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+Project Gutenberg's The Boss of Little Arcady, by Harry Leon Wilson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Boss of Little Arcady
+
+Author: Harry Leon Wilson
+
+Release Date: December 1, 2003 [EBook #10358]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOSS OF LITTLE ARCADY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE BOSS OF LITTLE ARCADY]
+
+[Illustration: "A-CHESTIN' OUT HIS CHEST LAHK A OLE MA'ASH FRAWG."]
+
+
+
+
+THE BOSS OF LITTLE ARCADY
+
+BY
+
+HARRY LEON WILSON
+
+
+1905
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+MY MOTHER
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+_THE BOOK OF COLONEL POTTS_
+
+CHAPTER
+
+I. How the Boss won his Title
+
+II. The Golden Day of Colonel Potts
+
+III. The Perfect Lover
+
+IV. Dreams and Wakings
+
+V. A Mad Prank of the Gods
+
+VI. A Matter of Personal Property
+
+VII. "A World of Fine Fabling"
+
+VIII. Adventure of Billy Durgin, Sleuth
+
+IX. How the Boss saved Himself
+
+X. A Lady of Powers
+
+XI. How Little Arcady was Uplifted
+
+XII. Troubled Waters are Stilled
+
+
+_THE BOOK OF MISS CAROLINE_
+
+XIII. A Catastrophe in Furniture
+
+XIV. The Coming of Miss Caroline
+
+XV. Little Arcady views a Parade
+
+XVI. The Spectre of Scandal is Raised
+
+XVII. The Truth about Shakspere at Last
+
+XVIII. In which the Game was Played
+
+XIX. A Worthless Black Hound
+
+XX. In which Something must be Done
+
+XXI. Little Arcady is grievously Shaken
+
+
+_THE BOOK OF LITTLE MISS_
+
+XXII. The Time of Dreams
+
+XXIII. The Strain of Peavey
+
+XXIV. The Loyalty of Jim
+
+XXV. The Case of Fatty Budlow
+
+XXVI. A Little Mystery is Solved
+
+XXVII. How a Truce was Troublesome
+
+XXVIII. The Abdication of the Boss
+
+XXIX. In which All Rules are Broken
+
+XXX. By Another Hand
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+"A chestin' out his chest lahk a ole ma'ash
+frawg"
+
+"And yet I have been pestered by cheap flings
+at my personal bearing"
+
+"We might get him to make a barrel of it for
+the Sunday-school picnic"
+
+"That will do," I said severely. "Remember
+there is a gentleman present"
+
+
+
+
+The Book of
+COLONEL POTTS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+HOW THE BOSS WON HIS TITLE
+
+=Late last Thursday evening one Jonas Rodney Potts, better known to this
+community as "Upright" Potts, stumbled into the mill-race, where it had
+providentially been left open just north of Cady's mill. Everything was
+going along finely until two hopeless busybodies were attracted to the
+spot by his screams, and fished him out. It is feared that he will
+recover. We withhold the names of his rescuers, although under strong
+temptation to publish them broadcast.--_Little Arcady Argus_ of May
+21st.=
+
+Looking back to that time from a happier present, I am filled by a
+genuine awe of J. Rodney Potts. Reflecting upon those benign ends which
+the gods chose to make him serve, I can but marvel how lightly each of
+us may meet and scorn a casual Potts, unrecking his gracious and
+predestined office in the play of Fate.
+
+Of the present--to me--supreme drama of the Little Country, I can only
+say that the gods had selected their agent with a cunning so flawless
+that suspicion of his portents could not well have been aroused in one
+lacking discernment like unto the gods' very own. So trivially, so
+utterly, so pitiably casual, to eyes of the flesh, was this Potts of
+Little Arcady, from his immortal soul to the least item of his inferior
+raiment!
+
+Thus craftily are we fooled by the Lords of Destiny, whose caprice it is
+to affect remoteness from us and a lofty unconcern for our poor little
+doings.
+
+There is bitterness in the lines of that _Argus_ paragraph, and a
+flippant incivility might be read between them by the least discerning.
+
+Arcady of the Little Country, however, knows there is neither bitterness
+nor real cynicism in Solon Denney, founder, editor, and proprietor of
+the _Little Arcady Argus_; motto, "Hew to the Line, Let the Chips Fall
+Where they May!" Indeed, we do know Solon. Often enough has the _Argus_
+hewn inexorably to the line, when that line led straight through the
+heart of its guiding genius and through the hearts of us all. One who
+had seen him, as I did, stand uncovered in the presence of his new
+Washington hand-press, the day that dynamo of Light was erected in the
+_Argus_ office, could never suppose him to lack humanity or the just
+reverence demanded by his craft.
+
+We may concede without disloyalty that Solon is peculiar unto himself.
+In his presence you are cursed with an unquiet suspicion that he may
+become frivolous with you at any moment,--may, indeed, be so at that
+moment, despite a due facial gravity and tones of weight,--for he will
+not infrequently seem to be both trivial and serious in the same breath.
+Again, he is amazingly sensitive for one not devoid of humor. In a
+pleasant sense he is acutely aware of himself, and he does not dislike
+to know that you feel his quality. Still again, he is bound to spice his
+writing. Were it his lot to report events on the Day of Judgment, I
+believe the _Argus_ account would be thought too highly colored by many
+persons of good taste.
+
+But Little Arcady knows that Solon is loyal to its welfare--knows that
+he is fit to wield the mightiest lever of Civilization in its behalf on
+Wednesday of each week.
+
+We know now, moreover, that an undercurrent of circumstance existed
+which did not even ripple the surface of that apparently facetious
+brutality hurled at J. Rodney Potts.
+
+The truth may not be told in a word. But it was in this affair that
+Solon Denney won his title of "Boss of Little Arcady," a title first
+rendered unto him somewhat in derision, I regret to say, by a number of
+our leading citizens, who sought, as it were, to make sport of him.
+
+It began in a jest, as do all the choicest tragedies of the gods,--a few
+lines of idle badinage, meant to spice Solon's column of business locals
+with a readable sprightliness. The thing was printed, in fact, between
+"Let Harpin Cust shine your face with his new razors" and "See that line
+of clocks at Chislett's for sixty cents. They look like cuckoos and keep
+good time."
+
+"Not much news this week," the item blithely ran, "so we hereby start
+the rumor that 'Upright' Potts is going to leave town. We would incite
+no community to lawless endeavor, but--may the Colonel encounter swiftly
+in his new environment that warm reception to which his qualities of
+mind, no less than his qualities of heart, so richly entitle him,--that
+reception, in short, which our own debilitated public spirit has timidly
+refused him. We claim the right to start any rumor of this sort that
+will cheer the souls of an admiring constituency. Now is the time to pay
+up that subscription."
+
+The intention, of course, was openly playful--a not subtle sally meant
+to be read and forgotten. Yet--will it be credited?--more than one of us
+read it so hurriedly, perhaps with so passionate a longing to have it
+the truth, as not to perceive its satirical indirections. The rumor
+actually lived for a day that Potts was to disembarrass the town of his
+presence.
+
+And then, from the fictitious stuff of this rumor was spawned a
+veritable inspiration. Several of our most public-spirited citizens
+seemed to father it simultaneously.
+
+"Why should Potts _not_ leave town--why should he not seek out a new
+field of effort?"
+
+"Field of effort" was a rank bit of poesy, it being certain that Potts
+would never make an effort worthy of the name in any field whatsoever;
+but the sense of it was plain.
+
+Increasingly with the years had plans been devised to alleviate the
+condition of Potts's residence among us. Some of these had required a
+too definite and artificial abruptness in the mechanics of his removal;
+others, like Eustace Eubanks's plot for having all our best people
+refuse to notice him, depended upon a sensitiveness in the person aimed
+at which he did not possess. Besides, there had been talk of disbarring
+him from the practice of his profession, and I, as a lawyer, had been
+urged to instigate that proceeding. Unquestionably there was ground for
+it.
+
+But now this random pleasantry of Solon Denney's set our minds to
+working in another direction.
+
+In the broad, pleasant window of the post-office, under the "NO LOAFING
+HERE!" sign, half a dozen of us discussed it while we waited for the
+noon mail. There seemed to be a half-formed belief that Potts might
+adroitly be made to perceive advantages in leaving us.
+
+"It's a whole lot better to manipulate and be subtle in a case like
+this," suggested the editor of the _Argus_. "Threats of violence,
+forcible expulsion, disbarment proceedings--all crude--and besides they
+won't move Potts. Jonas Rodney may not be gifted with a giant intellect,
+but he is cunning."
+
+"The cunning of a precocious boy," prompted Eustace Eubanks, who was one
+of us. "He is well aware that we would not dare attempt lawless
+violence."
+
+"Exactly, Eustace," answered Solon. "I tell you, gentlemen, this
+thriving little town needs a canning factory, as we all know; but more
+than a canning factory it needs a Boss,--one of those strong characters
+that make tools of their fellow-men, who rule our cities with an iron
+hand but take care to keep the hand in a velvet glove,--a Boss that is
+diplomatic, yet an autocrat."
+
+That careless use of the term "Boss" was afterward seen to be
+unfortunate for Solon. They remembered it against him.
+
+"That's right," said Westley Keyts. "Let's be diplomatic with him."
+
+"How would _you_ begin, Westley, if you don't mind telling us?" Solon
+had already begun to shape a scheme of his own.
+
+"Why," answered Westley, looking very earnest, "just go up to him in a
+quiet, refined manner--no blustering, understand--and say in a low tone,
+kind of off-hand but serious, 'Now, look a' here, Potts, old boy, let's
+talk this thing over like a couple of gentlemen had ought to.' 'Well,
+all right,' says Potts, 'that's fair--I couldn't refuse _that_ as from
+one gentleman to another gentleman.' Well, then, say to him, 'Now,
+Potts, you know as well as any man in this town that you're an all-round
+no-good--you're a human _Not_--and a darn scalawag into the bargain. So
+what's the _use_? Will you go, or won't you?' Then if he'd begin to hem
+and haw and try to put it off with one thing or another, why, just hint
+in a roundabout way--perfectly genteel, you understand--that there'd be
+doings with a kittle of tar and feathers that same night at
+eight-thirty sharp, rain or shine, with a free ride right afterward to
+the town line and mebbe a bit beyond, without no cushions. Up about the
+Narrows would be a good place to say farewell," he concluded
+thoughtfully.
+
+We had listened patiently enough, but this was too summary. Westley
+Keyts is our butcher, a good, honest, energetic, downright business man
+with a square forehead and a blunt jaw and red hair that bristles with
+challenges. But he seems compelled to say too nearly what he means to
+render him useful in negotiations requiring any considerable finesse.
+
+"We were speaking, Westley, of the gentle functions of diplomacy,"
+remarked Solon, cuttingly. "Of course, we _could_ waylay Potts and kill
+him with one of your cleavers and have his noble head stuffed and
+mounted to hang up over Barney Skeyhan's bar, but it wouldn't be
+subtle--it would not be what the newspapers call 'a triumph of
+diplomacy'! And then, again, reports of it might be carried to other
+towns, and talk would be caused."
+
+"Now, say," retorted Westley, somewhat abashed, "I was thinking I
+answered all _that_ by winding up the way like I did, asking him,--not
+mad-like, you understand,--'Now will you go or _won't_ you?' just like
+that. All I can say is, if that ain't diplomacy, then I don't know what
+in Time diplomacy _is_!"
+
+I think we conceded this, in silence, be it understood, for Westley is
+respected. But we looked to Solon for a more tenuous subtlety. Nor did
+he fail us. Two days later Potts upon the public street actually
+announced his early departure from Little Arcady.
+
+To know how pleasing an excitement this created one should know more
+about Potts. It will have been inferred that he was objectionable. For
+the fact, he was objectionable in every way: as a human being, a man, a
+citizen, a member of the Slocum County bar, and a veteran of our late
+civil conflict. He was shiftless, untidy, a borrower, a pompous
+braggart, a trouble-maker, forever driving some poor devil into
+senseless litigation. Moreover, he was blithely unscrupulous in his
+dealings with the Court, his clients, his brother-attorneys, and his
+fellow-men at large. When I add that he was given to spells of hard
+drinking, during which he became obnoxious beyond the wildest possible
+dreams of that quality, it will be seen that we of Little Arcady were
+not without reason for wishing him away.
+
+He had drifted casually in upon us after the war, accompanied somewhat
+elegantly by one John Randolph Clement Tuckerman, an ex-slave. He came
+with much talk of his regiment,--a fat-cheeked, florid man of forty-five
+or so, with shifty blue eyes and an address moderately insinuating. Very
+tall he was, and so erect that he seemed to lean a little backward. This
+physical trait, combining with a fancy for referring to himself freely
+as "an upright citizen of this reunited and glorious republic, sir!" had
+speedily made him known as "Upright" Potts. He was of a slender build
+and a bony frame, except in front. His long, single-breasted frock-coat
+hung loosely enough about his shoulders, yet buttoned tightly over a
+stomach that was so incongruous as to seem artificial. The sleeves of
+the coat were glossy from much desk rubbing, and its front advertised a
+rather inattentive behavior at table. The Colonel's dress was completed
+by drab overgaiters and poorly draped trousers of the same once-delicate
+hue. Upon his bald head, which was high and peaked, like Sir Walter
+Scott's, he carried a silk hat in an inferior state of preservation.
+When he began to drink it was his custom to repair at once to a barber
+and submit to having his side-whiskers trimmed fastidiously. Sober, he
+seemed to feel little pride of person, and his whiskers at such a time
+merely called attention somewhat unprettily to his lack of a chin. His
+other possessions were an ebony walking stick with a gold head and what
+he referred to in moments of expansion as his "library." This consisted
+of a copy of the Revised Statutes, a directory of Cincinnati, Ohio, for
+the year 1867, and two volumes of Patent Office reports.
+
+At the time of which I speak the Colonel had long been sober, and the
+day that Solon Denney completed those mysterious negotiations with him
+he was as far from conventional standards of the beautiful as I remember
+to have seen him.
+
+The guise of Solon's subtlety, the touch of his iron hand in a glove of
+softest velvet, had been in this wise: he had pointed out to the Colonel
+that there were richer fields of endeavor to the west of us; newer,
+larger towns, fitter abodes for a man of his parts; communities which
+had honors and emoluments to lavish upon the worthy,--prizes which it
+would doubtless never be in our poor power to bestow.
+
+Potts was stirred by all this, but he was not blinded to certain
+disadvantages,--"a stranger in a strange land," etc., while in Little
+Arcady he had already "made himself known."
+
+But, suggested Solon, with a ready wit, if the stranger were to go
+fortified with certificates of character from the leading citizens of
+his late home?
+
+This was a thing to consider. Potts reflected more favorably; but still
+he hesitated. He was unable to believe that these certificates of his
+excellence might be obtained. The bar and the commercial element of
+Little Arcady had been cold, not to say suspicious, toward him. It was
+an unpleasant thing to mention, but a cabal had undeniably been formed.
+
+Solon was politely incredulous. He pledged his word of honor as a
+gentleman to provide the letters,--a laudatory, an uplifting letter,
+from every citizen in town whose testimony would be of weight; also a
+half-column of fit praise in the next issue of the _Argus_, twelve
+copies of which Potts should freely carry off with him for judicious
+scattering about the fortunate town in which his journey should end.
+
+Then Potts spoke openly of the expenses of travel. Solon, royally
+promising a purse of gold to take him on his way, clenched the winning
+of a neat and bloodless victory.
+
+No one has ever denied that Denney must have employed a faultless, an
+incomparable tact, to bring J. Rodney Potts to this agreement. By tact
+alone had he achieved that which open sneers, covert insult, abuse,
+ridicule, contumely, and forthright threats had failed to consummate,
+and in the first flush of the news we all felt much as Westley Keyts
+said he did.
+
+"Solon Denney is some subtler than me," said Westley, in a winning
+spirit of concession; "I can see that, now. He's the Boss of Little
+Arcady after this, all right, so far as _I_ know."
+
+Nevertheless, there was misgiving about the letters for Potts. Old Asa
+Bundy, our banker, wanted to know, somewhat peevishly, if it seemed
+quite honest to send Potts to another town with a satchel full of
+letters certifying to his rare values as a man and a citizen. What would
+that town think of us two or three days later?
+
+"This is no time to split hairs, Bundy," said Solon; and I believe I
+added, "Don't be quixotic, Mr. Bundy!"
+
+Hereupon Westley Keyts broke in brightly.
+
+"Why, now, they'll see in a minute that the whole thing was meant as a
+joke. They'll see that the laugh is on _them_, and they'll have a lot of
+fun out of it, and then send the old cuss along to another town with
+some more funny letters to fool the next ones." "That's all very
+_well_, but it isn't high conduct," insisted Bundy.
+
+Westley Keyts now achieved the nearest approach to diplomacy I have ever
+known of him.
+
+"Oh, well, Asa, after all, this is a world of give and take. 'Live and
+let live' is my motto."
+
+"We must use common sense in these matters, you know, Bundy," observed
+Solon, judicially.
+
+And that sophistry prevailed, for we were weak unto faintness from our
+burden.
+
+We gave letters setting forth that J. Rodney Potts was the ideal
+inhabitant of a city larger than our own. We glowed in describing the
+virtues of our departing townsman; his honesty of purpose, his integrity
+of character, his learning in the law, his wide range of achievement,
+civic and military,--all those attributes that fitted him to become a
+stately ornament and a tower of strength to any community larger in the
+least degree than our own modest town.
+
+And there was the purse. Fifty dollars was suggested by Eustace Eubanks,
+but Asa Bundy said that this would not take Potts far enough. Eustace
+said that a man could travel an immense distance for fifty dollars.
+Bundy retorted that an ordinary man might perhaps go far enough on that
+sum, but not Potts.
+
+"If we are to perpetrate this outrage at all," insisted Bundy, pulling
+in calculation at his little chin-whisker, "let us do it thoroughly. A
+hundred dollars can't take Potts any too far. We must see that he keeps
+going until he could never get back--" We all nodded to this.
+
+"--and another thing, the farther away from this town those letters are
+read,--why, the better for our reputations."
+
+A hundred dollars it was. Purse and letters were turned over to Solon
+Denney to deliver to Potts. The _Argus_ came out with its promised
+eulogy, a thing so fulsome that any human being but J. Rodney Potts
+would have sickened to read it of himself.
+
+But our little town was elated. One could observe that last day a
+subdued but confident gayety along its streets as citizens greeted one
+another.
+
+On every hand were good fellowship and kind words, the light-hearted
+salute, the joyous mien. It was an occasion that came near to being
+festal, and Solon Denney was its hero. He sought to bear his honors with
+the modesty that is native to him, but in his heart he knew that we now
+spoke of him glibly as the Boss of Little Arcady, and the consciousness
+of it bubbled in his manner in spite of him.
+
+When it was all over,--though I had not once raised my voice in protest,
+and had frankly connived with the others,--I confess that I felt shame
+for us and pity for the friendless man we were sending out into the
+world. Something childlike in his acceptance of the proposal, a few
+phrases of naive enthusiasm for his new prospects, repeated to me by
+Solon, touched me strangely. It was, therefore, with real embarrassment
+that I read the _Argus_ notice. "With profound regret," it began, "we
+are obliged to announce to our readers the determination of our
+distinguished fellow-townsman, Colonel J. Rodney Potts, to shake the
+dust of Little Arcady from his feet. Deaf to entreaties from our leading
+citizens, the gallant Colonel has resolved that in simple justice to
+himself he must remove to some larger field of action, where his native
+genius, his flawless probity, and his profound learning in the law may
+secure for him those richer rewards which a man of his unusual caliber
+commendably craves and so abundantly merits."
+
+There followed an overflowing half-column of warmest praise, embodying
+felicitations to the unnamed city so fortunate as to secure this
+"peerless pleader and Prince of Gentlemen." It ended with the assurance
+that Colonel Potts would take with him the cordial good-will of every
+member of a community to which he had endeared himself, no less by his
+sterling civic virtues than by his splendid qualities of mind and heart.
+
+The thing filled me with an indignant pity. I tried in vain to sleep. In
+the darkness of night our plan came to seem like an atrocious outrage
+upon a guileless, defenceless ne'er-do-well. For my share of the guilt,
+I resolved to convey to Potts privately on the morrow a more than
+perfunctory promise of aid, should he find himself distressed at any
+time in what he would doubtless term his new field of endeavor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+THE GOLDEN DAY OF COLONEL POTTS
+
+I awoke the next morning under most vivid portents of calamity. I
+believe I am neither notional, nor given to small, vulgar superstitions,
+but I have learned that this peculiar sensation is never without
+significance. I remember that I felt it the night our wagon bridge went
+out by high water. I tried to read the presentiment as I dressed. But
+not until I was shaving did it relate itself to the going out of Potts.
+Then the illumination came with a speed so electric that I gashed my
+chin under the shock of it. Instantly I seemed to know, as well as I
+know to-day, that the Potts affair had, in some manner, been botched.
+
+So apprehensive was I that I lingered an hour on my little riverside
+porch, dreading the events that I felt the day must unfold. Inevitably,
+however, I was drawn to the centre of things. Turning down Main Street
+at the City Hotel corner, on the way to my office, I had to pass the
+barber-shop of Harpin Cust, in front of which I found myself impelled to
+stop. Looking over the row of potted geraniums in the window, I beheld
+Colonel Potts in the chair, swathed to the chin in the barber's white
+cloth, a gaze of dignified admiration riveted upon his counterpart in
+the mirror. Seen thus, he was not without a similarity to pictures of
+the Matterhorn, his bare, rugged peak rising fearsomely above his
+snow-draped bulk. Harpin appeared to be putting the last snipping
+touches to the Colonel's too-long neglected side-whiskers. On the table
+lay his hat and gold-headed cane, and close at hand stood his bulging
+valise.
+
+I walked hastily on. The thing was ominous. Yet, might it not merely
+denote that Potts wished to enter upon his new life well barbered? The
+bulging bag supported this possibility, and yet I was ill at ease.
+
+Reaching my office, I sought to engage myself with the papers of an
+approaching suit, but it was impossible to ignore the darkling cloud of
+disaster which impended. I returned to the street anxiously.
+
+On my way to the City Hotel, where I had resolved to await like a man
+what calamity there might be, I again passed the barber-shop.
+
+Harpin Cust now leaned, gracefully attentive, on the back of the empty
+chair, absently swishing his little whisk broom. Before him was planted
+Potts, his left foot advanced, his head thrown back, reading to Harpin
+from a spread page of the _Argus_. I divined that he was reading Solon's
+comment upon himself, and I shuddered.
+
+As I paused at the door of the hotel Potts emerged from the barber-shop.
+In one hand he carried his bag, in the other his cane and the _Little
+Arcady Argus_. His hat was a bit to one side, and it seemed to me
+that he was leaning back farther than usual. He had started briskly down
+the street in the opposite direction from me, but halted on meeting
+Eustace Eubanks. The Colonel put down his bag and they shook hands.
+Eustace seemed eager to pass on, but the Colonel detained him and began
+reading from the _Argus_. His voice carried well on the morning air, and
+various phrases, to which he gave the full meed of emphasis, floated to
+me on the gentle breeze. "That peerless pleader and Prince of
+Gentlemen," came crisply to my ears. Eustace appeared to be restive, but
+the Colonel, through caution, or, perhaps, mere friendliness, had moored
+him by a coat lapel.
+
+The reading done, I saw that Eustace declined some urgent request of the
+Colonel's, drawing away the moment his coat was released. As they
+parted, my worst fears were confirmed, for I saw the Colonel progress
+flourishingly to the corner and turn in under the sign, "Barney Skeyhan;
+Choice Wines, Liquors, and Cigars."
+
+"What did he say?" I asked of Eustace as he came up.
+
+"It was exceedingly distasteful, Major." Eustace was not a little
+perturbed by the encounter. "He read every word of that disgusting
+article in the _Argus_ and then he begged me to go into that Skeyhan's
+drinking-place with him and have a glass of liquor. I said very sharply,
+'Colonel Potts, I have never known the taste of liquor in my whole life
+nor used tobacco in any form.' At that he looked at me in the utmost
+astonishment and said: 'Bless my soul! _Really?_ Young man, don't you
+put it off another day--life is awful uncertain.' 'Why, Colonel,' I
+said, '_that_ isn't any way to talk,' but he simply tore down the
+street, saying that I was taking great chances."
+
+"And now he is reading his piece to Barney Skeyhan!" I groaned.
+
+"Rum is the scourge of our American civilization," remarked Eustace,
+warmly.
+
+"Barney Skeyhan's rum would scourge anybody's civilization," I said.
+
+"Of course I meant _all_ civilization," suggested Eustace, in polite
+help to my lame understanding.
+
+Precisely at nine o'clock Potts issued from Skeyhan's, bearing his bag,
+cane, and _Argus_ as before. He looked up and down the quiet street
+interestedly, then crossed over to Hermann Hoffmuller's, another
+establishment in which our civilization was especially menaced. He was
+followed cordially by five of Little Arcady's lesser citizens, who had
+obviously sustained the relation of guests to him at Skeyhan's. In
+company with Westley Keyts and Eubanks, I watched this procession from
+the windows of the City Hotel. Solon Denney chanced to pass at the
+moment, and we hailed him.
+
+"Oh, I'll soon fix _that_," said Solon, confidently. "Don't you worry!"
+
+And forthwith he sent Billy Durgin, who works in the City Hotel, to
+Hoffmuller's. He was to remind Colonel Potts that his train left at
+eleven-eight.
+
+Billy returned with news. Potts was reading the piece to Hoffmuller and
+a number of his patrons. Further, he had bought, and the crowd was then
+consuming, the two fly-specked bottles of champagne which Hoffmuller had
+kept back of his bar, one on either side of a stuffed owl, since the day
+he began business eleven years before.
+
+Billy also brought two messages to Solon: one from Potts that he had
+been mistaken about the attitude of Little Arcady toward himself--that
+he was seeing this more clearly every minute. The other was from
+Hoffmuller. Solon Denney was to know that some people might be just as
+good as other people who thought themselves a lot better, and would he
+please not take some shingles off a man's roof?
+
+Solon, ever the incorrigible optimist, said, "Of course I might have
+waited till he was on the train to give him the money; but don't worry,
+he'll be ready enough to go when the 'bus starts."
+
+I felt unable to share his confidence. That presentiment had for the
+moment corrupted my natural hopefulness.
+
+It was a few moments after ten when Potts next appeared to our group of
+anxious watchers. This time he had more friends. They swarmed
+respectfully but enthusiastically after him out of Hoffmuller's place, a
+dozen at least of our ne'er-do-wells. One of these, "Big Joe" Kestril,
+a genial lout of a section-hand, ostentatiously carried the bag and had
+an arm locked tenderly through one of the Colonel's. These two led the
+procession. It halted at the corner, where the Colonel began to read his
+_Argus_ notice to Bela Bedford, our druggist, who had been on the point
+of entering his store. But the newspaper had suffered. It was damp from
+being laid on bars, and parts of it were in tatters. The reader paused,
+midway of the first paragraph, to piece a tear across the column, and
+Bedford escaped by dashing into his store. The Colonel, suddenly
+discovering that he could recite the thing from memory, did so with
+considerable dramatic effect, seeming not to notice the defection of
+Bedford. The crowd cheered madly when he had finished, and followed him
+across the street to the bar of the City Hotel.
+
+We could now observe better. The bar of the City Hotel is next the
+office. A door is open between them with a wooden screen standing before
+it. Inside the carouse raged, while we, who had thought to set Potts at
+large, listened and wondered. The taller among us could overlook the
+screen. We beheld Potts, one elbow resting on the bar, his other hand
+with the cane in it waving forward his unreluctant train, while he
+loudly inquired if there were drink to be had suitable for a gentleman
+who was prepared to spend his money like a lord.
+
+"None of that cooking whiskey, mind--nothing but the best bottled goods,
+if you please!" was the next suggestion.
+
+Again the crowd cheered. New faces were constantly appearing. The news
+had gone out with an incredible rapidity. Honest men, inflamed by the
+report, were leaving their works and speeding to the front from as far
+north as the fair-grounds and as far south as the depot.
+
+"Soon," said Potts, after the first drink, "ah, too soon, I shall be
+miles away from your thriving little hamlet,--as pretty a spot, by the
+way, as God ever made,--seeing none but strange faces, longing for the
+old hearty hand-clasps, seeking, perhaps, in vain, for one kindly look
+which--which is now to be observed on every hand. But, friends, Colonel
+J. Rodney will not forget you. I have rare prospects, but no matter. To
+this little spot, the fairest in all Nature,--here among your simple,
+heartfelt faces, where I first got my start,--here my feelings will ever
+and anon return; for--why should I conceal it?--it is you, my friends,
+who have made me the man I am."
+
+Here Potts put an arm over the shoulder of Big Joe and urged pleadingly:
+"Another verse of that sweet old song, boys. I tell you that has the
+true heart-stuff in it--now--"
+
+They roared out a verse of "Auld Lang Syne," with execrable attempts at
+part-singing, little Dan Lefferts, a dissolute house-painter,
+contributing a tenor that was simply maniacal.
+
+Potts ordered more drinks. This done, he leaned heavily upon the bar and
+burst into tears. The varlets crowded about him with tender, soothing
+words, while we in the other room anxiously watched them and the clock.
+
+He was overcome, it seemed, by the affection which it now transpired
+that Little Arcady bore for him. Presently he half dried his tears and
+drew from an inner pocket of his coat the package of our letters.
+
+With eyes again streaming, in a sob-riven voice, he read them all to the
+pleased crowd. At the end, he regained control of himself.
+
+"Gentlemen, believe it or not, nothing has touched me like this since I
+bade farewell to my regiment in '65. You are getting under the heart of
+Jonas Rodney this time--I can't deny that."
+
+He began on the letters again, selecting the choicest, and not
+forgetting at intervals to rebuke the bar-tender for alleged inactivity.
+
+At last the clock marked ten-forty, and we heard the welcome rumble of
+the 'bus wheels. There was a hurried consultation with Amos Deane, the
+driver. He was to enter the bar in a brisk, businesslike way, seize the
+bag, and hustle the Colonel out before he had time to reflect. We peered
+over the screen, knowing the fateful moment was come.
+
+We saw the Colonel resist the attack on his bag and listen with marked
+astonishment to the assertion of Amos that there was just time to catch
+the train.
+
+"Time was made for slaves," said Potts.
+
+"That there train ain't goin' to wait a minute," reminded Amos,
+civilly. The Colonel turned upon him with a large sweetness of manner.
+
+"Ah, yes, my friend, but trains will be passing through your pretty
+little hamlet for years--I hope for ages--yet. They pass every day, but
+you can't have Jonas Rodney Potts every day."
+
+Here, with a gesture, he directed the crowd's attention to Amos.
+
+"Look at him, gentlemen. Speak to him for me--for I cannot. I ask you to
+note the condition he's in." Here, again, the Colonel burst into tears.
+"And, oh, my God!" he sobbed, "could they ask me to trust myself to a
+drunken rowdy of a driver, even if I _was_ going?" Amos was not only
+sober, he was a shrewd observer of events, a seasoned judge of men. He
+turned away without further parley. Big Joe told him he ought to be in
+better business than trying to break up a pleasant party.
+
+As the 'bus started, the strains of "Auld Lang Syne" floated to us
+again, and we knew the day was lost.
+
+"A hand of iron in a cunning little velvet glove," said Westley Keyts,
+in deep disgust as he left us. "It looks to me a darned sight more like
+a hand of mush in a glove of the _same!_"
+
+I have often been brought to realize that the latent nobility in our
+human nature is never so effectually aroused as at the second stage of
+alcoholic dementia. The victim sustains a shock of illumination hardly
+less than divine. On a sudden he is vividly cognizant of his
+overwhelming spiritual worth. Dazed in the first moment of this flooding
+consciousness, he is presently to be heard recalling instances of his
+noble conduct under difficulty, of righteous fortitude under strain.
+Especially does he find himself endowed with the antique virtues--with
+courage and a rugged fidelity, a stainless purity of motive, a fond and
+measureless generosity.
+
+To this stage the libations of Potts had now brought him. He began to
+refresh the crowd with comments upon his own worth, interspersed with
+kindly but hurt appreciations of the great world's lack of discernment.
+He besought and defied each gentleman present to recall an occasion,
+however trivial, when his conduct had fallen short of the loftiest
+standards. Especially were they begged to cite an instance when he had
+deviated in the least degree from a line of strictest loyalty to any
+friend. Big Joe Kestril was overcome at this. He broke down and wept out
+upon the shoulder of Potts his hopeless inability to comply with that
+outrageous request. The entire crowd became emotional, and a dozen
+lighted matches were thrust forward toward an apparently incombustible
+cigar with which Potts had long striven.
+
+Recovering from these first ravages of his self-analysis, the Colonel
+became just a bit critical.
+
+"But you see, boys, a man of my attributes is hampered and kept down in
+a one-horse place like this. Remarks have been passed about me here that
+I should blush to repeat. I say it in confidence, but I have again and
+again been made the sport of a wayward and wanton ridicule. I say,
+gentlemen, I have always conducted myself as only a Potts knows how to
+conduct himself--and yet I have been pestered by cheap flings at my
+personal bearing. Is this courtesy, is it common fairness, is it the
+boasted civilization of our nineteenth century?"
+
+[Illustration: "AND YET I HAVE BEEN PESTERED BY CHEAP FLINGS AT MY
+PERSONAL BEARING."]
+
+Hoarse expressions of incredulity, of execration, of disgust, came from
+the crowd as it raised glasses once more. The Colonel glared down the
+sloppy length of the bar, then gazed aloft into the smoky heights. The
+crowd waited for him to say something.
+
+"This is a beautiful day, gentlemen. A fine, balmy spring day. Let us be
+out and away to mossy dells. Why stay in this low drinking-place when
+all Nature beckons? Come on back to Hoffmuller's. Besides,"--he cast a
+reproachful look at the bar-tender,--"the hospitality of this place is
+not what an upright citizen of this great republic has a right to expect
+when he's throwing his good money right and left."
+
+He marched out in hurt dignity, followed by his train, many of whom, in
+loyalty to their host, sneered openly at the bar-tender as they passed.
+
+Outside the Colonel poised himself in gala attitude, and benignantly
+surveyed our quiet little Main Street in both directions. Across the way
+in the door of the First National Bank stood Asa Bundy, a look of
+interest on his face.
+
+The Colonel's sweeping glance halted upon Bundy. With a glad cry he
+started across to him, but Bundy, beholding the move, fled actively
+inside. The Colonel reached the door of the bank and tried the knob, but
+the key had been turned in the lock, and the next moment the curtains of
+the door were swiftly drawn. "Bank Closed" was printed upon them in
+large gold letters.
+
+Potts stepped aside to look into the window, and the curtain of that
+descended relentlessly. The bank had suddenly taken on an aspect of
+Sabbath blankness. Once more the Colonel rattled the knob, then he
+turned to his gathering followers.
+
+"Gentlemen, I came here to press the hand of one of Nature's noblemen,
+my tried friend, the Honorable Asa Bundy, whom we have just seen
+retreating to his precincts, as I might say, with a modesty that is
+rarely beautiful. But no matter." Here the Colonel mounted the top step
+and glowed out upon his faithful and ever enlarging band.
+
+"Instead, my friends, allow me to read you this splendid tribute from
+Bundy, and I trust that after this I shall never hear one of you utter a
+word in his disparagement."
+
+Rapidly fluttering the packet of letters, he drew out one bearing the
+imprint of the First National Bank of Little Arcady. The crowd, pressing
+closer, was cheerfully animated. From down the street on both sides
+anxious looks were bent upon the scene by many of our leading citizens.
+
+"'To Whom it May Concern,'" began the Colonel, in a voice that carried
+to the confines of our business centre; "'The determination of our
+esteemed citizen, Colonel J. Rodney Potts, to remove from our town makes
+it fitting that I record my high appreciation of his character as a man
+and his unusual attainments as a lawyer. His going will be a grievous
+loss to our community, atoned for only by the knowledge that he will
+better himself in a field of richer opportunities. He has proved himself
+to possess in full measure those qualities which go to the making of the
+best American citizenship, and these, as exercised in our behalf during
+his all too-short sojourn among us, entitle him to be cordially
+commended as worthy of all trust in any position to which he may aspire.
+Very sincerely, A. Bundy, President.'"
+
+Again and again the crowd cheered, and there were encouraging calls for
+Bundy; but the First National Bank stolidly preserved its Sabbath front.
+
+A moment later the Colonel was leading his steadfast cohort across the
+street again. Marvin Chislett had unwarily peeped from inside the door
+of his mercantile establishment. There was but time to turn the key and
+draw the curtains before the procession halted. Such behavior may have
+perplexed Potts, but daunt him it could not. From Chislett's top step he
+read Chislett's letter to the delighted throng, a letter in which Potts
+was said to bear an unblemished reputation, and to be a gentleman and a
+scholar, amply meriting any trust that might be reposed in him.
+
+From Chislett's they moved on to the foot of the stairs leading to the
+_Argus_ office. Potts sent Big Joe up for twenty-five copies of the
+latest number, and, standing on the coal box, he gallantly distributed
+these to the crowd as it filed before him, intoning from memory,
+meantime, snatches of the eulogy, while the crowd flourished the papers
+and gurgled noisily.
+
+A brief plunge into the lethal flood at Skeyhan's, and they came once
+more abroad, this time closing the Boston Cash Store most expeditiously.
+Potts, enthroned upon a big box in front, among bolts of muslin, straw
+hats, and bunches of innocent early lettuce, read the splendid tribute
+of the store's proprietor to his capacity as an expert in jurisprudence
+and his fitness for a seat of judicial honor. The bank and Chislett's
+being still closed, the little street, except in the near vicinity of
+Potts, began to sleep in a strange calm.
+
+There were other doors to conquer, however, and Potts, at the head of
+his _Argus_-waving crowd of degenerates, vanquished them all.
+
+Up and down he wandered busily, doors closing and curtains falling
+swiftly at his approach. Then would he turn majestically, and say, with
+a hand raised, "My friends, a moment's silence, while I read you this
+magnificent tribute from one who is unfortunately not among us."
+
+He was so impressive with this that at last the crowd would remove hats
+at each reading, to the Colonel's manifest approval. The doffed hat and
+the clutched _Argus_ became the mark of his drink-bought serfs. By four
+o'clock the only hospitable doorways on the street were those of the
+three saloons. Our leading business men were departing from their
+establishments by back doors and the secrecy of gracious alleys.
+
+From Skeyhan's to Hoffmuller's, from Hoffmuller's to the City Hotel, the
+crowd sang and shouted its irregular progress, the air being "Auld Lang
+Syne."
+
+It was about this time that the Colonel unhappily caught a glimpse of
+myself through the window of the hotel. A glad light came into his eyes,
+and at once he searched among the letters, crying, meanwhile: "My
+brother in arms! A younger brother, but a gallant officer, none the
+less--"
+
+I knew that he sought my letter. Egress from the City Hotel may be
+achieved, when desirable, by a side door, and I saw no more of Potts
+that day. I believe my letter spoke of him as an able and graceful
+pleader, meriting judicial honors, or something of that sort. I had
+forgotten its exact words, but I did not wish to hear Potts read them.
+So I fled to spend the remainder of that eventful day quietly among
+rosebushes and tender, budding hyacinths, unspotted of the world,
+receiving, however, occasional bulletins of the orgy from passers-by.
+From these and sundry narratives gleaned the following day, I was able
+to trace the later hours of this scandalous saturnalia.
+
+By six o'clock Potts had spent all his money. By six-fifteen this fact
+could no longer be concealed, and such of his following as had not
+already fallen by the wayside crept, one by one, to rest. They left the
+Colonel dreamily, murmurously happy in a chair at the end of the City
+Hotel bar.
+
+Here, he was discovered about six-thirty by Eustace Eubanks, who had
+incautiously thought to rebuke him.
+
+"For shame, Colonel Potts!" began Eustace, seeking to fix the uncertain
+eyes with his finger of scorn. "For shame to have squandered all that
+money for rum. Don't you know, sir, that a hundred and sixty thousand
+men die yearly in our land from the effects of rum?"
+
+"Hundred sixty thousand!" mused the Colonel, in polite amazement. "Well,
+well, figures can't lie! What of it?"
+
+"You have dishonestly spent that money given to you in sacred trust."
+
+This seemed to arouse Potts, and he surveyed Eubanks with more curiosity
+than delight. He arose, buttoned his coat, fixed his hat firmly upon his
+head, and took up his stick and bag. He put upon Eustace a glance of
+dignified urbanity, as he spoke.
+
+"I don't know who you are, sir,--never saw you before in my life,--but I
+have done what every good citizen should do. I have spent my money at
+home. This is a cheap place, full of cheap men. What the town needs,
+sir, is capital--capital to develop its attributes and industries. It
+needs more men with the public spirit of J. Rodney, sir. I bid you good
+evening! Ah, this has been indeed a _beautiful day_!"
+
+He walked out. Those who watched him until he turned out of Main Street
+into Fourth, and so toward the river, aver--marvelling duly at his
+powers of resistance--that the head of Potts was erect, his gaze bent
+aloft, and his gait one of perfect directness save that he stepped a
+little high.
+
+I like to think of him in that last walk. I like to bring up as nearly
+as I can his intense exaltation. It _had_ been a beautiful day. And now,
+as he looked aloft, walking with an automatic precision, his eyes must
+have beheld glorious vistas, in which he rode a chariot of triumph at
+the head of a splendid procession, while his ears rang with chaste
+tributes to his worth trumpeted by outriding heralds. And the good earth
+was firm beneath his tread, stretching broadly off for him to walk upon
+and behold his apotheosis.
+
+I cannot wonder that he stepped high, nor can I find it in my heart to
+begrudge him his day. Cunningly had he clutched a few golden moments
+from the hoard that Fate, the niggard, guards from us so jealously. To
+myself I acclaimed him as one to be envied.
+
+I have always liked to believe that the splendors of that last walk
+endured to the end--that there was no uncertainty, no hesitation, above
+all, no vulgar stumbling; but that the last high step, which plunged him
+into the chill waters of the race, was lifted in the same exulting
+serenity as the first.
+
+I stood in my garden that evening, charmed by the wild, sweet,
+gusty-gentle music of the spring night.
+
+Northward, in the gathering dusk, came a solitary figure walking
+rapidly--a slight, nervous figure, a soft hat drawn well over the face,
+the skirts of its coat streaming to the breeze. As it passed me, I
+recognized Solon Denney. He was gesticulating with some violence, and I
+could see his expressive face work as if he uttered words to himself. I
+thought it possible that he might be composing a piece for his
+newspaper. Instantly there came to my mind that rather coarse paraphrase
+of Westley Keyts--"A hand of mush in a glove of the _same!_"
+
+I did not intrude upon my friend as he passed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+THE PERFECT LOVER
+
+To the crime of being Potts the wretched Colonel had now added
+malversation of a trust fund. But I crave surcease, while it may be
+mine, from the immediately troubling waters of Potts. Let me turn more
+broadly to our town and its good people for that needed recreation which
+they never fail to afford me.
+
+"Arcady of the Little Country," we often say. On maps it is Little
+Arcady, county seat of Slocum County, an isle and haven in the dreary
+land sea that flattens away from it on every side,--north to the big
+woods, south to the swamp counties, and east and west, one might almost
+say, a thousand miles to the mountains. Our point is one from which to
+say either "back East" or "out West." It is neither, of itself, though
+it touches both.
+
+We are so ancient that plenty of us remember the stone fireplace in the
+log-cabin, with its dusters for the hearth of buffalo tail and
+wild-turkey wing, with iron pot hung by a chain from the chimney hook,
+with pewter or wooden plates from which to eat with horn-handled knives
+and iron spoons. But yet are we so modern that we have fine new houses
+with bay windows, ornamental cupolas, and porches raving woodenly in
+that frettish fever which the infamous scroll-saw put upon fifty years
+of our land's domestic architecture. And these houses are furnished with
+splendid modern furniture, even with black walnut, gold touched and
+upholstered in blue plush and maroon, fresh from the best factories. Our
+fairly old people remember when they hunted deer and were hunted by the
+red Indian on our town site, while their grandchildren have only the
+memories of the town-born, of the cottage-organ, the novel railroad, and
+the two-story brick block with ornamental false front. In short, we
+round an epoch within ourselves, historically and socially.
+
+The country, however, keeps its first purity of charm, a country of
+little hills and little valleys lined with little quick rivers. These
+beauties, indeed, have not gone unsung. Years ago a woman poet eased her
+heart of ecstasies about this Little Country.
+
+"Here swells the river in its boldest course," she wrote, "interspersed
+by halcyon isles on which Nature has lavished all her prodigality in
+tree, vine, and flower, banked by noble bluffs three hundred feet high,
+their sharp ridges as exquisitely definite as the edge of a shell; their
+summits adorned with those same beautiful trees and with buttresses of
+rich rock, crested with old hemlocks that wear a touching and antique
+grace amid the softer and more luxuriant vegetation."
+
+Not spectacular, this--not sensational--not even unusual. Common enough
+little hills, as the world goes, with the usual ragged-edged village
+between them and the river, peopled by human beings entirely usual both
+in their outer and inner lives. It seems to be, indeed, not a place in
+which events could occur with any romantic fitness.
+
+Perhaps I have grown to love this Little Country because I am a usual
+man. Perhaps I would have felt as much for it even had I not been held
+to it by a memory that would bind me to any spot howsoever unlovely. But
+I rejoiced always in its beauty, and more than ever when it made easier
+for me the only life it once appeared that I should live. I quote again
+from our visiting poet: "The aspect of this country was to me enchanting
+beyond any I have ever seen, from its fulness of expression, its bold
+and impassioned sweetness. Here the flood has passed over and marked
+everywhere its course by a smile. The fragments of rock touch it with a
+mildness and liberality which give just the needed relief. I should
+never be tired here, though I have elsewhere seen country of more secret
+and alluring charms, better calculated to stimulate and suggest. Here
+the eye and heart are filled."
+
+Here, too, my eye and heart were filled--emptied--and wondrously filled
+yet again, for which last I hold Potts to be curiously--but I wander.
+
+Enough to say that I stored a harvest of memories in a secret place here
+years ago. And I went to this on days when I was downhearted. Your boy
+of fifteen, I think, is the only perfect lover--giving all, demanding
+nothing, save, indeed, the right to his secret cherishings.
+
+Tremors, born within me that day when old gray, bristling Leggett, our
+Principal, opened the schoolroom door upon Lucy Tait, are as poignant,
+as sweetly terrible, now as in that far time when the light of her
+wondrous presence first fell upon me.
+
+An instant she hesitated timidly in the sombre frame of the doorway,
+looking far over our heads. Then old Leggett came in front of her. There
+was a word of presentation to Miss Berham, our teacher, the vision was
+escorted to a seat at my left front, and I was bade to continue the
+reading lesson if I ever expected to learn anything. As a matter of
+truth I did not expect to learn anything more. I thought I must suddenly
+have learned all there is to know. The page of the ancient reader over
+which I then mumbled is now before me. "A Good Investment" was the title
+of the day's lesson, and I had been called upon to render the first
+paragraph. With lightness, unrecking the great moment so perilously at
+hand, I had begun: "'Will you lend me two thousand dollars to establish
+myself in a small retail business?' inquired a young man, not yet out of
+his teens of a middle-aged gentleman who was poring over his ledger in
+the counting room of one of the largest establishments in Boston."
+
+The iron latch rattled, the door swung fatefully back, our heads were
+raised, our eyes bored her through and through.
+
+Then swung a new world for me out of primeval chaos, and for aeons of
+centuries I dizzied myself gazing upon the pyrotechnic marvel.
+
+"_Continue, Calvin!_--if you ever expect to learn anything."
+
+The fabric of my vision crumbled. Awake, I glared upon a page where the
+words ran crazily about like a disrupted colony of ants. I stammered at
+the thing, feeling my cheeks blaze, but no two words would stay still
+long enough to be related. I glanced a piteous appeal to authority,
+while old Leggett, still standing by, crumpled his shaven upper lip into
+a professional sneer that I did not like.
+
+"That will _do_, Calvin. Sit down! Solon Denney, you may go on."
+
+With careless confidence, brushing the long brown lock from his fair
+brow, came Solon Denney to his feet. With flawless self-possession he
+read, and I, disgraced, cowering in my seat, heard words that burned
+little inconsequential brands forever into my memory. Well do I recall
+that the middle-aged gentleman regarded the young man with a look of
+surprise, and inquired, "What security can you give me?" to which the
+latter answered, "Nothing but my note."
+
+"'Which I fear would be below par in the market,' replied the merchant,
+smiling.
+
+"'Perhaps so,' said the young man, 'but, Mr. Barton, remember that the
+boy is not the man; the time may come when Hiram Strosser's note will be
+as readily accepted as that of any other man.'
+
+"'True, very true,' replied Mr. Barton, thoughtfully, 'but you know
+business men seldom lend money without adequate security; otherwise they
+might soon be reduced to penury.'"
+
+"Benny Jeliffe, you may go on!"
+
+During this break I stole my second look at her. The small head was
+sweetly bent with an air of studious absorption--a head with two long
+plaits of braided gold, a scarlet satin bow at the end of each.
+
+It seems to me now that these bows were like the touch of frosted
+woodbine in a yellowing elm, though at the moment I must have been
+unequal to this fancy. I saw, too, the tiny chain that clasped her fair
+throat, her dress of pale blue, and, most wonderful of all, two tassels
+that danced from the tops of her trim little boots. The air was indeed
+too heavy with beauty. But the reading lesson continued.
+
+The years that stretch between that time and this have not bereaved me
+of the knowledge that Mr. Barton graciously accommodated Hiram Strosser,
+after vainly seeking to induce "Mr. Hawley, a wealthy merchant of Milk
+Street," to share half the risk.
+
+At this point a row of stars on the page indicated a lapse of ten years.
+Mr. Barton, "pale and agitated," examines with deepening despair, "page
+after page of his ponderous ledger." At last he exclaims, "I am ruined,
+utterly ruined!" "How so?" inquires Hiram Strosser, who enters the room
+just in time to hear the cry. Mr. Barton explains,--the failure of
+Perleg, Jackson & Co. of London--news brought on last steamer--creditors
+pressing him.
+
+"'What amount would tide you over this crisis?' asks Hiram Strosser,
+respectfully.
+
+"'Seventy-five thousand dollars!'
+
+"'Then, sir, you shall have it,' replied Hiram, and stepping to the desk
+he drew a check for the full amount."
+
+Nor can I ever forget the stroke of poetic justice with which the
+anecdote concluded. Mr. Hawley of Milk Street was also embarrassed by
+the failure of Perleg, Jackson & Co., but, for want of a trustful friend
+in funds, was thrown into bankruptcy. Mr. Barton had the chastened
+pleasure of telling Mr. Hawley about Hiram's loan, and of reminding him
+that he had neglected a fair opportunity to become a co-benefactor of
+that upright and open-handed youth; whereupon the ruined
+Hawley--deservedly ruined, the tale implied--"moved on, dejected and
+sad, while Mr. Barton returned to his establishment cheered and
+animated."
+
+The gross, the immoral romanticism of this tale was not then, of course,
+apparent to me. Children are so defenceless! Child that I was, I
+believed it would be entirely practicable for a lad in his teens to
+borrow two thousand dollars from a Boston merchant, by reminding him
+that the boy is not the man. So readily is the young mind poisoned.
+During the latter part of the lesson, between looks stolen fearfully at
+her profile, I was mentally engaged in borrowing two thousand dollars
+from a convenient Mr. Barton with which to establish myself in a small
+retail business--preferably a candy store with an ice-cream parlor in
+the rear. Then I took her to wife, not forgetting to reward Mr. Barton
+handsomely in the day of his ruin. Dimly, in the background of this
+hasty dramatization, the distrustful Mr. Hawley, who refused to share
+the loan with Mr. Barton, figured as a rival for my love's hand; and
+lived to hear her say that she hated, loathed, and despised him.
+
+At recess the others crowded about her, girls at the centre, within a
+straggling circumference of young males, who dissembled their gallantry
+under a pretence of being mere brutal marauders.
+
+But I, solitary, moped and gloomed in a far grassy corner of the school
+yard. I could not be of that crowd, and it was then I perceived for the
+first time that the world was too densely populated. I saw how much
+better it would be if every one but she and I were dead. Thereupon, in a
+breath, I dispeopled the earth of all but us two, and with the courage
+gained of this solitude, I saw myself approach her there at the corner
+of the old brick schoolhouse, greeting her with assurances that
+everything was all right,--and then, after she understood what I had
+done, and how fine it was, we came into our own. Alas, how bitter the
+crude truth! Instead of this, those wondrous tassels now danced from her
+boot tops as she gave chase to Solon Denney, who had pulled one of the
+scarlet bows from its yellow braid. Grimly I was aware that he should
+be the first to go out of the world, and I called upon a just heaven to
+slay him as he fled with his trophy. But nothing sweet and fitting
+happened. He went unblasted.
+
+She came back to the group of girls, flushed and lovely beyond compare,
+holding up the ravished end of that golden braid with a comic dismay,
+while her despoiler laughed coarsely from a distance and pinned the
+trophy to his coat lapel. I now saw that blasting was too merciful. He
+should be removed by a slower process if the thing could as easily be
+arranged.
+
+That was a bitter recess, even though I learned her wonderful name and
+the enchanted state "back East" from which she had come. A still more
+bitter experience awaited me when we were again in the schoolroom. Miss
+Berham, fastening a steely gaze upon Solon Denney, launched heaven upon
+him from tightly drawn lips, without in the least meaning to do so.
+
+"Solon Denney, you may return that ribbon at once to its owner!"
+
+With a conscious smirk, amid the titters of the room and the sharp raps
+of the ruler on Miss Berham's desk, Solon swaggered offensively to the
+seat that enshrined my idol, and flung down the scarlet treasure before
+her. She merely pushed the thing away, bending her head lower above her
+book--pushed it away with a blind little hand, and with undiminished
+bravado her despoiler returned, scathless of heaven's vengeance, to his
+seat.
+
+"And you may remain half an hour after school. The A-class, ready for
+geography!"
+
+Thus, lightly did our ruler turn from tragedy to comedy. For tragedy,
+there was the look my queen lavished upon Solon when she heard his
+sentence; a look of blushing merriment, with a maddening dash of pity in
+it,--he was to suffer because of her.
+
+"'Twas your beauty that made me do it," he might have quoted, with the
+old result. How I longed for the jaunty lightness that would have let me
+do a thing like that, tossing me fairly to the pinnacle of a public
+association with her! But I, instead, moped alone, knowing well that the
+gifts of graceful brigandage were not mine. Had _I_ snatched that
+ribbon, there would have been tears and a mad outcry at my brutal
+roughness.
