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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13679 ***
+
+                            Andrew the Glad
+
+                       By MARIA THOMPSON DAVIESS
+
+Author of Miss Selina Lue, Rose of Old Harpeth The Melting of Molly, etc.
+
+                                 1913
+
+
+
+
+TO LIBBIE LUTTRELL MORROW
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+
+      I THE HEART TRAP
+
+     II THE RITUAL
+
+    III TWO LITTLE CRIMES
+
+     IV ACCORDING TO SOLOMON
+
+      V DAVID'S ROSE AND SOME THORNS
+
+     VI THE BRIDGE OF DREAMS
+
+    VII STRANGE WILD THINGS
+
+   VIII THE SPELL AND ITS WEAVING
+
+     IX PURSUING THE POSSUM
+
+      X LOVE'S HOME AND ANDREW SEVIER
+
+     XI ACROSS THE MANY WATERS
+
+
+
+
+ANDREW THE GLAD
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE HEART TRAP
+
+
+"There are some women who will brew mystery from the decoction of
+even a very simple life. Matilda is one of them," remarked the major to
+himself as he filled his pipe and settled himself before his high-piled,
+violet-flamed logs. "It was waxing strong in her this morning and an
+excitement will arrive shortly. Now I wonder--"
+
+"Howdy, Major," came in a mockingly lugubrious voice from the hall, and
+David Kildare blew into the room. He looked disappointedly around,
+dropped into a chair and lowered his voice another note.
+
+"Seen Phoebe?" he demanded.
+
+"No, haven't you?" answered the major as he lighted his pipe and regarded
+the man opposite him with a large smile of welcome.
+
+"Not for three days, hand-running. She's been over to see Andy with Mrs.
+Matilda twice, and I've missed her both times. Now, how's that for luck?"
+
+"Well," said the major reflectively, "in the terms of modern parlance,
+you certainly are up against it. And did it ever occur to you that a man
+with three ribs broken and a dislocated collar-bone, who has written a
+play and a sprinkle of poems, is likely to interest Phoebe Donelson
+enormously? There is nothing like poetry to implant a divine passion, and
+Andrew is undoubtedly of poetic stamp."
+
+"Oh, poetry--hang! It's more Andy's three ribs than anything else. He
+just looks pale and smiles at all of 'em. He always did have yellow dog
+eyes, the sad kind. I'd like to smash all two dozen of his ribs," and
+Kildare slashed at his own sturdy legs with his crop. He had dropped in
+with his usual morning's tale of woe to confide to Major Buchanan, and he
+had found him, as always, ready to hand out an incendiary brand of
+sympathy.
+
+"He ought not to have more than twenty-three; one on the right side
+should be missing. Some woman's got it--maybe Phoebe," said the major
+with deadly intent.
+
+"Nothing of the kind. I'm shy a rib myself and Phoebe is _it_. Don't I
+get a pain in my side every time I see her? It's the real psychic thing,
+only she doesn't seem to get hold of her end of the wire like she might."
+
+"Don't trust her, David, don't trust her! You see his being injured in
+Panama, building bridges for his country, while you sat here idly reading
+the newspapers about it, has had its appeal. I know it's dangerous, but
+you ought to want Phoebe to soothe his fevered brow. Nothing is too good
+for a hero this side of Mason and Dixon's, my son." The major eyed his
+victim with calculating coolness, gaging just how much more of the
+baiting he would stand. He was disappointed to see that the train of
+explosives he had laid failed to take fire.
+
+"Well, he's being handed out a choice bunch of Mason-Dixon attentions.
+They are giving him the cheer-up all day long. When I left, Mrs. Shelby
+was up there talking to him, and Mrs. Cherry Lawrence and Tom had just
+come in. Mrs. Cherry had brought him several fresh eggs. She had got them
+from Phoebe! I sent them to her from the farm this morning. Rode out and
+coaxed the hens for them myself. Now, isn't a brainstorm up to me?"
+
+"Well, I don't know," answered the major in a judicial tone of voice.
+"You wouldn't have them neglect him, would you?"
+
+"Well, what about me?" demanded David dolefully. "I haven't any green
+eyes, 'cause I'm trusting Andy, _not_ Phoebe; but neglect is just
+withering my leaves. I haven't seen her alone for two weeks. She is
+always over there with Mrs. Matilda and the rest 'soothing the fevered
+brow.' Say, Major, give Mrs. Matilda the hint. The chump isn't really
+sick any more. Hint that a little less--"
+
+"David, sir," interrupted the major, "it takes more than a hint to stop a
+woman when she takes a notion to nurse an attractive man, a sick lion one
+at that. And depend upon it, it is the poetry that makes them hover him,
+not the ribs."
+
+"Well, you just stop her and that'll stop them," said David wrathfully.
+
+"David Kildare," answered the major dryly, "I've been married to her
+nearly forty years and I've never stopped her doing anything yet.
+Stopping a wife is one of the bride-notions a man had better give up
+early in the matrimonial state--if he expects to hold the bride. And
+bride-holding ought to be the life-job of a man who is rash enough to
+undertake one."
+
+"Do you think Phoebe and bride will ever rhyme together, Major?" asked
+David in a tone of deepest depression. "I can't seem to hear them ever
+jingle."
+
+"Yes, Dave, the Almighty will meter it out to her some day, and I hope He
+will help you when He does. I can't manage my wife. She's a modern woman.
+Now, what are we going to do about them?" and the major smiled
+quizzically at the perturbed young man standing on the rug in front of
+the fire.
+
+"Well," answered Kildare with a spark in his eyes, as he flecked a bit of
+mud from his boots which were splashed from his morning ride, "when I get
+Phoebe Donelson, I'm going to whip her!" And very broad and tall and
+strong was young David but not in the least formidable as to expression.
+
+"Dave, my boy," answered the major in a tone of the deepest respect, "I
+hope you will do it, if you get the chance; but you won't! Thirty-eight
+years ago last summer I felt the same way, but I've had a long time to
+make up my mind to it; and I haven't done it yet."
+
+"Anyway," rejoined his victim, "there's just this to it; she has got to
+accept me kindly, affectionately and in a ladylike manner or I'm going to
+be the villain and make some sort of a rough house to frighten her into
+it."
+
+"David," said the major with emphasis, "don't count on frightening a
+woman into a compliance in an affair of the affections. Don't you know
+they will risk having their hearts suspended on a hair-line between
+heaven and hell and enjoy it? Now, my wife--"
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Matilda never could have been like that," interrupted David
+miserably.
+
+"Boy," answered the major solemnly, "if I were to give you a succinct
+account of the writhings of my soul one summer over a California man, the
+agony you are enduring would seem the extremity of insignificance."
+
+"Heavenly hope, Major, did you have to go up against the other man
+game, too? I seem to have been standing by with a basket picking up
+chips of Phoebe's lovers for a long lifetime; Tom, Hob, Payt, widowers
+and flocks of new fledges. But I had an idea that you must have been a
+first-and-only with Mrs. Matilda."
+
+"Well, it sometimes happens, David, that the individuality of all of a
+woman's first loves get so merged into that of the last that it would be
+difficult for her to differentiate them herself; and it is best
+to keep her happily employed so she doesn't try."
+
+"Well, all I can say for you, Major," interrupted Kildare with a laugh,
+"is that your forty years' work shows some. Your Mrs. Buchanan is what I
+call a finished product of a wife. I'll never do it in the world. I can
+get up and talk a jury into seeing things my way, but I get cross-brained
+when I go to put things to Phoebe. That reminds me, that case on old Jim
+Cross for getting tangled up with some fussy hens in Latimer's hen-house
+week before last is called for to-day at twelve sharp. I'm due to put the
+old body through and pay the fine and costs; only the third time this
+year. I'm thinking of buying him a hen farm to save myself trouble.
+Good-by, sir!"
+
+"David, David," laughed the major, "beware of your growing
+responsibilities! Cap Hobson reported that sensation of yours before
+the grand jury over that negro and policeman trouble. The darkies will
+put up your portrait beside that of Father Abe on Emancipation Day
+and you will be in danger of passing down to posterity by the
+public-spirit-fame chute. Your record will be in the annals of the
+city if you don't mind!"
+
+"Not much danger, Major," answered David with a smile. "I'm just a glad
+man with not balance enough to run the rail of any kind of heavy track
+affairs."
+
+"David," said the major with a sudden sadness coming into his voice and
+eyes, "one of the greatest men I ever knew we called the glad man--the
+boy's father, Andrew Sevier. We called him Andrew, the Glad. Something
+has brought it all back to me to-day and with your laugh you reminded me
+of him. The tragedy of it all!"
+
+"I've always known what a sorrow it was to you, Major, and it is the
+bitterness that is eating the heart out of Andy. What was it all about
+exactly, sir? I have always wanted to ask you." David looked into
+the major's stern old eyes with such a depth of sympathy in his young
+ones that a barrier suddenly melted and with the tone of bestowing an
+honor the old fire-eater told the tale of the sorrow of his youth.
+
+"Gaming was in his blood, David, and we all knew it and protected him
+from high play always. We were impoverished gentlemen, who were building
+fences and restoring war-devastated lands, and we played in our shabby
+club with a minimum stake and a maximum zest for the sport. But that
+night we had no control over him. He had been playing in secret with
+Peters Brown for weeks and had lost heavily. When we had closed up the
+game, he called for the dice and challenged Brown to square their
+account. They threw again and again with luck on the same grim side. I
+saw him stake first his horses, then his bank account, and lose.
+
+"Hayes Donelson and I started to remonstrate but he silenced us with a
+look. Then he drew a hurried transference of his Upper Cumberland
+property and put it on the table. They threw again and he lost! Then he
+smiled and with a steady hand wrote a conveyance of his home and
+plantation, the last things he had, as we knew, and laid that on the
+table."
+
+"No, Major," exclaimed David with positive horror in his voice.
+
+"Yes, it was madness, boy," answered the major. "Brown turned his ivories
+and we all held our breath as we read his four-three. A mad joy flamed in
+Andrew's face and he turned his cup with a steady wrist--and rolled
+threes. We none of us looked at Brown, a man who had led another man in
+whose veins ran a madness, where in his ran ice, on to his ruin. We
+followed Andrew to the street to see him ride away in a gray drizzle to a
+gambled home--and a wife and son.
+
+"That morning deeds were drawn, signed, witnessed and delivered to Brown
+in his office. Then--then"--the major's thin, powerful old hands grasped
+the arm of his chair--"we found him in the twilight under the clump of
+cedars that crowned the hill which overlooked Deep-mead Farm--broad acres
+of land that the Seviers had had granted them from Virginia--_dead_,
+his pistol under his shoulder and a smile on his face. Just so he had
+looked as he rode at the head of our crack gray regiment in that
+hell-reeking charge at Perryville, and it was such a smile we had
+followed into the trenches at Franklin. Stalwart, dashing, joyous Andrew,
+how we had all loved him, our man-of-smiles!"
+
+"Can anything ever make it up to you, Major?" asked David softly. As he
+spoke he refilled the major's pipe and handed it to him, not appearing to
+notice how the lean old hand shook.
+
+"You do, sir," answered the major with a spark coming back into his eyes,
+"you and your gladness and the boy and his--sadness--and Phoebe most of
+all. But don't let me keep you from your hen-roost defense--I agree with
+you that a hen farm will be the cheapest course for you to take with old
+Cross. Give him my respects, and good-by to you." The major's dismissal
+was gallant, and David went his way with sympathy and admiration in his
+gay heart for the old fire-eater whose ashes had been so stirred.
+
+The major resumed his contemplation of the fire. Hearty burning logs make
+good companions for a philosopher like the major, and such times when his
+depths were troubled he was wont to trust to them for companionship.
+
+But into any mood of absorption, no matter how deep, the major was always
+ready to welcome Mrs. Matilda, and his expectations on the subject of her
+adventures had been fully realized. As usual she had begun her tale in
+the exact center of the adventure with full liberty left herself to work
+back to the beginning or forward to the close.
+
+"And the mystery of it all, Matilda, is the mystery of love--warm,
+contradictory, cruel, human love that the Almighty puts in the heart of a
+man to draw the unreasoning heart of a woman; sometimes to bruise and
+crush it, seldom to kill it outright. Mary Caroline only followed her
+call," answered the major, responding to her random lead patiently.
+
+"I know, Major; yes, I know," answered his wife as she laid her hand on
+the arm of his chair. "Mary Caroline struggled against it but it was
+stronger than she was. It wasn't the loving and marrying a man who had
+been on the other side--so many girls did marry Union officers as soon as
+they could come back down to get them--but the _kind_ of enemy he was!"
+
+"Yes," said the major thoughtfully, "it would take a wider garment of
+love to cover a man with a carpetbag in his hand than a soldier in a
+Yankee uniform. A conqueror who looked around as he was fighting and then
+came back to trade on the necessities of the conquered cuts but a sorry
+figure, Matilda, but a sorry figure!"
+
+"And Mary Caroline felt it too, Major--but she couldn't help it,"
+said Mrs. Buchanan with a catch in her voice. "The night before she
+ran away to marry him she spent with me, for you were away across the
+river, and all night we talked. She told me--not that she was going--but
+how she cared. She said it bitterly over and over, 'Peters Brown, the
+carpetbagger--and I love him!' I tried to comfort her as best I could
+but it was useless. He was a thief to steal her--just a child!" There was
+a bitterness and contempt in Mrs. Matilda's usually tender voice. She
+sat up very straight and there was a sparkle in her bright eyes.
+
+"And the girl," continued the major thoughtfully, "was born as her mother
+died. He'd never let the mother come back and he never brought the child.
+Now he's dead. I wonder--I wonder. We've got a claim on that girl,
+Matilda. We--"
+
+"And, dear, that is just what I came back in such a hurry to tell you
+about--I felt it so--I haven't been able to say it right away. I began by
+talking about Mary Caroline and--I--I--"
+
+"Why, Matilda!" said the major in vague alarm at the tremble in his
+wife's voice. He laid his hand over hers on the arm of his chair with a
+warm clasp.
+
+"It's just this, Major. You know how happy I have been, we all have been,
+over the wonderful statue that has been given in memory of the women of
+the Confederacy who stayed at home and fed the children and slaves while
+the men fought. As you advised them, they have decided to put it in the
+park just to the left of the Temple of Arts, on the very spot where
+General Darrah had his last gun fired and spiked just before he fell and
+just as the surrender came. It's strange, isn't it, that nobody knows
+who's giving it? Perhaps it was because you and David and I were talking
+last night about what he should say about General Darrah when he made
+the presentation of the sketches of the statue out at the opening of the
+art exhibition in the Temple of Arts to-night, that made me dream about
+Mary Caroline all night. It is all so strange." Again Mrs. Buchanan
+paused with a half sob in her voice.
+
+"Why, what is it, Matilda?" the major asked as he turned and looked at
+her anxiously.
+
+"It's a wonderful thing that has happened, Major. Something, I don't know
+what, just made me go out to the Temple this morning to see the sketches
+of the statue which came yesterday. I felt I couldn't wait until to-night
+to see them. Oh, they are so lovely! Just a tall fearless woman with a
+baby on her breast and a slave woman clinging to her skirts with her own
+child in her arms!
+
+"As I stood before the case and looked at them the tragedy of all the
+long fight came back to me. I caught my breath and turned away--and there
+stood a girl! I knew her instantly, for I was looking straight into Mary
+Caroline's own purple eyes. Then I just opened my arms and held her
+close, calling Mary Caroline's name over and over. There was no one
+else in the great room and it was quiet and solemn and still. Then she
+put her hand against my face and looked at me and said in the loveliest
+tenderest voice:
+
+"'It's my mother's Matilda, isn't it? I have the old daguerreotype!' And
+I smiled back and we kissed each other and cried--and then cried some
+more."
+
+"I haven't a doubt of those tears," answered the major in a suspiciously
+gruff voice. "But where's the girl? Why didn't you bring her right back
+with you? She is ours, Matilda, that purple-eyed girl. When is she
+coming? Call Tempie and tell her to have Jane get those two south-wing
+rooms ready right away. I want Jeff to fill up the decanters with the
+fifty-six claret, too, and to put--"
+
+"But wait, Major, I couldn't get her to come home with me! We went out
+into the sunshine and for a long drive into the country. We talked and
+talked. It is the saddest thing in the world, but she is convinced that
+her mother's people are not going to like her. She has been taught that
+we are so prejudiced. I think she has found out about the carpetbagging.
+She is so sensitive! She came because she couldn't help it; she wanted
+just to see her mother's country. She's only been here two days. She
+intends to steal away back now, over to Europe, I think. I tried to
+make her see--"
+
+"Matilda," said the major sternly, "go right back and tell that
+child to pack her dimity and come straight here to me. Carpetbagging,
+indeed!--Mary Caroline's girl with purple eyes! Did old Brown have any
+purple eyes, I'd like to know?"
+
+"I made her promise not to go until tomorrow. I think she would feel
+differently if we could get her to stay a little while. I want her to
+stay. She is so lonely. My little boy loved Mary Caroline and grieved for
+her when she went away. I feel I must have this child to comfort for
+a time at least."
+
+"Of course she must stay. Did she promise she wouldn't slip away from
+you?"
+
+"Yes, but I'm uneasy. I think I will go down to her hotel right now. Do
+you mind about being alone for lunch? Does Tempie get your coffee right?"
+
+"She does pretty well considering that she hasn't been tasting it for
+thirty years. But you go get that child, Matilda. Bring her right back
+with you. Don't stop to argue with her, I'll attend to all that later;
+just bring her home!"
+
+And as Mrs. Buchanan departed the major rose and stood at the window
+until he saw her get into her carriage and be driven out of sight.
+Looking down the vista of the long street, his eyes had a faraway tender
+light, and as he turned and took up his pipe from the table his
+thoughts slipped back into the province of memory. He settled himself
+in his chair before his fire to muse a bit between the whiffs of his
+heart-leaf.
+
+And Mary Caroline Darrah's girl had come home--home to her own, he mused.
+There was mystery in it, the mystery that sometimes brands the unborn.
+Brown had never let Mary Caroline come back and the few letters she had
+written had told them little of the life she led. The constraint had
+wrung his wife's yearning heart. Only a letter had come when somehow
+the news had reached her of the death of Matilda's boy, and it had been
+wild and sweet and athrob with her love of them. And in its pages her own
+hopes for the spring were confessed in a passion of desire to give and
+claim sympathy. Her baby had been born and she was dead and buried before
+they had heard of it; twenty-three years ago! And Matilda's grief for her
+own child had been always mingled with love and longing for the
+motherless, unattainable young thing across the distance. Brown had kept
+the girl to himself and had never brought her back--because he _dared_
+not.
+
+The major's powerful old hands writhed around the arms of his chair and
+his eyes glowed into the embers like live sparks. It was years, nearly
+thirty years ago--but, God, how the tragedy of it came back! The hot
+blood beat into his veins and he could feel it and see it all. Would
+the picture always burn in his brain? Nearly thirty years ago--
+
+The logs crashed apart in the hearth and with a start the major rose to
+his feet, a tear dashed aside under his shaggy old eyebrows. He would go
+back to his Immortals--and forget. Perhaps Phoebe would come in for
+lunch. That would make forgetting easier.
+
+Where had the girl been for the last few days? He smiled as he found
+himself in something of David's dismay at not having seen the busy young
+woman for quite a time.
+
+And it was perhaps an hour later that, as he sat in the breakfast room
+partaking of his lunch in solitary comfort, lost to the world, his wish
+for her brought its materialization. He had the morning's paper propped
+up before him and an outspread book rested by his plate, while he
+held a large volume balanced on his knee, which he paused occasionally to
+consult.
+
+Mrs. Buchanan had telephoned that she would be home with her guest at
+five o'clock and his mind was filled with pleasant anticipation. But
+there was never a time with the major, no matter how filled the life was
+around him with the excitement of events, with the echo of joy or
+woe, the clash of social strife or the turmoil of vaster interests, when
+he failed to be able to plunge into his books and lose himself
+completely.
+
+He was in the act of consuming a remnant of a corn muffin and a draft
+from his paper at the same time, when he heard a merry voice in laughing
+greeting to Jeff, and the rose damask curtains that hung between the
+breakfast room and the hall parted, and Phoebe stood framed against
+their heavy folds. She was the freshest, most radiant, tailor-made vision
+imaginable and the major smiled a large joyful smile at the sight of her.
+
+"Come in, come in, my dear; you are just in time for a hot muffin and a
+fried chicken wing!" he exclaimed as he rose and drew her to the table.
+The old volume crashed to the floor unheeded.
+
+"Oh, no, Major, thank you, I couldn't think of it," exclaimed Phoebe.
+"I'm lunching on a glass of malted milk and a raw egg these days. I lost
+a pound and three-quarters last week and I feel so slim and graceful." As
+she spoke she ran her hands down the charming lines of her tall figure
+and turned slowly around for him to get the full effect of her loss. She
+was most beautifully set up and the long lines melted into curves where
+gracious curves ought to be.
+
+"Nonsense, nonsense, Phoebe Donelson!" exclaimed the major. "Every pound
+is an added charm. Sit here beside me." And he drew her into a chair at
+the corner of the table.
+
+In a twinkling of her black eyes Tempie had served her with the golden
+muffins and crisp chicken. With a long sigh of absolute rapture Phoebe
+resigned herself to the inevitable crash of her resolutions.
+
+"Ah, I never was so miserable and so happy in all my life before," she
+said. "I'm so hungry--and I'm so stout--and these muffins are wickedly
+delicious."
+
+"Phoebe," said the major sternly, "instead of starving yourself to death
+you need to lie awake at night with lovers' troubles. Why, the summer I
+courted Matilda I could have wrapped my belt around me twice. I have
+never been portly since. It's loving you need, good, hard, miserable
+loving. Didn't you ever hear of a 'lean and hungry lover'? Your conduct
+is positively--have another muffin and this little slice of upper
+joint--I say positively, unwomanly inhuman. Are there no depths of pity
+in your breast? Is your bosom of adamant? When did you see David Kildare?
+He is in a most pitiable condition. He left here not an hour ago and I
+felt--"
+
+"Don't worry over David, please, Major," said Phoebe as she paused with
+a bit of buttered muffin suspended on the way to her white teeth. "He
+is the most riotously--thank you, Tempie, just one more--happy individual
+I know. What he wants he has, and he sees to it that he has what he
+wants--to which add a most glorious leisure in which to want and have."
+
+"Phoebe, David Kildare has an aching void in his heart that weighs
+just one hundred and thirty-six pounds, lacking now I believe one and
+three-quarters pounds plus three muffins and a half chicken. How can you
+be so heartless?" The major bent a benignly stern glance upon her which
+she returned with the utmost unconcern.
+
+"He did not see you all of yesterday or the day before and only once on
+Monday, and then you--"
+
+"That sounds like one of those rhyming calendars, my dear Major.
+
+"Monday I am going far away,
+Tuesday I'll be busy all the day,
+Wednesday is the day I study French,
+Thursday is the--"
+
+and Phoebe hummed the little nonsense jingle to him in a most beguiling
+manner.
+
+The major laughed delightedly. "Phoebe, some day you will be held
+responsible for David Kildare's--"
+
+"But, my dear Major," interrupted Phoebe, "how could I be expected to
+work all day for raiment and food, with malted milk and eggs at the price
+they are now, and then be responsible for such a perfectly irresponsible
+person as David Kildare? Why, just yesterday, while I was writing up the
+Farrell débutante tea with the devil waiting at my elbows for copy and
+the composing room in a stew, he called me twice over the wire. He knew
+better, but didn't care."
+
+"Still, my dear, still it's love," said the major as he looked at her
+thoughtfully and dropped the banter that had been in his voice since she
+had come in. "A boy's? Perhaps, but I think not. You'll see! It's a call,
+a call that must be answered some time, child--and a mystery." For a
+moment the major sat and looked deep into the gray eyes raised to his in
+quick responsiveness to the change in his mood. "Don't trifle with love,
+girl, it's God Almighty's dower to a woman. It's hers; though she
+pays a bitter price for it. It's a wonder and a worker of wonders. It has
+all come home to me to-day and I think you will understand when I tell
+you about--"
+
+"Major," interrupted Tempie with a broad grin on her black face, "Mr.
+Dave, he done telephoned fer you ter keep Miss Phoebe till he gits here.
+He says he'll hold you and me 'sponsible, sir."
+
+A quick flush rose to Phoebe's cheeks and she laughed as she collected
+her notebook and pinned down her veil all at the same tune with a view to
+instant flight. She gave neither the major nor Tempie time for
+remonstrance.
+
+"Good-by!" she called from the hall. "I only came in to tell Mrs. Matilda
+that I would meet her at the Cantrell tea at five-fifteen and afterward
+we could make that visit together. The muffins were divine!"
+
+"Tempie," remarked the major as he looked up at her over the devastated
+table with an imperturbable smile, "I have decided positively that women
+are just half-breed angels with devil markings all over their
+dispositions."
+
+And having received which admonition with the deepest respect, Tempie
+immediately fell into a perfect whirlwind of guest preparations which
+involved the pompous Jefferson, her husband, and the meek Jane, her
+daughter. The major issued her numberless, perfectly impossible but
+solicitous orders and then retired to his library chair with his mind at
+ease and his books at hand.
+
+And it was in the violet flamed dusk as he sat with his immortal friends
+ranged around that Mrs. Matilda brought the treasure home to him. She was
+a very lovely thing, a fragrant flower of a woman with the tender shyness
+of a child in her manner as she laid her hands in his outheld to her with
+his courtly old-world grace.
+
+"My dear, my dear," he said as he drew her near to him, "here's a welcome
+that's been ready for you twenty years, you slip of a girl you, with your
+mother's eyes. Did you think you could get away from Matilda and me when
+we've been waiting for you all this time?"
+
+"I may have thought so, but when I saw her I knew I couldn't; didn't want
+to even," she answered him in a low voice that hinted of close-lying
+tears.
+
+"Child, Matilda has had a heart trap ready for you ever since you were
+born, in case she sighted you in the open. It's baited with a silver
+rattle, doll babies, sugar plums, the ashes of twenty years' roses, the
+fragrance of every violet she has seen, and lately an aggregation of
+every eligible masculine heart in this part of the country has been
+added. She caught you fair--walk in and help yourself; it's all yours!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE RITUAL
+
+
+"Well, it's a sensation all right, Major," said David as he stood in
+front of the major's fire early in the morning after the ceremonies of
+the presentation of sketches of the statue out at the Temple of Arts.
+"Mrs. Matilda told me the news and helped me sandwich it into my speech
+between that time and the open-up talk. People had asked so often who was
+giving the statue, laid it on so many different people, and wondered over
+it to such an extent all fall that they had got tired and forgot that
+they didn't know all about it. When I presented it in the name of
+Caroline Darrah Brown in memory of her mother and her grandfather,
+General Darrah, you could have heard a pin drop for a few seconds, then
+the applause was almost a sob. It was as dramatic a thing as has been
+handed this town in many a day. Still it was a bit sky-rockety, don't you
+think--keeping it like that and--"
+
+"David," interrupted the major quickly, "she never intended to tell it.
