"How that child is petted on, Gideon," and Mrs. Nesbitt looked up from
her work, the knitting of socks, to be worn by unknown boys in gray.
Even the material for them was growing scarce, and she prided herself
on always managing, someway, to keep her knitting needles busy. At
present she was using a coarse linen or tow thread, over which she
lamented because of its harshness.
Miss Loring, who appeared very domestic, with a stack of household
linen beside her, glanced up, with a smile.
"Rather fortunate, isn't it, considering--" an arch of the brows and a
significant expression were allowed to finish her meaning. Mrs.
Nesbitt pursed up her lips and shook her head.
"I really and truly wonder sometimes, Gertrude, if it's going on like
this always. Ten years if it's a day since he commenced paying court
there, and what she allows to do, at least is more than I can guess."
"Marry him, no doubt," suggested Gertrude, inspecting a sheet
carefully, and then proceeding to tear it in widths designated by Dr.
Delaven for hospital bandages. "She certainly esteems him very
highly."
"Oh, esteem!" and Mrs. Nesbitt's tone was dubious.
"Well, people don't think much of getting married these days, where
there is fighting and mourning everywhere."
The older lady gave her a quick glance over the tow yarn rack, but the
fair face was very serene, and without a trace of personal feeling on
the subject.
"Yes, that's so," she admitted, "but I used to think they were only
waiting till Kenneth came of age, or until he graduated. But my! I
didn't see it make a spec of difference. They danced together at the
party given for him, and smiled, careless as you please, and now the
dancing is ended, they keep on friendly and smiling, and I'm downright
puzzled to know what they do mean."
"Maybe no more than those two, who are only amusing themselves," said
Gertrude, with a glance towards the lawn where Evilena and Delaven
were fencing with long stalks of a wild lily they had brought from the
swamps, and when Evilena was vanquished by the foe her comforter was a
white-haired gentleman, inclined to portliness, and with much more
than an inclination to courtliness, whom Evilena called "My Judge."
It was two weeks after the descent of Aunt Sajane and Evilena upon
Loringwood. The former, after a long consultation with Dr. Delaven,
had returned to her own home, near the McVeigh plantation, and putting
her household in order for a more prolonged visit than at first
intended, she had come back to be near Gertrude in case--
None of them had put into words to each other their thought as to
Matthew Loring's condition, but all understood the seriousness of it,
and Gertrude, of course, must not be left alone.
Dr. Delaven had meant only to accompany the invalid home, consult with
their local physician, and take his departure after a visit to Mrs.
McVeigh, and possibly a sight of their new battlefield beside Kenneth,
if his command was not too far away.
Kenneth McVeigh was Col. McVeigh now, to the great delight of the
sister, who loved men who could fight. On his return from Paris he
had, at his own request, and to the dismay of his family, been sent to
the frontier. At the secession of his state he was possessed of a
captaincy, which he resigned, returned home, and in six weeks tendered
a regiment, fully equipped at his own expense, to the Confederate
government. His offer had been accepted and himself made a colonel.
His regiment had already seen one year of hard service, were veterans,
with a colonel of twenty-five--a colonel who had been carried home
wounded unto death, the surgeons said, from the defeat of Fort
Donaldson. He had belied their prophecies of death, however, and while
not yet equal to the rigors of camp life, he had accepted a commission
abroad of decided importance to his government, and became one of the
committee to deal with certain English sympathizers who were fitting
out vessels for the Confederate navy.
Mrs. McVeigh had been called to Mobile by the serious illness of an
aged relative and had been detained by something much less dreary, the
marriage of her brother, who had command of a garrison at that point.
Thus barred from seeing either of his former Parisian friends, Delaven
would have gone back to Charleston, or else gone North or West to view
a new land in battle array.
But Mr. Loring's health, or Miss Loring's entreaties had interfered
with both those plans. He could not desert a young lady on an
isolated plantation with only the slaves about her, and a partial
paralytic to care for, especially when all the most capable
physicians were at military posts, and no one absolutely reliable
nearer than Charleston.