+
+Now came the lesson in geography. I had known it, had studied it
+faithfully that morning. It treated of the state from which she had so
+lately come. But, now, all knowledge of it fled me, save that on the map
+it was a large, clumsy state, though yellow, the color of her hair. Was
+it to be bounded like any cheaper state? Did it have principal products,
+like Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and other ordinary states? Its color
+was rightly golden; had it not produced her? But other products,--iron,
+coal, wheat,--these were stuffs too base to fellow in the same mind with
+her. Had it principal industries, like any red, or green, or blue state
+on that pedantic map? I could no longer recall them. Formally confronted
+with this problem, I muttered shamefully again that day in the valley
+of Humiliation. There was, I knew, a picture at the top of the page in
+which strong, rugged men toiled at various tasks; but the natures of
+these had escaped me. Were they mining coal or building ships, catching
+fish or ploughing furrows in God's green earth? Out of my darkness I
+stammered, "Principal industries, agriculture and fish-building--"
+
+"That will _do_, Calvin! You may remain after school to-night." I had
+never less liked the way she said this, as if it were a boon at which I
+would snatch, instead of a penalty imposed.
+
+Solon Denney followed me, glibly enumerating the industries of a great
+and busy state. But I could not listen. Phantom-like in my poor mind
+floated a wordless conviction that, however it might once have been, the
+state would immediately abandon its industries now that she had come
+away from it. I beheld its considerable area desolated, the forges cold,
+the hammers stilled, the fields overgrown, the ships rotting at their
+docks, the stalwart mechanics drooping idly above their unfinished
+tasks. It was not possible to suppose that any one could feel, in a
+state which she had left, that interest which good work demands.
+
+My disgrace brought me respite for fresh adventure. I was let alone. The
+world could still be peopled; even Solon Denney might survive a little
+time, for another picture in the same geography now reproduced itself in
+my inflamed mind--the picture of a South Sea island, a sandy beach with
+a few indolent natives lolling, negligent of tasks, in the shade of
+cocoanut palms. Here, on the outer reef, I wrecked an excellent
+steamship. Over the rail sprang a stalwart lad, not out of his teens,
+with a lovely golden-haired girl in his arms. With strong, swift
+strokes, he struck out for the beach, notwithstanding his burden. The
+other passengers, a hazy and quite uninteresting lot, quickly went down;
+all save one, a coarse, swaggering youth with too much self-possession
+whom I need not name. He, too, sprang over the rail, but, nearing the
+beach, a justly enraged providence intervened and he was bitten neatly
+in two by a famished and adroit shark.
+
+With some interest I watched his blood stain the lucid green waters, but
+it was soon over. Then I bore my fainting burden to the dry sands and
+revived her with cocoanut milk and breadfruit, while the natives crowded
+respectfully about and made us their king and queen on the spot. We
+lived there forever. How flat of sound were it to say that we lived
+happily!
+
+And yet I doubt if Solon Denney ever suspected me of aspiring to be his
+rival. She, I think, knew it full well, in the way her sex knows matters
+not communicated by act or word of mouth. And once, on the afternoon of
+that day, a Friday, when we spoke pieces, I feared that Solon had found
+me out. He was a fiery orator, and I felt on this occasion that he
+delivered himself straight at me, with a very poorly veiled malignance.
+Surely, it must be I that he meant, literally, when he thundered out,
+"Sir, you are much mistaken if you think your talents have been as great
+as your life has been reprehensible!" Fall upon me and upon me alone
+seemed to flash his gaze.
+
+"After a rank and clamorous opposition you became--all of a
+sudden--silent; you were silent for seven years; you were silent on the
+greatest questions--and you were silent _for money!_"
+
+There could be no doubt, I thought, that he singled me from the
+multitude of his auditors. It was I who had supported the unparalleled
+profusion and jobbing of Lord Harcourt's scandalous ministry; I who had
+manufactured stage thunder against Mr. Eden for his anti-American
+principles--"You, sir, whom it pleases to chant a hymn to the immortal
+Hampden--you, sir, approved of the tyranny exercised against America,
+and you, sir, voted four thousand Irish troops to cut the throats of the
+Americans."
+
+Under the burden of this imputed ignominy, was it remarkable that I
+faltered in my own piece immediately following?
+
+  "The Warrior bowed his crested head, and tamed his heart of fire,
+  And sued the haughty King to free his long imprisoned sire."
+
+
+Not more foully was the blameless Don Sancho done to death than I upon
+this Friday murdered the ballad that recounts his fate. And she, who had
+hung breathless on Solon's denunciations of me, whispered chattily with
+Eva McIntyre during my rendition of "Bernardo del Carpio."
+
+Later events, however, convinced me that I swam never in Solon's ken as
+a rival for her smiles. His own triumph was too easy, too widely
+heralded. In the second week of her coming, was there not a rhyme
+shouted on the playground, full in the hearing of both?
+
+
+   "First the post and then the gate,
+    Solon Denney and Lucy Tait."
+
+Was not this followed by one more subtle, more pointed, more ribald?
+
+   "Solon's mad and I'm glad,
+    and I know what will please him;
+    a bottle of wine to make him shine
+    and Lucy Tait to tease him!"
+
+I thought there was an inhuman, devilish deftness in the rhymes. The
+mighty mechanism of English verse had been employed to proclaim my
+remoteness from my love.
+
+And yet the gods were once graciously good to me. One wondrous evening
+before hope died utterly I survived the ordeal of walking home with her
+from church.
+
+She came with her aunt, uncle, and I present by the god's permission,
+surmised that she might leave them and go to her own home alone when
+church was out. Through that service I worshipped her golden braids and
+the pink roses on her leghorn hat. And when they sang, "Praise God from
+whom all blessings flow!" my voice soared fervently in the words, for I
+had satisfied myself by much craning of the neck that Solon Denney was
+not present. Even now the Doxology revives within me that mixed emotion
+of relief at his absence and apprehension for the approaching encounter
+with her.
+
+She passed me at the portals of the house of a double worship, said good
+night to aunt and uncle--and I was at her side.
+
+"May I have the pleasure of seeing you home?"
+
+She managed a timid "Certainly." her hand fluttered within my arm, and
+my heart bounded forward like a freed race-horse. We walked!
+
+Now it had been my occupation at quiet moments to devise conversation
+against the time of this precise miracle. I had dreamt that it might
+come to pass, even as it did, and I knew that talk for it should be
+stored safely away. This talk had been the coinage of my leisure. As we
+walked I would say, lightly,--"Do you like it here as well as you did
+back East?"--or, still better, as sounding more chatty,--"How do you
+like it here?"--an easy, masterful pause--"as well as you did back
+East?" A thousand times had I rehearsed the inflections until they were
+perfect. And now the time was come.
+
+Whether I spoke at all or not until we reached her gate I have never
+known. Dimly in my memory is a suggestion that when we passed Uncle
+Jerry Honeycutt, I confided to her that he sent to Chicago for his
+ear-trumpet and that it cost twelve dollars. If I did this, she must
+have made a suitable response, though I retain nothing of it.
+
+I only know that the sky was full of flaming meteors, that golden star
+dust rained upon us from an applauding heaven, that the earth rocked
+gently as we trod upon it.
+
+Down the wonderful street we went, a strange street shimmering in mystic
+light--and then I was opening her gate. I, afterward, decided that
+surely at this moment, with the gate between us, I would have
+remembered--superbly would I have said, "How do you like it here?--as
+well as you did back East?"
+
+But, two staring boys passed us, and one of them spoke thus:--
+
+"There's Horsehead Blake--hello, Horsehead!"
+
+"That ain't old Horsehead," said the other.
+
+"'Tis, too--ain't that _you_, Horsehead?"
+
+"How do you do, boys!" I answered loftily, and they passed on appeased.
+
+"Do they call you Horsehead?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, yes!" I replied brightly. "It's a funny name, isn't it?" and I
+laughed murderously.
+
+"Yes, it's very funny."
+
+"Well, I'll have to be going now. Good night!"
+
+"Good night!"
+
+And she left me staring after her, the whole big world and its starry
+heavens crying madly within me to be said to her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+DREAMS AND WAKINGS
+
+The incomparable Lucy Tait was still but a star to be adored in her
+distant heaven when I went away from Little Arcady to learn some things
+not taught in the faded brick schoolhouse. It was six years before I
+came back; six years that I lived in a crowded place where people had no
+easy ways nor front yards with geranium beds, nor knew enough of their
+neighbors either to love or to hate them.
+
+I came back to the Little Country a mannish being, learned in the law,
+and with the right sort of laugh in my heart for the old school days,
+for the simplicity of my boy's love.
+
+But, there and then, with her old sweet want of pity, did she smite me
+again. Through and through she smote the man as she had smitten the boy.
+Treacherously it was, within my own citadel, at the very moment of my
+coming. Gayly up the remembered path I went, under the flowering
+horse-chestnut, to the little house standing back from the street, only
+to find that, as of old, she blocked my way. She stood where the
+pink-blossomed climber streamed up the columns of the little porch, and
+her arm was twined among the strands to draw them to her face. She was
+leaving,--but she had stayed too long; not the child with yellow braids,
+humorously preserved in my memory, but a blossomed, a fruiting Eve, with
+whilom braids massed high in a coronet, their gold a little tarnished.
+Later it came to me to think that she was Spring, and had filched a crown
+from Autumn. In that first glance, however, I could only wonder
+instinctively if the tassels yet danced from her boot tops. I saw at
+once that this might not any longer be known. One could only surmise
+pleasantly. But straightway was I Atlas, stooping a little, rounding my
+shoulders under the earth she deigned to walk upon.
+
+And the disconcerting strangeness of it was in this: that though she was
+no longer the woman child, yet with one flash of her gold-curtained eyes
+had she reduced me to my ancient schoolboy clumsiness. She was a woman,
+but, I was again an awkward, stammering boy, rebelliously declining to
+believe that a state she had come away from could retain any
+significance, industrial or otherwise. Nor, in the little time left to
+us, did I ever achieve a condition higher than this.
+
+Consciously I was a prince of lofty origin in her presence, but ever
+unable to make known my excellencies of rank. It was as in a dream when
+we must see evil approach without power to raise an averting hand.
+
+She was Spring with a stolen crown of Autumn; and again, she was a
+sherbet--sweet, fragrant, cold, and about to melt--but not for me. I
+knew that.
+
+I heard presently that she spoke well of me. She spoke of my having a
+kind face--even the kindest face in the world.
+
+"The _kindest, plainest_ face in the world," was her fashion of putting
+it. And of course that made it hopeless, since, surely, no woman has
+ever loved the kindest face she knew.
+
+Only a fool would have hoped after this--and at least I never gave her
+ground to call me that. Not even did I commit the folly of revealing my
+need. She alone ever knew it, and she only in the way that the child had
+known the schoolboy to gloom and rage afar in his passion for her. She
+had no word of mine for it then, nor had she now, and I believe she felt
+rather certain there never would be any. She seemed to be grateful for
+this and doubly kind, with only now and then the flash of a knowing
+look, or the trifle of a deep, swiftly questioning glance, born, I dare
+say, of that curiosity which the devil contrives to kindle in God's most
+angelic women.
+
+Doubtless she had a little speech of refusal patted into kindliness for
+me. Perhaps she would not have been wholly anguished to have me hear
+this--to be able to assure me tenderly, graciously, of the depth and
+pureness of her friendship for me. Who knows? I am older now, and things
+once hidden are revealed. Sometimes I think that a certain new respect
+for me grew within her as the days tried the metal of my silence--a
+respect, but nothing more. Her appreciation of my face was too palpably
+without those reservations that so often cry louder than words.
+
+So we sealed our secret, she and I, in an unspoken pledge, and not even
+Solon Denney, so keen of scent for rivals, ever divined it.
+
+He called me out with the old boyish whistle the day he confided to me
+the tremendous news of his engagement. He laughed, foolish with joy as
+he told it, and I felt tingling in my arms that old boyish, brute
+impulse to slay him for the wretched ease of his victory. But we were
+men, so I thrust one of those rebellious arms in among the strands of
+the creeper, where her own arm had once been, and laid the other on his
+shoulder in all friendliness. This, while he rambled on of the bigness
+of life, the great future before Arcady of the Little Country, the
+importance of the _Argus_, which he had just founded, and the supreme
+excellence of that splendid mechanism, the new Washington hand-press,
+installed the week before.
+
+His life was builded of these many interests, of her and himself and his
+country and his town. In the fulness of his heart he even brought out
+the latest _Argus_ and read parts from his obituary of Douglas, while I
+stood stupidly striving to realize what I had long known must be true.
+
+"A great man has fallen," he read, declaiming a little, as in our school
+days. "Stephen A. Douglas is dead. The voice that so lately and
+eloquently appealed to his countrymen is hushed in--"
+
+How long he read is uncertain. But from moment to moment his tones would
+call me back from visions, and I would vaguely hear that one was gone
+who had warned his fellows against the pitfalls of political jealousy,
+and bade all who loved their country band against those who would seek
+to pluck a laurel from the wreath of our glorious confederacy.
+
+But under visions I had made my resolve. Douglas was dead, but others
+were living.
+
+Two months before in a gray dawn, the walls of a fort in Charleston
+Harbor had crumbled under fire from a score of rebel batteries. Now the
+shots echoed in my ears with a new volume.
+
+"Good luck, Solon--and good-by--I'm going 'on to Richmond.'"
+
+"Oh, _that!_" said he, easily, "that will be over before you can get to
+the front."
+
+But I went, forthwith, and, triumphant lover though he was, the editor
+of the _Little Arcady Argus_ was less than a prophet.
+
+I went to the "little" war; and of her I carried, as I marched, an
+ambrotype in a closed case, which I had obtained deviously. She smiled
+in it, a little questioning, inciting smile, that seemed to lurk back in
+her eyes rather than along her lips. It was the smile that had availed
+to keep me firm in my vows of silence.
+
+It was another picture I brought back five years later--the picture of a
+young girl, not smiling but grave, even fearful, as if she had faced the
+camera full of apprehension. But I knew her not; the thing had come to
+me by chance, and I threw it aside to be forgotten.
+
+It is best to tell quickly that those years were swift and full. Early
+in the second a letter from Solon, read at a random camp-fire, told me
+of my namesake's coming. For the other years I pleased myself
+prodigiously by remembering that she must speak my name openly to her
+first-born. And I lusted for battle, then. I was an early Norseman, and
+I would escape the prosaic bed-death, since, for those dying thus, Held
+waited in her chill prison-house below, with hunger her dish, starvation
+her knife, care her bed, and anguish her curtains. To survive for easy
+death, long deferred, perhaps, I should have my empty dish and bed of
+care at once. Lacking the battle death, I could at least mimic it, as
+they did of old, that Odin's choosers of the slain might lead me to
+Valhalla. There should I forever fight at dawn and be healed at noon, if
+wounded, to be ready for the feast and song. The world was not big
+enough for us two if we must stay apart. Life was not to be lived in a
+beggarly and ignoble compromise. War was its business, bravery its duty,
+and cowardice its greatest crime--above all, that ultimate, puling
+cowardice of accepting life empty for its own barren sake.
+
+At the last I lay on a cot in a field hospital, entertained for the
+moment by the novelty of that vacant, spacious feeling on my left
+side--wondering if I could shave now with one arm--without another hand
+to pull my face into hard little hummocks for the razor.
+
+I heard the soft quick tread of a hospital steward, and standing before
+me, he took from its envelope the letter Solon Denney had sent me to say
+that she was dead. I handed it back, told him to burn it, and I shut my
+eyes to the sickening shapes of life. My fever came up again, and in the
+night I felt inch by inch over ground wet with blood for a picture I had
+relinquished in a Quixotic moment. I must have been troublesome, for
+they gave me the drug of dreams and I awakened peacefully. I watched the
+field surgeons gather about a young line officer brought in with a shot
+through his neck. For the better probing of the wound they removed his
+head and gave it to me to hold. Seeing that it was Solon Denney's head,
+I was seized with a mood of jest--I would hide it and make Solon search.
+I advanced craftily down an endless corridor, but came to the edge of a
+wood, where there was a wicked spitting of shots. I cried out again, and
+once more they gave me the drug. Then I dreamed more quietly. I saw that
+the soul of my dead arm searched for her soul--that it would soon be
+drawn to her and offer itself to comfort her and never, never leave her.
+It would say, "At least take the arm, since you may have it without the
+face." It seemed that my other arm should go to her, too. This side of
+her there could be nothing for either to close upon. It appeared to me
+that I fell asleep on this fancy and dreamt that I awoke painfully to a
+poor, one-sided life, effortless, barren, forbidding.
+
+A year later I went back to the Little Country to be counsellor at law
+to its people in time of need, and a father to Solon Denney and his two
+children. Solon could direct large affairs acceptably, but he and his
+babes were as thistle-down in a prairie wind.
+
+He brought the children to visit me the first day that I came home--to a
+home where I was now to live alone.
+
+I sat on the little porch above the river bank, by the wall of
+blossoming creeper whose tendrils she had once embraced, bringing her
+cheek intrepidly against the blossoms of that year, and saw him come
+slowly up the path. He seemed so sadly alone because of the two little
+creatures that followed him.
+
+I placed a chair for Solon and was confronted by my namesake.
+
+"Did they shoot your arm off in the war?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, in the war."
+
+He patted the empty sleeve, and his eyes beamed with discovery.
+
+"What did you have your sleeve rolled up for when your arm was shot?"
+
+I made plain to him the mystery of the whole sleeve.
+
+"She often spoke of you," said Solon. "She seemed to think you would
+like to be a help to us if you could."
+
+I turned to greet the woman child, but she had strayed into the house. I
+heard her shouts from my bedroom. Then she came running to us, cooing in
+helpless joy.
+
+"Candy--candy--Uncle Maje--lovely candy--all pink and dusty."
+
+Well over a face set with the mother's eyes was spilled that which she
+had clutched and eaten of,--a thing pink and dusty, in truth, but which
+was not candy.
+
+"She does those things constantly," said the dejected father. "I don't
+see what I can do to her."
+
+I saw, however, and did it, first wiping the tooth-powder from her face.
+She had called me Uncle Maje.
+
+"She's a regular baddix," announced my namesake, gravely judicial. Then,
+as if with intention to indicate delicately that the family afforded
+striking contrasts, he added, "_I_ ain't a baddix--I can nearly sing."
+
+The children fribbled about us while we talked away the afternoon. The
+woman child at last put me to thinking--to thinking that perhaps
+butterflies are not meant to be happily caught. With many shouts she had
+clumsily enough imprisoned one--a fairy thing of green and bronze--in a
+hand so plump that it seemed to have been quilted. A moment she held it,
+then set it free, perhaps for its lack of spirit. It crawled and
+fluttered up the vine, trailing a crumpled wing most sadly, and I took
+it for my lesson. Assuredly they were not to be caught with any
+profit--at least not brutally in an eager hand. Brush them ever so
+lightly and the bloom is off the wings. They are to be watched in their
+pretty flitting, loved only in their freedom and from afar, with no
+clumsy reachings. That was a good thing to know in any world.
+
+The _Argus_ announced my home-coming with a fine flourish of my title in
+Solon's best style. It said that I had come back to take up the practice
+of the law. Not even Solon knew that I had come back to the memory of
+her.
+
+This is how it befell that I was presently engrossed to outward seeming
+with the affairs of Little Arcady--even to the extent of a casual Potts,
+and those blessed contingencies that were later to unfold from him. Thus
+I took my allotted place and the years began.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+A MAD PRANK OF THE GODS
+
+A week after the publication of that blithe bit of acrimony which opens
+this tale, Colonel J. Rodney Potts, recreated and natty in a new summer
+suit of alpaca, his hat freshly ironed, sued the town of Little Arcady
+for ten thousand dollar damages to his person and announced his
+candidacy at the ensuing election for the honorable office of Judge of
+Slocum County. He did this at the earnest solicitation of his many
+friends, in whose hands he had placed himself,--at least so read his
+card of announcement in the _Banner_, our other paper. He did not name
+these solicitous friends; but it was an easy suspicion that they were
+the Democratic leaders, who thought by this means to draw votes from the
+Republican candidate to the advantage of their own, who, otherwise, was
+conceded to have no hope of election in a county overwhelmingly
+Republican.
+
+It may be told with adequate confidence that Westley Keyts was not of
+their number. As to the damage suit, Westley found it unthinkable that
+Potts could deteriorate ten thousand dollars worth and still walk the
+earth. Indeed, he believed, and uttered a few rough words to express it,
+that ten dollars would be an excessive valuation even if Potts were
+utterly destroyed.
+
+Being an earnest soul, Westley had taken the Potts affair very
+seriously. He made it a point to encounter the Colonel on an early day
+and to address him on Main Street in tones that lacked the least
+affectation of suavity or diplomatic guile. He had seen diplomacy tried
+and found wretchedly wanting. He would have no more of it ever. Like the
+straightaway man he was, he went to the meat of the matter.
+
+"You squandered that hundred dollars we give you to git out of town on,"
+he burst forth to Potts, breathing with an ominous difficulty.
+
+"You just wait till you hear the worst of it," answered Potts, as he
+confidingly dusted the shoulder of Westley's coat. "The worst of it is I
+had over twelve dollars of my own money that I'd saved up--you know how
+hard it is to save money in these little towns--well, that went, too,
+_every cent of it!_"
+
+It was admitted by witnesses competent to form an opinion that Westley's
+contorted face, his troubled breathing, his manner of stepping back, and
+the curious writhing of his stout arms, all encouraged a supposition
+that he might be contemplating immediate violence upon the person of
+Potts. At all events, this view was taken by the aggrieved and puzzled
+Colonel, who fled through the Boston Cash Store and, by means of a rear
+exit from that emporium, gained the office of Truman Baird, Justice of
+the Peace, where he swore to a legal document which averred that "the
+said Jonas R. Potts" was "in fear of immediate and great bodily harm,
+which he has reasonable cause to believe will be inflicted upon him by
+the said Westley Keyts."
+
+The majesty of the law being thus invoked, Westley was put under a good
+and sufficient bond to refrain from "in any manner of attacking or
+molesting the said Potts, against the statutes therein made and
+provided, and against the peace and dignity of the State of Illinois."
+
+A proceeding so official somewhat dampened the fires of Mr. Keyts. He
+was a citizen, law-abiding by intention, with a patriot's esteem for
+government. It had merely not occurred to him that the summary
+extinction of Potts could be a performance at all incompatible with the
+peace and dignity of the great commonwealth to which he was at heart
+loyal. Being convinced otherwise, he abode grimly by the statutes
+therein made and provided. Nevertheless he returned to his shop and
+proceeded to cut up a quarter of beef with an energy of concentration
+and a ruthlessness of fury that caused Potts to shudder as he passed the
+door sometime later. By such demeanor, also, were the bondsmen of
+Westley--the first flush of their righteous enthusiasm faded--greatly
+disturbed. They agreed that he ought to be watched closely by day, and
+they even debated the wisdom of sitting up nights with him for a time,
+turn by turn. But their charge dissuaded them from this precaution. He
+expended his first vicious fury usefully upon his stock in trade, with
+knife and saw and cleaver, and thereafter he was but petulant or
+sarcastic.
+
+"I had the right of it," he insisted. "The only way to do with a person
+like him was to git your feathers and your kittle of tar cooked up all
+nice and gooey and git Potts on the ground and _make a believer of him_
+right there and then!" This he followed by his pointed reflection upon
+the administrative talents of Solon Denney--"A hand of mush in a glove
+of the _same_!" When listeners were not by, he would mutter it to
+himself in sinister gutturals.
+
+Nor was he alone in this spirit of dissatisfaction with Solon. The
+too-trustful editor of the _Argus_ was frankly derided. He was a Boss at
+whom they laughed openly. They waited, however, with interest for the
+subsequent issues of this paper.
+
+The _Banner_ that week contained the following bit of news:--
+
+=DASTARDLY ASSAULT IN BROAD DAYLIGHT=
+
+=Early last Thursday evening, as Colonel J. Rodney Potts, dean of the
+Slocum County bar, was enjoying a quiet stroll along our beautiful river
+bank near Cady's mill, he was set upon by a gang of ruffians and would
+have been foully dealt with but for his vigorous resistance. Being a man
+of splendid proportions and a giant's strength, the Colonel was making
+gallant headway against the cowardly miscreants when his foot slipped
+and he was precipitated into the chilling waters of the mill-race at a
+point where the city fathers have allowed it to remain uncovered. Seeing
+their victim plunged into a watery grave, as they thought, the thugs
+took to their heels. The Colonel extricated himself from his perilous
+plight, by dint of herculean strength, and started to pursue them, but
+they had disappeared from sight in the vicinity of Crowder & Fancett's
+lumber yard. Things have come to a pretty pass, we must say, if such a
+dastardly outrage as this should be allowed to go unpunished. Now that
+Colonel Potts has brought suit against the city we suppose the council
+will have that mill-race covered. We have repeatedly warned them about
+this. We wonder if they ever heard a well-known saying about "locking
+the stable door after horse is stolen," etc.=
+
+=The card of Colonel Potts, printed elsewhere in this issue, is a
+sufficient refutation of the malicious gossip that has been handed back
+and forth lately that he had planned to leave Little Arcady. It looks
+now like certain busybodies in this community had over-stepped
+themselves and been hoisted up by their own petard. The Colonel is a
+fine man for County Judge, and we bespeak for him the suffrages of every
+voter who wants an honest judiciary.=
+
+Westley Keyts, reading this, wanted to know what a petard was. Inquiry
+disclosed that he hoped it might be something that could be used upon
+Potts to the advantage of almost every one concerned. But in the minds
+of others of us an agonized suspicion now took form. Had the letters
+been upon Potts when he went down? Had they been saved? Were they
+legible? And would he use them?
+
+It was decided that Solon Denney should try to illuminate this point
+before taking the candidacy of Potts seriously. In the next issue of the
+_Argus_, therefore, was this paragraph, meant to be provocative:--
+
+=God's providence has been said to watch over fools and drunkards. We
+guess this is so; and that the pretensions of a certain individual in
+our midst to its watchfulness in the double capacity indicated can no
+longer be in doubt.=
+
+These lines did their work. The next _Banner_ spoke of a foul
+conspiracy whose nefarious end it was to blacken the sterling character
+of a good man, of that Nestor of the Slocum County Bar, Colonel J.
+Rodney Potts. As testimony that the best citizens of the town were not
+involved with this infamous ring, it had extorted from Colonel Potts his
+consent to print certain letters from these gentlemen setting forth the
+Colonel's surpassing virtues in no uncertain terms--letters which his
+innate modesty had shrunk from making public, until goaded to
+desperation by the hell-hounds of a corrupt and subsidized opposition.
+
+The letters followed in a terrific sequence--a series of laudations
+which the Chevalier Bayard need not have scorned to evoke.
+
+Then we waited for Solon, but he was rather disappointing. Said the next
+_Argus_:--
+
+=We have heretofore considered J.R. Potts to possess the anti-social
+instincts of a parasite without its moderate spirit of enterprise. But
+we were wrong. We now concede the spirit of enterprise. As for this
+candidacy of Potts, Horace Greeley once said, commenting, we think, on
+some action of Weed's, "I like cool things, of ordinary dimensions--an
+iceberg or a glacier; but this arctic circle of coagulation appalls
+credulity and paralyzes indignation. Hence my numbness!" Hence, also,
+our own numbness. But, though Speech lieth prone on a paralytic's couch,
+ACTION is hearty and stalketh willingly abroad. In this campaign it will
+speak louder than words. Yea! it will be heard high above Noah Webster's
+entire assemblage of such of them as are decent. That is all! J.R.P.,
+_take notice!_=
+
+It was jaunty enough, but Potts had unquestionably gained a following.
+Indeed he had ably cemented the foundations of one by his magnificent
+hospitality on that day of days. His whilom serfs were men not easily
+offended by faults of taste, and they were voters. To a man they came
+out strongly for Potts.
+
+He himself behaved with a faultless discretion. Above the slurs of the
+_Argus_ and the bickerings of faction he bore himself as one alienated
+from earth by the graces of his spirit; and he copiously promised deeds
+which should in the years to come be as a beauteous garment to his
+memory. The glaive of Justice should descend where erstwhile it had
+corruptly been stayed. Vice should surfer its meed of retribution, and
+Virtue come again into its glorious own.
+
+Our letters of eulogy, printed at the _Banner_ office, were scattered
+among the voters, and with them went a letter from Potts saying that if
+his strenuous labors as an attorney in the interests of humanity, public
+morals, and common decency met with the voter's approval, he would be
+gratified to have his good-will and assistance. "It is such gentlemen as
+yourself," read the letter, "constituting the best element of our
+society, to whom I must look for the endorsement of my work. The
+criminal classes of this community, whose minions have so recently
+sought my life by mob violence, will leave no stone unturned to prevent
+my sitting as Judge."
+
+Our Democratic candidate, who had first felt but an academic interest in
+the campaign, began now to show elation. Old Cuthbert Mayne, the
+Republican candidate, who had been certain of success but for the
+accident of Potts, chewed his unlighted cigar viciously, and from the
+corner of his trap-like mouth spoke evil of Potts in a voice that was
+terrifying for its hoarseness. His own letter, among the others, told of
+Potts as one who sprang to arms at his country's call and was now richly
+deserving of political preferment. This had seemed to heighten the
+inflammation of his utterances. Daily he consulted with Solon, warning
+him that the town looked to the _Argus_ to avert this calamity of Potts.
+
+But Solon, if he had formed any plan for relief, refused to communicate
+it. Mayne and the rest of us were compelled to take what hope we could
+from his confident if secretive bearing.
+
+Meantime the _Banner_ was not reticent about "J. Rodney Potts, that
+gallant old war-horse." Across the top of its front page each week stood
+"POTTS FOREVER--POTTS THE COMING MAN!"
+
+"Big Joe" Kestril was the chief henchman of Potts, and his fidelity was
+like to have been fatal for him. He threw himself into the campaign with
+a single-heartedness that left him few sober moments. Upon the City
+Hotel corner, day after day, he buttonholed voters and whispered to them
+with alcoholic fervor that Potts was a gentleman of character, "as
+blotchless as the driftin' snow." Joe believed in Potts pathetically.
+
+The campaign wore its way through the summer, and Solon Denney was
+still silent, still secretive, still confident, but, alas! still
+inactive so far as we could observe. I may say that we lost faith in him
+as the barren weeks came and went. We came to believe that his assured
+bearing was but a shield for his real despair.
+
+Having given up hope, some of us reached a point where we could view the
+whole affair as a jest. It became a popular diversion to enter the
+establishment of the ever serious Westley Keyts and whisper secretively
+to him that Solon Denney had found a diplomatic way to rid the town of
+Potts, but this never moved Westley.
+
+"Once bit--twice shy!" would be his response as he returned to slicing
+steaks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+A MATTER OF PERSONAL PROPERTY
+
+In deference to the wishes of J.R.C. Tuckerman, I had formed a habit of
+breakfasting in summer on the little back porch that overlooks the
+river. Less radical departures from orthodox custom, it is true, have
+caused adverse comment in our watchful little town; but the spot was
+secluded from casual censors. And it was pleasant to sit there on a
+summer morning over an omelette and bacon, coffee such as no other
+Little Arcadian ever drank, and beaten biscuit beyond the skill of any
+in our vale save the stout, short-statured, elderly black man who served
+me with the grace of an Ambassador. Moreover, I was glad to please him,
+and please him it did to set the little table back against the wall of
+vines, to place my chair in the shaded corner, and to fetch the
+incomparable results of his cookery from the kitchen, couched and
+covered in snowy napkins against the morning breeze.
+
+John Randolph Clement Tuckerman he was; Mr. Tuckerman to many simple
+souls of our town, and "Clem" to me, after our intimacy became such as
+to warrant this form of address. A little, tightly kinked, grizzled
+mustache gave a tone to his face. His hair, well retreated up his
+forehead, was of the same close-woven salt-and-pepper mixture. His eyes
+were wells of ink when the light fell into them,--sad, kind eyes, that
+gave his face a look of patient service long and toilsomely, but
+lovingly bestowed. It is a look telling of kindness that has endured and
+triumphed--a look of submission in which suffering has once burned, but
+has consumed itself. I have never seen it except in the eyes of certain
+old Negroes. The only colorable imitation is to be found in the eyes of
+my setter pup when he crouches at my feet and beseeches kindness after a
+punishment.
+
+In bearing, as I have intimated, Clem was impressive. He was low-toned,
+easy of manner, with a flawless aplomb. As he served me those mornings
+in late summer, wearing a dress-coat of broadcloth, a choice relic of
+his splendid past, it was not difficult to see that he had been the
+associate of gentlemen.
+
+As I ate of his cooking on a fair Sunday, I marvelled gratefully at the
+slender thread of chance that had drawn him to be my stay. Alone in that
+little house, with no one to make it a home for me, Clem was the barrier
+between me and the fare of the City Hotel. Apparently without suggestion
+from me he had taken me for his own to tend and watch over. And the
+marvel was assuredly not diminished by the circumstance that I was
+beholden to Potts for this black comfort.
+
+Events were in train which were to intensify a thousand fold my
+amazement at the seeming inconsequence of really vital facts in this big
+life-plot of which we are the puppets--events so incredible that to
+dwell upon their relation to the minor accident of a mere Potts were to
+incur confusion and downright madness.
+
+Apparently, fate had never made a wilder, more purposeless cast than
+when it brought Clem to Little Arcady with Potts.
+
+True, the circumstance enabled Potts for a time to refer to his
+"body-servant," and to regale the chair-tilted loungers along the City
+Hotel front with a tale of picking the fellow up on a Southern
+battle-field, and of winning his dog-like devotion by subsequent valor
+upon other fields. "It was pathetic, and comical, too, gentlemen, to
+hear that nigger beg me on his bended knees to take better care of
+myself and not insist upon getting to the front of every charge. 'Stay
+back and let some of the others do a little fighting,' he would say,
+with tears rolling down his black cheeks. And I admit I was rash, but--"
+
+Clem, not long after their arrival, confided to such of us as seemed
+worthy the less romantic tale that he had found the Colonel drunk on the
+streets of Cincinnati. He had gone there to seek a fortune for his
+"folks" and had found the Colonel instead; found him under circumstances
+which were typical of the Colonel's periods of relaxation.
+
+"Yes, seh, anybody coulda had that man when Ah found him," averred Clem;
+"anybody could 'a' had him fo' th' askin'. A p'liceman offaseh neahly
+git him--yes, seh. But Ah seen him befo' that, an' Ah speaks his notice
+by sayin', 'This yeh ain' no good place to sleep, on this yeh hahd stone
+sidewalk. Yo' freeze yo'se'f, Mahstah,' an' of cose Ah appreciated th'
+infuhmities of a genaman, but Ah induced him to put on his coat an' his
+hat an' his boots, an' he sais, 'Ah am Cunnel Potts, an' Ah mus' have
+mah eight houahs sleep.' Ah sais to him, 'If yo' is a Cunnel, yo' is a
+genaman, an' Ah shall escoht yo' to yo' hotel.' Raght then a p'liceman
+offaseh come up, an' he sais, 'Yeh, yeh! what all this yeh row about?'
+an' Ah sais, 'Nothin' 'tall, Mahstah p'liceman offaseh, Ah's jes' takin'
+Mahstah Cunnel Potts to his hotel, seh, with yo' kindness,' an' he sais,
+'Git him out a yeh an' go 'long with yo' then,' so Ah led th' Cunnel
+off, seh. An' eveh hotel he seen, he sais, 'Yes, tha' she is--tha's mah
+hotel,' but the Mahstahs in th' hotels they all talk ve'y shawtly eveh
+time. They sais, 'No--_no_--g'wan, tek him out a' yeh--he ain' b'long in
+this place, that man ain'.' So we walk an' walk an' ultimately he sais,
+'If Ah'm go'n' a' git mah eight houahs sleep this naght, Ah mus' begin
+sometime,--why not now?' So th' Cunnel lay raght down on th' thu'faih
+an' Ah set mahse'f down beside him twell he wake up in th' mawnin', not
+knowin' what hahm maght come to him. An' he neveh _did_ have no hotel in
+that town, seh,--_no_, seh. He been talkin' reglah foolishness all that
+theah time. An' he sais: 'Yo' stay by me, boy. Ah's go'n' a' go West to
+mek mah fo'chun.' Well, seh, Ah was lookin' fo' a place to mek some
+fo'chun mahse'f fo mah folks, an' that theah Cincinnati didn't seem jes'
+th' raght place to set about it, so Ah sais, 'Thank yo' ve'y much,
+Mahstah Cunnel,' an' Ah stays by him fo' a consid'ble length of time."
+
+But, little by little, after their coming to our town the Colonel had
+alienated his companion by a lack of those qualities which Clem had been
+accustomed to observe in those to whom he gave himself. Potts was at
+length speaking of him as an ungrateful black hound, and wondering if
+the nation might not have been injudicious in liberating the slave.
+
+Clem, for his part, cut the Colonel dead on Main Street one day and
+never afterwards betrayed to him any consciousness of his existence. It
+was said that their final disagreement hinged upon a matter of thirty
+odd dollars earned by Clem in a Cincinnati restaurant and confided later
+to the Colonel's too thorough keeping.
+
+Be as it may, Clem had formed other and more profitable connections.
+From a doer of odd jobs of wood-sawing, house-cleaning, and
+stove-polishing he had risen to the dignity of a market gardener. A
+small house and a large garden a block away from my place were now
+rented by him. Also he caught fish, snared rabbits, gathered the wild
+fruits in their seasons, and was janitor of the Methodist church; all
+this in addition to looking after my own home. It was not surprising
+that he had money in the bank. He worked unceasingly. The earliest
+risers in Little Arcady found him already busied, and those abroad
+latest at night would see or hear him about the little unpainted house
+in the big garden.
+
+I suspect he had come out into the strange world of the North with
+large, loose notions that the fortune he needed might be speedily
+amassed. Such tales had been told him in his Southland, where he had not
+learned to question or doubt. If so, his disappointment was not to be
+seen in his bearing. That look of patient endurance may have eaten a
+little deeper the lines about his inky eyes, but I am sure his purpose
+had never wavered, nor his faith that he would win at last.
+
+As I ate my breakfast that morning he told me of his good year. The
+early produce of his garden had sold well. Soon there would be half an
+acre of potatoes to dig, and now there was a fine crop of melons just
+coming ripe. These he would begin to sell on the morrow.
+
+At this point, breakfast being done, the cloth brushed, and a light
+brought for my pipe, Clem came from the kitchen with a new pine board,
+upon which he had painted a sign with shoe polish.
+
+"Yes, seh, Mahstah Majah,--Ah beg yo' t' see if hit's raght!" and he
+held it up to me. It read:--
+
+                         Mellins on Sale
+                         Mush & Water
+                         Ask Mr. Tuckerman
+                         at his House.
+
+I gave the thing a critical survey under his grave regard, then
+applauded the workmanship and hoped him a prosperous season with the
+melons.
+
+Then I beguiled him to talk of his land and his "folks," delighting in
+his low, soft speech, wherein the vowels languished and the r's fainted
+from sheer inertia.
+
+"But, Clem, you are a free man now. Those people can't claim your
+services any longer."
+
+I knew what he would say, but for the sake of hearing it once more, I
+had braved his quick look of commiseration for my shallowness of
+understanding.
+
+"Yes, seh, Mahstah Majah, Ah knows 'bout that theah 'mancipation
+Procalmashum. But Ah was a ve'y diffunt matteh. Yo'-all see Ah was made
+oveh t' Miss Cahline pussenly by Ole Mahstah. Yes, seh, Ah been Miss
+Catiline's pussenal propity fo' a consid'able length of time, eveh sence
+she was Little Miss."
+
+"But you are free, just the same, now."
+
+He looked upon me with troubled, grave eyes.
+
+"Well, seh, Mahstah Majah, Ah ain't eveh raghtly comp'ehended, but Ah've
+reckoned that theah wah business an' Procalmashum an' so fothe was fo'
+common niggehs an' fiel' han's an' sech what b'long to th' place. But Ah
+was diffunt. Ah ain't b'longed to th' place. Ah b'longed to Miss Cahline
+lak Ah endeaveh to explain. Ah was a house niggeh an' futhamoah an'
+notwithstandin' Ah was th' pussenal propity of Miss Cahline. Yes, seh,
+Ah b'long dreckly to huh--an' Ah bet them theah lawyehs at Wash'nt'n,
+seh, couldn't kentrive none a' they laws that woulda teched _me_, seh.
+No, seh--they cain't lay th' law to Miss Cahline's pussenalities. She
+ain't go'n' a' stan' no nonsense lahk _that_, seh; she ain't go'n a'
+have no lawyeh mixin' up in huh private mattehs. Ah lahk t' see one
+_try_ it--yes, seh."
+
+He gazed vacantly into the distance, then laughed aloud as he beheld the
+discomfiture of the "lawyeh" in this suppositious proceeding.
+
+"And you even let your wife go?--that must have been hard."
+
+"Well, seh, not to _say_ mah wife. Mah raght wife, she daid--an' then Ah
+mahied this yeh light-shaded gehl fum th' quahtahs, an' she's wild an'
+misled--yes, seh."
+
+Again he was troubled, but I held him to it.
+
+"You thought a good deal of her, didn't you, Clem?"
+
+He studied a moment as he rearranged the roses in the bowl on the table,
+seeking a way to let me understand. Then he sighed hopelessly.
+
+"Well, Mahstah Majah, Genevieve she cyahed a raght smaht fo' me, also,
+an' she mek it up fo' me t' come along t' town with huh. She sais Ah git
+a mewl an' a fahm an' thousan' dollehs money fum yo' Nawthen President
+an' we all live lahk th' quality. But, yo'-all see, th' ole Mahstah
+Cunnel say when he go off to th' wah, 'Clem, yo' black houn', ef Ah
+doan' eveh come back, these yeh ladies is lef in yo' pussenal chahge.
+Yo' unde'stan' _that?_ Yo' go on an' _do_ fo' 'em jes' lahk Ah was yeh.'
+An' young Mahstah Cap'n Bev'ly,--he's Little Miss's engaged-to-mahy
+genaman,--he sais, 'Clem, ef Ah doan' neveh come back, Ah pray an'
+entrus' yo'-all t' cyah fo' Miss Kate an' huh Maw jes lahk Ah was yeh on
+th' spot.' An Ah said, 'Yes, seh,' an' they ain't neithah one a' them
+eveh did come back. Mahstah Cunnel he daid by th' hand o' yo' Nawthen
+President at th' battle a' Seven Pines, an' Mahstah Cap'n Bev'ly
+Glentwo'th--yo' ole Mahstah Gen'al She'dan shoot him all t' pieces in
+his chest one day. So theah Ah is--Ah _cain't_ leave--an' Genevieve
+comes a' repohtin' huhse'f to mek mah rediments, 'cause we all free an'
+go'n' a' go t' Richmond t' live high an' maghty, an' Ah sais, 'Ah'm Miss
+Cahline's pussenal propity--Ah ain't no fiel' niggeh!' She sais, 'Is yo'
+a' comin' aw is you _ain't_ a-comin'?' Ah sais, 'Ole Cunnel daid, young
+Cap'n daid--yo' go 'long an' min' yo' own mindin's--'"
+
+He paused to look out over the waters with shining eyes. After a bit he
+said slowly, "Ah neveh thought Genevieve would go--but she did."
+
+"Then what?"
+
+"Well, seh, Ah stayed on th' place twell we moved oveh to Miss Cahline's
+secon' cousin, Mahstah Cunnel Peavey, but they wa'n't nothin' theah, so
+Ah sais t' Miss Cahline that Ah's goin' Nawth wheah all th' money is,
+an' Ah send fo' huh. So she sais, 'Ve'y good, Clem--yo' all Ah got lef
+t' mah name,' an' so Ah come off. Then afteh while Little Miss she git
+resty an' tehible fractious an' she go off t' Baltimoah t' teach in th'
+young ladies' educationals, an' Miss Cahline she still theah waitin' fo'
+me. Yes, seh, sh' ain't doin' nothin' but livin' on huh secon' cousin
+an' he ain' got nothin'--an' Ah lay Ah ain't go'n' a' have _that_ kind
+a' doin's. No, seh--a-livin' on Cunnel Looshe Peavey. Ah'm go'n' a' git
+huh yeh whah she kin be independent--"
+
+Again he stopped to see visions.
+
+"An' then, afteh a tehible shawt while, Ah git Little Miss fum the
+educationals an' they _both_ be independent. Yes, seh, Ah'm gittin' th'
+money--reglah gole money--none a' this yeh Vaginyah papah-rags money. Ah
+ain't stahted good when Ah come, but Ah wagah ten hund'ed thousan'
+dollehs Ah finish up good!"
+
+The last was a pointed reference to the Colonel.
+
+"Have you seen Colonel Potts lately?" I asked. Clem sniffed.
+
+"Yes, seh, on that tavehn cohnah, a-settin' on a cheer an' a-chestin'
+out his chest lahk a ole ma'ash frawg. 'Peahs like the man ain't got
+hawg sense, ack'in' that a-way."
+
+A concluding sniff left it plain that Potts had been put beyond the pale
+of gentility by Clem.
+
+He left me then to do his work in the kitchen--left me back on a
+battle-field, lying hurt beside an officer from his land who tried
+weakly to stanch a wound in his side as he addressed me.
+
+"A hot charge, sir--but we rallied--hear that yell from our men behind
+the woods. You can't beat us. We needn't be told that. Whatever God is,
+he's at least a gentleman, above practical jokes of that sort." He
+groaned as the blood oozed anew from his side, then pleaded with me to
+help him find the picture--to look under him and all about on the
+ground. Long I mused upon this, but at last my pipe was out, and I awoke
+from that troubled spot where God's little creatures had clashed in
+their puny rage--awoke to know that this was my day to wander in another
+world--the dream world of children, where everything is true that ought
+to be true.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+"A WORLD OF FINE FABLING"
+
+Solon Denney's home, in charge of Mrs. Delia Sullivan, late of Kerry,
+was four blocks up the shaded street from my own. Within one block of
+its gate as I approached it that morning, the Sabbath calm was riven by
+shouts that led me to the back of the house. In the yard next to
+Solon's, Tobin Crowder, of Crowder & Fancett, Lumber, Coal and Building
+Supplies, had left a magnificent green wagon-box flat upon the ground, a
+thing so fine that it was almost a game of itself. An imagination of
+even the second order could at once render it supremely fascinating. My
+two babes, collaborating with four small Sullivans, had by child magic,
+which is the only true magic, transformed this box into a splendid
+express train. The train now sped across country at such terrific speed
+that the small Sullivan at the throttle, an artist and a realist,
+crouched low, with eyes strained upon the track-head, with one hand
+tightly holding on his Sunday cap.
+
+Another Sullivan was fireman, fiercely shovelling imaginary coal; still
+another at the side of the box grasped the handle of the brake as one
+ready to die at his post if need be. The last Sullivan paced the length
+of the wagon-box, being thrown from side to side with fine artistry by
+the train's jolting. He arrogantly demanded tickets from passengers
+supposedly both to relinquish these. And in his wake went the official
+most envied by all the others. With a horse's nose-bag upon his arm my
+namesake chanted in pleading tones above the din, "Peanuts--freshly
+buttered popcorn--Culver's celebrated double-X cough drops, cool and
+refreshing!"
+
+But the tragic eminence of the game was occupied by my woman child.
+Perched in the middle of the high seat, her short legs impotently
+projecting into space, she was the only passenger on this train--and
+she, for whose sole behoof the ponderous machinery was operated, in
+whose exclusive service this crew of trained hirelings toiled--she sat
+aloft indignant, with tear-wet face, her soul revolted by the ignominy
+of it.
+
+I knew the truth in a glance. There had been clamors for the positions
+of honor, and she, from weakness of sex, had been overborne. She, whose
+heart cried out for the distinction of train-boy, conductor, engineer,
+brakeman, or fireman, in the order named, had been forced into the only
+degrading post in the game--a mere passenger without voice or office in
+those delicate feats of administration. And she suffered--suffered with
+a pathetic loyalty, for she knew as well as they that some one _had_ to
+be the passenger.
+
+I held an accusing eye upon my namesake and the train came to a sudden
+halt, much embarrassed, though the brakeman, with artistic relish, made
+a vast ado with his brake and pretended that "she" might start off again
+any minute.
+
+My namesake poised himself on the foot that had no stone-bruise and
+began:--
+
+"Now, Uncle Maje, I _told_ her she could be engineer after we got to the
+next station--"
+
+His tones were those of benevolence that has been ill-requited.
+
+"_That_ was las' station," broke in the aggrieved passenger, "an' they
+wouldn't stop the train there 'cause they said it was a 'spress train
+and mustn't stop at such little stations--"
+
+"I tried awful hard to stop her," said the crafty Sullivan at the
+throttle, "but she got away from me. She did _so_, now!"
+
+"And I said, 'First to be engineer,'" resumed the passenger, bitterly,
+"an' they wouldn't let me, an' I said, 'Secon' to be engineer,' an' they
+never let me, an' I said, 'Las' to be engineer,' an' they never let me."
+
+"She wants to be _everything_" said my namesake, rendered a little
+sullen by this concise putting of her case.
+
+"You come with me," I said to the passenger, "and we'll do something
+better than this--something fine!"
+
+Her face brightened, for she knew that I never made idle promises as do
+so many grown-ups. She jumped from her seat, even though the first
+Sullivan tooted a throaty whistle and the second rattled his brake
+machinery in warning. I helped her over the side of the box, and as we
+walked away she shouted back to the bereaved express train a consolatory
+couplet:--
+
+   "First the worst, second the same,
+    Last the best of all the game!"
+
+That superb machinery of travel was silent, and the mechanics and
+officials, robbed of their passenger, eyed us with disfavor.
+
+"They are terrapin-buzzards!" exclaimed my woman child, with deep
+conviction.
+
+I shuddered fittingly at the violence of her speech.
+
+Before we had gone far the train-boy deserted his post and came running
+after us.
+
+"John B. Gough!" he exclaimed bitterly--profanely.
+
+"He's swearing," warned his sister. "Look out, Uncle Maje, or he'll say
+'Gamboge' next."
+
+"I don't care," retorted the indignant follower; "you can't have a train
+without any passenger--it's silly. I don't care if I do say Gamboge.
+There! Gamboge it!"
+
+I turned upon him. I had endured "terrapin-buzzards," hurled at the
+group by my woman child, perceiving need of relief for her pent-up
+passion. I had, moreover, for the same reason, permitted my namesake to
+roll under his tongue the formidable and satisfying expletive, "John B.
+Gough!" But I felt that the line must be drawn at Gamboge.
+Terrapin-buzzards was bad enough, though it was true that this might be
+used innocently, as in a moment of mild dismay, or as an exclamation of
+mere astonishment without sinister import. But Gamboge!--and ripped out
+brazenly as it had been?--No! A thousand times No!
+
+"Calvin," I said sternly, "aren't you ashamed to use such
+language--before me--and before your little sister?"
+
+But here the little sister sank beneath her true woman's level by
+saying:--
+
+"I know worse than that--Dut!"
+
+With a look of deadly coldness I sought to chill the pride that shone in
+her eyes as she achieved this new enormity.
+
+"What is 'Dut'?" I asked severely.
+
+"Dut is--is _a_ Dut," she answered, somewhat abashed by my want of
+enthusiasm.
+
+"A Dut is a baddix--a regular baddix," volunteered her brother.
+Following a device familiar to philologists, he submitted concrete
+examples.
+
+"Two of those Sullivans are Duts, and so's Mrs. Sullivan sometimes when
+she makes me split kindling and let the cat alone and--"
+
+"That will do," I said; "that's enough of such talk. Come right into the
+house."
+
+"It ain't a baddix to say 'O Crackers!'" he observed tentatively, as he
+followed us.
+
+"It may not be for some people," I answered. "Nice people might say that
+once in a great while, on week-days, if they never said any other
+baddixes; but it's just as bad as any of them if you say all the
+others--especially that horrible one--"
+
+"Gamboge," he reminded me, brightly.
+
+"Never mind saying it again!"
+
+Then came a new uproar from the wagon-box. We perceived that the train
+had moved off again, manned now entirely by Sullivans. They sought, I
+detected, to produce in our minds an impression that the thing was going
+better than ever. The toots of the Sullivan-throated whistle were louder
+and more frequent, and the voice of the largest could be plainly heard.
+He had combined the two offices of train-boy and conductor. We heard him
+alternately demanding "Tickets!" and urging "Peanuts, cakes, and
+candies!" If the intention had been to lure us back to witness a
+Sullivan triumph, it failed. We shut our lips tightly and moved around
+to the front porch.
+
+The foiled Sullivans presently followed us here. They made a group at
+the base of a maple on the lawn and, affecting not to notice us, talked
+in a large, loud way so that we must overhear and be made envious,--even
+awe-struck; for they had all secured jobs on the real railroad, it
+appeared. They would have to begin to-morrow, probably. They didn't know
+for sure, but they thought it would be to-morrow. It would be fine,
+riding off on the big train. Probably they would never come back to this
+town, but sleep on their big engine every night; and every day, from the
+toothsome dainties of the train-boy Sullivan's basket, they would "eat
+all they could hold." The elder Sullivan, aged eight, he of the
+artistic temperament, here soared dizzily into the farthest ether of
+romance. He had his uniform at home, at that very moment, and a cap with
+"gold reading" on it--it read "Conductor" on one side, and "Candy" on
+the other. Only--this veritably smacked of genius--the blue coat with
+the gold buttons had been made too small for him, and he'd have to wait
+until they sent him a larger size--"a No. 12," he said, with a careless,
+unseeing glance at our group. This was a stroke that had nearly done for
+one of us--but a moment's resistance and another of sober reflection
+saved him. He flashed to me a look of scorn for the clumsy fabrication.
+
+There was still a brakeman needed, it appeared,--a _good_ brakeman. The
+Sullivans consulted importantly, wondering if "a good man" could by any
+chance be found "around here." They named and rejected several possible
+candidates--other boys that we knew. And they wondered again.
+No--probably every one around here was afraid to leave home, or wouldn't
+be strong enough.
+
+I held my breath, perceiving at once, the villany on foot. They were
+trying to lure one of us into a trap. They wished one of us to leap
+forward with a glad, eager, artless shout--"_I'll_ be the other
+brakeman!" At once they would jeer coarsely, slapping one another's
+backs and affecting the utmost merriment that this one of us should have
+been equal to so monstrous a pretension. This would last a long time.
+They would take up other matters only for the sake of coming back to it
+with sudden explosions of contemptuous mirth.
+
+Happily, the one of us most liable to this ignominy remained unbelieving
+to the bitter end; even did he pretend to a yawning sort of interest in
+a book carelessly picked up. The Sullivans had been foiled at every
+turn, and now we were relieved from the covert but not less pointed
+insult of their presence.
+
+Mrs. Delia, her morning's work done, came out dressed for church,
+bidding me a briskly sad little "Good marnin', _Major!_" I responded
+pleasantly, for in a way I liked Mrs. Sullivan, who came each day from
+her bare little house under the hill to make a home for Solon and our
+children. At least she was kind to them and kept them plump. That she
+remained dismal under circumstances that seemed to me not to warrant it
+was a detail of minor consequence. Terry Sullivan had been no good
+husband to her. Beating her and the lesser Sullivans had been his
+serious aim when in liquor and his diversion when out. But he fell from
+a gracious scaffolding with a. bucket of azure paint one day and
+fractured his stout neck, a thing which in the general opinion of Little
+Arcady Heaven had meant to be consummated under more formal auspices.
+
+But when they took Terry home and laid him on her bed, she had wailed
+absurdly for the lost lover in him. Through the night her cry had been,
+"Ah, Terry, Terry,--ye gev me manny a haird blow, darlin', but ye kep'
+th' hairdest til th' last!"