+She had done the business part of it through her solicitors. She _never_
+wanted us to know. I persuaded her to let it be presented in her name,
+myself, just before Matilda went out with you. She shrinks--"
+
+"Wait a minute, Major, don't get the two sides of my brain crossed. You
+persuaded her--she isn't in town is she?--don't tell me she's here
+herself!" And David ruffled his auburn forelock with a gesture of
+perplexity.
+
+"Yes," answered the major, "Caroline Darrah Brown is here and is, I hope,
+going to stay for a time at least. I wanted to tell you about it
+yesterday but I hadn't seen her and I--"
+
+"And, David dear," interrupted Mrs. Buchanan who had been standing by
+with shining eyes waiting for an opening to break in on Kildare's
+astonishment with some of the details of her happiness over her
+discovery. "I didn't tell you last night for the major didn't want me to,
+but she _is_ so lovely! She's your inherited friend, for your mother and
+hers were devoted to each other. I do want you to love her and everybody
+help me to make her feel at home. Don't mind about her father being
+a--you know a--a carpetbagger. Three of her Darrah grandfathers have
+been governors of this state; just think about them and don't talk about
+her father or any carpet--you know. Please be good to her!"
+
+"Be good to her," exclaimed David heartily, "just watch me! I am loving
+her already for making you so happy by this down-from-the-sky drop, Mrs.
+Matilda. And we'll all be careful about the carpetbags; won't even
+mention a rug; lots of talk can be got out of the dead governors I'm
+thinking. My welcome's getting more enthusiastic every moment. When can I
+hand it to her?"
+
+"She's resting now and I think she ought to be quiet for to-day, because
+she has been under a strain," answered Mrs. Buchanan as she glanced
+tenderly at a closed door across the hall. "Oh, I'm so glad you think you
+are going to love her in spite of--of--"
+
+"The Brown graft on the Darrah family tree?" finished David quizzically.
+His eyes danced with delighted amusement across her puffs at the major as
+he added, "Must have been silversmiths dangling on most of his ancestral
+branches, judging from his propensity for making dollars; a million or
+two, stocks, bonds, any kind of flimflam,--eh, Major?"
+
+"Yes," answered the major as he blew a ring of smoke into the air, "yes,
+just about that; any kind of flimflam. And I can not conceive of Peters
+Brown rejoicing at having thirty thousand of those dollars put into an In
+Memoriam to the women who sniffed at him and his carpetbags for a good
+twenty years after the war. But the child doesn't take any of that in.
+Those were twenty rich years he put in in reconstructing us, but when he
+took those same heavy carpetbags North he took Mary Caroline Darrah, the
+prettiest woman in the county with him. This girl--as I have said before,
+isn't love a strange thing? And you say the populace was astonished?"
+
+"Almost to the point of paralyzation," answered David as he filled a
+stray pipe with some of the major's most choice heart-leaf tobacco. "But
+we managed to open up the picture show all right. The entire hive of busy
+art-bees was there in a queer kind of clothes; but proud of it. They
+acted as if we were dirt under their feet. They smiled on the whole
+glad-crowd of us with pity and let us rave over the wrong pictures. The
+portrait of Mrs. Peyton Kendrick by the great Susie Carrie Snow
+is--er--well, a little more of it shows than seems natural about the left
+off arm, but it's a Susie Carrie all right. You ought to have gone,
+Major, you would take with the art-gang, but we didn't; we were too
+afraid of them. After we had been shooed in front of most of the pictures
+and told how to see things in them that weren't there at all, Hob Capers
+said:
+
+"'Let's all go down to the University Club and get drunk to forget 'em.'
+That's why Mrs. Matilda came home so late."
+
+"And I want Hobson to be nice to her too," continued Mrs. Buchanan as if
+she had not been interrupted in planning for her guest. "And Tom and
+Peyton Kendrick. I'll ask them to come and see her right away."
+
+"Don't! Wait a bit, Mrs. Matilda," exclaimed David. "Hob saw a mysterious
+girl in an orchid hat out in the park day before yesterday. He says his
+heart creaked with expansion at just the glimpse of a chin he got from
+under her veil. Suppose she's the girl. Let him have first innings."
+
+"David," remarked the major, "flag the sun, moon and stars in their
+courses and signal time to reverse a day or a year, but don't try to turn
+aside a maker of matches from her machinations."
+
+David laughed as the major's wife shook her head at him in gentle
+reproof, and he asked interestedly:
+
+"When may we come to call, madam? I judge the lady is under your roof?"
+
+"Soon, dear. She is very tired to-day, and I feel sure you will--"
+
+"Miss Matilda," called Tempie from the hall, "Miss Phoebe is holdin' the
+phone fer you. She's at Mis' Cantrell's and she wants ter speak with you
+right away."
+
+"Wait, wait, don't answer her right now--ring her off, Tempie! If she has
+trouble getting you, Mrs. Matilda, and you keep her talking I can catch
+her. Let me get a good start and then answer. Good-by! Keep talking to
+her!" And with determination in his eyes David took his hurried
+departure.
+
+"Good-by, good luck--and good hunting!" called the major after him.
+
+And with the greatest skilfulness Mrs. Buchanan held Phoebe in hand for
+enough minutes to insure David's capture before she returned to the
+library.
+
+"Major," she said as she rubbed her cheek against his velvet coat sleeve,
+"why do you suppose Phoebe doesn't love David? I can't understand it."
+
+"Matilda," answered the major as he blew a little curl over one of the
+soft puffs of her white hair, "you were born in a day when women were all
+run into a love-mold. They are poured into other assorted fancy shapes in
+these times, but heat from the right source melts them all the same. We
+can trust David's ardor, I think."
+
+"Yes, I believe you are right," she answered judicially, "and Phoebe
+inherits lovingness from her mother. I feel that she is more affectionate
+than she shows, and I just go on and love her anyway. She lets me do it
+very often."
+
+And from the depth of her unsophisticated heart Mrs. Buchanan had evolved
+a course of action that had gone far in comforting a number of the lonely
+years through which Phoebe Donelson had waded. She had been young, and
+high-spirited and intensely proud when she had begun to fight her own
+battles in her sixteenth year. Many loving hands of her mother's and
+father's old friends had been held out to her with a bounty of
+protection, but she had gone her course and carved her own fortune. Her
+social position had made things easy for her in a way and now her society
+editorship of the leading journal had become a position from which she
+wielded much power over the gay world that delighted in her wit and
+beauty, took her autocratic dictums in most cases, and followed her vogue
+almost absolutely.
+
+Her independence prompted her to live alone in a smart down-town
+apartment with her old negro mammy, but her affections demanded that she
+take refuge at all times under the sheltering wings of Mrs. Buchanan, who
+kept a dainty nest always in readiness for her.
+
+The tumultuous wooing of David Kildare had been going on since her early
+teens under the delighted eyes of the major, who in turn both furthered
+and hindered the suit by his extremely philosophical advice.
+
+Phoebe was the crystallization of an infusion of the blood of many
+cultured, high-bred, haughty women which had been melted in the retort of
+a stern necessity and had come out a rather brilliant specimen of the
+modern woman, if a bit hard. Viewed in some ways she became an alarming
+augury of the future, but there are always potent counter-forces at work
+in life's laboratory, and the kind of forces that David Kildare brought
+to bear in his wooing were never exactly to be calculated upon. And so
+the major spent much time in the contemplation of the problem presented.
+
+And when she had come in after a late lunch to call upon their guest, it
+had been intensely interesting to the major to regard the effect of the
+meeting of Phoebe's and Caroline Darrah's personalities. Caroline's
+lovely, shy child's eyes had melted with delight under Phoebe's straight,
+gray, friendly glances and her fascination for the tall, strong, radiant
+woman, who sat beside her, had been so obvious that the major had
+chuckled to himself under his breath as he watched them make friends,
+under Mrs. Matilda's poorly concealed anxiety that they should at once
+adopt cordial relations.
+
+"And so he consented to undertake the commission for you because he was
+interested?" Phoebe was asking as they talked about the sketches of the
+statue. A very great sculptor was doing the work for Caroline Darrah
+Brown, and it interested Phoebe to hear how he had consented to accept so
+unimportant a commission.
+
+"Yes," answered Caroline in her exquisite voice which showed only the
+faintest liquid trace of her southern inheritance. "I told him all about
+it and he became interested. He is very great, and simple, and kind. He
+made it easy to show him how I felt. I couldn't tell him much except
+how I felt; but I think it has something of--that--in--it. Don't you
+think so?" As she spoke she laid her white hand on the arm of Phoebe's
+chair and leaned forward with her dewy tender eyes looking straight into
+the gray ones opposite her.
+
+For a moment Phoebe returned the glance with a quiet seriousness, then
+her eyes lighted a second, were suffused with a quick moisture, and with
+a proud gesture she bent forward, laying both hands on Caroline's
+shoulders as she pressed a deep kiss on the girl's red lips.
+
+"I do think so," she answered with a low laugh as she arose to her feet,
+drew Caroline up into the bend of her arm and faced Mrs. Buchanan and the
+major. "I know the loveliness in the statue is what the great man got out
+of the loveliness in your heart, and the major and Mrs. Matilda think so,
+too. And I'm going quick because I must; and I'm coming back as soon as I
+can because I'm going to find you here--that is _partly_, Major," and
+before they could stop her she had gone on down the hall and they heard
+her answer Jeff's farewell as he let her out the door.
+
+"That, Caroline Darrah Brown, was your first and most important
+conquest," observed the major. "Phoebe has a white rock heart but a
+crystal cracked therefrom is apt to turn into a jewel of price. Hers
+is a blood-ruby friendship that pays for the wearing and cherishing. But
+it's time for the nap Mrs. Matilda decides for me to take and I must
+leave you ladies to your dimity talk." With which he betook himself to
+his room, still plainly pleased at the result of Phoebe's call on the
+stranger.
+
+The two women thus left to their own devices spent a delightful half-hour
+wandering over the house and discussing its furnishings and arrangements.
+Mrs. Buchanan never tired of the delights of her town home. The house was
+very stately and old-world, with its treasures of rare ancestral rosewood
+and mahogany that she had brought in from the Seven Oaks Plantation. The
+rooms in the country home had been so crowded with treasures of bygone
+generations that they were scarcely dismantled by the furnishing of
+the town house.
+
+She was in her glory of domesticity, and as she passed from one room to
+another she told Caroline bits of interesting history about this piece or
+that. In her naiveté she let the girl see into the long hard years that
+had been a hand-to-hand struggle for her and the major on their worn
+farm lands out in the beautiful Harpeth Valley.
+
+The cropping out of phosphate on the bare fields had brought a
+comfortable fortune in its train to the old soldier farmer and they had
+moved into this town house to spend the winter in greater accessibility
+to their friends. Her own particular little world had welcomed her with
+delight, and Caroline could see that she was taking a second bellehood as
+if it had been an uninterrupted reign.
+
+Most of the financiers of the city were the major's old friends and they
+managed enormously advantageous contracts with mining companies for him,
+and had taken him into the schemes of the mighty with the most manifest
+cordiality.
+
+His study became the scene of much important plot and counter-plot. They
+found in his mind the quality which had led them to outwit many an enemy
+when he scouted ahead of their tattered regiment, still available when
+the enemy appeared under commercial or civic front. Also it naturally
+happened that his library gradually became the hunting-grounds for Mrs.
+Matilda's young people, who were irresistibly drawn into the circle of
+his ever ready sympathy.
+
+The whole tale and its telling was absorbingly interesting to Caroline
+Darrah Brown and she listened with enraptured attention to it all. She
+repeated carefully the names of her mother's friends as they came up in
+the conversation; and she was pathetically eager to know all about this
+world she had come back into, from, what already seemed to her, her birth
+in a strange land. Two days in this country of her mother, and the
+enchantment of traditions that had been given to her unborn was already
+at work with its spell!
+
+And so they rambled around and talked, unheeding the time until the early
+twilight began to fall and Mrs. Buchanan was summoned by Jeff to a
+consultation in the domestic regions with the autocratic Tempie.
+
+Left to herself, Caroline Darrah wandered back again through the rooms
+from one object to another that inspired the stories. It was like
+fairy-land to her and she was in a long dream of pleasure. Out of the
+shadows she seemed to be drawing her wistful young mother, and hand in
+hand they were going over the past together.
+
+When it was quite deep into the twilight she sauntered back to the
+crackling comfort of the major's fragrant logs. A discussion with Jeff
+over his toilet had delayed the major in his bedroom and she found the
+library deserted, but hospitable with firelight.
+
+How long she had been musing and castle-building in the coals she
+scarcely knew, when a step on the polished floor made her look up, and
+with a little exclamation she rose to her full, slim, young height and
+turned to face a man who had come in with the unannounced surety of a
+member of the household. He was tall, broad and dark, and his
+knickerbockers were splashed with mud and covered with clinging burrs and
+pine-needles. One arm was lashed to his side with a silk sling and he
+held a huge bunch of glowing red berries in his free hand. They were
+branches of the red, coral-strung buck bushes and Caroline had never seen
+them before. Their gorgeousness fairly took her breath and she exclaimed
+with the ingenuous delight of a child.
+
+"How lovely, how lovely!" she cried as she stretched out her hands for
+them. "I never saw any before. Do they grow here?"
+
+"Yes," answered the man with a gleam of amusement in his dark eyes, "yes,
+they came from Seven Oaks. The fields are full of them now. Do you want
+them?" And as he spoke he laid the bunch in her arms.
+
+"And they smell woodsy and piny and delicious. Thank you! I--they are
+lovely. I--" She paused in wild confusion, looked around the room as if
+in search of some one, and ended by burying her face in the berries. "I
+don't know where Major Buchanan is," she murmured helplessly.
+
+"Well, it doesn't matter," he said with a comforting smile as he came up
+beside her on the rug. "They'll introduce us when they come. I'm Andrew
+Sevier and the berries are yours, so what matter?"
+
+"Oh," said Caroline Darrah in an awed voice, and as she spoke she raised
+her head from the wood flowers and her eyes to his face, "oh, are you
+really Andrew Sevier?"
+
+"Yes, _really_," he answered with another smile and a slightly puzzled
+expression in his own dark eyes.
+
+"But I read everything I can find about you, and the papers say you are
+ill in Panama. I've been so worried about you. I saw your play last week
+in New York and I couldn't enjoy it for wondering how you were. I
+wouldn't read your poem in this month's _Review_ because I was afraid you
+were dead--and I didn't know it. I'm so relieved." With which astonishing
+remark she drew a deep breath and laid her cheek against the field
+bouquet.
+
+"I am--that is I was smashed up in Panama until David came down and
+brought me home. It was awfully good of you to--to know that I--that
+I--" Andrew Sevier paused as mirth, wonder and gratitude spread in
+confusion over his suntanned face.
+
+"How did it happen? Was it very dreadful?" And again those distractingly
+solicitous eyes, full of sympathetic anxiety, were raised to his. Andrew
+shook himself mentally to see if it could possibly be a dream he was
+having, and a little thrill shot through him at the reality of it all.
+
+"Nothing interesting; end of a bridge collapsed and put a rib or two out
+of commission," he managed to answer.
+
+"I _knew_ it was something dreadful," said Caroline Darrah Brown as she
+moved a step nearer him. "I was really unhappy about it and I wondered if
+all the other people who read your poems and watch for them and--and love
+them like I do, were worried, too. But I concluded that they would know
+how to find out about you; only I didn't. I'm glad you are here safe and
+that I know it."
+
+The puzzled expression in Andrew Sevier's face deepened. Of course he had
+become more or less accustomed to the interest which his work had caused
+to be attached to his personality, and this was not the first time he had
+had a stranger read the poet into the man on first sight. They had even
+gone so far as to expect him to talk in blank verse he felt sure,
+especially when his admirer had been a member of the opposite and fair
+sex, but a thing like this had never happened to him before. It was, at
+the least, disturbing to have a lovely woman rise out of the major's very
+hearthstone and claim him as a familiar spirit with the exquisite
+frankness of a child. It smacked of the wine of wizardry. He glanced at
+her a moment and was on the point of making a tentative inquiry when the
+major came into the room.
+
+"Well, Andy boy, you're in from the fields, I see. How's the farm? Every
+thing shipshape?" As he spoke the major shot a keen glance from under his
+beetling old brows at the pair and wisely let the situation develop
+itself.
+
+Andrew answered his salutation promptly, then turned an amused glance
+on the girl at his side.
+
+"He isn't going to introduce us," she laughed with a friendly little look
+up into his face. "I ought to have done it myself when you did, but I was
+so astonished--and relieved to find you. I'm Caroline Darrah Brown."
+
+The words were low and laughing and warm with a sweet friendliness, but
+they crashed through the room like the breath of a swarm of furies.
+Andrew Sevier's face went white and drawn on the instant, and every
+muscle in his body stiffened to a tense rigidity. His dark eyes narrowed
+themselves to slits and glowed like the coals.
+
+The major's very blood stopped in his veins and his fine old face looked
+drawn and gray as he stretched out his hand and laid it on Caroline's
+young shoulder. Not a word came to his lips as he looked in Andrew's
+face and waited.
+
+And as he waited a wondrous thing and piercing sweet unfolded itself
+under his keen old eyes and sank like a balm into his wise old heart.
+From the two deep purple pools of womanhood that were raised to his, shy
+with homage of him and unconscious of their own tender reverencing,
+Andrew Sevier drew a deep draught into his very soul. Slowly the color
+mounted into his face, his eyes opened themselves and a wonderful smile
+curled his lips. He held out his hand and took her slender fingers into a
+strong clasp and held them for a long moment. Then with a smile at the
+major, which was a mixture of dignity tinged with an infinite sadness, he
+bent over and gently kissed the white hand as he let it go. The little
+ceremony had more chivalry than she understood.
+
+"Its part of our ritual of welcome I'm claiming," he said lightly as she
+blushed rose pink and the divine shyness deepened in her eyes. She again
+buried her face in the berries.
+
+Then with a proud look into Andrew's face the major laid his hand on the
+young man's bandaged arm and bent and raised Caroline's hand to his lips.
+
+"It's a ritual, my dear," he said, "that I'm honored in observing with
+him. Friendship these days has need of rituals of ratification and the
+pomp of ceremonials to give it color. There's danger of its becoming
+prosaic. Jefferson, turn on the lights."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+TWO LITTLE CRIMES
+
+
+And then in a few weeks winter had come down from over the hills across
+the fields and captured the city streets with a blare of northern winds,
+which had been met and tempered by the mellow autumn breezes that had
+been slow to retreat and abandon the gold and crimson banners still
+fluttering on the trees. The snap and crackle of the Thanksgiving frost
+had melted into a long lazy silence of a few more Indian summer days so
+that, with lungs filled with the intoxicating draught of this late wine
+of October, everybody had ridden, driven, hunted, golfed and lived
+afield.
+
+Then had come a second sweep of the northern winds and the city had
+wakened out of its haze of desertion, turned up its lights, built up its
+fires and put on the trappings of revelry and toil.
+
+The major's logs were piled the higher and crackled the louder, and his
+welcome was even more genial to the chosen spirits which gathered around
+his library table. He and Mrs. Buchanan had succeeded in prolonging the
+visit of Caroline Darrah Brown into weeks and were now holding her into
+the winter months with loving insistence.
+
+The open-armed hospitality with which their very delightful little world
+had welcomed her had been positively entrancing to the girl and she had
+entered into its gaieties with the joyous zest of the child that she was.
+Her own social experiences had been up to this time very limited, for
+she had come straight from the convent in France into the household of
+her semi-invalided father. He had had very few friends and in a vaguely
+uncomfortable way she had been made to realize that her millions made her
+position inaccessible; but by these delightful people to whom social
+position was a birthright, and wealth regarded only as a purchasing power
+for the necessities and gaieties of life, she had been adopted with much
+enthusiasm. Her delight in the round of entertainments in her honor and
+the innocent and slightly bewildered adventures she brought the major for
+consultation kept him in a constant state of interested amusement. Such
+advice as he offered went far in preserving her unsophistication.
+
+And so the late November days found him enjoying life with a decidedly
+added zest in things, though his Immortals claimed him the moment he was
+left to his own resources and at times he even became entirely oblivious
+to the eddies in the lives around him. One cold afternoon he sat in his
+chair, buried eyes-deep in one of his old books, while across from him
+sat Phoebe and Andrew Sevier, bending together over a large map spread
+out before them. There were stacks of blueprints at their elbows and
+their conference had evidently been an interesting one.
+
+"It's all wonderful, Andrew," Phoebe was saying, "and I'm proud indeed
+that they have accepted your solution of such an important construction
+problem; but why must you go back? Aren't the commissions offered you
+here, the plays and the demand for your writing enough? Why not stay at
+home for a year or two at least?"
+
+"It's the _call_ of it, Phoebe," he answered. "I get restless and there's
+nothing for it but the hard work of the camp. It's lonely but it has its
+compensations, for the visions come down there as they don't here. You
+know how I like to be with all of you; and it's home--but the depression
+gets more than I can stand at times and I must go. You understand better
+than the rest, I think, and I always count on you to help me off." As he
+spoke he rested his head on his hands and looked across the table into
+the fire. His eyes were somber and the strong lines in his face cut deep
+with a grim melancholy.
+
+Phoebe's frank eyes softened as they looked at him. They had grown up
+together, friends in something of a like fortune and she understood him
+with a frank comradeship that comforted them both and went far to the
+distraction of young David Kildare who, as he said, trusted Andrew but
+looked for every possible surprising maneuver in the conduct of Phoebe.
+And because she understood Andrew Phoebe was silent for a time, tracing
+the lines on his map with a pencil.
+
+"Then you'll have to go," she said softly at last, "but don't stay so
+long again." She glanced across at the top of the major's head which
+showed a rampant white lock over the edge of his book. "We miss you; and
+you owe it to some of us to come back oftener from now on."
+
+"I always will," answered Andrew, quickly catching her meaning and
+smiling with a responsive tenderness in a glance at the absorbed old
+gentleman around the corner of the table. "It is harder to go this time
+than ever, in a way; and yet the staying's worse. I'm giving myself until
+spring, though I don't know why. I--"
+
+Just then from the drawing-room beyond there came a crash of soft chords
+on the piano and David's voice rose high and sweet across the rooms. He
+had gone to the piano to sing for Caroline who never tired of his negro
+melodies and southern love songs. He also had a store of war ballads with
+which it delighted him to tease and regale her, but to-day his mood had
+been decidedly on the sentimental vein.
+
+"I want no stars in Heaven to guide me,
+I need no......................
+......but, oh, the kingdom of my heart, love,
+Lies within thy loving arms...."
+
+His voice dropped a note lower and the rest of the distinctly enunciated
+words failed to reach through the long rooms. Phoebe also failed to
+catch a quick breath that Andrew drew as he began stacking a pile of
+blue-prints into a leather case.
+
+"David Kildare," remarked the old major as he looked up over his book,
+"makes song the vehicle of expression of as many emotions in one
+half-hour as the ordinary man lives through in a lifetime. Had you not
+better attend to the safeguarding of Caroline Darrah's unsophistication,
+Phoebe?"
+
+"I wouldn't interrupt him for worlds, Major," laughed Phoebe as she arose
+from her chair. "I'm going to slip by the drawing-room and hurry down to
+that meeting of the Civic Improvement Association from which I hope to
+get at least a half column. Andrew'll go in and see to them."
+
+"Never!" answered Andrew promptly with a smile. "I'm going to beat a
+retreat and walk down with you. The major must assume that
+responsibility. Good-by!" And in a moment they had both made their
+escape, to the major's vast amusement.
+
+For the time being the music in the drawing-room had stopped and David
+and Caroline were deep in an animated conversation.
+
+"The trouble about it is that I am about to have my light put out," David
+was complaining as he sat on the piano-stool, glaring at a vase of
+unoffending roses on a table. "Being a ray of sunshine around the house
+for a sick poet is no job for a runabout child like me."
+
+"But he's so much better now, David, that I should think you would be
+perfectly happy. Though of course you are still a little uneasy about
+him." As Caroline Darrah spoke she swayed the long-stemmed rose she held
+in her hand and tipped it against one of its mates in the vase.
+
+"Uneasy, nothing! There's not a thing in the world the matter with him;
+ribs are all in commission and his collar-bone hitched on again. It's
+just a case of moonie sulks with him. He never was the real glad boy, but
+now he runs entirely to poetry and gloom. He won't go anywhere but over
+here to chew book-rags with the major or to read goo to Phoebe, which she
+passes on to you. Wish I'd let him die in the swamps; chasing away to
+Panama for him was my mistake, I see." And David ruffled a young rose
+that drooped confidingly over toward him.
+
+"Why did he ever go to Panama? Why does he build bridges and things?
+Other people like you and me can do that sort of thing; but he--," and
+Caroline Darrah raised her eyes full of naive questioning.
+
+"Heavens, woman, poetry never in the world would grub-stake six feet of
+husky man! But that's just like you and Phoebe and all the other women.
+You would like to feed me to the alligators, but the poet must sit in the
+shade and chew eggs and grape juice. You trample on my feelings, child,"
+and David sighed plaintively.
+
+Caroline eyed him a moment across the rose she held to her lips, then
+laughed delightedly.
+
+"Indeed, indeed, I couldn't stand losing you, David, nor could Phoebe.
+Don't imagine it!" And Caroline confessed her affection for him with the
+naïveté with which a child offers a flower.
+
+The absolute entente cordiale which had existed between her and Phoebe
+from the moment Mrs. Buchanan had presented them to each other in the
+dusk-shadowed library, had been extended to include David Kildare. He was
+duly appreciative of her almost appealing friendship, chaffed her about
+the three governors, depended upon her to further his tumultuous suit,
+admired her beauty, insisted upon it in season and out, and initiated her
+into the social intricacies of his gay set with the greatest glee.
+
+"I don't trust you one little bit, Caroline Darrah Brown," David broke in
+on her moment's silent appreciation of him and his friendliness. "You
+look at him kinder partial-like, too."
+
+"Oh, one _must_ admire him, his poems are so lovely! I have watched for
+them from the first one years ago. Do you remember the one where he--"
+
+"Don't remember a single line of a single one, and don't want to!
+Phoebe's always quoting them at me. She's got a book of 'em. See if I
+don't smash him up some day if I have to listen to much more of it."
+David's face was a study in the contradictions of a tormented grin.
+
+Caroline eyed him again for a moment across the rose and then they both
+laughed delightedly. But David was for the pressing of his point just the
+same.
+
+"Dear Daughter of the Three," he pleaded, "can't you help me out?
+Mollycoddle him a bit. Do, now, that's a good child! Keep him
+'interested', as _she_ calls it! You are quite as good to look at as
+Phoebe and are enough more--more,"--and David paused for a word that
+would compare Caroline's appeal and Phoebe's brisk challenge.
+
+"Yes, I understand. I really am _more_ so; but how can I help you out if
+he never even sees me when I'm there?" And Caroline raised eyes to him
+that held a hint of wistfulness in their banter.
