say was a descendant of
the Polish patriot. They say she herself is descended from a Russian
princess who eloped with the Polish patriot, and I can believe it.
There is something very unusual about her. She always makes me a
little bit nervous, because one does get to associating Russians,
especially those that run away with patriots, with bombs and things
of that kind, but she is a wonderful dressmaker. I certainly think it
would be wise to patronize her for Ina's trousseau, Anna."
Anna laughed, and rather bitterly, again. "Well, dear, I have my
doubts about our ability to patronize her," she said, "and, granting
that we could, you might in reality encounter the bomb as penalty."
"Anna, dear, what--"
"Amy, don't you know that Madame Potoffsky simply will not give us
any further credit?"
"Oh, Anna, do you think so?"
"I know. Amy, only think of the things we owe her for now--my linen,
my pongee, my canvas, your two foulards, Ina's muslin, Charlotte's
etamine! It is impossible."
"Oh, dear! Do we owe her for all those?"
"We do."
"Well, then, I fear you are right, Anna," Mrs. Carroll said, ruefully.
The two women continued to look at each other. Mrs. Carroll had a
curious round-eyed face of consternation, like a baby; Anna looked,
on the contrary, older than usual. Her features seemed quite
sharpened out by thought.
"What do you think we can do, Anna?" asked Mrs. Carroll, at length.
"Do you suppose if we told Madame Potoffsky just how it was, how dear
Ina was going to be married, and how interested we all were in having
her look nice and have pretty things that she would--"
"No, I don't think so," Anna said, shortly. "What does Madame
Potoffsky care about Ina and her getting married, except for what she
makes out of it?"
"But, Anna, she is very rich. Everybody says so. She has a beautiful
house, and a country-house, and keeps a carriage to go to her shop
in."
"Well, what of that?"
"I thought the Russians believed that rich people ought to do things
for people who were not rich, or else be blown up with bombs."
"Don't be silly, Amy, darling."
"I am quite in earnest, Anna, I really thought so."
"Well, you thought wrong then, dear. There is no reason in the world
why a dressmaker, if she is as rich as a Vanderbilt, should make
Ina's wedding-clothes for nothing, and she won't."
"Well, I suppose you are right, Anna, but what is to be done? How
about Miss Sargent? She was very good."
"Miss Sargent, Amy _dear!_"
"Do we own her much, Anna?"
"Owe her much? We owe her everything!"
"Madame Rogers?"
"Madame Rogers! The last time I asked her to do anything she insulted
me. She told me to my face she did not work for dead-beats."
"She was a very vulgar woman, Anna. I don't think I would patronize
her under any circumstances."
"No, I would not either, dear. But that finishes the New York
dressmakers."
"How about the Hillfield one?"
"Amy!"
"Well, I suppose you are right; but what--"
"We shall have to go to a dressmaker in Banbridge. We have never had
any work done here, and there can be no difficulty about it."
"But, Anna, how can we have her married with a trousseau made in
Banbridge?"
"It is either that or no trousseau at all."
Mrs. Carroll seldom wept, but she actually shed a few tears over the
prospect of a shabbily made trousseau for Ina. "And she will go in
the best society in Kentucky, too," she said, pitifully. "They'll
attribute it all to the lack of taste in the North," Anna said.
Ina herself made no objection whatever to employing the Banbridge
dressmaker; in fact, she seemed to have little interest in her
clothes at first. After a while she became rather feverishly excited
over them.
"I have always wondered why girls cared so much about their
wedding-clothes," she told her sister after two weeks, when the
preparations were well under way, "but now I know."
"Why?" asked Charlotte. The two were coming home from the
dressmaker's, where Ina had been trying on gowns for an hour. It was
late in the afternoon and nearly time for Captain Carroll's train.
"Why?" repeated Charlotte, when Ina did not answer at once.
"In order to keep from thinking so much about the marriage itself,"
said Ina, tersely. She did not look at her sister, but kept her eyes
fixed on the road ahead of her.
Charlotte, however, almost stopped. "Ina," said she, in a distressed
tone--"Ina, dear, you don't feel like that?"
"Why not?" inquired Ina, defiantly.
"Oh, Ina, you ought not to get married if you feel like that!"
"Why not? All girls feel like that when they are going to be married.
They must."
"Oh, Ina, I know they don't!"
"How do you know? You were never going to get married."