+
+It was not possible to avoid being irritated a little by such a woman,
+but I always tried to conceal this from her. I suppose she had a right
+to her own play-world. She was dressed now in a limp black of many rusty
+ruffles that sagged close to her and glistened in spots through its
+rust. Both the dress and the spiritless silk bonnet that circled her
+keen little face seemed to have been cried over a long time--to be
+always damp with her tears.
+
+With parting injunctions to my namesake to let the cat alone, not to
+"track up" the kitchen, and not to play with matches, the little woman
+lovingly cuffed the conspiring lesser Sullivans into a decorous line
+behind her and marched them off to church. There, I knew, she would give
+from her poor wage that the soul of dead Terry should be the sooner
+prayed out of a place, which, it would seem, might have been created
+with an eye single to his just needs.
+
+Thinking of woman's love,--that, like the peace of God it passeth all
+understanding,--I officiated absently as one of two guests at a
+"tea-party." My fellow-guest was a large doll braced stiffly in its
+chair; a doll whose waxen face had been gouged by vandal nails. That was
+an old tragedy, though a sickening one at the time. The doll had been my
+Christmas offering to the woman child, and in the dusk of that joyous
+day my namesake had craved of its proud mother the boon of holding it a
+little while. Relinquished trustingly to him, he had sat with it by a
+cheerful fire--without evil intent, I do truly believe. Surely it was
+by chance that he found its waxen face softening under the stove's
+glow--and has Heaven affixed nails to any boy of seven that, in a dusky
+room at a quiet moment, would have behaved with more restraint? I trow
+not. One surprised dig and all was lost. Of that fair surface of rounded
+cheek, fattened chin, and noble brow not a square inch was left
+ungouged. It was indeed a face of evil suggestion that the unsuspecting
+mother took back.
+
+That was the evening when the Crowders, living next door, had rushed
+over in the belief that my woman child was being murdered. The criminal
+had never been able to advance the shadow of a reason or excuse for his
+mad act. He seemed to be as honestly puzzled by it as the rest of us,
+though I rejoice to say that he was not left without reason to deplore
+it.
+
+But the mother--the true mother--had thereafter loved the disfigured
+thing but the more. She promptly divested it of all its splendid
+garments, as a precaution against further vandalism, and the naked thing
+with its scarred face was ever an honored guest at our functions.
+
+"You really must get some clothes for Irene," I said. "That's not quite
+the right thing, you know, having her sit there without any."
+
+In much annoyance she rebuked me, whispering, for this thoughtless lapse
+from my rôle as guest. At our parties Irene was no longer Irene, but
+"Mrs. Judge Robinson," and justly sensitive about her faulty complexion
+and lack of clothes.
+
+"Besides," came the whisper again, "I am going to make her some
+clothes--a lovely veil to go over her face."
+
+Resuming her company voice, and with the aplomb of a perfect hostess who
+has rectified the gaucherie of an awkward guest, she pressed upon me
+another cup of the custard coffee, and tactfully inquired of the
+supposedly embarrassed Mrs. Judge Robinson if she did not think this was
+_very_ warm weather for this time of year.
+
+The proprieties being thus mended, our hostess raised her voice and bade
+Mrs. Sullivan, within doors, to hurry with the next course, which, I was
+charmed to learn, would be lemon soup and frosted cake. Mrs. Sullivan's
+response, though audible only to her mistress, who was compelled to cock
+an intent ear toward the kitchen, seemed to be in some manner shuffling
+or evasive.
+
+"What's _that_?" she exclaimed sharply, listening again. Then, with
+dignity, "Well, if you _don't_ hurry, I'll have to come right in there
+and see to you this minute!"
+
+The threat happily availed, and the feast went forward, a phantom and
+duly apologetic Mrs. Sullivan serving us with every delicacy which our
+imaginations afforded. When we had eaten to repletion, of and from the
+checkers which were our plates and food as well, Mrs. Judge Robinson
+suddenly became Irene, who had eaten too much and had to be scolded and
+put to bed. The lights were out, the revelry done.
+
+"Going walking now?" asked my namesake. He did not know how to behave at
+tea-parties, and, sitting at a little distance from us, he had been
+aiming an imaginary gun at every fat robin that mined the lawn for
+sustenance.
+
+"Ask your father if you may go," I said. I had heard Solon pacing his
+room--forever cogitating the imminent Potts. I did not enter the house
+oftener than I could help, for always in those rooms I felt a troubled
+presence, a homesick thing that pushed two frail white hands against an
+intangible but sufficing curtain that held it from those it sickened
+for. I could not long be easy there.
+
+It was a day poised and serene, with white brush-dabs of cloud on a
+wonderful canvas of blue,--a day when I longed for the honeyed fragrance
+of the woods warming from the last night's rain.
+
+But this was not to be my walk. Not for me the shaded arches of the wood
+where glad birds piped, nor the velvet hillsides tufted with green and
+yellow and brown, nor eke the quiet lane running between walls of
+foliage, where simple rabbits scampered, amazed, but not yet taught
+their fullest fear.
+
+The butterflies we must chase hovered rather along urban ways. That of
+the woman child was social. Ahead of us she flounced. Strangely, she was
+herself Mrs. Judge Robinson now. I understood that she was decked in a
+gown of royal purple, whose sweeping velvet train gave her no little
+trouble. But she paid her calls. At each gate she stopped, and it seemed
+that persons met her there, for she began:--
+
+"Why, how do you _do?_ Yes, it's lovely weather we're having. Are your
+children got the scarlet fever? That's too bad. So has mine. I'm afraid
+they'll die. Well, I must be going now. _Good_ day!"
+
+Sometimes she ran back to say, "Now do come over some day and bring your
+work!"
+
+The butterflies pursued by my namesake were various, and some of them
+were more secret.
+
+For one he made me stand with him while he gazed long into the
+drug-store window. I divined at last that those giant chalices, one of
+green and one of ruby liquor, were the objects of his worship. He could
+not have told me this, but I knew that in his mind these were compounds
+of unparalleled richness, potent with Heaven knows what wondrous charms.
+It was not that he dreamed ever of securing any of the stuff; the spell
+endured only while they must stand there, remote, splendid,
+inaccessible.
+
+Then we strolled down the quiet street to a road that went close to the
+railway. And there, with beating hearts, we beheld the two-twenty
+Eastern freight rattle superbly by us. From the cab of its inspiring
+locomotive one of fortune's favorites rang a priceless gold bell with an
+air of indifference which we believed in our hearts was assumed to
+impress us. And notwithstanding our suspicion, we _were_ impressed, for
+did we not know that he could reach up his other hand and blow the
+splendid whistle if he happened to feel like it?
+
+After the locomotive came the closed and mysterious box-cars, important
+with big numbers and initials in cabalistic sequence, indicating a wide
+and exciting range of travels. Then came stock cars, from between the
+slats of which strange and envied cattle looked out on their way to a
+wondrous city; and there was a car of squealing pigs, who seemed not to
+want to ride on a real train; and some cars of sheep that were stupidly
+indifferent about the whole thing. At the last was a palatial "caboose",
+and toward this, over the tops of the moving cars, a happy brakeman made
+his exciting progress, not having to hold on, or anything. He casually
+waved an arm at us, a salute that one of our number, in acknowledging,
+sought to imitate, for the cool, indifferent flourish of its arm, as if
+it were a common enough thing for us to be noticed by the mighty from
+their eminences.
+
+This was my namesake's most beautiful of butterflies. Any one could
+understand that. As the train lost itself in smoke I knew well what he
+felt. I knew that that smoke of soft coal was so delicious, so wonderful
+of portent in his nostrils, that throughout his life it would bring up
+the wander-bidding in him--always a strange sweet passion of _starting_.
+Even now the journey-wonder was in his eyes. I knew that he saw himself
+jauntily stepping the perilous tops of cars, clad in a coat of padded
+shoulders bound with wide braid, a lantern on his arm, coal dust
+smudging the back of his neck, and two fingers felicitously gone from
+his left hand.
+
+I coughed, to recall him from visions. He looked up at me, a little
+shyly, debating--but why should it not be told?
+
+"Uncle Maje--when I grow up, I'm going off to be a brakeman."
+
+"I know it," I said quietly.
+
+"Won't it be just fine!"
+
+"It's the very finest life in all the world. I hoped for it myself once,
+but I was disappointed."
+
+He gave me a quick look of sympathy.
+
+"Wouldn't they let you?"
+
+"Well, they were afraid I'd be hurt--only I knew I wouldn't be--anything
+to speak of--a couple of fingers, perhaps--"
+
+"Off the left hand," he suggested understandingly.
+
+"Of course,--off the left hand."
+
+"That brakeman on No. 3 has got two off _his_ left hand," was the final
+comment.
+
+We retraced our steps; but there was yet another butterfly of my
+namesake's. He led us to a by-path that followed the river bank up to
+the bridge, running far ahead of us. When we reached him he was seated,
+dumb with yearning, before a newly painted sign,
+
+"GO TO BUDD'S FOR AN UP-TO-DATE 25 CT. DINNER."
+
+He was obliged to limp that day, for his stone-bruise was coming on
+finely; but he had gone half a mile out of his way to worship at this
+wayside shrine. Again he was dreaming. In the days of his opulence he
+saw himself going to Budd's. Fortunately for his illusions the price was
+now prohibitive. I had been to Budd's myself.
+
+"Have you ever been there?" I asked of the dreamer.
+
+"I've been in his store, in the front part, where the candy is--and if
+you go 'round when he's freezing ice cream, he'll give you a whole
+ten-cent dish just for turning the freezer; but Pop won't let me stay
+out of school to do it, and Budd don't freeze Saturdays. But some day--"
+he paused. Then, with seemingly another idea:--
+
+"He's got an awful funny sign up over the counter."
+
+He would not tell me what the sign was, though, He shuffled and talked
+of other things. I entered Budd's on the morrow, purposely to read it,
+and I knew that my namesake had quailed before it. The sign was in
+white, frosted letters, on a blue ground, and it ran:--
+
+                         TO TRUST IS TO BUST
+                         TO BUST IS HELL
+                         NO TRUST, NO BUST, NO HELL.
+
+Its syllogistic hardness was repellant, but I dare say it preserved a
+gorgeous butterfly from utter extinction.
+
+Home again at early twilight, we ate of a cold supper set out for us by
+Mrs. Sullivan. And here I reflected that good days often end badly, for
+my namesake betrayed extreme dissatisfaction with the food.
+
+"Why don't we have that pudding oftener--with lather on top of it?" was
+his first outbreak. And at last he felt obliged to declare bitterly, "We
+don't have a thing that's fit to eat!"
+
+"Calvin," said his father, "if I have to whip, it will hurt you worse
+than it does me."
+
+Whereupon the complainer was wisely silent, but later I heard him
+asserting, between catches of his breath, and out of his father's
+hearing:--
+
+"I don't care--(_a sniff_)--when I'm rich, I'll go to Budd's for an
+up-to-date dinner, you bet--(_a snuffle_)--I'll probably go there every
+day of my life--(_two snuffles_)--yes, sir--Sundays and all!"
+
+I cheered him as best I could.
+
+His sister had saved her day to a happy end, babbling off to bed with
+the distressing Irene, to whom she would show a book of pictures until
+sleep shut off her little eyelid.
+
+A wise old man--I believe he was a bishop--once said he knew "that
+outside the real world is a world of fine fabling."
+
+I had stolen a day from that world. Now I hurried through the gloom of
+the hall, past the poor striving hands, to sit with Solon Denney and
+tell him of a peculiar thing I had observed during the afternoon's walk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+ADVENTURE OF BILLY DURGIN, SLEUTH
+
+I spoke to Solon of Billy Durgin, whose peculiar, not to say mysterious,
+behavior I had been compelled to notice. I had first observed him that
+afternoon as we passed the City Hotel. Through the window of the little
+wash-room, where I saw that he was polishing a pair of shoes, he had
+winked at me from over his task, and then erected himself to make a
+puzzling gesture with one hand. Again, while we stood dream-bound before
+the window of the corner drug store, he had sent me a low whistle from
+across the street, following this with another puzzling arm wave;
+whereat he had started toward us. But instead of accosting me, as I had
+thought he meant to, he rushed by, with eyes rigidly ahead and his thin
+jaws grimly set. Throughout the stroll he haunted us, adhering to this
+strange line of conduct. I would turn a corner, to find Billy apparently
+waiting for me a block off. Then would follow a signal of no
+determinable import, after which he would walk swiftly past me as if
+unaware of my presence. Once I started to address him, but was met with
+"_Not a word_!" hissed at me in his best style from between clenched
+teeth.
+
+I decided at last that Billy was playing a game of his own. For Billy
+Durgin, though sixteen years old, had happy access to our world of fine
+fabling; and to this I knew he resorted at those times when his duties
+as porter at the City Hotel palled upon his romantic spirit.
+
+Billy, in short, was a detective, well soaked in the plenteous
+literature of his craft and living in the dream that criminals would one
+day shudder at the bare mention of his name.
+
+Nor was he unprovided with a badge of office. Upon his immature chest,
+concealed by his waist-coat, was an eight-pointed star emblazoned with
+an open eye. Billy had once proudly confided to me that the star was
+"pure German Silver." A year before he had answered an advertisement
+which made known that a trusty man was wanted in every community "to act
+for us in a confidential capacity. Address for particulars, with stamp."
+
+The particulars were that you sent the International Detective
+Association five dollars for a badge. After that you were their
+confidential agent, and if a "case" occurred in your territory, you were
+the man they turned to.
+
+Billy's five hard-earned dollars had gone to the great city, and back
+had come his star. He wore it secretly at first, but was moved at length
+to display it to a few chosen friends; not wisely chosen, it would
+appear, for now there were mockers of Billy among the irreverent of the
+town. As he sat aloft on his boot-blacking throne, waiting for crime to
+be done among us, conning meantime one of those romances in which his
+heroes did rare deeds, he would be subjected to intrusion. Some coarse
+town humorist would leer upon him from the doorway--a leer of furtive,
+devilish cunning--and whisper hoarsely, "Hist! Are we alone?"
+
+Struck thus below the belt of his dignity, our hero could only
+respond:--
+
+"Aw, that's all right! You g'wan out a' here now an' quit your foolin'!"
+
+But criminals seemed to have conspired against Little Arcady, to cheat
+it of its rightful distinction. In vain had Billy waited for a "case" to
+be sent him by the International Detective Agency. In vain had he sought
+to develop one by his own ferreting genius. Each week he searched the
+columns of the police paper in Harpin Gust's barber-shop, fixing in his
+mind the lineaments of criminals there advertised as wanted in various
+corners of our land. These were counterfeiters, murderers, embezzlers,
+horse-thieves, confidence men, what not--criminals to satisfy a sleuth
+of the most catholic tastes; but they were all wanted elsewhere--at
+Altoona, Pennsylvania, or Deming, New Mexico; at Portland, Maine, or
+Dodge City, Kansas. In truth, the country elsewhere swarmed with Billy's
+lawful prey, and only Little Arcady seemed good.
+
+Billy also gloated over the portraits of well-known deputy sheriffs and
+other officers of the law printed in the same charming police paper. It
+seemed not too much to hope that his own likeness might one day grace
+that radiant page--himself in a long, fashionable overcoat, carelessly
+flung back to reveal the badge, with its never closing eye, and
+underneath, "William P. Durgin, the Dashing Young Detective, whose
+Coolness, Skill, and Daring have made his Name a Terror to Evil-Doers."
+
+Famished for adventure, thirsting for danger, yearning for the perilous
+midnight encounter, avid of secrecy and disguises, Billy had been forced
+to toil prosaically, barrenly, unprofitably, about the sinless corridors
+of the City Hotel. All he had been able to do thus far was to regard
+every newcomer to the town with a steely eye of distrust; to watch each
+one furtively, to shadow him in his walks, and to believe during his
+sojourn that he might be "Red Mike, alias James K. Brown, wanted for
+safe-breaking at Muskegon, Michigan; reward, $1000," or some like
+desperado.
+
+As such did he view them all--from the ornately garbed young man who
+came among us purveying windmills to the portly, broadclothed,
+gray-whiskered and forbiddingly respectable colporteur of the American
+Bible Society. Some day would his keen gray eye penetrate the cunning
+disguise; some day would he step quietly up to his man and say in low
+but deadly tones: "Come with me, now. Make no trouble or it will be the
+worse for you." Whereupon the guilty wretch would blanch and say in
+shaking voice: "My God, it's Billy Durgin, the famous detective! Don't
+shoot--I'll come!"
+
+Billy had faith that this dramatic episode would occur in the very
+office of the City Hotel, and he believed that some of those who had
+joked him about his life passion would thereafter treat him in a very
+different manner.
+
+Though I had long won these facts from Billy, I had never known him to
+play his game so openly before. But when I mentioned the thing to Solon,
+thinking to beguile him from his trouble, I found him more interested
+than I had thought he could be; for Solon knew Billy as well as I did,
+
+"Did Billy follow you here?" he asked. "Perhaps he has a clew."
+
+"A clew to what?"
+
+"A clew to Potts. Billy volunteered to work up the Potts case, and I
+told him to go ahead."
+
+"Was that fair, Solon, to pit a sleuth as relentless as Billy against
+poor Potts?"
+
+"All's fair in love and war."
+
+"Is it really war?"
+
+"You ask Westley Keyts if he thinks it's love."
+
+I think I noticed for the first time then that the Potts affair was
+etching lines into Solon's face.
+
+"Of course it's war," he went on. "You know the fix I'm in. I had the
+plan to get Potts out. It was a good plan, too. The more I think of it
+the better I like it. With any man in the world but Potts that plan
+would have been a stroke of genius. But I don't mind telling you that
+this thing has robbed me of sleep for three months. Potts has got me
+talking to myself. I wake up talking of him, out of the little sleep I
+do get. I'll tell you the fact--if Potts is here six weeks longer, and
+let to finish this canvas, my influence in Slocum County is gone. I
+might as well give up and move on to another town myself, where my
+dreadful secret is unknown."
+
+"Nonsense! But what can Billy Durgin do?"
+
+"Well, I'm desperate, that's all. And one night Billy had me meet him up
+by the cemetery--he came disguised in long black whiskers--and he told
+me that Potts was James Carruthers, better known to the police of two
+continents as 'Smooth Jim,' wanted for robbing the post-office at Lima,
+Ohio. Of course that's nonsense. Potts hasn't the wit to rob a
+post-office. But I didn't have the heart to tell Billy so. I told him,
+instead, that this was the chance of his life; to fasten to Potts like
+an enraged leech, and draw out every secret of his dark past. You can't
+tell--Billy might find something to pry him into the next county with,
+anyway."
+
+"He certainly looked charged with information this afternoon. He was
+fizzing like an impatient soda fountain. But why did he follow me?"
+
+"Well, that might be Billy's roundabout way of getting to me. The other
+time he shadowed Marvin Chislett to get a message to me. If you're a
+detective, you can't do things the usual way, or all may be lost."
+
+At that instant a low whistle sounded in our ears, a small missile was
+thrown over the evergreen hedge, bounding almost to our feet, and a
+slight but muscular figure was seen retreating swiftly into the dusk.
+
+Solon sprang for the mysterious object. It was a stone, about which was
+wrapped a sheet of paper. This he took off and smoothed out. By the
+fading light we made out to read: "Meet me at graveyard steps at
+midnight. You know who."
+
+We looked at each other. "Why didn't he come in here?" I asked.
+
+"That wouldn't have been detective-like."
+
+"But the graveyard at midnight!"
+
+"Well, perhaps he won't hold out for midnight--Billy is merely poetic at
+times--and maybe if we hurry along, we can catch up with him and have it
+out by the marble works there instead of going clear on to the cemetery.
+Perhaps that will be near enough in the right spirit for Billy."
+
+Quickly we made ready for the desperate assignation, pulling our hats
+well down, in a way that we thought Billy would approve.
+
+Four blocks along the street, by rapid walking, we came within hail of
+the intrepid young detective. We were also opposite the marble yard of
+Cornelius Lawson, who wrought monuments for the dead of Little Arcady.
+In front of the shop were a dozen finished and half-finished stones,
+ghostly white in the dusk. It seemed indeed to be a spot impressive
+enough to meet even Billy's captious requirements, but we had underrated
+the demands of his artist's conscience. Solon called to him.
+
+"Won't this do, Billy?"
+
+Billy stopped dramatically, turned back upon us, and then exploded:--
+
+"Fools! Would you ruin all? You must not be seen addressing me. Now I
+must disguise myself."
+
+Turning stealthily from us, he swiftly adjusted a beard that swept its
+sable flow down his youthful chest. Then he addressed us again, still in
+tense, hoarse accents.
+
+"Are you armed?"
+
+"To the teeth!" answered Solon, with deadly grimness, and with a
+presence of mind which I envied.
+
+"Then follow me, but at a distance!"
+
+Meekly we obeyed. While our hero stalked ahead, stroking his luxuriant
+whiskers ever and anon, we pursued him at an interval so great that not
+the most alert citizen of Little Arcady could have suspected this
+sinister undercurrent to his simple life.
+
+It is a long walk to the cemetery, but we reached it to find Billy
+seated on the steps that lead over the fence, still shielded by his
+hairy envelope.
+
+"A tough case!" he whispered as we sat by him. "Our man has his spies
+out, and my every step is dogged both night and day."
+
+"Indeed?" we asked.
+
+"You know that slim little duck that got in last night, purtendin' he's
+a shoe-drummer? Well, he's a detective hired by Potts to shadow me. You
+know that big fat one, lettin' on he's agent for the Nonesuch Duplex
+Washin' Machine? He's another. You know that slick-lookin' cuss--like a
+minister--been here all week, makin' out he was canvassin' for 'The
+Scenic Wonders of Our Land' at a dollar a part, thirty-six parts and a
+portfoly to pack 'em away in? Well, he's an--"
+
+"Hold on, Billy, let's get down to business," reminded Solon.
+
+"But I've throwed 'em all off for the nonce," continued Billy, looking
+closely, I thought, to see if we were rightly affected by "nonce."
+
+"Yes, sir, it's been the toughest darned case in my whole experience as
+an inside man."
+
+He waited for this to move us.
+
+"What have you found out?" asked Solon; "and say, can't you take off
+those whiskers, now that we are alone and unobserved? You know they kind
+of scramble your voice."
+
+With cautious looks all about him, Billy bared his tender young face to
+the night. A weak wind fretted in the cedars back of us, and an owl
+hooted. It was not an occasion that he would permit to glide by him too
+swiftly.
+
+"Well, first I had to git my skeleton keys made."
+
+"I thought you said his door was never locked," interrupted Solon.
+
+"That might be only a ruse," suggested our hero. "Well, I got my keys
+made, and then I begun to search his room. That's always a delicate job.
+You got to know just how. First I looked under the aidges of the carpet,
+clear around. Nothing rewarded my masterly search. Then I examines the
+bed and mattress inch by inch, with the same discouragin' results."
+Billy had now drifted fairly into the exciting manner of his favorite
+authors.
+
+"Baffled, but not beaten, I nex' turns my attention to the pictures,
+examinin' with a trained eye the backs of same, where might be cunningly
+concealed the old will--uh--I mean the incriminatin' dockaments that
+would bring the craven wretch to bay and land him safely behind the bars
+of jestice. But it seemed like I had the cunning of a fiend to contend
+with. No objeks of interest was revealed to my swift but thorough
+examination. Thence I directed my attentions to the wall-paper, well
+knowin' the desperate tricks to which the higher class of criminal will
+ofttimes resort to. Once I thought the game was up and all was lost.
+That new Swede chambermaid walks right in an' ketches me at my delicate
+tasks.
+
+"Always retainin' my calm presence of mind and coolness in emergencies,
+quick to think an' as ready to act, with an undaunted bravery I sprang
+at the girl's throat and hissed, 'How much will it take to silence your
+accursed tongue?' She draws her slight girlish figure up to its full
+height--'Ten thousand dollars!' she hissed back at me. 'Ten thousand
+devils!' I cried, hoarse with rage--"
+
+Too palpably our hero had been overwhelmed by his passion for fictitious
+prose narrative.
+
+"Hold on, Billy!--back up," broke in Solon. "This is business, you
+know--this isn't an Old Cap' Collyer tale."
+
+"Well, anyway," resumed Billy, a little abashed, "I silenced the girl. I
+threatened to have her transported for life if she breathed a word.
+Mebbe she didn't suspect anything after all. Tilly ain't so very bright.
+So at length I continues my researches into every nook and cranny of the
+den, and jest as I was about to abandon the trail, baffled and beaten at
+every turn, what should I git but an idee to look at some papers lyin'
+in plain sight on the table at the head of the bed."
+
+"Well, out with it!" I thought Solon was growing a little impatient. But
+Billy controlled the situation with a firm hand.
+
+"It's an old trick," he continued, "one that's fooled many a better man
+than Billy Durgin--leavin' the dockaments carelessly exposed like they
+didn't amount to anything; but havin' the well-known tenacity of a
+bloodhound, I was not to be thwarted. Well--to make a long story
+short--"
+
+Solon brightened wonderfully.
+
+"I have to admit that my first suspicion was incorrect. He ain't the one
+that done that Lima, Ohio, job and carried off them eight hundred
+dollars' worth of stamps--"
+
+"But what _did_ he do?"
+
+"Well, I got a clew to another past of his--"
+
+"What is it? Let's have it!"
+
+Billy was still not to be driven faster than a detective story should
+move.
+
+We heard, and dimly saw, him engaged with a metallic object which he
+drew from under his coat. We were silent. Then we heard him say:--
+
+"My lamp's went out--_darn_ these matches!"
+
+At last he seemed to light something. He unfolded a bit of paper before
+us and triumphantly across its surface he directed the rays of a
+bull's-eye lantern. This was his climax. We studied the paper.
+
+"Billy," said Solon, after a pause, "this looks like a good night's
+work. True, it may come to naught. We may still be baffled, foiled,
+thwarted at every turn--and yet something tells me that the man is in
+our power--that by this precious paper we may yet bring the scoundrel to
+his knees in prayers for our mercy, craven with fear at our knowledge."
+
+"Say," said Billy, stung to admiration by this flow of the right sort of
+talk, "Mr. Denney, did you ever read 'Little Rosebud, or is Beauty a
+Curse to a Poor Girl?' That sounded just like the detective in that--you
+remember--where he's talkin' to Clarence Armytage just after he's
+overheard the old lawyer tell Mark Vinton, the villain, 'If this child
+lives, you are a beggar!' Remember that?"
+
+"Why, no, Billy. I must get that, first thing in the morning. My tribute
+to your professional skill was wholly spontaneous, though perhaps a
+shade influenced by having listened to your own graphic style. But come,
+men! Let us separate and be off, ere we are discovered. And mind, not a
+word of this. One false step might ruin all! So have a care."
+
+It must have been one of the few perfect moments in the life of Billy.
+
+"You may rely upon William Durgin to the bitter end," said he, with a
+quiet dignity. "But there is work yet ahead for me to-night.
+
+"I got to regain my hotel unobserved. My life is not safe a moment with
+my every step dogged by the hired assassins of that infamous scoundrel."
+
+"If death or disaster come to you, Billy, you shall not be unavenged. We
+swear it here on this spot. _Swear_, Cal!"
+
+"Say," Billy called back to us, after adjusting his beard, "if anything
+comes of this,--rewards or anything,--first thing I'm goin' a' do--git
+me a good forty-four Colts. You can't stop a man with this here little
+twenty-two, an' it's only a one-shot at that. I'd be in a _nice_ hole
+sometime, wouldn't I, with my back up against a wall an' six or seven of
+'em comin' for me an' nothin' but _this_ in my jeans?"
+
+"Point that the other way, Billy--we'll see about a bigger one later. We
+can't do anything to-night. And sell your life as dearly as possible if
+you have to sell it."
+
+I fell asleep that night on a conviction that our taste for barren
+reality is our chief error. If we could only believe forever, what a
+good world it could be--"a world of fine fabling," indeed! Also I
+wondered what J. Rodney Potts might have to apprehend from the leaven of
+fact in the fabling of Billy Durgin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+HOW THE BOSS SAVED HIMSELF
+
+He whom they had, with facetious intent, called "the Boss of Little
+Arcady" now began to wear a mien of defiance. From being confessedly
+distraught, he displayed, as the days went by, a spiritual uplift that
+fell but little short of arrogance. He did not permit any reason to be
+revealed for this marked change of demeanor. He was confident but
+secretive, serene but furtive, as one who has endured gibes for the sake
+of one brilliant _coup_.
+
+This apparently causeless change permeated even to the columns of the
+_Argus_. It had been observed by more than one of us that these had of
+late suffered from the depression of their editor. Their general tone
+had been negative. Now they spoke in a lightsome tone of
+self-sufficiency. They were gay, even jaunty. It was in this very epoch
+that the verse was born which for many years sang blithely from the top
+of the first column--sang of Denney's public-spirited optimism as to
+Slocum County and the Little Country.
+
+    Keep your eye on Slocum,
+      She's all right!
+    Her skies are clear and full of cheer,
+      And all her prospects bright.
+
+As pointing more specifically to the incubus of Potts, there was
+this:--
+
+"Lots of people are saying that we have met our Waterloo. They forget
+that Waterloo was a _victory_ as well as a defeat. Two men met it, and
+the name of one was Wellington. Look it up in your encyclopaedia."
+
+But the faction of Potts, it should be noted, saw no reason to be
+impressed by a vaunting so vague. It had not tempered its hopefulness.
+
+Its idol was jubilant, careless as a schoolboy, babbling but sober. The
+_Banner_ still challenged the world with its page-wide line: "Potts
+Forever! Potts the Coming Man!"
+
+Certain hopeful souls among the opposition had taken counsel how they
+might cause Potts to fall by means of strong drink. They had observed
+that the mill-race was still significantly uncovered. But to all
+invitations, all cunning incitements to indulgence, Potts was urbanely
+resistant. Conscious that a river of strong waters rippled at his feet,
+freely to be partaken of did he choose, it is true that his face showed
+lines of restraint, a serene restraint, like unto that which the great
+old painters limned so beautifully upon the face of the martyr. But the
+martyrs of old in their ecstasy were not more resolute than Potts. It is
+probable that he looked forward to a period of post-election
+refreshment; but pending the first Tuesday after the first Monday in
+November, his determination was such that it stamped his face with
+something akin to dignity. Said Westley Keyts, "If it was raining
+whiskey, Potts wouldn't drink as much as he could ketch on a fork!" and
+to this the town agreed. For once Potts was firm.
+
+His alpaca suit had visibly deteriorated during the campaign, and his
+tall hat again cried for the glossing ministry of a heated iron, but his
+virtue burgeoned under stress and flowered to beauty in the sight of
+men. It was understood at last that the mill-race might as well be
+covered for any adventitious relation it could sustain to Potts drunk.
+
+Westley Keyts's suggestion that Potts be weighted with pig-iron and
+dumped into the healing waters, drunk or sober, was the mere playfulness
+of an excellent butcher unpractised in sarcasm. His offer to supply,
+free of cost, a quantity of pig-iron ample for the purpose left this
+hypothesis unavoidable, for Westley winked flagrantly and leered when he
+voiced it.
+
+But a retribution subtler than mere drowning awaited the superfluous
+Potts; a retribution so simple of mechanism, so swift, so potent, and
+wrought with a talent so masterly, that the right of its instigator to
+the title of Boss of Little Arcady seemed to be unassailable for all
+future time.
+
+At the very zenith of his heavenward flight Potts was brought low. At
+the very nethermost point of his downward swoop Solon Denney was raised
+to a height so dizzy that even the erstwhile sceptic spirit of Westley
+Keyts abased itself before him, frankly conceding that diplomacy's
+innocent and mush-like surface might conceal springs of a terrible
+potency.
+
+Though Solon's public mien for a week or more had been hint enough of
+his secret to those who knew him well, I was, possibly, the first to
+whom he confided it in words.
+
+He sent for me one crisp October morning, and I rushed over to the
+_Argus_ office, knowing that he must have matters of importance to
+communicate.
+
+I found him pacing the little sanctum, scanning a still damp sheet of
+proof. His brow was furrowed, but the lines were those of conscious
+power. In the broken chair by the littered desk sat Billy Durgin, his
+eyes ablaze with the lust of the chase. As I pushed into the dingy
+little room Solon halted in his walk and, with a flourish that did not
+entirely lack the dramatic, he handed me the narrow strip of paper. The
+item was brief.
+
+"Mrs. J. Rodney Potts, the estimable wife of Colonel J. Rodney Potts of
+this town, will arrive here from the East next Thursday to make her home
+among us."
+
+I looked up, to find them eager for my comment.
+
+"Is it true?" I asked.
+
+"It is," said Solon. "I shall meet the lady on the arrival of the
+eleven-eight train next Thursday."
+
+"Well--what of it?"
+
+"We are now about to see 'what of it.' My trusty and fearless young
+lieutenant here"--he indicated Billy, who coughed in his hand and looked
+modestly out the window--"is now about to beard Potts in his den and
+find out 'what of it.' I may say that we hope there will be a good deal
+of it. I gather as much from the correspondence of the last three weeks
+with the lady referred to in that simple galley proof, which I set up
+and pulled with my own hands. In this opinion I am not alone. It is
+shared by my able and dauntless young coadjutor, before whom I can see a
+future so brilliant that you need smoked glasses to look at it very long
+at a time."
+
+The gallant young detective turned from the window.
+
+"The hour has come to strike our blow," he remarked, his brow
+contracting to a scowl that boded no good to a certain upright citizen
+of this great republic.
+
+"I have thought it best," resumed Solon, "to take Potts into our
+confidence at precisely this stage--giving him this exclusive news one
+day in advance of its publication. To-morrow, when every one knows it,
+Potts might be rash enough to stay and brave it out. Being advised
+to-day, privately, and thus afforded a chance to fade gracefully into
+the great bounding West, he may use his common sense. Now then, officer,
+do your duty!"
+
+Our hero arose from his chair, buttoned his coat, passed a hand
+caressingly over his hip pocket, took the proof from me, and stalked
+grimly out.
+
+"So the lady is really coming?" I asked, as Billy's footsteps died away
+down the wooden stairs.
+
+"She is, the lady and her little son," said Solon, resuming his walk up
+and down the room. "She is coming all the way from Boston,
+Massachusetts. And I don't believe she quite knows what she's coming to.
+She speaks in a strange manner of her hope that she may be able to do
+good among us, and in her last letter she wants to know if I have ever
+seen a little book called 'One Hundred Common Errors in Speaking and
+Writing.' She seems to have the missionary instinct, as nearly as I can
+judge."
+
+He paused in his walk and lowered his voice impressively.
+
+"Between you and me, Cal,--you know I've had about six letters from
+her,--it's just possible that Potts had his reasons. I don't _say_ he
+did, mind you,--but strange things happen in this world.
+
+"But that's neither here nor there," he went on more lightly. "Potts has
+brought it on himself."
+
+In silence, then, we awaited the return of the messenger. The moment was
+tensely electric when at last we heard the clatter of his boots on the
+stairway. Breathless, he entered and stood before us, his coolness for
+once destroyed under the strain of his adventure. Solon helped him to a
+chair with soothing words.
+
+"Take it easy now, Billy! Get your breath--there--that's good! Now tell
+us all about it--just what you said and just what he said and just what
+talk there was back and forth."
+
+"Gosh-all-Hemlock!" spluttered Billy, not yet equal to his best
+narrative style.
+
+We waited. He drew a dozen long breaths before he was again the cold,
+self-possessed, steely-eyed avenger.
+
+"Well," he began brightly, "I gains access to our man in his wretched
+den on the second floor of the Eubanks Block. As good luck would have
+it, he was alone by hisself, walkin' up and down, swingin' his arms like
+he was practisin' one o' them speeches of his.
+
+"Well, I had it all fixed up fine how I was goin' to act, and what I was
+goin' to say to him, and how I'd back up a few paces against the wall
+and say, 'Not a word above a whisper, or I'll send this bullet through
+your craven heart!' and he'd fall down on his knees and beg me in vain
+for mercy and so on. But Gee! the minute I seen him I got all nervoused
+up and I jest says, 'Here, read that there piece--your wife's comin'
+next Thursday!'
+
+"Well, sir, at those careless words of mine he gives a guilty start, his
+face blanched with horror, and he hissed through his set teeth, 'Which
+one?'--as quick as that.
+
+"_Me_?--I couldn't git out a word for a minute, and he started for me.
+'Which _one_?' he repeats, hoarse with rage, and that gives me an idee.
+'Stand back!' I cried fearlessly, 'stand back, coward that you are--make
+no word of outcry, or it will go hard with you--they're _both_ comin','
+I says,--'this one's comin' next week and the other one's comin' the
+week after, soon as she can git some sewin' done up.' _Me?_--I was
+leadin' him on, you understand--for we hadn't knowed there was more than
+one. Well, at that he read the piece over and set down in his chair with
+both hands up to his head and he says, 'I'm bein' hounded by a venal
+press, that's what's the matter; I'm bein' hounded from pillar to post.'
+
+"At this I broke in with a sneer,--'Oh, we've only just began,' I says.
+'We'll have the whole lot of 'em here inside of six weeks--children and
+all.' 'It's a lie,' he hissed at me. 'There ain't any more.'
+
+"'Have a care, Colonel Potts,' I exclaimed, 'or first thing you know you
+will rue those there words bitterly! I will not brook your dastardly
+insults,' I says, 'and besides,' I added with a sudden idee, 'it looks
+like two wives will warm things up plenty for _you_.'
+
+"At them words his craven face turned an ashen gray, and he fastened
+upon me a glare of baffled rage that might well have made a stouter
+heart quail before it, but I returned his glare fearlessly and backed
+swif'ly to the door, feelin' for the knob. When I found it, I got
+quickly out, without a blow bein' struck or a shot fired. Then I run
+here."
+
+Early in the narrative Solon had begun to beam, identifying readily the
+slender but important vertebrae of fact upon which Billy had organized
+this drama of his fancy. At the close he shook hands warmly with our
+hero.
+
+"This has been a splendid day's work, William Durgin!" and Billy beamed
+in his turn.
+
+"I wasn't goin' to let him know we thought there was only one," he said.
+
+"Precisely where your training showed, my boy. Any one could have handed
+Potts that proof, but it took you to handle the case after the scoundrel
+had said 'Which one?' Well, it's Potts's move now. If he doesn't move,
+we'll just add this to the item: 'Mrs. J. Rodney Potts, wife of Colonel
+J. Rodney Potts, will arrive again the following week. The ladies
+anticipate an interesting time in meeting their mutual husband.' How's
+that?"
+
+Billy's eyes glistened--he was yearning for just that situation.
+
+"But if Potts does move," added Solon, "not a word about the second
+lady. We won't take a mean advantage, even of Potts."
+
+At six o'clock that evening, the following facts became known: that
+Colonel Potts had obtained a quart of whiskey from Barney Skeyhan; that
+he had borrowed twenty dollars from the same trustful tradesman; that,
+his cane in one hand and his oilcloth valise in the other, he had walked
+down Main Street late in the afternoon and boarded the five twenty-eight
+freight going West, ostensibly on a business trip into the next county.
+
+Not until the next morning was it known that Potts had left us forever.
+This came from "Big Joe" Kestril. The two had met at the depot and drunk
+fraternally from the bottle of Potts, discussing the thing frankly,
+meanwhile.
+
+"They've hounded me out of town," said the Colonel.
+
+"How?" said Big Joe.
+
+"They sent for Mrs. Potts to come here--it's infamous, sir!"
+
+It appeared that Potts had said further: "I can't understand the men of
+this town at all. It looks as if I have been trifled with, much as I
+dislike to think so. One minute they crowd letters on to me, praising me
+up to the skies, and print pieces in the paper saying that nothing is
+too good for me and my departure is a public loss, and why won't I
+remain and be a credit to the town and a lot more like that, good and
+strong. Then when I do consent to remain, why, what do they do? Do they
+grasp my hand and say, 'Ah, good old Potts--stanch Potts, loyal
+Potts--good for you--you won't desert the town!' Do they talk that way?
+No, they do _not_. Instead of talking like a body would think they'd
+talk after all those letters and things, why, they turn and fling abuse
+at me--and now--now they've gone and done _this_ hellish thing! I won't
+say a word against any man, but in my opinion they're a passel of knaves
+and lunatics. Look at me, Joe. Yesterday I was a made man; to-day I'm
+all ruined up! I merely state facts and let you draw your own
+conclusions."
+
+The conclusions which Big Joe drew, such as they were, he was unable to
+communicate intelligibly until the morrow, for the train was late and
+they drank of the liquor until the Colonel had time to lament his
+improvidence in bringing away so little of it. And by the time Big Joe's
+report was abroad, both the _Banner_ and the _Argus_ were out. The item
+in the latter concerning Mrs. Potts had been only a little altered.
+
+"Mrs. J. Rodney Potts, wife of Colonel J. Rodney Potts, until yesterday
+a resident of this town, will arrive here next Thursday from Boston,
+Massachusetts, to make her home among us. She is an estimable and
+cultured lady, and we bespeak for her a warm welcome to this garden-spot
+of the mid-West."
+
+Across the top of the _Banner's_ first page was its campaign slogan as
+usual:--
+
+"POTTS FOREVER! POTTS THE COMING MAN!"
+
+Across the top of the _Argus_ in similar type ran the pregnant line:--
+
+"POTTS FOREVER, BUT MAYNE FOR COUNTY JUDGE. THE TROUBLE WITH THE COMING
+MAN IS THAT HE'S GONE!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+A LADY OF POWERS
+
+Superficially and distantly considered, the woman from whom even J.
+Rodney Potts must flee in terror would not be of a sort to excite the
+imagination pleasurably. A less impulsive man than Solon Denney might
+have found cause for misgiving in this circumstance of Potts's prompt
+exodus. In the immediate flush of his triumph, however, the editor of
+the _Argus_ had no leisure for negative reflections, and when misgiving
+did at last find root in his mind, the time had come for him to receive
+the lady. But Solon Denney was not the man to betray it if a doubting
+heart beat within his breast. To the town that now lavished admiration
+upon him, dubbing him "Boss" without ulterior implications, he was
+confidence itself, and rife with prophecies of benefit to be derived by
+our public from the advent of Mrs. Aurelia Potts. With a gallant show of
+anticipation, a sprig of geranium in his lapel, he set out for the train
+on that fateful morning, while Little Arcady awaited his return with a
+cordial curiosity.
+
+It was a gray day of damp air and a dull, thick sky bearing down upon
+the earth--a day conducive to forebodings. But Solon Denney's spirit, to
+the best of Little Arcady's belief, soared aloft to realms of pure
+sunlight.
+
+My knowledge of subsequent events that day was gained partly by word of
+mouth and partly by observations which I was permitted to make.
+
+To the hotel Solon conducted his charges, handing them from the 'bus
+with a flourish that seemed to confer upon them the freedom of the city.
+From shop doors and adjacent street corners the most curious among us
+beheld a tall, full-figured woman of majestic carriage, with a high,
+noble forehead and a face that seemed to register traces of some
+thirty-five earnest but not unprofitable years. Even in the quick glance
+she bestowed up and down Washington Street before the hotel swallowed
+her up, her quality was to be noted by the discerning,--the quality of a
+commander, of one born to prevail. The flash of her gray-green eye was
+interested but unconcerned. Complemented by the marked auburn of her
+plenteous hair, the eyes were masterful, advertising most legibly the
+temperament of a capable ruler. The subdued, white-faced boy of twelve,
+with hair like his mother's, who trotted closely at her heels was, for
+the moment, a negligible factor.
+
+An hour later I entered the sanctum of the _Argus_, to find its owner
+alone before his littered table. Upon his usually careless face was the
+most profoundly thoughtful look I had ever known him wear. Open before
+him was that week's _Argus_, but his eyes narrowed to its neat columns
+only at intervals. For the most part his gaze plunged far into virgin
+realms of meditation. It was only after several reminding coughs that I
+succeeded in recalling him from afield; and even then the deeply
+thoughtful look remained to estrange his face from me.
+
+"Say, Cal, do you believe in _powers_?"
+
+"What kind of powers?"
+
+"Well, I don't know--every kind--just _powers_--mystic, occult powers."
+
+"I don't care to commit myself without more details," I answered with a
+caution that seemed to be needed.
+
+"Well, sir, that woman has 'em--she has _powers_--she certainly has.
+There is something in her eye that paralyzes the will; you look at her
+and you say yes to anything she suggests."
+
+"For example--"
+
+"Well, I've just agreed with her that the _Argus_ isn't what it ought to
+be."
+
+I gasped. This indeed savored of the blackest magic.
+
+"What did she _do_ to you?"
+
+"Just looked at me, that's all,--and took it for granted."
+
+"Heavens! You're shivering!"
+
+"You _wait_--wait till she talks to you! She's promised to give me a
+little book," he went on dejectedly, "'One Hundred Common Errors in
+Writing and Speaking,' and she says the split infinitive is a crime in
+this nineteenth century. But, say, this paper would never get to press
+if I took time to unsplit all my infinitives."
+
+"Well, put Billy Durgin to work on her case right away," I said to cheer
+him. "If the woman talks like that, I'll bet Billy can find some good
+reason why she ought to push on after the Colonel."
+
+Again his deeply thoughtful gaze bore upon me.
+
+"I'm puzzled," he said,--"honestly puzzled. I don't know whether she'll
+be good for this town or not. She may in a way--and in a way she may
+not. She will be disturbing,--I can see that already,--but she is
+stimulating. She may stir us up to nobler endeavors."
+
+"Did she say so?"
+
+"Well--uh--something of the sort. I believe that _was_ the expression
+she used. I'll tell you what you do. You come along with me and see the
+lady right now. They've had dinner by this time."
+
+Together we went and were presently climbing the stairs that led to the
+second floor of the City Hotel.
+
+Mrs. Potts received us graciously. Upon me she bestowed a glance of
+friendly curiosity, as does a kind physician who waits to be told of
+symptoms before prescribing. Upon Solon she bent a more knowing look, as
+upon one whose frailties have already been revealed. She gave us chairs
+and she talked. Little Roscoe Potts writhed near by upon an ottoman and
+betrayed that he, too, could talk when circumstances were kindly. The
+detail of their personalities, salient in that first moment, was that
+Heaven had denied them both the gift of reticence.
+
+"Yes--I've been telling Mr. Denney--I feel that there is a work here for
+me," she began briskly. "I felt it strongly when I perused the columns
+of the newspaper which Mr. Denney was thoughtful enough to send me."
+
+Solon's eyes uneasily sought the cabbage-like flowers in the faded
+carpet of the room.
+
+"And I feel it more strongly now that I have ventured among you,"
+continued the lady, glowing upon us both.
+
+"I have long suspected that it was a regrettable waste of energy to send
+missionaries into heathen parts of the globe when there remain so many
+unenlightened corners in our own land. It almost seems now as if I had
+been guided here. It is true that my husband has gone, but that shall
+not distress me. Rodney is a drifter--I may say a natural-born drifter,
+and I cannot undertake to follow him. I shall remain here. I have been
+guided--" determination gleamed in her gray-green eyes,--"I shall remain
+here and teach these poor people to make something of themselves."
+
+Solon drew a long breath. My own echoed it. Hereupon little Roscoe broke
+into a high-pitched recitative.
+
+"We are now in the great boundless West, a land of rough but
+kind-hearted and worthy folk, and abounding with instructive sights and
+scenes which are well calculated--"
+
+"My son," interrupted his mother, "kindly tell the gentlemen what should
+be your aim in life."
+
+"To strive to improve my natural gifts by reading and conversation,"
+answered Roscoe, in one swift breath.
+
+"Very good--_ver-ry_ good--but for the present you may _listen_. Now,
+Mr. Denney--" she turned to Solon with the latest _Argus_ in her
+hand,--"perusing your sheet, my eye lights upon this sentence:--"
+
+"'Lige Brackett Sundayed in our midst. He reports a busy time of Fall
+ploughing over Bethel way.'
+
+"Why 'Sundayed,' Mr. Denney?" She smiled brightly, almost archly, at
+Solon. "I dare say you would not employ 'Mondayed' or 'Tuesdayed' or
+'Wednesdayed.' You _see_? The term is what we may call a vulgarism--you
+perceive that, do you not?--likewise 'in our midst,' which is not
+accurate, of course, and which would be indelicate if it were. Now I let
+my eye descend the column to your account of a certain social function.
+You say, 'The table fairly groaned with the weight of good things, and a
+good time was had by all present.' Surely, Mr. Denney, you are a man not
+without culture and refinement. Had you but taken thought, you could as
+well have said that 'An elegant collation was served, the menu including
+many choice delicacies, and the affair was widely pronounced to be most
+enjoyable.'"
+
+Solon's frightened eyes besought me, but I could not help him, and again
+he was forced to meet the kindly, almost whimsically accusing gaze of
+the censor, who was by no means done with him.
+
+"Again I read here, 'The graveyard fence needs repairing badly.' Do you
+not see, Mr. Denney, how far more refined it were to say 'God's acre,'
+or 'the marbled city of the dead'? I now turn from mere solecisms to the
+broader question of taste. Under the heading 'Hanged in Carroll County,'
+I read an item beginning, 'At eight-thirty, A.M., last Friday the soul
+of Martin G. Buckley, dressed in a neat-fitting suit of black, with a
+low collar and black cravat, was ushered into the presence of his God.'
+Pardon me, but do we not find here, if we read closely, an attempt to
+blend the material with the spiritual with a result that we can only
+designate as infelicitous?"
+
+Solon was writhing after the manner of uneasy little Roscoe. The bland
+but inexorable regard of his inquisitor had subdued him beyond retort.
+
+"I might, again, call your attention to this item." And she did, reading
+with well-trained inflection:--
+
+"'Kye Mayabb from south of town and Sym Pleydell, who rents the Clemison
+farm, met up in front of Barney Skeyhan's place last Saturday afternoon
+and started to settle an old grudge, while their respective better
+halves looked on from across the street. Kye had Sym down and was doing
+some good work with his right, when his wife called to him, "Now, Kye
+Mayabb, you come right away from there before you get into trouble."
+Whereupon the valiant better half of him who was being beaten to death
+called out cheerily, "Don't let him scare you, Sym!" The boys made it
+up afterward, but our little street was quite lively for a time.'
+
+"Now as to that," went on Mrs. Potts, affecting to deliberate, "could we
+not better have described that as 'a disgraceful street brawl'? And yet
+I find no word of deprecation. It is told, indeed, with a regrettable
+flippancy. Flippancy, I may note again, mars the following item: 'They
+tell a good story of old Sarsius Lambert over at Bethel. His wife was
+drowned a couple of weeks ago, and Link Talbot went to break the news to
+the old man. "Uncle Sarsh," says Link, "your wife is drowned. She fell
+in at the ford, and an hour later they found her two miles down-stream."
+"Two miles an hour!" said Uncle Sarsius, in astonishment. "Well, well,
+she floated down quite lively, didn't she?"'
+
+"You will pardon me, I trust," said Mrs. Potts, "if I say it would have
+been better to speak of the grief-stricken husband and to conclude with
+a fitting sentiment such as 'the proudest monuments to the sleeping dead
+are reared in the hearts of the living.'"
+
+"I'll put it in next week," ventured Solon, meekly. "I didn't think of
+it at the time."
+
+"Ah, but one should _always think_, should one not?" asked Mrs. Potts,
+almost sweetly. "By thinking, for example, you could elevate your sheet
+by eliminating certain misapplied colloquialisms. Here I read: 'The rain
+last week left the streets in a frightful state. The mud simply won't
+jell.'"
+
+Shame mantled the brow of Solon Denney.
+
+"In short," concluded Mrs. Potts, "I regret to say that your paper is
+not yet one that I could wish to put into the hands of my little
+Roscoe."
+
+Little Roscoe coughed sympathetically and remarked, before he lost his
+chance for a word: "The boy of to-day is the man of to-morrow. Parents
+cannot be too careful about what their little ones will read during the
+long winter evenings that will soon be upon us." He coughed again when
+he had finished.
+
+"The press is a mighty lever of civilization," continued the mother,
+with an approving glance at her boy, "and you, Mr. Denney, should feel
+proud indeed of your sacred mission to instruct and elevate these poor
+people. Of course I shall have other duties to occupy my time--"
+
+Solon had glanced up brightly, but gloom again overspread his face as
+she continued:--
+
+"Yet I shall make it not the least of my works--if a poor weak woman may
+so presume--to help you in correcting certain faults of style and taste
+in your sheet, for it goes each week into many homes where the light
+must be sorely needed, and surely you and I would not be adequately
+sensible of our responsibilities if we continued to let it go as it is.
+_Would_ we?" And again she glowed upon Solon with the condescending
+sweetness of a Sabbath-school teacher to the littlest boy in her class.
+
+But now we both breathed more freely, for she allowed the wretched
+_Argus_ to drop from her disapproving fingers, and began to ask us
+questions, as to a place of worship, a house suitable for residence
+purposes, a school for little Roscoe, and the nature of those clubs or
+societies for mental improvement that might exist among us. And she
+asked about Families. We were obliged to confess that there were no
+Families in Little Arcady, in the true sense of the term, though we did
+not divine its true sense until she favored us with the detail that her
+second cousin had married a relative of the Adams family. We said
+honestly that we were devoid of Families in that sense. None of us had
+ever been able to marry an Adams. No Adams with a consenting mind--not
+even a partial Adams--had ever come among us.
+
+Still, Mrs. Potts wore her distinction gracefully, and was even a little
+apologetic.
+
+"In Boston, you know, we rather like to know 'who's who,' as the saying
+is."
+
+"Out here," said Solon, "we like to know what's what." He had revived
+wonderfully after his beloved _Argus_ was dropped. But at his retort the
+lady merely elevated her rather fine brows and remarked, "Really, Mr.
+Denney, you speak much as you write--you must not let me forget to give
+you that little book I spoke of."
+
+As we went down the stairs Solon placed "One Hundred Common Errors in
+Speaking and Writing" close under his arm, adroitly shielding the title
+from public scrutiny. We stood a moment in the autumn silence outside
+the hotel door, watching a maple across the street, the line of its
+boughs showing strong and black amid its airy yellow plumage. The still
+air was full of leaves that sailed to earth in leisurely sadness. We
+were both thoughtful.
+
+"Mrs. Potts is a very alert and capable woman," I said at last, having
+decided that this would be the most suitable thing to say.
+
+"I tell you she has _powers_," said Solon, in a tone almost of awe.
+
+"She will teach you to make something of yourself," I hazarded.
+
+"One minute she makes me want to fight, and the next I surrender," he
+answered pathetically.
+
+We separated on this, Solon going toward the _Argus_ office with slow
+steps and bowed head, while I went thoughtfully abroad to ease my nerves
+by watching the splendid death of summer. Above the hills, now royally
+colored, as by great rugs of brown and crimson velvet flung over their
+flanks, I seemed to hear the echoes of ironic laughter--the laughter of
+perverse gods who had chosen to avenge the slight put upon an inferior
+Potts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+HOW LITTLE ARCADY WAS UPLIFTED
+
+The winter that followed proved to be a season of unrest for our town.
+Mrs. Aurelia Potts was a leaven of yeast that fermented its social
+waters, erstwhile calm, not to say stagnant.