+
+"The old mole-eyed grump never sees anybody nor anything. But let's plot
+a scheme. This three-handed game doesn't suit me; promise to be good and
+sit in. I haven't had Phoebe to myself for the long time. He needs a
+heart interest of his own--I'm tired of lending him mine. You're not
+busy--that's a sweet girl! Don't make me feel I inherited you for
+nothing," said David in a most beguiling voice as he moved a shade nearer
+to her.
+
+"I promise, I promise! If you take that tone with me, I'm afraid not to:
+but I feel you mistake my powers," and Caroline laid the rose across her
+knee and dropped her long lashes over her eyes. "I think I'll fail with
+your poet; something tells me it is a vain task. Let's put it in the
+hands of the gods. It may interest them."
+
+"No, I'm going to shoo him in here right now," answered David, bent upon
+the immediate accomplishment of his scheme for the relief of his very
+independent lady-love from her friendly durance. "You just wait and get a
+line of moon-talk ready for him. Keep that rose in your hand and handle
+your eyes carefully."
+
+"Oh, but it's impossible!" exclaimed Caroline with real alarm in her
+voice. She rose and the flower fell shattered at her feet. "I'm going to
+have a little business talk with the major before Captain Cantrell and
+the other gentlemen come. I have an appointment with him. Won't you leave
+it to the gods?"
+
+"No, for the gods might not know Phoebe. She'd hunt a hot brick for a
+sick kitten if I was freezing to death, and besides I need her in my
+business at this very moment."
+
+"Caroline, my dear," said the major from the door into the library, "from
+the strenuosity in the tones of David Kildare I judge he is discussing
+his usual topic. Phoebe and Andrew have just gone and left their good-bys
+for you both."
+
+"Now, Major," demanded David indignantly, "how could you let her get away
+when you had her here?"
+
+"Young man," answered the major, "the constraining of a woman of these
+times is well-nigh impossible, as you should have found out after your
+repeated efforts in that direction."
+
+"That's it, Major, you can't hang out any signal for them now; you have
+to grab them as they go past, swing out into space and pray for strength
+to hold on. I believe if you stood still they would come and feed out of
+your hand a heap quicker than they will be whistled down--if you can get
+the nerve to try 'em. Think I'll go and see." And David took his
+studiedly unhurried departure.
+
+"David Kildare translates courtship into strange modern terms," remarked
+the major as he led Caroline into the library and seated her in Mrs.
+Matilda's low chair near his own.
+
+"The roses are blooming this morning, my dear," he said, looking
+with delight at the soft color in her cheeks and the stars in her
+black-lashed, violet eyes. A shaft of sunlight glinted in the gold of her
+hair which was coiled low and from which little tendrils curled down on
+her white neck.
+
+She was very dainty and lovely, was Caroline Darrah Brown, with the
+loveliness of a windflower and young with the innocent youngness of an
+April day. She was slightly different from any girl the major had ever
+known and he observed her type with the greatest interest.
+
+She had been tutored and trained and French-convented and specialized by
+adepts in the inculcating of every air and grace with which the women of
+vaster wealth are expected to be equipped. Money and the girl had been
+the ruling passions of Peters Brown's life and the one had been all for
+the serving purposes of the other. It had been the one aim of his
+existence to bring to a perfect flowering the new-born bud his southern
+wife had left him, and he had succeeded. Yet she seemed so slight a
+woman-thing to be bearing the burden of a great wealth and a great
+loneliness that the major's eyes grew very tender as he asked:
+
+"What is it, clear, a crumpled rose-leaf?"
+
+"Major," she answered as her slender fingers opened and closed a book on
+the table near her, "did you realize that two months have passed since I
+came to--to--"
+
+"Came _home_, child," prompted the major as he touched lightly the
+restless hand near his own.
+
+"I am beginning to feel as if it might be that, and yet I don't know--not
+until I talk to you about it all. Everybody has been good to me. I feel
+that they really care and I love it--and them all! But, Major, did
+you--know--my father--well?"
+
+"Yes, my dear." He answered, looking her straight in the eyes, "I knew
+Peters Brown and had pleasantly hostile relations with him always."
+
+"This memorandum--I got it together before I came down here, while I was
+settling up his estate. It is the list of the investments he made while
+in the South for the twenty years after the war. I want to talk them over
+with you." She looked at the major squarely and determinedly.
+
+"Fire away," he answered with courage in his voice that belied the
+feeling beneath it.
+
+"I see that in eighteen seventy-nine he bought lumber lands from Hayes
+Donelson. The price seems to have been practically nominal in view of
+what he sold a part of them for three years later. Was Hayes Donelson
+Phoebe's father? I want to know all about him."
+
+"My dear, you are giving a large order for ancient history--Captain
+Donelson couldn't fill it himself if he were alive. Those lumber lands
+were just a stick or two that he threw on the grand bonfire. He sold
+everything he had and instituted and ran the most inflammatory newspaper
+in the South. He gloried in an attitude of non-reconstruction and died
+when Phoebe was a year old. Her mother raised Phoebe by keeping boarders,
+but failed to raise the mortgage on the family home. She died trying and
+Phoebe has kept her own sleek little head above water since her sixteenth
+year by reporting and editing Dimity Doings on the paper her father
+founded. I think she has learned a pretty good swimming stroke by this
+time. It is still a measure ahead of that of David Kildare and--"
+
+"Oh, you _must_ help me make her take what would have been a fair price
+for those lands, Major. I'm determined--I--I--" Caroline's voice faltered
+but her head was well up. "I'm determined; but we'll talk of that later.
+He bought the Cantrell land and divided it up into the first improved
+city addition. Was it, was it 'carpetbagging'?" She flushed as she said
+the word--"Was it pressure? Were the Cantrells in need?"
+
+"Not for long, my dear, not for long! Mrs. Tom took that money and bought
+cows for the east farm, ran a dairy in opposition to Matilda's and then
+got her into a combine to ship gilt-edge to Cincinnati. I expected them
+to skim the milky way any night and put a star brand of butter on the
+market. They made a great deal of money and were proportionately hard to
+manage. Young Tom inherits from his mother and makes paying combines in
+stocks. Old Tom hasn't a thing to do but sit in the sun and spin tales
+about battles he was and was not in. It wouldn't do to drag up that
+pinched period of his life; he is too expansive now to be made to recall
+it." The major smiled invitingly as if he had hopes of an interested
+question that would turn the trend of the conversation, but Caroline
+Darrah held herself sternly to the matter in hand.
+
+"And you, I see a sale of half of your land at--"
+
+"Caroline Darrah Brown, look me straight in the eyes," interrupted the
+major in a commanding voice. He sat up and bent his keen black eyes that
+sparkled under his heavy white brows with absolute luminosity upon the
+girl at his side. When aroused the major was a live wire and he was
+buckling on his sword to do battle with a woman-trouble, and a dire one.
+
+"Now," he continued, "I'm going to say things to you that you are to
+understand and remember, young woman. Your father did come down among us
+with what you have heard called a 'carpetbag' in his hands, but it wasn't
+an _empty_ one: and while the sums he handed out to each of us might be
+considered inadequate, still they were a purchasing power at a time
+when things were congested for the lack of any circulating medium
+whatever. True, I sold him half my thousand acres for a song; but the
+song fenced the other half, bought implements and stock, and made Matilda
+possible. She was eighteen and I was twenty-eight when we joined forces
+and it was decidedly to the tune of your father's 'song'. It was the same
+with the rest of his--friends. You must see that in the painful processes
+of reconstructing us the carpetbag had its uses. If it went away
+plethoric with coal and iron and lumber, it left a little gold in its
+wake. And Peters Brown--"
+
+"Major," said Caroline in a brave voice, "it killed him, the memory of it
+and not being able to bring me back to her people. He was changed and he
+realized that he left me very much alone in the world. If there had been
+any of her immediate family alive we might have felt differently--but
+her friends--I didn't know that I would be welcomed. Now--now--I begin
+to hope. I want to give some of it back! I have so much--"
+
+"Caroline, child," answered the major with a smile that was infinitely
+tender, "we don't need it! We've had a hand-to-hand fight to inherit the
+land of our fathers but we're building fortunes fast; we and the
+youngsters. The gray line has closed up its ranks and toed hard marks
+until it presents a solid front once more; some of it bent and shaky but
+supported on all sides by keen young blood. A solid front, I say, and a
+friendly one, flying no banners of bitterness--don't you like us?" and
+the smile broadened until it warmed the very blood in Caroline Darrah's
+heart.
+
+"Yes," she said as she lifted her eyes to his and laid both her hands in
+the lean strong one he held out for her then, "and all that awful feeling
+has gone completely. I feel--feel new born!"
+
+"And isn't it a great thing that we mortals are given a few extra natal
+days? If we were born all at one time we couldn't so well enjoy the
+processes. Now, I intend to assume that fate has laid you on my door-step
+and--"
+
+"Dearie me," said Mrs. Buchanan as she sailed into the room with colors
+flying in cheeks and eyes, "did Phoebe go on to that meeting after all?
+Did she promise to come back? Where's Andrew? Caroline, child, what have
+you and the major been doing all the afternoon? It's after four and you
+are both still indoors."
+
+"I have been adopting Caroline Darrah and she has been adopting me,"
+answered the major as he caught hold of the lace that trailed from one of
+his wife's wrists. "I think I am about to persuade her to stay with us. I
+find I need attention occasionally and you are otherwise engaged for the
+winter."
+
+"Isn't he awful, Caroline," smiled Mrs. Matilda as she sank for a moment
+on a chair near them, "when I haven't a thought in the day that is not
+for him? But I must hurry and tell Tempie that they will all be here from
+the philharmonic musicale for tea. Dear, please see that the flowers are
+arranged; I had to leave it to Jane this morning. I find I must run over
+and speak to Mrs. Shelby about something important, for a moment. Shall I
+have buttered biscuits or cake for tea? Caroline, love, just decide and
+tell Tempie. I'll be back in a minute," and depositing an airy kiss on
+the major's scalp lock and bestowing a smile on Caroline, she departed.
+
+The major listened until he heard the front door close then said with one
+of his slow little smiles, "If I couldn't shut my eye and get a mental
+picture of her in a white sunbonnet with her skirts tucked up trudging
+along behind me dropping corn in the furrows as I opened them with the
+plow, I might feel that I ought to--er--remonstrate with her. But there
+are bubbles in the nature of most women that will rise to the surface as
+soon as the cork is removed. Matilda is a good brand of extra dry and the
+cork was in a long time--rammed down tight--bless her!"
+
+"She is the very dearest thing I ever knew," answered Caroline with a
+curly smile around her tender mouth. "A letter she wrote while under the
+pressure of the cork is my chiefest treasure. It was written to welcome
+me when I was born and I found it last summer, old and yellow. It was
+what made me think I might come--_home_."
+
+"That was like Matilda," answered the major with a smile in his eyes.
+"She was putting in a claim for you then, though she didn't realize it.
+Women have always worked combinations by wireless at long time and long
+distance. Better make it buttered biscuits, and Phoebe likes them with
+plenty of butter."
+
+Tempie's adoption of Caroline Darrah had been as complete and as
+enthusiastic as the rest of them and she had proceeded forthwith to put
+her through a course of domestic instruction that delighted the hearts of
+them both. She never failed to bemoan the fate that had left the child
+ignorant of matters of such importance and she was stern in her endeavor
+to correct the pernicious neglect. She had to admit, however, that
+Caroline was an extraordinarily apt pupil and she laid it all to what she
+called "the Darrah strain of cooking blood," though she was as proud as
+possible over each triumph. Nothing pleased them both more than to have
+Mrs. Buchanan occasionally leave culinary arrangements to their
+co-administration.
+
+An hour later a gay party was gathered around the table in the
+drawing-room. The major sat near at hand enjoying it hugely, and his
+comments were dropped like philosophical crystals into the swell of the
+conversation.
+
+Mrs. Cherry Lawrence had come in with Mrs. Matilda in all the bravery of
+a most striking, becoming and expensive second mourning costume, and she
+was keenly alive to every situation that might be made to compass even
+the smallest amount of gaiety. Her lavender embroideries were the only
+reminders of the existence of the departed Cherry, and their lavishness
+was a direct defiance of his years of effort in the curtailing of the
+tastes of his expensive wife.
+
+Tom Cantrell's lean dark face of Indian cast lit up like a transparency
+when she arrived and he left Polly Farrell's side so quickly that Polly
+almost dropped the lemon fork with which she was maneuvering, in her
+surprise at his sudden desertion. In a moment he had divested the widow
+of a long cloth and sable coat that would have made Cherry sit up and
+groan if he had even had a grave-dream about it. She bestowed a smile on
+Polly, a still more impressive one on the major and sank into a chair
+near Phoebe.
+
+"Why, where is David Kildare?" she asked interestedly. "I thought he
+would be here before me. He promised to come. Phoebe, you are sweet in
+that dark gray. Has anybody anything interesting to tell?"
+
+"I have," answered Polly as she passed Phoebe a cup and a mischievous
+smile, for Mrs. Cherry's appointment with David tickled Polly's risibles
+to an alarming extent. "There's the most heavenly man down here from
+Boston to see Caroline Darrah Brown and she _neglects_ him. I'm so sorry
+for him that I don't know what will happen. I'm--"
+
+"Why, where is he?" interrupted Mrs. Cherry with the utmost cordiality.
+
+They all laughed as Polly parted her charming lips and passed the
+questioner the lemon slices with impressive obviousness.
+
+"He's gone to the station to see about his horses that he has had shipped
+down. We're going to hunt some more, no matter how cold; all of us,
+Caroline and David and the rest."
+
+"Andrew Sevier hasn't hunted at all this fall, as fond of it as he is.
+He'll never come now that you've annexed a foreign element, Polly. He's
+among strangers so much that he's rather absurd about wanting the close
+circle of just his old friends to be unbroken when he's home. Where is he
+to-day?" As she spoke Mrs. Cherry had looked at Caroline Darrah with a
+glance in which Phoebe detected a slight insolence and at which the major
+narrowed his observant eyes.
+
+"Why, he's gone down to the station with Caroline's friend to see about
+having the horses sent out to Seven Oaks," answered Phoebe in a smooth
+cool voice. "I think all of us have been disappointed that Andrew has had
+to be so careful since his accident; but now that he can come over here
+every day to book gloat with the major and have Mrs. Matilda and Tempie,
+to say nothing of Caroline Darrah, the new star cook-lady, to feed him
+up, I think we can go about our own affairs unworried over him." The
+sweet smile that Phoebe bent upon the widow was so delicious that the
+major rattled the sugar tongs on the tea-tray by way of relief from an
+unendurably suppressed chuckle.
+
+"But when I hunt next David has promised me possums and persimmons," said
+Caroline Darrah from her seat on the sofa beside Phoebe. She was totally
+oblivious of the small tongue-tilt just completed. "He says the first
+damp night on the last quarter of the moon when the wind is from the
+southeast and--"
+
+"Howdy, people!" came an interrupting call from the hall and at that
+moment David himself came into the room. "I'm late but I've been four
+places hunting for you, Phoebe, and had three cups of tea in the
+scramble. However, I would like a buttered biscuit if somebody feeds it
+to me. I've had a knock-out blow and I've got news to tell."
+
+"You can tell it before you get the biscuit," said Phoebe cold-heartedly,
+but she laid two crisp disks on the edge of his saucer. She apparently
+failed to see that Mrs. Cherry was endeavoring to pass him the plate.
+
+"It's only that Milly Overton has perpetrated two more crimes on the
+community, at three-thirty to-day--assorted boy and girl." And David
+grinned with sheer delight at having projected such a bomb in the circle.
+
+"What!" demanded Phoebe while Mrs. Cherry lay back in her chair and
+fanned herself, and Mrs. Buchanan paused with suspended teapot.
+
+"Yes," he answered jubilantly, "Of course little Mistake is only two and
+a quarter and Crimie can just toddle on his hocks at one and a fifth
+years; but the two little crimes are here, and are going to stay. Billy
+Bob is down at the club getting his back slapped off about it. He's
+accessory you understand. He says Milly is radiant and wants all of you
+to come and see them right away. But what I want to see is Grandma
+Shelby--won't she rage? I'm going to send her a message of
+congratulations and then stand away. Just watch for--"
+
+"Why--I don't quite understand," said Caroline Darrah as she leaned
+forward with puzzled eyes.
+
+"Neither do any of the rest of us," answered David gleefully. "We didn't
+understand how Billy Bob managed to pluck Mildred from the golden-dollar
+Shelby stem in the first place, at a salary of one twenty-five a month
+out at Hob's mills. But Billy Bob is the brave boy and he marched right
+up and told the old lady about the first kid as soon as he came. Then she
+glared at him and said in an awful tone, 'Mistake.' Billy Bob just oozed
+out of that door and Mistake the youngster has been ever since. I named
+the next Crimie before _she_ got to it. But watch her rage, poor old
+dame! It's up to somebody to remonstrate with Milly about this unbecoming
+conduct it seems to me," and David glanced around the little circle for
+his laugh which he promptly received.
+
+Only Phoebe sat with her head turned from him and Caroline Darrah
+exclaimed in distress:
+
+"How could her mother not care for them?"
+
+"Tempie," said Mrs. Buchanan, "pack up a basket of every kind of jelly.
+Get that little box I fixed day before yesterday; you know it; wasn't it
+fortunate that I embroidered two? And tell Jeff I want the carriage at
+six."
+
+"And, Tempie, tell Jeff to get you two bottles of that seventy-two
+brandy; no, maybe the sixty-eight will be better; it's apple, and apples
+and colic bear a synthetic relation which in this case may be reversed.
+Those children must be started off in life properly." And the major's
+eyes shone with the most amused interest.
+
+"What's that?" asked David in the general excitement that had arisen at a
+farther realization of his news. "Don't you want them to join the 'state
+wide' band, Major? Aren't you going to give them a chance to fly a white
+ribbon?"
+
+"Well, I don't know," answered the major with a judicial eye, "temperance
+is a quality of mind and not solely of throat. Let's depend somewhat on
+eradication by future education and not give the colic a start."
+
+"Don't you think it would be nice for you girls to drive down with me and
+take the babies some congratulations and flowers, Phoebe?" asked Mrs.
+Buchanan an hour later as they all lingered over the empty cups. "Will
+you come too, David?"
+
+"Yes," answered Phoebe, "I think it would be lovely, but you and Caroline
+drive down and I will walk in with David, I think. Ready, David?" And
+Phoebe gathered up her muff and gloves and gave her hand to the major.
+
+"David," she said after they had reached the street and were swinging
+along in the early twilight; and as she spoke she looked him full in the
+face with her gray level glance that counted whenever she chose to use
+it, "is it your idea--do you think it fair to ridicule Mildred about--the
+babies?"
+
+"Why," answered the completely floored Kildare, "I just haven't any idea
+on the subject. Everybody was laughing about it--and isn't it--er--a
+little funny?"
+
+"No," answered Phoebe emphatically, "it isn't _funny_ and if you begin to
+laugh everybody else will. It may hurt Milly, she is so gentle and dear,
+and you are their best friend. I won't have it! I won't! I'm tired,
+anyway, of having fun made of all the sacred things in life. All of us
+swing around in a silly whirl and when a woman like Mildred begins to
+live her life in a--er--natural way, we--ridicule! She is brave and
+strong and works hard; and she has the _real_ things of life and makes
+the sacrifices for them. While we--"
+
+"Oh, heavenly hope, Phoebe!" gasped David Kildare, "don't rub it in! I
+see it now--a lot of magazine stuff jogging the women up about the kids
+and all--and here Milly is a hero and we--the jolly fun-pokers. I've got
+to help 'em some way! Wish Billy Bob would sell me this last bunch; guess
+he would--one, anyway?" And the contrite David gazed down at Phoebe in
+whose upturned eyes there dawned a wealth of mirth.
+
+"David," she said, perhaps more softly than she had ever spoken to him in
+all the days of his pursuit, "I know--I felt sure that you felt all right
+about it. I couldn't bear to have you say or do--"
+
+"Now, I'll 'fess a thing to you that I didn't think wild horses could
+drag out of me, Phoebe. I was down there an hour ago in the back hall of
+that flat and Billy Bob let me hold the pair of 'em and squeeze 'em. I
+guess we both--just shed a few, you know, because he was so excited. Men
+are such slobs at times--when women don't know about it." And David
+winked fiercely at the early electric light that glowed warm against the
+winter sky.
+
+"And you are a very dear boy, David," said Phoebe softly as her hand
+slipped out of her muff and dropped into his and rested there for just
+one enchanting half-second. "Dearer than you know in some ways. No, don't
+think of coming up with me, you've paid your visit of welcome. Good
+night! Yes, I think so--in the afternoon about three o'clock and we can
+go on to Mrs. Pepton's reception. Good night again!"
+
+"Phoebe," he called after her, "the one with the yellow fuzz is the girl,
+buy her for me if you can flimflam Milly into it! Any old price, you
+know. Hurrah, America for the Anglo-Saxons! Hurrah for Milly and Dixie!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+ACCORDING TO SOLOMON
+
+
+"And it was by this very pattern, Caroline, I made the dozen I sent Mary
+Caroline for you. See the little slips fold over and hold up the
+petticoats," and Mrs. Buchanan held up a tiny garment for Caroline Darrah
+to admire. They sat by the sunny window in her living-room and both were
+sewing on dainty cambric and lace. Caroline Darrah's head bent over the
+piece of ruffling in her hand with flower-like grace and the long lines
+from her throat suggested decidedly a very lovely Preraphaelite angel.
+Her needle moved slowly and unaccustomedly but she had the air of doing
+the hemming bravely if fearfully.
+
+"Isn't it darling?" she said as she raised her head for a half-second,
+then immediately dropped her eyes and went on printing her stitches
+carefully. "What else was in that box, I feel I need to know?" she asked.
+
+"Let me see! The dozen little shirts, they were made out of some of
+my own trousseau things because of a scarcity of linen in those days,
+and two little embroidered caps and a blue cashmere sack and a set of
+crocheted socks and--and the major sent brandy, he always does. I
+have the letter she wrote me about it all. And to think she had to
+leave--" Mrs. Matilda's eyes misted as she paused to thread her needle.
+
+"She didn't realize--that, and think of what she felt when she opened the
+box," said Caroline as she raised her eyes that smiled through a
+threatened shower. "Oh, I mustn't let the tears fall on Little Sister's
+ruffle!" she added quickly as she took up her work.
+
+"That reminds me of an accident to the shirts I made for Phoebe. They
+were being bleached in the sun when a calf took a fancy to them and
+chewed two of them entirely up before we discovered him. I was so
+provoked, for I had no more linen as fine as I wanted."
+
+"Of course the calf ate up my shirts," came in Phoebe's laughing voice
+from the doorway where she had been standing unobserved for several
+minutes, watching Mrs. Buchanan and Caroline. "Something is always
+chewing at my affairs but Mrs. Matilda shoos them away for me sometimes
+still--even _calves_ when it is positively necessary. How very
+industrious you do look! At times even I sigh for a needle, though I
+wouldn't know what to do with it. There seems to be something in a
+woman's soul that nothing but a needle satisfies; morbid craving, that!"
+
+"Phoebe, I want to make something for you. I feel I must as soon as these
+petticoats for Little Sister are done. What shall it be?" and Caroline
+Darrah beamed upon Phoebe with the warmest of inter-woman glances. The
+affection for Phoebe which had possessed the heart of Caroline Darrah had
+deepened daily and to its demands, Phoebe, for her, had been most
+unusually responsive.
+
+"At your present rate of stitching I will have a year or two to decide,
+beautiful," she answered as she settled down on the broad window-seat
+near them. "David Kildare and I have come to lunch, Mrs. Matilda, and the
+major has sent him over for Andrew. I hope he brings him, but I doubt it.
+I have told Tempie and she says she is glad to have us," she added as
+Mrs. Buchanan turned and looked in the direction of the kitchen regions.
+They all smiled, for the understanding that existed between Phoebe and
+Tempie was the subject of continual jest.
+
+"Have you seen the babies to-day?" asked Caroline as she drew a long new
+thread through the needle. "Isn't it lovely the way people are making
+them presents? Mr. Capers says the men at the mills are going to give
+them each a thousand dollar mill bond."
+
+"Well, I doubt seriously if they will live to use the bonds if some one
+does not stop David from trying experiments with them," answered Phoebe
+with a laugh. "After dinner last night he came in with two little
+sleeping hammock machines which he insisted in putting up on the wall for
+them. If the pulley catches you have to stand on a chair to extract them;
+and if it slips, down they come. Milly was so grateful and let him play
+with them for an hour; she's a sweet soul."
+
+"Has he sent any more food?" asked Mrs. Matilda as they all laughed.
+
+"Two more cases of a new kind he saw advertised in a magazine. Somebody
+must tell him that--Milly is equal to the situation. Billy Bob _won't_;
+and so the cases continue to arrive. The pantry is crowded with them and
+they have sent a lot to the Day Nursery," and Phoebe slipped from the
+window-seat down on to the rug at Caroline's feet in a perfect ecstasy
+of mirth.
+
+"But he is just the dearest boy, Phoebe," said Caroline Darrah as she
+paused in her sewing to caress the sleek, black, braided head tipped back
+against her knee. There was the shadow of reproach in her voice as she
+smiled down into the gray eyes upturned to hers.
+
+"Yes," answered Phoebe, instantly on the defensive, "he is just exactly
+that, Caroline Darrah Brown--and he doesn't seem to be able to get over
+it. I'm afraid it's chronic with him."
+
+"He's young yet," Mrs. Buchanan remarked as she clipped a thread with her
+bright scissors.
+
+"No," said Phoebe slowly, "he is six years older than I am and that makes
+him thirty-two. I have earned my living for ten years and a man five
+years younger who sits at a desk next to mine at the office is taking
+care of his mother and educating two younger brothers on a salary that is
+less than mine--but _David_ is a dear! Did you see the little coats Polly
+sent the babies?" she asked quickly to close the subject and to cover a
+note of pain she had discovered in her own voice.
+
+"They were lovely," answered Mrs. Buchanan. "Now let me show you how to
+roll and whip your ruffle, Caroline dear," she added as she bent over
+Caroline's completed hem. In a moment they were both immersed in a
+scientific discussion of under-and-over stitch.
+
+Phoebe clasped her knees in her arms and gazed into the fire. Her own
+involuntary summing up of David Kildare had struck into her inner
+consciousness like a blow. And Phoebe could not have explained to even
+herself what it was in her that demanded the hewer of wood and drawer of
+water in a man--in David. Decidedly Phoebe's demands were for elementals
+and she questioned Kildare's right to his leisurely life based on the
+Jeffersonian ideals of his forefathers.
+
+And while they sewed and chatted the hour away, over in the library the
+major and David were in interested conclave.
+
+"Now, I leave it to you, Major, if he isn't just the limit," said David
+on his return from his mission for the purpose of drawing Andrew from his
+lair. "I couldn't budge him. He is writing away like all possessed with a
+two-apple-and-a-cracker lunch on the table beside him. He seems to enjoy
+a death-starve."
