So I pondered as I rode over to see Colonel Goff. I found him in the
library of The Manor, and was soon seated with him. I noticed the
sterling beauty of the furniture, the trophies of the chase, both in
India and America, and a full portrait of Eloise over the mantel. I had
been a boy to Colonel Goff until my return. Now I imagined that my
sudden change into a full-grown man had never quite come home to him,
remembering me only as he had known me last.
"You have given me an unexpected pleasure, my boy," he said with a touch
of cordiality in his voice. "I have been beastly lonely since Eloise
left." He eyed me through his half-closed lids as he lighted a cigar
and watched me light mine.
I flushed, and I fear he noticed it. Then I broke abruptly into my
subject. "It is your help and advice I want to-night, sir. I have come
to talk of Elsie."
He looked at me surprised, holding a half-lit match in his finger.
Instantly the match was snuffed out with a sudden twist and a smile
broke over his face.
"It's all right, Jack," he said warmly; "I think I can guess--I have
seen for a month that you have cut me out--all of us--why--"
"I fear you are mistaken, Colonel Goff," I said quietly. "I know how
much you think of her, that you are her friend, and I thought the two of
us together might help her out of an unfortunate affair."
He turned on me quickly.
"Why, what has happened? I saw her to-day; she was all right."
"Nothing has happened yet," I said; "nor is it likely to now, since I am
going to do some acting myself, with your help."
I handed him the note. I had heard my old grandsire say that in
critical places Goff was always coolest. He smoked while he read, not a
muscle moving.
"This thing is so out of all our English ideas of sense and decency, and
so unusual, that I'm lost in it," he said quietly at last. "It seems
that he has actually induced my romantic little girl to agree to a
secret clandestine marriage with him, and his regiment leaves for the
Philippines to-morrow, marry her secretly, and claim her when he comes
back!"
Instead of being angry Goff laughed, half ironically but with intent
behind it. He rose and walked to the door, calling his butler. "Tell
James to saddle my horse at once," I heard him say. Then he closed the
door and came up to me. "Jack, this is the damnedest piece of
blackguardism I ever had to kick out of my mind; we'll settle it in a
jiffy with him,--just as I'd kick a little cur out of my pack of running
hounds. You'll ride with me, of course, and witness it."
"I will, Colonel Goff," I said sullenly, "if you'll let me do it in my
own way. It is I who want you to witness it."
He slapped me on the shoulder.
"You're all right, Jack, I've always known that: and if it is nothing
rash--you see if it were, why, the child would be talked about. Oh,
yes, damn him, if it wasn't for her I'd kill him myself."
"Colonel Goff," I said rising, "I'm going to thrash him to-night before
I go to bed. I'm going to do it in my own way."
He laughed outright and grasped my hand. "You must not," he said, "and I
will tell you why; you've earned it. This is my great secret. I've seen
all along that you have loved her--and, well, it's plain she loves you.
But I see through this affair much further than you because you don't
know. I'll tell you, you have earned both my friendship and my
gratitude. First, there is no insult here, in this note. I've been the
scoundrel's friend all his life. He had so few, and I told him in
confidence what I've never told anyone--did not intend to tell till the
announcement of my marriage next month--Elsie is my daughter--she is
Lady Carfax by birthright and by title, and this little scoundrel has
taken advantage of my confidence. He has always had a sneaking idea
that he would marry Eloise, and now that he can't, he loves me so much
he'd like to be my son-in-law, though he ruined my daughter's chances in
life to do it, with his fool secret marriage."
He stopped and looked at me, thinking quietly for a moment.
"You'll excuse me, Jack, for plainness, but we've no time for anything
else, and I mean it all kindly. But you, yourself, are mostly to blame
for this. I have read it in Elsie, but I thought you'd never see it,
never tell her of your love. Now, it's this way, my boy; and I'll be
frank. I am going to take Lady Carfax home and finish her education,
and give her the chance her place demands. You are always welcome to
come and be with us at any time as long as you choose, and if, on her
majority, she still loves you, and you her, why--" he stopped, smiling
kindly.