That argument was rather too much for Charlotte, but she continued to
gaze at her sister with a shocked and doubtful air as they walked
along the shady sidewalk towards home. "I am almost sure it isn't
right for a girl to feel so, anyhow," she said, persistently.
"Yes, it is, too," Ina said, laughing easily. "Charlotte, honey, I
really think my things are going to do very well. I really think so.
That tan canvas is a beauty, and so is the red foulard. She is really
a very good dressmaker."
"I think so too, dear," Charlotte agreed. "I like the wedding-gown,
too."
"Yes, so do I; it is very pretty, though that does not so much
matter."
"Why, Ina Carroll!"
Ina laughed mischievously. "Now I have shocked you, dear. Of course
it matters in one way, but I shall never wear it again after the
ceremony; and you know I don't care much about the Banbridge people,
and they will be the only ones to see me in it, and only that once."
"But, Ina, he--your--Major Arms."
Ina laughed again. "Oh, well, he thinks me perfectly beautiful
anyway," said she, in the tone of one to whom love was as dross
because of the superabundance of it.
"Ina," said Charlotte, with a solemn and timidly reflective air, "I
don't believe you think half as much of him as you would if he didn't
think so much of you."
"Yes, I do think just as much," said Ina, "but things always seem
worth rather more when they are in a showcase and marked more than
one can ever pay." Then she started, and exclaimed: "Good gracious,
there he is now!" She flushed all over her face and neck; then she
turned pale and cast a half-wild look around her as if she wanted to
run somewhere.
Indeed, at that moment the Carroll carriage drew up beside them, and
on the back seat sat Captain Carroll and a very handsome man
apparently about his own age, although at first glance he looked
older because of snow-white hair and mustache. He was as tall as
Carroll, and thinner, and less punctiliously attired, although he
wore his somewhat slouching clothes with a certain careless assurance
of being the master of them which Carroll, with all his elegance, did
not excel.
"Here we are!" called Carroll. He was smiling, although he had a
slightly worried look. The other man's black eyes were fixed with a
sort of tender hunger on Ina, who hung back a little as she and
Charlotte approached the carriage. It was actually Charlotte who
shook hands first with Major Arms, although she tried to give her
sister precedence.
Ina blushed a good deal, and smiled rather tremulously when her turn
came and her little hand was enveloped in the man's eager one.
"I--didn't know--I didn't--" she stammered.
"No, you didn't, did ye, honey?" said the major, in the broadest of
Southern drawls. "No, ye didn't. The old fellow thought he'd surprise
ye, honey." The man's face and voice were as frankly expressive of
delighted love as a boy's. "Arthur," said he, "over with ye to the
front seat and let me have my sweetheart in here with me. I want my
arms around her. Not another minute can I wait. Over with ye, boy!"
Carroll threw open the carriage door and sprang out. "Jump in, Ina,"
he said, and placed a hand under his daughter's arm. She gave a
smiling and not altogether unhappy, but still piteous, look at him,
and hung back slightly. "Jump in, dear," he said, again; and Ina was
in the carriage, and there was a sweep of a long gray-clad arm around
her and the sound of kisses.
"Now, Charlotte," said Carroll, "get in the front seat. I will walk
the rest of the way."
"No, papa," Charlotte replied, "I will walk with you. I would
rather." So the carriage rolled on, and Charlotte and Carroll
followed on foot.
"Did you expect him, papa?" asked Charlotte.
"No, honey. The first thing I knew he came up to me on the ferry. He
came on this morning; he has been in New York all day. I guess he
wanted to buy something for Ina."
"Her ring?" asked Charlotte, in a slightly awed tone.
"Very likely."
"Papa, is Major Arms rich?" asked Charlotte.
"Quite, I think, dear. I don't know how much he has in reality, but
he has his pay from the government--he is on the retired list--and he
owns considerable property. He has enough and to spare, there is no
doubt about that."
"So if Ina has things and people trouble her for payment she can pay
them," remarked Charlotte, thoughtfully.
"Yes," said Carroll, shortly. He quickened his pace, and Charlotte
made a little run to get into step again.
"That will be very nice," said she. "Do you think he will be good to
her, papa?"
"Sure as I am of anything in this world, dear."
"It would be dreadful if he wasn't. Whatever else Ina or any of us
haven't had, we've always had that. We've always lived with folks
that loved us and were good to us. That would kill Ina and me
quickest of anything, papa."