+
+"David," said the major as he laid aside the book he had been buried in
+and began to polish his glasses, "you make no allowances whatever for the
+artistic temperament. When a man is making connection with his solar
+plexus he doesn't consider the consumption of food of paramount
+importance. Now in this treatise of Aristotle--"
+
+"Well, anyway, I've made up my mind to fix up something between him and
+Caroline Darrah. He's got to get a heart interest of his own and let
+mine alone. The child is daffy about his poetry and moons at him all the
+time out of the corners of her eyes, dandy eyes at that; but the old
+ink-swiller acts as if she wasn't there at all. What'll I do to make him
+just see her? Just see her--_see her_--that'll be enough!"
+
+"David," said the major quietly as he looked into the fire with his
+shaggy brows bent over his keen eyes, "the combination of a man heart and
+a woman heart makes a dangerous explosive at the best, but here are
+things that make it fatal. The one you are planning would be deadly."
+
+"Why, why in the world shouldn't I touch them off? Perfectly nice girl,
+all right man and--"
+
+"Boy, have you forgotten that I told you of the night Andrew Sevier's
+father killed himself; yes, that he had sat the night through at the
+poker table with Peters Brown? Brown offered some restoration compromise
+to the widow but she refused--you know the struggle that she made and
+that it killed her. We both know the grit it took for Andrew to chisel
+himself into what he is. The first afternoon he met the girl in here,
+right by this table, for an instant I was frightened--only _she_ didn't
+know, thank God! The Almighty gardens His women-things well and fends off
+influences that shrivel; it behooves men to do the same."
+
+"So that's it," exclaimed Kildare, serious in his dismay. "Of course I
+remember it, but I had forgotten to connect up the circumstances. It's a
+mine all right, Major--and the poor little girl! She reads his poetry
+with Phoebe and to me and she admires him and is deferential and--that
+girl--the sweetest thing that ever happened! I don't know whether to go
+over and smash him or to cry on his collar."
+
+"Dave," answered the major as he folded his hands and looked off across
+the housetops glowing in the winter sun, "some snarls in our life-lines
+only the Almighty can unravel; He just depends on us to keep hands off.
+Andrew is a fine product of disastrous circumstances. A man who can build
+a bridge, tunnel a mountain and then sit down by a construction camp-fire
+at night and write a poem and a play, must cut deep lines in life and
+he'll not cut them in a woman's heart--if he can help it."
+
+"And she must never know, Major, _never_," said David with distress in
+his happy eyes; "we must see to that. It ought to be easy to keep. It was
+so long ago that nobody remembers it. But wait--that is what Mrs. Cherry
+Lawrence meant when she said to Phoebe in Caroline's presence that it was
+just as well under the circumstances that the committee had not asked
+Andrew to write the poem for the unveiling of the statue. I wondered at
+the time why Phoebe dealt her such a knock-out glance that even I
+staggered. And she's given her cold-storage attentions ever since. Mrs.
+Cherry rather fancies Andy, I gather. Would she dare, do you think?"
+
+"Women," remarked the major dryly, "when man-stalking make very cruel
+enemies for the weaker of their kind. Let's be thankful that pursuit is a
+perverted instinct in them that happens seldom. We can trust much to
+Phoebe. The Almighty puts the instinct for mother guarding all younger or
+lesser women into the heart of superbly sexed women like Phoebe Donelson,
+and with her aroused we may be able to keep it from the child."
+
+"Ah, but it is sad, Major," said David in a low voice deeply moved with
+emotion. "Sad for her who does not know--and for him who does."
+
+"And it was farther reaching than that, Dave," answered the major slowly,
+and the hand that held the dying pipe trembled against the table. "Andrew
+Sevier was a loss to us all at the time and to you for whom we builded.
+The youngest and strongest and best of us had been mowed down before a
+four-years' rain of bullets and there were few enough of us left to build
+again. And of us all he had the most constructive power. With the same
+buoyant courage that he had led our regiment in battle did he lead the
+remnant of us in reconstructing our lives. He was gay and optimistic,
+laughed at bitterness and worked with infectious spirits and superb
+force. We all depended on him and followed him keenly. We loved him and
+let ourselves be laughed into his schemes. It was his high spirits and
+temperament that led to his gaming and tragedy. Nearly thirty years he's
+been dead, the happy Andrew. This boy's like him, very like him."
+
+"I see it--I see it," answered David slowly, "and all of that glad heart
+was bred in Andy, Major, and it's there under his sadness. Heavens,
+haven't I seen it in the hunting field as he landed over six stiff bars
+on a fast horse? It's in some of his writing and sometimes it flashes in
+his eyes when he is excited. I've seen it there lately more often than
+ever before. God, Major, last night his eyes fairly danced when I plagued
+Caroline into asking him to whom he wrote that serenade which I have set
+to music and sing for her so often. It hurts me all over--it makes
+me weak--"
+
+"It's hunger, David, lunch is almost ready," said Phoebe who had come
+into the room in time to catch his last words. "Why, where is Andrew?
+Wouldn't he come?"
+
+"No," answered Kildare quickly, covering his emotion with a laugh as he
+refused to meet Caroline Darrah's eyes which wistfully asked the same
+question that Phoebe had voiced, "he is writing a poem--about---about,"
+his eyes roamed the room wildly for he had got into it, and his stock of
+original poem-subjects was very short. Finally his music lore yielded
+a point, "It's about a girl drinking--only with her eyes you
+understand--and--"
+
+"He could save himself that trouble," laughed Phoebe, "for somebody has
+already written that; did it some time ago. Run stop him, David."
+
+"No," answered David with recovered spirit, "I'd flag a train for you,
+Phoebe, but I don't intend to side-track a poem for anybody. Besides, I'm
+hungry and I see Jeff with a tray. Mrs. Matilda, please put Caroline
+Darrah by me. She's attentive and Phoebe just diets--me."
+
+And while they laughed and chatted and feasted the hour away, across the
+street Andrew sat with his eyes looking over on to the major's red roof
+which was shrouded in a mist of yesterdays through which he was watching
+a slender boy toil his way. When he was eight he had carried a long route
+of the daily paper and he could feel now the chill dark air out into
+which he had slipped as his mother stood at the door and watched him down
+the street with sad and hungry eyes, the gaunt mother who had never
+smiled. He had fought and punched and scuffled in the dawn for his bundle
+of papers; and he had fought and scuffled for all he had got of life for
+many years. But a result had come--and it was rich. How he had managed an
+education he could hardly see himself; only the major had helped. Not
+much, but just enough to make it possible. And David had always stood by.
+
+Kildare's fortune had come from some almost forgotten lumber lands that
+his father had failed to heave into the Confederate maelstrom. Perhaps it
+had come a little soon for the very best upbuilding of the character of
+David Kildare, but he had stood shoulder to shoulder with them all in the
+fight for the establishment of the new order of things and his generosity
+with himself and his wealth had been superb. The delight with which he
+made a gift of himself to any cause whatsoever, rather tended to blight
+the prospects of what might have been a brilliant career at law. With his
+backing Hobson Capers had opened the cotton mills on a margin of no
+capital and much grit. Then Tom Cantrell had begun stock manipulations
+on a few blocks of gas and water, which his mother and Andrew had put up
+the money to buy--and nerve.
+
+It was good to think of them all now in the perspective of the then. Were
+there any people on earth who could swing the pendulum like those scions
+of the wilderness cavaliers and do it with such dignity? He was tasting
+an aftermath and he found it sweet--only the bitterness that had killed
+his mother before he was ten. And across the street sat the daughter of
+the man who had pressed the cup to her lips--with her father's millions
+and her mother's purple eyes.
+
+He dropped his hand on his manuscript and began to write feverishly. Then
+in a moment he paused. The Panama campfire, beside which he had written
+his first play, that was running in New York now, rose in a vision. Was
+it any wonder that the managers had jumped at the chance to produce the
+first drama from the country's newly acquired jungle? The lines had been
+rife with the struggle and intrigue of the great canal cutting. It really
+was a ripping play he told himself with a smile--and this other? He
+looked at it a moment in a detached way. This other throbbed.
+
+He gathered the papers together in his hand and walked to the window. The
+sun was now aslant through the trees. It was late and they must have all
+gone their ways from across the street; only the major would be alone and
+appreciative. Andrew smiled quizzically as he regarded the pages in his
+hand--but it was all so to the good to read the stuff to the old fellow
+with his Immortals ranged round!
+
+"Great company that," he mused to himself as he let himself out of the
+apartment. And as he walked slowly across the street and into the
+Buchanan house, Fate took up the hand of Andrew Sevier and ranged his
+trumps for a new game.
+
+In the moment he parted the curtains and stepped into the library the old
+dame played a small signal, for there, in the major's wide chair, sat
+Caroline Darrah Brown with her head bent over a large volume spread open
+upon the table.
+
+"Oh," she said with a quick smile and a rose signal in her cheeks,
+"the major isn't here! They came for him to go out to the farm to see
+about--about grinding something up to feed to--to--something or
+sheep--or--," she paused in distress as if it were of the utmost
+importance that she should inform him of the major's absence.
+
+"Silo for the cows," he prompted in a practical voice. It was well a
+practical remark fitted the occasion for the line from old Ben Jonson,
+which David had only a few hours ago accused him of plagiarizing, rose to
+the surface of his mind. Such deep wells of eyes he had never looked into
+in all his life before, and they were as ever, filled to the brim with
+reverence, even awe of him. It was a heady draught he quaffed before she
+looked down and answered his laconic remark.
+
+"Yes," she said, "that was it. And Mrs. Matilda and Phoebe motored out
+with him and David went on his horse. I am making calls, only I didn't. I
+stopped to--" and she glanced down with wild confusion, for the book
+spread out before her was the major's old family Bible, and the type was
+too bold to fail to declare its identity to his quick glance.
+
+"Don't worry," he hastened to say, "I don't mind. I read it myself
+sometimes, when I'm in a certain mood."
+
+"It was for David--he wanted to read something to Phoebe," she answered
+in ravishing confusion, and pointed to the open page.
+
+Thus Andrew Sevier was forced by old Fate to come near her and bend with
+her over the book. The tip of her exquisite finger ran along the lines
+that have figured in the woman question for many an age.
+
+"'For her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely
+trust in her'"--and so on down the page she led him.
+
+"And that was what the trouble was about," she said when they had read
+the last word in the last line. She raised her eyes to his with laughter
+in their depths. "It was a very dreadful battle and Phoebe won. The major
+found this for him to read to her and she said she did not intend to go
+into the real estate business for her husband or to rise while it was yet
+night to give him his breakfast. Aren't they funny, _funny_?" and she
+fairly rippled with delight at her recollection of the vanquishing of the
+intrepid David.
+
+"The standards for a wife were a bit strenuous in those days," he
+answered, smiling down on her. "I'm afraid Dave will have trouble finding
+one on those terms. And yet--" he paused and there was a touch of mockery
+in his tone.
+
+"I think that a woman could be very, very happy fulfilling every one of
+those conditions if she were woman enough," answered Caroline Darrah
+Brown, looking straight into his eyes with her beautiful, disconcerting,
+dangerous young seriousness.
+
+Andrew picked up his manuscript with the mental attitude of catching at a
+straw.
+
+"Oh," she said quickly, "you were going to read to the major, weren't
+you?" And the entreaty in her eyes was as young as her seriousness; as
+young as that of a very little girl begging for a wonder tale. The heart
+of a man may be of stone but even flint flies a spark.
+
+Andrew Sevier flushed under his pallor and ruffled his pages back to a
+serenade he had written, with which the star for whom the play was being
+made expected to exploit a deep-timbred voice in a recitative
+vocalization. And while he read it to her slowly, Fate finessed on the
+third round.
+
+And so the major found them an hour or more later, he standing in the
+failing light turning the pages and she looking up at him, listening,
+with her cheek upon her interlaced fingers and her elbows resting on the
+old book. The old gentleman stood at the door a long time before he
+interrupted them and after Andrew had gone down to put Caroline into her
+motorcar, which had been waiting for hours, he lingered at the window
+looking out into the dusk.
+
+"'For love is as strong as death,'" he quoted to himself as he turned to
+the table and slowly closed the book and returned it to its place. "'And
+many waters can not quench love, neither can the floods drown it.'"
+"Solomon was very great--and human," he further observed.
+
+Then after absorbing an hour or two of communion with some musty old
+papers and a tattered volume of uncertain age, the major was interrupted
+by Mrs. Matilda as she came in from her drive. She was a vision in her
+soft gray reception gown, and her gray hat, with its white velvet rose,
+was tipped over her face at an angle that denoted the spirit of
+adventure.
+
+"I'm so glad to get back, Major," she said as she stood and regarded him
+with affection beaming in her bright eyes. "Sometimes I hurry home to be
+sure you are safe here. I don't see you as much as I do out at Seven Oaks
+and I'm lonely going places away from you."
+
+"Don't you know it isn't the style any longer for a woman to carry her
+husband in her pocket, Matilda," he answered. "What would Mrs. Cherry
+Lawrence think of you?"
+
+Mrs. Buchanan laughed as she seated herself by him for the moment.
+"I've just come from Milly's," she said. "I left Caroline there. And
+Hobson was with her; they had been out motoring on the River Road. Do
+you suppose--it looks as if perhaps--?"
+
+"My dear Matilda," answered the major, "I never give or take a tip on a
+love race. The Almighty endows women with inscrutable eyes and the smile
+of the Sphynx for purposes of self-preservation, I take it, so a man
+wastes time trying to solve a woman-riddle. However, Hobson Capers is
+running a risk of losing much valuable time is the guess I chance on the
+issue in question."
+
+"And Peyton Kendrick and that nice Yankee boy and--"
+
+"All bunched, all bunched at the second post! There's a dark horse
+running and he doesn't know it himself. God help him!" he added under his
+breath as she turned to speak to Tempie.
+
+"If you don't want her to marry Hobson whom do you choose?" she said
+returning to the subject. "I wish--I wish--but of course it is
+impossible, and I'm glad, as it is, that Andrew is indifferent."
+
+"Yes," answered the major, "and you'll find that indifference is a hall
+mark stamped on most modern emotions."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+DAVID'S ROSE AND SOME THORNS
+
+
+"Now," said David, "if you'll just put away a few of those ancient pipes
+and puddle your papers a bit in your own cozy corner we can call these
+quarters ready to receive the ladies, God bless 'em! Does it look kinder
+bare to you? We might borrow a few drapes from the madam, or would you
+trust to the flowers? I'll send them up for you to fix around tasty.
+A blasted poet ought to know how to bunch spinach to look well."
+
+As he spoke David Kildare stood in the middle of the living-room in his
+bachelor quarters, which were in the Colonial, a tall pillared, wide
+windowed, white brick apartment-house that stood across the street from
+the home of Major Buchanan, and surveyed the long rooms upon which he and
+his man Eph had been expending their energies for more than an hour.
+
+Andrew Sevier sank down upon the arm of a chair and lighted a long and
+villainous pipe. "Trust to the flowers," he answered. "I think Phoebe
+doesn't care for the drapes of this life so much as some women do and as
+this is for her birthday let's have the flowers, sturdy ones with stiff
+stems and good head pieces."
+
+"That's right, Phoebe's nobody's clinging vine," answered David moodily.
+"She doesn't want any trellis either--wish something would wilt her! Look
+here, Andrew, on the square, what's the matter that I can't get Phoebe?
+You're a regular love pilot on paper, point me another course; this one
+is no good; I've run into a sand bank." The dark red forelock on David's
+brow was ruffled and his keen eyes were troubled, while his large sweet
+mouth was set in a straight firm line. He looked very strong, forceful
+and determined as he stopped in front of his friend and squared himself
+as if for a blow.
+
+Andrew Sevier looked at him thoughtfully for a few seconds straight
+between the eyes, then his mouth widened into an affectionate smile as he
+laid his hand on the sturdy shoulder and said:
+
+"Not a thing on God's green earth the matter with you, Davie; it's the
+modernism of the situation that you seem unable to handle. May I use your
+flower simile? Once they grew in gardens and were drooping and sweet and
+overran trellises, to say nothing of clinging to oak trees, but we've
+developed the American Beauty, old man! It stands stiff and glossy and
+holds its head up on its own stem, the pride of the nation! We can get
+them, though they come high. Ah, but they are sweet! Phoebe is one of the
+most gorgeous to be found--it will be a price to pay, but you'll pay it,
+David, you'll pay."
+
+"God knows I'm paying it all day long every day and have been paying it
+for ten years. Never at peace about her for an instant. Protection at
+long distance is no joke. I can't sleep at night until she telephones me
+she is at home from the office on her duty nights and then I have to beg
+like a dog for the wire, just the word or two. She _will_ overwork and
+undereat and--"
+
+"David," interrupted Sevier thoughtfully, "what do you really think is
+the matter? Let's get down to facts while we are about it."
+
+"Do you know, Andy, lately it has dawned upon me that Phoebe would like
+to dictate a life policy to me; hand me out a good, stiff life job. I
+believe she would marry me to-morrow if she could see me permanently
+installed on the front seat of a grocery wagon--_permanently_. And I'll
+come to it yet."
+
+"I believe you are right," laughed Andrew. "She really glories in her
+wage earning; it's a phase of them these days. She would actually hate
+living on your income."
+
+"Don't I know it? I suppose she would be content if she sewed on buttons
+and did the family wash to conserve the delivery wagon income. I wish
+she'd marry me for love and then I'd hire her at hundreds per week to
+dust around the house and cook pies for me, gladly, gladly."
+
+"We've developed thorns with our new rose, Dave," chuckled Andrew as he
+relighted his pipe.
+
+"Sweet hope of heaven, yes," groaned David. "My gore drips all the time
+from the gashes. I suppose it is a killing grief to her that I haven't a
+star corporation practise instead of fooling around the criminal court
+fighting old Taylor to get a square deal for the darky rag-tag most of my
+time. But, Andy, it makes me blaze house-high to see the way he hands the
+law out to 'em. They can cut and fight as long as it is in a whisky dive
+and no indictment returned; but let one of 'em sidestep an inch in any
+other ignorant pitiful way and it's the workhouse and the county road for
+theirs.
+
+"And the number of ways that the coons can get up to call on me to square
+the deal, is amazing. Just look at the week I've had! All Monday and
+Tuesday I spent on the Darky Country Club affair; the poor nigs just
+hungering for some place to go off and act white in for a few hours.
+Nobody would sell them an acre of ground near a car line and the dusky
+smart set was about to get its light put out. Jeff and Tempie told me
+about it. What did little Dave do but run around to persuade old man
+Elton to sell them that little point that juts out into the river two
+miles from town and just across from the rock quarry. No neighbors to
+kick and the interurban runs through the field. It really is a choice
+spot and I started their subscription with a hundred or two and got
+Williams to draw them some plans to fix up an old house that stands on
+the bank for a club-house. They are wide-mouthed with joy; but it sliced
+two days to do it, which I might have spent on the grocery wagon."
+
+"You always did have the making of a philanthropist in you, Dave," said
+Andrew thoughtfully. "You're a near-one at present speaking."
+
+"Philanthropist go hang--the rest of the week I have spent getting the
+old Confeds together and having everything in shape for the unveiling of
+the statue out at the Temple of Arts. I tell you we are going to have a
+turn-out. General Clopton is coming all the way to make the dedication
+speech. Caroline is about to bolt and I have to steady her at off times.
+I've promised to hold her hand through it all. Major is getting up the
+notes for General Clopton and he's touching on Peters Brown only in high
+places. It'll be mostly a show-down of old General Darrah and the three
+governors I'm thinking.
+
+"The Dames of the Confederacy and the Art League are going to have
+entries on the program without number. I have been interviewed and
+interviewed. Why, even the august Susie Carrie Snow sent for me and
+talked high art and city beautiful to me until I could taste it.
+
+"And all that sopped up the rest of the week when I ought to have been
+delivering pork steaks and string-beans at people's back doors to please
+Phoebe. Money grubbing doesn't appeal to me and I don't need it, but from
+now on I'm the busy grub--until after the 'no man put asunder'
+proclamation."
+
+"How you can manage to do one really public-spirited job after another,
+'things that count,' and then elude all the credit for them is more than
+I can understand, Dave," said Andrew as he smiled through a blue ring of
+smoke. "Some day, if you don't look out, you'll be a leading citizen.
+In the meantime hustle about those flowers. Time flies."
+
+"I'll send them right up," said David as he donned his coat and hat and
+took up his crop. The hours David spent out of the saddle were those of
+his indoors occupations. "I'll be back soon. Just fix the flowers; Eph
+and the cook will do all the rest. And put the cards on the table any
+old way. I want to sit between Phoebe and Caroline Darrah Brown--well,
+whose party is it? You can sit next on either side."
+
+"Wait a minute, are--"
+
+"No, I must hurry and go brace up Milly for a pair of minutes. She
+wouldn't promise to come until I insisted on sending a trained nurse to
+sit with old Mammy Betty and the babies until she got back to 'em. Billy
+Bob is as wild as a kid about coming, he hasn't been anywhere for so
+long. I talked a week before I could persuade Milly, but she's got her
+glad rags and is as excited as Billy Bob. I tried to buy that boy twin
+for Phoebe's present but Milly said I had better get an old silver and
+amethyst bracelet. It's on my table in the white box. Bye!" and Kildare
+departed as far as the front door, but returned to stick his head in the
+door and say:
+
+"You'd better put Hob by Caroline Darrah on the other side; he's savage
+when he's crossed. And tack in Payt opposite her. I invited Polly the
+Fluff for you--she is a débutante and such a coo-child that she'll just
+suit a poet."
+
+He dodged just in time to escape the lighted pipe that was hurled upon
+him, and he couldn't have suspected that a hastily-formed plan to place
+himself opposite Caroline Darrah had gone up in the smoke that followed
+the death of life in Andrew's pipe.
+
+Then following the urgent instructions of David, Andrew began to right up
+the papers in his den which opened off the living-room. His desk was
+littered with manuscript, for the three days past had been golden ones
+and he had written under a strong impetus. The thought suddenly shot
+through him that he had been writing as he had once read, to eyes whose
+"depths on depths of luster" had misted and glowed and answered as he
+turned his pages in the twilight. Can ice in a man's breast burn like
+fire? Andrew crushed the sheets and thrust them into a drawer.
+
+Then came Eph and the cook to lay the cloth in the dining-room, and a man
+brought up the flowers. For a time he worked away with a strange
+excitement in his veins.
+
+When they had finished and he was alone in the apartment he walked slowly
+through the rooms. Where David happened to keep his household gods had
+been home to Andrew for many years. His books were in the dark Flemish
+oak cases and some of the prints on the walls were his. Most of the rugs
+he had picked up in his travels upon which his commissions led him, and
+some interesting skins had been added since his jungle experiences. It
+was all dark and rich and right-toned--the home of a gentleman. And David
+was like the rooms, right-toned and clean.
+
+Andrew found himself wondering if there would be men like David in the
+next generation, happy David with his cavalier nature and modern wit. The
+steady stream of wealth that was pouring into the South, down her
+mountain sides and welling up under her pasture lands, would it bring in
+its train death to the purity and sanity of her social institutions?
+Would swollen fortunes bring congestion of standards and grossness of
+morals? Suddenly he smiled for Billy Bob and Milly and a lot of the
+industrious young folks seemed to answer him. He had found eleven little
+new cousins on the scene of action when he had returned after five
+years--clear-eyed young Anglo-Americans, ready to take charge of the
+future.
+
+And he, what was his place in the building of his native city? His
+trained intelligence, his wide experience, his genius were being given to
+cutting a canal thousands of miles away while the streets of his own home
+were being cut up and undermined by half-trained bunglers. The beautiful
+forest suburbs were being planned and plotted by money-mad schemers who
+neither pre-visioned, nor cared to, the city of the future which was to
+be a great gateway of the nation to its Panama world-artery. He knew how
+to value the force of a man of his kind, with his reputation and
+influence, and he would gage just what he would be able to do for the
+city with the municipal backing he could command if he set his shoulder
+to the wheel.
+
+A talk he had had with the major a day or two ago came back to him. The
+old fellow's eyes had glowed as he told him the plan they had been
+obliged to abandon in the early seventies for a boulevard from the
+capitol to the river because of the lack of city construction funds.
+Andrew's own father had formulated the plan and gone before the city
+fathers with it, and for a time there had been hope of its
+accomplishment. And the major had declared emphatically that a time was
+coming when the city would want and ask for it again. That other Andrew
+Sevier of the major's youth had conceived the scheme; the major had
+repeated the fact slowly. Did he mean it as a call to him?
+
+Andrew's eyes glowed. He could see it all, with its difficulties and its
+possibilities. He rested his clenched hand on the table and the artist in
+him had the run of his pulses. He could see it all and he knew in all
+humbleness that he could construct the town as no other man of his
+generation would be able to do; the beautiful hill-rimmed city!
+
+And just as potent he felt the call of the half-awakened spirit of art
+and letters that had lain among them poverty-bound for forty
+reconstructive years. For what had he been so richly dowered? To sing
+his songs from the camp of a wanderer and write his plays with a foreign
+flavor, when he might voice his own people in the world of letters, his
+own with their background of traditions and tragedy and their foreground
+of rough-hewn possibilities? Was not the meed of his fame, small or
+large, theirs?
+
+Suddenly the tension snapped and sadness chilled through his veins. Here
+there would always be that memory which brought its influences of
+bitterness and depression to kill the creative in him. The old mad desire
+to be gone and away from it beat up into his blood, then stilled on the
+instant. What was it that caught his breath in his breast at the thought
+of exile? Could he go now, _could_--
+
+Just at this moment he was interrupted by Mrs. Matilda who came hurrying
+into the room with ribbons and veil aflutter. She evidently had only the
+moment to stay and she took in his decorative schemes with the utmost
+delight.
+
+"Andrew," she said with enthusiasm in every tone, "it is all lovely,
+lovely. You boys are wonders! These bachelor establishments are
+threatening to make women wonder what they were born for. And what do you
+think? The major is coming! The first place he has gone this winter--and
+he wants to sit between Phoebe and Caroline Darrah. I just ran over to
+tell you. Good-by! We must both dress."
+
+And Andrew smiled as he rearranged the place-cards.
+
+And it happened that in more ways than one David Kildare found himself
+the perturbed host. He rushed home and dressed with lightning-like
+rapidity and whirled away in the limousine for Milly and Billy Bob.
+He went for them early, for he had bargained to come for Phoebe as late
+as possible so as to give her time to reckon with her six-thirty
+freckled-faced devil at the office. But at the Overtons he found
+confusion confounded.
+
+"I'm so sorry, David," Milly almost sobbed, "but Mammy Betty's daughter
+has run away and got married and she has gone to see about it, and the
+trained nurse can't come. There has been an awful wreck up the road and
+all the doctors in town have gone and taken all the nurses with them. She
+didn't consider the babies serious, so she just had some one telephone at
+the last minute that she had gone. I can't go; but please make Billy go
+with you! There is no use--" and she turned to Billy Bob who stood by in
+pathetically gorgeous array, but firm in his intention not to desert the
+home craft.