+
+Early in November an evening affair was held in her honor at the Eubanks
+home. The Eubankses being our leading Presbyterians, and Mrs. Potts
+having allied herself with that church, it was felt that they were best
+fitted to give the lady her initial impression of Little Arcady's
+society. Not only were the three Eubanks girls talented, but the mother
+was a social leader, Eustace was travelled, having been one of an
+excursion party to the Holy Land, and the family had relatives living in
+Philadelphia. None of the girls had married, nor had Eustace. The girls,
+it was said, had not wished to marry. Eustace had earnestly wished to,
+it was known; but two of our young women who had successively found
+favor in his sight had failed to please his mother and sisters, and
+Eustace was said to be watching and waiting for one upon whom all could
+agree, though every one but Eustace himself knew this was an utterly
+hopeless vigil. Meantime the mother and sisters looked up to him,
+guarding him jealously from corrupting associations, saw that he wore
+his overshoes when clouds lowered, and knitted him chest protectors,
+gloves, and pulse warmers which he was not allowed to forget. He taught
+the Bible Class in the Presbyterian Sabbath school, sang bass in the
+choir, and, on occasion, gave an excellent entertainment with his magic
+lantern, with views of the Holy Land, which he explained with a running
+fire of comment both instructive and entertaining.
+
+The Eubanks home that evening was said by a subsequent _Argus_ to have
+been "ablaze with lights" and "its handsome and spacious parlors
+thronged with the elite of the town who had gathered to do honor to the
+noted guest of the evening."
+
+There first occurred a piano duet, rendered expertly by the two younger
+Misses Eubanks, "Listen to the Mocking Bird," with some bewildering
+variations of an imitative value, done by the Miss Eubanks seated at the
+right.
+
+Then the front parlor was darkened and, after the consequent tittering
+among the younger set had died away, Eustace threw his pictures upon a
+hanging sheet and delivered his agreeable lecture about them, beginning
+with the exciting trip from Jaffa to Jerusalem. Most of those present
+had enjoyed the privilege of this lecture enough times to know what
+picture was coming next and what Eustace would say about it. But it was
+thought graceful now, considering the presence of a stranger, to
+simulate the expectancy of the uninformed, and to emit little gasps of
+astonished delight when Eustace would say, "Passing from the city gates,
+we next come upon a view that is well worthy a moment of our attention."
+
+With the lights up again, a small flask of water from the river Jordan
+was handed about, to be examined, by those who knew it too well, in the
+same loyal spirit of curiosity. A guest would hold it reverently a
+moment, then glance up in search of some one to whom it might be
+heartily extended.
+
+This over, the elder Miss Eubanks--Marcella of the severe mien--sang
+interestingly, "I gathered Shells upon the Shore," and for an encore, in
+response to eager demands, "Comin' thro' the Rye." Not coyly did she
+give this, with inciting, blushing implications, but rather with an
+unbending, disapproving sternness, as if with intent to divert the minds
+of her listeners from the song's frank ribaldry to its purely musical
+values.
+
+Eustace followed with a solo:--
+
+   "Nigh to a grave that was newly made,
+    Leaned a sexton old on his earth-worn spade."
+
+In the very low parts, where the sexton old is required to say, "I
+gather them in," he was most effective, and many of his more susceptible
+hearers shuddered. For an encore he sang, "I am the old Turnkey," which
+goes lower and lower with deliberate steps until it descends to
+incredible depths of bassness.
+
+It was a rare comfort to the Eubanks ladies that Eustace was a bass
+instead of a tenor. They had observed that most tenor songs are of a
+suggestive and meretricious character. Arthur Updyke, for example, who
+clerked in the city drug store, was a tenor, and nearly all of his songs
+were distressingly sentimental; indeed, fairly indelicate at times in
+their lack of reserve about kisses and embraces and sighs and ecstasies.
+Glad indeed were the guardians of Eustace that his voice had lowered to
+a salutary depth, and that bass songs in general were pure and
+innocent,--songs of death, of dungeons, of honest war, or of diving
+beneath the deep blue sea--down, down, down, as far as the singer's
+chest tones permitted. With "Euty" a tenor, warbling those pernicious
+boudoir _chansons_ of moonlight and longing of sighing love and
+anguished passion, they suspected that he would have been harder to
+manage. Even as it was, he had once brought home a most dreadful thing
+called "A Bedouin Love Song," for a bass voice, truly enough, but so
+fearfully outspoken about matters far better left unmentioned among nice
+people that the three girls had fled horrified from the room after that
+first verse:--
+
+   "From the desert I come to thee,
+    On a stallion shod with fire,
+    And the wind is left behind
+    In the speed of my desire."
+
+The mother sped to her daughters' appeal for help and required her son
+to sing "The Lost Chord" as a febrifuge. The other song was confiscated
+after the mother had read the words so unblushingly penned by an author
+whom she ever afterward deemed an abandoned profligate. She considered
+that Bedouins must be unspeakable creatures--but how much lower the mind
+that could portray their depravity, and send it out into the world for
+innocent young men to carol in the homes of our best people!
+
+Thereafter Eustace sang only songs that had been censored by his family,
+and his repertoire was now stainless, containing no song in which a
+romantic attachment was even hinted at; but only those reciting
+wholesome adventures, military and marine, pastoral scenes and
+occupations, or the religious experience of the singer.
+
+In the words of the _Argus_, "his powerful singing was highly enjoyed by
+all present."
+
+There followed the feature of the evening,--a paper read by Mrs. Potts;
+subject, "The Message of Emerson." With an agreeable public manner the
+lady erected herself at one corner of a square piano, placed her
+manuscripts under the shaded lamp, and began. The subject, aforetime
+made known among us, had been talked about and perhaps a little wondered
+at. It is certain, at least, that Westley Keyts had yielded to the
+urging of his good wife to be present in the belief that a man named
+Emerson had sent Mrs. Potts a telegram to be read to us. This was what
+"the message of Emerson" meant to Westley, and the novelty of it had
+seemed to justify what he called "togging up," after a hard day's work
+at the slaughter-house.
+
+If, then, he listened to Mrs. Potts at first with wonder-widening eyes,
+amazed at Mr. Emerson's recklessness in the matter of telegrams, and if
+at last he fell into gentle slumber, perhaps it was only that he had
+been less hardened than others present to the rigors of social nicety.
+No one else fell asleep, but it was noticed that the guests, when the
+paper was done, praised it to one another in swift generalities and with
+averted face, as if they sought to evade specific or pointed inquiry as
+to its import. But the impression made by the reader was all that she
+could have wished, and the gathering was presently engrossed with
+refreshments. The _Argus_ stated that "a dainty collation was served to
+all present, the menu comprising the choicest delicacies of the season,"
+which I took to mean that Solon was trying to profit by instruction; and
+that never again would he permit a table in the _Argus_ to groan with
+its weight of good things.
+
+Westley Keyts, being skilfully awakened without scandal by his wife,
+drank a cup of strong coffee to clear his brain, and cordially consumed
+as many segments of cake as he was able to glean from passing trays,
+speculating comfortably, meanwhile, about the message of
+Emerson,--chiefly as to why Emerson had not sent it by mail, thus
+saving--he estimated--at least a hundred and twenty dollars in telegraph
+tolls.
+
+Mrs. Potts, thus auspiciously launched upon the social sea of Little
+Arcady, was henceforth to occupy herself prominently with the regulation
+of its ebb and flow. Already she had organized a "Ladies' Literary and
+Home Study Club," and had promised to read a paper on "The Lesson of
+Greek Art" at its first meeting a week hence. As the _Argus_ observed,
+"it was certainly a gala occasion, and one and all felt that it was
+indeed good to be there."
+
+In addition to elevating the tone of our intellectual life, however,
+Mrs. Potts found it necessary to support herself and her son. That she
+could devise a way to merge these important duties will perhaps be
+surmised. Comfortably installed in a cottage at the south end of town
+with her household belongings, including a chair once sat in by the
+Adams-husband of her heaven-favored second cousin, she lost no time in
+prosecuting her double mission. The title of the work with which she
+began her task of uplifting our masses was "Gaskell's Compendium of
+Forms," a meritorious production of amazing and quite infinite scope,
+elegantly illustrated. The book weighed five pounds and cost three
+dollars, which was sixty cents a pound, as Westley Keyts took the
+trouble to ascertain. But it was indeed a work admirably calculated for
+a community of diversified interests. While Solon Denney might occupy
+himself with the "Aid to English Composition," including "common errors
+corrected, good taste, figures of speech, and sentence building," the
+Eubanks ladies could further inform themselves upon grave affairs of
+"The Home and Family,--Life, Health, Happiness, Human Love," etc., or
+upon more frivolous concerns, such as "Introductions and Salutations,
+Carriage and Horseback Riding, Croquet, Archery, and Matinee parties,
+and the Art of Conversation." While Asa Bundy interested himself in
+"History of Banking, Forms of Notes, Checks and Drafts, Interest and
+Usury Tables, etc.," Truman Baird, who meant some day to go to Congress,
+might perfect himself in Parliamentary law and oratory, an exposition of
+the latter art being illumined by wood-cuts of a bearded and handsome
+gentleman in evening dress who assumed the various positions of emotion
+or passion, as, in "Figure 8.--This gesture is used in concession,
+submission, humility," or, in Figure 9, which diagrams reproach, scorn,
+and contempt. While Truman sought to copy these attitudes, to place the
+feet aright for Earnest Appeal or Bold Assertion, or to clasp the hands
+as directed for Supplication and Earnest Entreaty, the ladies of the
+Literary and Home Study Club conned the chapter on American literature,
+"containing choice proverbs and literary selections and quotations from
+the poets of the old and new worlds." Our merchants found information as
+to "Jobbing, Importing and Other Business," and our young ladies could
+observe the correct forms for "Letters of Love and Courtship," "Apology
+for a Broken Engagement," "French Terms used in Dancing," "Rights of
+Married Women," "The Necessity and Sweetness of Home," and
+"Marriage--Happiness or Woe may come of It."
+
+Again, Westley Keyts could read how to cut up meats. He knew already,
+but this chapter, illustrated with neat carcasses marked off into
+numbered squares, convinced him that the book was not so light as some
+of its other chapters indicated, and determined him to its purchase.
+
+And there were letters for every conceivable emergency. "To a Young Man
+who has quarrelled with his Master," "Dismissing a Teacher," "Inquiry
+for Lost Baggage," "With a Basket of Fruit to an Invalid," and "To a
+Gentleman elected to Congress." Rare indeed, in our earth life, would be
+the crisis unmet by this treasury of knowledge. Not only was there an
+elevation of tone in our correspondence that winter, resulting from the
+persuasive activities of Mrs. Potts, but our writing became decorative
+with flourishes in "the muscular" and "whole-arm" movements. We learned
+to draw flying birds and bounding deer and floating swans with scrolls
+in their beaks, all without lifting pen from paper. Some of us learned
+to do it almost as well as the accomplished Mr. Gaskell himself, and
+almost all of us showed marked improvement in penmanship. Doubtless
+Truman Baird did not, he being engrossed with oratory, striving to
+reproduce, "Hate--the right foot advanced, the face turned to the sky,
+the gaze directed upward with a fierce expression, the eyes full of a
+baleful light," or other phases of passion duly set down. Not for
+Truman was the ornate full-arm flourish; he had observed that all
+Congressmen write very badly.
+
+But my namesake may be said to have laid the foundations that winter for
+an excellent running chirography, under the combined stimuli of Mr.
+Gaskell's curves and a hopeless passion for his school-teacher.
+
+As my own teacher had been my own first love, I knew all that he
+suffered in voiceless longing for his fair one, throned afar in his
+languishing gaze. I knew that he plucked flowers meant to be given to
+her, only to lay them carelessly on the floor beside his seat when
+school "took in," lacking the courage to bestow them brazenly upon his
+idol as others did. I knew, too, his thrill when she came straight down
+the aisle, took up the flowers with a glance of sweet reproof for him,
+and nested them in the largest vase on her desk. But my poor affair had
+been in an earlier day, and my namesake wove novelty into the woof of
+his. For in that wonder-book of the fertile-minded Gaskell was a form of
+letter which Calvin Blake Denney began to copy early in December, and
+which by the following spring he could write in a style that already put
+my own poor penning to the blush. Did he write it a hundred times or
+five hundred, moved anew each time by its sweet potencies, its rarest of
+suggestions? I know not, but it must have been very many times, for I
+would find the copies in his school books, growing in beauty of
+flourish day by day. As well as if he had confessed it I knew that this
+letter was intended for the father of his love--for old Sam Murdock, to
+be literal, who uncouthly performed for us the offices of drayman; but
+who, in my namesake's eyes, shone pure and splendid for his
+relationship. Doubtless the letter was never sent, but I am sure it was
+written each time with an iron resolve to send it. Its title in the
+excellent book was "From a Lover to a Father on his Attachment to the
+Daughter," and it ran:--
+
+=DEAR SIR: As I scorn to act in any manner that may bring
+reproach upon myself and family, and hold clandestine proceedings
+unbecoming in any man of character, I take the liberty of distinctly
+avowing my love for your daughter and humbly request your permission to
+pay her my addresses, as I flatter myself my family and expectancies
+will be found not unworthy of your notice. I have some reason to imagine
+that I am not altogether disagreeable to your daughter, but I assure you
+that I have not as yet endeavored to win her affections, for fear it
+might be repugnant to a father's will. I am, etc.=
+
+Under this was provided "A Favorable Answer," in which Sam Murdock might
+have said that he had long perceived this thing and applauded it, and
+would the young man "dine with us to-morrow at six if you are not
+engaged, and you will then have an opportunity to plead your own cause."
+But chillingly after this graceful assent followed an "Unfavorable
+Answer," which Sam Murdock would also see when he opened the book at
+page 251; and still more portentously on the same page was a letter
+which Miss Selina Murdock herself might choose to write him, a sickening
+and dreadful thing entitled, "Unfavorable Reply on the Ground of
+Poverty."
+
+"To say that I do not feel pleased and flattered at your proposal would
+be to tell a useless untruth," the thing began speciously. "But how are
+we situated, what hope of happiness with our unsettled prospects and
+worse than small means? Industry has doubtless never been and never will
+be wanting on your part, but--" and so to its dreadful end. It was
+almost base in its coldness and mercenary calculation. That phrase about
+the "useless untruth" implied even a dubious and considering morality;
+and the conclusion, "we must not entail misery upon others as well as
+ourselves by a too hasty step," argued a nature cautious in the extreme.
+
+Yet Mr. Gaskell was too evidently a man of the world, knowing in his
+ripe experience that there existed a sufficient number of such cold
+natures to warrant the obtrusion of this heart-rending formula; and I
+doubt not that these negative specimens of the possible alone restrained
+my namesake from going beyond mere copies of that first letter.
+
+It will be seen that the influence of Mrs. Potts pervaded our utmost
+social and commercial limits. And when the "Compendium" had become a
+centre-table ornament in the homes of the rich, and a bulky object of awe
+in humbler abodes, she went over the ground again with other volumes
+calculated to serve her double purpose, from "Dr. Chase's Receipt Book"
+to "Picturesque Italy, profusely Illustrated." She also purveyed a line
+of "art-pieces," including "Wide Awake and Fast Asleep," "The Monarch of
+the Glen," "Woman Gathering Fagots," and "Retreat from Moscow." Also,
+little Roscoe, out of school hours, took subscriptions for the _Youth's
+Companion_.
+
+Yet the town long bore it with a gentle fortitude. I believe it was not
+until the following spring that murmurs were really noticeable.
+Naturally they were directed against Solon Denney. By that time Westley
+Keyts was greeting Solon morosely, though without open cavil; but Asa
+Bundy no longer hesitated to speak out. He quoted Scripture to Solon
+about the house that was swept and garnished, and the seven other wicked
+spirits that entered it, making its last state worse than its first.
+
+And of course Solon was much troubled by this, though he never failed to
+rally to the support of the lady thus maligned, dwelling upon the
+advantage her mere presence must always be to the town.
+
+"If she'd only let it go at that--'her mere presence'--" rejoined Bundy.
+But Solon protested, defending the lady's activities. He became
+sensitive to any mention of her name, and fell to brooding. He believed
+her to be a model woman, and little Roscoe to be a model boy.
+
+"Why don't you try to be more like Roscoe Potts?" I heard him ask his
+son in a moment of reproof.
+
+My namesake took it meekly; but to me, privately, he said:--
+
+"Hunh! I can lick Ginger Potts with one hand tied behind me!"
+
+"How do you know?" I asked sternly.
+
+He wriggled somewhat at this, but at length confided in me.
+
+"Well, there's a sell, you know, Uncle Maje. You say, 'They're goin' to
+tear the schoolhouse down,' or something like that, and the other boy
+says, 'What fur?' and then you say, quick as you can, 'Cat-fur to make
+kitten britches of,' and then we all laugh and yell, and I caught Ginger
+Potts on it, and he got mad when we yelled and come at me, and they
+pushed him against me and they pushed me against him, and they said he
+dassent, and they said I dassent, and then it happened, only when I got
+him down, he begun to say, 'Oh, it's wrong to fight! I promised my
+mother I would never fight!' but I wouldn't 'a' stopped for _that_,
+because teacher says he's by far the brightest boy in school--only just
+then Eustace Eubanks come along, and he laid down the meat he was taking
+home to dinner and jumped into the crowd and says: 'Boys, boys, shame on
+you to act so like the brutes! _That_ isn't any way to act!' and he
+pulled me off'n Ginger, and--and that's all, but I had him licked fair."
+
+"I shall not tell your father of this," I said sternly.
+
+"He has enough to worry him," said my namesake.
+
+"Exactly," I said. "But I advise you to cultivate a friendly feeling
+for Roscoe Potts. Boys should not fight."
+
+"Well--now--I would--but he's a regular teacher's pet."
+
+And remembering the letter that was not sent to Sam Murdock,--that the
+teacher was my namesake's love,--I perceived that this breach was not to
+be healed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+TROUBLED WATERS ARE STILLED
+
+It was spring again, a Sunday in early May, warm, humid, scented with
+blossoms that were bodied souls of the laughing air. They starred the
+bank that fell away from my porch to the clear-watered river, and they
+sang of the young spirit that lives in this old earth so deceptively,
+defacing it with false scars of age, and craftily permitting us to count
+years by the thousand, yet remaining always as fresh in itself as on the
+primal morning when the world was found good by that ill-fated but
+joyous first pair of lovers. I marvel that so many are fooled by the
+trick; how so few of us detect that the soul of it all is ageless--has
+never even wearied. The blossoms told this secret now in quiet triumph
+over the denials of ancient oaks that towered above them and murmured
+solemn falsities in their tops about the incredible oldness of things.
+
+There was the star-shaped bloodroot, with its ten or a dozen petals of
+waxen white set with jewel-like precision about a centre of dead gold.
+There was the less formal phlox of a pinkish purple; deer's-tongue,
+white and yellow; frail anemones, both pink and white; small but
+stately violets, and the wake-robin with its wine-red centre among long
+green leaves. There was a dogwood in the act of unfolding its little
+green tents that would presently be snow-white, and a plum tree ruffled
+with tiny flowers of a honied fragrance.
+
+With a fine Japanese restraint, Clem had placed a single bough of these
+in a dull-colored vase on my out-of-doors breakfast table.
+
+All these were to say that the soul of the world is ageless, and that
+time is but a cheap device to measure our infirmities. Above, the trees
+were hinting that life might still be lived acceptably, as in Eden days;
+though they seemed to suspect that the stage of it to which they were
+amazedly awakening must be at least the autumn, and timidly clothed
+themselves accordingly. The elm, the first big tree to stir in its
+sleep, showed tiny, curled leaflets of a doubting, yellowish green; and
+the later moving oaks were frankly sceptical, one glowing faintly brown
+and crimson, another silvery gray and pink. They would need at least ten
+more days to convince them into downright summer greenery, even though
+slender-throated doves already mated in their tops with a perfect
+confidence.
+
+It was an early morning hour, when it was easy to believe in the perfect
+fitness of Little Arcady's name; an hour in a time when the
+Potts-troubled waters had been mercifully stilled by the hand of God; an
+hour when the spirit of each Little Arcadian might share to its own
+fulness in the large serenity of the ageless world-soul.
+
+I recalled Mrs. Potts's paper on "The Lesson of Greek Art," which had
+enriched two columns of the _Argus_ after its reading to the ladies of
+the Literary and Home Study Club. It seemed to me that the Greeks must
+have divined this important secret of the vegetable world--the secret of
+ageless time--and that therein lay the charm of them; that spirit of
+ever freshening joy which they chiselled and sang into tangible grace
+for us of a later and heavier age.
+
+At the moment I was on the porch, waiting for my coffee, and my thought
+seemed to be shared by Jim, my bony young setter, who, being but a scant
+year old, had not yet forgotten the lesson of Greek art. Over the grassy
+stretch before the porch he chased robins tirelessly, though with
+indifferent success. His was a spirit truly Greek. I knew it by reason
+of his inexhaustible enthusiasm for this present sport after a year's
+proving that chased birds will rise strangely but expertly into air that
+no dog can climb by any device of whining, leaping, or straining.
+
+Living on into the Renaissance, I saw that Jim would be taught the
+grievous thing called wisdom--would learn his limitations and to form
+habits tamely contrary to his natural Greek likings. Then would he
+honorably neglect rabbits and all fur, cease pointing droves of pigs,
+and quit the silly chase of robins. Under check-cord and spike-collar he
+would become a fast and stylish dog, clean-cut in his bird work,
+perhaps a field-trial winner. He would learn to take reproof amiably,
+to "heel" at a word, to respect the whistle at any distance, to be
+steady to shot and wing, to retrieve promptly from land or water, and
+never to bolt or range beyond control or be guilty of false pointing.
+
+I knew that coercion, steadily and tactfully applied, would thus educate
+him, for was he not of champion ancestry, wearing his pedigree in his
+looks, with the narrow shoulders so desirable and so rarely found, with
+just the right number of hairs at the end of his tail, the forelegs
+properly feathered, the feet and ankles strong, the right amount of
+leather in his ear to the fraction of an inch,--a dog, in short, of
+beauty, style, speed, nose, and brains?
+
+But in this full moment of a glad morning I resolved that Jim should
+never know the Renaissance; he should never emerge from what Mrs. Potts
+had gracefully described as "the golden age of Pericles."
+
+To the end of his days he should be blithely, naïvely Greek; a dog of
+wretched field manners, pointing cattle and quail impartially,
+shamefully gun-shy, inconsequent, volatile, ignorant, forever paganly
+joyous without due cause. For him I should do what no one had been able
+to do for me--detain him in that "world of fine fabling" where
+everything is true that ought to be; where the earth is a running
+course, fascinating in its surprises of open road and tangled hedgerow;
+where mere indiscriminate smelling is keenest ecstasy; and where the
+fact that robins have eluded one's fleetest rush to-day, by an amazing
+and unfair trick of levitation, is not the slightest promise that they
+can escape our interested mouthing on the morrow.
+
+Doubtless he would be a remarkably foolish dog in his old age; but I,
+growing old beside him, would learn wisely foolish things from his
+excellent folly. I knew we should both be happier for it; knew it was
+best for us both to prove that my thin white friend had been born
+chiefly to display the acute elegance of his bones and the beauty of
+hopeful effort.
+
+It was this last that kept him thin. When I took to the road, he
+travelled five miles to my every one, circling me widely, ranging far
+over the hills in mad dashes, or running straight and swiftly on the
+road, vanishing in a white fog of dust. Walking slowly to avoid this, I
+would only meet him emerging from a fresh cloud of it with a glad tongue
+thrown out to the breeze. Again, there were desperate plunges into
+wayside underbrush or down steep ravines, whence I would hear rapid
+splashing through a hidden stream and short, plaintive cries to tell
+that that wonderful, unseen wood-presence of a thousand provoking scents
+had once more cunningly evaded him.
+
+Also did he love to swim stoutly across a field of growing wheat, his
+head alone showing above the green waves. And if the wheat were tall, he
+still braved it--lost to sight at the bottom. Then one might observe the
+mystery of a furrow ploughing itself swiftly across the billows without
+visible agency.
+
+When I do not walk, to give countenance to his running, he has a game of
+his own. He plays it with an ancient fur cap that he keeps conveniently
+stored. The cap represents a prey of considerable dignity which must be
+sprung upon and shaken again and again until it is finally disabled.
+Then it is to be seized by implacable jaws and swiftly run with about
+the yard in a feverish pretence that enemies wish to ravish it from its
+captor. Any chance observer is implored to humor this pretence, and upon
+his compliance he is fled from madly, or perhaps turned upon and growled
+at most directly, if he show signs of losing interest in the game.
+
+This ceaseless motion, with its attendant nervous strains, has prevented
+any accumulation of flesh, and explains the name of Slim Jim affixed to
+him by my namesake.
+
+Jim consented now to rest for a moment at my feet, though at a loss to
+know how I could be calm amid so many exciting smells. I promised him as
+he lay there that he should never be compelled to learn any but the
+fewest facts necessary to make him as harmless as he was happy; chiefly
+not to bark at old ladies and babies, no matter how threatening their
+aspect, as they passed our house. A few things he had already
+learned--to avoid fences of the barbed wire, to respect the big cat from
+across the way who sometimes called and treated him with watchful
+disdain, and not to chew a baby robin if by any chance he caught one.
+This last had been a hard lesson, his first contact with a problem only
+a few days younger than Eden itself. It came to his understanding,
+however, that if you mouth a helpless baby robin, a hand or a stick
+falls upon you hurtfully, even if you evade it for the moment and
+seclude yourself under a porch until it would seem that so trifling an
+occurrence must have been utterly forgotten. This was the one big
+sin--sin, to the best of our knowledge, being obedience to any natural
+desire, the satisfaction of which is unaccountably followed by pain.
+
+I told him this would probably be all that he need ever know; and he
+looked up at me in a fashion he has, the silky brown ears falling either
+side of the white face. It is a look of languishing, melting adoration,
+and if I face him steadily, he must always turn away as if to avoid
+being overcome--as if the sight of beauty so great as mine could be
+borne full in the eyes only for the briefest of moments.
+
+But Clem came now, ranging my breakfast dishes about the bowl of plum
+flowers, and I approached the table with all the ardor he could have
+wished at his softly spoken, "Yo' is suhved, Mahstah Majah."
+
+The sight of Clem, however, inevitably suggests the person to whom I am
+indebted for his sustaining ministrations. Potts had been a necessary
+instrument in one of those complications which the gods devise among us
+human ephemera for their mild amusement on a day of _ennui_. And Potts,
+having served his purpose, had been neatly removed. I have said that the
+Potts-troubled waters of Little Arcady were for the moment stilled. By
+the hands of the gods had they been mercifully stilled so that not for a
+month had any citizen been asked to subscribe for any improving book or
+patented device of culture.
+
+A month before, in a far-off place, J. Rodney Potts had suffered
+extinction through the apparently casual agency of a moving railway
+train, the intervention of the gods in all such matters being discreetly
+veiled so that the denser of us shall suspect nothing but that they were
+the merest of accidents.
+
+One could only surmise that the widow viewed this happening with a kind
+of trustful resignation, sweetened perhaps by certain ancient memories
+attuned to a gentle melancholy. I know that she placed on view in her
+parlor for the first time a crayon portrait of Potts in his early
+manhood, one made ere life had broken so many of its promises to him,
+the portrait of one who might conceivably have enchained the fancy of
+even a superior woman. But the widow was not publicly anguished. She
+donned a gown and bonnet of black in testimony of her bereavement, but
+there was no unnecessary flaunt of crape in her decently symbolic garb.
+As Aunt Delia McCormick phrased it, she was not in "heavy
+mourning,"--merely "in light distress."
+
+The town was content to let it go at that, especially after the
+adjustment of certain formalities which enabled the widow for a time to
+suspend her work of ministering to its higher wants.
+
+The railway company had at first, it appeared, been disposed to view
+its removal of Potts very lightly indeed; not only because of his
+unimposing appearance, but by reason of his well-attested mental
+condition at the time of the occurrence--a condition clearly
+self-induced, and one that placed him beyond those measures of safety
+which a common carrier is obliged to exercise in behalf of its patrons.
+
+But a package of letters had been discovered among the meagre belongings
+of the unfortunate man, and these had placed the matter in a very
+different light. They showed conclusively that the victim had been of
+importance, a citizen of rare values in any community that he might
+choose to favor with his presence.
+
+Truman Baird settled the case and, after these letters had been
+appraised by the corporation's attorney, he succeeded in extorting the
+sum of eight hundred dollars from the railway as recompense to the widow
+for the loss of her husband's services. I considered that the company
+would have given up at least five hundred more to avoid being sued for
+the death of a man who had been able to evoke those letters; but I did
+not say so, for the case was Truman's and eight hundred dollars were
+many. Westley Keyts thought they were, indeed, a great many, and
+outrageously excessive as a cold money valuation of Potts. "She only got
+eight hundred dollars, but there's them that thinks she skinned the
+company at _that!_" said Westley.
+
+But there was no disposition to begrudge the widow a single dollar of
+this modest sum. A jury of Little Arcadians would have multiplied it
+tenfold without a blush; for, while that little hoard endured, any
+citizen, however public spirited, could flavor with a certain grace his
+refusal to subscribe for a book.
+
+To Solon Denney the thing came as a deep and divine relief. In the
+satisfaction induced by it, he penned an obituary of Potts in which he
+employed the phrase "grim messenger of death" very cleverly indeed. For
+matters had been going from bad to worse. Murmurs at the demands of Mrs.
+Potts--likened by Asa Bundy to a daughter of the horse leech--had become
+passionately loud as our masses toiled expensively up that Potts-defined
+path of enlightenment. The old sneer at Solon's Boss-ship was again to
+be observed on every hand, that attitude of doubting ridicule,
+half-playful, half-contemptuous, which your public man finds more
+dangerous to his influence than downright hostility would be.
+
+But the murmurs were again stilled, and Solon might breathe the peace of
+a golden age when as yet no Potts, male or female, had come unto us.
+
+It was not felt at all that Solon's genius for the discretion of public
+affairs had availed him in this latest crisis. But the benefit was
+substantial, none the less, and the columns of the _Argus_ were again
+buoyant as of yore. It was at this time, I remember, that the _Argus_
+first spoke of our town as "a gem at beauty's throat," and, touching the
+rare enterprise of our citizens, declared that, "If you put a Slocum
+County man astride a streak of lightning, he'd call for a pair of
+spurs."
+
+For myself, I frankly mourned Potts. For I saw now that he had been
+truly and finely of that Greek spirit--one accepting gifts from the gods
+with a joyous young faith in their continuance. I felt that he had
+divined more of the lesson of Greek art than his one-time love could
+write down in papers unending. I should not have wished him back in
+Little Arcady, but I did breathe a prayer that he might in some early
+Greek elysium be indeed "Potts forever." Might it not be? Had not that
+other paper on "the message of Emerson" hinted of "compensation" in a
+jargon that sounded authoritative?
+
+And now, as I breakfasted, my attention was invited anew to that
+fateful, never ending extension of the Potts-made ripples in our little
+pool. I was threatened with the loss of my domestic stay; again might I
+be forced to the City Hotel's refectory of a thousand blended smells and
+spotty table-linen; or even to irksome adventure at the board of the
+self-lauded Budd.
+
+There was selfish wonder in my heart as I listened to Clem, who, now
+that my second cup of coffee competed with the May blossoms, stood by to
+tell me of his worldly advancement and the nearing of a time when Miss
+Caroline should come among us to be independent.
+
+His stubborn industry had counted. The vegetable and melon crop of the
+year before had been abundant and well sold, despite sundry raids upon
+the latter by nameless boys, who, he assured me, "hain't had no raght
+raisin'." And he had further swelled that hoard of "reglah gole money"
+in Bundy's bank by his performances of house-cleaning, catering, and his
+work as janitor; not a little, too, by sales of the fish he caught. He
+was believed to possess a secret charm that made his fish-bait
+irresistible. Certainly his fortune in this matter was superior to that
+of any other frequenter of the bass nooks below the dam.
+
+And now he had waxed so heavy of purse that a woman could come between
+us,--a selfish woman, I made no doubt, pampered survival of a pernicious
+and now happily destroyed system, who would not only unsettle my
+domestic tranquillity, but would, in all likelihood, fetch another alien
+ferment into our already sorely tried existence as a town needing
+elevation. It seemed, indeed, that we were never to be done with these
+consequences.
+
+Separated from my house by a stretch of weedy lawn was a shambling
+structure built years before by one Azariah Prouse, who believed among
+other strange matters that the earth is flat and that houses are built
+higher than one story only at great peril, because of the earth's
+proneness to tip if overbalanced. Prouse had compromised with this
+belief, however, and made his house a story and a half high, in what I
+conceive to have been a dare-devil spirit. The reckless upper rooms were
+thus cut off untimely by ceilings of sudden slope, and might not be
+walked in uprightly save by persons of an inconsiderable stature.
+
+In a fulness of years Azariah had died and been chested, like Joseph of
+old, his soul to be gathered, as he believed, to another horizontal
+plane, exalted far above this, as would befit an abode for spirits of
+the departed good.
+
+His earthly home, now long vacant, had been rented by Clem for a monthly
+sum not particularly cheap in view of its surprising limitations above
+stairs. It was of this new home that he chiefly talked to me, of the
+persistence required to have it newly painted by the inheriting Prouse,
+and repairs made to doors, windows, and the blinds that hung awry from
+them.
+
+"An' Ah been cleanin'--yes, seh, Mahstah Majah--fum celleh to gahet.
+Them floahs do shine an' them windows is jes' so clean they look lahk
+they ain't theah at all. Miss Cahline an' Little Miss, they reside on
+th' lowah floah, an' Ah tek mahse'f up to that theh gahet. Yes, seh, Ah
+haf to scrooge aw Ah git mah haid knocked off, but Ah reckon Ah sho'
+will luhn to remembeh in Gawd's own time. An' they's a tehible grand
+hen-house. Ah'm go'n' a' raise a hund'ed thousan' yellow-laiged pullets;
+an' theh's a staihway down to th' watah whah Ah kin tie up mah ole
+catfish boat, an' a monst'ous big gyahden whah Ah kin keep mah fie'ce
+look on them mush an' watah melons. Ah don' want t' git into any mo'
+alterations with them boys, but Ah suttinly will weah 'em out if they
+don't mind theah cautions. Yes, seh,--we all go'n' a' have a raght
+tolable homeplace."
+
+Then my grievance prompted me.
+
+"Yes, and who's going to get my breakfast and dinner for me, then?" I
+asked with a dark look, but he beamed upon me placatingly.
+
+"Oh, Ah's still go'n' a' do fo yo', Mahstah Majah. Ah steddied huh all
+out twell she's plumb systemous. Miss Cahline sh' ain't wantin' huh
+breakfus' twell yo's done, an' she'll tek huh dinneh uhliah. Ah manage,
+Mahstah Majah. Ah mek all mah reddiments, yes, seh--yo's go'n' a' be
+jes' lahk mah own folks."
+
+I affected to be made more cheerful by this, but I knew that no man can
+serve two masters, especially when he is the "pussenal propity" of one;
+but I forbore to warn the deluded African of the tribulations ahead of
+him.
+
+
+
+
+The Book of MISS CAROLINE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+A CATASTROPHE IN FURNITURE
+
+"Miss Cahline comin' this yeh time a' yeah so's 't'll seem mo' soft an'
+homelike. Ah gaiss she go'n' a' sprighten raght up when she see th'
+summeh time all pleasant."
+
+Thus Clem said to me a few weeks later, and I praised his
+thoughtfulness. But I nursed misgivings both for Miss Caroline and for
+Little Arcady. How would they take each other? I conceived Miss Caroline
+to be a formidable person whom Little Miss resembled, Clem said, "as
+aigs look lahk aigs." No further detail could I elicit from him save
+that his Mistress was "not fleshily inclahned," and that Little Miss was
+"sweetah'n honey on a rag!"
+
+They would find our summer acceptable, even after a Southern summer
+heavy-sweet with magnolia and jasmine, honeysuckle and mimosa; with
+spirea and bridal-wreath and white-blossomed sloe trees. And the house
+as put to rights by Clem would be found at least endurable. It had not
+the solid grace nor the columned front of the houses I had somewhat
+hurriedly admired in the Southland some years before, but its lower
+rooms were wide, its windows abundant, and outwardly it had escaped the
+blight of the scroll saw.
+
+But the civilization of Little Arcady would be alien to the newcomers,
+and I was apprehensive that it would also be difficult.
+
+Further, I suspected that J.R.C. Tuckerman, with all his genius for hard
+work, lacked the administrative gifts of a true financier. He said a
+hundred thousand pullets when he should have said twenty-five, and he
+seemed to consider his banked hoard of gold money to be inexhaustible
+when it was in fact merely a sum slightly greater than he was wont to
+juggle with in his darkened mind.
+
+I was not surprised, therefore, when I found him rather dejectedly sunk
+in figures one afternoon about a week after Miss Caroline's
+"home-fixin's" had begun to arrive.
+
+These were all about him at the front door, in the hall, and extending
+far into the rooms, a truly depressing chaos of packing boxes, swathed
+tables, chairs, bureaus, and barrels of china. Nor was this all; for
+even as I loitered up to the door the dray of Sam Murdock halted in
+front with another huge load.
+
+Clem raised his head from a sheet of sprawled figures and regarded this
+fresh trouble with something like consternation. In one hand he
+fluttered a packet of receipted freight bills, and he spoke as one in an
+evil dream.
+
+"Yes, seh, Mahstah Majah, it suttinly do seem lahk them railroad
+genamen would git monst'ous rich a-runnin' them freight trains about th'
+kentry th' way lahk they do. Ah allus think them ole freight cyahs look
+maghty cheap an' common a-rattlin' around, but Ah teks mah ole hat off
+to um yehafteh. Yes, seh, Ah lays Ah will! Them engineahs an' fiahmen
+an' them Cunnels with gole on they hats, Ah gaiss they go'n' a' have all
+th' money in th' world maghty shawtly. They looks highly awdinahy an'
+unpetentious, but they suttinly p'duces th' revenue. Ah sho'ly go'n' a'
+repoht mahse'f to um ve'y honably when they pass me by yehafteh. Yo'
+don't gaiss they made a errah, Mahstah Majah?"
+
+He searched my face with a sudden hope:--
+
+"Yo' don't reckon they git a idy them funichas an' home-fixin's ain't
+been paid foh in th' fust place?"
+
+I took the packet from his hands and glanced over it.
+
+"No, these seem to be all right, Clem--only freight is charged for. But
+you must remember Virginia is a long way off."
+
+"Yes, seh--it ain't neveh raghtly come upon me befoh."
+
+"And freights are high, of course?"
+
+"Yes, seh, th' freight p'fession does look lahk it ort a' be maghty
+gainful. Ah gaiss them engineahs go'n' a' do raght well in it, with
+evabody movin' 'round considable."
+
+"Well, how many more loads do you expect?"
+
+"Well, seh, Ah don't raghtly know. Ah tell that drivah yestaday Ah
+already got a gret abundance to mek evabody comf'table, an' a little bit
+oveh, but he jes' sais, 'Oh, tha's all raght,' an' so fothe, an' he
+still is _a-bringin_' it. Lohks ve'y strongly lahk he ain't go'n' a'
+stop at _mah_ implications. Mahstah Majah, maght happen lahk he'd ack
+mo' reasonin' ef yo' was t' have a good long talk with him."
+
+"Oh, he hasn't anything to do with it. He only brings what your Miss
+Caroline has shipped. She shouldn't have sent so much, that's all."
+
+He took the troubling bills again.
+
+"Yo' _sounds_ raght, Mahstah Majah--you suttinly do sound _raght_! Ah
+gaiss Ah got a' raise ten hund'ed thousan' pulletts an mo'."
+
+For three more days the juggernaut of Sam Murdock's dray hauled heavy
+furniture over the prostrate spirit of Clem. Faster than he could unpack
+the stuff was it unpiled at his door. And it was poor stuff, moreover,
+in the opinion of Little Arcady. Clem's history was known, of course,
+and during these busy days the town made it a point to pass his door in
+friendly curiosity about the belongings of his mistress. When these
+could not be satisfactorily appraised from the yard, they sauntered up
+to the porch and surveyed Clem in the front room at his work of
+unpacking and cleaning. Often, indeed, some kindly disposed observer
+with time to spare would lend a hand in freeing some heavy bit of
+mahogany from its crate or wrappings.
+
+The public opinion, thus advantageously formed, was for once unanimous.
+The house overflowed with worthless and unbeautiful junk. To Little
+Arcady this was a grievous disappointment. It had expected elegance, for
+Clem had been wont to enlarge upon the splendors of his former home.
+When it was finally known that the long-vaunted furnishings were coming,
+the town had prepared to be dazzled by sets of black walnut, ornate with
+gilt lines, by patent rockers done in plush, by fashionable sofas, gay
+with upholstery of flowered ingrain, by bedroom sets of ash, stencilled
+adroitly with pink-and-blue flowers, or set with veneered panels of
+burl; by writing-desks of maple and music-stands of cherry with many
+spindles and frettings, by sideboards of finest new oak with brass
+handles and mirrors in the backs.
+
+The town had anticipated, in short, up to its own high and difficult
+standards. And along had come a ruck of stuff that was dark and dingy
+and old-fashioned; awkward articles with a vast dull expanse of
+mahogany, ending in clumsy claw feet; spindle-legged tables inlaid with
+white wood; old-fashioned mirrors in scarred gilt frames;
+awkward-looking highboys and the plainest of sofas and lounges. The
+chief sideboard boasted not the tiniest bit of brass; even the handles
+were of cheap glass, and Clem had set candle-sticks upon it that were
+nothing but pewter.
+
+Where Little Arcady had looked for the best Brussels carpets, there came
+only dull-colored rugs of a most aged and depressing lack of gayety. As
+for silver, we knew the worst when Aunt Delia McCormick declared, "They
+haven't even a swinging ice-pitcher--nothing but thin battered old stuff
+that was made in the year one!"
+
+Aunt Delia had quite the newest and most fashionable furniture in town;
+her parlor was a feast of color for any eye, and her fine hardwood
+sideboard alone had cost twenty-two dollars, so she spoke as one having
+authority.
+
+By the time that Clem's ancient treasures were all unpacked, Little
+Arcady felt a genuine if patronizing sympathy for his mistress. If
+_that_ were the boasted elegance of the ante-bellum South, then
+Tradition had reported falsely. No plush rockers of the newest patent;
+no chenille curtains; no art chromos; no hat-racks, not even an
+imitation bronze mantle clock guarded by its mailed warrior. Such clocks
+as there were left only honest distress in the mind of the
+beholder,--tall, outlandish old things in wooden cases.
+
+It was believed that Clem had wasted money in paying freight on this
+stuff. Certainly no one in Little Arcady would have paid those bills to
+possess the furniture. As to the folly of those who had originally
+purchased it, the town was likewise a unit.
+
+If Clem was made aware of this public sentiment, he still did not waver
+in his loyalty to the old pieces. Day after day he unpacked and dusted
+and polished them with loving devotion. They spoke to him of other days,
+and when he was quite sure that the last freight bill had been paid, he
+seemed really to enjoy them. The unexpected drain had reduced his
+savings to a pittance, but were not the pullets which he could raise
+absolutely without number?
+
+It was true that Miss Caroline would have to come alone now, leaving
+Little Miss still to teach in the school at Baltimore until a day of
+renewed surplus. This much Clem confided to me in sorrow. I sympathized
+with him, truly, but I felt it was a fortunate circumstance. I thought
+that one of the ladies at a time would be as much as Little Arcady could
+assimilate.
+
+Slowly the house grew into a home awaiting its mistress, a home whose
+furnished rooms overflowed into others not furnished but merely crowded.
+
+I foresaw, not without a certain wicked cheerfulness, that, even after
+the coming of Miss Caroline, Clem would be forced to pander to my
+breakfast appetites for the slight betterment it made in his fortunes,
+even must this be done surreptitiously. And at least one dinner was
+secured to me beyond the coming of this mistress; for Clem had conveyed
+to me, with appropriate ceremony, an invitation, which I promptly
+accepted, to dine with Mrs. Caroline Lansdale at six-thirty on the
+evening of her arrival, she having gleaned from his letters, it
+appeared, that I had been a rather friendly adviser of her servant.
+
+In the days that followed I saw that Clem was regarding me with an
+embarrassed, troubled look. Something of weight lay upon his mind. Nor
+was it easy, to make him speak, but I achieved this at last.
+
+"Well, seh, Mahstah Majah, yo'-all see, Ah ain't eveh told Miss Cahline
+that yo's a Majah in th' Nawthun ahmy."
+
+"No?" I said.
+
+"No, seh; Ah ain't even said yo's been a common soljah."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"'Cause Miss Cahline's tehible heahtfelt 'bout some mattehs. Th'
+Lansdales sho'ly kin ca'y a grudge powful long. An' so--seh--Ah ain't
+neveh tole on yo'."
+
+"But she'll find it out."
+
+"Yes, seh, an' she maght fuhgit it, but--Ah crave yo' pahdon,
+seh--theh's yo' ahm what's gone."
+
+"It's too late to help that, Clem."
+
+"Well, seh--now Ah was steddyin'--if yo' kin'ly grant yo' grace of
+pahdon, seh--lahkly 'twould compliment Miss Cahline ef yo' was to git
+yo'se'f fitted to one a' them unnatchel limbs, seh. Yo' sho'ly go'n' a'
+pesteh huh rec'lections with that theh saggin' sleeve, Mahstah Majah."
+
+But this kindly meant proposal I felt compelled to reject.
+
+"No, Clem, you'll have to fix it up with Miss Caroline the best you
+can."
+
+"Ve'y well, seh, thank yo', seh--Ah do mah ve'y best fo' yo'."
+
+But I saw that he had little hope of ever winning for me the favor of
+his captious owner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+THE COMING OF MISS CAROLINE
+
+She came to us auspiciously on a day in the first week of June.
+
+Mistress Caroline Lansdale, a one-time belle of the Old Dominion, relict
+of the late Colonel Jere Lansdale, C.S.A., legislator and duellist,
+whose devotion to her in the days of their courtship had been the talk
+of two states. Not less notable than his eloquence in the forum, his
+skill in the duello, had been the determined fervor with which he knelt
+at her feet. And I waited no more than a hundred seconds in her presence
+to applaud his discernment.
+
+I had pictured an old woman--some aged trifle of an elder day, sad,
+withered, devitalized, intemperately reminiscent--steeped in traditions
+that would leave her formidable, and impracticable as a friend to me. I
+had fancied her thus, from Clem's fragmentary and chance descriptions
+and my own knowledge of what she should be by all laws of the probable;
+and she was not as I had evolved her.
+
+The day she came was one of Little Arcady's best; quite all that her
+anxious servitor could have wished,--a day of summer's first abundance,
+when our green-bordered streets basked in a tempered sunlight, and our
+trim white cottages nestled coolly back of their flower gardens. Harried
+alien as she was, she would be welcomed with smiles, and I was glad for
+her sake and Clem's when I hurried home to dress for that first dinner
+with her.
+
+On my way across the lawn at six-thirty I picked a bunch of the newly
+opened yellow roses as a peace offering, should one be needed. Clem, in
+his most formal dress, received me ceremoniously at the door, his look
+betraying only the faintest, formalest acknowledgment of having ever
+encountered mine before. With a superb bow toward the drawing-room and
+in tones stiffly magnificent, he announced, "Mistah Calvin Blake." It
+was excellently done, but I knew he had rehearsed the "Mistah."
+
+Then a woman rose from one of the deep old chairs to offer me her hand,
+and a soft quick laugh came as she perceived my difficulty, for my one
+hand held the roses. These she gathered gracefully into her left hand,
+while her right fell into mine with a swift little pressure as she bade
+me welcome.
+
+"Clem has told me of you, Mr. Blake. I feel that you are one of us. Let
+me thank you at once for the consideration you have shown him."
+
+In the half light I hesitated awkwardly enough to speak her name, for I
+felt that this could not be the mother of Little Miss. Rather was it the
+daughter herself. I stammered words that must have revealed my
+uncertainty, for again she laughed, and then she ordered lights.
+
+Clem came soft-footedly with a branching candelabra, which he placed on
+the round-topped old table by which she had been sitting. She moved a
+step to where the soft lights glowed up into her face, and with mock
+seriousness stood to be surveyed fairly.
+
+"There, Mr. Blake! You see I confess all my years."
+
+And I saw the truth, that she loitered gracefully among the vague and
+pleasant fifties. But then she did a thing which would have been
+injudicious in most women of her years. Her hand, still holding my
+roses, went up to her face, and her cheek glowed dusky and pink against
+the yellow petals. I saw that she rightly appraised her own daring and
+felt free to say:--
+
+"You _see_! My confusion was inevitable. Not one of those candles can be
+spared if I am to believe you are Miss Caroline."
+
+Again she laughed, revealing now a girlish freshness in the small mouth,
+that had somehow lingered to belie the deeper, graver lines about her
+dark eyes. As she still regarded me with that smiling, waiting lift of
+the short upper lip, I called out:--
+
+"More lights, Clem! I need all you have."
+
+Whereat Miss Caroline fell into her chair with a marvellous blush, an
+undeniable darkening of the pink on cheeks that were in texture like the
+finest, sheerest lawn.
+
+Never thereafter could I refuse credence to tales, of which many came to
+me, exposing Miss Caroline as an able and relentless coquette. Nor
+could I fail to understand how the late Colonel Jere Lansdale would have
+found need to be a duellist after he became her lover, even had he
+aforetime been unskilled in that difficult art.
+
+As she chatted, chiefly of her journey, I falsely pretended to listen,
+whereas I only stared and in spirit was prostrate before her. Mere
+kneeling at her feet savored too nearly of arrogance. I felt the need to
+be a spread rug in her presence. She sat back in the chair that embraced
+her loosely, a slight figure with a small head, on which the heavy
+strands of whitening hair seemed only a powdered lie above the curiously
+girlish face. A tiny black patch or two on the face, I thought, would
+have made this illusion perfect. And yet when she did not laugh, or in
+some little silence of recollection, the deeper lines stood out, and I
+could see that sorrow had long known its way to her face. It even lurked
+now back of her eyes, and I knew that she tried to keep her face lighted
+for me so that I should not detect it. She succeeded admirably, but the
+smile could not always be there, and ghosts of her dead years came
+stealthily to haunt her face as surely as the smile went.
+
+When Clem, with an air of having had word from a numerous kitchen crew,
+stood before us and bowed out, "Miss Cahline, dinneh is suhved!" I gave
+her my arm with a feeling of vast relief. Not only was Miss Caroline an
+abiding joy, but apprehension as to my modest complicity in her late
+distress had, too, evidently been groundless. She had once, with what
+seemed to be an almost artificial politeness, asked me about our timber
+supply and the state of the lumber market; queries to which I had
+replied with an assumption of interest equally artificial, for I was
+ignorant of both topics, and not even remotely concerned about either.
+
+Seated at the table, which Clem had arrayed with a faultless artistry, I
+promptly demanded the removal of a tall piece of cut glass and its
+burden of carnations, asserting that both glass and flowers might be
+well enough in their way, but that I could regard them only as a blank
+wall of exasperating ugliness while they interrupted a view of my
+hostess. Whereat I was again regaled with that imcomparable blush.
+
+Clem served a soup that had been two days in the making and was worth
+the time. But even ere the stain had faded from the cheeks of my
+hostess, cheeks of slightly crumpled roseleaf, another look flashed the
+smile from her eyes--a quick, firm, woman look of suffering and
+defiance.
+
+She had raised her glass, and I mechanically did the same.
+
+"Mr. Blake, let us drink standing!--we women earned the right to stand
+with you."
+
+A little puzzled, I stood up to face her, as Clem pulled back her chair.
+One hand on the table, the other reaching her slender stemmed glass
+aloft, she leaned toward me with a look of singular vehemence.
+
+"To our murdered brothers and husbands and sons, Mr. Blake! To our lost
+leaders and our deathless lost cause! To Jefferson Davis and Robert
+Edmund Lee! To the Confederate States of America!"
+
+A black wind seemed to blow across the face of her servitor's fluttering
+eyelids. But I drank loyally to Mrs. Caroline Lansdale and whatsoever
+that woman would. I could see that Clem exhaled a deep breath. How long
+he had held it I know not.
+
+We resumed our seats, and the dinner went forward with my hostess again
+herself. It was a dinner not heavy but choice, a repast upon which Clem
+had magically worked all his spells. There was a bass that had nosed the
+river's current that morning, two pullets cut off in the very dawn of
+adolescence, and a mysteriously perfect pastry whose secret I had never
+been able to wring from him beyond the uninforming and obvious enough
+data that it contained "some sugah an' a little spicin's."
+
+Having for my luncheon that day suffered an up-to-date dinner at
+Budds's, I felt a genuine craving for food; yet the spell of my hostess
+was such that I left her table ahungered.
+
+Again there was an inexplicable reference from her to the timber and
+sawed-lumber interests of the Little Country, and the circumstance that
+another black wind seemed to shiver the eyelids of Clem lent no light
+to the mystery of it. But then, as if some recondite duty to me had been
+safely performed, she talked to me of herself, of days when the youth of
+the Old Dominion had been covetous of her smiles, of nightly triumphs in
+ball and rout, of gay seasons at the nation's capital, amid the fashion
+and beauty and wit of Pierce's administration and of Buchanan's, of
+rounds of calls made in her calash, of bewitching gowns she had worn, of
+theatres and musicales and teas and embassy receptions, in a day when
+Harriet Lane was mistress of the White House.
+
+For my pleasing she laughed her sprightly way through memories of that
+romantic past, when she danced and chattered in the fulness of her
+bellehood, bringing out a multitude of treasured mementoes, compliments
+she had compelled, witticisms she had prompted, pranks she had played,
+delectable repasts she had eaten at Lady Napier's or another's, the
+splendor of pageants she had witnessed. And though she was back in an
+elder day, she glowed young as she talked, whether recalling official
+solemnities or a once-cherished gown of embroidered tulle, caught up
+with bunches of grapes. The girl's mouth was her's--fresh and full,
+unlined by care.
+
+It was not until she talked of later, younger days that her face took on
+an old look.
+
+"When our federated states rose up in their might," was a phrase that
+brought the change. Thereafter she spoke in subdued tones of a time more
+eventful than romantic, but still absorbing.
+
+She remembered the words in which she felicitated General Pope Walker
+for having issued the order to fire on Sumter. She gave details of the
+privation that Richmond on her seven hills had suffered in the latter
+days, and she made plain why their women should rise with their men to
+drink certain toasts; how they, too, had sacrificed and toiled and
+suffered with the same loyal tenacity. She mentioned "the present
+government" casually, as the affair of a day; and spoke of "Mr. Lincoln,
+their Northern President," in a tone implying confidence that I shared
+her feeling for him.
+
+As we went back to the drawing-room for coffee, she summed up herself to
+me, though she thought to sum up more than herself.
+
+"They swept us with the besom of war, Mr. Blake, and they
+overwhelmed--but they could not subjugate us."