"He will be good to her, dear," said Carroll, pleasantly. He looked
down at Charlotte and laughed. "It's all right, baby," he said.
"She's got one man in a thousand--one worth a thousand of your old
dad."
"No, she hasn't," said Charlotte, with indignation. She caught her
father's arm and clung to it lovingly. "There is nobody in the world
so good as you," said she, with fervor. "I wouldn't leave you for any
man in the world, papa."
"You wait," Carroll said, laughing.
"Papa, you don't wish I were going to be married too? You don't want
me to go away like Ina?" Charlotte demanded, with a sudden grieved
catch in her voice.
"I never want you to go, darling," Carroll replied, and he looked
down with adoration at the little face whose whole meaning seemed one
of innocent love for and belief in him. He realized the same terror
at the mere fancy of losing this artless and unquestioning devotion
as one might feel at the fancy of losing his only prop from the edge
of a precipice. The man really had for an instant a glimpse of a
sheer descent in his own nature which might be ever before his
sickened vision if this one little faith and ignorance were removed.
In a curious fashion a man sometimes holds an innocent love between
himself and himself, and Carroll so held Charlotte's.
"I will never leave you for any other man. I don't care who he is,"
Charlotte reiterated, and this time her father let her assertion go
unchallenged. He pressed the little, clinging hand on his arm closer.
Charlotte looked at him as she might have looked at a king as he
walked along in his stately fashion. She was unutterably proud of him.
The carriage had reached the house some time before they arrived. The
man was just driving round to the stable when they came up to the
front door. The guest and Ina were nowhere to be seen, but on the
porch stood Mrs. Carroll and Anna. They were both laughing, but Anna
looked worried in spite of her laugh.
"What do you think, Arthur," whispered Mrs. Carroll, with a cautious
glance towards a chamber window. "Here he has come, the son-in-law,
and there is no meat again for dinner." Mrs. Carroll burst into a
peal of laughter.
"I don't see much to laugh at," said Anna, but she laughed a little.
Carroll made a step to the side of the porch and called to the
coachman. "Martin," he called, "don't take the horse out. Come back
here. We must send for something," he declared, a little brusquely
for him.
"It is all very well to send, Arthur," said Mrs. Carroll, "but the
butcher won't let us have it if we do send."
"It is no use, Arthur," Anna Carroll said. "We cannot get a thing for
this man's dinner, and not only to-day, but to-morrow and while he
stays, unless we pay cash."
Carroll turned to the coachman, who had just come alongside.
"Martin," he said, "you will have to drive to New Sanderson before
dinner. We cannot get the meat which Mrs. Carroll wishes, and you
will have to drive over there. Go to that large market on Main Street
and tell them that I want the best cut of porterhouse with the
tenderloin that he has. Tell him it is for Captain Carroll of
Banbridge. And I want you to get also a roast of lamb for to-morrow."
"Yes, sir," said the coachman. He gathered up the lines, but sat
looking hesitatingly at his employer.
"What are you waiting for?" asked Carroll. "Drive as fast as you can.
We are late as it is."
"Shall I pay, sir?" asked the man, timidly, in a low voice.
Carroll took out his pocket-book, then replaced it. "No, not
to-night," he said, easily. "Tell him it is for Captain Carroll of
Banbridge."
The man still looked doubtful and a trifle alarmed, but he touched
his hat and drove out of the grounds. Carroll turned and saw his wife
and sister staring at him.
"Oh, Arthur, dear, do you think the butcher will let him have it?"
whispered Mrs. Carroll.
"Yes, honey," said Carroll.
"If he shouldn't--"
"Don't worry; he will."
"It is one of your coups, isn't it, Arthur?" said Anna,
sarcastically, but rather admiringly. She and Mrs. Carroll both
laughed.
"We have never bought any meat in New Sanderson, so maybe Martin can
get it," Mrs. Carroll said, as she seated herself in one of the large
willow-rockers on the porch.
Dinner was very late that night at the Carrolls'. Even with a fast
horse, driving to New Sanderson and back consumed some time, but
Martin finally returned triumphant. When he drove into the yard it
was dusk and the family and the guest were all seated on the porch.
There was a steady babble of talk and laughter on the part of the
ladies, who were nervously intent on concealing, or at least
softening, the fact that dinner was so late that Major Arms might
well be excused for judging that there was to be no dinner at all.