+
+"We just can't make it, Dave, old man," he said manfully, as he caught
+his tearful wife's outstretched hand in his. "Go on before we both cry!"
+
+"Go on, nothing--with Milly looking like a lovely pink apple-blossom!
+You've got to come. I wouldn't dare face Phoebe without you. It's the
+whole thing to her to have you there. It's been so long since you've
+gladded with the crowd once and it's her birthday and--" David's voice
+trailed off into a perfect wail.
+
+"But what can we do?" faltered Milly, dissolved at the mention of the new
+frock. "We certainly can't leave them and we can't take them and--"
+
+"Glory, that's the idea, let's _take_ the whole bunch!" exclaimed David
+with radiant countenance. "I ought to have invited them in the first
+place. Come on and let's begin to bundle!" and he made a dive in the
+direction of the door of the nursery.
+
+"Oh, no, indeed we can't!" gasped Milly while Billy Bob stood stricken,
+unable to utter a word.
+
+"I'll show you whether we will or not," answered David. "Catch me losing
+a chance like this to ring one on Phoebe for several reasons. Hurry up!"
+and as he spoke he had lifted little Mistake from his cot and was
+dextrously winding him in his blanket. The youngster opened his big dewy
+eyes and chuckled at the sight of his side partner, David Kildare.
+
+"That's all right, he's all for his Uncle Davie. Here, you take him Billy
+Bob and I'll help Milly roll up the twins. She can bring down Crimie
+while I bring them," and as he spoke he began a rapid swathing of the two
+limp little bodies from the white crib.
+
+"But, David," gasped Milly, "it is _impossible_! They are not
+dressed--they will take cold--"
+
+"The limousine is as hot as smoke--can't hurt 'em--plenty of blankets,"
+with which he thrust the nodding young Crimie into her arms and lifted
+carefully the large bundle which contained both twins in his own. "Go
+on!" he commanded the paralyzed pair. "I will pull the door to with my
+free foot." And he actually forced the helpless parents of the four to
+embark with him on this most unusual of adventures.
+
+When they were all seated in the car Milly looked at Billy Bob and burst
+into a gale of hysterical laughter. But Billy Bob's spunk was up by this
+time and he was all on the side of the resourceful David.
+
+"Why not?" he asked brazenly. "Nine-tenths of the people in the world
+take the kids with them on all the frolics they get, why not we? _They_
+know it's all right, _they_ haven't objected." And indeed there had not
+been a single chirp from any of the swathings. Big Brother was the only
+one awake and he was, as usual, entranced at the very sight of his Uncle
+David, who held the twins with practised skill on his knees.
+
+"Now," he said jubilantly, "don't anybody warn Phoebe and I'm going to
+put them on the big divan with her presents. You'll see something crash,
+I'm thinking."
+
+And it was worth it all when Phoebe did see her unexpected guests. Big
+Brother, divested of his blanket and clad in a pink Teddy Bear garment,
+sat bolt upright in the center of the divan, and Crimie lay snuggled
+against him with his thumb in his mouth and entranced eyes on the
+brilliant chandelier. The twins were nestled contentedly down in the
+corner together like two little kittens in a basket. Before them knelt
+Polly with one finger clasped by the one whose golden fuzz declared her
+to be Little Sister, while Caroline Darrah leaned over Big Brother who
+was fingering a string of sapphires that fell from her neck, with obvious
+delight. The rest of the party stood in an admiring and uproarious
+circle.
+
+"Why," exclaimed Phoebe in blank astonishment, "why David Kildare!"
+
+"You said you wanted your most intimate friends to-night, Phoebe, and
+here they are," he answered with pride in every tone of his voice.
+
+"Oh, dearie," said Milly as she clasped Phoebe's hand, "we couldn't come
+without them--everything happened wrong. I know it's awful and I ought to
+take them right back now and--"
+
+"David Kildare," said Phoebe as she divined in an instant the whole
+situation, "I love--I love you for doing it," and she sank on her knees
+by Caroline. Mistake let go the chain and bobbed forward to bestow a
+moist kiss on this, his friend of long standing; and as he chuckled and
+snuggled his little nose under her white chin Phoebe's echo was a sigh of
+such absolute rapture that the whole circle shouted with glee.
+
+And late as it was dinner was announced three times before the host or
+the guests could be persuaded to think of food. And not until David's bed
+was made ready for the little guests did they begin to make their way
+into the dining-room. It was Andrew who finally insisted on carrying the
+babes away and tucking them in--only Caroline went with him with Little
+Sister in her arms and laid her gently on the pillow. She refused to lift
+her eyes to him for so much as a half-second until he drew her chair from
+the table for her; but then her shy glance was deep with innocent
+tenderness.
+
+"Now," said the major as they settled laughingly into their places,
+"everybody's glass high to the silent guests!" And they drank his toast
+with enthusiasm.
+
+"And," added David Kildare as he set down his glass, "they needn't be
+'silent guests' unless it suits them. When they want to rough-house they
+know Uncle David's is the place to come to do it in."
+
+"But let's hope they won't want to, David," laughed Milly, radiant with
+excitement.
+
+"I tell you what let's do," said the enlivened Hobson from the coveted
+seat next Caroline Darrah Brown, "let's all give them hard sleeping
+suggestions, all at the same time.... Maybe they won't wake up for a
+week."
+
+"Andrew," said Mrs. Buchanan as she looked with delight in his direction,
+"these are delicious things you and David have to eat. I am so glad you
+are well again and can enjoy them."
+
+"Better go slow, Andy," called David from down the table. "Sure you don't
+need a raw egg? Phoebe has a couple up her sleeve here she can lend you.
+The major has persuaded her to take a bit of duck and some asparagus and
+a brandied peach and--"
+
+"David Kildare," said Phoebe in a coolly dangerous voice, "I will get
+even with you for that if it takes me a week. This is the first thing I
+have had to eat since meal before last and I lost two and a half pounds
+last week. So I'll see that you--"
+
+"Please, please, Phoebe, I'll be good! Just let me off this time. I'm
+giddy from looking at you!" And before a delighted audience David Kildare
+abased himself.
+
+"Anyway, I've got news to relate," he hastened to offer by way of
+propitiation. "What do you think has happened to Andrew? I didn't promise
+not to tell," he drawled, prolonging the agony to its limit.
+
+"Hurry, David, do!" exclaimed Phoebe with suspended fork. Caroline leaned
+forward eagerly, while Andrew began a laughing protest.
+
+"It's only that Hetherton is going to put the great Mainwright on in
+Andy's new play in the fall--letter came to-day. Now, doesn't he shove
+his pen to some form--some?" he demanded as he beamed upon his friend
+with the greatest pride.
+
+"Oh," said Caroline Darrah, "Mainwright is great enough to do
+it--almost!"
+
+A pulse of joy shot through Andrew as her excited eyes gleamed into his.
+Of them all she and the major only had read his play and could
+congratulate him really. He had turned to her instantly when David had
+made his announcement, and she had answered him as instantly with her
+delight.
+
+"And Cousin Andy," asked Polly who sat next to him, "will I have to cry
+at the third act? Please don't make me, it's so unbecoming. Why can't
+people do all the wonderful things they do in plays without being so
+mussy?"
+
+"Child," jeered David Kildare as they all laughed, "don't you know a
+heart-throb when you're up against it--er--beg pardon--I mean to say that
+plays are sold at so much a sob. Seems to me you get wise very slowly."
+Polly pouted and young Boston who sat next her went red up to his hair.
+
+"Better let me look over the contracts for you, Andrew," said Tom
+Cantrell with friendly interest in his shrewd eyes. If the material was
+all Tom had to offer his friends he did that with generosity and
+sincerity.
+
+So until the roses fell into softly wilting heaps and the champagne broke
+in the glasses they sat and talked and laughed. Pitched battles raged up
+and down the table and there were perfect whirlpools of argument and
+protestation. Phoebe was her most brilliant self and her laughter rang
+out rich and joyous at the slightest provocation. The major delighted in
+a give and take encounter with her and their wit drew sparks from every
+direction.
+
+"No, Major," she said as the girls rose with Mrs. Buchanan after the last
+toast had been drunk, "toast my wit, toast my courage, toast my loyalty,
+but my beauty--ah, aren't women learning not to use it as an asset?"
+
+As she spoke she stretched out one white hand and bare rounded arm to him
+in entreaty. Phoebe was more lovely than she knew as she flung her
+challenge into the camp of her friends and they all felt the call in her
+dauntless dawn-gray eyes. Her unconsciousness amounted to a positive
+audacity.
+
+"Phoebe," answered the major as he rose and stood beside her chair, "all
+those things stir at times our cosmic consciousness, but beauty is the
+bouquet to the woman-wine--and _you_ can't help it!"
+
+"How do you old fellows down at the bivouac really feel about this
+conduit business, Major," said Tom Cantrell as he moved his chair close
+around by the major's after the last swish and rustle had left the men
+alone in the dining-room for a few moments. "Just a question starts
+father fire-eating, so I thought I would ask you to put me next. It's up
+in the city council."
+
+"Tom," answered the major as he blew a ring of smoke between himself and
+the shrewd eyes, "what on earth have a lot of broken-down old Confederate
+soldiers got to do with the management of the affairs of the city? You
+young men are to attend to that--give us a seat in the sun and our
+pipes--of peace."
+
+"Oh, hang, Major! Look at the way you old fellows swung that gas contract
+in the council. You 'sit in the sun' all right but they all know that the
+bivouac pulls the plurality vote in this city when it chooses--and they
+jump when you speak. What are you going to do about this conduit?"
+
+"Is it pressing? Not much being said about it."
+
+"That's it--they want to make it a sneak in. Mayor Potts is pushing
+hard and we know he's just the judge's catspaw. Judge Taylor owns the
+city council since that last election and I believe he has bought the
+board of public works outright. The conduit is just a whisky ring scheme
+to hand out jobs before the judge's election. They have got to keep the
+criminal court fixed, Major, for this town is running wide open day and
+night--with prohibition voted six months ago. They've got to keep Taylor
+on the bench. What do you say?"
+
+"Well," answered the major, beetling his brows over his keen eyes, "I
+suppose there is no doubt that Taylor is machine-made. He's the real
+blind tiger, and Potts is his striped kitten. I understand he 'lost'
+four-fifths of the 'open' indictments that the grand jury 'found' on
+their last sitting. The whisky men are going to sell as long as the
+criminal court protects them, of course. Let's let them cut that conduit
+deeper into the public mind before they begin on the streets."
+
+"I'm looking for a nasty show-down for this town before long, Major, if
+there are men enough in it to call the machine."
+
+"Tom," answered the major as he blew a last ring from his cigar, "a town
+is in a rotten fix when the criminal court is a mockery. Let's go
+interrupt the women's dimity talk."
+
+And it was quite an hour later that Milly decided in an alarmed hurry
+that she and the babies must take their immediate departure. David
+maneuvered manfully to send them home in his car and to have Phoebe wait
+and let him take her home later--alone. But Phoebe insisted upon going
+with Milly and Billy Bob and the youngsters, and the reflection that the
+distance from the unfashionable quarter inhabited by the little family,
+back to Phoebe's down-town apartment was very short, depressed him to the
+point of defiance--almost.
+
+However, he packed them all in and then as skilfully unpacked them at the
+door of their little home. He carried up the twins and even remained a
+moment to help in their unswathing before he descended to the waiting car
+and Phoebe. As he gave the word and swung in beside her, David Kildare
+heaved a deep and rapturous sigh. It was so much to the good to have her
+to himself for the short whirl through the desolated winter streets. It
+was a situation to be made the most of for it came very seldom.
+
+He turned to speak to her in the half light and found her curled up in
+the corner with her soft cheek resting against the cushions. Her attitude
+was one of utter weariness, but she smiled without opening her eyes as
+she nestled closer against the rough leather.
+
+"Tired, peach-bud?" he asked softly. One of the gifts of the high gods to
+David Kildare was a voice with a timbre suitable to the utmost
+tenderness, when the occasion required.
+
+"Yes," answered Phoebe drowsily, "but so happy! It was all lovely,
+David." Her pink-palmed hand lay relaxed on her knee. David lifted it
+cautiously in both his strong warm ones and bent over it, his heart
+ahammer with trepidation. For as a general thing neither the environment
+nor his mood had much influence in the softening way on Phoebe's cool
+aloofness, but this once some sympathetic chord must have vibrated in her
+heart for she clasped her fingers around his and received the caress on
+their pink tips with opening eyes that smiled with a hint of tenderness.
+
+"David," she said with a low laugh, "I'm too tired to be stern with you
+tonight, but I'll hold you responsible to-morrow--for everything. Here we
+are; do see if that red-headed devil is sitting on the door-step and tell
+him that there is--no--more copy--if I _am_ a half-column short. And,
+David," she drew their clasped hands nearer and laid her free one over
+both his as the car drew up to the curb, "you--are--a--dear! Here's my
+key in my muff. To-morrow at five? I don't know--you will have to phone
+me. Good night, and thank you--dear. Yes--good night again!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE BRIDGE OF DREAMS
+
+
+"And then, Major, hell broke loose! Dave stood up and--" Tom Cantrell's
+eyes snapped and he slashed with his crop at the bright andirons that
+held the flamed logs.
+
+"No, Major, it wasn't hell that broke up, it was something inside me. I
+felt it smash. For a moment I didn't grasp what Taylor was saying. It
+sounded so like the ravings of an insane phonograph that I was for being
+amused, but when I found that he was actually advising the mayor to
+refuse our committee the use of the hay market for a bivouac during the
+Confederate reunion, I just got up and took his speech and fed it to him
+raw. I saw red with a touch of purple and I didn't know I was on my feet
+and--"
+
+"Major," interrupted Andrew Sevier, his eyes bright as those of Kildare
+and his quiet voice under perfect control, "Judge Taylor's exact words
+were that it seemed inadvisable to turn over property belonging to the
+city for the use of parties that could in no way be held responsible. He
+elucidated his excuse by saying that the Confederate soldiers were so old
+now that they were better off at home than parading the streets and
+inciting rebellious feelings in the children, throwing the city into
+confusion by their disorderly conduct and--"
+
+"That's all he said, Major, that's all. I was on my feet then and all
+that needs to be said and done to him was said and done right there. I
+said it and Phoebe and Mrs. Peyton Kendrick did it as they walked right
+past him and out of the chamber of commerce hall of committees while he
+was trying to answer me. That broke up the meeting and he can't be found
+this morning. Cap has had Tom looking for him. I think when we find him
+we will have a few more words of remonstrance with him!" said Dave
+quietly. And he stood straight and tall before the major, and as he threw
+back his head he was most commanding. There was an expression of power in
+the face of David Kildare that the major had never seen there before.
+
+He balanced his glasses in his hands a moment and looked keenly at the
+four young men lined up before him. They made a very forceful
+typification of the new order of things and were rather magnificent
+in their defense of the old. The major's voice tightened in his throat
+before he could say what they were waiting to hear.
+
+"Boys," he said, and his old face lit with one of its rare smiles,
+"there were live sparks in these gray ashes--or we could not have bred
+you. I'm thinking you, yourselves, justify the existence of us old
+Johnnies and give us a clear title to live a little while longer,
+reunite once a year, sing the old songs, speechify, parade, bivouac a few
+more times together--and be as disorderly as we damn please, in this or
+any other city's hay market. Tom, telephone Cap to go straight to the
+bivouac headquarters and have them get ready to get out a special edition
+of the _Gray Picket_. If reports of this matter are sent out over the
+South without immediate and drastic refutations there will be a
+conflagration of thousands of old fire-eaters. They will never live
+through the strain. Andrew, take David up to your rooms, send for a
+stenographer and get together as much of that David Kildare speech as
+you can. Hobson, get hold of the stenographer of the city council and get
+his report of both Taylor's and Potts' speeches. Choke it out of him for
+I suspect they have both attempted to have them destroyed."
+
+"Don't you see, Major, don't you see, he tried to make a play to the
+masses of protecting the city's property and the city's law and order,
+but he jumped into a hornet's nest? We managed to keep it all out of the
+morning paper but something is sure to creep in. Hadn't we better have a
+conference with the editors?" Tom was a solid quantity to be reckoned
+with in a stress that called for keenness of judgment rather than
+emotion.
+
+"Ask them for a conference in the editorial rooms of the _Gray Picket_ at
+two-thirty, Tom," answered the major. "In the meantime I'll draft an
+editorial for the special edition. We must come out with it in the
+morning at all odds."
+
+In a few moments the echo of their steps over the polished floors and the
+ring of their voices had died away and the major was once more alone in
+his quiet library. He laid aside his books and drew his chair up to the
+table and began to make preparations for his editorial utterances. His
+rampant grizzled forelock stood straight up and his jaws were squared and
+grim. He paused and was in the act of calling Jeff to summon Phoebe over
+the wire when the curtains parted and she stood on the threshold. The
+major never failed to experience a glow of pride when Phoebe appeared
+before him suddenly. She was a very clear-eyed, alert, poised
+individuality, with the freshness of the early morning breezes about her.
+
+"My dear," he said without any kind of preliminary greeting, "what do you
+make of the encounter between David Kildare and Julge Taylor? The boys
+have been here, but I want your account of it before I begin to take
+action in the matter."
+
+"It was the most dastardly thing I ever heard, Major," said Phoebe
+quietly with a deep note in her voice. "For one moment I sat stunned. The
+long line of veterans as I saw them last year at the reunion, old and
+gray, limping some of them, but glory in their bright faces, some of them
+singing and laughing, came back to me. I thought my heart would burst at
+the insult to them and to--us, their children. But when David rose from
+his chair beside me I drew a long breath. I wish you could have heard him
+and seen him. He was stately and courteous--and he said it _all_. He
+voiced the love and the reverence that is in all our hearts for them.
+It was a very dignified forceful speech--and _David_ made it!" Phoebe
+stood close against the table and for a moment veiled her tear-starred
+eyes from the major's keen glance.
+
+"Phoebe," he said after a moment's silence, "I sometimes think the world
+lacks a standard by which to measure some of her vaster products. Perhaps
+you and I have just explored the heart of David Kildare so far. But a
+heart as fine as his isn't going to pump fool blood into any man's
+brain--eh?"
+
+"Sometimes and about some things, you do me a great injustice, Major,"
+answered Phoebe slowly, with a serious look into the keen eyes bent upon
+hers. "Of all the 'glad crowd', as David calls us, I am the only woman
+who comes directly in contact with the struggling, working, hand-to-hand
+fight of life, and I can't help letting it affect me in my judgment
+of--of us. I can't forget it when--when I amuse myself or let David amuse
+me. I seem to belong with them and not in the life he would make for me;
+yet you know I care--but if you are going to get out that extra edition
+you must get to work. I will sit here and get up my one o'clock notes for
+the imp, and if you need me, tell me so."
+
+The major bestowed a slow quizzical smile upon her and took up his pen.
+For an hour they both wrote rapidly with now a quick question from the
+major and a concise answer from Phoebe, or a short debate over the
+wording of one of his sentences or paragraphs. The editorial minds of the
+graybeard and the girl were of much the same quality and they had written
+together for many years. The major had gone far in the molding of
+Phoebe's keen wit.
+
+"Why, here you are, Phoebe," exclaimed Mrs. Buchanan as she hurried into
+the room just as Phoebe was finishing some of her last paragraphs,
+"Caroline and I have been telephoning everywhere for you. Do come and
+motor out to the Country Club with us for lunch. David and Andrew left
+some partridges there yesterday as they came from hunting on Old Harpeth,
+to be grilled for us to-day. You are going out there to play bridge with
+Mrs. Shelby's guest from Charleston at three, so please come with us
+now!"
+
+She was all eagerness and she rested one plump, persuasive little hand on
+Phoebe's arm. To Mrs. Matilda, any time that Phoebe could be persuaded to
+frolic was one of undimmed joy.
+
+"Now, Mrs. Matilda," said the major, as he smiled at her with the
+expression of delight that her presence always called forth even in times
+of extreme strenuosity, "do leave Phoebe with me--I'm really a very lorn
+old man."
+
+"Why, are you really lonely dear? Then Caroline and I won't think of
+going. We'll stay right here to lunch with you. I will go tell her and
+you put up your books and papers and we will bring our sewing and chat
+with you and Phoebe. It will be lovely."
+
+"Matilda," answered the major hastily with real alarm in his eyes, "I
+insist that you unroll my strings to your apron as far as the Country
+Club this once. I capitulate--no man in the world ever had more attention
+than I have. Why, Phoebe knows that--"
+
+"Indeed, indeed, he really doesn't want us, Mrs. Matilda. Let's leave him
+to his Immortals. I will be ready in a half-hour if I can write fast
+here. Tell Caroline Darrah to hunt me up a fresh veil and phone Mammy
+Kitty not to expect me home until--until midnight. Now while you dress I
+will write."
+
+"Very well," answered Mrs. Buchanan, "if you are sure you don't need us,
+Major," and with a caress on his rampant lock she hurried away.
+
+"You took an awful risk then, Major," said Phoebe with a twinkle in her
+eyes.
+
+"I know it," answered the major. "I've been taking them for nearly forty
+years. It's added much to this affair between Mrs. Buchanan and me. Small
+excitements are all that are necessary to fan the true connubial flame. I
+didn't tell her about all this because I really hadn't the time. Tell her
+on the way out, for I expect there will be a rattle of musketry as soon
+as the dimity brigade hears the circumstances."
+
+Then for a half-hour Phoebe and the major wrote rapidly until she
+gathered her sheets together and left them under his paper-weight to be
+delivered to the devil from the office.
+
+She departed quietly, taking Mrs. Matilda and Caroline with her.
+
+And for still another hour the major continued to push his pen rapidly
+across the paper, then he settled down to the business of reading and
+annotating his work.
+
+For years Major Buchanan had been the editor of the _Gray Picket_, which
+went its way weekly into almost every home in the South. It was a quaint,
+bright little folio full of articles of interest to the old Johnnie Rebs
+scattered south of Mason and Dixon. As a general thing it radiated good
+cheer and a most patriotic spirit, but at times something would occur to
+stir the gray ashes from which would fly a crash of sparks. Then again
+the spirit of peace unutterable would reign in its columns. It was
+published for the most part to keep up the desire for the yearly
+Confederate reunions--those bivouacs of chosen spirits, the like of which
+could never have been before and can never be after. The major's pen was
+a trenchant one but reconstructed--in the main.
+
+But the scene at the Country Club in the early afternoon was, according
+to the major's prediction, far from peaceful in tone; it was confusion
+confounded. Mrs. Peyton Kendrick was there and the card-tables were
+deserted as the players, matrons and maids, gathered around her and
+discussed excitedly the result of her "ways and means for the reunion"
+mission to the city council, the judge's insult and David Kildare's
+reply. They were every mother's daughter of them Dames of the Confederacy
+and their very lovely gowns were none the less their fighting clothes.
+
+"And then," said Mrs. Payt, her cheeks pink with indignation, and the
+essence of belligerency in her excited eyes, "for a moment I sat
+petrified, _petrified_ with cold rage, until David Kildare's speech
+began--there had never been a greater one delivered in the United States
+of America! He said--he said--oh, I don't know what he did say, but it
+was--"
+
+"I just feel--" gasped Polly Farrell with a sob, "that I ought to get
+down on my knees to him. He's a hero--he's a--"
+
+"Of course for a second I was surprised. I had never heard David Kildare
+speak about a--a serious matter before, but I could have expected it,
+for his father was a most brilliant lawyer, and his mother's father was
+our senator for twenty years and his uncle our ambassador to the court
+of--" and Mrs. Peyton's voice trailed off in the clamor.
+
+"Well, I've always known that Cousin Dave was a great man. He ought
+to be the president or governor--or _something_. I would vote for him
+to-morrow--or that is, I would make some man--I don't know just who--do
+it!" And Polly's treble voice again took up the theme of David's praises.
+
+"And think of the old soldiers," said Mrs. Buchanan with a catch in her
+breath. "It will hurt them so when they read it. They will think people
+are tired of them and that we don't want them to come here in the spring
+for the reunion. They are old and feeble and they have had so much to
+bear. It was cruel, _cruel_."
+
+"And to think of not wanting the children to see them and know them and
+love them--and understand!" Milly's soft voice both broke and blazed.
+
+"I'm going to cry--I'm doing it," sobbed Polly with her head on Phoebe's
+shoulder. "I wasn't but twelve when they met here last time and I
+followed all the parades and cried for three solid days. It was
+delicious. I'm not mad at any Yankee--I'm in love with a man from Boston
+and I'm--oh, please, don't anybody tell I said that! I may not be, I just
+think so because he is so good-looking and--"
+
+"We must all go out to the Soldier's Home to-morrow, a large committee,
+and take every good thing we can think up and make. We must pay them so
+much attention that they will let us make a joke of it," said Mrs.
+Matilda thinking immediately of the old fellows who "sat in the
+sun"--waiting.
+
+"Yes," answered Mrs. Peyton, "and we must go oftener. We want some more
+committees. It won't be many years--two were buried last week from the
+Home." There was a moment's silence and the sun streamed in across the
+deserted tables.
+
+"Oh," murmured Caroline Darrah Brown with her eyes in a blaze, "I can't
+stand it, Phoebe. I never felt so before--I who have no right."
+
+"Dear," said Phoebe with a quiet though intensely sad smile, "this is
+just an afterglow of what they must have felt in those awful times. Let's
+get them started at the game."
+
+For just a moment longer Phoebe watched them in their heated discussion,
+then chose her time and her strong quiet voice commanded immediate
+attention.
+
+"Girls," she said, and as she spoke she held out her hand to Mrs. Peyton
+Kendrick with an audacious little smile. Any woman from two to sixty
+likes to be called girl--audaciously as Phoebe did it. "Let's leave it
+all to the men. I think we can trust them to compel the judge to dine off
+his yesterday's remarks in tomorrow's papers. And then if we don't like
+the way they have settled with him we can have a gorgeous time telling
+them how much better they might have done it. Let's all play--everybody
+for the game!"
+
+"And Phoebe!" called Mrs. Payt as she sat down at the table farthest in
+the corner. She spoke in a clear high-pitched voice that carried well
+over the rustle of settling gowns and shuffling cards: "We all intend
+after this to _see_ that David Kildare gets what he wants--you
+understand?" A laugh rippled from every table but Phoebe was equal to the
+occasion.
+
+"Why not, Mrs. Payt," she answered with the utmost cordiality. "And let's
+be sure and find something he really wants to present to him as a
+testimony of our esteem."
+
+"Oh, Phoebe," trilled Polly, her emotions getting the better of her as
+she stood with score-card in hand waiting for the game to begin, "_I_
+can't keep from loving him myself and _you_ treat him so mean!"
+
+But a gale of merriment interrupted her outburst and a flutter of cards
+on the felts marked the first rounds of the hands. In a few minutes they
+were as absorbed as if nothing had happened to ruffle the depths; but in
+the pool of every woman's nature the deepest spot shelters the lost
+causes of life, and from it wells a tidal wave if stirred.