+
+As she spoke, my eyes caught for the first time a portrait that hung on
+the wall back of her. It was the portrait of one dark but fair, with
+shoulders of a girlish slenderness all but thin, with eyes of glowing
+dusk and a half-smile upon her lips. It was like my hostess in a fashion
+of line and color, and yet enough unlike her so that I knew it must be
+the daughter. The face was a shade narrower of chin, a bit longer, and
+in some obscure differing of the features there was an effect of more
+poise, almost of a maturer dignity, so that while I divined it was the
+face of her daughter, it would seem to have been better planned for the
+face of her mother.
+
+She followed my eyes to the picture, and her face was still almost
+stern from her last speech, though it is true that the sternness was a
+dimpled sternness, for the chin of my hostess was rounded.
+
+"They overwhelmed us, Mr. Blake,--my daughter there, and me, and God
+alone has counted how many other wretched women. Her they struck a
+double blow--they killed the two men she loved. One was her father, but
+she flew to the other. She found her picture in his dead hands. Our
+young men were apt to die in that fashion; and when she put it back to
+be buried with him, her eyes were dry. Even under her double blow, she
+was stronger than I. She has been stronger ever since, but she suffered
+more than I was made to. Oh, it was a fine thing for them to do!"
+
+Her voice rose at the last into a little trembling gust of passion, and
+I saw again the spirit that gave those women the right to stand with the
+men. She recovered herself quickly, and the girl in her smiled upon me
+again.
+
+"You must overlook my forgetfulness. I shall not forget often,
+especially now that I am among these murderous fanatics. But I was tired
+to-night, and I was so glad when I knew I could talk to you freely."
+
+Her eyes were upon me in friendly unreserve, in confident appeal.
+
+In the face of what I should have felt, I was ashamed at that moment,
+and in the nervousness of hidden guilt I handled the minute coffee cup
+awkwardly. Clem, who must have been equally nervous, stepped to right
+the thing in its saucer, with "Yes, seh, Mahstah Majah!"
+
+From across the table I knew, without raising my eyes, that his mistress
+glanced up at Clem in quick astonishment, then that her eyes were
+fastened upon my face. I still regarded the coffee interestedly, but I
+knew that I myself blushed now and I suspected that my hostess was pale.
+
+"Major?" she began questioningly, then more decidedly, "_Major_ Blake?"
+
+I raised my eyes to hers and nodded idiotically.
+
+She laughed a little laugh that was icy in its politeness.
+
+"How stupid of me, and now I must ask your pardon for all my tirade, for
+my blasphemies, and for that monstrous toast I--really--"
+
+She shot a look at Clem, under which he blanched visibly, then her eyes
+were again upon me and she smiled with a rare art.
+
+"Really, you will overlook an old woman's weakness."
+
+It was the inimical, remote, icy superiority of her tone that nettled
+me--perhaps her implied assumption that I would not know it for such.
+But also I felt curiously stricken by that swift withdrawal of her
+confidence, for Mrs. Caroline Lansdale had won me by her laugh and blush
+of ancient girlishness. Further, I would not now be hurt by any woman,
+though she were ten times my years, without a show of defence.
+
+I arose as Clem hastily fled from the room.
+
+"Miss Caroline--" I waited for the fine little brows to go up at that. I
+had not long to wait.
+
+"I shall positively never call you anything else but Miss Caroline while
+you permit me to address you at all--understand it--I've associated with
+your boy too long. Well, I did do four years of fighting, and I was
+mustered out with the rank of Major. You might as well know it now as
+later. You'll have longer to forget it. I wish I could forget it myself.
+Not the fact, for I should fight again as long and try to fight harder
+in the same cause, but the hellishness of it--the damnable, inhuman
+obscenity of it--I should like to forget. I never said so before, Miss
+Caroline,--there was no one to say it to,--but it made me old before my
+time. Why, I could almost be a son of yours, if you will pardon that
+minor brutality, and the thing is aging me to this day. I helped to kill
+your young men and your old men, but you ought to know that I didn't do
+it for holiday sport. The first one of your men I saw dead lay alone by
+the roadside, a boy, foolishly young, with a tired face that was still
+smiling. He'd fallen there as if sleep had overtaken him on the march.
+Our column had halted, and I went to him. It must have taken a full
+minute for me to realize that this was dignified war and not the murder
+of a boy in a homely gray uniform. When I did realize it, I was so
+weakened that I broke down and cried. I was a private then. I covered
+his face, and got up strong enough to assault two other privates who had
+found my snivelling funny. One of them went to the field hospital, and I
+went under arrest when I'd finished with the other. You ought to know,
+Miss Caroline, that the sight of thousands of your other dead never
+moved me to any merriment. I tried to be a good soldier, but I felt the
+death pains of every fallen man I saw. I didn't stop to note the color
+of his uniform. Miss Caroline--"
+
+I waited until I had made her look at me.
+
+"The war is over, you know. Suppose you forget me as a soldier and take
+me as a man. Really, I believe we ought to know each other better."
+
+Clem had once found occasion to say, "When Miss Cahline tek th' notion
+to shine huh eyes up, she sho' is a highly illuminous puhsonality."
+
+I saw then what he meant, for Miss Caroline had "shined" her eyes, and
+they flooded me with a distracting medley of lights. I thought she
+struggled very uncertainly with herself. Her eyes shifted from my face
+to the empty sleeve. Twice before that evening--I remembered it had been
+when she spoke so enigmatically of the lumber industry--her eyes had
+rested there briefly, discreetly, but in all sympathy. Now the look was
+different. It wavered. At one instant I seemed to read regret that I had
+come off so well--her eyes flickered suggestively to my remaining arm.
+
+"Be fair," I said; "did I not drink your toast?"
+
+I thought she wavered at this, for a blush deeper than all the others
+suffused her.
+
+"Besides," I continued warningly, "you are within the enemy's lines now,
+and you may find me a help. Come!" and I held out my hand.
+
+Very slowly she put her own within it. I noticed that it was still
+plump, the fine skin not yet withered.
+
+"You are very kind, Major Blake. I had been misinformed, or you should
+have had no occasion to think me rude."
+
+It was then that I wished definitely to shake Miss Caroline.
+
+"Come, come," I said, "you are not giving me what you gave at first. I'm
+not to be put off that way, you know. If I call you Miss Caroline,--and
+I've sworn to call you nothing else,--you must be Miss Caroline."
+
+She searched my face eagerly,--then--
+
+"You _shall_ call me Miss Caroline--but remember, sir, it makes you my
+servant." She smiled again, without the icy reserve this time, whereat I
+was glad--but back of the smile I could see that she felt a bitter
+homesickness of the new place.
+
+"Your most obedient servant," I said. "You have another slave, Miss
+Caroline, another that refuses manumission--another bit of personal
+property, clumsy but willing."
+
+"Thank you, Major, I need your kindness more than I might seem to need
+it. Good night!" and even then she gave me a rose, with the same
+coquetry, I doubt not, that had once made Colonel Jere Lansdale quick to
+think of his pistols when another evoked it. Only now it masked her
+weariness, her sense of desperate desolation. I took the rose and kissed
+her hand. I left her wilting in the big chair, staring hard into the
+fireplace that Clem had rilled with summer green things.
+
+When my fellow-chattel appeared next morning with my coffee, he was
+embarrassed. With guile he strove to be talkative about matters of no
+consequence. But this availed him not.
+
+"Clem," I said frigidly, "tell me just what you said to Mrs. Lansdale
+about me."
+
+He paltered, shifting on his feet, his brow contracted in perplexity, as
+if I had propounded some intricate trifle of the higher mathematics.
+
+"Huh! Wha--what's that yo'-all is a-sayin', Mahstah Majah?"
+
+"Stop that, now! I needn't tell you twice what I said. Out with it!"
+
+"Well, seh, Mahstah Majah, of co'se, yo'-all tole me to fix it man own
+way, an' Ah lay Ah'd do it raghtly--an' so Miss Cahline is ve'y busy
+goin' th'oo th' rooms an' spressin' huhse'f how grand evehthing suttinly
+do look an' so fothe an' so on, an' sh' ain't payin' much attention--Ah
+reckon sh' ain't huhd raghtly--"
+
+"Clem--the Bible says, 'How forceful are right words!'"
+
+He stopped at my look, despaired, and became succinct.
+
+"Well, seh, Ah jes' think Ah brek it to huh easy-lahk, by degrees, so Ah
+sais yo' is a genaman of wahm South'n lahkings. Ah sais yo' been so hot
+fo' th' South all th'oo that theh wah that evehbody yeh'bouts despised
+an' reviled you. An' she sais why ain't yo' gone faght fo' th' South ef
+yo'-all so hot about it, an' Ah sais yo' was eageh to go, but yo' been
+in the timbeh business, an' one day yo' got rash about yo' saw-mill, an'
+th' ole buzz-saw jes' natchelly tuk off yo' ahm, so's yo' couldn't go to
+th' wah. Yes, seh, Mahstah Majah--Ah laid Ah'd brek it grajally--an' Ah
+suttingly did have that lady a-thinkin' ve'y highly of yo' at th' time
+of yo' entrance, seh,--yes, seh!"
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+LITTLE ARCADY VIEWS A PARADE
+
+And so began the time of Miss Caroline among us,--one effect the more of
+Fate's mad trickery. It was my privilege to be more intimately aware of
+her concerns than was the town at large. And even to me in those days she
+carried off the difficulties of her lot with a manner so plausible that
+it clenched my admiration if it did not win my belief. I knew that she
+daily bore a burden of ruin and faced a future of perilous uncertainty.
+I knew that she must have journeyed into our strange land with a real
+terror, nerved to that course only by a resolve to be no longer a burden
+upon her impoverished kinsman. Surely it had been like dying a death for
+her to leave the land of her own people, devastated though it was and
+vacant of those who had made the world easy for her.
+
+And I was not a little puzzled by the tie that bound her to her one
+remaining stay. Both she and Clem, I saw, considered her coming to him
+to be a thing so natural that it should excite no wonder, a thing
+familiar in the thought and as little to be puzzled about as their own
+breathing. I saw that her perplexities lay not at all in this black
+fellow's unthinking adherence to his life of service, but rather in the
+circumstance of her spirit-grieving exile and in the necessary doubts of
+her chattel's competence for the feat he had undertaken.
+
+I despaired very soon of ever comprehending the intricate strands of
+their relationship. When I understood, as I was not long in doing, that
+each was in certain ways genuinely afraid of the other, I knew that the
+problem must always be far beyond my own little powers.
+
+As to Little Arcady at large, some aspects of this complication were
+simpler than they appeared to me; others were more obscure. Of the
+tragedy of Miss Caroline's mere coming to us they could suspect nothing,
+save it might be the humiliation her old-fashioned furniture must put
+upon her in a prosperous town where so much of the furniture was elegant
+to the point of extravagance.
+
+In the much-discussed matter of mistress and slave, the town agreed
+simply that Clem was stupid and had been deluded by Miss Caroline into
+believing that a certain proclamation had stopped short of her personal
+property. It was believed that she had terrorized him by threatening to
+put bloodhounds on his trail if he ever tried to run off--for the town
+knew its "Uncle Tom's Cabin" as well as it knew "Gaskell's Compendium."
+It was thought that if Clem proved to be disobedient or rebellious, his
+mistress would try to hire "Big Joe" Kestril or some equally strong
+person to whip him with a "black-snake." Also it was said that she had
+sold his wife away from him, and might try to sell Clem himself if ever
+she got "hard up," though it was felt that she would be wise not to go
+too far in that matter.
+
+For the rest, Little Arcady rather rejoiced in the novelty of Miss
+Caroline's establishment. There was a flavor of much-needed romance in
+this survival at our very doors of an ante-bellum unrighteousness. The
+town cherished a hope that Clem would try to run off some time, or that
+Miss Caroline would have his back cut to ribbons, or try to sell or
+mortgage him or something, thus creating entertainment of an agreeable
+and exciting character.
+
+If the town could have overheard Clem scolding the lady with frank
+irritation in his voice,--as I chanced to do once or twice,--had it
+beheld his scowl as he raged, "Miss Cahline, yo' sho'ly gittin' old
+'nuff to know betteh'n _that_. I suttinly do wish yo' Paw was alive an'
+yeh'bouts. Ah git him afteh yo' maghty quick. Now yo' jes' remembeh Ah
+ain't go'n' a' _have_ no sech doin's!"--if it could have noted the
+quailing consternation of the mistress at these moments, it might have
+been puzzled; but of such phenomena it never knew. It was aware only
+that Miss Caroline treated Clem with a despotic severity, issuing
+commands to him as from a throne of power and in tones of acrid
+authority that were the envy of all housekeepers among us who kept
+"hired girls."
+
+Even Mrs. Potts, long before the arrival of Miss Caroline, had despaired
+of teaching Clem to make something of himself. He had refused to
+subscribe for a "Compendium," and her cordial assurance that he was, by
+the law of the land, both a man and a brother, did not even mildly elate
+him. Mrs. Potts was soon in a like despair regarding Miss Caroline, whom
+she regarded as too frivolous ever to make anything of herself. These
+two ladies, indeed, were widely apart. Perhaps I can intimate the extent
+of their unlikeness by revealing that Mrs. Potts, early in our
+acquaintance, had observed of me that I was not serious enough; whereas
+Miss Caroline was presently averring to my face that I was entirely too
+serious. These judgments of myself seemed to contrast the ladies
+informingly.
+
+The impression that Miss Caroline was frivolous--or even worse--became
+current the day after her arrival in Little Arcady. Arrayed in a
+lavender silk dress of many flounces, with bonnet beribboned gayly
+beyond her years, shod in low walking shoes of heel iniquitously high, a
+toe minute and shining and an instep ornate to an unholy degree, bearing
+a slender gold-tipped staff of polished ebony to assist theatrically in
+her progress, and bestowing placid, patronizing looks to right and left,
+she had flounced into Main Street, followed ceremoniously by her black
+chattel, himself set up with a palpable and shameless pride in his
+degradation, saluting stiffly and with an artificial grandeur those whom
+he would otherwise have greeted with the unstudied ease of long
+association.
+
+This procession regaled both Main and Washington streets, where Miss
+Caroline visited our shops to make inconsiderable purchases and many
+friends. It was a function the pleasant data whereof I was not long in
+collecting.
+
+Her first conquest was Chester Pierce, our excellent hardware merchant,
+whom she commissioned to make a needed repair to her range. It was a
+simple business matter, and Chester Pierce is a simple business person
+of plain manners. But as he slouched comfortably upon his counter and
+listened to Miss Caroline's condescending exposition of her needs, he
+became sensible of a strange influence stealing upon him. By degrees he
+brought himself erect and slowly, dazedly performed an act which had
+never before been perpetrated within his establishment. It was not that
+he deliberated, nor that his reason dictated it; but instinctively,
+almost from a purely reflex muscular action, he removed his hat while
+Miss Caroline talked, feeling himself thrill with a foreign and most
+suave deference. It was customary in our town to raise your hat to a
+lady on the street; but for a merchant, and a solid citizen at that, to
+do this thing in his own establishment, was a thing unheard of--and a
+thing of pretentious and sickening foppery when it _was_ heard of, for
+that matter, though this need not now concern us.
+
+"And be sure to tell my servant to give you a glass of wine when your
+work is done," concluded Miss Caroline, as she turned to rustle silkily
+out. Whereat Chester Pierce, charter member and President of our Sons of
+Temperance, a man primed with all statistics of the woe resulting
+traditionally from that first careless glass, murmured words
+unintelligible but of gratified import, and bowed low after the
+retreating vision. A moment later he was staring with mystified
+absorption at the hat in his hands, quite as if the hat were a
+stranger's--and then he brushed it around and around with the cuff of
+his coat sleeve as if the stranger had not been careful enough of it.
+
+Thence paraded Miss Caroline to the City Drug Store, to be bowed well
+out to the sidewalk by young Arthur Updyke when her errand within had
+been done. But Arthur had attended a college of pharmacy far away from
+Slocum County, and it was not unnatural that he should exhibit an alien
+grace in times of emergency.
+
+With Westley Keyts again, to whose shop Miss Caroline next progressed,
+it was as with Chester Pierce, a phenomenon of instinctive muscular
+reaction,--that of his hat coming off as he greeted the stately little
+lady at his threshold and apologized for the sawdust on his floor which
+was compelling her to raise a froth of skirts above the tops of those
+sinful-looking shoes. I suspect that Miss Caroline was rather taken with
+Westley. She called him "my good man," which made him feel that he had
+been distinguished uncommonly, and she chatted with him at some length,
+asking cordially about cuts of meat and his family, two matters in which
+Westley was much absorbed. He declared later that she was "a grand
+little woman."
+
+There followed pilgrimages that June morning to the First National Bank
+and to several of our lesser establishments; pilgrimages rarely
+diverting to Little Arcady and which invariably provoked bows under
+strangely lifted hats.
+
+But there were Little Arcadians of Miss Caroline's own sex to whom she
+might not so swiftly fetch confusion. Aunt Delia McCormick devoted a
+chance view of the newcomer to discovering that the gown of lavender
+satin had been turned and made over, none too expertly, from one
+originally built some years before the war. Later she found what our
+ladies agreed was its primal design, after much turning of the leaves of
+ancient Godey's magazines.
+
+Mrs. Judge Robinson, from one sidelong glance, brought off detailed
+intelligence of the bonnet's checkered past.
+
+The elder Miss Eubanks decried the mannishness of cane-bearing; and Mrs.
+Westley Keyts, entering the shop as Miss Caroline was bowed out,
+declared that her silk stockings were of a hue hardly respectable, and
+that she wore shoes "twice too small for her."
+
+The eyes of the suddenly urbane Westley glistened when he overheard
+this, but he fell to dissecting a beef without further sign.
+
+For better or worse, Miss Caroline and Little Arcady had exchanged
+impressions of each other.
+
+I met her by chance that morning and was charmed by her flattering
+implication of reliance upon myself. She made me feel that our
+understanding was secret and our attachment romantic. To complete her
+round of our commercial centre I escorted her to the _Argus_ office. Her
+greeting of Solon Denney was a thing to behold with unalloyed delight.
+They seemed to understand each other at once. Two minutes after Solon
+had looked up in some astonishment from his dusty, over-piled desk, they
+were arrayed as North and South in a combat of blithest raillery.
+
+Miss Caroline sat in Solon's battered chair with the missing castor,
+surveyed his exchange-laden desk with a humorous eye, and seized the
+last _Argus_, skimming its local columns with a lively interest and
+professing to be enthralled by its word-magic. She read stray items that
+commended themselves to her critical judgment, such as, "A wind blew
+last week that you could lean up against like the side of the house;" or
+"Westley Keyts has a bran-new 'No Admittance!' sign over the door of his
+slaughter-house. We don't see why. He could put up a 'Come one, come
+all!' sign and still not get _us_ into the place. They're messy."
+
+Further she read, "Some fiend with sub-human instincts ravaged our
+secret hoard of eating-apples while we were out meeting the farmers last
+Saturday afternoon. We wish they had been of no value to any one except
+the owner." And then, in her sprightliest manner, and with every sign of
+enjoyment, she went on to an item during the reading of which I think we
+both flushed a little, Solon and I:--
+
+                    "The United States _Is_
+
+"Some grammar sharp down East says you must say 'The United States are.'
+But we guess not. Opinions to that effect prevailed widely to the south
+of us some years ago, but the contrary was proved, we believe. The
+United States _is_, brother, ever since Appomattox, and even the grammar
+book should testify to its is-ness--to its everlasting and indivisible
+oneness."
+
+She carried it off so finely that I knew Miss Caroline had recovered
+from the fatigues of her journey.
+
+"I shall write you an item myself," she exclaimed, and seizing a stubby
+pencil, she wrote rapidly:--
+
+"A battered and ungrammatical old woman from the valley of Virginia has
+settled in our midst. She will always believe that the United States
+are, but she is harmless and otherwise sane."
+
+"Have I caught the style?--have I used 'in our midst' correctly?" she
+asked Solon. And he protested that her style was faultless but that her
+matter was grossly misleading.
+
+From this she was presently assuring him, in all pleasantness, that the
+seed of Cain, descended through Ham, would, by reason of the curse of
+God, be a "servant of servants" unto the end; while Solon was assuring
+her, with equal good nature, that this scriptural law had been repealed
+by President Lincoln.
+
+Her retort, "I dare say your Mr. Lincoln was _capable_ of wishing to
+repeal the Bible," was her nearest approach to asperity.
+
+"A battered old woman!" said Solon to me later. "She looks more like a
+candy saint, if they make such things,--one that a child has been
+careless with." We agreed that she was an addition to Little Arcady.
+
+The editor of the _Argus_ sighed at this point, and I thought he might
+be wishing that all feminine newcomers could be like the latest. For
+Mrs. Aurelia Potts, whose leisure Heaven had increased, was now
+redoubling her efforts to make the _Argus_ a well of English
+undefiled--undefiled by what she called "journalisms." Solon must not,
+he confided to me, say "enthuse" nor "we opine" nor "disremember." He
+might not say that the pastor "was given" a donation party when he
+really meant that the party was given,--not that the pastor was given.
+Further, he must be cautious in the uses of "who" and "whom," and try to
+break himself of the "a good time was enjoyed by all present" habit.
+
+"And she always says 'diddy-you' instead of 'dij-you,'" broke in my
+namesake, who, loitering near us, had overheard the name of Mrs. Potts.
+
+"That will _do_, Calvin!" said his father, shortly. It seemed to me that
+the still young life of Solon was fast being blighted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+THE SPECTRE OF SCANDAL IS RAISED
+
+A graver charge than frivolity was soon to be brought against the widow
+of the late Colonel Jere Lansdale. Not with her antiquated gown, her
+assisting staff, the gay bonnet, nor yet with the showy small slippers
+and silken hose tinted unseasonably to her years did scandal engage
+itself; but rather with the circumstance that she drank.
+
+To "drink" meant in Little Arcady to get drunk, as "Big Joe" Kestril did
+every pay-day. Clarence Stull, polishing a stove in the rear of Pierce's
+hardware store, was swift to divulge that Mrs. Lansdale had "asked Chet
+Pierce to have a glass of wine,--and him a-bowin' and a-scrapin' like
+you'd think he was goin' to fly off the handle!"
+
+It was enough for the town. The unfortunate woman had not yet reeled
+through its streets, but Little Arcady would give her time, and it knew
+there could be but one result. That sort of thing might be done in tales
+of vicious high life to point a moral, but in the real world it could
+not compatibly exist with good conduct. Even Aunt Delia McCormick, good
+Methodist as she was, who "put up" a little elderberry wine each year
+for communion purposes, was thought by more than one to strain near to
+the breaking point the third branch of that concise behest to "Touch
+not, taste not, handle not!"
+
+The ladies were at once dismayed about Miss Caroline, from Aunt Delia
+herself, to Marcella Eubanks, who kept conspicuous upon her
+dressing-table a bedizened motto of the Daughters of Rebecca,--"The lips
+that touch wine shall never touch mine." It is true that this legend
+appeared to Marcella to be a bit licentious in its implications as to
+lips _not_ touched by wine. It had, indeed, first been hung in the
+parlor; but one Creston Fancett, in the course of an evening call upon
+Miss Eubanks, had read the thing aloud, twice over, and then observed
+with a sinister significance that wine had never touched his own lips.
+Whereupon, in a coarsely conceived spirit of humor, he proceeded to act
+as if he had forgotten that he was a gentleman.
+
+Hence the card's seclusion in Marcella's boudoir. Hence, likewise,
+Marcella's subsequent preference, in her temperance propaganda, for
+straightforward means which no gentleman could affect to misunderstand.
+She relied chiefly thereafter upon some highly colored charts depicting
+the interior of the human stomach in varying stages of alcoholic
+degeneration. According to these, "a single glass of wine or a measure
+of ale," taken daily for a year, suffices to produce some startling
+effects in color; while the result of "unrestrained indulgence for five
+years" is spectacular in the extreme.
+
+Besides these disconcerting color effects Marcella enacted a brief but
+pithy drama in which she touched a lighted match to a tablespoonful of
+alcohol, to show the true nature of the stuff and to symbolize the fate
+of its votaries.
+
+With charts and with blazing spirit, with tracts and with figures to
+prove that we spend "more for the staff of death than for the staff of
+life," Marcella was prepared to move upon the unsuspicious Miss
+Caroline. Nor was she alone in such readiness for a good work. The
+ladies all felt that their profligate sister should be brought to sign
+the pledge.
+
+And they called upon Miss Caroline with precisely this end in
+view--called singly, and by twos and threes. But for some reason they
+seemed always to find obstacles in the way of bringing forward this most
+vital topic. If they had only discovered Miss Caroline in her cups, or
+if her shaded rooms had been littered with empty rum bottles and
+pervaded by the fumes of strong drink, or if she had audaciously offered
+them wine, doubtless the thing would have been easy. But none of these
+helpful phenomena could be observed, and Miss Caroline had a way of
+leading the talk which would have made any reference to her unfortunate
+habits seem ungraceful. It would be far too much to say that she charmed
+them, but all of her callers were interested, many of them were
+entertained, and a few became her warm defenders. Aunt Delia McCormick
+surprised every one by aligning herself with this latter minority. She
+declared, after her first call, that Miss Caroline was "a dear"; and
+after the second call, that she was "a poor dear," and she forthwith
+became of service to the newcomer in a thousand ways known only to the
+masonry of housekeeping.
+
+And since none of the ladies, for one reason or another, had found a way
+to say those things that Mrs. Lansdale sorely needed to hear, it was
+agreed among them that the minister must say them.
+
+"The minister" in Little Arcady meant him of the Methodist church, the
+two other clergymen being so young and unimportant as to need
+identification by name.
+
+Of the official and inspired visit of this good man to Miss Caroline,
+the version that reached the public was one thing: its secret and true
+history was another. The latter has never been told until now. It was
+known abroad only that the minister had called on a warm afternoon in
+July; that Miss Caroline had received him out of doors, on the shaded
+east side of the house, where the heat had driven her to await a cooling
+breeze from the river. One of the dingy rugs had been spread upon the
+grass close to the lilac clump, and by an unfashionable little table
+Miss Caroline sat, in a chair sadly out of date, reading of Childe
+Harold. It was understood that the minister had there sat in another
+antiquated chair of capacious arms and upholstered in faded green
+velvet, a chair brought by Clem; and that he had weakly chatted away a
+pleasant hour or two without ever once daring to bring Miss Caroline's
+evil state to that attention which it merited from her. His difficulty
+seemed to have been similar to that experienced by the calling ladies.
+He could observe no opening that promised anything but an ungracious
+plunge or an awkward stumble, and the ladies had been wrong in
+suspecting that his authority as a cleric would nerve him to either of
+these things.
+
+There was despair next day when it was known that he had come away even
+lavisher in praise of Miss Caroline than Aunt Delia had become; that he
+refused with a gentle but unbreakable stubbornness, a thing he was known
+to be cursed with latently, ever again to approach the lady with a
+concealed purpose or with aught in his heart but a warm and flagrant
+esteem.
+
+So much for the public's knowledge; and doubtless the public in every
+case knows all that it ought to know. But these are the facts as they
+came to my privileged ears, and to what, I believe, are gifts of
+interpretation not below the average.
+
+When Clem brought the chair for the minister, Miss Caroline gave him a
+brief, low-toned order, which he hurried away to execute. Within ten
+minutes, and before Miss Caroline had finished telling how altogether
+beautiful she found Arcady of the Little Country, Clem returned, bearing
+breast-high a napkin-covered tray, from which towered twin pillars of
+glass, topped with fragrant leafage and pierced each by a yellow straw.
+This tray he placed upon the table beside the poems of Lord Byron, and
+the minister permitted himself an oblique look thereat, even though this
+involved deserting the eyes of his agreeable hostess. The ice in the
+glasses tinkled a brief phrase of music, the tops burgeoned with a
+luxuriant summer green, and the straws were of a sweetly pastoral
+suggestiveness. The fragrance moved one to the heart of some
+spice-scented dell where a brooklet purled down a pebbled course. The
+ensemble was indeed overwhelming in its message of a refreshment joyous,
+satisfying, timely, and of a consummate innocence.
+
+"The day is warm," said Miss Caroline, receiving one of the glasses from
+her servant, and with a bright look at her guest.
+
+"It is intensely warm, and quite unusually so for this time of year,"
+said the minister, absently taking the other glass now proffered him.
+
+"We shall combat it," said Miss Caroline with some vivacity. She
+delicately applied her lips to the straw, and a slight depression
+appeared in each of her acceptable cheeks.
+
+"A cooling beverage at this hour is most grateful," said the minister,
+rejoicing in the icy feel of the glass, and falling hopefully to his own
+straw.
+
+"Clem makes them perfectly," said Miss Caroline.
+
+"What do you call them?" asked the minister. He had relinquished his
+straw, and his kind face shone with a pleased surprise.
+
+"Why, mint juleps," replied Miss Caroline, glancing quickly up.
+
+"Ah, mint! that explains it," said the minister with satisfaction, his
+broad face clearing of a slight bewilderment.
+
+"Clem found a beautiful patch of it by a spring half a mile up the
+river," volunteered Miss Caroline, between dainty pulls at her straw.
+
+"It is a lovely plant--a _lovely_ plant, indeed!" rejoined the minister,
+for a moment setting down his glass to wipe his brow. "I remember now
+detecting the same fragrance when I watered my horse at that spring. But
+I did not dream that it--I wonder--" he broke off, taking up his
+glass--"that its virtues are not more widely apprehended. I have never
+heard that an acceptable beverage might be made from it."
+
+"Not every one can make a mint julep as Clem can," said his hostess.
+
+A moist and futile splutter from the bottom of the minister's glass was
+his only reply.
+
+He set the glass back on the table with a pleasant speculation showing
+in his eyes. The talk became again animated. Chiefly the minister
+talked, and his hostess found him most companionable.
+
+"Let me offer you another julep," she said, after a little, noting that
+his eyes had swept the empty glass with a chastened blankness. The
+minister let her.
+
+"If it would not be troubling you--really? The heat is excessive, and I
+find that the mint, simple herb though it be, is strangely salutary."
+
+The minister was a man of years and weight and worth. He possessed a
+reliant simplicity that put him at once close to those he met. Of these,
+by his manner, he asked all: confidence without reserve, troubles,
+doubts, distresses, material or otherwise. And this manner of his
+prevailed. The hearts of his people opened to him as freely as his own
+opened to receive them. He was a good man and, partly by reason of this
+ingenuous, unsuspicious mind, an invaluable instrument of grace.
+
+When he had talked to Miss Caroline through the second
+julep,--digressing only to marvel briefly again that the properties of
+mint should so long have been Nature's own secret in Little
+Arcady,--telling her his joys, his griefs, his interests, which were but
+the joys and griefs and interests of his people, he wrought a spell upon
+her so that she in turn became confiding.
+
+She was an Episcopalian. Her line had been born Episcopalians since a
+time whereof no data were obtainable; and this was, of course, not a
+condition to meddle with in late life, even if one's mind should grow
+consenting. For that matter, Miss Caroline would be frank and pretend to
+no change of mind. She was an old woman and fixed. She could not at this
+day free herself of a doubtless incorrect notion that the outside
+churches--meaning those not Episcopal--had been intended for people
+other than her own family and its offshoots. Clem had once been a
+Baptist, and it was true that he was now a Methodist. He had told her
+that his new religion was distinguished from the old by being "dry
+religion". But these were intricacies with which a woman of Miss
+Caroline's years could not be expected to entangle herself. This she
+would say, however, that during her residence in Little Arcady she would
+fling aside the prejudice of a lifetime and worship each Sabbath at the
+minister's Methodist church.
+
+It did not seem to the minister that she said it as might an explorer
+who consents for a time to adopt the manner and customs of the tribe
+among which a spirit of adventure has led him. He accepted her implied
+tribute modestly and with unaffected gratification, again wiping his
+brow and his broad, good face.
+
+When I joined them at four o'clock, having been moved by hope of a
+cooling chat with Miss Caroline, the minister was slightly more flushed,
+I thought, than the day could warrant. He was about to leave, was, in
+fact, concluding his choicest anecdote of "Big Joe" Kestril--for he was
+a man who met all our kinds. "Big Joe," six feet, five, a tower of
+muscled brawn, standing on a corner, pleasantly inebriated, had watched
+go feebly by the tottering, palsied form of little old Bolivar Kent, our
+most aged and richest man. The minister, also passing, had observed
+Kestril's humorous stare.
+
+"The big fellow called to me," he was saying to Miss Caroline as I came
+up. "'Parson,' said he--they all know me familiarly, madam--'Parson,'
+said he, 'I wish I could take all I'm worth and all old Kent is worth
+and put it in a bunch on the sidewalk there and then fight the old cuss
+for it!'"
+
+It was a favorite anecdote of the minister's, but I had never known him
+before to tell it to a lady on the occasion of his first call. Miss
+Caroline laughed joyously as she turned to greet me.
+
+"I can't tell you how finely I've been entertained," she said to me.
+
+"Nor can I tell him for myself, madam," retorted the minister. I thought
+indeed he spoke with an effort that made this gallantry seem not
+altogether baseless in fact.
+
+"I was on the point of leaving," said the minister.
+
+"Are you returning home, or have you more calls in the neighborhood?" I
+asked, feeling just a tinge of uneasiness about his expansive manner.
+
+"No more calls, no. I had planned, instead, a pleasant walk up along the
+riverside to a spring some distance above. I mean to procure a supply of
+this delicious mint--for mint juleps," he added affably.
+
+"Come with me," I urged. I was about to walk out myself. Together we
+bade adieu to Miss Caroline.
+
+But the minister's walk ended at my own door. In the cool gloom of my
+little library I asked him if he would be good enough to excuse me a
+moment, indicating the broad couch beneath the window.
+
+"With pleasure, Major!" and he sank among the restful pillows. "I am
+ashamed to say that the heat has rendered me a trifle indolent".
+
+When I came softly back five minutes later, he lay in deep slumber, his
+face cherubically innocent, his breathing soft as a babe's. He awoke
+freshly two hours later. He apologized for his rudeness and expressed a
+wish for a glass of cool water. Three of these he drank with evidences
+of profound relish. Then he drew his large silver watch from his pocket.
+
+"On my word, Major, it's after six, and I shall be late for tea! I have
+trespassed shamefully upon you!"
+
+"The heat was very trying," I said.
+
+"Quite enervating, indeed! I seem only now to be feeling its effects."
+
+As he walked briskly down the now cooling street, he bared his brow to
+the gentle breeze of evening.
+
+To the ladies, solicitous about Miss Caroline, who called upon him a few
+days later, he said, "She is a most admirable and lovely woman--not at
+all a person one could bring one's self to address on the painful
+subject of intoxicants. Had she offered me a glass of wine or other
+stimulant, a way might have been opened, but I am delighted to say that
+her hospitality went no farther than this innocent beverage." The
+minister indicated on his study table a glass containing sweetened
+ice-water in which some leaves of mint had been submerged.
+
+"It is called a mint julep," he added, "though I confess I do not get
+the same delicate tang from the herb that her black fellow does. As he
+prepared the decoction I assure you its flavor was capital!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+THE TRUTH ABOUT SHAKSPERE AT LAST
+
+Miss Caroline dutifully returned the calls that were paid her, with
+never a suspicion that her slavery to strong drink had been the secret
+inspiration of them. She was not yet awake to our sentiments in this
+matter. She had given strong waters to the minister with a heart as
+innocent as their disguise of ice and leafage had made them actually
+appear to that good man. And I, who was well informed, hesitated to warn
+her, hoping weakly that she would come to understand. For I had seen
+there were many things that Miss Caroline had not to be told in order to
+know.
+
+For one, she had quickly divined that the ladies of Little Arcady
+considered her furniture to be unfortunate. She knew that they scorned
+it for its unstylishness; that some of them sympathized in the
+humiliation that such impossible stuff must be to her; while others
+believed that she was too unsophisticated to have any proper shame in
+the matter. These latter strove by every device to have her note the
+right thing in furniture and thus be moved to contrast it instructively
+with her own: as when Mrs. Judge Robinson borrowed for an afternoon Aunt
+Delia McCormick's best blue plush rocker, Mrs. Westley Keyts's new sofa,
+upholstered with gorgeous ingrain, and Mrs. Eubanks's new black walnut
+combination desk and bookcase with brass trimmings and little spindled
+balconies, in which could be elegantly placed the mineral specimens
+picked up along the river bank, and the twin statuettes of the fluting
+shepherd and his inamorata. As Mrs. Judge Robinson herself possessed new
+and high-priced furniture, including a gold-and-onyx stand to occupy the
+bay window and uphold the Rogers group, "Going for the Parson," as well
+as two fragile gilt chairs, which considerate guests would not sit in
+but leave exposed to view, and a complete new set of black walnut, the
+effect that day--which included a grand smell of varnish--was nothing
+less than sumptuous.
+
+The occasion was a semi-monthly meeting of the Ladies' Home Study and
+Culture Club, at which Miss Caroline was to be present. There had been a
+suspension of the Club's meetings while Mrs. Potts was in abeyance, but
+on this day she was to enter the world again and preside over the
+meeting as "Madam President," though the ladies sometimes forgot to call
+her that.
+
+The paper read by Mrs. Potts--who was not at all ineffective in her
+black--was on "The Lake Poets," with a few pointed selections from
+Wordsworth and others.
+
+Whether or not Miss Caroline was rightly impressed by the furniture
+exhibit was a question not easy to determine. True, she stared at it
+with something in her eyes beyond a mere perception of its lines; but
+whether this was the longing passion of an awakened soul or the simple
+awe of the unenlightened was not to be ascertained at the moment.
+
+Testimony as to her enjoyment of the President's paper was more
+circumstantial. In the midst of this, as the listeners were besought to
+"dwell a moment on this exquisite delineation of Nature,"--expertly
+pronounced "Nate-your" by Mrs. Potts,--Miss Caroline turned her head
+aside as one deeply moved by the poet's magic. But Marcella Eubanks,
+glancing at that moment into a mirror on the opposite wall,--a mirror in
+a plush frame on which pansies had been painted,--caught the full and
+frank exposure of a yawn. It was a thorough yawn. Miss Caroline had
+surrendered abjectly to it, in the belief--unrecking the mirror--that
+she could not be detected.
+
+The discussion that followed the paper--as was customary at the
+meetings--proved to be a bit livelier. Each lady said something she had
+thought up to say, beginning, "Does it not seem--" or "Are we not forced
+to conclude--"
+
+I suspect that Miss Caroline was sleepy. Perhaps she was nettled by the
+boredom she had been made to endure without just provocation; perhaps
+the fashionable fumes of varnish had been toxic to her unaccustomed
+senses. At any rate she now compromised herself regrettably.
+
+Mrs. Westley Keyts had been thinking up something to say, something
+choice that should yet be sufficiently vague not to incriminate her. It
+had seemed that these requirements would be met if she said, in a tone
+of easy patronage, "Mr. Wordsworth is certainly a very bright writer of
+poetry, but as for me--give _me_ Shakspere!"
+
+She had thought of saying "the Bard of Avon," a polished phrase coined
+for his "Compendium" by the ingenious Mr. Gaskell; but, hearing her own
+voice strangely break the silence, Mrs. Keyts became timid at the last
+moment and let it go at "Shakspere."
+
+"Oh, Shakspere--of _course_!" said most of the ladies at once, and those
+not quick enough to utter it concertedly looked it almost reprovingly at
+the speaker.
+
+A silence fell, as if every one must have time to recover from this
+trivial platitude. But it was a silence outrageously shattered by Miss
+Caroline, who said:--
+
+"O dear! I've always considered Shakspere such an overrated man!"
+
+The silence grew more intense, only Mrs. Potts emitting a slight but
+audible gasp. But swift looks flashed from each lady to her horrified
+sisters. Was it possible that the unfortunate woman had been in no
+condition to come among them?
+
+"Oh, a _greatly_ overrated man!" repeated Miss Caroline, terribly, "far
+too wordy--too fond of wretched puns--so much of his humor coarse and
+tiresome. By the way, have you ladies taken up Byron?"
+
+The moment was charged, almost to explosion. A crisis impended, out of
+the very speechlessness of the gathering. Mrs. Potts was aghast in
+behalf of William Shakspere, and Marcella Eubanks was crimsoning at the
+blunt query about Byron, well knowing that he could be taken up by a
+lady only with the wariest caution, and that he would much better be let
+alone. The others were torn demoralizingly between these two extremes of
+distress.
+
+But the situation was saved by the ready wit of Mrs. Judge Robinson.
+
+"I think the hour has come for refreshments, Madam President!" she said
+urbanely, and the meeting was nervously adjourned. Under the animation
+thus induced an approximate equilibrium was restored. The ladies gulped
+down chicken salad, many of them using forks with black thread tied
+about them to show they were borrowed from Mrs. Eubanks. They drank
+lemonade from a fine glass pitcher that had come as a gratuitous mark of
+esteem from the tea merchant patronized by the hostess; and they
+congealed themselves pleasantly with vanilla ice-cream eaten from dishes
+of excellent pressed glass that had come one by one as the Robinson
+family consumed its baking powder.
+
+But Miss Caroline would have been dense indeed had she not divined, even
+amid that informal babbling, that she was being viewed by the ladies of
+the Club with a shocked stupefaction.
+
+Precisely what emotion this knowledge left with her I have never known.
+But I do know that before the meeting broke up, it had been agreed to
+hold the next one at the house of Miss Caroline herself. It may be that
+she suggested and urged this in pure desperation, wishing to regain a
+favor which she had felt unaccountably withdrawn; and it may be that the
+ladies accepted in a similar desperation, knowing not how to inform her
+that she was grossly ineligible for membership in a Home Study Club.
+
+The intervening two weeks were filled with tales and talks of Miss
+Caroline's heresy. Excitement and adverse criticism were almost
+universally aroused. It was a scandal of proportions almost equal to
+that of her love for strong drink. About most writers one could be
+permitted to have an opinion. But it was not thought that one could
+properly have an opinion about Shakspere, and, so far as we knew, no one
+had ever before subjected him to this indignity. One might as well have
+an opinion about Virtue or the law of gravitation. An opinion of any
+sort was impossible. One favorable would be puny, futile, immodestly
+patronizing. An unfavorable opinion had heretofore not been within
+realms of the idlest speculation.
+
+There were but two of us, I believe, who did not promptly condemn Miss
+Caroline's violence of speech--two men of varying parts. Westley Keyts
+frankly said he had never been able to "get into" Shakspere, and
+considered it, as a book for reading purposes, inferior to "Cudjo's
+Cave," which he had read three times. The minister, whose church Miss
+Caroline now patronized,--that term being chosen after some
+deliberation,--held up both his hands at the news and mildly exclaimed,
+"Well!" Then, after a pause, "Well, well!" And still again, after
+another pause, "Well, well, well!"
+
+This was thought to be shifty and evasive--certainly not so outspoken as
+the town had a right to expect.
+
+Solon Denney, though in his heart true to Shakspere, affected to be
+gleeful. A paragraph, mysterious to many, including Miss Caroline,
+appeared in the ensuing _Argus_:--
+
+"An encounter long supposed by scientists to be a mere metaphysical
+abstraction of almost playful import has at last occurred in sober
+physics. The irresistible force has met up with the immovable body. We
+look for results next week."
+
+I knew that Solon considered Miss Caroline to be an irresistible force.
+I was uncertain whether Shakspere or Mrs. Potts was meant by the
+immovable body. I knew that he held them in equal awe, and I knew that
+Mrs. Potts felt, in a way, responsible for Shakspere this far west of
+Boston, regarding any attack upon him as a personal affront to herself.
+
+On the day of the next meeting the ladies of the Club gathered in the
+dingy and inelegant drawing-room of Miss Caroline. No vividly flowered
+carpet decked the floor; only a time-toned rug that left the outer edge
+of the floor untidily exposing its dull stain; no gilt and onyx table
+bore its sculptured fantasy by the busy Rogers. The mantel and shelves
+were bare of those fixed ornaments that should decorate the waste places
+of all true homes; there were no flint arrow-heads, no "specimens," no
+varnished pine cones, no "Rock of Ages," no waxen lilies, not even a
+china cup goldenly emblazoned with "Love the Giver," in German script.
+And there were no beautiful chairs with delicate gilded spindles--not an
+elegant and impracticable chair in the whole big room--not one chair
+which could not be occupied as comfortably as any common kitchen rocker.
+It was indeed a poor place; obviously the woman's best room, yet showing
+careless traces of almost daily use. To ladies who never opened their
+best rooms save to dust and air them on days when company was expected,
+and who would as soon have lounged in them informally as they would have
+desecrated a church, this laxity was heinous.
+
+And ordinarily, in the best rooms of one another, the ladies became
+spontaneously, rigidly formal as they assembled, speaking in tones
+suitably stiff of the day's paper, or viewing with hushed esteem those
+art treasures that surrounded them.
+
+But so difficult was it to attain this formality amid the homely
+surroundings of Miss Caroline that to-day they not only lounged with
+negligent ease in the big chairs and on the poor, broad sofas, but they
+talked familiarly of their household concerns quite as if they had been
+in one of their own second-best rooms on any common day.
+
+On a table in one cool corner was a huge bowl of thin silver, whence
+issued a baffling fragrance. Discreet observation, as the throng
+gathered, revealed this to contain a large block of ice and a colored
+liquid in which floated cherries with slices of lemon and orange. A
+ladle of generous lines reposed in the bowl, and circling it on the
+table were many small cups.
+
+There was a feeling of relief when these details had been ascertained.
+Fear had been felt that Miss Caroline might forget herself and offer
+them a glass of wine, or something worse, from a large black bottle; for
+Little Arcady believed, in its innocent remoteness, that the devil's
+stuff came in no other way than large black bottles. Miss Eubanks had
+made sure that the ladies wore their white ribbons. Marcella's own satin
+bow was larger than common, so that no one might mistake the principles
+of the heart beating beneath it.
+
+But the cool big bowl with its harmless fruit restored confidence at
+once, and when Miss Caroline urged them to try Clem's punch they
+refrained not. The walk to the north end of town on a sultry afternoon
+had qualified them to receive its consolations, and they gathered
+gratefully about.
+
+Marcella Eubanks quaffed the first beaker, a trifle timorously, it is
+true, for the word "punch" had stirred within her a vague memory of
+sinister associations. Sometime she had read a tale in which one Howard
+Melville had gone to the great city and wrecked a career of much promise
+by accepting a glass of something from the hands of a beautiful but
+thoughtless girl, pampered child of the banker with whom he had secured
+a position. For a dread moment Marcella seemed to recall that the fatal
+draught was named "punch." But after a tentative sip of the compound at
+hand, she decided that it must have been something else--doubtless "a
+glass of sparkling wine." For this punch before her was palpably of a
+babe's innocence. Indeed it tasted rather like an inferior lemonade. But
+it was cold, and Marcella tossed off a second cup of it. She could make
+better lemonade herself, and she murmured slightingly of the stuff to
+Aunt Delia McCormick.
+
+"It wants more lemons and more sugar," said Marcella, firmly. Aunt Delia
+pressed back the white satin bow on her bosom in order to manage her
+second glass with entire safety.
+
+"I don't know, Marcella," she said in a dreamy undertone, after draining
+the cup to its cherry. "I don't know--it does seem to take hold, for all
+it tastes so trifling."
+
+As each lady arrived she was led to the punch-bowl. When the last one
+had been taught the way to that cool nook, there was a pleasant hum of
+voices in the room. There was still an undercurrent of difference as to
+the punch's merit--other than mere coolness; though Miss Eubanks now
+agreed with Aunt Delia that it possessed virtues not to be discerned in
+the first careless draught. The conversation continued to be general, to
+the immense delight of the hostess, for she had dreaded the ordeal of
+that formal opening, with its minutes of the last meeting; and she had
+dared even to hope that the day's paper might, by tactful management, be
+averted.
+
+She waxed more daringly hopeful when Clem came to refill the punch-bowl.
+She felt that she owed much to the heat of the day, which was insuring
+the thirst of the arrivals. The punch and general conversation seemed to
+suffice them even after their first thirst had been allayed. She began
+to wonder if the ladies were not a more unbending and genial lot than
+she had once suspected.
+
+A considerable group of them now chatted vivaciously about the
+replenished bowl, including Madam the President, who had arrived very
+thirsty indeed, and who was now, between sips, accounting for the
+singular favor which the Adams family had always found in the sight of
+God and the people of Massachusetts. She seemed to be prevailed over,
+not without difficulty, by Aunt Delia, who related her failure to learn
+from Clem the ingredients of his acceptable punch. This was not
+surprising, for Clem was either never able or never willing to tell how
+he made anything whatever. Of this punch Aunt Delia had been able to
+wheedle from him only that it contained "some little fixin's." Insistent
+questioning did develop, further, that "cold tea" was one of these; but
+cold tea did not make plain its recondite potencies--did not explain why
+a beverage so unassuming to the taste should inspire one with a wish to
+partake of it continuously.
+
+"We might get him to make a barrel of it for the Sunday-school picnic,"
+said Marcella, brightly, over her fourth cup. "If it contains only a
+little tea, perhaps the effect upon the children would not be
+deleterious."
+
+"We'll try it," said Aunt Delia, reaching for the ladle at sight of
+empty cups in the hands of Mrs. Judge Robinson and Mrs. Westley Keyts.
+"_I'll_ furnish the cherries and the sugar and the tea."
+
+How it came about was never quite understood by the ladies, but the true
+and formal note of a Ladies' Home Study Club was never once struck that
+afternoon. Madam the President did not call the meeting to order, the
+minutes of the last meeting are unread to this day, and a motion to
+adjourn never became necessary.
+
+It had been thought wisest to keep entirely away from poetry at this
+meeting, and the paper for the day, to have been read by Marcella
+Eubanks, was "The Pathos of Charles Dickens." Marcella had taken unusual
+pains in its preparation, bringing with her two volumes of the author
+from which to read at the right moment the deaths of Little Nell and
+Paul Dombey. She had practised these until she could make her voice
+quaver effectively, and she had looked forward to a genuine ovation when
+she sat down.
+
+[Illustration: "WE MIGHT GET HIM TO MAKE A BARREL OF IT FOR THE
+SUNDAY-SCHOOL PICNIC."]
+
+If it is clearly understood, then, that no one thought of calling for
+the paper, that even its proud author felt the hours gliding by without
+any poignant regret, it should be seen that the occasion had strangely
+come to be one of pure and joyous relaxation, with never an instructive
+or cultured or studious moment.
+
+There was talk of domestic concerns, sprightly town gossip, mirth, wit,
+and anecdotes. Aunt Delia McCormick told her parrot story, which was
+_risqué_, even when no gentlemen were present, for the parrot said "damn
+it!" in the course of his surprisingly human repartee under
+difficulties.
+
+Mrs. Westley Keyts, the bars being down, thereupon began another parrot
+story. But Miss Eubanks, who had observed that all parrot stories have
+"damn" in them, suddenly conceived that matters had gone far enough in
+_that_ direction. Affecting not to have heard Mrs. Keyts's opening of "A
+returned missionary made a gift of a parrot to two elderly maiden
+ladies--" Marcella led the would-be anecdotist to the punch-bowl, and,
+under the cover of operations there, spoke to her in an undertone. Mrs.
+Keyts said that the thing had been printed right out on the funny page
+of "Hearth and Home," but over the cup of punch that Marcella pressed
+upon her, she consented to forego it on account of the minister's wife
+being present.
+
+There were other anecdotes, however; not of a parrot character, but
+chiefly of funny sayings of the little ones at home. Mrs. Judge
+Robinson, with the artistic mendacity of your true _raconteur_,
+accredited to her own four-year-old a speech about the stars being holes
+in the floor of heaven, although it was said of this gem in "Harper's
+Drawer," where she had read it, that "the following good one comes to us
+from a lady subscriber in the well-known city of X----."
+
+It could not be recalled afterwards how, from this harmless exchange,
+they had come to be listening to passages from the adventurous life of
+Childe Harold, read crisply by their hostess. Still less could the
+ladies later comprehend how some of their number had been guilty of
+innuendos--or worse--against the well-known Bard of Avon. Yet, so it
+was.
+
+Miss Caroline herself had refrained from abusing him--had seemed to have
+forgotten him, indeed; but, as she read Byron to them, their hearts
+opened to her--rushed out, indeed, with a friendly wholeness that
+demanded something more than mere cordial applause of her favorite poet.
+Some intimation of a sympathy with her view of the other poet came to
+seem not ungraceful. During one of the reader's pauses to impress upon
+them the splendors of the Byronic imagery, and eke its human
+heart-warmth, good Aunt Delia, with defiant looks about the circle,
+broke in with:--
+
+"I shouldn't wonder if Shakspere _has_ been made too much over."
+
+Mrs. Keyts stepped loyally into the breach thus effected.
+
+"Westley thinks Shakspere isn't such an _awful_ good book," she said,
+feeling her way, "though it seems to me it has some very interesting and
+excellent pieces in it."
+
+"Shakspere is _ver-ry_ uneven," remarked Mrs. Judge Robinson, in a tone
+of dignified concession.
+
+"There is always a word to be said on either side of these
+matters--there is undeniably room for controversy." Thus Mrs. Potts, in
+her best manner of authority, from the punch-bowl.
+
+"Let the dead rest!" gently murmured Miss Eubanks, from her dreamy
+corner of the biggest sofa. Her inflection was archly significant. One
+had to suspect that Shakspere, alive and a fair target for dispraise,
+might have learned something to his advantage if not to his delight.
+
+Miss Caroline was both surprised and gratified. At the previous meeting
+she had detected no sign of this concurring sentiment. She plunged again
+into Byron with renewed enthusiasm.
+
+The afternoon came to a glorious end, and the ladies departed with many
+expressions of rejoicing. They had found Miss Caroline so charming that
+several of them were torn with fresh pity and brought to the verge of
+tears when they thought of her furniture.
+
+Marcella Eubanks did cry on the way home and had to put down her green
+barege veil. But that was for thinking of poor little Paul Dombey. She
+was mourning him as a personal loss. Also must she have adored the
+genius of a master who could thus move her from a calm that was
+constitutional with every known Eubanks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+IN WHICH THE GAME WAS PLAYED
+
+The next _Argus_ said of Miss Caroline's afternoon that "the ladies
+present one and all report a most enjoyable time." There was another
+mysterious paragraph, too, farther down the column of "locals," which
+proclaimed that "The immovable body has at last been struck by the
+irresistible force and has failed to live up to its reputation. It moved
+and moved so you could see it move. Another bubble exploded! We live in
+a sensational age."
+
+Now, while it is true that the ladies, "one and all," had spoken with
+entire enthusiasm of their afternoon at the unpretentious home of my
+neighbor, I, nevertheless, deemed it vital to hold plain speech with
+that impulsive woman immediately. I saw, indeed, that I should have
+acted after the incident of the mint juleps.
+
+Solon Denney, who had experienced the hospitality of Miss Caroline, and
+who could speak from a wider knowledge than our minister or the ladies
+of the town, had once said:--
+
+"Those mint juleps are simple, honest things. They taste injurious from
+the start. But that punch--it's hypocritical. It steals into your brain
+as a little child steals its rosebud hand into yours, beguiling you with
+prattle; but afterwards--well, if I had the choice, I'd rather be
+chloroformed and struck sharply with an axe. I'd be my old self again
+sooner." Whereupon he would have written a guarded piece for the paper
+about this had I not dissuaded him. But I saw that I must at once have
+with Miss Caroline what in a later day came to be called "a
+heart-to-heart talk"; and I forthwith summoned what valor I could for
+the ordeal.