Once, Ina had whispered to Charlotte, when the conversation among the
others swelled high: "What is the matter? Do you know?"
"Hush! Poor papa had to send to New Sanderson for meat," whispered
Charlotte.
Ina made a face of consternation; Charlotte looked sadly troubled.
"I'm afraid he is awfully hungry," whispered Ina. "I pity him."
"I pity papa," whispered Charlotte. She kept glancing at her father
with loving sympathy and understanding as the time went on. His face
was quite undisturbed, but Charlotte saw beneath the calm. When at
last she heard the carriage-wheels her heart leaped and she turned
pale. Then she dared not look at her father. Suppose Martin should
not have been successful. The eyes of all the family except Carroll
himself, who was talking about the tariff and politely supporting the
government against a hot-headed rebellion on the part of the ex-army
officer, were on him. Not an inflection in his voice changed when
Martin drove past the porch, but the others, even Eddy, who was
seated at his sister's feet on the porch-step, eyed the arrival with
undisguised eagerness. A brown-paper parcel was distinctly visible on
the seat beside Martin.
"Thank God!" Mrs. Carroll whispered, under her breath to her sister.
"He's got it."
Eddy gave vent to a small whoop of delight which he immediately
suppressed with a scared glance at his father. However, he could not
refrain from sniffing audibly with rapture when the first fragrance
of the broiling beefsteak spread through the house to the porch. Mrs.
Carroll giggled, and so did Ina, but Charlotte looked severely at her
brother.
"After all, though, the excessive tax on articles purchased by
travellers abroad and brought to this country serves as a legitimate
balance-wheel," said Carroll, coolly. One would not have thought that
he was in the least conscious of what was going on around him. "It is
mostly the very wealthy who go abroad and purchase articles of
foreign manufacture," he added, gently, "and it serves to even up
things a little for those who cannot go. It marks a notch higher on
the equality of possessions."
"Equality of fiddlesticks!" said the other man. "What the devil do
the masses of the poor in this country care about the foreign works
of art, anyhow? They don't want 'em. And what is going to compensate
this country for not possessing works of art which it will never
produce here, and which would tend to the liberal education of its
citizens?"
"Not many of its citizens in the broader sense would ever see those
works of art when they were here and shrined in the drawing-rooms of
the millionaires," said Carroll, smiling; "and as far as that goes,
the millionaires have them, anyhow. They are not stopped by the
tariff."
"Yes, they are, too, more than you think," declared the major; "and
not the millionaires alone are defrauded. Suppose I go over now, as I
may do"--he cast a glance at Ina--"as I may do, I say. Now there are
things over there that I want in my home--things that are not to be
had for love nor money in this country. Nothing of the sort is or
ever will be manufactured here. I am doing nothing whatever to injure
home industries if I bring them over. On the contrary, I am
benefiting the country by bringing to it articles which are, in a
way, an education which may serve as a stimulus to the growth of art
here. I enable those who can never go abroad, and to whom they will
be otherwise forever unknown, an opportunity to become acquainted
with them. But I have to leave them over there because I cannot
afford to pay this government for the privilege of spending my own
money and gratifying my own taste."
Anna Carroll, to cover her absorption in the beefsteak and the
dinner, joined in the conversation with feminine daring of
conclusion. "I suppose," said she, with a kind of soft sarcasm, "that
the government would not need to charge so much for its citizens'
privilege of buying little foreign vases and mosaics and breastpins
and little Paris frills if it did not conduct so many humanitarian
wars."
"The humanitarian wars are all right, all right," said the major,
hastily; "so far as that goes, all right."
"I suppose," said Mrs. Carroll, "that it would cost so much to bring
home gowns from Paris that no one can do it unless they have a great
deal of money. I understand that it costs more than it did."
"Yes," replied the major, "and this government can't see or won't see
that even in the matter of women's clothes it would pay in the end to
bring over every frill and tuck free of duty until our dressmakers
here had caught on to their tricks. Then we could pay them back in
their own coin. But, no; and the consequence is that we shall be
dependent on France for our best clothes for generations more."
"It does seem such a pity," said Mrs. Carroll. "It would be so nice
to have Ina's things made in Paris if it didn't cost anything to get
them over here--wouldn't it?"
"I would just as soon have my dresses made in Banbridge," said Ina.
"Madame Griggs is as good as a French dressmaker."