+
+After a little while Caroline Darrah rose from a dummy and spoke in a low
+pleading tone to Polly, who had been watching her game, standing ready to
+score. Polly demurred, then consented and sat down while Caroline Darrah
+took her departure, quietly but fleetly, down the side steps.
+
+She was muffled in her long furs and she swung her sable toque with
+its one drooping plume in her hand as she walked rapidly across the
+tennis-courts, cut through the beeches and came out on the bank of the
+brawling little Silver Fork Creek, that wound itself from over the ridge
+down through the club lands to the river. She stood by the sycamore for a
+moment listening delightedly to its chatter over the rocks, then climbed
+out on the huge old rock that jutted out from the bank and was entwined
+by the bleached roots of the tall tree. The strong winter sun had warmed
+the flat slab on the south side and, sinking down with a sigh of delight,
+she embraced her knees and bent over to gaze into the sparkling little
+waterfall that gushed across the foot of the boulder.
+
+Then for a mystic half-hour she sat and let her eyes roam the blue
+Harpeth hills in the distance, that were naked and stark save for the
+lace traceries of their winter-robbed trees. As the sun sank a soft rose
+purple shot through the blue and the mists of the valley rose higher
+about the bared breasts of the old ridge.
+
+And because of the stillness and beauty of the place and hour, Caroline
+Darrah began, as women will if the opportunity only so slightly invites
+them, to dream--until a crackle in a thicket opposite her perch
+distracted her attention and sent her head up with a little start. In a
+second she found herself looking across the chatty little stream straight
+into the eyes of Andrew Sevier, in which she found an expression of
+having come upon a treasure with distracting suddenness.
+
+"Oh," she said to break the silence which seemed to be settling itself
+between them permanently, "I think I must have been dreaming and you
+crashed right in. I--I--"
+
+"Are you sure you are not the dream itself--just come true?" demanded the
+poet in a matter-of-fact tone, as if he were asking the time of day or
+the trail home.
+
+"I don't think I am, in fact I'm sure," she answered with a break in her
+curled lips. "The dream is a bridge, a beautiful bridge, and I've been
+seeing it grow for minutes and minutes. One end of it rests down there
+by that broken log--see where the little knoll swells up from the
+field?--and it stretches in a beautiful strong arch until it seems to cut
+across that broken-backed old hill in the distance. And then it falls
+across--but I don't know where to put the other end of it--the ground
+sinks so--it might wobble. I don't want my bridge to wobble."
+
+Her tone was expressive of a real distress as she looked at him in
+appealing confusion. And in his eyes she found the dawn of an amused
+wonder, almost consternation. Slowly over his face there spread a deep
+flush and his lips were indrawn with a quick breath.
+
+"Wait a minute, I'll show you," he said in almost an undertone. He swung
+himself across the creek on a couple of stones, climbed up the boulder
+and seated himself at her side. Then he drew a sketch-book from his
+pocket and spread it open on the slab before them.
+
+There it was--the dream bridge! It rose in a fine strong curve from the
+little knoll, spanned across the distant ridge and fell to the opposite
+bank on to a broad support that braced itself against a rock ledge. It
+was as fine a perspective sketch as ever came from the pencil of an
+enthusiastic young Beaux Arts.
+
+"Yes," she said with a delighted sigh that was like the slide of the
+water over smooth pebbles, "yes, that is what I want it to be, only I
+couldn't seem to see how it would rest right away. It is just as I
+dreamed it and,"--then she looked at him with startled jeweled eyes.
+"Where did I see it--where did you--what does it mean?" she demanded, and
+the flush that rose up to the waves of her hair was the reflection of the
+one that had stained his face before he came across the stream. "I think
+I'm frightened," she added with a little nervous laugh.
+
+"Please don't be--because I am, too," he answered. And instinctively,
+like two children, they drew close together. They both gazed at the
+specter sketch spread before them and drew still nearer to each other.
+
+"I have been planning it for days," he said in almost a whisper. Her
+small pink ear was very near his lips and his breath agitated two little
+gold tendrils that blew across it. "I want to build it before I go away,
+it is needed here for the hunting. I came out and made the sketch from
+right here an hour ago. I came back--I must have come back to have
+it--verified." He laughed softly, and for just a second his fingers
+rested against hers on the edge of the sketch.
+
+"I'm still frightened," she said, but a tippy little smile coaxed at the
+corners of her mouth. She turned her face away from his eyes that had
+grown--disturbing.
+
+"I'm not," he announced boldly. "Beautiful wild things are flying loose
+all over the world and why shouldn't we capture one for ourselves. Do you
+mind--please don't!"
+
+"I don't think I do," she answered, and her lashes swept her cheeks
+as she lifted the sketch-book to her knees. "Only suppose I was to
+dream--some of your--other work--some day? I don't want to build your
+bridges--but I might want to--write some of your poems. Hadn't you better
+do something to stop me right now?" The smile had come to stay and
+peeped roguishly out at him from beneath her lashes.
+
+"No," he answered calmly, "if you want my dreams--they are yours."
+
+"Oh," she said as she rose to her feet and looked down at him wistfully,
+"your beautiful, beautiful dreams! Ever since that afternoon I have gone
+over and over the lines you read me. The one about the 'brotherhood of
+our heart's desires' keeps me from being lonely. I think--I think I went
+to sleep saying it to myself last night and--"
+
+It couldn't go on any longer--as Andrew rose to his feet he gathered
+together any stray wreckage of wits that was within his reach and
+managed, by not looking directly at her, to say in a rational, elderly,
+friendly tone, slightly tinged with the scientific:
+
+"My dear child, and that's why you built my bridge for me to-day. You
+put yourself into mental accord with me by the use of my jingle last
+night and fell asleep having hypnotized yourself with it. Things wilder
+than fancies are facts these days, written in large volumes by extremely
+erudite old gentlemen and we believe them because we must. This is a
+simple case, with a well-known scientific name and--"
+
+"But," interrupted Caroline Darrah, and as she stood away from him
+against the dim hills, her slender figure seemed poised as if for flight,
+and a hurt young seriousness was in her lifted purple eyes: "I don't want
+it to be a 'simple case' with any scientific--" and just here a merry
+call interrupted her from up-stream.
+
+Phoebe and Polly had come to summon her back to the club; tea was on the
+brew. With the intensest hospitality they invited Andrew to come, too.
+But he declined with what grace he could and made his way through the
+tangle down-stream as they walked back under the beeches.
+
+Thus a very bitter thing had come to Andrew Sevier--and sweet as the
+pulse of heaven. In his hand he had seen a sensitive flower unfold to its
+very heart of flame.
+
+"Never let her know," he prayed, "never let her know."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+STRANGE WILD THINGS
+
+
+"Phoebe," said David Kildare as he seated himself on the corner of the
+table just across from where Phoebe sat in Major Buchanan's chair writing
+up her one o'clock notes, "what is there about me that makes people think
+they must make me judge of the criminal court of this county? Do I look
+job-hungry so as to notice it?"
+
+"No," answered Phoebe as she folded her last sheet and laid down her
+pencil, "that is one thing no one can accuse you of, David. But your work
+down there has brought its results. They need you and are calling to you
+rather decisively I think. Any more delegations to-day?"
+
+"Several. Susie Carrie Snow came with more Civic Improvements, rather
+short as to skirts and skimpy as to hats. They have fully decided that I
+am going to feed Mayor Potts out of my hand as Taylor does, and they want
+my influence to put up two more drinking fountains and three brass plates
+to mark the homes of the founders of the city, in return for their
+precious support. I promised; and they fell on my neck. That is, if _you_
+don't mind?" David edged a tentative inch or two nearer Phoebe who had
+rested her elbows on the table and her head on her hands as she looked up
+at him.
+
+"I don't," she answered with a cruel smile. Then she asked, with an
+unconcerned glance over the top of his head, "Did you hear from the
+United Charities?"
+
+"Well, yes, some," returned David with an open countenance, no suspicion
+of a trap in even the flicker of an eyelash. "They sent Mrs. Cherry.
+Blooming more every day isn't she, don't you think? She didn't fall on my
+neck worth a cent though I had braced myself for the shock. She managed
+to convey the fact that the whole organization is for me just the same.
+It's some pumpkins to be a candidate. I'm for all there is in it--if at
+all."
+
+"You aren't hesitating, David?" asked Phoebe as she rose and stood
+straight and tall beside him, her eyes on a level with his as he sat on
+the table. "Ah, David, you can if you will--will you? I know what
+it means to you," and Phoebe laid one hand on his shoulder as she looked
+him straight in the eyes, "for it will be work, _work_ and fight like mad
+to put out the fire. You will have to fight honest--and they won't.
+But, David"--a little catch in her voice betrayed her as she entreated.
+
+"Yes, dear," answered David as he laid his hand over the one on his
+shoulder and pressed it closer, "I sent in the announcement of my
+candidacy to the afternoon papers just as I came around here to see
+the major--and you. The fight is on and it is going to be harder than you
+realize, for there is so little time. Are you for me, girl?"
+
+"If _I_ fall on your neck it will make seven this morning. Aren't you
+satisfied?" And Phoebe drew her hand away from his, allowing, however, a
+regretful squeeze as he let it go.
+
+"No, six if you would do it," answered David disconsolately, "I told you
+that Mrs. Cherry failed me."
+
+"Yes," answered Phoebe as she lowered her eyes, "I know you told me."
+David Kildare was keen of wit but it takes a most extraordinary wisdom to
+fathom such a woman as Phoebe chose to be--out of business hours.
+
+"Isn't it time for you to go to dress for the parade?" she asked quickly
+with apparent anxiety.
+
+"No," answered David as he filled his tooled leather case from the
+major's jar of choice Seven Oaks heart-leaf--he had seen Phoebe's white
+fingers roll it to the proper fineness just the night before, "I'm
+all ready! Did you think I was going to wear a lace collar and a sash?
+Everything is in order and I only have to be there at two to start them
+off. Everybody is placed on the platform and everybody is satisfied. The
+unveiling will be at three-thirty. You are going out with Mrs. Matilda
+early, aren't you? I want you to see me come prancing up at the
+head of the mounted police. Won't you be proud of me?"
+
+"Sometimes, really, I think you are the missing twin to little Billy
+Bob," answered Phoebe with a laugh, but in an instant her face became
+grave again. "I'm worried about Caroline Darrah," she said softly. "I
+found her crying last night after I had finished work. I was staying here
+with Mrs. Matilda for the night and I went into her room for a moment on
+the chance that she would be awake. She said she had wakened from an ugly
+dream--but I know she dreads this presentation, and I don't blame her. It
+was lovely of her to want to give the statue and plucky of her to come
+and do it--but it's in every way trying for her."
+
+"And isn't she the darling child?" answered David Kildare, a tender smile
+coming into his eyes. "Plucky! Well I should say so! To come dragging old
+Peters Brown's money-bags down here just as soon as he croaked, with the
+express intention of opening up and passing us all our wads back. Could
+anything as--as pathetic ever have happened before?"
+
+"No," answered Phoebe. Then she said slowly, tentatively, as she looked
+into David's eyes that were warm with friendliness for the inherited
+friend who had preempted a place in both their hearts: "And the one awful
+thing for which she can offer no reparation she knows nothing of. I pray
+she never knows!"
+
+"Yes, but it is about to do him to the death. I sometimes wake and find
+him sitting over his papers at daybreak with burned-out eyes and as pale
+as a white horse in a fog."
+
+"But why does it _have_ to be that way? Andrew isn't bitter and it isn't
+her fault--she wasn't even born then. She doesn't even know."
+
+"I think it's mostly the money," said David slowly. "If she were poor it
+would be all right to forgive her and take her, but a man couldn't very
+well marry his father's blood money. And he's suffering God knows. Here
+I've been counting for years on his getting love-tied at home, and to
+think it should be like this! Sometimes I wish she _did_ know--she offers
+herself to him like a little child; and thinks she is only doing
+reverence to the poet. It's driving him mad, but he won't cut and run."
+
+"And yet," said Phoebe, "it would kill her to know. She is so sensitive
+and she has just begun to be herself with us. She has had so few friends
+and she isn't like we are. Why, Polly Farrell could manage such a
+situation better than Caroline Darrah. She is so elemental that she is
+positively--primitive. I am frightened about it sometimes--I can only
+trust Andrew." As Phoebe spoke her eyes grew sad and her lips quivered.
+
+"Dear heart," said David as he took both her hands in his, "it's just one
+of those fatal things that no man can see through; he can just be
+thankful that there's a God to handle 'em." There were times when David
+Kildare's voice held more of tenderness than Phoebe was calculated to
+withstand without heroic effort. It behooved her to exert the utmost at
+this moment in order that she might hold her own.
+
+"It's making me thin," she ventured as she shook a little shower of tears
+off her black lashes and again smilingly regained control of her own
+hands, but displaying a slender blue-veined wrist for his sympathetic
+inspection.
+
+"Help!" exclaimed David, taking possession of the wrist and circling it
+with his thumb and forefinger. "Let me send for a crate of eggs and a
+case of the malt-milk! You poor starved peach-bud you, _why won't_ you
+marry me and let me feed you? I'm going--"
+
+"But you and the major both recommended 'lovers' troubles' to me, David,"
+Phoebe hazarded.
+
+"I only recommended _my_ own special brand, remember," retorted David. "I
+won't have you ill! I'm going to see that you do as I say about your--"
+
+"David Kildare," remarked the major from the door into the hall, "if you
+use that tone to the grand jury they will shut up every saloon in Hell's
+Half Acre. Hail the judge! My boy, my boy, I knew you'd line up when the
+time came--and the line!"
+
+"Can I count on the full artillery of the _Gray Picket_ brigade, Major?"
+demanded David with delight in his eyes as he returned the major's
+vigorous hand-shake.
+
+"Hot shot, grape, canister and shrapnel, sir! Horses in lather, guns on
+the wheel and bayonets set. We'll bivouac in the camp of the enemy on the
+night of the election! We'll--"
+
+"I don't believe you will want to lie down in the lair of the blind tiger
+as soon as that, Major," laugher Phoebe.
+
+"Phoebe," answered the major, "politics makes strange bed-fellows. Mike
+O'Rourke, the boss of the democratic Irish, was around this morning
+hunting for David Kildare with the entire green grocer's vote in his
+pocket. He spoke of the boy as his own son."
+
+"Good for old Mike!" laughed David. "It's not every boy who can boast an
+intimate friendship with his corner grocer from childhood up. It means a
+certain kind of---self-denial in the matter of apples and other
+temptations. I used to go to the point of an occasional errand for him.
+Those were the days, Phoebe, when you sat on the front steps and played
+hollyhock dolls. Wish I'd kidnapped you then--when I could!"
+
+"It would have saved us both lots of time--and trouble," answered Phoebe
+daringly from the protection of the major's presence.
+
+"David, sir," said the major who had been busy settling himself in his
+chair and lighting his pipe during this exchange of pleasantries between
+David and Phoebe, to the like of which he was thoroughly accustomed,
+"this is going to be a fight to the ditches. I believe the whisky
+ring that controls this city to be the worst machine south of Mason and
+Dixon's. State-wide prohibition voted six months ago and every saloon in
+the town going full tilt night and day! They own the city council, the
+board of public works and the mayor, but none of that compares in
+seriousness to the debauching of our criminal courts. The grand jury is
+helpless if the judge dismisses every true bill they return--and Taylor
+does it every time if it is a whisky law indictment or pertaining
+thereto, and most of the bills are at least distantly pertaining. So
+there you have us bound and helpless--a disgrace to the nation, sir, and
+a reproach to good government!"
+
+"Yes, Major, they've got us tied up some--but they forgot to gag us,"
+answered David with a smile. "Your editorial in the _Gray Picket_,
+calling on me to run for criminal court judge, has been copied in every
+paper in the state and some of the large northern sheets. I am willing to
+make the try, Major. I've practised down there more than you'd think and
+it's rotten from the cellar steps to the lightning-rod. Big black buck is
+sent up for rioting down at Hein's Bucket of Blood dive--stand aside and
+forget about it--while some poor old kink is sent out to the pen for
+running into a flock of sleepy hens in the dark, 'unbenkownst' entirely.
+I defended six poor pick-ups last week myself, and I guess Taylor saw
+my blood was on the boil at the way he's running things. I'm ready to
+take a hand with him, but it will take some pretty busy doing around to
+beat the booze gang. Am I the man--do you feel sure?"
+
+As David questioned the major his jaw squared itself determinedly. There
+was a rather forceful sort of man appearing under the nonchalant David
+whom his friends had known for years. A wild pride stirred in Phoebe to
+such an extent that she caught her breath while she waited for the
+major's reply.
+
+"Yes, David," answered the major as he looked up at him with his keen old
+eagle eyes, "I think you are. You've had everything this nation can give
+you in the way of fighting blood from Cowpens to Bull Run, and when you
+speak in a body legislative your voice can be but an echo of the men who
+sired you, statesmen, most of them; so it is to you and your class we
+must look for clean government. It is your arraignment of the mayor and
+the judge on the hay-market question that has made every decent
+organization in the city look to you to begin the fight for a clean-up
+reorganization. They have all rallied to your support. Show your colors,
+boy, and, God willing, we will smash this machine to the last cog and get
+on a basis of honest government."
+
+"Then here goes the hottest fight Davie knows how to put to them! And
+it's going to be an honest one. I'll go before the people of this city
+and promise them to enforce law and order, but I'll not _buy_ a vote of a
+man of them. That I mean, and I hereby hand it out to you two
+representatives of the press. From now on 'not a dollar spent' is the
+word and I'm back of it to make it go." As he spoke, Kildare turned to
+Phoebe and looked at her as man to man with nothing in his voice but the
+cool note of determination. It was a cold dash for Phoebe but the
+reaction brought hot pride to her eyes.
+
+"Yes, David," she answered, "you can and you will."
+
+The determination in her voice matched that in his, and her eyes met his
+with a glance in which lay a new expression--not the old tolerant
+affection nor the guarded defense, but one with a quality of comradeship
+that steadied every nerve in his body. Some men get the like from some
+women--but not often.
+
+"They will empty their pockets to fight you," the major continued
+thoughtfully. "But there is a deal of latent honesty in human nature,
+after all, that will answer the right appeal by the right man. A man
+calls a man; and ask a crook to come in on the straight proposition, two
+to one he'll step over the line before he stops himself. This is an
+independent candidacy--let's ask them all in, without reference to age,
+color or 'previous condition of servitude'--in the broadest sense."
+
+"Yes, and with the other construction, too, perhaps. We'll ask in the
+darks--but they won't come. They'll vote with the jug crowd every time.
+No nig votes for Dave without the dollar and the small bottle. How many
+do they poll, anyway, do you suppose?"
+
+"Less than a thousand I think. Not overwhelming! But in an independent
+race it might hold the balance of power. We'll devise means to appeal to
+them; we must keep up all the fences, you see. A man who doesn't see to
+his fences is a mighty poor proposition as a farmer and--"
+
+"Hicks was here this morning, Major dear, to talk about that very thing,"
+said Mrs. Matilda as she came in just in time to catch the last of the
+major's remark. "He says that ten hogs got through into the north pasture
+and rooted up acres of grass and if you don't get the new posts to repair
+the fence he can't answer for the damage done. He told you about it more
+than a month ago and--"
+
+"David Kildare," said the major with an enigmatical smile, "what you need
+to see you through life is a wife. When a man mounts a high-horse
+aeroplane and goes sailing off, dimity is the best possible ballast.
+Consider the matter I beg of you--don't be obdurate."
+
+"Why, of course David is going to marry some day," answered Mrs. Matilda
+as she beamed upon them. "A woman gets along nicely unmarried but it is
+cruel to a man. Major, Jeff is waiting to help you into your uniform. Do
+be careful, for it is mended to the last stitch now and I don't see how
+it is going to hold together many more times."
+
+"Gray uniforms have held together a long time, Matilda," answered the
+major softly as he took his departure.
+
+"And we must all hurry and have lunch," said Mrs. Buchanan. "Phoebe
+and I want to be there in plenty of time to see the parade arrive. It
+always gives me a thrill to see the major ride up at the head of his
+company. I've never got over it all these years."
+
+"How 'bout that, Phoebe?" asked David, once more his daring insistent
+self. "Seems it wasn't so young in me after all to think you might thrill
+a few glads to see me come prancing up. Now, will you be good?"
+
+And it was only a little over two hours later that the parade moved on
+its way from the public square to the park. A goodly show they made and
+an interesting one, the grizzled old war-dogs in their faded uniforms
+with faces aglow under their tattered caps. They trudged along under
+their ragged banners in hearty good will, with now a limp and now a halt
+and all of them entirely out of step with the enthusiastic young band in
+its natty uniform. They called to one another, chaffed the mounted
+officers, sang when the spirit moved them and acted in every way like
+boys who were off on the great lark of their lives.
+
+All along the line of march there were crowds to see them and cheer them,
+with here and there a white-haired woman who waved her handkerchief and
+smiled at them through a rain of tears.
+
+The major rode at the head of a small and straggling division of cavalry
+whose men ambled along and guyed one another about the management of
+their green livery horses who were inclined to bunch and go wild with the
+music.
+
+A few pieces of heavy artillery lumbered by next, and just behind them
+came three huge motor-cars packed and jammed with the old fellows who
+were too feeble to keep up with the procession. They were most of them
+from the Soldiers' Home and in spite of empty coat sleeves and crutches
+they bobbed up and down and waved their caps with enthusiasm as cheer
+after cheer rose whenever they came into sight.
+
+Andrew Sevier stood at his study window and watched them go past,
+marching to the conflicting tunes of _The Bonnie Blue Flag_, played by
+the head band, and _Dixie_ by the following one. It was great to see them
+again after five years; and in such spirits! He felt a cheer rise to his
+lips and he wanted to open the window and give lusty vent to it--but a
+keen pain caught it in his throat.
+
+Always before he had ridden with David at the head of the division of the
+Confederacy's Sons, but to-day he stood behind the window and watched
+them go past him! There were men in those ranks who had slept in the
+ditches with his father, and to whom he had felt that his presence would
+be a reminder of an exceeding bitterness. The had quietly fought the
+acceptance of the statue offered by the daughter of Peters Brown from the
+beginning, but the granddaughter of General Darrah, who had led them at
+Chickamauga, must needs command their acceptance of a memorial to him and
+her mother.
+
+And they would all do her honor after the unveiling. Andrew could almost
+see old General Clopton stand with bared head and feel the thrill with
+which the audience would listen to what would be a tender tribute to the
+war women. A wave of passionate joy swelled up in his heart--he _wanted_
+them to cheer her and love her and adopt her! It was her baptism into her
+heritage! And he gloried in it.
+
+Then across his joy came a curious stifling depression--he found himself
+listening as if some one had called him, called for help. The music was
+dying away in the distance and the cheers became fainter and fainter
+until their echo seemed almost a sob. Before he had time to realize what
+he did he descended the stair, crossed the street and let himself into
+the Buchanan house.
+
+He stood just within the library door and listened again. A profound
+stillness seemed to beat through the deserted rooms--then he saw her! She
+sat with her arms outspread across the table and her head bent upon a
+pile of papers. She was tensely still as if waiting for something to
+sound around her.
+
+"Caroline!" It was the first time he had called her by her name and
+though the others had done it from the first, she had never seemed to
+notice his more formal address. It was beyond him to keep the tenderness
+that swept through every nerve out of his voice entirely.
+
+"Yes," she answered as she raised her head and looked at him, her eyes
+shining dark in her white face, "I know I'm a coward--did you come back
+to make me go? I thought they might not miss me until it was too late to
+come for me. I didn't think--I--could stand it--please--please!"
+
+"You needn't go at all, dear," he said as he took the cold hands in his
+and unclasped the wrung fingers. "Why didn't you tell them? They wouldn't
+have insisted on your going."
+
+"I--I couldn't! I just could not say what I felt to--to--_them_. I wanted
+to come--the statue suggested itself--for her. I ought to have given it
+and gone back--back to my own life. I don't belong--there is something
+between them all and me. They love me and try to make me forget it and--"
+
+"But, don't you see, child, that's just it? They love you so they hold
+you against all the other life you have had before. We're a strong love
+people down here--we claim our own!" A note in his voice brought Andrew
+to his senses. He let her hands slip from his and went around the
+table and sat down opposite to her. "And so you ran away and hid?" He
+smiled at her reassuringly.
+
+"Yes. I knew I ought not to--then I heard the music and I couldn't look
+or listen. I--why, where did you come from? I thought you were in the
+parade with David. I felt--if you knew you would understand. I wished
+that I had asked you--had told you that I couldn't go. Did you come back
+for me?"
+
+"No," answered Andrew with a prayer in his heart for words to cover facts
+from the clear eyes fixed on his--clear, comforted young eyes that looked
+right down to the rock bed of his soul. "You see the old boys rather
+upset me, too. I have been away so long--and so many of them are missing.
+I'm just a coward, too--'birds of a feather'--take me under your wing,
+will you?"
+
+"I believe one of those 'strange wild things' has been flying around in
+the atmosphere and has taken possession of us again," said Caroline
+Darrah slowly, never taking her eyes from his. "I don't know why I know,
+but I do, that you came to comfort me. I was thinking about you and
+wishing I could tell you. Now in just this minute you've made me see that
+I have a right to all of you. I'm never going to be unhappy about it any
+more. After this I'm going to belong as hard as ever I can."
+
+Something crashed in every vein in Andrew Sevier's body, lilted in his
+heart, beat in his throat and sparkled in his eyes. He sprang to his feet
+and held out his hand to her.
+
+"Then come on and be adopted," he said. "I shall order the electric, and
+you get into your hat and coat. We can skirt the park and come in at the
+side of the Temple back of the platform so that you can slip into place
+before one-half of the sky-rockets of oratory have been exploded. Will
+you come?"
+
+"Will you stay with me--right by me?" she asked, timidity and courage at
+war in her voice.
+
+"Yes," he answered slowly, "I'll stay by you as long as you want me--if I
+can."
+
+"And that," said Caroline Darrah Brown as she turned at the door and
+looked straight at him with a heavenly blush mounting in her cheeks, the
+tenderness of the ages curling her lips and the innocence of all of six
+years in her eyes, "will be always!" With which she disappeared
+instantly beyond the rose damask hangings.
+
+And so when the ceremonies in the park were over and Caroline stood to
+clasp hands with each of the clamorous gray squad, Andrew Sevier waited
+just behind her and he met one after another of the sharp glances shot at
+him from under grizzled brows with a dignity that quieted even the
+grimmest old fire-eater.
+
+And there are strange wild things that take hold on the lives of
+men--vital forces against which one can but beat helpless wings of mortal
+spirit.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE SPELL AND ITS WEAVING
+
+
+And after the confusion, the distress and the joy of the afternoon out in
+the park when she and her gift had been accepted and acclaimed, there
+came days full of deep and perfect peace to Caroline Darrah Brown.