"Colonel Goff," I said rising, "you certainly misunderstand me. All
that I'll talk to you about later. I'm in a mood to-night I've never
been in before. Get your horse and go with me. I want you to see that
I have a fair fight."
"It won't do, Jack," he said. "I'll not even let you go with me. It's
Elsie I'm thinking of, Elsie and you. The quieter this thing is
settled, the better for all. I see through it--as I told you. I'll
ride over to see him. I'll catch him to-night, and when I have finished
with him, he'll never mention Elsie again, let alone try to marry her
secretly. I saw her to-night just before you came. Jack, my little
girl is happy. It pleases me--let her stay happy, and you shall be,
some day, if you will--"
I did not reply. We rose to go. At the parting of the road I galloped
home, he to the city.
*CHAPTER XVIII*
*THE LAST DANCE*
It was a night in early June. The Home Stretch was all a-glitter, its
porches and the great trees on the lawn lighted with rows of colored
lanterns.
My Aunt and Eloise had returned; the Cumberland races, the social event
of the year, began the next day, and in accordance with her custom my
Aunt was giving her annual ball. This time it was to serve a two-fold
purpose; for it was also in honor of Eloise and Colonel Goff and was to
be the formal announcement of their coming marriage.
I rode over early. If I was needed I wanted to help as of old; and I
had seen neither of them since they had returned a week ago, for I had
been away for several weeks, in an adjoining county, earning my first
fee in forestry. I had been employed by a corporation to pass upon a
large tract of timber, to report its millage and availability, but best
of all I was to put my plans into effect in its harvesting, cutting out
only the ripe trees, and preserving the young ones beneath from death
and mutilation.
I had spent two weeks among them. There were many different kinds, and
they had become almost like children to me, and like children, they each
had different temperaments--these trees--different forms, dispositions,
dreams, and they always talked to me, through their little leaves, but
sweetest of all in the night, even as children do, when, full of
themselves and of life, they gossip so friendly in the balm of the June
moon. They told me like village gossipers, of their every little
affair, their little vexes, turmoils, the very little scandals of their
wood. And in more stirring moods when the night winds would arise and
sweep through them the writers, minstrels and poets, stirred to historic
flights, quivered with their greater dreams, sang their tales of tree
tragedies, of wars had, of fights for life and of martyr and hero
deaths.
And I had lain and listened, and felt my heart grow big with throbbing
even as when I first read of the wanderings of Ulysses.
I came from out among them older, braver, better. I came with higher
motives for my own life and eyes which saw clearer into the future and
read more kindly the lives of others.
And gladly would I have stayed in the wood among them, to go
back--rather than to see what I must see--Eloise betrothed to another.
No tree tragedy could be more cruel than that which had killed the love
of my own life.
In withholdingness and sorrow I left them: "duty" not as someone has
said, "is the sublimest word in the English language" because duty is
often done in pleasure, but the real sublimity of duty is the duty done
in pain. To fail to go were cowardice, and I was no coward even if my
grandsire did think so.
But when I went into the great hall of The Home Stretch, filled with
chattering guests, the contrast was poignant. It was as if deep in the
sleeping and silent forces a cloud of chattering birds had landed
suddenly among my trees.
"It is good to see you home again, Jack."
It was Eloise who spoke. Her eyes told me that she had been waiting,
and a brave lingering smile went with her words. There were little
tired, hard lines around her sweet mouth. She looked tired but game, as
when, in a long day's hunt after quail and the route home was long, and
our luck nil, it needed a good heart to smile.
She stood with Goff in the reception room, as though she were Countess
of Carfax already. The hand I held trembled for the first time in mine.
"Glad to see you back, Jack," said Goff, his face aglow with the pride
he felt.
"Where have you been, Jack? I thought you were never coming to see me
again?" Eloise asked.
She gradually moved away with me from the crowd in the center of the
room until we stood apart in the large bay window.
"Come," I said teasingly, "you have got away from your lord; he will
miss you."
It was not fun to her. Her face flushed, then paled. "Jack, you must
dance with me once to-night--our last dance. I have something to tell
you then."