"She is fine," said Charlotte.
Ina blushed as the major looked at her with a look that penetrated
the dusk. Very soon Marie appeared in the doorway, and they went into
dinner.
"How lucky it is that Anderson does not object to trusting us and we
can have canned soup and pease," whispered Mrs. Carroll to Anna.
It was a very good dinner at last, and the guest was evidently
hungry, for he did justice to it. There were no apologies for the
delay. Carroll did not believe in apologies for such things. There
was a salad from their own garden, and a dessert of apple-pudding
from an early apple-tree in the grounds. The coffee was good, too.
There was no lack of anything which could be purchased at the grocery.
"That grocer must be a very decent sort of man as grocers go," Mrs.
Carroll was fond of remarking in those days. "I really don't know
what we should do if it were not for him."
After dinner was over it was nearly nine o'clock; Carroll and Major
Arms walked up and down the road before the house, smoking, leaving
the ladies on the porch. The ex-army officer had something which he
wished to discuss with his prospective father-in-law. He opened upon
the subject when they had gone a piece down the flagged sidewalk and
turned towards the house.
"What kind of arrangements have the ladies planned with regard
to"--he hesitated and stammered a bit boyishly, for this was his
first matrimonial venture, and he felt embarrassed, veteran in other
respects as he was--"to the--ceremony?" he finished up. Ceremony did
not have the personal sound that marriage did.
Carroll looked at him, smiling. "It is quite a venture for you, old
fellow, isn't it?" he said, laughingly, and yet his voice sounded
exceedingly kind and touched.
"Not with that child, Arthur," replied the other man, simply.
"Well, Ina is a good girl," assented Carroll. "Both of them are good
girls. She will make you a good wife."
"Nobody knows how sure I am of it, and nobody knows how I have looked
forward to this for years," said the other, fervently.
"I could not wish anything better for my girl," said Carroll, gently
and soberly.
"What about the matter of the--ceremony?" asked Arms, returning to
the first subject.
"I think they have decided that they would prefer the wedding in the
church, and a little reception at the house afterwards. Of course we
are comparatively strangers in Banbridge, but there are people one
can always ask to a function of the sort, and I think Ina--"
"Arthur, there is something I would like to propose."
"What, old fellow?"
Major Arms hesitated. Carroll waited, smoking as he sauntered along.
The other man held his cigar, which had gone out, in his mouth;
evidently he was nervous about his proposition. Finally he blurted it
out with the sharpness of a pistol-shot. "Arthur, I want to defray
the expenses of the wedding," he said.
Carroll removed his cigar. "See you damned first," said he, coolly,
but with emphasis, and then replaced it.
Major Arms turned furiously towards him, but he restrained himself.
"Why?" he said, with forced calm.
"Because if I cannot pay my daughter's bridal expenses she never
marries you nor any other man," said Carroll.
Then the Major blazed out. He stopped short and moved before Carroll
on the sidewalk. "If," said he--"if--you think I marry your daughter
if her father goes in debt for the wedding expenses, you are
mistaken."
Carroll said nothing. He stood as if stunned. The other went on with
a burst of furious truth: "See here, Arthur Carroll," said he, "I
like you, and you know how I feel about your girl. She is the one
thing I have wanted for my happiness all my life, and I know I can
take care of her and make her happy; and I like you in spite of--in
spite of your outs. I'm ashamed of myself for liking you, but I do;
but you needn't think I don't see you, that I don't know you, because
I do. I knew when you went to the dogs after you failed in your mine,
just as well as you did yourself. You went to the dogs, and you've
been at the dogs' ever since; you're there now, and you've dragged
your family with you so far as they're the sort to be dragged. They
aren't, altogether, lucky for them; the girls especially aren't, at
least not so far. Lord knows when it would come to them. But I'm
going to take Ina away from the dogs, out of sound of a yelp even of
'em; and, as for me, I'll be hanged if you get me there! I know you
for just what you are. I know you've prowled and preyed like a coyote
ever since you were preyed on yourself. I know you, but I love Ina.
But I tell you one thing, Arthur Carroll, now you can take your
choice. Either you let me pay the wedding expenses or you give up the
wedding."
"Ina," began Carroll, in a curious, helpless fashion, "she has set
her heart on the wedding--her--dress and everything."
"I can't help that," said Arms, sternly. "This is of more importance
even than her pleasure. Take your choice. Let me pay or let us be
married in the quietest manner possible."