So he had promised to stay, and had advised Miss Loring to induce Mrs.
Nesbitt to remain until a few weeks' rest and the atmosphere of home
would, he hoped, have a beneficial influence on the invalid.
All his suggestions had been carried out. Aunt Sajane (who had not a
niece or nephew in the world, yet was "aunt" to all the young folks)
was to remain, also Evilena, until the return of Mr. McVeigh, after
which they all hoped Mr. Loring could be persuaded to move up the
river to a smaller estate belonging to Gertrude, adjoining The
Terrace, as the nearness of friends would be a great advantage under
the circumstances. The isolation of Loringwood had of late become
oppressive to its mistress, who strongly advocated its sale. They had
enough land without, and she realized it was too large a tract to be
managed properly or to profit so long as her uncle was unable to see
to affairs personally. But above all else, the loneliness of it was
irksome since her return.
"Though we never did use to think Loringwood isolated, did we,
Gideon?" asked Mrs. Nesbitt, who remembered the house when full of
guests, and the fiddles and banjos of the colored musicians always
ready for dance music.
"Relentless circumstances over (he called it ovah, and Delaven
delighted in the charming dialect of the South, as illustrated by the
Judge) which we have no control have altered conditions through this
entire (entiah) commonwealth. But, no. I should not call Loringwood
exactly isolated, with the highway of the Salkahatchie at its door."
"But when no one travels the highway?" said Delaven, whose comments
had aroused the discussion. "No one but black hunters in log canoes
have I seen come along it for a week, barring yourselves. Faith, I
should think their presence alone would be enough to give a young lady
nervous chills, the daily and nightly fear of insurrection."
The Judge smiled, indulgently, willing to humor the fancies of
foreigners, who were not supposed to understand American institutions.
"Your ideas would be perfectly sound, my dear sir, if you were dealing
with any other country, where the colored man is the recognized
servant of the land and of the land owners. But we of the South, sir,
understand their needs and just the proper amount of control necessary
to be enforced for mutual protection. They have grown up under that
training until it is a part of themselves. There are refractory
blacks, of course, just as there are worthless demoralized whites, but
I assure you, sir, I voice the sentiments of our people when I state
that the families of Southern planters feel much more secure when
guarded by their colored folk than they would if surrounded by a troop
of Northern soldiery. There have been no cases where white women and
children have had reason to regret having trusted to the black man's
guardianship, sir. In that respect I believe we Southrons hold a
unique place in history. The evils of slavery, perfectly true in many
lands, are not true here. The proofs of it are many. Their dependence
on each other is mutual. Each understands and respects that fact, sir,
and the highest evidence of it is shown when the master marches to
meet their common enemy, and leaves his wife and children to the care
of the oldest or most intelligent of his bondsmen.
"I tell you, sir, the people of Europe cannot comprehend the ties
between those two races, because the world has seen nothing like it.
The Northern people have no understanding of it, because, sir, their
natures are not such as to call forth such loyalty. They are a cold,
unresponsive people, and the only systematic cruelty ever practiced
against the colored folks by Americans has been by the New England
slavers, sir. The slave trade has always been monopolized by the
Northern folks in this country--by the puritanical New Englanders who
used to sell the pickaninnies at so much a pound, as cattle or sheep
are sold.
"They are no longer able to derive a profit from it, hence their
desire to abolish the revenue of the South. I assure you, sir, if the
colored man could endure the climate of their bleak land there would
be no shouting for abolition."
It was only natural that Delaven should receive a good deal of
information those days from the Southern side of the question. Much of
it was an added education to him--the perfect honesty of the speakers,
the way in which they entered heart and soul into the discussion of
their state's rights, the extreme sacrifices offered up, the lives of
their sons, the wealth, the luxury in which they had lived, all given
up without protest for the cause. Women who had lived and ruled like
queens over the wide plantations, were now cutting their living
expenses lower and lower, that the extra portion saved might be
devoted to their boys at the front. The muslins and linens for
household purposes were used as Gertrude Loring was using them now;
everything possible was converted into bandages for hospital use.