"I don't think you ought to punish me any more than you have already,
Eloise," I said frankly.
"Maybe I am punishing myself more," she said softly.
"Eloise, Eloise--"
But she had turned and was receiving the newly arrived and merry crowd
behind us.
My Aunt held to some customs which she permitted none of the innovations
of society to alter. One was that her balls must open with the Virginia
Reel. I saw her coming and understood.
"Jack," she nodded, commandingly, "we are ready, you and Eloise open it
up."
Eloise stood behind her smiling. She placed both her hands in mine and
together we glided to the head of the line. We stood holding hands and
waiting for the music. Coming closer, my Aunt smiled and whispered, "I
wish you two children could see what a fine pair you make. Pedigree
counts even in a Virginia Reel, and you two were bred for it."
We both laughed.
"Look into that mirror across yonder," she laughed, "and see how much
better I am at pairing off people than they are themselves."
We glanced across and saw Goff and a fat lady from town.
"They are matched perfectly," said my Aunt Lucretia, "both grass-fed."
"Please don't, Aunt Lucretia," said Eloise, "that isn't fair. You are
trying your best to keep me from being a countess." Then she added
suddenly, "Oh, Jack, tell me about Satan. You don't know how I've missed
him. Where have you two been?"
"In the wood together. No--n-o--you shall never have him, such a
horse--such a comrade."
Eloise pouted. "You'll see. Why Colonel Goff has promised I shall take
him to England with me. And Jack--how about his exercise? My heart is
set on beating him in that hurdle race, and Aunt Lucretia would have
apoplexy if she lost that bet."
"Oh, he's hard enough. I rode him two hundred miles to Obion County and
back. I honestly believe he could run across the county to-morrow; and
jump! I am glad you mentioned it---it was wonderful--he is foolish
about me. It is because he knows I love you, dear," I said, whispering
in her ear.
"Please don't, Jack, you only hurt me."
"I was across a small ravine from him one day, had hitched him and was
looking at some timber. He broke his halter and came to me. I heard his
calling neigh and I answered him, and he came to me, clearing a ten-foot
ravine in a jump."
Eloise clapped her hands, and my Aunt, who had come up and heard it,
smiled. Then she said, with her usual red-tape accuracy, "I hope you
took the measurements. Was it really ten feet, Jack?"
"I measured it," I said, "and it was nearly bottomless. If one foot had
missed--"
My Aunt nodded to Eloise. "That little branch in Cumberland Park is
only ten across from bank to bank. Oh, we'll play it on his lordship
fine! Come!"
There was a crash of music. With radiant cheeks and eyes that I saw
many a night afterwards in my dreams, and a proud smile she went with me
down the line.
There was a pretty surprise for us at the supper. We had filed into the
dining hall. My grandfather sat alone, his hair white under the
candles. On the right of him stood Eloise and Colonel Goff, and the
long line of expectant guests stood around down the long table.
My grandfather rapped, and, raising his glass, proposed a toast to the
future Earl and Countess of Carfax. There was a burst of applause. The
guests lifted their glasses.
"My friends," said Colonel Goff, bravely, when the room became quiet, "I
came to you years ago, an exiled Englishman, and I found a home here,
following my old commander from the war. I came lonely and alone. I go
back with a sorrow in my heart at leaving many friends behind, but
instead of going alone, I return taking with me one who will be the peer
of any countess of the long line of Carfax."
He turned, bowing grandly to Eloise, who, pale, and with trembling lips
listened. I could see her breast faltering with quickened breathing.
Her parted lips panted for air, even though she stood beaming graciously
to the greeting. "I have another announcement to make," he went on very
quietly, "and I think it right that I do it now, that I may be just to
myself, to the good people who have reared her, and to my child whom I
love. My coming here was not altogether purposeless. You will
understand when I introduce to you my daughter, Lady Elsie."
There was a stir at the lower end of the table, and I saw my Aunt
Lucretia open the folding doors and Tammas followed by Marget enter.
Elsie followed, her face ablaze with that beauty which was always hers
when excited. She was more like an angel of light than a girl, and
around her neck and in her hair were the jewels of the house of Carfax.