+
+Long, strenuously delightful mornings she spent with Tempie in the
+excitements of completing her most comprehensive culinary education and
+the amount of badinage she exchanged upon the subject with David Kildare
+occupied many of his unemployed minutes. His demands for the most
+intricate and soul-trying concoctions she took a perfect joy in meeting
+and his enthusiasm stimulated her to the attempting of the most difficult
+feats.
+
+His campaign was on with full force and his days were busy ones, but he
+managed to drop into the kitchen at any time when he deemed it at all
+certain that he would find her there and was always fully rewarded.
+
+He often found Andrew Sevier in the library in consultation with the
+major over the management of the delicate points in the campaign and
+occasionally brought him into Tempie's kingdom with him. And Caroline
+laughed and blushed and explained it all to them with the most beautiful
+solicitude, Tempie looking on positively bridling with pride.
+
+And there were other mornings when she took her sewing and crept in the
+library to work, while the major and Andrew held consultation over the
+affairs of the present or absent David.
+
+The whisky ring had purchased one of the morning papers, which had
+hitherto borne a reputation for extreme conservatism, and had it appear
+each morning with brilliant, carefully modulated arguments for the
+machine; doctored statistics and brought allegations impossible to be
+investigated in so short a time.
+
+And all of every afternoon and evening Andrew Sevier sat at an
+editorial desk down at the office of the reform journal and pumped hot
+shot through their flimsy though plausible arguments. His blood was up
+and his pen more than a match for any in the state, so he often sat most
+of the night writing, reviewing and meeting issue after issue. The
+editor-in-chief, whose heart was in making a success of the campaign
+by which his paper would easily become the leading morning paper, gave
+him full rein, aided and abetted him by his wide knowledge of all the
+conditions and pointed out with unerring judgment the sore spots on the
+hide of the enemy at which to send the gadfly of investigation.
+
+So each day while Andrew and the major went carefully over possibilities
+to be developed by and against the enemy, Caroline listened with absorbed
+interest. Now and then she would ask a question which delighted them both
+with its ingenuousness, but for the most part she was busily silent.
+
+And in the exquisiteness of her innocence she was weaving the spell of
+the centuries with the stitches in her long seams. There are yet left in
+the world a few of the elemental women whose natures are what they were
+originally instituted and Caroline Darrah was unfolding her predestinated
+self as naturally as a flower unfolds in the warmth of the spring
+sunshine. The cooking for David and Andrew, the sewing for busy Phoebe,
+the tactfully daughterly attentions to the major and Mrs. Matilda were
+all avenues for the outpouring of the maturing woman within, and
+powerless in his enchantment, Andrew Sevier was swept along on the tide
+of her tenderness.
+
+One day she had picked up his heavy gray gloves from the table and
+tightened the buttons, listening all the while to an absorbing account of
+a counter-move he was planning for the next day's editorial, and then had
+been delightfully confused and distressed by his gratitude. The little
+scene had sent him to the bare fields to fight for hours.
+
+The major fairly gloried in her knowledge of the arrangement of his
+library and delighted her with quick requests for his books during the
+most absorbing moments of their discussions.
+
+And again the observation that the spell was not being woven for him
+alone went far to the undoing of Andrew Sevier. Her interest in the
+affairs of David Kildare disturbed him not at all, but her sympathetic
+and absorbed attention to a bad-luck tale with which Hobson Capers
+reported to the major one morning when she sat with them, had sent him
+home in a most depressed state of mind, and the picture of her troubled
+eyes raised to Hobson's as he recounted the details of the wrenched
+shoulder of his favorite horse, followed him through the day with
+tormenting displeasure, though the offer of a cut-glass bottle full of a
+delightfully scented lotion for the amelioration of the suffering animal
+brought the semblance of a grin. And Hob, the brute, had gone away with
+it in his pocket, accompanied by explicit directions as to its
+application by means of a soft bit of flannel the size of a pocket
+handkerchief, also provided. Andrew Sevier had a vision of the bottle
+and the rag being installed in the most holy of holies in the apartments
+of Hobson Capers and experienced a sweeping smashing rage thereat.
+
+A day or two later a scene he had witnessed in the kitchen, in which
+Caroline and Tempie hung anxiously over a simmering pan of lemon juice,
+sugar, rye whisky and peppermint which, when it arrived at the proper
+sirupy condition, was to be administered as a soothing potion to the
+hoarse throat of Peyton Kendrick, who perched croaking on a chair close
+by, drove him to seeking comfort from Phoebe much to her apparent
+amusement but secret perturbation, for Phoebe both comprehended and
+feared the situation.
+
+And thus there is also much of the primitive left in the heart of the
+modern man on which the elemental forces work.
+
+Then the day for the election came nearer and nearer by what seemed
+fleeting hours. The whole city was thoroughly aroused and fighting hard
+under one banner or the other. As the last week drew to a close and left
+only the few days of the following week for a round-up of the forces
+before the Wednesday election, the men all became absorbed to the point
+of oblivion to everything save the speculation as to how the race would
+go. But it was not in the nature of David Kildare to be held against the
+grindstone of serious endeavor too long at a time, and in the midst of
+the turmoil he proceeded to plot for a brief and exciting relaxation for
+himself and his strenuous friends, and he chose Saturday for the
+accomplishment thereof.
+
+The morning dawned in a fluff of gray fog that hung low down over the
+avenue, though the sun showed signs of soon piercing the gloom. The clash
+and clatter of the city was fast approaching a noonday roar but still
+Phoebe slept in the room which adjoined that of Caroline Darrah Brown.
+
+Caroline cautiously opened the door and stole in gently to the side of
+the bed, then paused and looked down with delight. Phoebe, asleep, was a
+thing calculated to bring delight to any beholder. The brilliant, casual,
+insouciant, worldly Phoebe had gone out on a dream-hunt and a delicious
+curled-up flower lay in her place, with turned lashes dipping against
+soft tinted cheeks. Her head rested on one bare white arm and one hand
+curled under her daintily molded chin. Caroline caught her breath--this
+was a pathetic Phoebe when one thought of the most times Phoebe, cool,
+self-reliant--perforce!
+
+"The darling," she whispered to herself as she slipped to her knees by
+the low bed, "I can't bear to wake her, but I'm afraid not to; it's an
+hour late already. Dear!" She slipped her arm under the glossy head
+and pressed a little kiss on the dimple over the northeast corner of the
+warm lips.
+
+Phoebe's gray eyes smiled themselves open for a fraction of a second,
+then she nestled to Caroline's shoulder and calmly drifted off again in
+pursuit of the dream.
+
+"Dearie," Caroline begged, "it's after ten!"
+
+Phoebe sighed, nestled closer and drifted again. Caroline settled herself
+against the pillows and pressed her cheek against the thick black braid
+that curled across the sleeper's bare shoulder. She was incapable of
+another combat with the sleep-god and decided to wait. Besides, the awake
+Phoebe was busy--and elusive--not given to bestowing or receiving aught
+save the most fleeting caresses. So for a few moments Caroline Darrah's
+arms held her hungrily.
+
+"Be-autiful," came in a sleepy voice from against her arm, "is the water
+cold?"
+
+"Awful this morning," answered Caroline tightening her arms. "Just a
+little hot, Phoebe, please! I'll tell Annette."
+
+"No," answered Phoebe, as with a whirl of the covers she sat up and
+took her knees into her embrace. "No, sweetie, in I go! The colder the
+better after I'm in. How grand and Burne-Jonesy you look in that linen
+pinafore--indulging in the life domestic? I think I catch a whiff of your
+culinary atmosphere--and, oh, I--am so--hungry."
+
+"Tempie has a dear little plump bird for you and some waffles and an
+omelet. Let me have Annette bring them to you here! Please, Phoebe,
+please!"
+
+"Caroline Darrah Brown," said Phoebe in a tragic voice, "do you know I
+gained a pound and a quarter last week and that makes me three and a half
+pounds past the danger-mark? Two raw eggs and an orange is all I can have
+this morning. I'm going to cry, I think!"
+
+"No," answered Caroline Darrah positively, "you are going to eat that
+bird and the omelet. You may substitute dry toast for the waffle if
+Tempie will let you. She's angry, and I'm in trouble. She won't use
+that recipe I got from your Mammy Kitty to make the cake I promised David
+Kildare for tea. She says she and her family have been making Buchanan
+cake ever since there was any cake and she is not going to begin now
+making Donelson mixtures. I think I hurt her feelings. What must I do?"
+
+"Let her alone, she has the right of it and the cake is sure to be just
+as good," laughed Phoebe.
+
+"But I promised him it should be just like the one you gave us the other
+afternoon, only with the icing and nuts thicker than the cake," answered
+Caroline in real distress. "He says that Mr. Sevier likes it that way,
+too," she added ingenuously.
+
+"Caroline Darrah, you spoil those men to the most outrageous extent. It's
+like David to want his icing and nuts thicker than the cake; he always
+does--and gets it, but it isn't good for him." As Phoebe spoke she smiled
+at Caroline Darrah indulgently.
+
+"I can't help it, Phoebe," she answered with the rose wave mounting under
+her eyes. "I'm stupid--I don't know how to manage them. I'm just--fond of
+them."
+
+For a second Phoebe regarded her from under veiled eyes, then said
+guardedly, "Doesn't that give them rather the advantage to start with--if
+you let them find it out?"
+
+"Yes," answered Caroline as she pressed her cheek against Phoebe's arm,
+"I know it does but I can't help it. I have to trust to them to
+understand."
+
+For a moment Phoebe was silent and across her mind there flashed David's
+description of a man who sat into the gray dawn fighting his battle--his
+own and hers--a man who wouldn't run!
+
+"Perhaps that's the best way after all, dearie," she said as she prepared
+to slip out of bed. "Only it takes the exceptional woman to get results
+from your method. It ought to work with David; others don't seem to!"
+
+"Phoebe, Phoebe--why--why?" and Caroline caught and held Phoebe for a few
+seconds. "Don't you care at all?"
+
+"Yes, child--a lot! Having admitted which I will betake myself to the
+plunge--leaving you to finish the cake for the precious thing." In a
+second Phoebe smiled back from the door:
+
+"Just one little waffle, tell Tempie," she said. "And I'm due to make a
+lightning toilet if I get to that Woman's Guild meeting at eleven-thirty.
+Call the office for me and tell them not to send Freckles until
+one-thirty to-day. And, dearie, please call Polly and tell her to be sure
+and go to that meeting of the Daughters of the Colonies so she can tell
+me what happens. Tell her to get it all straight--names and all and I
+will phone her. And not to let them office or committee me just because
+I'm not there! You are a dear!"
+
+Caroline smiled happily as she went back to the mixing of the confection
+of affection to be administered to David with his tea as by request, and
+she laughed as she heard Phoebe's mighty splash.
+
+And a half-hour later, during the discussion of the plump bird and the
+one crisp waffle, David Kildare whirled in, beaming with joy over his
+plans. In fact he failed to manage anything in the way of a formal
+greeting.
+
+"Girls!" he exclaimed from the doorway, "the hunt is on for to-night!
+Everybody hurry up! Caroline, Mrs. Matilda wants you to motor out with
+her to the Forks to see about having Jeff and Tempie get ready for the
+supper cooking--barbecue, birdies and the hot potato! Milly and Billy Bob
+are going and Polly and that Boston lad of yours, Caroline--yours if you
+can hold him, which I don't think you can. And Mrs. Matilda says--"
+
+"Stop," demanded Phoebe, "and tell us what you are talking about, David."
+
+"I'm surprised at you, Phoebe, for being so dense," answered David with a
+delighted grin at having created a flurry. "Didn't you hear me tell
+Caroline Darrah Brown at least a week ago that possums and persimmons are
+ripe and that the first night after a rain and a fog we would all
+turn out and show her how to shake down a few? The whole glad push is
+going. Mrs. Matilda and I decided it an hour ago while you were still
+asleep. I've telephoned everybody--possums and persimmons wait for no
+man."
+
+"How perfectly delightful," said Caroline with eyes agleam with
+enthusiasm. "Can everybody go?" David had failed to mention Andrew Sevier
+in his enumeration, an omission that she had instantly caught.
+
+"Yes," answered David, "everybody that had engagements we asked the
+engagement to go, too. Even Andy is going to cut the poems for the lark!
+Thuse up a little, Phoebe, please--give us the smile! I'm backing you to
+shake down ten possums against anybody's possible five."
+
+"I don't think that I can go," answered Phoebe quietly. "Mrs. Cherry has
+the president of the Federation of Women's Clubs staying with her and I'm
+going to dine there to-night to discuss the suffrage platform." There was
+a cool note in Phoebe's voice and a sudden seriousness had come into her
+expression.
+
+"Now, Phoebe," answered David, looking down at her with the quickly
+concealed tenderness that always flashed up in his eyes when he spoke
+directly to her, "do you suppose for one minute that I hadn't fixed all
+that the first thing? Mrs. Cherry held back a bit but I rabbit-footed the
+old lady into being wild to go and then wheedled the correct hostess
+some; and there you are! Caroline is to send them out in her motor and
+I'm going to make Hob and Tom chase the possum in company of the merry
+widow and Mrs. Big Bug. Now give me a glad word!"
+
+"I'll see," answered Phoebe. "I can let you know by two o'clock whether I
+can go," and as she spoke she gathered up her gloves and bag and settled
+her trim hat by a glance at the long mirror across the room.
+
+"What--what did you say?" demanded David aghast in a second. "If you
+think for one minute that I'm going to stand for--"
+
+"But you must remember that my business engagements must always be
+settled before I can make social ones--at two o'clock then! Good-by,
+Caroline, dear, such a comfy night under your care! I'm going to stop in
+the library to speak to the major and then on to the guild if any one
+calls. Here's to you both!" and she coolly tipped them a kiss from the
+ends of her fingers.
+
+"Caroline," remarked David, "I reckon I must have giggled too loud in my
+cradle, and the Lord turned around and made Phoebe to settle my glee,
+don't you think?"
+
+And as Caroline saw him depart with his usual smile and jest she little
+realized that a jagged wound ran across his blithe heart.
+
+The David within was awakening and developing a highly sensitized nature,
+which caught Phoebe's note of disapproval, divined its reason and winced
+under the humiliation of its distrust. The old David would have laughed,
+chaffed her and gone his way rejoicing--the new David suffered, for a
+deeply-loved woman can inflict a wound on the inner man that throbs to
+the depths.
+
+Across the hall Phoebe found the major at his table and, as usual, buried
+in his books. He was reading one and holding another open in his hand
+while his pen balanced itself over a page for a note. Phoebe hesitated on
+the threshold, loath to disturb his feast. But before she could retreat
+he glanced up and his smile flashed a welcome and an invitation to her,
+while his books fell together as he rose and held out his hands.
+
+"My dear," he said, "I was just reading what Bob Browning says about a
+'pearl and a girl'--and thinking of you when up I look to behold you."
+
+"Thank you, and good morning, Major," returned Phoebe as a slow smile
+spread over her grave face. "I won't disturb you, for I've only a moment!
+This hunt to-night--it--it troubles me. Has David forgotten that he is to
+make a speech on the cutting of the conduit over in the sixteenth ward at
+half-past seven o'clock? It is one of his most important appointments
+and--"
+
+"Phoebe," answered the major as he balanced his pen on one long lean
+finger, "do you suppose that women will ever learn that men could
+dispense with them entirely after their second year--if it wasn't for the
+loneliness? I see David Kildare failed to make a sufficiently full
+apron-string report to you this morning of his intentions for the day."
+
+"Sometimes, Major, you are completely horrid," answered Phoebe with both
+a smile and a spark in her eyes, "but I do care--that is, I'm interested,
+and--"
+
+"It seems to me," the major filled in the pause, "that you are a trifle
+short on a woman's long suit--patience. Now in the case of David Kildare,
+you don't want to give him one moment of tortoise speed but must keep him
+pacing with the hare entirely. Remember the result of that race?"
+
+"But I want him to win--he must! I think--"
+
+"Did you hear that speech he made to the motley and their friends last
+Monday night? That was as fine an interpretation of the ethics involved
+in the enforcement of law as I have ever heard or read--delivered to
+simple minds unversed in the science ethical. He landed hot shot into the
+very stronghold of the enemy and his audience saw his points. I find the
+mind of David Kildare rather well provisioned with the diverse ammunition
+needed in political warfare. The whisky ring is making a stand and
+fighting the inches of retreat. I believe it to be retreat!"
+
+"But can it be, Major? Andrew says that money is pouring into the city,
+even from other states. They intend to buy the election, come what will.
+How can a gentleman fight such a thing with 'not a dollar spent'
+announcement?"
+
+"Phoebe," said the major with the quick illumination of one of his
+challenging smiles, "you can generally depend on the Almighty to back the
+right man when he's fighting the right fight. Suppose you put up a little
+faith on the event--be something of a sporting character and back David
+to win. Backing thoughts help in the winnings they tell us these days."
+
+"I have, Major--I am--I do, but this hunt to-night positively--positively
+frightens me. It seemed so--so regardless of consequences--so trivial
+and--and inconsequent that--" Phoebe paused and the major was astonished
+to see that she was veiling tears with her thick black lashes.
+
+"Phoebe, child," he said as he bent over quickly and laid his hand on
+hers, "I ought to have answered you sooner. He is prepared to make the
+speech of his life tonight at seven-thirty, but at ten he joins his
+friends to hunt. Didn't you draw your conclusions hurriedly--and against
+David?"
+
+In a second the tightness in Phoebe's throat relaxed and the tears flowed
+back to their source, only one little splash jeweled her cheek that had
+flamed into a blush of joy and contrition.
+
+"Ah," she said softly as she drew a deep breath, "I am so
+glad--glad!... I must hurry, for I'm an hour late already. Good-by!"
+
+"Good-by, and remember that faith is one of the by-products of affection.
+And I might add that the right kind of faith finds tactful ways of--of
+admission. Do you see?" And the major held her hand long enough to make
+Phoebe look into his kind eyes.
+
+And from the ten minutes in the library of Major Buchanan the
+disciplining of the heart of Phoebe Donelson began and was carried on
+with utter relentlessness. The first castigation occurred when David
+failed to phone her at two o'clock, and a half-hour later Caroline Darrah
+called anxiously to know her decision and impart the information that
+David had arranged that she and Phoebe go out to the fork in her car with
+Mrs. Buchanan. Phoebe, to her own surprise, found that she intensely
+desired another arrangement that involved David and his small electric,
+but she received the blow with astonishing meekness and delighted
+Caroline with her enthusiastic acquiescence in the plans for the evening.
+
+And so through the busy afternoon while David Kildare met committees,
+sent in reports and talked over plans, he also managed to sandwich in the
+settling of numerous little details that went to make good the night's
+sport. And it was all done in apparent high spirits but with an indignant
+pain in his usually glad heart.
+
+Meanwhile Caroline Darrah, in a whirl of domestic excitement incident to
+the preparing of a hamper for the midnight lunch out on the ridge, which
+she had entreated Mrs. Matilda to leave entirely to her newly-acquired
+housewifery, stepped into the middle of the pool political and never knew
+it, in the innocence of her old-fashioned woman's heart.
+
+"Miss Ca'line," ventured Jeff as he assisted her in packing the huge
+hamper that occupied the center of the dining-room table, "is Mister Dave
+sure 'pinted to be jedge of the criminal court--he ain't a-joking is he?"
+
+"Why, no, indeed, Jeff," answered Caroline Darrah as she rolled
+sandwiches in oiled paper before putting them into a box. "What made you
+think that?"
+
+"Well, it's a kinder poor white folksy job fer him, fooling with
+crap-shooting niggers and whisky soaks, but if he wants it he's got ter
+have it, hear me! And Miss Ca'line, some of us colored set has made up
+our minds that it's time fer us ter git out and dust ter help him. You
+see this here is a independent race and it's who gits the votes, no
+'Publican er Dimocrat to it. That jest naterally turns the colored vote
+loose at the polls. And fer the most of the black fools it's who bids the
+mostes, I'm sorry ter say, as is the fact."
+
+"But you know Mr. David has said from the first that he will not buy a
+vote. Will he have to lose--how many of the colored people are there--oh,
+Jeff, will he have to be beaten?" Caroline Darrah clasped a sandwich to
+the death in her hands and questioned the negro with the same faith that
+she would have used in questioning Major Buchanan.
+
+"No, ma'am, he ain't going ter git nigger-beat if we can help it--us
+society colored set, you understand, Miss Ca'line." Jeff's manner was an
+interesting mixture of pomposity and deference.
+
+"I don't quite understand, Jeff; you explain to me," answered Caroline
+Darrah in the kind and respectful voice that she always used to these
+family servants, which they understood perfectly and in which they took a
+huge delight.
+
+"Well, it's jest this way, Miss Ca'line, they is sets in the colored
+folks jest like they is in the white folks. We is the _it_ set, me and
+Tempie and Eph and all the fust family people. We's got our lawyers and
+dentists and a university and a ice-cream parlor with the swellest kinder
+soda fount in front. You heard how Mister David got that Country Club
+for us, didn't you? Well, he backed the rent notes of the soda fount,
+too--and he's jest naterly the fust set candidate fer anything he wants
+ter be."
+
+"Isn't he just the kindest best man, Jeff?" asked Caroline Darrah, in her
+enthusiasm sacrificing a frosted muffin cake between her clasped hands.
+
+"Yes'm, he am that fer a fact, and they can't no low-down whisky bum beat
+him fer jedge, neither--'specially ef they count on using niggers to do
+it with. You see the race am so mighty close, that all the booze bosses
+is a telling the niggers that they is got the 'ballunce uf power' as they
+calls it and it's up ter them ter elect a jedge fer whisky, the friend
+'at'll let 'em drink it down. Why, they's got out a bottle of whisky as
+has on the label 'Your Colored Friend', and it's put up in clear glass
+and at the bottom you can see five new dimes a-shining. A nigger gits the
+bottle and the fifty cents ef he votes with them. Old Booze is flinging
+money right and left, fer if Mister David gits in he'll shore have ter
+git out."
+
+"That is perfectly awful, Jeff!" exclaimed Caroline with horror-stricken
+eyes. "The poor people made to sell themselves that way--and the whole
+city to lose David, a good judge, because they can't know what they do.
+It is horrible and nobody can help it!"
+
+"I ain't so sure about that, Miss Ca'line! Me and Tempie and Doctor Pike
+Johnson and the dentist and Bud Simms, the man what runs the Palms, have
+thought up a scheme ef we kin work it. You see they ain't a nigger from
+Black Bottom to Mount Nebo as wouldn't sell his soul ter git ter the
+Country Club and say he's been invited there. Now, we thought as how it
+would be a good plan ter give it out that we was going to have er
+David Kildare jedge celebration out there and have invertation tickets
+printed. Then we could go ter the polls and fight down any dollar bottle
+of whisky ever put up with one of them invites--every man ter bring a
+lady, and dancing down in a corner of the card. We'd scotch them by
+saying no 'lection, no dance, so they'll vote straight. Ain't that the
+swell scheme? It'll work if we can make it go."
+
+"Jeff," she exclaimed, "that is a perfectly splendid idea! You must do
+it, for offering them fun will be no bribery like whisky and money--it
+will do them _good_." Sometimes it is just as well that a woman be not
+too well versed in the science logical.
+
+"Yes'm, and I believe it will work--ef we jest had a barbecue to put down
+in the other corner opposite the dancing I know it would draw 'em, but
+ice-cream will be about all we can git fer the subscription money, and
+cold as it is ice-cream won't be no drawing card."
+
+And there was no doubt that Jeff unfolded his plan to Caroline Darrah
+from pure love of sympathy and excitement and for no ulterior purpose,
+although it served to further his schemes as well as if he had been of a
+most wily turn of mind.
+
+"Jeff," exclaimed Caroline Darrah excitedly, "how much would it take to
+have a barbecue and ice-cream and everything good to go with it and a big
+band of music and fireworks and--"
+
+"Golly, Miss Ca'line, they will be most five hundred of 'em and the
+'scription ain't but a little over fifty dollars. I'm counting on the
+dancing and the gitting-there ter draw 'em."
+
+"We can't risk it," said Caroline. "I will give you two hundred and fifty
+dollars and you can let it be known that no such celebration ever was as
+the one his colored friends are going to give in honor of the election of
+Judge David Kildare--his united colored friends, Jeff, high and low."
+
+"Miss Ca'line, I'm a-skeered to take it! Mister David, he's jest
+naterly--"
+
+"Mr. David need never know about it. It is a subscription and you have
+collected it--advertise that fact. I'm one of his friends and I can
+subscribe even if I am white. You must take it, and get to work about it.
+Only four more days, remember, and we all must work for Mr. David; and
+too, Jeff, for those poor ignorant people who would commit the crime of
+letting themselves sell their votes." There was real concern for the
+endangered souls of the coons in Caroline's voice, and Jeff was duly
+impressed.
+
+They both fell to work on the packing of the basket as Temple's voice was
+heard in the distance, for they knew she would express herself in no
+uncertain terms if she found the amount of work done unsatisfactory.
+
+But when he departed, Jeff carried in his pocket a slip of paper about
+which it nearly scared him to death to think, and one of the money-bags
+of the late Peters Brown was eased by the extraction of a quarter
+thousand. Caroline was happy from a clear conscience and a virtuous
+feeling of having saved a crisis for a dependent and ignorant people.
+Which goes to show that a woman can put her finger into a political pie
+and draw it out without even a stain, while to touch that same confection
+ever so lightly would dye a man's hand blood red.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+PURSUING THE POSSUM
+
+
+And as if in sympathy with the heart of the pursued possum, the
+thermometer began to fall in the afternoon and by night had established a
+clear, cold, windless condition of weather. The start for the Cliffs was
+to be made from the fork of the River Road, where cars, horses, traps and
+hampers were to be left with the servants, who by half past nine were
+already in an excited group around a blazing, dry oak fire, over which
+two score plump birds were ready to be roasted, attended by the
+autocratic Tempie. Jeff piled high with brush a huge log whose
+heart was being burned out for the baking of sundry potatoes, while the
+aroma from the barbecue pit was maddening to even a ten o'clock appetite,
+and no estimate could be made of what damage would be done after the
+midnight return from the trail of the wily tree fruit.
+
+David Kildare as usual was M.F.H. and his voice rang out as clearly
+against the tall pines, while he welcomed the cars and traps full of
+excited hunters, as if he had not been speaking in a crowded hall for an
+hour or two.
+
+Mrs. Cherry Lawrence arrived early, accompanied by the distinguished
+suffragist, who was as alert for sensations new as if she had been one of
+an exploration party into the heart of darkest Africa. They were attended
+by Tom and also the suave Hobson, who was all attentions but whose
+maneuvers in the direction of Caroline Darrah were pitiably fruitless.
+He was seconded in his attentions to the stranger by David with his most
+fascinating manner, and Mrs. Cherry sparkled and glowed at him with
+subdued witchery, while Tom sulked close at her side.
+
+Polly and young Boston had trailed Mrs. Buchanan's car on horses and
+Phoebe was intent on pinning up the débutante's habit skirt to a
+comfortable scramble length. Billy Bob fairly bubbled over with glee and
+Milly, who had come to assist Mrs. Matilda in overlooking the
+preparations for the feast for the returned hunters, was already busy
+assembling hampers and cases on a flat rock over behind the largest fire.