+
+"I never dreamed--I never suspected--how _should_ I?" she murmured
+pathetically, after my opening speech of a few simple but telling
+phrases. She listened in genuine horror while I gave the reasons why she
+might justly regard the call of our minister and her entertainment of
+the Club as nothing short of adventures--adventures which she had
+survived scathless not but by the favor of an indulgent Providence.
+
+"So _that_ is what those little white satin bows mean?" she asked, and I
+said that it most emphatically was.
+
+"I suspected it might be some kind of mourning for babies--a local
+custom, you know, though it did seem queer. What can they think of me?"
+
+"They don't know what to think now," I said, "and if you are wise, you
+will never let them know."
+
+"The Colonel was proud of that punch," she mused.
+
+"I dare say he had reasons," I answered grimly.
+
+"Especially after Cousin Looshe Peavey came to spend Christmas with us
+one time. The Colonel had always considered Cousin Looshe rather
+arrogant about this punch, and it may have been a special brew. I know
+that Cousin had an immense respect for it after he was able--that
+is--afterwards--"
+
+"I can easily believe it."
+
+"Cherry brandy--Jamaica rum--pint of Madeira--gill of port--a bit of
+cordial--some sherry--I forget if there's anything else."
+
+I grasped the chair in which I sat.
+
+"Heaven forbid!" I cried; "and don't tell me, anyway--I'm reeling now."
+
+"But of course there are lemons and oranges and cherries and tea and
+_quantities_ of ice to weaken it--"
+
+"The whole frozen polar sea itself couldn't weaken that mixture of
+elemental forces. See to it," I went on sternly, "that you remember only
+the innocent parts of it if you are ever asked for the recipe." She
+actually cowered.
+
+"Also as to mint juleps--remember that you have forgotten, if you ever
+knew how they are made."
+
+"Dear, _dear_--and our Bishop did enjoy his mint julep so!"
+
+"That's different," I said; "they were probably raised together."
+
+"And that afternoon, I thought something of the sort was necessary; do
+you know, they seemed rather cold to me at that other meeting--and of
+course there wasn't enough of it to hurt them."
+
+"Your intentions were amiable, I concede, but your carelessness was
+criminal--nothing short of it. You laid the train for a scandal that
+would have shaken Slocum County to its remotest outlying cornfield, and
+even made itself felt over this whole sovereign state."
+
+I was gratified to see that she shuddered.
+
+"I shall never learn," she pleaded; "their life is so different."
+
+"Let them at least live it out to its natural end, such as it is," I
+urged.
+
+Hereupon, confessing herself unnerved, Miss Caroline led me to the
+dining room, and in a glass of Madeira from a cask forwarded by
+Second-cousin Colonel Lucius Quintus Peavey, C.S.A., she pledged herself
+to preserve the decencies as these had been codified in Little Arcady by
+the Sons and Daughters of Temperance. For my part I drank to her
+continuance in the wondrous favor of Heaven.
+
+Thereafter, I am bound to say, Miss Caroline conducted herself with a
+discretion that was admirable. Upon more than one occasion I was made to
+notice this. One of them was at an evening entertainment at the Eubanks
+home that autumn, to which it was my privilege to escort her. "A large
+and brilliant company was present," to quote from a competent authority,
+and the refreshments were "recherche," to quote again, this being, I
+believe, the first of our social functions at which Japanese paper
+napkins were handed around. Eustace Eubanks entertained "one and all" by
+exhibiting and describing lantern views of important scenes in the Holy
+Land; Marcella sang "Comin' Thro' the Rye" with such iron restraint that
+the most fastidious among us could have found no cause for offence, and
+Eustace sang an innocent song of war and bloodshed and death. All went
+well until Eustace, being pressed for more, ventured a drinking song.
+Whether this had been censored by his household I have never learned.
+Perhaps there had been demurs--there were almost certain to have been;
+and possibly Eustace had held out for the thing because of the rare
+opportunity it afforded for the exercise of his lowest tones. Perhaps it
+had been deemed wise to indulge him in this, lest in rebellion he break
+all bonds of propriety and revert to the "Bedouin Love Song." At any
+rate he sang "Drinking," a song that lauds the wine-cup as chiefest of
+godless joys, and terminating in "drinking" thrice reiterated, of which
+each individual one finishes so much lower than it begins that the last
+one seems to expire in the bottomless pit.
+
+Many of those present appeared to enjoy this song. Even Marcella Eubanks
+seemed for once to have soared above mere principle into the unmoral
+realm of "Art for Art's sake." But it falls to be said, and I say it
+with a pride which I think should not excite cavil, that Miss Caroline
+frowned splendidly from the first moment that the song's true character
+was revealed. She superbly evinced uneasiness, moreover, when the thing
+was done, as if to say, "One can't tell _what_ may occur in a place
+where _that_ is permitted!" And her performance was not observed by
+myself alone. Marcella saw it and sped to her brother, who, after
+listening to hurried words from her, dashed into "The Lost Chord" with a
+swift and desperate fervor, as if to allay all alarm in the mind of this
+sensitive guest. Eustace was at heart as earnestly well meaning as any
+Eubanks that ever lived, and his vagaries in song were attributable
+solely to a trusting nature capriciously endowed with a dash of the
+artistic temperament. It was only a dash, however. Beyond doubt, had his
+family but known, he could have sung the "Bedouin Love Song," and been
+none the worse for it.
+
+If Miss Caroline's eloquent pantomime at this time aroused a suspicion
+that she had been maligned, as to her habits of drink, her behavior on a
+subsequent evening, when Mrs. Judge Robinson entertained, left no one to
+doubt it. There was music, too, on this occasion--described elsewhere as
+"a gala occasion"--after Eustace had concluded his part of the
+entertainment and gotten his lantern out of the way,--music by a quartet
+consisting of Messrs. Fancett and Eubanks, first and second bass, and
+Messrs. Updyke and G. Brown, first and second tenor. In excellent accord
+these tenors and basses, so blameless in their living, lifted up their
+voices and sang they "would that the wavelets of ocean were wavelets of
+sparkling champagne!" It was a blithe and rippling morceau if one could
+forget the well-nigh cosmic depravity of it; but Miss Caroline, it
+appeared, was not able to forget. She confided as much to Marcella
+Eubanks and Aunt Delia McCormick, intimating that while she was doubly
+desirous to be pleased because of her position as an outsider, she was,
+nevertheless, a silly old woman, encrusted with prejudice, and she could
+not deny that she found this song _suggestive_. Her eyes glistened when
+she said it, and Marcella felt like pinning a white ribbon to her then
+and there.
+
+Escorting Miss Caroline to her home that night, I listened to her
+account of this colloquy and found myself wishing that matters had been
+different. It seemed to me that I must ultimately become the victim of a
+romantic passion for her, and I told her as much when we parted.
+
+Gossip, the yellow-tongued dragon, had been tracked to its lair and done
+to death, or at least that one of its heads had been smitten off which
+babbled slander of Miss Caroline.
+
+Thenceforth she and I were free to think upon other matters. And there
+were these other matters in both our lives.
+
+As to most of them we did not hold speech together. Our intimacy as yet
+lay quite within a circle so charmed that it might not be entered by
+things too personal to either of us. By a kind of tacit treaty we
+brought thither none but those affairs which invited a not too serious
+tone. Our late common life had provided an abundance of these, and they
+had been hailed by my friend with an unfailing levity which the widow of
+J. Rodney Potts, for one, would have found it impossible to condone. "I
+am a light old woman," she had said to me; "I laugh at the world even
+when I fear it most." There was a desperate sprite of banter in her eye
+when she made this confession, a sprite that leaped forth to be gay when
+I shrived her. But, though we sacredly observed all mirthful conventions
+in our dallying, I knew that Miss Caroline had more than enough to
+ponder of matters weighty. I knew that she was likely to have regretted
+a too-ready sharing of Clem's easy enthusiasm over industrial conditions
+in the North.
+
+Clem believed by instinct not only that the evil thereof is sufficient
+unto the day, but that the incidental good sufficeth also. His quality
+of faith would have seemed a pointed rebuke to the common run of
+believers in a Providence that watches and sends. Confronted by the
+spectre of present want he could exorcise it neatly by the device of
+beholding, in a contrary vision, future limitless pullets of a
+marketable immaturity, or endless acres of garden produce ripe and ready
+to sell. Moreover, his experience with "gold money" was as yet
+insufficient to acquaint him with its truly volatile character. All sums
+greater than a hundred dollars were blessedly alike to him--equally
+prodigious. Two hundred, or thousands, or tens of thousands sent the
+same rays of light through the spectrum of his poetic mind, and a bank
+was an institution of such abiding grace that, having once established a
+connection with it, one possessed forever a stout prop in time of need.
+I was sure indeed that Miss Caroline had defined these limitations of
+Clem as a financier. It was one of those enjoyable topics which we had
+been free to discuss. That she had discovered how lamentably his
+resources had been reduced by freight tolls on her furniture I could
+only infer. But I knew, at least, that she was aware of the blistering,
+rainless summer that had laid Clem's high hopes of a garden in dust and
+cut off half his revenue. Plainly, Miss Caroline had more than enough of
+matters fit to engage her graver moments.
+
+For my own part I, too, had matters to dwell upon of an equal gravity in
+their own poor way; though perhaps, too, I could not have defined them
+as understandingly as I did the perplexities of my neighbor.
+
+Happily the feat need not be attempted; I had the game, in which
+troubles may be played away at least beyond the necessity for analyzing
+them--the game which requires two decks and is to be played alone--the
+most efficacious of those devices for the solitary which cards afford.
+
+I had been made acquainted with its scheme and with some of its cruder
+virtues by a certain illustrious soldier whom I was once much thrown
+with. He confessed to me that he played it before a battle to inspire
+him with coolness, and after a battle to learn wise behavior under
+victory or defeat, as it might have been.
+
+I was persuaded to learn more of it. I played the thing at first, to be
+sure, as I have noticed that novices always do, with a mind so bent upon
+"getting it" that I was insensible of its curative and refining
+agencies.
+
+"You haven't the secret yet," said my mentor, who watched me as I won
+for the first time, and was moved to warn me by my unconcealed pride in
+this achievement. "After you've played it a few years, you'll learn that
+the value of it lies chiefly in losing. You'll try like the devil to
+win, of course, but you'll learn not to wish for it. To win is nothing
+but an endless piling up of the right cards, beginning with the ace and
+ending with the king, and it only means more shuffling for next time.
+But every time you lose you will learn things about everything."
+
+It was even as he said,--it took me years to learn this true merit of
+the game; and still, as he had said, I learned much from it of life.
+
+There is a fine moment at the last shuffling of the cards, a moment when
+free will and fatalism are indistinguishably merged.
+
+I am ready to lay down eight cards in a horizontal row off my double
+deck. Who will say that the precise number of shuffles I have given to
+it was preordained?
+
+"I do," exclaimed an obliging fatalist. "The sequence of every one of
+those cards was determined when we were yet star-dust."
+
+I bring confusion to him by performing half a dozen other shuffles. I am
+thus far the master of my unborn game--another last shuffle to prove it,
+though I shuffle clumsily enough.
+
+I glance disdainfully at the fatalist whom I have refuted, and prepare
+again to lay down the first row of cards. But the fellow comes back
+with, "Those last shuffles were also determined, as was this
+challenge--"
+
+"Very well!" and I prepare for still another rearrangement. But here I
+reflect that this could be endless and not at all interesting.
+
+I dismiss the fatalist as a quibbler and play on. Now there is no
+dispute, unless there be other quibblers. Fixed is the order in which
+the cards shall fall, eight at a time. There is pure fatalism. But in
+the movings after each eight are dealt, I shall consciously choose and
+judge, which is pure free will--or an imitation of it sufficiently
+colorable to satisfy any, but quibblers. There, for me, is the fatalism
+of body, the free will of soul. Of these I learn when I play the game.
+
+Now my first eight cards are down in a horizontal row. There are two
+kings among them, which is auspicious, for kings must be placed sometime
+at the top. There is a red queen, also auspicious, to be placed on one
+of the black kings. There is an ace of diamonds and its deuce. Good,
+again! The ace is placed above the row, beginning a row of aces to be
+placed there as fast as they fall, and the deuce is placed atop of it,
+for in that row the suits will be built _up_, each in its kind. In the
+lower rows the suits are to be built down and crossed, as when I played
+the red queen on the black king, so that only the top of his crowned
+head can be seen. Then I play a red eight on a black nine and a black
+seven on the red eight. I am now left most fortunately with five spaces
+when I deal off my second row of eight,--five spaces into which, it may
+be, a king or two shall happily fall.
+
+The game usually becomes intense after the third eight cards are played.
+By that time a choice must be made. Shall this black six or the other be
+played on the red seven? One must be wise, for either will release
+important cards.
+
+The game has started so well that it promises to play out too
+easily--which is one of its tricks. Presently a deuce will be covered by
+a king for which no space is ready, a dark queen will be buried under a
+succession of smaller cards, crowding along with apparent carelessness,
+but relentlessly. Now a space is opened for the king that covers the
+deuce, but the king has meantime been covered by an insignificant but
+unmanageable four-spot, and cannot be reached. The game is not so
+absurdly easy as it promised to be. Still it may be won by clever
+playing. There follow eight cards that prove to be immovable, and the
+issue is almost in doubt. Now the last eight cards are down, and the
+game is suddenly seen to be lost. One small other shuffle might have won
+it; if that tray of spades had fallen one place to the right or left,
+the thing would now be easy; if it were a deuce or a four, the thing
+were easy. One spot on the card has brought ruin. The game has foiled us
+with its own peculiar cleverness.
+
+But then, we learn to expect failure; and, most important of all, we
+learn to succeed while failing. We learn to see our cards fall
+wretchedly without a tremor. We learn to take small gains that offer,
+and to watch unmoved while splendid chances come to naught. We learn to
+live life and to waste no energy in vain wishing that we had shuffled
+differently. We learn even to marvel admiringly at the unobtrusive
+cunning which thwarts us of our dream's own--to wonder that cards ever
+should come right for any player in that maze of chances and faulty
+judgments. And we learn, above all, to brush the things together without
+loss of time and to play a new hand with the same old hope.
+
+As I studied the cards, making sure of my defeat--one must be most
+careful to do that; a way is sometimes to be found--it was not strange
+that I fell to thinking of the face on my neighbor's wall.
+
+I had mused often upon it since that first night. It seemed, curiously
+enough, to be a face that had long been mistily afloat in my shut eyes,
+a girl's face that had a trick of blending from time to time with the
+face of another I had better reason to know. Unaccountably they had come
+and gone, one followed by the other. Of that last new face in my vision
+I could make nothing, save that some one seemed to have painted it over
+there in the other house. How I had come by my own mind copy of it was a
+mystery to me beyond solution.
+
+I played the game again to still this perplexity which had a way of
+seizing me at odd moments. It is an especially good game for a man who
+has had to believe that life will always beat him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+A WORTHLESS BLACK HOUND
+
+After an autumn speciously benign came our season of cold and snow. It
+proved to be a season of unwonted severity, every weather expert in
+town, from Uncle William McCormick, who had kept a diary record for
+thirty years, to Grandma Steck, who had foretold its coming from a
+goose-bone, agreeing that the cold was most unusual. The editor of the
+_Argus_ not only spoke of "Nature's snowy mantle," but coined another
+happy phrase about Little Arcady being "locked in the icy embrace of
+winter." This was admitted to be accurately literal, in spite of its
+poetic daring.
+
+Miss Caroline confessed homesickness to me after the first heavy snow.
+She spoke as lightly of it as she should have done, but I could see that
+her own land pulled at her heart with every blast that shook her
+casements. No longer, however, was there even a second-cousin whose
+hospitality she was free to claim, for Colonel Lucius Quintus Peavey,
+C.S.A., now slept with his fathers in far-off Virginia, leaving behind
+him only traditions and a little old sherry. The former Miss Caroline
+had always shared with him, and a cask of the latter he bequeathed to
+her with his love. And the valley being now void of her kin, she was
+doubly an exile.
+
+Such new desolation as she must have felt was masked under jesting
+dispraise of our execrable Northern climate. Surely a land permitted to
+congeal so utterly had forfeited the grace of its Maker.
+
+Clem's lack of executive genius also earned a meed of my neighbor's
+disparagement. He was a worthless, trifling "boy," an idling dreamer, an
+irresponsible, inconsequent visionary, in whose baseless fancies it was
+astounding that a woman of her years should fatuously place reliance.
+
+I must confess that I was more than once guilty of irritation when Miss
+Caroline spoke thus slightingly of her "boy"--of one who had been unable
+to view himself as other than her personal property. Again and again it
+seemed to me that, fine little creature that she was, her tone toward
+Clem lacked the right feeling. I should not have demanded gratitude
+precisely; at least no bald expression of it. But a manner of speech
+denoting, if not wording, a recognition of his unswerving loyalty would
+have accorded better with the estimate I had otherwise formed of her
+character. The absence of any tone or word that even one so devoted as I
+could construe to her advantage was puzzling in the extreme.
+
+Still, feeling toward her as I did, I was compelled to excuse her as
+best I might by attributing her hardness to an evil system now happily
+abolished. But the nerves in my lost arm seemed to tingle with a secret
+satisfaction when I thought of Clem's empty reward for his life-work and
+remembered that I had helped, though ever so little, to free him and his
+kind from a bond so unfortunate for each of the parties to it.
+
+The winter deepened about us, chill and bleak and ravaging. The smoke
+from our chimneys went up in tall columns that lost themselves in the
+gray sky. The snow shut us in, and presently the wind lay in wait to
+blast us when we dared the drifts.
+
+Yet Miss Caroline throve, despite her nostalgia. She was even jaunty in
+her recital of the weather's minor hardships. To its rigors she brought
+a front of resolute gayety. A new stove graced the parlor, a stove with
+the proud nickeled title of "Frost King"; a title seen to be deserved
+when Clem had it properly gorged with dry wood. Within its tropic
+radiations Miss Caroline bloomed and was hale of being, like some hardy
+perennial.
+
+Of Clem, nothing but hardiness was to be anticipated. He had been
+toughened by four other of our winters, all said to have been unusual
+for severity. And yet it was Clem, curiously enough, and not Miss
+Caroline, who found the season most trying. True, he had to be abroad
+most of the time, procuring sustenance for the insatiable "Frost King,"
+or performing labor for other people by which Miss Caroline should
+preserve her independence; but it was not supposed that a creature of
+his sort could be subject to weaknesses natural enough to a superior
+race.
+
+I believe this was his own view of the matter; for when he admitted to
+me one morning that he had "took cold in the chest," his manner was one
+of deprecating confusion, and he swore me against betrayal of his lapse
+to Miss Caroline.
+
+She discovered his guilt for herself, however, after a few days, from
+his very annoying cough. She taxed him with it so sturdily that efforts
+at deception availed him not. His tale that the snow sifted into his
+"bref-place" and "tickled it" was pitifully unconvincing, for his cough
+was deeper than Eustace Eubanks's proudest note in the drinking song.
+
+"He's a worthless thing," said Miss Caroline, telling me of his fault,
+and I said he was indeed--that he hadn't served me four years without my
+finding _that_ out. I added that he was undoubtedly shamming, but that
+at the same time it might be as well to take a few simple precautions.
+Miss Caroline said that of course he was shamming, in order to get out
+of work, and that she would soon drive _that_ nonsense out of his head
+if she had to wear the black wretch out to do it. She added that she was
+about tired of his nonsense.
+
+It may be known that I have heretofore lost no opportunity to foist all
+faults of understanding upon the heads of my fellow-townsmen. And I
+should have liked to keep my record clear in that matter; but it would
+be uncandid to pretend, even at this late day, that I have ever divined
+the precise relationship that exists between Miss Caroline and her
+slave. I may know a bit more of its intricacies than does Little Arcady
+at large, but not enough to permit that certain thrill of superior
+discernment which I have so often been able to enjoy in Slocum County.
+
+Each of the two, considered alone, is fairly comprehensible. But taken
+together, there is something between them which must always baffle
+me--something which I cannot believe to have been at all typical of the
+relation between owner and slave, else many of the facts noted by our
+discerning and impartial investigators were either imperfectly observed
+or unintelligently reported.
+
+Up to a certain point my own studies of this slave-holder aligned
+perfectly with the information which we of the North had been at such
+pains to gather. And I tried to hold Miss Caroline blameless,
+remembering that she had been long schooled to the inhumanity of it.
+
+I resolved, nevertheless, to take Clem under my own roof--there was a
+small unused room almost directly under it--the moment Miss Caroline's
+impatience with him should move her to the extremes foretold by her
+abusive fashion of speech. I would not see even a negro turned out in
+the coldest of winters for no better reason than that he was sick and
+useless, though I planned to intervene delicately, so as not to affront
+my neighbor. For my heart was still hers, despite this hardness, for
+which I saw that she must not be blamed.
+
+As I had feared, Clem's cough became more obtrusive, and with this Miss
+Caroline's irritation deepened toward him. She declared that his
+trifling, no-account nature made him all but impossible.
+
+Then one morning--one to be distinguished by its cold even among many
+unusual mornings--there was no Clem to light my fires and to scent my
+snug dining room with unparalleled coffee. This brought it definitely
+home to me that the situation had become grave. I dressed with what
+speed I could and hurried to Miss Caroline's door. The time had come
+when I should probably have to do something.
+
+My neighbor met me and said that Clem had meanly decided to remain in
+bed for the day. I searched her face for some sign of consideration as
+she said this, but I was disappointed. She seemed to feel only a fierce
+disgust for his foolishness.
+
+"But you may go up and look at the black good-for-nothing if you like,"
+she said, grudgingly enough I thought.
+
+I climbed the brief flight of stairs. I knew that Clem had not refused
+to get up without reasons that seemed sufficient to him. In a narrow bed
+in one of the doll-house rooms he lay coughing.
+
+"So you can't get up this morning?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, seh, Mahstah Majah, Ah _was_ a-gittin' up, but Ah was fohced to
+cough raght smahtly an' Miss Cahline she yehs it an' she awdeh me back
+to baid, seh. Then Ah calls out to huh that Ah ain't go'n' a' have no
+sech foolishness in this yeh place, an' so she stahts to come up, which
+fohces me to retiah huhiedly. Then she stands theh at th' head of th'
+staihs an' she faulted me--yes, seh--she _threaten_ me, Mahstah Majah,
+an' she tek mah clothes away, an' so on an' so fothe. Then Ah huhd huh
+a' mekin' th' fiah an' then she brung this yeh cawfee an' she done mek
+it that foolish that Ah can't tech it. Yes, seh, she plumb ruined that
+theh cawfee, _that's_ what she done!"
+
+His tone was peevish. Clem himself was not talking as I thought would
+have been becoming in him. And there was a definite issue of veracity
+between him and his mistress. I went down again, for the room was cold.
+
+"He has some fever," I said.
+
+"He is a lazy black hound," said Miss Caroline.
+
+"He says you ordered him to stay in bed--threatened him and hid his
+clothes."
+
+"Oh, never fear but what that fellow will always have an excuse!" she
+retorted shortly.
+
+Observing that she had a day's supply of wood at hand, I left, not a
+little annoyed at both of them. I missed my coffee.
+
+When I knocked at the door that evening, no one came to admit me. I went
+in, hearing Clem's voice in truculent protest from a large room on the
+first floor which had been called the room of Little Miss. I went to the
+door of this room.
+
+Clem and his bed were there. We had two physicians in Little Arcady, Old
+Doc and Young Doc. Young Doc was now present measuring powders into
+little papers which he folded neatly, while Miss Caroline stood at hand,
+cowering but stubborn under Clem's violence.
+
+"Miss Cahline, yo' suttinly old enough t' know betteh'n that. Ah do wish
+yo' Paw was about th' house--he maghty quickly put yo'-all in yo' place.
+Now Ah tole yo' Ah ain't go'n' a' have none o' this yeh Doctah
+foolishness. Yo' not go'n' a' stravagate all that theh gole money on
+sech crazy doin's an' mek us be indigent in ouah ole aige. What Ah
+_want_ with a Doctah? Hanh! Anseh me that! Yo'-all jes' git me a little
+bit calamus an' some catnip, an' Ah do all th' doctahin' tha's
+advisable." All this he brought out with difficulty, for his breathing
+was by no means free.
+
+"He's up to his tricks," said Miss Caroline, contemptuously, to me.
+Then, to Clem, seeming to draw courage from my presence, "You be quiet,
+there, you lazy, black good-for-nothing, or I'll get some one here to
+wear you out!" And Clem was again the vanquished.
+
+"Pneumonia," said Young Doc. "Bad," he added as we stepped into the
+drawing-room. "Take lots of care."
+
+I thought it as well that Young Doc had come. Old Doc, though well
+liked, boasted that all any man of his profession needed, really, were
+calomel and a good knife. Young Doc had always seemed to be subtler.
+Anyway, he was of a later generation. I learned that Old Doc had scorned
+to make the call, believing that a "nigger" could not suffer from
+anything but yellow fever or cracked shins. For this reason he became
+genuinely interested in Clem's case as it was later reported to him by
+Young Doc.
+
+To the rest of Little Arcady the case was also of interest. Sympathy had
+heretofore been with Clem, because Miss Caroline paid him no wages, and
+was believed to take what he earned from other people.
+
+Now, however, an important number of persons veered--in wonder if not in
+absolute sympathy. That the woman should watch and nurse the black
+fellow, apparently with perfect single-heartedness, was not to be
+squared with any known laws of human association. "Nursing a nigger in
+her own house with her own hands," was the fashion of describing this
+untoward spectacle. It was like taking a sick horse into your house, and
+making play that it was human. The already puzzled town was further
+mystified, and it is probable that Miss Caroline fell a little in public
+esteem. Her course was not thought to be edifying. She could have sent
+Clem to the county poor farm, where he would have been seen to, after a
+fashion good enough for one of his color, by the proper authorities.
+
+My own bewilderment was at first hardly less than the town's. Had Miss
+Caroline suddenly changed her manner toward Clem, showing regret,
+however belated, for her previous abuse of him, I should have
+understood. That would have been a simple case of awakened sensibility.
+But she continued to disparage him to his face and to me. She was
+venomous--scurrilous in her abuse. Yet only with the greatest difficulty
+could I persuade her to let me share the watch that must be kept over
+him. She called him an infamous black wretch, in tones befitting her
+words, but I could not get her to leave him even so long as her own
+health demanded.
+
+There came nights, however, as the disease ran its course, when she had
+to give up from sheer lack of force. Then she permitted me to watch,
+though even at these times she often broke from sleep to come and be
+assured that the worthless black hound had not changed for the worse.
+
+One dim, early morning, when she thought I had gone, after my night's
+watch, I returned softly to the half-opened door with a forgotten
+injunction about the medicines. All night Clem had babbled languidly of
+many things, of "a hunded thousan' hatchin' aigs," and "a thousan'
+brillion dollahs," of "Mahstah Jere" and "Little Miss," of a visiting
+Cousin Peavey whom he had been obliged to "whup" for his repeated
+misdemeanors; and darkly and often had he whispered, so low I could
+scarcely hear it, of an enemy that was entering the room with a fell
+design. "_Tha'_ he is--he go'n' a' sprinkle snake-dust in mah
+boots--tha' he is--watch _out_!"
+
+He still maundered weakly as I reached the door, but it was not this
+that detained me at its threshold. It was Miss Caroline, who had
+actually knelt at his side. At first I thought she wept over one of his
+blue-black hands, which she clung eagerly to with both her own. Then I
+saw that there seemed to be no tears--yet silently, almost impassively,
+she gave me a sense of hopeless grief that I thought no outburst of
+weeping could have done.
+
+I wondered wildly then if her fashion of speech for Clem might not mask
+some real affection for him. But this was unsatisfying. On the spot I
+gave up all wondering forever about Miss Caroline. I have ever since
+constrained myself to accept her without question, even in situations of
+difficulty. There is so much vain knowledge.
+
+That day, too, was the bad day when news came that Little Miss had been
+stricken with the same dread pneumonia. When she told me this, Miss
+Caroline had a look in her eyes that I suspect must often have been
+there in the first half of the sixties. It was calm enough, but there
+was a resistance in it that promised to be unbreakable. And to my
+never-ending wonder she seemed still to be more concerned about Clem
+than about her daughter.
+
+"Will you go to her?" I asked.
+
+She smiled. "That could hardly be afforded just now."
+
+"You could manage it, I think. Clem has some money due from me."
+
+"Even so, I couldn't leave Clem. My daughter will be cared for, but Clem
+wouldn't have anybody. We'll fight it out on this line, Major."
+
+I now saw that continuous questioning about Miss Caroline would bring
+one in time to madness, and I was glad of my resolve never again to
+indulge in this unprofitable occupation.
+
+But even pneumonia has its defeats. Young Doc surprised Old Doc again;
+for the latter, once convinced that an African could suffer so civilized
+an affliction as pneumonia, had declined to believe that he could ever
+"throw it off," and had disclosed good reasons why he could not to an
+attentive group at the City Drug Store.
+
+Yet after a night when Miss Caroline had refused to let me watch, she
+met me at the door as Young Doc was leaving. She was wearied but
+chipper, though there was an unsteady little lift in her voice as she
+said:--
+
+"That lazy black wretch is going to get well!"
+
+"It's about time," I said grimly. "I've been in a bad way without him.
+Indeed I'm very glad to hear you say so."
+
+Her eyes twinkled approval upon me, I thought.
+
+"You've behaved excellently, Major. Really, I am glad that we left you
+that other arm." This was almost in her old manner, though her eyes
+seemed a little dimmed by her excitement. Then, with a sudden return to
+the patient:--
+
+"I wonder if you would be good enough to go in and swear at Clem. He's
+perfectly rational now, and it will hearten him wonderfully. He's
+dreadfully mortified because he's been sick so long. And it needs a man,
+you know, really. I'll close the door for you. Do it hard! Call him a
+damned black hound, if you please, and ask him what he means by it!"
+
+I hurried in, for Miss Caroline's eyes were threatening to betray her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+IN WHICH SOMETHING MUST BE DONE
+
+Clem's prolonged convalescence was a trial to his militant spirit. The
+month or more of curious weakness in his body, always before so stout,
+left him with a fear that he had been "pah'lyzed in th' frame."
+Moreover, there were troubles less intimately personal to him, but not
+less harassing to the household.
+
+There was Little Miss, who was making a fight like Clem's own in a
+Baltimore hospital. Each day I bore to Miss Caroline a telegram
+detailing the progress of her daughter, though it had cost me time and
+trouble to convince my correspondent that he was not to skimp such
+encouragement as might be his to offer, merely to comprise it within ten
+words. There were three days, it is true, when ten words were more than
+enough in which to be non-committal. And there was a day that came upon
+the heels of these when the profits of the telegraph company must have
+been unusual, for only two words came instead of ten--"Recovery
+doubtful." This might as well have been left unsent, for I tore it up
+and assured the waiting pair that no news was good news. They tried
+eagerly to believe this aphorism, which has the authority of age, but
+which I suspect was coined originally from despair.
+
+The next day's bulletin read "Temperature still up, but making a strong
+fight." Stupid it was, when these were but eight words, not to have
+added two more, such as, "Very hopeful." I induced our telegraph
+operator to rectify this oversight, and felt repaid for my trouble when
+I showed the message. That last touch seemed to have been needed. Of
+course Little Miss would make a strong fight. Miss Caroline and Clem
+both knew that. But they had known other strong fights to be none the
+less hopeless, and they were grateful for those last two words of
+qualification.
+
+There were four other days when the report seemed to need judicious
+editing, and in this I did not prove remiss. As the telegraph company
+remained indifferent, I could see that no harm was done. For at last
+came a bulletin of seventeen words which left us assured that Little
+Miss had conquered. Henceforth we could receive the things without that
+stifling dread, that eager fearfulness of the eyes to read all the words
+in one glance. Leisurely could we learn that Little Miss was getting
+back her strength, and Miss Caroline and I could laugh at Clem's fear
+that she also would find herself "pah'lyzed in th' frame."
+
+After that Miss Caroline and I were free to consider another matter,
+weighty enough with pneumonia out of the running. This was a matter of
+ways and means--of sheer, downright money.
+
+When Clem, in the first days of his sickness, had warned Miss Caroline
+that she would not be let to waste "all that gold money," his lofty
+reference, as a matter of cold figures, was to a sum less than nine
+dollars. I forget the precise amount, but that is near enough--nine
+dollars, in round numbers. And the winter had been an expensive one.
+
+At the lowest time of doubt, when Miss Caroline had affairs of extreme
+gravity to face, I had spoken to her incidentally of money that I owed
+to Clem for services performed, and I had, in fact, paid several
+instalments of the debt as money seemed to be needed.
+
+When Clem's recovery was assured and I urged Miss Caroline to go to
+Little Miss, she asked me bluntly what sum I had owed Clem. I felt
+obliged to confess that it was not more than two hundred dollars.
+
+This must have surprised Miss Caroline as much as it rejoiced her, for
+she took up the matter with Clem, and in so clumsy a fashion that he,
+perhaps owing to his enfeebled condition, witlessly made a confession at
+variance with mine, and with an effect of candor that moved his
+questioner to take his word rather than that of an officer and a
+gentleman. Of course this was not at all like Clem. In referring to sums
+of money due him he had ever been wont to chant them with a bard-like
+inflation that recognized only sums of a vague but immense rotundity. I
+had never known him to be thus prosaic, and I suspected that Miss
+Caroline had, in a sudden impulse of doubt, terrified him into being so
+brutally explicit.
+
+Whence fell a coldness between Miss Caroline and me, for the discrepancy
+between Clem's confession and mine was not slight. Even my mutterings
+about interest having accumulated were put down as the desperate
+resource of embarrassment. Miss Caroline did not even dignify them with
+her notice, and the coldness increased.
+
+Yet, while it was a true coldness, it was distinguished by a certain
+alien quality of warmth, for Miss Caroline, though now on guard against
+any mere vulgar benevolence of mine, talked to me frankly, as she had
+never done before, about her situation.
+
+First, it was impossible to think of going to her daughter. There were
+debts in the town; Clem would be unable to work for many weeks; and not
+only had Little Miss's contribution from her small wage now failed, but
+she herself had incurred debts and would be without money to pay them.
+
+My neighbor depicted the gravity of this situation with a spirit that
+taxed my powers of admiration,--powers not slight, I may explain; for
+had they not already been developed beyond the ordinary by this same
+woman? Not even was she downcast in my presence. In fine, she was
+superbly Miss Caroline to me. If I saw that to herself she was an
+ill-fated old woman, perversely surviving a wreck with which she should
+have gone down, alone in a land that seemed unkind because it did not
+understand, and in desperate straits for the commonest stuff in the
+world,--why, that was no matter to be opened between us. We affected
+with mild philosophy to study a situation that not only did not require
+study but scarcely permitted it by candid souls. But we affected to
+agree that something must be done, which sounded very well indeed.
+
+As a sign that she bore me no malice it was promised that I might hire a
+man to plant Clem's garden that spring, with the understanding that I
+should thus acquire an equity in its product. This seemed to be in the
+line of that something that must be done, and Miss Caroline and I made
+much of it, to avoid the situation's more embarrassing aspects.
+
+"If I could only sell something," said my neighbor, with a vacant look
+about the room--a look of humorous disparagement. "The silver is good,
+but there's hardly enough of it to pay one of those debts--and I've
+nothing else but Clem. But if I tried to sell him," she added brightly,
+"it would only bring on trouble again with your Northern President. I
+know just how it would be."
+
+We parted on this jest. Miss Caroline, I believe, went to be scolded by
+Clem for her trifling ways, while I sought out Solon Denney.
+
+When something must be done, I seem never to know what it shall be. I
+believe Solon is often quite as uncertain, but he will never confess
+this, so that talk with him under such circumstances stimulates if it
+does not sustain.
+
+I put Miss Caroline's difficulties before him. As any common catalogue
+of troubles will not provoke Solon from a happy unconcern which is
+temperamental, I spared no details in my recital, and I observed at
+length that my listener was truly aroused to the bad way in which Miss
+Caroline found herself. He sat forward in his chair, rested one elbow
+upon his untidy desk, and for several moments of silence jabbed an inky
+pen rhythmically into the largest rutabaga ever grown in Slocum County.
+At last he sat back and gazed upon me distantly from inspired eyes.
+Then, with his characteristic enthusiasm, he exclaimed:--
+
+"Something will have to be done!"
+
+"Wonderful!" I murmured. "Here I've worried over the thing for two
+months, studied it in court, studied it in my office, studied it in
+bed--and couldn't make a thing out of it. All at once I am guided to a
+welling fount of wisdom, and the thing is solved in a flash. Solon, you
+dazzle me! Denney forever!"
+
+"Now, don't be funny, Calvin--I mean, don't try to be--" but I arose to
+go.
+
+"You've solved it, Solon. _Something must be done._ There's the
+difference between intuition and mere clumsy ratiocination. In another
+month I might have found this out for myself, but you divine it
+instantly. You're a clairvoyant. Now I'm going to find Billy Durgin.
+You've done the heavy work--you've discovered that something must be
+done. What we need now, I suppose, is a bright young detective to tell
+us what it is."
+
+But Solon interrupted soothingly. "There, there, something must be done,
+and, of course, I'll do it."
+
+"What will you do?"
+
+Even then I think he did not know.
+
+"We must use common sense in these matters," he said, to gain time, and
+narrowed his gaze for an interval of study. At last he drove the pen
+viciously to its hilt in the rutabaga, and almost shouted:--
+
+"I'll go to see Mrs. Potts!"
+
+Before I could again express my enthusiasm, reawakened by the felicitous
+adequacy of this device, he had seized his hat and was clattering
+noisily down the stairway.
+
+Two hours later Solon bustled into my own office, whither I had fled to
+forget his manifest incompetence. His hat was well back, and he seemed
+to be inflated with secrecy. I remembered it was thus he had impressed
+me just previous to the _coup_ that had relieved us of Potts. I knew at
+once that he was going to be mysterious with me.
+
+"I am not to say a word to any one," I began, merely to show him that I
+was not dense.
+
+He paused, apparently on the point of telling me as much. I saw that I
+had read him aright.
+
+"I am merely to be quiet and trust everything to you," I continued.
+
+"Oh, well,--if you--"
+
+"One moment--let me take a few more words out of your mouth. You are not
+certain, I am to remember, that anything will come of it, but you think
+something will. You think you may say _that_ much. But I am again to
+remember not to talk about it. There! That's it, isn't it?"
+
+He was entirely serious.
+
+"Well, that's _practically_ it. But I don't mind hinting a little, in
+strict confidence." He dropped into a chair, sitting earnestly forward.
+
+"You see, Cal, I remembered a little remark Mrs. Potts once made. I
+believe it was the day after Mrs. Lansdale entertained the ladies' club
+last summer--I remember she was complaining of a headache--"
+
+"I never knew Mrs. Potts to make a little remark," I said. I was not to
+be trifled with. Solon grinned.
+
+"Well, perhaps this one wasn't so very little, only I never thought of
+it again until this morning. It was about Mrs. Lansdale's furniture."
+
+"Indeed," I said in cold disinterest, having designed to be told more.
+
+"Well, Mrs. Potts thinks there may be something in it."
+
+His effort was to seem significant, but those things are apt to fail
+with me.
+
+"Oh, I see. Well, that's a good idea, Solon, but you and Mrs. Potts are
+slow. Billy Durgin had the same idea last summer while the furniture was
+being unloaded. He took a good look at some of those old pieces, and he
+confided to me in strict secrecy that there were probably missing wills
+and rolls of banknotes hidden away in them. It seems that they're the
+kind that have secret drawers. Billy knows a case where a man touched a
+spring and found thirty thousand dollars in a secret drawer, 'and from
+there,' as Billy says, 'he fled to Australia.' So you can see it's been
+thought of. Of course I've never spoken of it, because I promised Billy
+not to,--but there's nothing in it."
+
+"Bosh!" said Solon.
+
+"Of course it's bosh. I could have told Billy that, but some way I
+always feel tender about his illusions. You may be sure I've learned
+enough of the Lansdale family to know that no member of it ever hid any
+real money--money that would _spend_--and there hasn't been a will
+missing for at least six generations."
+
+"Bosh again!" said Solon. "It isn't secret drawers!"
+
+"No? What then?"
+
+"Well,--it's worse--and more of it."
+
+"Is that all you have to say?" I asked as he stood up.
+
+"Well, that's all I can say now. We must use common sense in these
+matters. But--Mrs. Potts has written!" With this cryptic utterance he
+stalked out.
+
+There had been little need to caution me to secrecy. I was not tempted
+to speak. Had I known any debtor of Miss Caroline's who would have taken
+"Mrs. Potts has written" in payment of his account, it might have been
+otherwise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+LITTLE ARCADY IS GRIEVOUSLY SHAKEN
+
+Mrs. Potts had written. I had Solon's word for it; but that which
+followed the writing will not cease within this generation or the next
+to be an affair of the most baffling mystery to our town folk. Me, also,
+it amazed; though my emotion was chiefly concerned with those gracious
+effects which the gods continued to manage from that apparently
+meaningless sojourn of J. Rodney Potts among us.
+
+Superficially it was a thing of utter fortuity. Actually it was a
+masterpiece of cunning calculation, a thing which clear-visioned persons
+might see to bristle with intention on every side.
+
+Years after that innocent encounter between an adventurous negro and an
+amiable human derelict in the streets of a far city,--those two atoms
+shaken into contact while the gods affected to be engaged with weightier
+matters,--the cultured widow of that derelict recalled the name of a
+gentleman in the East who was accustomed to buy tall clocks and
+fiddle-backed chairs, in her native New England, paying prices therefor
+to make one, in that conservative locality, rich beyond the dreams of
+avarice, almost.
+
+Such was the cleverly devised circumstance that now intervened between
+my neighbor and an indigence distressing to think about. It was as if,
+in the game, a red four which one had neglected to "play up" should
+actually permit victory after an intricate series of disasters, by
+providing a temporary resting-place for a black trey, otherwise fatally
+obstructive, causing the player to marvel afresh at that last fateful
+but apparently chance shuffle.
+
+A week after Mrs. Potts had written, the gentleman who received her
+letter registered as "Hyman Cohen, New York, N.Y.," at the City Hotel.
+From his manner of speech when he inquired for the Lansdale home it was
+seen that he seemed to be a German.
+
+When Miss Caroline received him a little later, he asked abruptly about
+furniture, and she, in some astonishment, showed him what she had, even
+to that crowded into dark rooms and out of use.
+
+He examined it carelessly and remarked that it was the worst lot that he
+had ever seen.
+
+This did not surprise Miss Caroline in the least, though she thought the
+gentleman's candor exceptional. Little Arcady's opinion, which she knew
+to tally with his, had always come to her more circuitously.
+
+The strange gentleman then asked Miss Caroline, not too urbanely, if she
+had expected him to come all the way from New York to look at such cheap
+stuff. Miss Caroline assured him quite honestly that she had expected
+nothing of the sort, and intimated that her regret for his coming
+surpassed his own, even if it must remain more obscurely worded. She
+indicated that the interview was at an end.
+
+The strange gentleman arose also, but as Clem was about to close the
+door after him, he offered Miss Caroline one hundred and fifty dollars
+for "the lot," observing again that it was worthless stuff, but that in
+"this business" a man had to take chances. Miss Caroline declined to
+notice this, having found that there was something in the gentleman's
+manner which she did not like, and he went down the path revealing
+annoyance in the shrug of his shoulders and the sidewise tilt of his
+head.
+
+To Mrs. Lansdale's unaffected regret, and amazement as well, the
+gentleman returned the following morning to say that he was about to
+leave for New York, but that he would actually pay one hundred and
+seventy-eight dollars for the stuff. This was at least twenty-two
+dollars more than it could possibly be worth, but the gentleman had an
+unfortunate passion for such things. Miss Caroline bowed, and called
+Clem as she left the room.
+
+The gentleman returned the morning of the third day to close the deal.
+He said he had missed his train on the previous day, and being a
+superstitious man he regarded that as an augury of evil. Nevertheless he
+had resolved to take the stuff even at a price that was ruinous. He
+unfolded two hundred dollars in the presence of Clem, and wished to know
+if he might send a wagon at once. Clem brought back word from Miss
+Caroline, who had declined to appear, that the strange gentleman would
+oblige her by ceasing his remarkable intrusions. Whereupon the gentleman
+had said: "Oh, very _well_! Then I go!"
+
+But he went no farther than the City Hotel; and here one may note a
+further contrivance of indirection on the part of our attending Fates.
+
+From the evening train of that day the 'bus brought another strange
+gentleman, of an Eastern manner, but somewhat neater of dress than the
+first one and speaking with an accent much less obtrusive. This
+gentleman wrote "James Walsingham Price, N.Y.," on the register, called
+for a room with a bath, ordered "coffee and rolls" to be sent there at
+eight-thirty the next morning, and then asked to see the "dinner card."
+
+After mine host, Jake Kilburn, had been made to understand what "dinner
+card" meant, he made Mr. James Walsingham Price understand that there
+was no dinner card. This being clear at last, the newcomer said: "Oh,
+_very_ well! Then just give my order to the head-waiter, will
+you--there's a good chap--a cup of consommé, a bit of fish, a bird of
+some sort, broiled, I fancy,--er--potatoes _au gratin_, a green salad of
+some kind,--serve that with the bird,--a piece of Camembert, if it's in
+good condition, any _entremet_ you have and a _demi-tasse_. I'll mix the
+salad dressing myself, tell him,--oh, yes--and a pint of Chambertin if
+you've something you can recommend."
+
+Billy Durgin, scrutinizing the newcomer in a professional way, told me
+afterwards that Jake Kilburn "batted his eyes" during this strange
+speech and replied to it, "like a man coming to"--"supper in twenty
+minutes," after which he pounded a bell furiously and then himself
+showed his new and puzzling guest to a room--but not a room "with a
+bath," be it understood, for a most excellent reason.
+
+Billy Durgin was excited half an hour later by noting the behavior of
+the first strange gentleman from the East as his eyes fell upon this
+second. He threw both hands into the air, where they engaged in rapid
+horizontal shakings from his pliant wrists, and in hushed gutturals
+exclaimed, "My God, my God!" in his own fashion of speech, which was
+reproduced admirably for me by my informant. Billy was thus confirmed in
+his earlier belief that the first strange gentleman was a house-breaker
+badly wanted somewhere, and he now surmised that the newcomer must be a
+detective on his trail. But a close watch on their meeting, a little
+later in the evening, seemed to contradict this engaging hypothesis. The
+second stranger emerged from the dining room, where he had been served
+with supper, and as he shut the door of that banqueting hall, Billy,
+standing by, heard him, too, call upon his Maker. He called only once,
+but it was in a voice so full of feeling as to make Billy suspect that
+he was remembering something unpleasant.
+
+At this point the newcomer had glanced up to behold the first strange
+gentleman, and Billy held his breath, expecting to witness a sensational
+capture. To his unspeakable disgust the supposed sleuth grinned affably
+at his supposed quarry and said: "Ah, Hyman! Is the stuff any good?"
+
+"How did you find it out?" asked the first strange gentleman.
+
+The other smiled winningly. "Why, I dropped into your place the other
+day, and that beautiful daughter-in-law of yours mentioned incidentally
+where you'd gone and what for. She's a good soul, Hyman, bright, and as
+chatty as she can be."
+
+"Ach! That Malke! She goes back right off to De Lancey Street, where she
+belongs," said the first stranger, plainly irritated.
+
+"How did you find the stuff, Hyman?"
+
+"Have you et your supper yet?"
+
+"Yes--'tisn't Kosher, is it? How did you find the stuff?"
+
+"No, it ain't Kosher--nothing ain't Kosher!"
+
+"It's a devilish sight worse, though. How did you find the stuff,
+Hyman?"
+
+The one called Hyman here seemed to despair of putting off this query.
+
+"No good! No good!--not a decent piece in the lot! I pledge you my word
+as a gentleman I wouldn't pay the freight on it to Fourth Avenue!" Billy
+remarked that the gentleman said "pletch" for pledge and "afanoo" for
+avenue.
+
+The second stranger, hearing this, at once became strangely cheerful and
+insisted upon shaking hands with the first one.
+
+"Fine, Hyman, fine! I'm delighted to hear you say so. Your words lift a
+load of doubt from my mind. It came to me in there just now that I might
+be incurring that supper for nothing but my sins!"
+
+"Have your choke," said Hyman, a little bitterly.
+
+"I have, Hyman, I have had my 'choke'!" said James Walsingham Price,
+with a glance of disrelish toward the dining room.
+
+It seemed clear to Billy Durgin, who reported this interview to me in a
+manner of able realism, that these men were both crooks of the first
+water.
+
+Billy at once polished his star and cleaned and oiled his new 32-caliber
+"bull-dog." The promise of work ahead for the right man loomed more
+brightly than ever before in his exciting career.
+
+While I discussed with Miss Caroline, that evening, the unpleasant
+mystery of her late caller, there came a note from him by messenger. He
+offered six hundred and twenty-one dollars for her furniture, the sum
+being written in large letters, so that it had the effect of being
+shouted from the page. He further expressed a wish to close the deal
+within the half hour, as he must leave town on the night train.
+
+Had Miss Caroline been alone, she might have fallen. Even I was
+staggered, but not beyond recovery. The messenger bore back, at my
+suggestion, a refusal of the offer and a further refusal to consider any
+more offers that evening. There was indicated a need for calm daylight
+consideration, and a face-to-face meeting with this variable Mr. Cohen.
+
+"But he leaves on the night train," said Miss Caroline. "It may be our
+last chance, and six hundred dollars is--"
+
+"He only says he leaves," I responded. "And for three days, at least,
+Mr. Cohen seems to have been grossly misinformed about his own
+movements. Perhaps he's deceived himself again."
+
+At eight o'clock the following morning Clem served my breakfast for the
+first time since his illness, and I approached it with thanksgiving for
+his recovery.
+
+A knock at the door took him from me just as he had poured the first cup
+of real coffee I had seen for nearly three months. He came back with the
+card of one James Walsingham Price, whom I did not know; whereas I did
+know the coffee.
+
+"Fetch him here," I said. "He can't expect me to leave this coffee,
+whoever he is."
+
+Into my dining room was then ushered a tall, smartly dressed,
+smooth-faced man of perhaps middle age, with yellowish hair compactly
+plastered to his head. He became, I thought, suddenly alert as he
+crossed my threshold. I arose to greet him.
+
+"This is--" I had to glance at the card.
+
+"Yes--and you're Major Blake? I regret to disturb you, Major,"--here his
+glance rested blankly upon the rich golden-brown surface of Clem's
+omelette, and it seemed to me that the thread of his intention was
+broken for an instant by a fit of absentmindedness. He resumed his
+speech only after an appreciable pause, as if the omelette had reminded
+him of something.
+
+"The hour is untimely, but I'm told that you're a friend of a Mrs.
+Lansdale, who has some pieces of Colonial furniture she wishes to let
+go. I wondered, you know, if you'd be good enough to introduce me. I
+rather thought some such formality might be advisable--I understand that
+a shark named Cohen has already approached her."
+
+Even as he spoke I recalled that Mr. Cohen's face, in profile, might
+provoke the vision of a shark to a person of lively imagination.
+
+"I shall be glad," I said, "to present you to Mrs. Lansdale."
+
+Again had my caller's glance trailed across the breakfast table, where
+the omelette, the muffins, and the coffee-urn waited. The glance was
+politely unnoting, but in it there yet lurked, far back, the
+unmistakable quality of a caress. In an instant I remembered, and, with
+a pang of sympathy, I became his hungered brother.
+
+"By the way, Mr. Price, are you staying at the City Hotel?"
+
+"The man said it was the only place, you know."
+
+"You had breakfast there this morning?" He bowed his assent eloquently,
+I thought.
+
+"Then by all means sit down and have breakfast."
+
+"Oh, _really_, no--by _no_ means--I assure you I'd a capital
+breakfast--"
+
+"Clem!"
+
+Clem placed a chair, into which Mr. Price dropped without loss of time,
+though protesting with polished vehemence against the imposition.
+
+His eyes shone, nevertheless, as Clem set a cup of coffee at his elbow
+and brought a plate.
+
+"May I ask when you arrived?" I questioned.
+
+"Only last evening."
+
+"Then you dined at the City Hotel?"
+
+"Major Blake, I will be honest with you--I _did!_"
+
+"Clem, another omelette, quick--but first fetch some oranges, then put
+on a lot more of that Virginia ham and mix up some waffles, too. Hurry
+along!"
+
+"Really, you are very good, Major."
+
+"Not that," I answered modestly; "I've merely eaten at the City Hotel."
+But I doubt if he heard, for he lovingly inhaled the aroma of his coffee
+with half-shut eyes.
+
+"I am delighted to have met you," he said. "If ever you come to New
+York--" He tore himself from the omelette long enough to scribble the
+name of a club on the card by my plate.
+
+"I rarely crave more than coffee and a roll in the morning," he
+continued, after the second omelette, the ham, the waffles, and more
+coffee had been consumed. "I fancy it's your bracing air."
+
+I fancied it was only the City Hotel, but I did not revert to that.
+
+When at last Mr. Price lighted a cigar which I had procured at an
+immense distance from Slocum County, he spoke of furniture, also of
+Cohen.
+
+Beheld through the romantic mist of after-breakfast, Cohen was, perhaps,
+not wholly a shark; at least not more than any dealer in old furniture.
+Really, they were almost forced to be sharks. It was not in the nature
+of the business that they should lead honest lives. Mere collectors--of
+which class my guest was--were bad enough. Still, if you could catch a
+collector in one of his human moments--
+
+He blew forth the smoke of my cigar with a relish so poignant that I
+suspected he had already tried one of Jake Kilburn's best, the kind
+concerning which Jake feels it considerate to warn purchasers that they
+are "five cents, straight" and _not_ six for a quarter. I saw that if
+the collector before me were subject to human moments, he must be
+suffering one now. So, while he smoked, I told him freely of Miss
+Caroline, of her furniture and her plight.
+
+He commended the tale.
+
+"One of the best I ever heard," he declared. "Only, if you'll pardon me,
+it sounds too good to be true. It sounds, indeed, like a 'plant,'--fine
+old Southern family, impoverished by war--faithful body-servant--old
+Colonial mansion despoiled of its heirlooms--rare opportunities for the
+collector. Really, Major, you should see some of the stuff that was
+landed on me when I began, years ago, with a story almost as good.
+Reproductions, every piece of it, with as fine an imitation of
+worm-eaten backs as you could ever wish to see."
+
+I had never wished to see any worm-eaten backs whatever, but I sought to
+betray regret that I had not encountered this surpassing lot of them.
+
+"Of course," he continued, "you will understand that I am speaking now
+as a hardened collector, whose life is beset with pitfalls and with
+gins--not as a starved wretch to the saver of his life."
+
+"You shall see the stuff," I said.
+
+"Oh, by all means, and the quicker the better. Cohen is waiting at the
+hotel for me now--at the foot of the front stairway, and he may suspect
+any minute that I was mean enough to slink down the back stairs and out
+through an alley. In fact, I'm rather excited at the prospect of seeing
+that furniture--Cohen condemned it so bitterly."
+
+"He sent an offer of six hundred dollars for it last night," I said.