Goff met and kissed her, and very simply and sweetly she advanced and
kissed Eloise, graciously, almost unconsciously, a kiss both of love and
tribute. She stood between them, bowing and smiling so graciously down
the table that her breeding was evident.
All who knew her loved her, and for the next ten minutes they thronged
around her with kisses and congratulations.
I did not go, for there were tears in my eyes and a great choking in my
throat. When I looked up Tammas and Marget were standing by me, Tammas
making a bold effort at winking his tears away and smiling. He mopped
his brow vigorously, and said mechanically, "'Tis a bonny night for us,
a bonny night and a glorious for our lassie!"
"Ay, weel," said Marget between her sobs, "but dinna she look it--like
her ain sweet mother? Oh, but she was that bonny, and 'tis she, our
lassie, Tammas, can be looking down on her this blessed minute, her
bairn who has come into her own."
Then Elsie saw us and came quietly forward. She clasped me impulsively
around the neck and kissed me, whispering, "Oh, it is mine, Jack, that I
felt but could not tell. 'Tis the unattainable come true, and now,
Jack, dear Jack, that I am Lady Elsie, now that I am worthy of you--"
she could not speak. Her lips were deadly white as if with faintness.
I held her, stroking her hair.
"You were always worthy of anyone, sweet one. Be brave, be brave, now,"
I whispered, "and go back to your father's side."
I looked up to find Eloise's eyes upon me, and a strange understanding
in their depths.
"I am staying with papa, at The Manor now," said Elsie as she left me
and Marget. "You will not let it keep you from coming to see me often,
will you, Jack?"
"Ay, weel, to be sure, lassie," broke in Tammas, and I caught the
pleased look that seemed part of his countenance that night as if now
his heart's desire had already come to pass, "ay, weel, to be sure, for
our Mr. Jack will always be our Mr. Jack to us, lassie." ...
It was the last waltz. Eloise beckoned to me, and when I reached her,
she opened her arms and I took her in mine. I could not speak, my heart
beating almost strangled me. I held her tight, and into the sweetness
of the music and the lure of the waltz came again all the past sweetness
from her girlhood up, all blending in memory with the perfume of her
hair, the whiteness of her throat, and the firm supple touch of her
lithe, strong body against mine. Again she was my Little Sister and
comrade of the long past. My life, my love, my all that I dreamed and
hoped, danced with her in that last dance....
I felt her heart beating against mine. Her breathing was a sob. I felt
her wilt, her limbs give way beneath her, her arms hang limp, her head
fall back. I carried her in my arms to the sofa....
"A little ice water," said my Aunt Lucretia. When I looked up Colonel
Goff stood over her bathing her face. "I should not have let her dance
so much--it was all too much for her." He bent again, stroking the
beautiful hair. I could not see more for my anger.
In the cool air outside I came to myself. My anger died, all but my own
bitterness. I saw the long line of carriages and the men sleeping on
boxes, and then I heard a nicker, a friendly little recalling whinny
from Satan's stall, and the next instant I had swung into his saddle,
and touched my heel to his flank.
I saw the grooms on the boxes sit up, and stare into the night, for
straight to the banks of a little creek I rode him, not down the old
road. He leaped high into the air, enjoying even more than I did the
glory of the risk and jump. He swept like a whirlwind through the gate.
The mad ride home soothed me.
*CHAPTER XIX*
*THE HIGH JUMP*
From the crush of the great crowds around the grand stand at the
race-course, lining up far down the in-field, and jamming the betting
sheds, I saw my Aunt Lucretia forcing her sorrel horse through the
gathering. She had been a familiar figure at every fair and race
meeting as far back as I could remember. No secretary for twenty years
had questioned her judgment or her orders; they were too glad to have
her help. I was in the judges' stand helping them out. I had ridden
over early, leaving Satan to my Aunt's stable boy, who had already
worked him out with a stiff gallop of two miles, and rubbed him down for
the hurdle race and the high jump.
My Aunt Lucretia rode up close to the little canopied stand and beckoned
to me. "Ever see such a crowd?" she said, smiling proudly. "I told
Roswick this special high jump and hurdle would draw 'em. I'll bet
there are twenty thousand people in that crowd."