"I simply don't dare let the house servants do it," she explained, in
reply to the Judge's query. "They could do the work, of course, but
they never have had to practice economy, and I can't undertake to
teach it to them as well as myself, and to both at the same time. Oh,
yes, Margeret is capable, of course, but she has her hands full to
watch those in the cook house."
Her smile was very bright and contented. It hinted nothing of the
straightened circumstances gradually surrounding them, making a close
watch in all directions absolutely necessary. Affairs were reaching a
stage where money, except in extravagant quantities, was almost
useless. The blockade had raised even the most simple articles to the
price of luxuries. All possessions, apart from their home productions,
must be husbanded to the utmost.
"You are a brave little woman, Miss Gertrude," said the Judge, bowing
before her with a certain reverence. "All the battles of this war are
not fought to the sound of regimental music, and our boys at the front
shoot straighter when they have at home women like you to guard. Our
women of the South are an inspiration--an inspiration!"
No courtier of storied Castile could have rivaled the grace of manner
with which the praise was spoken, so thought Delaven, for all his
mental pictures of Castillian courtesies revealed them as a bit
theatrical, while the Judge was sincerity itself.
As he spoke, the soft sound of wheels was heard in the hall, and
Matthew Loring, in his invalid chair, was rolled slowly out on the
veranda by his man, Ben. Margeret followed with a light robe over her
arm, and a fan.
"Not there, Ben," she said, in the low tone of one giving an order
entirely personal and not intended to be heard by the others, "the
draught does seem to coax itself round that corner, and--"
"Not a bit of it," broke in the master of Loringwood, abruptly. "No
more draught there than anywhere else. It's all right, Ben, wheel me
to that railing."
Margeret silently spread the robe over his knees, laid the fan in his
lap, adjusted the cushion back of his head, and re-entered the house
with a slight gesture to Ben, who followed her.
"She's a puzzle entirely," remarked Delaven, who was watching them
from the rustic seat nearest the steps. Evilena was seated there, and
he stood beside her.
"Margeret? Why?" she asked, in the same low tone.
"I'll tell you. Not thirty minutes ago I told her he could be brought
out and have his chair placed so that the sun would be on his limbs,
but not on his head. Now, what does she do but pilot him out and
discourage him from going to just the corner that was best."
"And you see the result," whispered the girl, who was laughing.
"Margeret knows a lot. Just see how satisfied he is, now, the
satisfaction of having had to fight some one. If he knew it was
anybody's orders, even yours, he would not enjoy that corner half so
much. That is the sweet disposition of our Uncle Matthew."
Overhanging eyebrows of iron-gray were the first thing to arrest
attention in Matthew Loring's face. They shadowed dark expressive eyes
in a swarthy setting. His hair and mustache were of the same grey, and
very bushy. He had the broad head and square jaw of the aggressive
type. Not a large man, even in his prime, he looked almost frail as he
settled back in his chair. He was probably sixty, but looked older.
"Still knitting socks, Mistress Nesbitt?" he inquired, with a caustic
smile. "Charming occupation. Do you select that quality and color for
any beauties to be found in them? I can remember seeing your mother
using knitting needles on this very veranda thirty--yes, forty years
ago. But I must say I never saw her make anything heavier than lace.
And what's all this, Gertrude? Do you entertain your visitors these
days by dragging out the old linen for their inspection? Why are you
dallying with the servants' tasks?"
"No; it is my own task, uncle," returned his niece, with unruffled
serenity. "Not a very beautiful one, but consoling because of its
usefulness."
"Usefulness--huh! In your mother's day ladies were not expected to be
useful."
"Alas for us that the day is past," said the girl, tearing off another
strip of muslin.
"Now, do you wonder that I adore my Judge?" whispered Evilena to
Delaven.