+Hereupon my guest became truly excited.
+
+"He _did_--six hundred--_Cohen_ did? I don't wish to be rude, old
+chap, but would you mind hastening? That is more eloquent than all your
+story."
+
+For half an hour, notwithstanding his eagerness, Mr. James Walsingham
+Price succumbed to the manner of Miss Caroline. Noting the lack of
+compunction with which she played upon him before my very eyes, I
+divined that the late Colonel Lansdale had not found the need of pistols
+entirely done away with even by the sacrament of marriage.
+
+Not until Clem announced "Mr. Cohen" did the self-confessed collector
+cease to be a man.
+
+"Not at home," said Miss Caroline, crisply. Price grinned with
+appreciation and fell to examining the furniture in strange ways.
+
+It was a busy day for him, but I could see that he found it enjoyable,
+and strangely was it borne in upon me that Miss Caroline's ancient stuff
+was in some sense desirable.
+
+More than once did Price permit some sign of emotion to be read in his
+face--as when the sixth chair of a certain set was at last found
+supporting a water-pail in the kitchen. The house was not large, but it
+was crowded, and Price was frankly surprised at the number of things it
+held.
+
+At six o'clock he went to dine with me, Miss Caroline having told him
+that I was authorized to act for her on any proposal he might have to
+make.
+
+"You have saved me again," he said warmly, in the midst of Clem's
+dinner. "I assure you, Major, that hotel is infamous. I'm surprised, you
+know, that something isn't done about it by the authorities."
+
+I had to confess that the City Hotel was very highly regarded by most of
+our citizens.
+
+Again, after a brief interval of stupefaction, did James Walsingham
+Price call upon his Maker. "And yet," he murmured, "we are spending
+millions annually to impose mere theology upon savages far less
+benighted. Think for a moment what a tithe of that money would do for
+these poor people. Take the matter of green salads alone--to say nothing
+of soups--don't you have so simple a thing as lettuce here?"
+
+"We do," I said, "but it's regarded as a trifle. They put vinegar and
+sugar on it and cut it up with their knives."
+
+My guest shuddered.
+
+"I dare say it's hopeless, but I shall always be glad to remember that
+_you_ exist away from your City Hotel."
+
+Thus did we reach the coffee and some cognac which the late L.Q. Peavey
+had gifted me with by the hands of his estimable kinswoman.
+
+"And now to business," said my guest. His whimsical gray eyes had become
+studious and detached from our surroundings. He had a generous mouth,
+which he seemed habitually to sew up in a close-drawn seam, but this
+would suddenly and pleasantly rip in moments of forgetfulness. Being the
+collector at this moment, the mouth was tightly stitched.
+
+"Let me begin this way," he said. "There are exactly six pieces in that
+house that will prevent my being honest so long as they are not mine. I
+am not unmindful of your succor, Major. I'll prove that to you if you
+look me up in town,--send me a wire and a room shall be waiting for
+you,--and I am enraptured by that small and lively brown lady.
+Nevertheless I shall remain a collector and, humanly speaking, an
+ingrate, a wolf, a caitiff, until those six articles are mine. Make them
+mine, and for the remainder of that stuff you shall have the benefit of
+an experience that has been of incredible cost. Accept my figure, and I
+promise you as man to man to de-Cohenize myself utterly."
+
+"They are yours," I said--"what are they and what is the figure?
+Clem--Mr. Price's glass."
+
+"There--you disarm me. One bit of haggling or hesitation might have
+hardened me even now; the serpent within me would have lifted its head
+and struck. But you have saved yourself--and very well for that! The
+articles are those six ball-and-claw-foot chairs with violin backs. I
+will pay fifty dollars apiece for those. Remember--it is the voice of
+Cohen. The chairs are worth more--some day they'll fetch twice that;
+but, really, I must throw a sop to that collector-Cerberus within me.
+He's entitled to something. He had the wit to fetch me here."
+
+"The chairs are yours," I said, wondering if I had not mistaken his
+offer, but determining not to betray this.
+
+"A little memorandum of sale, if you please--and I'll give you my check.
+That larger sideboard would also have stood in the way, but those glass
+handles aren't the originals."
+
+The formality was soon despatched, and my curious friend became truly
+human.
+
+"Now, Blake, this is from the grateful wretch whose life you have not
+only saved but enriched. Well, there's an excellent lot of stuff there.
+I've got the pick, from a collector's standpoint--though not from a
+money valuation. I can't tell what it will bring, but enough to put our
+youngish old friend easy for some time to come. You box it up, as much
+as she wants to let go, and send it to the Empire Auction Rooms--here's
+the card. They're plain auction-room people, you understand,--wouldn't
+hesitate to rob you in a genteel, auction way,--but I'll be there and
+see that they don't. Some of those other pieces I may want, but I'll
+take a bidding chance on them like a man, and I'll watch the whole thing
+through and see that it's straight."
+
+Billy Durgin told me that Cohen and James Walsingham Price left on the
+night train going East. Billy noticed that Cohen seemed morose, and
+heard him exclaim something that sounded like "Goniff!" under his
+breath, as Price turned away from him after a brief chat.
+
+For Little Arcady the appalling wonder was still to dawn. Load after
+load of the despised furniture went into freight-cars, until the home of
+Miss Caroline was only comfortably furnished. This was sensational
+enough--that the things should be thought worth shipping about the
+country with freights so high.
+
+But after a few weeks came tales that atrophied belief--tales
+corroborated by a printed catalogue and by certain deposits of money in
+our bank to the account of Miss Caroline. That six wretched chairs,
+plain to ugliness, had sold for three hundred dollars spread
+consternation. The plain old sideboard for a hundred and ten dollars
+only fed the flames. But there had been sold what the catalogue
+described as "A Colonial sofa with carved dolphin arms, winged claw
+feet, and carved back" for two hundred and ten dollars, and after that
+the emotions aroused in Little Arcady were difficult to classify. Upon
+that very sofa most of the ladies of Little Arcady had sat to pity Miss
+Caroline for being "lumbered" with it. Again, a "Colonial highboy,
+hooded," recalled as an especially awkward thing, and "five mahogany
+side chairs" had gone for three hundred and eighty dollars. A
+"Heppelwhite mahogany armchair," remembered for its faded red satin, had
+veritably brought one hundred and sixty dollars; and a carved rosewood
+screen, said to be of Empire design, but a shabby thing, had sold
+astonishingly for ninety dollars. A "Hogarth chair-back settee" for two
+hundred and ten dollars, and "four Hogarth side chairs" for three
+hundred and fifteen dollars only darkened our visions still further.
+Some of us had known that Hogarth was an artist, but not that he had
+found time from his drawing to make furniture. Of Heppelwhite we had
+heard not at all, although twelve arm-chairs said to be his had been by
+some one thought to be worth around seven hundred dollars. Nor of any
+Sheraton did we know, though one of his sideboards and a "pair of
+Sheraton knife urns" fetched the incredible sum of five hundred and
+fifty dollars. Chippendale was another name unfamiliar in Slocum County,
+but Chippendale, it seemed, had once made a wing book-case which was now
+worth two hundred and forty dollars of some enthusiast's money. After
+that a Chippendale settee for a hundred and forty dollars and an "Empire
+table with 1830 base" for ninety-three dollars seemed the merest trifles
+of this insane outbreak.
+
+The amount netted by the late owner of these things was reported with
+various exaggerations, which I never saw any good reason to correct. As
+I have said, the thing was, and promises to remain forever in Little
+Arcady, a phenomenon to be explained by no known natural laws. For a
+long time our ladies were too aghast even to marvel at it intelligibly.
+When Aunt Delia McCormick in my hearing said, "Well, now, what a world
+this is!" and Mrs. Westley Keyts answered, "That's very _true!_" I knew
+they referred to the Lansdale furniture. It was typical of the
+prevailing stupefaction.
+
+"It seems that a collector _may_ be a gentleman," said Miss Caroline,
+"but Mr. Cohen wasn't even a collector!"
+
+Then I told her the considerable sum now to her credit. She drew a long
+breath and said, "_Now!_" and Clem, who stood by, almost cried, "_Now_,
+Little Miss!"
+
+
+
+
+The Book of LITTLE MISS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+THE TIME OF DREAMS
+
+I had Clem to myself for a time. Little Miss, it seemed, was not yet
+rugged enough for travel into the far Little Country. Nor was she at
+once to be convinced that she might safely leave her work. I suspect
+that she had found cause in the past to rank her mother with Clem as a
+weigher and disburser of moneys. I noticed that she chose to accept Miss
+Caroline's earliest letters about their good fortune with a sort of
+half-tolerant attention, as an elder listens to the wonder-tales of an
+imaginative child, or as I had long listened to Clem's own dreamy-eyed
+recital of the profits already his from "brillions" of chickens not yet
+come even to the egg-stage of their careers.
+
+Not until Miss Caroline had ceased from large and beauteous phrases
+about "the great good fortune that has befallen us in the strangest
+manner"--not until she descended to actual, dumfounding figures with
+powerful little dollar-marks back of them, did her daughter seem to
+permit herself the sweet alarms of hope. Even in that moment she did not
+forget that she knew her own mother, for she took the precaution to
+elicit a confirmatory letter from her mother's attorney, under guise of
+thanking him for the friendly interest he had "ever manifested" in the
+welfare of the Lansdales.
+
+It occurred to me that Little Miss had been endowed, either by nature or
+experience, with a marked distrust of mere seemings. The impression
+conveyed to me by her unenthusiastic though skilfully polite letter was
+of one who had formed the habit of doubting beyond her years. These I
+judged to be twenty-eight or thereabouts, while her powers of restraint
+under provocation to believe savored of more years than even her mother
+could claim. I had myself been compelled to note the value of negative
+views, save in that inner and lonely world where I abode of nights and
+Sundays; I, too, had proved the wisdom of much doubting as to actual,
+literal events; but Little Miss was making me think of myself as almost
+raw-and-twenty credulous. In a lawyer's letter of formal conciseness,
+devoid of humanities, maintaining to the end an atmosphere of
+unemotional fact and figure that descended not even to conventional
+felicitations upon the result, I therefore acquainted Little Miss with
+the situation. So nearly perfect was this letter that it caused her to
+refer to me, in a later communication to Miss Caroline, as "your
+dry-and-dusty counting-machine of a lawyer, who doubtless considers the
+multiplication table as a cycle of sonnets." That, after I had merely
+determined to meet her palpable needs and had signed myself her obedient
+servant!
+
+But I had convinced her. She admitted as much in words almost joyous, so
+that Miss Caroline went to be with her--to fetch her when she should be
+strong enough for the adventure of travel.
+
+There were three weeks of my neighbor's absence--three weeks in which
+Clem "cleaned house", polished the battered silver, "neated" the rooms,
+and tried to arrange the remaining furniture so that it would look like
+a great deal of furniture indeed; three weeks in which Little Arcady
+again decked itself with June garlands and seemed not, at first glance,
+to belie its rather pretentious name; three weeks when I studied a
+calendar which impassively averred that I was thirty-five, a mirror
+which added weight to that testimony, and the game which taught me with
+some freshness at each failure that the greater game it symbolizes is
+not meant to be won--only to be played forever with as eager a zest, as
+daring a hope, as if victory were sure.
+
+The season at hand found me in sore need of this teaching. It was then
+that errant impulse counselled rebellion against the decrees of calendar
+and looking-glass. If vatted wine in dark cellars turns in its bed and
+mutters seethingly at this time, in a mysterious, intuitive sympathy
+with the blossoming grape, a man free and above ground, with eyes to
+behold that miracle, may hardly hope to escape an answering thrill to
+its call.
+
+Wherefore I played the game diligently, torn by the need of its higher
+lessons. And at last I was well instructed by it, as all may be who
+approach it thus, above a trivial lust for winning.
+
+Two of us played in that provocative June. One was myself, alert for
+auspicious falls of the cards, yet stoical and undepressed when a deal
+promising to be almost too easy for interest was suddenly blocked by
+some trifling card. Thus was I schooled to expectations of a wise
+shallowness, not so deep but that they might be overrun by the moderate
+flow of human happiness. Thus one learned to expect little under much
+wanting, and to find his most certain profit in observing the freshness
+of those devices which left him frustrated. Jim, the other player of us,
+chased gluttonous robins on the lawn, ever with an indifferent success,
+but with as undimmed a faith, as fatuous a certainty, as the earliest of
+gods could have wished to see. And between us we achieved a conviction
+that the greater game is worth playing, even when one has discovered its
+terrific percentage of failures.
+
+I was not unpleased to be alone during this period of discipline when my
+soul was perforce purged of its troublesome ferments. It was well that
+my neighbor should have gone where she might distract me never so
+little.
+
+For it was at the season when Nature brews the irresistible philter.
+Always, I resolved to forego it like a man; always, like a man, I was
+overborne by the ancient longing, the formless "heimweh" that haunts the
+hearts of the unmated, and which in my own case made short work of stoic
+resolutions. And, since the game had taught me that yielding--where
+opposition is fated to avail not--is graceful in proportion to its
+readiness, I surrendered as quietly as might be.
+
+One woman face had been wholly mine for hidden cherishing through all
+the years. A woman face, be it understood, not the face of a woman. At
+first it had been that; but with the years it had lost the lines that
+made it but that one. Imperceptibly, it had taken on an alien, vague
+softness that but increased its charm while diminishing its power to
+hurt.
+
+It brought me now only a pensive pleasure and no feeling more acute. It
+was my ashes of roses, the music of my first love, its poignancies
+softened by time and memory into an ineffable, faint melody; it was the
+moon that drenched my bygone youth with wonder-light--a dream-face,
+exquisite as running water, unfolding flowers and those other sweets
+that poets try in vain to entangle in the meshes of word and rhythm.
+
+This was the face my fancy brought to go with me into every June garden
+of familiar surprises. All of which meant that I was a poor thing of
+clay and many dolors, who still perversely made himself believe that
+somewhere between him and God was the one woman, breathing and
+conscious, perhaps even longing. More plainly, it meant that I was a man
+whose gift for self-fooling promised ably to survive his hair.
+Gravitation would presently pull down my shoulders, my face would flaunt
+"the wrinkled spoils of age", my voice would waver ominously, and I
+should forfeit the dignities befitting even this decay by still playing
+childish games of belief with some foolish dog. I would be a village
+"character" of the sort that is justly said to "dodder." And the
+judicious would shun observation by me, or, if it befell them, would
+affect an intense preoccupation lest I halt and dodder to them of a past
+unromantically barren.
+
+There were moments in which I made no doubt of all this. But I fought
+them off as foolishly as did Jim his own intervals of clear seeing.
+Sometimes in a half doze he breathes a long, almost human sigh of
+perfect and despairing comprehension, as if the whole dead weight of his
+race's history flashed upon him; as if the woful failure of his species
+to achieve anything worth while, and the daily futilities of himself as
+an individual dog were suddenly revealed. In such instants he knows,
+perhaps, that there is little reward in being a dog, unless you cheat
+yourself by believing more than the facts warrant. But presently he is
+up to dash at a bird, with a fine forgetfulness, quite as startled by
+the trick of flight as in his first days. And I, envying him his gift of
+credulity, weakly strive for it.
+
+As I have said, I had noted that in these free dreamings of mine the
+painted face above my neighbor's mantel seemed to have had a place long
+before I looked upon its actual lines. This perplexed me not a little;
+that the face should seem to have been familiar before I had seen
+it--the portrait, that it should have blended with and then almost
+replaced another's, so that now the woman face I saw was eloquent of
+two, though fittingly harmonized in itself. Must I lay to the philter's
+magic this audacious notion; that the face of Little Miss had tangibly
+come to me in some night of the mind? Sober, I was loath to commit this
+absurdity; but breasting drunkenly that tide of dreams, it ceased to be
+absurd.
+
+And so I had plunged into the current again one early evening when the
+growing things seemed to have stopped reluctantly for rest, when the
+robins had fluted of their household duties the last time for the day,
+and when only the songs of children at a game were brought to me from a
+neighboring yard.
+
+Unconsciously my thoughts fell into the rhythm of this song, with the
+result that I presently listened to catch its words--faint, childish,
+laughing, yet musical in the scented dusk:--
+
+  "King William was King James's son and from the royal race he sprung;
+  Upon his breast he wore a star that showed the royal points of war.
+  Go choose your east and choose your west, and choose the one that you
+       love best.
+  If she's not here to take your part, go choose another with all your
+       heart.
+  Down on this carpet you must kneel, low as the grass grows in yon field.
+  Salute your bride and kiss her sweet, and then arise upon your feet."
+
+The sentiment was ill suited to my own at the moment, but the raw-voiced
+little singers appealed to my ears not unpleasantly. Again the verse
+came--
+
+  "If she's not here to take your part--go choose another with all your
+       heart!"
+
+I heard wheels then, nearer than the singing,--the clumsy rumble of our
+big yellow 'bus. Voices were borne to me,--Clem's voice, Miss Caroline's
+and another not like her's, a voice firmer, yet a dusky-warm woman's
+voice. That was all I could think of at the time: perhaps the night
+suggested it; they had qualities in common. It was a woman's voice, but
+a determined woman's. I knew of course that Little Miss had come. But
+also I knew at once--this being her voice--that it would not be in my
+power to call her Little Miss.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+THE STRAIN OF PEAVEY
+
+It was too true that I could not call her "Little Miss," as I had
+lightly called her mother "Miss Caroline" at our first encounter. Of a
+dusky pallor was Miss Lansdale when I first beheld her under the night
+of her hair. As the waning light showed me her, I thought of a blossomed
+young sloe tree in her own far valley of the Old Dominion. Closer to her
+I could note only that she was dark but fair, for observations of this
+character became, for some reason, impracticable in her immediate
+presence.
+
+She greeted me kindly, as her mother's lawyer; she was cordial to me a
+moment, as her mother's friend; but later, when these debts of civility
+had been duly paid, when we had gone from the outer dusk into candle
+light, she favored me only with occasional glances of the mildest
+curiosity, in which was neither kindness nor cordiality. Not that these
+had given way to their opposites; they were simply not there. Not the
+faintest hint of unfriendliness could I detect. Miss Lansdale had merely
+detached herself into a magnificent void of disinterest, from the centre
+of which she surveyed me without prejudice in moments when her glance
+could not be better occupied.
+
+I have caught much the same look in the eyes of twelve bored jurymen who
+were, nevertheless, bound to give my remarks their impartial attention.
+Sometimes one may know from the look of these twelve that one's case is
+already as good as lost; or, at least, that an opinion has been reached
+which new and important testimony will be required to change.
+
+It occurred to me as my call wore on that I caught even a hint of this
+prejudgment in the eyes of the young woman. It put me sorely at a
+disadvantage, for I knew not what I was expected to prove; knew not if I
+were on trial as her mother's lawyer, her mother's friend, or as a mere
+man. The latter seemed improbable as an offence, for was not my judge a
+daughter of Miss Caroline? And yet, strangely enough, I came to think
+that this must be my offence--that I was a man. She made me feel this in
+her careless, incidental glances, her manner of turning briskly from me
+to address her mother with a warmer show of interest than I had been
+able to provoke.
+
+It seemed, indeed, opportune to remember at the moment that, while this
+alleged Little Miss was the daughter of Miss Caroline, she was
+likewise--and even more palpably, as I could note by fugitive swift
+glimpses of her face--the daughter of a gentleman whose metal had been
+often tried; one who had won his reputation as much by self-possession
+under difficulties as by the militant spirit that incurred them.
+
+"Kate has little of the Peavey in her,--she is every inch a Lansdale,"
+Miss Caroline found occasion to say; while I, thus provided with an
+excuse to look, remarked to myself that her inches, while not excessive,
+were unusually meritorious.
+
+"Worse than that--she's a Jere Lansdale," was my response, though I
+tactfully left it unuttered for an "Indeed?" that seemed less emotional.
+I could voice my deeper conviction not more explicitly than by saying
+further to Miss Caroline, "Perhaps that explains why she has the effect
+of making her mother seem positively immature."
+
+"My mother _is_ positively immature," remarked the daughter, with the
+air of telling something she had found out long since.
+
+"Then perhaps the other is the false effect," I ventured. "It is your
+mother's immaturity that makes you seem so--" I thought it kind to
+hesitate for the word, but Miss Lansdale said, again confidently:--
+
+"Oh, but I really _am_," and this with a finality that seemed to close
+the incident.
+
+Her voice had the warm little roughness of a thrush's, which sings
+through a throat that is loosely strung with wires of soft gold.
+
+"In _my_ day," began Miss Caroline; but here I rebelled, no longer
+perceiving any good reason to be overborne by her daughter. I could
+endure only a certain amount of that.
+
+"Your day is to-day," I interrupted, "and to-morrow and many to-morrows.
+You are a woman bereft of all her yesterdays. Let your daughter have had
+_her_ day--let her have come to an incredible maturity. But you stay
+here in to-day with me. We won't be fit companions for her, but she
+shall not lack for company. Uncle Jerry Honeycutt is now ninety-four,
+and he has a splendid new ear-trumpet--he will be rarely diverting for
+Miss Lansdale."
+
+But the daughter remained as indifferent to taunts as she had been to my
+friendly advances. It occurred to me now that her self-possession was
+remarkable. It was little short of threatening if one regarded her too
+closely. I wondered if this could really be an inheritance from her
+well-nerved father or the result of her years as teacher in a finishing
+school for young ladies. I was tempted to suspect the latter, for,
+physically, the creature was by no means formidable. Perhaps an inch or
+two taller than her mother, she was of a marked slenderness; a
+_completed_ slenderness, I might say--a slenderness so palpably finished
+as to details that I can only describe it as felicitous in the extreme.
+It seemed almost certain that her appearance had once been disarming,
+that the threat in her eye-flash and tilted head was a trick learned by
+contact with many young ladies who needed finishing more than they would
+admit.
+
+Of course this did not explain why Miss Lansdale should visually but
+patently disparage me at this moment. I was by no means an unfinished
+young lady, and, in any event, she should have left all that behind; the
+moment was one wherein relaxation would have been not only graceful but
+entirely safe, for she was in no manner to be held accountable for my
+conduct.
+
+Yet again and again her curious reserve congealed me back upon the
+stanch regard of Miss Caroline. My passion for that sprightly dame and
+her gracious acceptance of it were happily not to deteriorate under the
+regard of any possible daughter, however egregiously might we flaunt to
+her trained eye our need to be "finished."
+
+The newcomer's reserve was indeed pregnable to no assault I could
+devise. Not even did she lighten when I said to her mother, in open
+mockery of that reserve, "Well, she cost you a lot of furniture that was
+really most companionable about the house," and paused with a sigh
+betokening a regretful comparison of values. That lance shattered
+against her Lansdale shield like all the others.
+
+Ending my call, I felt vividly what I have elsewhere seen described as
+"the cosmic chill". The small, mighty, night-eyed, well-completed Miss
+Lansdale, with the voice of a golden jangle, had frozen it about me in
+lavish abundance.
+
+I went home to play the game, until my eyes tired so that the face of
+king, queen, and knave leered at me in defeat or simpered sickeningly
+when I was able to shape their destinies. Thrice I lost interestingly
+and with profit to my soul, and once I won, though without elation, for
+we know that little skill may be needed to win when the cards fall
+right; whereas, to lose profitably is a mark of supreme merit.
+
+Even after that I must have recourse to the wonted philter to bring
+sleep, the face of my vision being unaccountably the face of the true
+Little Miss before she had evolved into Miss Lansdale of the threatening
+self-possession. I refused to bother about the absurdity of this, for
+the sake of bringing sleep the sooner.
+
+I was privileged to observe the following day that my neighbor's
+daughter was still of a dusky whiteness, the baffling, shaded whiteness
+of soft new snow in a cedar thicket. Incidentally she partook of another
+quality of soft new snow--one by no means so incommunicable.
+
+And yet in sunlight I incurred the full, close look of her eyes, and no
+longer doubted the presence of a Peavey strain in her immediate
+ancestry. Far in their incalculable depths I saw a myriad of lights,
+brown-gold, that smouldered, ominously, even promisingly. It might never
+meet this young woman's caprice to be flagrantly a Peavey in my
+presence, but her capacity for this, if she chose to exercise it, I
+detected beyond a doubt. She was patently a daughter of Miss Caroline,
+and the cosmic chill had been an afterthought of her own.
+
+She did me the honor, late in the afternoon of this day, to occupy an
+easy-chair within my vined porch. She went farther. She affected a
+polite interest in myself. But her craft was crude. I detected at once
+that she had fallen in love with my dog; that she came not to seek me,
+but to follow him, who had raced joyously from her at his first
+knowledge of my home-coming.
+
+I was secretly proud of the exquisite thoroughness with which he now
+ignored her. Again and again he assured me in her very presence that the
+woman was nothing, _could_ be nothing, to him. I knew this well
+enough--I needed no protestations from him; but I thought it was well
+that she should know it. I saw that he had probably consented to receive
+her addresses through a long afternoon, had perhaps eaten of her
+provender, and even behaved with a complaisance which could have led her
+to hope that some day she might be something to him. But I knew that he
+had not persistently faced the peril of being trampled to death by me in
+his pulpy infancy--so great his fear of our separation--to let a mere
+woman come between us at this day. And it was well that he should now
+tell her this in the plainest of words.
+
+The woman seemed to view me with an increased respect from that very
+moment. She tried first to bring Jim to her side by a soft call that
+almost made me tremble for his integrity. But he did not so much as turn
+his head. His eyes were for me alone. With a rubber shoe flung gallantly
+over his shoulder, he danced incitingly before me, praying that I would
+pretend to be crazed by the sight of his prize and seek to wrench it
+from him.
+
+But I pretended instead to be bored by his importunities, choosing to
+rub it in. To her who longed for his friendly notice,--a little throaty
+bark, a lift of the paw, perhaps a winsome laying of his head along her
+lap,--I affected indifference to his infatuation for me. I pretended
+always to have been a perfect devil of a fellow among the dogs, and
+professed loftily not to have divined the secret of my innumerable and
+unvarying conquests.
+
+"Dogs are so foolishly faithful," remarked Miss Lansdale, with polite
+acerbity.
+
+"I know it," I conceded; "that fellow thinks I am the most beautiful
+person in all the world."
+
+She said "Indeed?" with an inflection and a sweeping glance at me which
+I found charged with meaning. But I knew well enough that I had for all
+time mastered a certain measure of her difficult respect.
+
+"And he's such a fine dog, too," she added in a tone intended to convey
+to me the full extent of her pity for him.
+
+"I have him remarkably well trained," I said. "I can often force him to
+notice people whom I like, especially if they are clever enough to let
+him see that they like me rather well."
+
+"It would be almost worth while," she remarked with a longing look at
+Jim but none at me.
+
+"Many have found it quite so," I said, ordering Jim to charge at my
+feet, "but it's a great bore, I assure you."
+
+I needed not to be told that she envied me my power, and so deep and
+genuine appeared to be her love for him that secretly I hoped he would
+again be amiable to her during my absence on the morrow. The contrast of
+his manner on my return would further chasten her.
+
+From the porch we both watched her move across the little stretch of
+lawn, and, at my whispered suggestion, Jim rose to his feet and barked
+her insultingly over the last twenty feet of it. I was delighted to note
+that this induced a shamed acceleration of her pace and a tighter
+clutching of her skirts. I thought it important to let her know clearly
+and at once just who was the master in my own house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+THE LOYALTY OF JIM
+
+If it must be my lot to dream out a life of insubstantial visions, that
+were well. But it appeared not unreasonable that I should keep at least
+one ponderable dog by me, as an emblem of something I had missed through
+one too many shuffle of the cards before this big game began. Yet Miss
+Lansdale had clearly resolved to deprive my dreaming of even this slight
+support of realness. I tried always to remember, in her behalf, that she
+did not know the circumstances, and she herself very soon discovered
+that she did not know Jim. The assaults she made upon his fidelity
+proved her to be past-mistress of tactics and strategy. No possible
+approach to his heart did she leave untried. She flattered and petted,
+lured, cajoled, entreated; she menaced, commanded, stormed, raged.
+Drawing inspiration from a siege celebrated in antiquity, she sought to
+secrete her forces--not in a horse of wood, but within the frames of
+numerous fowl, picked to the bone but shredded over so temptingly with
+fugitive succulence as to have made a dog of feelings less fine her
+slave for life.
+
+It was not until the desperate woman had, in the terminology of Billy
+Durgin, been "baffled and beaten at every turn," that I could get into
+communication with her on a basis at all acceptable to a free-necked
+man. Having proved to the last resource of her ingenuity that Jim was
+more than human in his loyalty, she seemed disposed to admit, though
+grudgingly enough, that I myself might be not less than human to have
+won him so utterly. And thereafter I found it often practicable to
+associate with her on terms of apparent equality.
+
+She surrendered, I believe, on a day when she had thought to lure Jim
+into her boat,--fatuously, for was I not a distinguishable figure in the
+landscape? Her hopes must have been high, for she had but lately
+repleted him with chicken-bones divinely crunchable, and then bestowed
+upon him a charlotte russe, an unnatural taste for which she had
+succeeded in teaching him.
+
+With something of a swagger,--she swaggered in a rather starchy white
+dress that day, and under a garden hat of broad rim,--she had enticed
+him to the water's edge, so that I must have been nervous but for
+knowing the dog through and through.
+
+Her failure was so crushing, so swift, so entire, that for an instant I
+almost failed to rejoice in her open humiliation. Seated in the boat,
+oars poised, she invited Jim with soft speech and a smile that might
+have moved an iron dog without occasioning any remark from me; but Jim,
+noting, with one paw already in the boat, that I was not to be of the
+party, turned quickly from her and came to me with his head down. His
+informing and well-feathered tail signalled to Miss Lansdale that she
+seemed to have forgotten herself.
+
+At that moment, I think, the woman abandoned all her preposterous hopes;
+then, too, I think, she learned the last and bitterest lesson which
+great fighters must learn, to embellish defeat with an air of urbane
+acceptance. Miss Lansdale relaxed--she melted before my eyes to an
+aspect that no victor who knew his business could afford to despise.
+
+I clambered in. Jim followed, remarking amiably to the woman as he
+passed her on his way to the bow of the boat, "I _thought_ you couldn't
+have meant _that_!"
+
+And Defeat rowed Jim and me; rowed us past the feathered marge of green
+islands quite as if nothing had happened. But I knew it _had_ happened,
+for Miss Lansdale was so nearly human that I presently found myself
+thinking "Miss Kate" of her. She not only answered questions, but, what
+amazed me far more, she condescended to ask them now and then. To an
+observer we might have seemed to be holding speech of an actual
+friendliness--speech of the water and the day; of herself and the dog
+and a little of me.
+
+At length, as I caught an overhanging willow to rest her arms a moment,
+I felt bold enough to venture words about this assumption of amity which
+was so becoming in her. I even confessed that she was reminding me of
+certain distinguished but truly amiable personages who are commonly to
+be found in the side-show adjacent to the main tent. "Particularly of
+the wild man," I said, to be more specific, for my listener seemed at
+once to crave details.
+
+"There is a powerfully painted banner swelling in the breeze outside,
+you know. It shows the wild man in all his untamed ferocity, in his
+native jungle, armed with a simple but rather promising club. A dozen
+intrepid tars from a British man-of-war--to be seen in the offing--are
+in the act of casting a net over him. It's an exciting picture, I assure
+you, Miss Lansdale. The net looks flimsy, and the wild person is not
+only enraged but very muscular--"
+
+"I fail to see," she interrupted, with a slight lapse into what I may
+call her first, or Lansdale, manner.
+
+"Of course you fail! You have to go inside to see," I explained kindly.
+"But it only costs a dime, which is little enough--the hired enthusiast,
+indeed, stationed just outside the entrance, reminds us over and over
+again that it is only 'the tenth part of a dollar,' and he sometimes
+adds that 'it will neither make nor break nor set a man up in business.'
+He is a flagrant optimist in small money matters, ever looking on the
+bright side."
+
+"Inside?" suggested my listener, with some impatience. I had regretted
+my beginning and had meant to shirk a finish if she would let me; but it
+seemed I must go on.
+
+"Well, inside there's a hand-organ going all the time, you know--"
+
+"The wild man?" she insisted, like a child looking ahead for the real
+meat of the story one is telling it.
+
+"I'm getting to him as fast as I consistently can. The wild man sits
+tamely in a cheap chair on a platform, with a row of his photographs
+spread charmingly at his feet. Of course you are certain at once that he
+is no longer wild. You know that a wild man whose spirit had not been
+utterly broken would never sit there and listen to that hand-organ eight
+hours every day except Sunday. The fluent and polished gentleman in
+charge--who has a dyed mustache--assures us that we have nothing to fear
+from this 'once ferocious monster of the tropic jungle, with his bestial
+craving for human flesh,' but that seems a mere matter of form, with the
+hand-organ going in our ears--"
+
+"Really," Miss Lansdale began--or tried to.
+
+"One moment, please! The scholarly person goes on to relate the
+circumstances of the wild person's capture--substantially as depicted
+upon the canvas outside--and winds up with: 'After being brought to this
+country in chains he was reclaimed from his savage estate, was given a
+good English education, and can now converse intelligently upon all the
+leading topics of the day. Step up, ladies and gentlemen' he concludes,
+with a rather pointed delicacy, 'and you will find him ready and willing
+to answer all proper questions.'"
+
+Miss Lansdale dropped her oars into the water, dully, I thought. I
+released the willow that had moored us, but I persisted.
+
+"And he always _does_ answer all proper questions, just as the gentleman
+said he would. Doubtless an improper question would be to ask him if he
+weren't born tame on our own soil, of reputable New England parents; but
+I don't know. I have always conducted myself in his presence as a
+gentleman must, with the result that he has never failed to be chatty.
+He is a trifle condescending, to be sure; he does not forget the
+difference in our stations, but he does not permit himself to study me
+with eyes of blank indifference, nor is he reticent to the verge of
+hostility. Of course he feels indifferent to me,--nothing else could be
+expected,--but his captors have taught him to be gracious in public.
+And, really, Miss Lansdale, you seemed strangely tame and broken to-day
+yourself. You have not only received a good English education, but you
+answer all proper questions with a condescension hardly more marked than
+that of the wild person's. I can only pray you won't resume a manner
+that will inevitably recall him to me to your own disadvantage."
+
+She rowed in silence against the gentle current, but she lifted her eyes
+to me with a look that was not all Lansdale. There was Peavey in it. And
+she smiled. I had seen her smile before, but never before had she seen
+me at those times. That she should now smile for and at me seemed to be
+a circumstance little short of epoch-making.
+
+I cannot affirm that there was even one moment of that curiously short
+afternoon when she became wholly and frankly a Peavey. But more than
+once did this felicity seem to impend, and I suspected that she might
+even have been more graciously endowed than with a mere Peavey capacity
+in general. I believed that if she chose, she might almost become a Miss
+Caroline Peavey. This occurred to me when she said:--
+
+"I only brought you along for your dog."
+
+It was, of course, quite like a Lansdale to do that; but much liker a
+Peavey to tell it, with that brief poise of the opened eyes upon one's
+own.
+
+"Don't hold it against Jim," I pleaded. "It's my fault. I'm obliged to
+be most careful about his associates. I've brought him up on a system."
+
+"Indeed? It would be interesting to know why you object--" she bridled
+with a challenge almost Miss Caroline in its flippancy.
+
+"Well, for one thing, I have to make sure that he doesn't become
+worldly. Lots of good dogs are spoiled that way. And I've succeeded very
+well, thus far. To this moment he believes everything is true that ought
+to be true; or, if not, that something 'just as good' is true, as the
+people in drug stores tell one."
+
+"And you are afraid of me--that I'll--"
+
+"One can't be too careful about dogs, especially one that believes as
+much as that one does. Frankly, I _am_ afraid of you. You have such a
+knowing way of fighting off moments that might become Peavey."
+
+"I don't quite understand--"
+
+"Of course you don't, but that's of little consequence--to Jim. He
+doesn't understand either. But you see he has a fine faith now that the
+world is all Peavey--he learned it from me. Of course, I _know_ better,
+but I pretend not to, and often I can fool myself for half an hour at a
+time. And of course I shouldn't care to have that dog find out that this
+apparently Peavey world--flawlessly Peavey--has a streak of Lansdale
+running through it--that it has even its moments of curious, hard
+suspicion, of distrust, of downright disbelief in all the good
+things,--in short, its Miss Katherine Lansdale moments, if you will
+pardon that hastily contrived metaphor."
+
+Perceiving that further concealment would be unavailing, I added quite
+openly: "Now, young woman, you see that I know your secret. I felt it in
+the dark of our first meeting; it has since become plainer,--too plain.
+You know too much--far more than is good for either Jim or me to know.
+You can't believe enough--all those things that Jim and I have found it
+best to believe. I myself always fear that I shall be led into ways of
+unbelief in your presence. That is why I can't trust Jim with you alone,
+and why I could hardly trust myself there without Jim's sustaining
+looks--that is why, in fact, that I shall try to shun you in all but
+your approximately Peavey moments. I trust now that this shall be the
+last time I must ever speak bitterly in your presence. You are
+sufficiently warned."
+
+While I spoke she had ceased rowing, and we drifted with the current. A
+long time we drifted, and I rejoiced to see that I had taunted Miss
+Lansdale into something like interest. I saw that she was uncertain as
+to the degree of seriousness I had meant my words to convey. Once she
+began as if they were wholly serious, and once again as if they had been
+wholly unserious. If she at last appeared to suspect that she must
+effect a compromise, I dare say she was as nearly correct as I could
+have put her with any words I knew.
+
+"But you had that dog from the first," she at length decided to say,
+clearly in self-defence, "and still you are worried and obliged to guard
+him from evil companions."
+
+"You confess," I exclaimed in triumph.
+
+"You had him as a puppy. Could you have expected so much of him if he
+had run wild, in a world where any number of good dogs learn unbelief,
+where they are shocked into it, all in a moment?"
+
+"I didn't have myself from the first," I reminded her, "and I believe
+only a few trifles less than Jim does. I know that robins ascend without
+visible means, for example, if you run at them; but I believe it's good
+to run at them just the same, even more enjoyable than if they sat still
+to be caught."
+
+"We were speaking of dogs," said Miss Lansdale. "At any rate Jim had
+_you_ from the first."
+
+"Let us keep to dogs, then," I answered. "Meantime, if you listen to me,
+you'll soon be in deep water, when we've both lost the taste for
+adventure. This current will take us over the dam in about seven
+minutes, I should judge."
+
+She fell to the oars again with a dreaming face, in which Lansdale and
+the other were so well blended that it was indeed the face of visions
+that had long been coming to me.
+
+"You remind me again of the wild gentleman," I said, after a long look
+at her, a look which she was good enough to let me see that she
+observed.
+
+"_Et ego in Arcadia vixi_--and I, too, was netted in my native jungle."
+
+I saw that she, too, essayed the feat of being both light and serious
+without letting the seam show.
+
+"I mean about pictures," I explained. "The gentlemanly curator of the
+side-show always says of the wild man thoughtfully, 'I _believe_ he has
+a few photographs for sale.' He is always right--the wild man does have
+them, though I should not care to say that they're worth the money; that
+depends upon one's tastes, of course--by the way, Miss Lansdale, I have
+long had a picture of you."
+
+"Has mother--"
+
+"No--long before I became a fellow-slave with Clem--long before there
+was a juvenile mother or even a Clem in Little Arcady."
+
+"May I ask how you got it?"
+
+"Certainly you may! I don't know."
+
+"May I see it?" I thought she felt a deeper interest than she cared to
+reveal.
+
+"Unfortunately, no. If you only could see it, you would see that it is
+almost a perfect likeness--perhaps a bit more Little Miss than you could
+be now--but it's unmistakably true."
+
+"I lost such a picture once," she said with a fall of her eyes. "Where
+is the one you have?"
+
+"Sometimes it's behind my eyes and sometimes it is out before them."
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"To be sure! Only Jim and I, trained and hardened in the ways of belief,
+are equal to a feat of that sort."
+
+"I see no merit in believing that."
+
+"I don't know that there is, especially--not in believing this
+particular thing, but the power for belief in general which it
+implies--you see I am unprejudiced."
+
+"Why should you want to believe it?"
+
+I should have known, without catching the glint of her eyes under the
+hat brim, that a Peavey spoke there.
+
+"If you could see the thing once, you'd understand," I said, an answer,
+of course, fit only for a Peavey.
+
+"At all events, you'll not keep it long." The words were Peavey enough,
+but the voice was rather curiously Lansdale.
+
+"I have made as little effort to keep it as I did to acquire it," I
+said, "but it stays on, and I've a notion it will stay on as long as Jim
+and I are uncorrupted. But it shan't inconvenience you," I added
+brightly, in time to forestall an imminent other "Nonsense!"
+
+Being thus neatly thwarted, she looked over my shoulder and bent to her
+oars, for we had again drifted toward the troubled waters of the dam.
+
+"I warned you--if you listened to me," I reminded her.
+
+"Oh, I've not been listening--only thinking."
+
+"Of course, and you were disbelieving. It's high time you put us ashore.
+I want to believe, and I want not to be drowned. So does Jim,--_both_ of
+'em."
+
+She pointed the boat to our landing, and as she leaned her narrow
+shoulders far back she shot me; one swift look. But I could see much
+farther into the water that floated us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+THE CASE OF FATTY BUDLOW
+
+Lest Miss Katharine Lansdale seem unduly formidable, I should, perhaps,
+say that I appeared to be alone in finding her so. Little Arcadians of
+my own sex younger than myself--and, if I may suggest it, less
+discerning--were not only not menaced, but she invited them with a
+cordiality in which the keenest eye among them could detect no flaw.
+Miss Lansdale's mother had also pleased the masculine element of the
+town at her first progress through its pleasant streets. But Miss
+Caroline, despite many details of dress and manner that failed
+interestingly to corroborate the fact, was an old woman, and one whose
+way of life made her difficult of comprehension to the Little Country.
+Socially and industrially, one might say, she did not fit the scheme of
+things as the town had been taught to conceive it. Whereas, her daughter
+was a person readily to be understood in all parts of the world where
+men have eyes--as well by the homekeeping as by the travelled. Eustace
+Eubanks, more or less a man of the world by virtue of that adventurous
+trip to the Holy Land, understood her at one glance, as did Arthur
+Updyke, who had fared abroad to the college of pharmacy and knew things.
+But she was also lucid as crystal to G. Brown and Creston Fancett, whose
+knowledge of the outside world was somewhat affected by their experience
+of it, which was nothing. To all seven of the ages was this woman
+comprehensible. Old Bolivar Kent, eighty-six and shuffling his short
+steps to the grave not far ahead, understood her with one look; the but
+adolescent Guy McCormick, hovering tragically on the verge of his first
+public shave, divined her quite as capably; the middle-yeared Westley
+Keyts read her so unerringly on a day when she first regaled his vision
+that he toiled for half an hour as one entranced, disengaging what he
+believed to be porter-house steaks long after the porter-house line in
+the beef under his hand had been passed.
+
+In short, Miss Lansdale was understood spontaneously--to borrow a phrase
+from the _Argus_--"by each and all who had the good fortune to be
+present," for she was dowered with that quick-drawing charm which has
+worked a familiar spell upon the sons of men in all times. She was
+incontestably feminine. She gave the woman-call. That she seemed to give
+it against her wish,--without intention,--that I was alone in detecting
+this, were trifles beside the point. Masculine Little Arcady cared not
+that she had been less successful than the late Colonel Potts, for
+example, in preserving the truly Greek spirit--cared naught for this so
+long as, meaningly or otherwise, she uttered the immemorial woman-call
+in its true note wheresoever she fared.
+
+And, curiously, since Miss Lansdale did not appear formidable to
+masculine Little Arcady--with one negligible exception--she seemed to
+try perversely not to be so. She was amazingly gracious to it--still
+with one exception. She melted to frivolity and the dance of mirth. She
+affected joy in its music and confessed to a new feeling for Jerusalem
+after attending a lawn party at which Eustace Eubanks did his best to
+please. She spoke of this to Eustace with a crafty implication that it
+had remained for him to interpret the antique graces of that storied
+place to a world all too heedless. Eustace himself felt not only a
+renewed interest in the land exploited by his magic lantern, but he
+began to view all the rest of the world in a new and rosy light, of
+which Miss Lansdale was the iridescent globe that diffused and subdued
+it to the mellow hue of romance.
+
+It is impossible to believe that Eustace was ever at any pains to
+conceal the effects of this astral phenomenon from his family, for its
+members were very quickly excited. If in that vale the woman-call could
+be heard by ears attuned to its haunting cadences, so also did the
+frightened mother-call echo its equally primitive note, accompanied by
+the less well-known sister-call of warning and distress.
+
+The truth is that Eustace was becoming harder to manage with each
+recurring crisis. For testimony in the present instance, I need only
+adduce that he wrote poetry, more or less, after meeting Miss Lansdale
+but a scant half-dozen times. This came to me in confidence, however,
+and the obliquity of it spread no farther beyond the family lines.
+
+Fluttering with alarm, the mother of Eustace approached me as one
+presumably familiar with the power of the Lansdales to work disaster in
+a peaceful and orderly family. She sought to know if I could not prevent
+her boy from "making a fool of himself." It was never her way to bother
+with many words when she knew the right few.
+
+With an air that signified her intention of letting me know the worst at
+once, Mrs. Eubanks drew from her bead reticule a sheet of paper
+scribbled over in the handwriting of her misguided offspring. It was a
+rondeau; I knew that by the shape, and the mother apologized for the
+indelicacy of it before permitting my own cheeks to blush thereat. The
+dominant line of the composition I saw to be--
+
+   "When love lights night to be its day."
+
+I turned from the stricken mother to cough deprecatingly when I had
+read. She likewise had the delicacy to turn away and cough. But an
+emergency of this momentous import must be discussed in plain terms,
+however disconcerting the details, and Mrs. Eubanks had nerved herself
+for the ordeal.
+
+"I can't think," she began, "where the boy _learned_ such things!"
+
+I had not the courage to tell her that they might be entirely
+self-taught under certain circumstances.
+
+"Such shameless, brazen things!" she persisted. "We have always been
+_so_ careful of Euty--striving to keep him--well, wholesome and pure,
+you understand, Major Blake."
+
+"There are always dangers," I said, but only because she had stopped
+speaking, and not in any hope of instructing her.
+
+"If only we can keep him from making a fool of himself--"
+
+"It seems rather late," I said, this time with profound conviction. "See
+there!"
+
+Upon the margin of that captured sheet Eustace had exposed, as it were,
+the very secret mechanics of his passion. There were written tentative
+rhymes, one under another, as "Kate--mate--Fate--late"--and eke an
+unblushing "sate." Also had he, in the frenzy of his poetic rapture,
+divined and indicated the technical affinities existing among words like
+"bliss," "kiss," and "miss."
+
+Interference, however delicately managed, seemed hopeless after that,
+and I said as much. But I added: "Of course, if you let him alone, he
+may come back to his better self. Perhaps the young lady herself may
+prove to be your ally."
+
+"Indeed not! She has set out deliberately to ensnare my poor Euty," said
+the mother, with an incisive drawing in of her expressively thin lips.
+"I knew it the very first evening I saw them together."
+
+"Mightn't it have been sheer trifling on her part ?" I suggested.
+
+"Can you imagine that young woman _daring_ to trifle with Eustace
+Eubanks?" she demanded.
+
+I could, as a matter of fact; but as her query seemed to repel such a
+disclosure, I lied.
+
+"True," I said, "she would never dare. I didn't think of that."
+
+"With _all_ her frivolity and lightness of manner and fondness for
+dress, she must have some sense of fitness--"
+
+"She must, indeed!"
+
+"She could not go _that_ far!"
+
+"Certainly _not_!"
+
+"Even if she _does_ wear too many ribbons and laces and fancy furbelows,
+with never a common-sense shoe to her foot!"
+
+"Even if she _does_" I assented warmly.
+
+And thus we were compelled to leave it. In view of those verses I could
+suggest no plan for relief, and my one poor morsel of encouragement had
+been stonily rejected.
+
+Eustace went the mad pace. So did Arthur Updyke. It was rather to be
+expected of Arthur, however. His duties at the City Drug Store seemed to
+encourage a debonair lightness of conduct. He treated his blond ringlets
+assiduously from the stock of pomades; he was as fastidious about his
+fingernails as we might expect one to be in an environment of manicure
+implements and nail beautifiers; it was his privilege to make free with
+the varied assortment of perfumes--a privilege he forewent in no degree;
+his taste in tooth-powders was widely respected; and in moments of
+leisure, while he leaned upon a showcase awaiting custom, he was wont to
+draw a slender comb from an upper waistcoat pocket and pass it
+delicately through his small but perfect mustache. Naturally enough, it
+was said by the ladies of Little Arcady that Arthur's attentions were
+never serious,--"except them he pays to himself!" Aunt Delia McCormick
+would often add, for that excellent woman was not above playing
+venomously with familiar words.
+
+Also did G. Brown and Creston Fancett go the same mad pace. These four
+were filled with distrust of one another, but as they composed our male
+quartette, they would gather late on summer nights and conduct
+themselves in a manner to make me wish that old Azariah Prouse's
+peculiar belief as to house structure might have included a sound-proof
+fence about his premises. For, on the insufficient stretch of lawn
+between that house and my own, the four rivals sang serenades.
+
+"She sleeps--my lady sleeps," they sang, with a volume that seemed bound
+to insure their inaccuracy as to the lady, and which assuredly left them
+in the wrong as to her mother's attorney--if their song meant in the
+least to report conditions at large. As this was, however, the one
+occasion when they felt that none of the four had any advantage over his
+fellows, they made the most of it. Then, in the dead of night, I would
+be very sorry that I had not counselled the mother of Eustace Eubanks to
+send him around the world on a slow sailing ship; for it was his voice,
+even in songs of sleep, that rendered this salutary exercise most
+difficult.
+
+On one of these wakeful summer nights, however, I received a queer
+little shock. Perhaps I half dreamed it in some fugitive moment of half
+sleep; but it was as if I were again an awkward, silent boy, worshipping
+a girl new to the school, a girl who wore two long yellow braids. I
+worshipped her from afar so that she saw me not, being occupied with
+many adorers less timid, who made nothing of snatching a hair ribbon.
+But the face in that instant of dream was the face of Miss Katharine
+Lansdale, and coupled with the vision was a prescience that in some
+later life I should again look back and see myself as now, a grown but
+awkward boy, still holding aloof--still adoring from some remote
+background while other and bolder gallants captured trophies and lightly
+carolled their serenades. It seemed like borrowing trouble to look still
+farther into the future, but the vision was striking. Surely, History
+does repeat itself. I should have made this discovery for myself had it
+not been exploited before my day. For on the morrow I found my woman
+child on the Lansdale lawn when I went home in the afternoon. She had
+now reached an age when she was beginning to do "pretties" with her lips
+as she talked--almost at the age when I had first been enraptured by her
+mother, with the identical two braids, also the tassels dangling from
+her boot tops. This latter was unexciting as a coincidence, however. I
+myself had deliberately produced it.
+
+Miss Lansdale turned from talk with the child to greet me. Her face was
+so little menacing that I called her "Miss Katharine" on the spot. But
+my business was with the child.
+
+"Lucy," I said, as I took the wicker chair by the hammock in which they
+both lounged, "there is a boy at school who looks at you a great deal
+when you're not watching him--you catch him at it--but he never comes
+near you. He acts as if he were afraid of you. He is an awkward, stupid
+boy. If he gets up to recite about geography, or about 'a gentleman sent
+his servant to buy ten and five-eighths yards of fine broadcloth,' or
+anything of that sort, and if he happens to catch your eye at the
+moment, he flounders like a caught fish, stares hard at the map of North
+America on the wall, and sits down in disgrace. And when the other boys
+are chasing you and pulling off your hair ribbons, he mopes off in a
+corner of the school yard, though he looks as if he'd like to shoot down
+all the other boys in cold blood."
+
+"He has nice hair," said my woman child.
+
+"Oh, he _has!_ Very well; does his name happen to be 'Horsehead' or
+anything like that--the name the boys call him by, you know?"
+
+"Fatty--Fatty Budlow, if that's the one you mean. Do you know him, Uncle
+Maje?"
+
+"Better than any boy in the world! Haven't I been telling you about
+him?"
+
+"Once he brought a bag of candy to school, and I thought he was coming
+up to hand it to me, but he turned red in the face and stuffed it right
+into his pocket."
+
+"He meant to give it to you, really--he bought it for you--but he
+couldn't when the time came."
+
+"Oh, did he tell you?"
+
+"It wasn't necessary for him to tell me. I know that boy, I tell you,
+through and through. Lucy, do you think you could encourage him a
+little, now and then--be sociable with him--not enough to hurt, of
+course? You don't know how he'd appreciate the least kindness. He might
+remember it all his life."
+
+"I might pat his hair--he has such nice hair--if he wouldn't know
+it--but of course he would know it, and when he looks at you, he is so
+queer--"
+
+"Yes, I know; I suppose it is hopeless. Couldn't you even ask him to
+write in your autograph album?"
+
+"Y-e-s--I could, only he'd be sure to write something funny like 'In
+Memory's wood-box let me be a stick.' He always does write something
+witty, and I don't much care for ridiculous things in my album; I'm
+being careful with it."
+
+"Well, if he's as witty as _that_ in your album, it will be to mask a
+bleeding heart. I happen to know that in a former existence he was never
+even asked to write, though he always hoped he might be."
+
+"I'm sorry if you like him, Uncle Maje, but I'm positive that Fatty
+Budlow is not a boy I could _ever_ feel deeply for. I don't believe our
+acquaintance will even ripen into friendship," and she looked with
+profound eyes into the wondrous, opening future.
+
+"Of course it won't," I said. "I might have known that. He will continue
+through the ages to be an impossible boy. Miss Lansdale feels the same
+way about him. Poor Fatty or Horsehead or whatever they call him stands
+off and glares at her, and can't say his lesson when he catches her
+eye--only he seldom does catch it, because she's so busy with other boys
+of more spirit who crowd about her and snatch hair ribbons and sing 'My
+lady sleeps' until no one else can."
+
+"Do you know Fatty Budlow?" asked my surprised woman child of Miss
+Lansdale. But that young woman only reached out one foot to point its
+toe idly at a creeping green worm and turn its vagrant course. The toe
+was by no means common-sense, and the heel was simply idiotic.
+
+"Of course she knows him," I said; "she knows he would give his right
+hand for her, which is a good deal under the circumstances, and she very
+properly despises him for it. She'd take her picture away from him if
+she could."
+
+"She wouldn't," said Miss Lansdale, with a gesture of her foot that
+disconcerted me.
+
+"Miss Kate," I said, "I have lived my life in terror of seeing one of
+those squashy green worms meet a fearful disaster in my presence. Would
+you mind--"
+
+With a fillip of the bronzed toe she sent the amazed worm into a country
+that must have been utterly strange to it,
+
+"She'd take it back quickly enough if she knew what he makes of it," I
+said, returning to the picture; "if she knew that he had kept it ever
+since he learned that agriculture, mining, and ship-building are
+principal industries--only at first it had two long yellow braids, and
+tassels dangling from its boot tops."
+
+"My mother had beautiful long golden hair," said the woman child, adding
+simply, "papa says mine is just like it."
+
+Miss Lansdale regarded me narrowly.