"What is the programme?" I asked indifferently, though I knew it as well
as she. I had come out under protest with myself as it were; I would
rather have been deep in the heart of my wood where I might not see
Eloise. I had tossed all night on my bed. If I dozed it was only to
awaken, feeling that I held Eloise fainting in my arms. I did not want
to see her, for in my heart, since I last danced, there had been such a
tempest of conflicting emotions as made me pace the floor all night; and
by day I knew not my own mind. Yet somehow it was not all sorrow. For I
knew now that Eloise loved me and at thought of it my heart almost burst
with gladness. Gladness was mingled so with sorrow that I wondered if
both were not sweeter for the mingling.
"Colonel Goff and I have put up a few three-foot hurdles," my Aunt said,
sweeping the track with her hand, "and he and Eloise and a few of the
younger people are going to gallop over them just for fun. Goff really
wants to show off his record-breaking jumper and his _fiancee_ at the
same time," she said, smiling carelessly at me. "The hurdles will be for
any of them who care to go over them, but the high jump," and she
pointed to a movable gate of bars, flanked with high panels on each
side, "will be put across the wire at the finish for Goff and his hunter
only," and she laughed, winking at me slyly. "The record is five feet
six; Goff thinks that is what he is going after again; but I've put up
another bar for fun. I want to see Goff's imported record-breaking
'lepper,' as he calls him, break his blooming knees on that top bar."
I turned impatiently. "Aunt Lucretia, that's dangerous, six feet--and
under the whip, after a mile dash!"
Aunt Lucretia smiled. "None of them is supposed to go after the high
jump but the Colonel, and he swears he can do it. H-u-s-h!" she
whispered. "Not a word of this. Just let Eloise fix him. I've been
twenty years arguing with him about importing these worthless brutes and
the superiority of our own horses, now I am going to make him pay for
his obstinacy--s-sh! There they come now," and she pointed to the
in-field, through which a jolly group of riders came, society people
mostly, girls and boys and members of the hunting club who were out for
the mile gallop over the short hurdles.
"There are ten couples of them in all," she said, "our smartest boys and
girls. Many of them will not even try the low hurdles and none of them
the high jump except the Colonel."
"You ought not to try it," I said resolutely. "Don't you know that
nothing can keep Eloise and Satan from trying that gate of bars?"
"Of course," said my Aunt, "but Goff doesn't know it, and that is where
he will part with his ducats. He has even forgotten the bet, he has
been so happy; but I'll remind him. He hasn't the least idea that Satan
could jump over his shadow in the road. O-h, no!"
As we talked they rode up. "Now see here," said Colonel Goff to his
crowd, as he lined them up, "some of these hurdles are going to take a
bit of going, and you boys must give the ladies the front, for your dust
might blind the horses to the hurdles and make them rush over them with
chances for bad tumbles and broken knees. We'll finish the last quarter
flat; but I'll go over the gate and bars here for exhibition. It's a
pretty stiff affair and will take a bit of going, so the rest of you
will please be so kind as to give me the lead here and an open field;
just hack around this last quarter, following me, and dodge the gate.
There's plenty of room."
The Colonel sat his horse near me as I stood, watch in hand in the
judges' stand. Eloise had not looked my way. She sat her great,
steel-limbed mount as unconcernedly as if she were going on a fox chase.
The others were laughing and excited, the untried horses nervous and
restless, but Satan stood still, looking as if carved out of the black
granite of the hills. Eloise glanced up and saw me. I turned my head
quickly, but she came over, her face pale, but her eyes smiling kindly
into mine. The old fun was in them, the old daring, colt-breaking fun I
had not seen there since my return.
"Jack," she said, laughing, "if I could only get you behind the barn to
split my skirts again; this side-saddle is too heavy." She was looking
me bravely in the eye, laughing as she said it. Then all at once I saw
all the make-believe go out of her face and her eyes fall before mine.
Riding up softly she whispered, "Jack, do you remember the Story of
Atalanta?"