"I consent to the latter," Carroll said, still in that beaten tone.
He seemed to shrink in stature, standing before the other man's
uprear of imperious will.
"All right," said Major Arms.
The two walked on in silence for a moment. Arms relit his cigar.
Suddenly Carroll spoke.
"No, I will not, either," he said, abruptly.
"Will not what?"
"I will not consent to the quiet wedding. Ina shall not be
disappointed. This means too much to a girl. Good God! it is the one
occasion of a woman's life, and women are children always. It is
cruelty to children."
"Then I pay," Arms said.
"No, I pay," said Carroll.
"You pay?"
"I pay," Carroll repeated, doggedly.
"How?"
"Never mind how. I tell you I give you my word of honor I pay every
dollar of those expenses the day after the wedding."
"You will rob Peter to pay Paul, then," declared Major Arms,
incredulously and wrathfully.
Carroll laughed in a hard fashion. "I would kill Peter, besides
robbing him, if it was necessary," he said.
"If you think I'll have that way out of it--"
"I tell you I will pay those expenses, every dollar, the next day,
and Ina shall have her little festival. What more do you want?"
demanded Carroll. "See here, Arms, you will take care of the girl
better than I can. I am at the dogs fast enough, and the dogs' is not
a desirable locality in which to see one's family. You can take care
of Ina, and God knows I want you to have her, but have her you shall
not unless you can show some lingering confidence in her father. Even
at the dogs' a man may have a little pride left. Either we have the
wedding as it is planned, and you trust me to settle the bills for
it, or you can give up my daughter."
Arms stood silent, looking at Carroll. "Very well," he said, finally.
"All right, then," said Carroll.
Arms remained staring at Carroll with a curious, puzzled expression.
"Good God! Arthur, how do you ever stand it living this sort of
life?" he cried, suddenly.
"I have to stand it," replied Carroll. "As well ask a shot fired from
a cannon how it likes being hurled through the air. I was fired into
this."
"You ought to have had some power of resistance, some will of your
own."
"There are forces for every living man for which he has no power of
resistance. Mine hit me."
"If ever there was a damned, smooth-tongued scoundrel--" said Arms,
retrospectively.
"Where is he?" Carroll asked, and his voice sounded strange.
"There."
"How is he?"
"Prospering like the wicked in the psalms. There was one respect in
which you showed will and self-control, Arthur--that you didn't shoot
him!"
"I was a fool," said Carroll.
"He wasn't worth hanging for," said the major, shortly.
"I'd hang five times over if I could get even with him," said Carroll.
"I don't wonder you feel so."
"Feel so! You asked me just now how I stood this sort of life. I
believe my hate for that man keeps me up like a stimulant. I believe
it keeps me up when I see other poor devils that I--"
Suddenly Arms reached out his hand and grasped Carroll's. "Good God!
old fellow, I'm sorry for you!" he said. "You are too good for the
dogs."
"Yes, I know I am," said Carroll, calmly.
The two men returned to the house and sat on the porch with the
ladies. About half-past ten Anna Carroll said good-night, then Mrs.
Carroll. Then Charlotte rose, and Ina also followed her up-stairs.
"Ina," cried Charlotte, in a sort of angry embarrassment, when they
had reached her chamber, "you've got to go back; indeed you have."
"I suppose I ought." Ina was blushing furiously, her lip quivered.
She was twisting a ring on her engagement-finger.
"You have even kept the stone side in, so nobody could see that
beautiful ring he brought you. You are mean--mean!" said Charlotte.
"You just imagine that," said Ina, feebly. As she spoke she held up
her hand, and a great diamond flashed rose and green and white.
"No, I don't imagine it. I have not seen it once like that. You ought
to be ashamed of yourself. You must go straight back down-stairs.
People when they are engaged always sit up alone together. You are
not doing right coming up here with me."
"What are you scolding me for? Who said I was not going back?"
returned Ina, with resentful shame.
"You know you were not."
"I was."
"Well, good-night, honey," said Charlotte, in a softer tone.
"Good-night."
Charlotte kissed her sister, and saw her leave the room and go down
to her lover with a curious mixture of pity and awe and wrath and
wistful affection. It almost seemed to her that Ina was happy,
although afraid and ashamed to be, and it made her seem like a
stranger to the maiden ignorance of her own heart.