+
+"You get me all mixed up," she said.
+
+"I like to. You're heady then--like your mother's punch when it's 'all
+mixed up.'"
+
+"I must put in more ice," remarked Miss Lansdale, calmly.
+
+"Fatty Budlow is so serious," said the woman child, suspecting that the
+talk had drifted away from her.
+
+"It's his curse," I admitted. "If he weren't an A No. 1 dreamer, he'd be
+too serious to live, but be goes dreaming and maundering along--dreaming
+that things are about as he would like to have them. He sees your face
+and Miss Lansdale's, and then they get mixed up in a queer way, and Miss
+Kate's face comes out of the picture with such a look in the eyes that a
+man of ordinary spirit would call her 'Little Miss' right off without
+ever stopping to think; but of course this Fatty or Horsehead or
+whatever it is can't say it right out, so he says it to himself about
+twenty-three or twenty-four thousand times a day, as nearly as he can
+reckon--he always was weak in arithmetic."
+
+"You might let him write in _your_ autograph album," said the woman
+child, brightly, to Miss Lansdale.
+
+"I know what he'd write if he got the chance," I added incitingly. But
+it did not avail. Miss Lansdale remained incurious and merely said,
+"Long golden braids," as one trying to picture them.
+
+"And later a little row of curls over each ear, and a tiny chain with a
+locket around the neck. I had a picture once--"
+
+"You have had many pictures."
+
+"Yes--two are many if you've had nothing else."
+
+But she was now regarding the woman child with a curious, close look,
+almost troubled in its intensity.
+
+"Do you look like your mother?" she asked.
+
+"Papa says I do, and Uncle Maje thinks so too. She was very pretty,"
+This came with an unconscious placidity.
+
+"She looks almost as her mother's picture did," I said.
+
+When the child had gone, Miss Lansdale searched my face long before
+speaking. She seemed to hesitate for words, and at length to speak of
+other matters than those which might have perplexed her.
+
+"Why did they call you 'Horsehead'?" she asked almost kindly.
+
+"I never asked. It seemed to be a common understanding. Doubtless there
+was good reason for it, as good as there is for calling Budlow 'Fatty.'"
+
+"What did you do?" she asked again.
+
+"I went to the war with what I could take--nothing but a picture."
+
+"And you lost that?"
+
+"Yes--under peculiar circumstances. It seemed a kind thing to do at the
+time."
+
+"And you came back with--"
+
+"_With yours, Little Miss!_"
+
+Some excitement throbbed between us so that I had involuntarily
+emphasized my words. Briefly her eyes clung to mine, and very slowly we
+relaxed from that look.
+
+"I only wanted to say," she began presently, "that I shall have to
+believe your absurd tale of my picture being with you before you saw me.
+Something makes me credit it--a strange little notion that I have
+carried that child's picture in my own mind."
+
+"We are even, then," I answered, "only you are thinking more things than
+you say. That isn't fair."
+
+But she only nodded her head inscrutably.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+A LITTLE MYSTERY IS SOLVED
+
+The significance of Miss Lansdale's manner, rather than her words, ran
+through my darkened thoughts like a thread as I played the game that
+night. After a third defeat this thread seemed to guide me to daylight
+from a tortuously winding cavern. At first the thing was of an amazing
+simplicity.
+
+In a far room was a chest filled with forgotten odds and ends that had
+come back with me years before. I ran to it, and from under bundles of
+letters, old family trinkets, a canteen, a pair of rusty pistols, and
+other such matters, I brought forth an ambrotype--the kind that was
+mounted in a black case of pressed rubber and closed with a spring.
+
+But even as I held the thing, flushed with my discovery, another
+recollection cooled me, and the structure of my discovery tumbled as
+quickly as it had built itself. Little Miss had found her own picture
+when she found _him_. Her mother had told me this definitely. It had
+been clutched in his hands, and she, after a look, had tenderly replaced
+it to stay with his dust forever. This I had forgotten at first, in my
+eagerness for light.
+
+I pressed the spring that brought the face to my eyes, knowing it would
+not be her face. Close to the light I studied it; the face of a girl,
+eighteen or so, with dreaming eyes that looked beyond me. It could not
+be Miss Lansdale, and yet it was strangely like her--like the Little
+Miss she must once have been.
+
+But one mystery at least was now plain--the mystery of my own mind
+picture. I had not looked at this thing for ten years, but its lines had
+stayed with me, and this was the face of my dreaming, carried so long
+after its source had been forgotten. The face of this picture had
+naturally enough changed to seem like the face of Miss Lansdale after I
+had seen her.
+
+Perhaps it was the face of a Peavey; there was at least a family
+resemblance; that would explain the likeness to Miss Kate. This was not
+much, but it was enough to sleep on.
+
+As I left the house the following morning, Miss Lansdale, her skirts
+pinned up, was among her roses with a watering pot and a busy pair of
+scissors.
+
+As I approached her I had something to say, but it was, for an interval,
+driven from my lips.
+
+"Promise me," I said instead, "never to wear a common-sense shoe."
+
+She stared at me with brows a trifle raised.
+
+"Of course it will displease Mrs. Eubanks, but there is still a better
+reason for it."
+
+The brows went farther up at this until they were hardly to be detected
+under the broad rim of her garden hat.
+
+Her answer was icy, even for an "Indeed?"--quite in her best Lansdale
+manner.
+
+"Yes, 'indeed!'" I retorted somewhat rudely, "but never mind--it's not
+of the least consequence. What I meant to say was this--about those
+pictures of people, you remember."
+
+"I remember perfectly, and I've concluded that it's all nonsense--all of
+it, you understand."
+
+"That's queer--so have I." Had I been a third person and an observer, I
+would doubtless have sworn that Miss Lansdale was more surprised than
+pleased by this remark of mine.
+
+"I haven't had your picture at all," I went on; "it was a picture of
+some one else, and I hadn't thought to look at it for a long time--had
+forgotten it utterly, in fact. That's how I came to think I knew your
+face before I knew you."
+
+"I told you it was nonsense!" and she snipped off a rose with a kind of
+miniature brusqueness.
+
+"But you shall see that I had some reason. If you find time to-day, step
+into my library and look at the picture. It's on the mantel, and the
+door is open. It may be some one you know, though I doubt even that."
+
+With this I brazenly snatched a pink rose from those within her arm.
+
+"You see Fatty Budlow is coming on," I remarked of this bit of boldness.
+
+"Let him come--he shan't find _me_ in the way." This with an effort to
+seem significant.
+
+"Oh, not at _all_!" I assured her politely, and with equal subtlety, I
+believe.
+
+Had I known that this was the last time I should ever look upon Miss
+Katharine Lansdale, I might have looked longer. She was well worth
+seeing for sundry other reasons than her need for common-sense shoes.
+But those last times pass so often without our suspecting them! And it
+was, indeed, my good fortune never to see her again. For never again was
+she to rise, even at her highest, above Miss Kate.
+
+She was even so low as Little Miss when I found her on my porch that
+afternoon--a troubled Little Miss, so drooping, so queerly drawn about
+the eyes, so weak of mouth, so altogether stricken that I was shot
+through at sight of her.
+
+"I waited here--to speak alone--you are late to-day."
+
+I was early, but if she had waited, she would of course not know this.
+
+"What has happened, Miss Kate?"
+
+"Come here."
+
+Through my opened door I followed her quick step.
+
+"You were jesting about that this morning,"--she pointed to the picture,
+propped open against a book on the mantel; and then, with an effort to
+steady her voice,--"you were jesting, and of course you didn't know--but
+you shouldn't have jested."
+
+"Can it be you, Miss Kate--can it really be you?"
+
+"It is, it is--couldn't you see? Tell me quickly--don't, don't jest
+again!"
+
+"Be sure I shall not. Sit down."
+
+But she stood still, with an arm extended to the picture, and again
+implored me: "See--I'm waiting. Where--how--did you get it?"
+
+"Sit down," I said; and this time she obeyed with a little cry of
+impatience.
+
+"I'll try to bring it back," I said. "It was that day Sheridan hurried
+back to find his army broken--all but beaten. Just at dark there was a
+last charge--a charge that was met. I went down in it, hearing yells and
+a spitting fire, but feeling only numbness. When I woke up the firing
+was far off. Near me I could hear a voice, the voice of a young man, I
+thought, wounded like myself. I first took him for one of our men. But
+his talk undeceived me. It was the talk of your men, and sorrowful talk.
+He was badly hurt; he knew that. But he was sure of life. He couldn't
+die there like a brute. He had to go back and he would go back alive and
+well; for God was a gentleman, whatever else He was, and above practical
+jokes of that sort. Then he seemed to know he was losing strength, and
+he cried out for a picture, as if he must at least have that before he
+went. Weak as he was, he tried to turn on his side to search for it. 'It
+was here a moment ago,' he would say; 'I had it once,' and he tried to
+turn again, still crying out for it,--he must not die without it. It
+hurt me to hear his voice break, and I made out to roll near him to help
+him search. 'We'll find it,' I told him, and he thanked me for my help.
+'Look for a square hard case,' he said eagerly. 'It must be here; I had
+it after I fell down.' Together we searched the rough ground over in the
+dark as well as we could. I was glad enough to help him. I had a picture
+like that of my own that I shouldn't have liked to lose. But we were
+clumsy searchers, and he seemed to lose hope as he lost strength. Again
+he cried out for that picture, but now it was a despairing cry, and it
+hurt me. Under the darkness I reached my one good hand up and took my
+own picture from its place. So many of us carried pictures over our
+hearts in those days. I pretended then to search once more, telling him
+to have courage, and then I said, 'Is this it?' He fumbled for it, and
+his hand caught it quickly up under his chin. He was so glad. He thanked
+me for finding it, and then he lay still, panting. After a while--we
+both wanted water--I crawled away to where I heard a running stream. It
+must have been farther than I thought, and I couldn't be quick because
+so much of me was numb and had to be dragged. But I reached the water
+and filled a canteen I had found on the way. As soon as I could manage
+it I went back to him with the water, but I must have been gone a long
+time. He wasn't there. But as I crawled near where he had lain, I put my
+hand on a little square case such as I had given him. I thought it must
+be mine. I lost consciousness again. When I awoke two hospital stewards
+carried me on a stretcher, and a field surgeon walked beside us. I still
+had the picture, and not for many days did I know that it wasn't my own.
+After that I forgot it--but I've already told you of that."
+
+Her eyes had not quitted my face while I spoke, though they were
+glistening; her mouth had weakened more than once, and a piteous little
+"Oh!" would come from her lips. When I had finished she looked away from
+me, dropping her eyes to the floor, leaning forward intently, her hands
+shut between her knees. For a long time she remained so, forgetting me.
+But at last I could hear her breathe and could see the increasing rise
+and fall of it, so that I feared a crisis. But none came. Again she
+mastered herself and even managed a smile for me, though it was a poor
+thing.
+
+"I've told you all, Miss Kate."
+
+"Yes--I'm unfair, but you have a right to know. I found that
+picture--your picture, when they brought him in. His hands were clenched
+about it. They said he had pleaded to hold it and made them promise not
+to take it from him--ever. I was left alone, and I dared to take it,
+just for a moment. Something in the design of the cover puzzled me. I
+had meant to put it right back, and after I had looked at it there was
+only one thing to do--to put it back."
+
+"They said you found your own picture, or I might have suspected."
+
+"They had reason to say it--I never told."
+
+"Of course you never told, Miss Kate!" I seemed to learn a great deal of
+her from that. She had carried her wound secretly through all those
+years.
+
+"Poor Little Miss!" I said in spite of myself, and at this quite
+unexpectedly there befell what I had hoped we might both be spared.
+
+I might not soothe her as I would have wished, so I busied myself in the
+next room until she called to me. She was putting what touches she could
+to her eyes with a small and sadly bedraggled handkerchief.
+
+"There is a better reason for telling no one now," she said, "so we must
+destroy this. Mother might see it."
+
+My grate contained its summer accumulation of waste paper. She laid the
+picture on this and I lighted the pyre.
+
+"Your mother will see your eyes," I said.
+
+"She has seen them so before." And she gave me her hand, which I kissed.
+
+"Poor Little Miss!" I said, still holding it.
+
+"Not poor now--you have given me back so much. I can believe again--I
+can believe almost as much as Jim."
+
+But I released her hand. Though her eyes had not quitted mine, their
+look was one of utter friendliness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+HOW A TRUCE WAS TROUBLESOME
+
+In the days and nights that followed this interview I associated rather
+more than usual with Jim. It seemed well to do so. I needed to learn
+once more some of the magnificent belief that I had taught him in days
+when my own was stronger. Close companionship with a dog of the truly
+Greek spirit, under circumstances in which I now found myself, was bound
+to be of a tonic value. I had seen, almost at the moment of Miss Kate's
+disclosure, that a change was to come in our relations. Perhaps I was
+wild enough at the moment to hope that it might be a change for the
+better; but this was only in the first flush of it--of a moment ill
+adapted for close reasoning. It took no great while to convince me that
+the discovery in which we had cooperated was of a character necessarily
+to put me from her even farther than she had at first chosen to put
+me--and that was far enough, Heaven knows.
+
+In effect I had given back her love to her, a love she had for ten years
+unjustly doubted. That was the cold truth of it for one who knew women.
+One who could doubt the tenth year as poignantly as she had doubted in
+the first--would she not in bitterness regret her doubt ten other years,
+and sweetly mourn her lost love still another ten? She who had let me be
+little enough to her while she felt her wound--how much less could I be
+when the hurt was healed? Before she might have been in want. At least
+that was conceivable. Now her want was met. Not only was there this to
+fill her heart, but remorse, the tenderest a woman may know, it seems to
+me--remorse for undeserved suspicion.
+
+In a setting less prosaic than Little Arcady, where events might be of a
+story-fitness, that lover would have been alive by a happy chance,
+estranged by the misunderstanding but splendidly faithful, and I should
+have been helper and interested witness to an ideal reconciliation;
+thereafter to play out my game with a full heart, though with an
+exterior placidly unconcerned. But with us events halt always a little
+short of true romance. They are unexcitingly usual.
+
+I would have to play out my game full heartedly, nursing my powers of
+belief back to their one-time vigor; nothing would occur to ease my
+lot--not even an occasion to pretend that I gave my blessing to a
+reunited and happy pair. Miss Kate could go on believing. Unwittingly I
+had given her the stuff for belief. I, too, must go on believing, and
+providing my own material, as had ever been my lot; all of which was why
+my dog seemed my most profitable companion at this time. His every bark
+at a threatening baby-carriage a block away, each fresh time he believed
+sincerely that a rubber shoe was engaging in deadly struggle with him,
+taxing all his forces to subdue it, each time he testified with
+sensitive, twitching nostrils that the earth is good with innumerable
+scents, each streaking of his glad-tongued white length over yellowing
+fields designed solely for his recreation held for me a certain soothing
+value. And when in quiet moments he assured me with melting gaze that I
+was a being to challenge the very heart of love--in some measure, at
+least, did my soul gain strength from his own.
+
+To know as much as I have indicated had been unavoidable for one of any
+intuitive powers. The change at once to be detected in Miss Kate's
+manner toward me confirmed my divinations without enlarging them. Miss
+Katharine Lansdale was gone forever; in her place was a Miss Kate,--even
+a Little Miss to the eye,--who regarded me at first with an undisguised
+alarm, then with a curious interfusion of alarm and shyness, a little
+disguised with not a little effort. This was plain reading. She would at
+first have distrusted me, apprehending I know not what rashness of
+ill-timed and forever impossible declarations. As she perceived this
+alarm to be baseless, for I not only refrained from intruding but I
+ostentatiously let Miss Kate alone, shyness would creep into her
+apprehension to make amends for its first crude manifestations.
+
+As the days went by and I displayed still the fine sense to keep myself
+aloof, to seek Miss Kate only in those ways that I sought her refreshing
+mother, she let me discern more clearly her faith in my firmness and
+good sense. To be plain, in reward for letting her alone, she did not
+let me alone. And this reward I accepted becomingly, with a resolve--the
+metal of which I hoped she would divine--never to show myself
+undeserving of its benisons.
+
+When I say that the young woman did not let me alone, I mean that she
+seemed almost to put herself in my way; not obviously, true enough, but
+in a degree palpable enough to one who had observed her first almost
+shrinking alarm. And this behavior of hers went forward, at last,
+without the slightest leaven of apprehension on her part, but her
+shyness remained. It was so marked and so novel in her--with reference
+to myself--that I could not fail to be sensible to it. It was as if she
+divined that mad notions might still lurk within my untaught mind to be
+reasons why she should fear me; but that her confidence in my
+self-mastery could not, at the same time, be too openly shown.
+
+Tacitly, it was as if we had treated together; a treaty that bound me to
+observe a perpetual truce. My arms were forever laid down, and she, who
+had once so feared me, was now free to wander when she would within the
+lines of an honorable enemy. That she should walk there with increasing
+frequency as the days passed was a tribute to my powers of restraint
+which I was too wise to undervalue. I ignored the shyness of which she
+seemed unable to divest herself in my presence. It would have been easy
+not to ignore it, for there were times when, so little careful was she
+to guard herself, that this shyness suggested, invited, appealed,
+signalled; times when, without my deeper knowledge of her sex, I could
+have sworn that the true woman-call rang in my ears. But a treaty is a
+treaty, on paper or on honor, and ours would never be broken by black
+treachery of mine, let her eyes fall under my own with never so
+fluttering an allurement.
+
+They were not bad days, as days go in this earth-life of too much exact
+knowledge. Miss Kate rowed me over still waters and walked beside me in
+green pastures. At times like these she might even seem to forget. She
+would even become, I must affirm, more nearly Peavey than was strictly
+her right; for it was plain that our treaty, must involve certain
+stipulations of restraint on her part as well as on my own. The burden
+was not all to be mine. But these moments I learned to withstand,
+remembering that she was a woman. That was a circumstance not hard to
+remember when she was by. It is probable that my heart could not have
+forgotten it, even had my trained head learned blandly to ignore it.
+
+Further to enliven those days, I permitted Jim to give her lessons in
+believing everything. When I told her of this, she said, "I need them,
+I'm so out of practice." That was the nearest we had come to touching
+upon the interview of a certain afternoon. I should not have considered
+this a forbidden topic, but her shyness became pitiful at any seeming
+approach to it. "Jim will put you right again," I assured her. And I
+believe he did, though it was not easy to persuade him that she could be
+morally recognized when I was by. The occasion on which he first
+remained crouching at her feet while I walked away was regarded by Miss
+Kate as a personal triumph. She was so childishly open of her pleasure
+at this that I did not tell her it was a mere trick of mine; that I had
+told him to charge when he sprang up. She knew his eyes so little as to
+think he displayed regard for rather than respect for my command. She
+could not see that he begged me piteously to know _why_ he must crouch
+there at a couple of strange inconsequential feet and see the good world
+go suddenly wrong.
+
+Still further, to make those days not bad days, Miss Kate would cross
+our little common ground of an early evening to where I played the game
+on my porch. Often I did this until dusk obscured the faces of the
+cards. I faintly suspected in the course of these bird-like visits a
+caprice in Miss Kate to know what it might be that I preferred to the
+society of her mother on her own porch. She appeared to be more curious
+than interested. She promptly made those observations which the
+unillumined have ever considered it witty to make concerning those who
+play at solitaire. But, finding that I had long ceased to be moved by
+these, she was friendly enough to judge the game upon its merits. That
+she judged it to be stupid was neither strange nor any reflection upon
+the fairness of her mind. The game--in those profounder, rarer aspects
+which alone dignify it--is not for women. I believe that the game of
+cards to teach them philosophy under defeat, respect for the inevitable
+and a cheerful manipulation of such trifling good fortune as may
+befall--instead of that wild, womanish demand for all or nothing--has
+yet to be invented. I predict of this game, moreover, if ever it be
+found, that it will be a game at which two, at least, must play. Rarely
+have I known a woman, however rigid her integrity otherwise, who would
+not brazenly amend or even repeal utterly those decrees of Fate which
+are symbolized by the game. She desires intensely to win, and she will
+not be above shifting a card or two in contravention of the known rules.
+Far am I from intimating that this puts upon her the stigma of moral
+delinquency. It is mere testimony, rather, to her astounding capacity
+for self-deception. And this I cannot believe to be other than gracious
+of influence upon the intricate muddle of human association.
+
+Miss Kate was finely the woman at those times when she deigned for a ten
+minutes to overlook my playing of the game. Before I had half finished,
+on the first occasion, she had mastered its simple mechanism; and before
+I had quite finished she sought to practise upon it those methods of the
+world woman in games of solitaire. She would calmly have placed a black
+nine on a black ten.
+
+"But the colors must alternate," I protested, thinking she had forgotten
+this important rule.
+
+"Of course--I know that perfectly well--but look what a fine lot of
+cards that would give you. There's a deuce of hearts you could play up
+and a three of spades, and then you could go back to crossing the colors
+again, right away, you know, and you'd have that whole line running up
+to the king ready to put into that space."
+
+I looked at her, as she would have glided brazenly over that false play
+to rejoice in the true plays it permitted. But I did not speak. There
+are times, indeed, when we most honor the tongue of Shakspere by
+silence; emergencies to which words are so inadequate that to attempt to
+use them were to degrade the whole language.
+
+At the last I was brought face to face with a most intricately planned
+defeat; a defeat insured by one spot on a card. Had the obstructive card
+been a six-spot of clubs instead of a seven-spot, victory was mine. I
+pointed this out to Miss Kate, who had declined a chair at the table and
+had chosen to stand beside my own. I showed her the series of plays
+which, but for that seven-spot, would put the kings in their places at
+the top and let me win. And I was beaten for lack of a six.
+
+That she had grasped my explanation was quickly made plain. Actually
+with some enthusiasm she showed me that the much-desired six of clubs
+lay directly under the fatal seven.
+
+"Just lay the seven over here," she began eagerly, "and there's your
+black six ready for that horrid red five that's in the way--"
+
+"But there isn't any 'over here,'" I exclaimed in some irritation.
+"There can only be eight cards in a row--that would make nine."
+
+"Yes, but then you could play up all the others so beautifully--just
+see!"
+
+"Is this a game," I asked, "or a child's crazy play?"
+
+"Then it's an exceedingly stupid game if you can't do a little thing
+like that when it's absolutely necessary. What is the _sense_ of it?"
+
+Her eyes actually flashed into mine as she leaned at my side pointing
+out this simple way to victory.
+
+"What's the sense of any rules to any game on earth?" I retorted. "If I
+hadn't learned to respect rules--if I hadn't learned to be thankful for
+what the game allows me, however little it may be--" I paused, for the
+water was deeper than I had thought.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well--well _then_--I shouldn't be as thankful as I am this instant
+for--for many things that I can't have more of."
+
+She straightened herself and favored me with a curious look that melted
+at last into a puzzling smile.
+
+"I don't understand you," she said. With a shade more of encouragement
+in her voice I had been near to forgetting my honor as a truce-observing
+enemy. I was grateful, indeed, afterwards, that her wish to understand
+me was not sufficiently implied to bring me thus low.
+
+"Neither do I understand the morbid psychology that finds satisfaction
+in cheating at solitaire," I succeeded in saying. "I never can see how
+they fix it up with themselves."
+
+"I believe you think and talk a great deal of foolishness," said Miss
+Kate, in tones of reproof; and with this she was off the porch before I
+could rise.
+
+She wore pink, with bits of blue spotting it in no systematic order that
+I could discern, and a pink rose lay abashed in her hair.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+THE ABDICATION OF THE BOSS
+
+There is no need to conceal that I was by this time put to it for
+matters to think upon not clearly related to myself; in other words for
+matters extraneous to my neighbor's troublesome daughter. In sheer
+self-defence was I driven to look abroad for interests that would
+suffice without disquieting me. I was now compelled to admit that there
+was plainly to be observed in Miss Kate Lansdale something more than a
+mere winning faith in my powers of self-control. It was difficult at
+first to suspect that she actually meant to try me to the breaking
+point. The suspicion brought a false note to that harmony of chastened
+grief wherein, I had divined, she meant to live out her life. It seemed
+too Peavey and perverse a thing that she should, finding our truce
+honorably observed by myself, behave toward me as if with a cold design
+to bring me down in disgrace--as a proof of her superior powers and my
+own wretched weakness. Yet this very thing was I obliged regretfully to
+concede of her before many days. And it was behavior that I could
+palliate only by reminding myself constantly that she was not only a
+woman but the daughter of Miss Caroline, and by that token subject
+inevitably to certain infirmities of character. And still did she at
+times evince for me that shyness which only enhanced my peril.
+
+I managed to refrain, though in so grievous a plight, from wishing for
+another war; though I did concede that if we must ever again be cursed
+with war, it might as well come now as later. Regrettable though I must
+consider it, I should there find, spite of my disability, some field of
+active endeavor to engage my mind.
+
+Lacking war, I sought distraction in a matter close at hand--one which
+possessed quite all the vivacity of war without its violence.
+
+Early in the summer Mrs. Aurelia Potts had resumed her activities in
+behalf of our broader culture, whereupon our people murmured promptly at
+Solon Denney; for him did Little Arcady still hold to account for the
+infliction of this relentless evangel.
+
+It was known that something still remained to Mrs. Potts, even after a
+year, of the pittance secured from the railway company, so that it was
+not necessity which drove her. To a considerable element of the town it
+seemed to be mere innate perversity. "It's _in_ her," was an explanation
+which Westley Keyts thought all-sufficient, though he added by way, as
+it were, of putting this into raised letters for the blind, "she'd have
+to raise hell just the same if it had cost that there railroad eight
+million 'stead of eight hundred to exterminate Potts!"
+
+For myself, I should have set this thing to different words. I regarded
+Mrs. Potts as a zealot whom no advantage of worldly resource could blind
+to our shortcomings, nor deter from ministering unto them. Had it been
+unnecessary to earn bread for herself and little Roscoe, I am persuaded
+that she would still have been unremitting in her efforts to uplift us.
+In that event she might, it is true, have read us more papers and sold
+us fewer books; but she would have allowed herself as little leisure.
+
+That Little Arcady was unequal to this broader view, however, was to be
+inferred from comments made in the hearing of and often, in truth, meant
+for the ears of Solon Denney. The burden was shifted to his poor
+shoulders with as little concern as if our best citizens had not
+coöperated with him in the original move, with grateful applause for its
+ingenious and fanciful daring. In ways devoid of his own vaunted
+subtlety, it was conveyed to Solon that Little Arcady expected him to do
+something. This was after the town had been cleanly canvassed for two
+monthly magazines--one of which had a dress-pattern in each number, to
+be cut out on the dotted line--and after our heroine had gallantly
+returned to the charge with a rather heavy "Handbook of Science for the
+Home,"--a book costing two dollars and fifty cents and treating of many
+matters, such as, how to conduct electrical experiments in a
+drawing-room, how to cleanse linen of ink-stains, how the world was
+made, who invented gun-powder, and how to restore the drowned. I recite
+these from memory, not having at hand either of my own two copies of
+this valuable work. Upon myself Mrs. Potts was never to call in vain,
+for to me she was an important card miraculously shuffled into the right
+place in the game. It was the custom of Miss Caroline, also, to sign
+gladly for whatsoever Mrs. Potts signified would be to her advantage.
+She gave the "Handbook of Science" to Clem, who, being strongly moved by
+any group of figures over six, rejoiced passionately to read the weight
+of the earth in net tons, and to dwell upon those vastly extensive
+distances affected by astronomers.
+
+But abroad in the town there was not enough of this complaisance nor of
+this passion for mere numerals to prevent worry from creasing the brow
+of Solon Denney.
+
+"The good God helped him once, but it looks like he'd have to help
+himself now," said Uncle Billy McCormick, the day he refused to
+subscribe for an improving book on the ground that the clock-shelf
+wouldn't hold another one. And this view of the situation came also to
+be the desperate view of Solon himself. That he suffered a black hour
+each week when Mrs. Potts read the _Argus_ to him with corrections to
+make it square with "One Hundred Common Errors" and with good taste, in
+no way lessened the feeling against him. If he sustained an injury
+peculiar to his calling, it seemed probable that he would the sooner be
+moved to action. Little Arcady did not know what he could do, but it had
+faith that he would do something if he were pushed hard enough. So the
+good people pushed and trusted and pushed.
+
+To those brutal enough to seek direct speech about it with Solon, he
+professed to be awaiting only the right opportunity for a brilliant
+stroke, and he counselled patience.
+
+To me alone, I think, did he confide his utter lack of inspiration. And
+yet, though he seemed to affect entire candor with me, I was, strangely
+enough, puzzled by some reserve that still lurked beneath his manner. I
+hoped this meant that he was slowly finding a way too good to be told as
+yet, even to his best friend.
+
+"Something must be done, Cal," he said, on one occasion, "but you see,
+here's the trouble--she's a woman and I'm a man."
+
+"That's a famous old trouble," I remarked.
+
+"And she's _got_ to live, though Wes' Keyts says he isn't so sure of
+that--he says I'm lucky enough to have an earthquake made up especially
+for this case--and if she lives, she must have ways and means. And then
+I have my own troubles. Say, I never knew I was so careless about my
+language until she came along. She says only an iron will can correct
+it. Did you ever notice how she says 'i--ron' the way people say it when
+they're reading poetry out loud? I'll bet, if he had her help, the
+author of 'One Hundred Common Errors' could take an _Argus_ and run his
+list up to a hundred and fifty in no time. She keeps finding common
+errors there that I'll bet this fellow never heard of. You mustn't say
+'by the sweat of the brow,' but 'by the perspiration'--perspiration is
+refined and sweat is coarse--and to-day I learned for the first time
+that it's wrong to say 'Mrs. Henry Peterby of Plum Creek, _née_ Jennie
+McCormick, spent Sunday with her parents of this city.' It looks right
+on the face of it, but it seems you mustn't say 'née' for the first
+name--only the last; though it means in French that that was her name
+before she was married. I tell you, that woman is a stickler. But what
+can I do?"
+
+"Well, what _can_ you do? Far be it from me to suggest that something
+must be done."
+
+"Do you know, Cal, sometimes I've thought I'd adopt a tone with her?"
+
+"Better be careful," I cautioned. Mrs. Potts was not a person that one
+should adopt a tone with except after long and prayerful deliberation.
+
+"Oh, I've considered it long enough--in fact I've considered a lot of
+things. That woman has bothered me in more ways than one, I tell you
+frankly. She's such a fine woman, splendid-looking, capable, an
+intellectual giant--one, I may say, who makes no common errors--and
+yet--"
+
+"Ah! and yet--?" There was then in Solon's eyes that curious reserve I
+had before noted--a reserve that hinted of some desperate but still
+secret design.
+
+"Well, there you are."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Well--she seems to me to be a born leader of men."
+
+"I see, and you?"
+
+"Oh, nothing--only I'm a man. But something has got to be done. We must
+use common sense in these matters."
+
+It was early evening a week later when I again saw Solon; one of those
+still, serene evenings of later summer when the light would yet permit
+an hour's play at the game. I heard a step, but it was not she I longed,
+half-expected, and wholly dreaded to see. Instead came Solon, and by his
+restored confidence of bearing I knew at a glance that something had
+been done or--since he seemed to be hurried--that he was about to do it.
+
+"It's all over, Cal--it's fixed!"
+
+"Good--how did you fix it?"
+
+"Well--uh--I adopted a tone."
+
+"That was brave, Solon. No other man on God's earth would have dared--"
+
+"A tone, I was about to say--" he broke in a little uncomfortably, I
+thought--"which I have long contemplated adopting. If I could tell you
+just how that woman has impressed herself upon me, you'd understand what
+I mean when I say that she has _powers_. But I suppose you can't
+understand it, can you?" His tone, curiously enough, was almost
+pleading.
+
+"It isn't necessary that I should. I can at least understand that you
+are the Boss of Little Arcady once more."
+
+"Boss of nothing!--that's all over. Cal, I've abdicated--I'm not even
+Boss of myself."
+
+"Why, Solon--you can't possibly mean--"
+
+"I do, though! Mrs. Potts is going to marry me and--uh--put an end to
+everything!"
+
+With this rather curious finish he held out his hand expectantly.
+
+"Well, you certainly _did_ something, Solon."
+
+"We have to use common sense in these matters," he said with an effort
+to control his excitement. But, looking into his eyes, I saw reason to
+shake him warmly by the hand. What was my own poor opinion at a crisis
+like this? Certainly nothing to be obtruded upon my friend. It was clear
+that he had done a thing which he earnestly wanted and had earnestly
+dreaded to do--and that the dread was past.
+
+"I'm pretty happy, Cal--that's all. Of course you'll soon know how it is
+yourself." He referred here to the well-known fact that I was much in
+the company of Miss Lansdale. But this was a thing to be turned.
+
+"Oh, the game is teaching me resignation to a solitary life," I said
+with an affectation of disinterest that must have irritated him, for he
+asked bluntly:--
+
+"Say, Calvin, how long do you intend to keep up that damned nonsense
+when everybody knows--"
+
+This interesting sentence was cut off by Miss Kate Lansdale, who
+appeared around the corner and paused politely before us, with a look of
+trained and admirable deafness.
+
+"Ah, Miss Lansdale," said Solon, urbanely, "I was just about to speak of
+you."
+
+"Dear me!" said the young woman, simply. I thought she was aghast.
+
+"Yes--but it's not worth repeating--or finishing."
+
+Miss Lansdale seemed to be relieved by this assurance.
+
+"And now I must hurry off," added Solon.
+
+"Good evening!" we both said.
+
+It seemed to be of a stuff from which curtains are sometimes made,
+white, with little colored figures in it, but the design would have
+required at least a column of the most technical description in a
+magazine I had subscribed for that summer. There was lace at the throat,
+and I should say that the thing had been constructed with the needs of
+Miss Lansdale's slender but completed figure solely and clearly in mind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+IN WHICH ALL RULES ARE BROKEN
+
+Swiftly I appraised the cool perfection of her attire, scenting the
+spice of the pinks she had thrust at her belt. And I suffered one
+heart-quickening look from her eyes before she could lower them to me.
+In that instant I was stung with a presentiment that our treaty was in
+peril--that it might go fearfully to smash if I did not fortify myself.
+It came to me that the creature had regarded my past success in
+observing this treaty with a kind of provocative resentment. I cannot
+tell how I knew it--certainly through no recognized media of
+communication.
+
+Most formally I offered her a chair by the card-table, and resumed my
+own chair with what I meant for an air of inhospitable abstraction. She
+declined the chair, preferring to stand by the table as was her custom.
+
+"It was on this spot years ago," I said, laying down the second eight
+cards, "that Solon Denney first told me he was about to marry."
+
+Discursive gossip seemed best, I thought.
+
+"Two long yellow braids," she remarked. It would be too much to say that
+her words were snapped out.
+
+"And now he has told me again--I mean that he's going to marry again."
+
+"What did you do?" she asked more cordially, studying the cards.
+
+"The first time I went to war," I answered absently, having to play up
+the ace and deuce of diamonds.
+
+"I have never been able to care much for yellow hair," she observed,
+also studying the cards; "of course, it's _effective_, in a way,
+but--may I ask what you're going to do this time?"
+
+"This time I'm going to play the game."
+
+Again she studied the cards.
+
+"It's refining," I insisted. "It teaches. I'm learning to be a
+Sannyasin."
+
+Eight other cards were down, and I engrossed myself with them.
+
+"Is a Sannyasin rather dull?"
+
+"In the Bhagavad-gita," I answered, "he is to be known as a Sannyasin
+who does not hate and does not love anything."
+
+"How are you progressing?" I felt her troubling eyes full upon me, and I
+suspected there was mockery in their depths.
+
+"Oh, well, fairishly--but of course I haven't studied as faithfully as I
+might."
+
+"I should think you couldn't afford to be negligent."
+
+I played up the four of spades and put a king of hearts in the space
+thus happily secured.
+
+"I have read," I answered absently, "that a benevolent man should allow
+himself a few faults to keep his friends in countenance. I mustn't be
+everything perfect, you know."
+
+"Don't restrain yourself in the least on my account."
+
+"You are my sole trouble," I said, playing a black seven on a red eight.
+She looked off the table as I glanced up at her.
+
+I am a patient enough man, I believe, and I hope meek and lowly, but I
+saw suddenly that not all the beatitudes should be taken without
+reservation.
+
+"I repeat," I said, for she had not spoken, "your presence is the most
+troubling thing I know. It keeps me back in my studies."
+
+"There's a red five for that black six," she observed.
+
+"Thank you!" and I made the play.
+
+"Then you're not a Sannyasin yet?"
+
+"I've nearly taken the first degree. Sometimes after hard practice I can
+succeed in not hating anything for as much as an hour."
+
+I dealt eight more cards and became, to outward seeming, I hope,
+absorbed in the new aspect of the game.
+
+"Perseverance will be rewarded," she said kindly. "You can't expect to
+learn it all at once."
+
+"You might try not to make it harder for me."
+
+Again had I been a third person of fair discernment, I believe I should
+have sworn that I caught in her eyes a gleam of hardened, relentless
+determination; but she only pointed to a four of hearts which I was
+neglecting to play up.
+
+"Why not play the game to win?" she asked, and there was that in her
+voice which was like to undo me--a tone and the merest fanning of my
+face by her loose sleeve as she pointed to the card.
+
+Suddenly I knew that honor was not in me. She walked within my lines in
+imminent peril of the deadliest character. But there was no sign of fear
+in the look she held me with, and I knew she had not sensed her danger.
+
+"You should play your stupid game to win," she repeated terribly. "You
+are too ingenious at finding balm in defeat." That little golden
+roughness in her voice seemed to grate on my bared heart. I left her
+eyes with a last desperate appeal to the game. My hand shook as it laid
+down the final eight cards.
+
+"Have I ever had any reason to think I could win?" I found I could ask
+this if I kept my eyes upon the cards.
+
+She laughed a curious, almost silent, confidential little laugh, through
+which a sigh of despair seemed to breathe.
+
+I looked quickly up, but again there was that strange gleam in her eyes,
+a gleam of sternest resolve I should have called it under other
+circumstances.
+
+"You see!" I exclaimed, pointing with a trembling but triumphant finger
+at the cards. "You see! I am beaten now, in this game that seemed easy
+up to the very last moment. What could I hope for in a game where the
+cards fell wretchedly from the very start? If I hoped now, I'd be a
+hopeless fool, indeed!"
+
+[Illustration: "THAT WILL DO," I SAID SEVERELY. "REMEMBER, THERE IS A
+GENTLEMAN PRESENT."]
+
+"Are you sure you know how to play this game?"
+
+There was a sort of finality in her words that sickened me.
+
+"I have abided always by the rules," I answered doggedly, "and I do know
+the rules. Look--this game is neatly blocked by one little four-spot on
+that queen. If that queen were free, I could finish everything."
+
+"Oh, oh--I've told you it's a stupid game with stupid rules--and it
+makes its players--" She did not complete that, but went about on
+another tack--with the danger note in her voice. "Just now I overheard
+your caller say a thing--"
+
+"Ah, I feared you overheard."
+
+The arrogance of the gesture with which she interrupted me was splendid.
+
+"He said, 'How long are you going to keep up that--that--'"
+
+"That will do," I said severely. "Remember there is a gentleman
+present." But my voice sounded queerly indeed to the ears most familiar
+with its quality. Also it trembled, for her gaze, almost stern in its
+questioning, had not released me.
+
+"But how long _are_ you?" Her own voice had trembled, as mine did. She
+might as well have used the avoided word. Her tone carried it far too
+intelligibly. It was quite as bad as swearing. I tried twice before I
+succeeded in finding my voice.
+
+"I've _told_ you," I said desperately; "can't you see--that queen isn't
+free?"
+
+Swiftly--I regret to say, almost with a show of temper--she snatched the
+four of diamonds from its lawful place and laid it brazenly far outside
+the game.
+
+"The creature _is_ free," she said crisply--but at once her arrogance
+was gone and she drooped visibly in weakness.
+
+So quickly did I rise from the table that the cards of the game were
+hurled into a meaningless confusion. I stood at her side. I had lost
+myself.
+
+"Little Miss,--oh, Little Miss! I've a thousand arms all crying for
+you."
+
+Slowly she made her eyes come to mine--not without effort, for we were
+close.
+
+"I am glad we left you,"--she had meant to say "that arm," I judge, but
+there was a break in her voice, a swift movement, and she suddenly said
+"_this_ arm," with a little shudder in which she could not meet my eyes;
+for, such as the arm was, she had finished her speech from within it.
+Close I held her, like a witless moonling, forgetting all resolves, all
+lessons, all treaties--all but that she was not a dream woman.
+
+"Oh, Little Miss!" was all I could say; and she--"Calvin Blake!" as if
+it were a phrase of endearment.
+
+"Little Miss, that loss has put me out, but never has it been the
+hardship it is now--one arm!"
+
+I had not thought it possible for her to come nearer, but a successful
+nestling movement was her answer.
+
+"I feel the need of a thousand arms, and yet their strength is--"
+
+"Is in this one." She completed my sentence with her own nestling
+emphasis for "this one."
+
+"Can you believe now, Little Miss?"
+
+"Yes--you gave it to me again."
+
+"Can you believe that I--I--"
+
+"_That_ was never hard. I believed that the first evening I saw you."
+
+"A womanish thing to say--I didn't know it myself."
+
+But she laughed to me, laughed still as I brought her face nearer--so
+near. Only then did her parted lips close tensely in the woman fear of
+what she read in my eyes. I have reason to believe that she would have
+mastered this fear, but at that instant Miss Caroline coughed rather
+alarmingly.
+
+"You should do something for that right away," I said, as we struck
+ourselves apart. "You let a cough like that run along and you don't know
+what it may end in." Whereupon, having kissed no one on this occasion, I
+now kissed Miss Caroline,--without difficulty, I may add.
+
+"I've been meaning to do it for a year," I explained.
+
+"I must remind you that they were far less deliberate in _my_ day," said
+she, with a delicate hint of reminiscence in her tone. Whereupon she
+looked searchingly at each of us in turn. Then, with a little gasp, she
+wept daintily upon my love's shoulder.
+
+I had long suspected that tears were a mere aesthetic refreshment with
+Miss Caroline. I had never known her weaken to them when there seemed to
+be far better reasons for it than the present occasion furnished.
+
+"I must take her home," said my love, without speaking.
+
+"_Do!_" I urged, likewise in silence, but understandably.
+
+"And I must be alone," she called, as they stepped out on to the lawn.
+
+"So must I." It had not occurred to me; but I could see thoughts with
+which my mind needed at once to busy itself. I watched them go slowly
+into the dusk. I thought Miss Caroline seemed to be recovering.
+
+When they had gone, I stepped out to look up at the strange new stars.
+The measure of my dream was full and running over. To stand there and
+breathe full and laugh aloud--that was my prayer of gratitude; nor did I
+lack the presence of mind to hope that, in ascending, it might in some
+way advantage the soul of J. Rodney Potts, that humble tool with which
+the gods had wrought such wonders.
+
+It was no longer a dream, no vision brief as a summer's night, when the
+light fades late to come again too soon. Before, in that dreaming time,
+I saw that I had drawn water like the Danaides, in a pitcher full of
+holes. But now--I wondered how long she would find it good to be alone.
+I felt that I had been alone long enough, and that seven minutes, or
+possibly eight, might suffice even her.
+
+She came almost with the thought, though I believe she did not hurry
+after she saw that I observed her.
+
+"I had to be alone a long time, to think well about it--to think it all
+out," she said simply.
+
+I thought it unnecessary to state the precise number of minutes this had
+required. Instead I showed her all those strange new stars above us, and
+together we surveyed the replenished heavens.
+
+"How light it is--and so late!" she murmured absently.
+
+"Come back to our porch."
+
+There for the first time in its green life my vine came into its natural
+right of screening lovers. In its shade my love cast down her eyes, but
+intrepidly lifted her lips. Miss Caroline was still where she should
+have remained in the first place.
+
+"I am very happy, Little Miss!"
+
+"You shall be still happier, Calvin Blake. I haven't waited this long
+without knowing--"
+
+"Nor I! I know, too."
+
+"I hope Jim will be glad," she suggested.
+
+"He'll be delighted, and vastly relieved. It has puzzled him fearfully
+of late to see you living away from me."
+
+We sat down, for there seemed much to say.
+
+"I believed more than you did, with all your game," she taunted me.
+
+"But you broke the rules. Anybody can believe anything if he can break
+all the rules."
+
+"I'd a dreadful time showing you that I meant to."
+
+I shall not detail a conversation that could have but little interest to
+others. Indeed, I remember it but poorly. I only know that it seemed
+magically to feed upon itself, yet waxed to little substance for the
+memory.
+
+One thing, however, I retain vividly enough. In a moment when we both
+were silent, renewing our amazement at the stars, there burst upon the
+night a volume of song that I instantly identified.
+
+"She sleeps, my lady sleeps!" sang the clear tenor of Arthur Updyke. "My
+lady sleeps--she sleeps!" sang three other voices in well-blended
+corroboration; after which the four discoursed upon this interesting
+theme.
+
+We were down from the stars at once, but I saw nothing to laugh at, and
+said as much.
+
+"We might take them out some sandwiches and things to drink," persisted
+my Little Miss.
+
+But the starlight had shown me a gleam in her eyes that was too
+outrageously Peavey.
+
+"We will _not_" I chanted firmly to the music's mellowed accompaniment.
+"I am free to say now that the thing must be stopped, but you shall do
+it less brutally--to-morrow or next day."
+
+"Oh, well, if you--"
+
+She nestled again. So soon had this habit seemed to fasten upon her
+adaptable nature.
+
+"It's wonderful what one arm can do," she said; and in the darkness she
+felt for the closing hand of it to draw it yet more firmly about her.
+
+"It has the spirit of all the arms in the world, Little Miss--oh, my
+Little Miss--my dream woman come true!"
+
+She nestled again, with a sigh of old days ended.
+
+"You _can't_ get any closer," I admonished.
+
+"_Here!_" she whispered insistingly, so that I felt the breath of it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+
+BY ANOTHER HAND
+
+A wanderer from Little Arcady in early days returned to its placid
+shades after many years, drawn thither by a little quick-born yearning
+to walk the old streets again. But he found such strangeness in these
+that his memory was put to prodigious feats of reconstruction ere it
+could make them seemly as of yore.
+
+To the west, away from the river, the town has groped beyond a prairie
+frontier that had once been sacred to boyish games and the family cow.
+Now, so thickly was it built with neat white houses, that only with
+strenuous clairvoyance could famous old localities be identified: the
+ball-ground; the marshy stretch that made skating in winter, or, in
+spring, a fascinating place to catch cold by wading; the grassy common
+where "shinny" was played by day and "Yellow Horn" by night; the
+enchanted spot where the circus built airy castles of canvas, and where,
+on the day after, one might plant one's feet squarely in the magic ring,
+on the veritable spot, perchance, where the clown had superhumanly
+ridden the difficult trick-mule after local volunteers had failed so
+entertainingly.
+
+Barns in this once wild country had failed amazingly. Only one of any
+character was left, and it had shrunk. Of old a structure of
+possibilities intensely romantic, it was now dingy, pitiable,
+insignificant. No reasonable person would consider holding a circus
+there--admission ten pins for boys and five pins for girls.
+
+Orchards, too, had suffered. Acres of them, once known to their last
+tree, including the safest routes of approach by day or night, had been
+cut down to make space for substantial but unexciting houses, quite like
+the houses in anybody's town. Other orchards had shrunk to a few poor
+unproductive trees so little prized by their owners that they could no
+longer excite evil thoughts in the young.
+
+Indeed, almost everything had shrunk. The church steeples, once of an
+inconceivable height, were now but a scant sixty feet; and the buildings
+beneath them, that once had vied with old-world cathedrals, were seen to
+be but toy churches.
+
+Especially had gardens shrunk. One that boasted the widest area in days
+when it must be hoed for the advantage of potatoes insanely planted
+there, was now a plot so tiny that the returned wanderer, amazedly
+staring at it, abandoned all effort to make it occupy its old place in
+his memory.
+
+North and south were dozens of strange, prim houses to puzzle up the
+streets. The street-signs, another innovation, were truly needed. Of old
+it had been enough to say "down toward the depot," "out by the McCormick
+place," "next to the Presbyterian church," "up around the schoolhouse,"
+or "down by the lumber yard." But now it was plain that one had to know
+First, Second, and Third streets, Washington, Adams, and Jefferson
+streets.
+
+Socially as well, the town had changed. Not only is the native stock
+more travelled, speaking--entirely without an air--of trips to the
+Yellowstone, to Europe, Chicago, or Santa Barbara, but a new element has
+invaded the little country. It goes in the fall, but it comes again each
+summer, drawn by the green beauty of the spot, and it has left its
+impress.
+
+The revisiting wanderer observed, as in a dream, an immaculate coupé
+with a couple of men on the box who behaved quite as if they were about
+to enter the park in the full glare of Fifty-ninth Street and Fifth
+Avenue, though they were but on a street of the little country among
+farm wagons. The outfit was ascertained to belong to a summer resident
+who was said, by common report, to "have wine right on the table at
+every meal." No one born out of Little Arcady can appraise the
+revolutionary character of this circumstance at anything like its true
+value.
+
+Further, in the line of vehicular sensationalism, a modish wicker-bodied
+phaeton and a minute pony-cart were seen on a pleasant afternoon to
+issue from a driveway far up a street that now has a name, but which
+used to be adequately identified by saying "up toward the Fair Grounds."
+
+The phaeton was occupied by two ladies, one rather old, to whom a couple
+of half-grown children in the pony-cart kissed their hands and shouted.
+They were not permitted to follow the phaeton, however, as they seemed
+to have wished. Its shock-headed pony, driven by an aged negro who
+scolded both children with a worn and practised garrulity, was turned in
+another direction. One of the children, a little dark-faced girl of
+eight or nine, called "Little Miss" by the driver, was repeatedly
+threatened in the fiercest tone by him because of her perilous twistings
+to look back at the phaeton. The cart was followed by a liver-and-white
+setter; a young dog, it seemed, from his frenzied caperings and his
+manner of appearing to think of something else in the midst of every
+important moment.
+
+There proved to be two papers in the town, as of old, but the _Argus_
+was now published twice a week, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The wanderer
+eagerly scanned its columns for familiar names and for something of the
+town's old tone; but with little success.
+
+Said one item, "A string of electric lights, on a street leading up one
+of our hills, looks like a necklace of brilliants on the bosom of the
+night." Old Little Arcady had not electric lights; nor the _Argus_ this
+exuberance of simile.
+
+Again: "This new game of golf that the summer folks play seems to have
+too much walking for a good game and just enough game to spoil a good
+walk." Golf in the Little Country!
+
+The advent of musical culture was signified by this: "At least thirty
+girls in this town can play the first part of 'Narcissus' pretty well.
+But when they come to the second part they mangle the keys for a minute
+and then say, 'I don't care much for that second part--do you?' Why
+don't some of them learn it and give us a chance to judge?"
+
+The _Argus_ had acquired a "Woman's Department," conducted by Mrs.
+Aurelia Potts Denney, wife of the editor,--a public-spirited woman,
+prominent in club circles, and said to be of great assistance to her
+husband in his editorial duties. The town was proud of her, and sent her
+as delegate to the Federation of Woman's Clubs; her name, indeed, has
+been printed in full more than once, even by Chicago newspapers. Some
+say that wisely she might give more attention to her twin sons, Hayes
+and Wheeler Denney; but this likely is ill-natured carping, for Hayes
+and Wheeler seem not more lawless than other twins of eight. And
+carpers, to a certainty, do exist in Little Arcady.
+
+One Westley Keyts, for example, lounging in the doorway of his
+meat-shop, renewed acquaintance with the wanderer, who remembered him as
+a glum-faced but not bad-hearted chap. Names recalled and hands shaken,
+Mr. Keyts began to lament the simple ways of an elder day, glancing
+meanwhile with honest disapproval at a newly installed competitor across
+the street. The shop itself was something of an affront, its gilt name
+more--"The Bon Ton Market." Mr. Keyts pronounced "Bon Ton" in his own
+fashion, but his contempt was ably and amply expressed.
+
+"Sounds like one of them fancy names for a corset or a patent lamp," he
+complained. "It's this here summer business that done it. They swarm in
+here with their private hacks and their hired help all togged out till
+you'd think they was generals in the army, and they play that game of
+sissy-shinny (drop-the-handkerchief for mine, if _I_ got to play any
+such game), and they're such great hands to kite around nights when
+folks had ought to be in their beds. I tell you, my friend, it ain't
+doing this town one bit of good. The idea of a passel of strong, husky
+young men settin' around on porches in their white pants and calling it
+'passing the summer.' _I_ ain't never found time to pass any summers."
+
+The wanderer expressed a proper regret for this decadence. Mr. Keyts
+reverted bitterly to the Bon Ton market:--
+
+"Good name for a tooth powder, or a patent necktie, or an egg-beater.
+But a butcher-shop!--why, it's a _hell_ of a name for a
+butcher-shop!"
+
+The wanderer expressed perfect sympathy with this view of the shop
+legend, and remarked, "By the way, whose big house is that with the
+columns in front, up where the Prouse and old Blake houses used to be?"
+
+The face of Mr. Keyts became pleasanter.
+
+"Oh, that?--that's Cal Blake's--Major Blake's, you know. He married a
+girl that come in here from the South with her mother. I guess that was
+after you got out of here. They tore down the two houses and built that
+big one. They say it's like them Southern houses, but I don't know. It
+seems awful plain up the front of it. Cal's all right, though. I guess
+mebbe he built the house kind of bare that way to please his wife and
+his mother-in-law. I'll bet if he'd had his own way, there'd be some
+brackets and fret work on the front to liven it up some. But I'd a done
+just like him in his place, I would, by Gee! So would you if you seen
+his wife. _Say!_ but never mind; you wait right here. She'll drive up to
+git Cal from his office at four-thirty--it's right across there over the
+bank where that young fellow is settin' in the window--that's young Cal
+Denney, studyin' law with Blake. You just wait and see--she'll drive up
+in about six minutes."
+
+The wanderer waited, out of pure cordiality to Mr. Keyts. The prospect
+was not exciting, but the simple faith of the villagers that outsiders
+must share their interest in local concerns has always seemed too
+touching a thing to wreck.
+
+Within the six minutes mentioned by Mr. Keyts the diurnal happening to
+which he attached such importance was observed. A woman (the younger of
+the two seen in the phaeton) drove up for Major Calvin Blake; a youngish
+rather than a young woman, slight, with an effect of stateliness, and
+not unattractive. Her husband, a tall and pleasant enough looking man,
+came down the stairs, and when he saw the woman his face lighted
+swiftly--and rather wonderfully, when one considers that she was not
+unexpected. They drove away.
+
+The wanderer was not disposed to minimize the incident, however far he
+might fall short of Westley Keyts's appreciation. But he had been long
+absent from the Little Country, and the people of to-day were strange
+and unimportant. He preferred to revive, as best he might, the days of
+his own simple faith in the town's sufficiency; days when the world
+beyond the Little Country was but a place from which to order
+merchandise, or into which, at the most, adventurous Arcadians dared
+brief journeys for profit or a doubtful pleasure; the days of a boy's
+Little Arcady, that existed no more save as a wraith in remembering
+minds.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Boss of Little Arcady, by Harry Leon Wilson
+
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