+Her anxious heart was at rest about her nestlings, for Caroline's maid,
+Annette, had gone French mad over the babies and had begged the privilege
+of keeping Mammy Betty company in her watch beside the cots.
+
+"Come here, Caroline, child," called David from behind the farthest fire,
+"let me look at you! Seems to me you are in for a good freezing." And he
+drew her into the light of the blaze.
+
+She was kilted and booted and coated and belted in the most beautiful and
+wholly correct attire for the hunt that could possibly have been
+contrived; that is, for a sedate cross-country bird stalk or a decorous
+trap shooting, but for a long night scramble over the frozen ground she
+was insufficiently clad. The other girls all wore heavy golf skirts and
+coats and were muffled to their eyes; even the big-bug lady wore a
+knitted comforter high round her throat. Without doubt Caroline would
+have been in for a cold deal, if David had not been more than equal to
+any occasion.
+
+"Here, Andy, skin out of that sweater and get into that extra buckskin in
+my electric," he said, and forthwith began without ceremony to assist
+Andrew Sevier in peeling off a soft, white, high-collared sweater he
+wore, and in less time than it took to think it he had slipped it over
+Caroline's protesting head, pulled it down around her slim hips almost to
+where her kilts met her boots and rolled the collar up under her eyes.
+Then he immediately turned his attention to the arrival of the mongrel
+sleuths, each accompanied by a white-toothed negro of renowned
+coon-fighting, possum-catching proclivities, whom he had assembled from
+the Old Harpeth to lead the hunt, thus leaving Caroline and Andrew alone
+for the moment on the far side of the fire.
+
+"Indeed, I'm not going to have your sweater!" she protested, beginning to
+divest herself of the borrowed garment, but not knowing exactly how to
+crawl out of its soft embrace.
+
+"Please, oh, please do!" he exclaimed quickly, and as he spoke he caught
+her hand away, that had begun to tug at the collar.
+
+"I wouldn't keep it for the world--and have you cold, but--I can't get
+out," she answered with a laugh. "Please show me or call for help."
+
+And as she pleaded Andrew Sevier towered beside her, tall and slender,
+while the cold breeze with its pine-laden breath ruffled his white
+shirt-sleeves across his arms. Caroline Darrah in the embrace of his
+clinging apparel was a sight that sent the blood through his veins at a
+rate that warred with the winds, and his eyes drank deeply. The color
+mounted under her eyes and with the unconsciousness of a child she
+nestled her chin in the woolly folds about the neck as she turned her
+face from the firelight.
+
+"Well, then, get David's coat from the car," she pleaded.
+
+"Will you stand back in the shadow of that tree until I do?" he asked.
+
+He had caught across the fire a glimpse of the restive Hobson and a
+sudden mad desire prompted him to snatch this one joy from Fate, come
+what would--just a few hours with her under the winter stars, when life
+seemed to offer so little in the count of the years.
+
+"Why, yes, of course! Did you think I'd dare go out in the dark alone,
+without you?" and her joyous ingenuous casting of herself upon his
+protection was positively poignant. "Hurry, please, because I--don't want
+anybody to find me before you come!" After which request it took him very
+little time to run across the lot and vault the fence into the road where
+the electric stood.
+
+"It's so uncertain how things arrange themselves sometimes, some places,"
+she remarked to herself as she caught sight of the movements of the
+foiled Hobson, whose search had now become an open maneuver.
+
+Suddenly she laid her cheek against the arm of the sweater and sniffed it
+with her delicate nose--yes, there was the undeniable fragrance of the
+major's Seven Oaks heart-leaf. "He steals the tobacco, too," she again
+remarked to herself as she caught sight of him skirting the fires as
+he returned.
+
+Just at this moment a pandemonium of yelps, barks, bays and yells broke
+forth up the ravine and declared the hunt on.
+
+"Everybody follow the dogs and keep within hearing distance! We'll wait
+for the trailers to come up when we tree before we shake down!" shouted
+David as with one accord the whole company plunged into the woods.
+
+Away from the fire, the starlight, which was beginning to be reinforced
+by the glow from a late old moon, was bright enough to keep the rush up
+the ravine, over log and boulder, through tangle and across open, a not
+too dangerous foray.
+
+The first hurdle was a six-rail fence that snaked its way between a
+frozen meadow and a woods lot. David stationed himself on the far side of
+the lowest and strongest panel and proceeded to swing down the girls whom
+Hob and Tom persuaded to the top rail.
+
+The champion for the rights of women took long and much assistance for
+the mount and entrusted her somewhat bulky self to the strong arms of
+David Kildare with a feminine dependence that almost succeeded in
+cracking those stalwart supports.
+
+Polly climbed two rails, put her hand on the top and vaulted like a boy
+almost into the embrace of young Massachusetts and together they raced
+after the dogs, who were adding tumult to the hitherto pandemonium of the
+hot trail.
+
+Tom Cantrell managed Mrs. Cherry most deftly and seemed anxious to direct
+David in the landing though she was most willing to trust it entirely to
+him. After hurrying Phoebe to the top rail he vaulted lightly to the side
+of David and departed in haste, taking the reluctant widow with him by
+main force.
+
+Phoebe perched herself on the top of the fence, which brought her head
+somewhat above the level of David's, and seemed in no hurry to descend in
+order to be at the shake-down, which from the shouts and yelps seemed
+imminent.
+
+"Ready, or want to rest a minute?" asked David gently; but his eyes
+looked past hers and there was the shadow of reserve in his voice.
+
+"No," answered Phoebe, "but you must be tired so I'll just slip down,"
+and she essayed to cheat him with the utmost treachery. David neither
+spoke nor looked at her directly but took her quietly in his arms and
+swung her to the ground beside him.
+
+Now this was not the first pursuit of the possum that had been attended
+by Phoebe in the company of David Kildare, and she was prepared for the
+audacious hint of a squeeze, with which he usually took his toll and
+which she always ignored utterly with reproving intent; the more
+reproving on the one or two occasions when she had been tempted into
+yielding to the caress for the remotest fraction of a second. But for
+every snub in the fence events that had been pulled off between them in
+the past years, David was fully revenged by the impassive landing of
+Phoebe on the dry and frozen grass at his side. Revenged--and there was
+something over that was cutting into her adamant heart like a two-edge
+marble saw.
+
+But Phoebe had been born a thoroughbred and it was head up and run as she
+saw in a second, so she smiled up at him and said in a perfectly friendly
+tone:
+
+"I really don't think we'd better wait for Caroline and Andrew. Do let's
+hurry, for they've treed, and I think those dogs will go mad in a
+moment!" And together they disappeared in the woodland.
+
+Around a tall tree that stood on the slope of the hill they found a scene
+that was uproar rampant. Five maddened dogs gazed aloft into the gnarled
+branches of the persimmon king and danced and jumped to the accompaniment
+of one another's insane yelps. A half-dozen negro boys were in the same
+attitude and state of mind, and the tension was immense.
+
+Polly gasped and giggled and the suffrage lady almost became entangled
+with the waltzing dogs in her endeavor to sight the quarry.
+
+"Dar he am!" exclaimed the blackest satyr, and he pointed to one of the
+lower limbs from which there hung by the tail the most pathetic little
+bunch of bristles imaginable. "Le'me shake him down, Mister David, I
+foun' him!"
+
+"All right, shin up, but mind the limbs," answered David. "And you, Jake,
+get the dogs in hand! We want to take home possums, not full dogs!"
+
+And like an agile ape the darky swung himself up and out on the low limb.
+"Here he come!" he shouted, and ducked to give a jerk that shook the
+whole limb.
+
+The dogs danced and Polly squealed, while the rotund lady managed to step
+on young Back Bay's toes and almost forgot to "beg pardon," but Mr.
+Possum hung on by his long rat-tail with the greatest serenity.
+
+"Buck up thar, nigger, shake dat whole tree; dis here ain't no
+cake-walk," one of his confrères yelled, and the sally was caught with a
+loud guffaw.
+
+Thus urged the darky braced himself and succeeded in putting the whole
+tree into a commotion, at the height of which there was a crash and a
+scramble from the top limb and in a second a ball of gray fur descended
+on his woolly head, knocked him off his perch and crashed with him to
+the ground. Then there ensued a raging battle in which were involved five
+dogs, a long darky and a ring-tailed streak of coon lightning, which
+whirled and bit and scratched itself free and plunged into the darkness
+before the astonished hunters could get more than a glimpse of the mêlée.
+
+"Coon, coon!" yelled the negroes, and scattered into the woods at the
+heels of the discountenanced dogs. Mr. Possum, saved by the stiff fight
+put up by his ring-tailed woods-brother, had taken this opportunity of
+unhanging himself and departing into parts unknown, perhaps a still more
+wily citizen after his threatened extinction.
+
+In a few minutes from up the hill came another tumult, and Jake raised a
+long shout of "two possums," which served to hasten the scramble of the
+rest of the party through the underbrush to a breathless pace.
+
+Another gray ball hung to another limb and this time the derisive Jake
+succeeded in the shake-down and the bagging amid the most breathless
+excitement. It was a sight to see the sophisticated little animal lie
+like dead and be picked up and handled in a state of seeming lifeless
+rigidity--a display of self-control that seemed to argue a superiority of
+instinct over reason.
+
+After this opening event the hunt swept on with a rapidly mounting count
+and a heavier and heavier bag.
+
+And, too, it was just as well that no one in particular, save the
+defrauded Hobson, who was obliged to conceal his chagrin, was especially
+mindful of the whereabouts of Caroline and the poet. In fact, it would
+have been difficult for them to have located themselves in answer to a
+wireless inquiry.
+
+Andrew had started out from the hiding tree with the intention of cutting
+across the trail of the hunters at right angles a little up the ravine,
+and he had trusted to a six-year-old remembrance of the lay of the land
+as he led the way across the frosty meadow and up the ridge at a brisk
+pace. Caroline swung lithely along beside him and in the matter of fences
+took Polly's policy of a hand up and then a high vault, which made for
+practically no delay. They skirted the tangle of buck bushes and came out
+on the edge of the cliff just as the hunt swept by at their feet and on
+up the creek bed. They were both breathless and tingling with the
+exertion of their climb.
+
+"There they go--left behind--no catching them!" exclaimed Andrew. "No
+possum for you, and this is your hunt! I'm most awfully sorry!"
+
+"Don't you suppose they will save me one?" asked Caroline composedly, and
+as she spoke she walked to the edge of the bluff and looked down into the
+dark ravine interestedly.
+
+"You don't want the possum, child, you want to see it caught. The negroes
+get the little beasts; it's the bagging that's the excitement!" Andrew
+regarded her with amused interest.
+
+"I don't seem to care to see things caught," she answered. "I'm always
+sorry for them. I would let them all go if I got the chance--all caught
+things." A little crackle in the bushes at her side made her move nearer
+to him.
+
+"I believe you would--release any 'caught thing'--if you could," he said
+with a note of bitterness in his voice that she failed to detect. A cold
+wind swept across the meadow and he swung around so his broad shoulders
+screened her from its tingle. Her eyes gazed out over the valley at their
+feet.
+
+"This is the edge of the world," she said softly. "Do you remember your
+little verses about the death of the stars?" She turned and raised her
+eyes to his. "We are holding a death-watch beside them now as the moon
+comes up over the ridge there. When I read the poem I felt breathless to
+get out somewhere high up and away from things--and watch."
+
+"I was 'high up' when I wrote them," answered Andrew with a laugh. "Look
+over there on the hill--see those two old locusts? They are fern palms
+and those scrub oaks are palmettos. The white frost makes the meadow a
+lagoon and this rock is the pier of my bridge where I came out to watch
+one night to test the force of a freshet. Over there the light from Mrs.
+Matilda's fires is the construction camp and beyond that hill is my
+bungalow. That's the same old moon that's rising relentlessly to murder
+the stars again. Do you want to stay and watch the tragedy--or hunt?"
+
+Without a word Caroline sank down on the dried leaves that lay in a drift
+on the edge of the bluff. Andrew crouched close beside her to the
+windward. And the ruthless old moon that was putting the stars out of
+business by the second was not in the least abashed to find them gazing
+at her as she blustered up over the ridge, round and red with exertion.
+
+"Were you alone on that pier?" asked Caroline with the utmost naïveté, as
+she snuggled down deeper into the collar of the sweater.
+
+"I'm generally alone--in most ways," answered Andrew, the suspicion of a
+laugh covering the sadness in his tone. "I seem to see myself going
+through life alone unless something happens--quick!" The bitter note
+sounded plainly this time and cut with an ache into her consciousness.
+
+"I've been a little lonely, too--always, until just lately and now I
+don't feel that way at all;" she looked at him thoughtfully with moonlit
+eyes that were deep like sapphires. "I wonder why?"
+
+Andrew Sevier's heart stopped dead still for a second and then began to
+pound in his breast as if entrapped. For the moment his voice was utterly
+useless and he prayed helplessly for a meed of self-control that might
+aid him to gain a sane footing.
+
+Then just at that moment the old genie of the forests, who gloats through
+the seasons over myriads of wooings that are carried on in the fastnesses
+of his green woods, sounded a long, low, guttural groan that rose to a
+blood-curdling shriek, from the branches just above the head of the
+moon-mad man and girl. For an instrument he used the throat of an enraged
+old hoot-owl, perturbed by the intrusion of the noise of the distant hunt
+and the low-voiced conversation on his wonted privacy.
+
+And the experienced ancient succeeded in precipitating the crisis of the
+situation with magical promptness, for Caroline sprang to her feet,
+turned with a shudder and buried her head in Andrew's hunting coat
+somewhere near the left string for cartridge loops. She clung to him in
+abject terror.
+
+"Sweetheart!" he exclaimed, giving her a little shake, "it's only a cross
+old owl--don't be frightened," and he raised her cheek against his own
+and drew her nearer. But Caroline trembled and clung and seemed unable to
+face the situation. Andrew essayed further reassurance by turning his
+head until his lips pressed a tentative kiss against the curve of her
+chin.
+
+"He can't get you," he entreated and managed a still closer embrace.
+
+"Is he still there?" came in a muffled voice from against his neck where
+Caroline had again buried her head at a slight crackling from the dark
+branches overhead.
+
+"I think he is, bless him!" answered Andrew, and this time the kiss
+managed a landing on the warm lips under the eyes raised to his.
+
+And then ensued several breathless moments while the world reeled around
+and the vital elemental force that is sometimes cruel, sometimes kind,
+turned the wheel of their universe.
+
+"I'm not frightened any more," Caroline at last managed to say as she
+prepared to withdraw, not too decisively, from her strong-armed refuge.
+
+"He's still there," warned Andrew Sevier with a happy laugh, and Caroline
+yielded again for a second, then drew his arms aside.
+
+"Thank you--I'm not afraid any more--of anything," she said, laughing
+into his eyes, "and I really think we had better try to get back to camp
+and supper, for I don't hear the dogs any longer. We don't want to be
+lost like the 'babes in the woods' and left to die out here, do we?"
+
+"Are you sure we haven't gone and stumbled into heaven, anyway?" demanded
+Andrew.
+
+He then proceeded to roll the collar of her sweater higher about her ears
+and to pull the long sleeves down over her hands. He even bent to stretch
+the garment an inch or two nearer the tops of her boots.
+
+"Are you cold?" he demanded anxiously, for a stiff wind had risen and
+blew upon them with icy breath.
+
+"Not a single bit," she answered, submitting herself to his anxious
+ministrations with her most engaging six-going-on-seven manner. Then she
+caught one of his fumbling hands in hers and pressed it to her cheek for
+a moment.
+
+"Now," she said, "we can never be lonely any more, can we? I'm going to
+race you down the hill, across the meadow and over three fences to
+supper!" And before he could stay her she had flitted through the bushes
+and was running on before him, slim and fleet.
+
+He caught her in time to swing her over the first fence and capture an
+elusive caress. The second barrier she vaulted and eluded him entirely,
+but from the top of the last she bent and gave him his kiss as he lifted
+her down. In another moment they had joined the circle around the
+crackling fire, where they were greeted with the wildest hilarity and
+overwhelmed with food and banter.
+
+"Did you people ever hear of the man who bought a fifty-dollar coon dog,
+took him out to hunt the first night, almost cried because he thought he
+had lost him down a sink hole, hunted all night for him, came home in the
+daylight and found pup asleep under the kitchen stove?" demanded David as
+he filled two long glasses with a simmering decoction, from which arose
+the aroma of baked apples, spices, and some of the major's eighty-six
+corn heart. "Caroline is my point to my little story. Have you two been
+sitting in Mrs. Matilda's car or mine, or did you roost for a time on the
+fence over there in the dark?"
+
+"Please, David, please hush and give me a bird and a biscuit--I'm
+hungry," answered Caroline as she sank on a cushion beside Mrs. Buchanan.
+
+"According to the ink slingers of all times you ought not to be; but Andy
+has already got outside of two sandwiches, so I suppose you are due one
+small bird. That cake is grand, beautiful. I've put it away to eat all by
+myself to-morrow. Andrew Sevier doesn't need any. He wouldn't know cake
+from corn-pone--he's moonstruck."
+
+Just at this point a well-aimed pine-cone glanced off David's collar and
+he settled down to the business in hand, which was the disposal of a
+bursting and perfectly hot potato, handed fresh from the coals by the
+attentive Jeff.
+
+And it was more than an hour later that the tired hunters wended their
+way back to the city. Polly was so sleepy that she could hardly sit her
+horse and was in a subdued and utterly fascinating mood, with which she
+did an irreparable amount of damage to the stranger within her gates
+as she rode along the moonlit pike, and for which she had later to make
+answer. The woman's champion dozed in the tonneau and only David had the
+spirit to sing as they whirled along.
+
+Hadn't Phoebe stirred the sugar into his cup of coffee and then in an
+absolutely absent-minded manner tasted it before she had come around the
+fire to hand it to him? It had been a standing argument between them for
+years as to a man's right to this small attention, which they both teased
+Mrs. Matilda for bestowing upon the major. It was an insignificant,
+inconsequent little ceremony in itself but it fired a train in David's
+mind, made for healing the wound in his heart and brought its
+consequences. Another reconstruction campaign began to shape its policy
+in the mind of David Kildare which had to do with the molding of the
+destiny of the high-headed young woman of his affections, rather than
+with the amelioration of conditions in his native city. So, high and
+clear he sang the call of the mocking-bird with its ecstasies and its
+minors.
+
+But late as it was, after he had landed his guests at their doors, he had
+a long talk over the phone with the clerk of his headquarters and sent a
+half-dozen telegrams before he turned into his room. When he switched on
+his lights he saw that Andrew stood by the window looking out into the
+night. His face was so drawn and white as he turned that David started
+and reached out to lay a hand on his shoulder.
+
+"Dave," he said, "I'm a blackguard and a coward--don't touch me!"
+
+"What is it, Andrew?" asked David as he laid his arm across the tense
+shoulders.
+
+"I thought I was strong and dared to stay--now I know I'm a coward and
+couldn't go. I'll have to sneak away and leave her--hurt!" His voice was
+low and toned with an unspeakable scorn of himself.
+
+"Andy," asked David, as he swung him around to face him, "was Caroline
+Darrah too much for you--and the moon?"
+
+"There's nothing to say about it, David, nothing! I have only made it
+hard for her: and killed myself for myself forever. She's a child and
+she'll forget. You'll see to her, won't you?"
+
+"What are you going to do now?" asked David sternly.
+
+"Cut and run--cowards always do," answered Andrew bitterly. "I am going
+to stay and see you through this election, for it's too late to turn the
+press matters over to any one else--and I'm going to pray to find some
+way to make it easier for her before I leave her. I'm afraid some day
+she'll find out--and not understand why I went."
+
+"Why do you go, Andrew?" asked David as he faced this friend with
+compelling eyes. "If it's pride that takes you, better give it up! It's
+deadly for you both, for she's more of a woman than you think--she'll
+suffer."
+
+"David, do you think she would have me if she knew what I put aside
+to take her--_and his millions_? Could Peters Brown's heiress ever
+have anything but contempt for me? When it comes to her she must
+understand--and not think I held it against her!"
+
+"Tell her, Andrew; let her decide! It's her right now!"
+
+"Never," answered Andrew passionately. "She is just beginning to lose
+some of her sensitiveness among us and this is the worst of all the
+things she has felt were between her and her people. It is the only thing
+he covered and hid from her. I'll _never_ tell her--I'll go--and she
+will forget!" In his voice there was the note of finality that is
+unmistakable from man to man. He turned toward his room as he finished
+speaking.
+
+"Then, boy," said David as he held him back for a second in the bend of
+his arm, a tenderness in voice and clasp, "go if you must; but we've
+three days yet. The gods can get mighty busy in that many hours if they
+pull on a woman's side--which they always do. Good night!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+LOVE'S HOME AND ANDREW SEVIER
+
+
+And the Sabbath quiet which had descended on the frost-jeweled city
+the morning after the hunt found the Buchanan household still deep in
+close-shuttered sleep. Their fatigue demanded and was having its way in
+the processes of recuperation and they all slept on serenely.
+
+Only Caroline Darrah was astir with the first deep notes of the early
+morning bells. Her awaking had come with a rush of pure, bubbling,
+unalloyed joy which turned her cheeks the hue of the rose, starred her
+eyes and melted her lips into heavenly curves. In her exquisite innocence
+it never dawned upon her that the moments spent in Andrew's arms under
+the winter moon were any but those of rapturous betrothal and her love
+had flowered in confident happiness. It was well that she caught across
+the distance no hint of the battle that was being waged in the heart of
+Andrew Sevier, for the man in him fought (for her) with what he deemed
+his honor, almost to the death--but not quite, for some men hold as honor
+that which is strong sinewed with self-control, red blooded with courage,
+infiltrated with pride and ruthlessly cruel.
+
+And so Caroline hummed David's little serenade to herself as she dressed
+without Annette's assistance and smiled at her own radiance reflected at
+her from her mirrors. She had just completed a most ravishing church
+toilet when she heard the major's door close softly and she knew that now
+she would find him before his logs awaiting breakfast.
+
+She blushed another tone more rosy and her eyes grew shy at the very
+thought of meeting his keen eyes that always quizzed her with such
+delight after one of her initiations into the sports or gaieties of this
+new country. But assuming her courage with her prayer-book, she softly
+descended the stairs, crossed the hall and stood beside his chair with a
+laugh of greeting.
+
+"Well," he demanded delightedly though in a guarded tone with a glance
+up as if at Mrs. Matilda's and Phoebe's closed doors, "did you catch your
+possum?"
+
+"Yes--that is--no! I didn't, but somebody did I think," she answered with
+delicious confusion in both tone and appearance.
+
+"Caroline Darrah," demanded the major, "do you mean to tell me that there
+is no certainty of anybody's having got a result from a foray of the
+magnitude of that last night? Didn't you even see a possum?"
+
+"No, I didn't; but I know they caught some--David said so," answered
+Caroline in a reassuring voice.
+
+"Caroline," again demanded the major relentlessly, having already had his
+suspicions aroused by her confusion and blushes, "where were you when
+David Kildare caught those beasts that you didn't see one?"
+
+"I was--was lost," she answered, and it surprised him that she didn't put
+one rosy finger-tip into her mouth, so very young was her further
+confusion.
+
+"Alone?" The major made his demand without mercy.
+
+"No, sir, with Mr. Sevier--why, aren't you going to have breakfast,
+Major, it is almost church time?" and Caroline rallied her domestic
+dignity to her support as she escaped toward Temple's domain.
+
+And the flush of joy that had flamed in her cheeks had lighted a glow in
+the major's weather-tanned old face and his eyes fairly snapped with
+light. Could it be that the boy had reached out for his atonement? Could
+it be--he heard the front door close as the first church bell struck a
+deep note and at that moment Jeff announced his breakfast as ready in a
+voice of the deepest exhaustion.
+
+And when Caroline emerged from the still darkened house into the crisp
+air she found Andrew Sevier standing on the front steps waiting to walk
+into church with her.
+
+Her smile of shy joy as she held out her hand to him warmed his somber
+eyes for the moment.
+
+"They are all asleep," she whispered as if even from the street there was
+danger of awakening the tired hunting party. "The major is keeping it
+quiet for them."
+
+"And you ought to be asleep, too," he answered as they started off at a
+brisk pace down the avenue.
+
+"_You_ weren't," she laughed up at him, and then dropped her eyes shyly.
+"I always go to church," she added demurely.
+
+"And I suppose I counted on your habit," he said, utterly unable to
+control the tenderness in voice or glance.
+
+"I wanted you to go with me to-day--I hoped you would though you never
+have," she answered him with a divine seriousness in her lifted eyes.
+"They are all coming to dinner and then you'll go to the office, so I
+hoped about this morning." She was utterly lovely in her gentleness
+and a strange peace fell into the troubled heart of the man at her side.
+
+And it followed him into the dim church and made the hour he sat at her
+side one of holy healing. Once as they knelt together during the service
+she slipped her gloved hand into his for an instant and from its warmth
+there flowed a strength of which he stood in dire need and from which he
+drew courage to go on for the few days remaining before his exile. Just
+to protect her, he prayed, and leave her unhurt, and he failed to see
+that the humility and blindness of a great love were leading him into the
+perpetration of a great cruelty, to the undoing of them both.
+
+Then in the long days that followed so hunted was he by his love of her
+that that one hour of peace in the Sunday morning was all he dared give
+himself with her. And in her gentle trustfulness it was not hard to make
+his excuses, for the Monday morning brought the strenuosity in
+the career of David Kildare to a state of absolute acuteness.
+
+To the candidate the three days were as ten years crowded into as many
+hours. Down at his headquarters in the _Gray Picket_ rooms he stood firm
+and met wave after wave of fluctuating excitement that surged around him
+with his head up, a ring in his laugh and an almost superhuman tact.
+
+As late as Wednesday noon there appeared before him three excited
+Anti-Saloon League matrons with plans to put committees of ladies at all
+the polls to hand out lemonade and entreaties--perhaps threats--to the
+voters as they exercised their civic function. They had planned banners
+with "Shall The Saloon Have My Boy?" in large letters thereon inscribed
+and they were morally certain that without the carrying out of their plan
+the day would be lost. It took David Kildare one hour and a quarter to
+persuade them that it would be better to have a temperance rally at the
+theater on Wednesday night at which each of the three should make most
+convincing speeches to the assembled women of the city, thereby
+furnishing arguments to their sisters with which to start the men to the
+polls next day.
+
+He promised to come and make a short opening speech and they left him
+with their plans changed but their enthusiasm augmented. David sank into
+a chair and mopped his shining brow. The major had been witness to the
+encounter from the editorial desk and Cap Cantrell was bent double with
+laughter behind a pile of papers he was searching for data for Andrew.
+
+"I'm all in, Major," said David faintly. "Just pick up the pieces in a
+basket."
+
+"David, sir," said the major, "your conduct of that onslaught was
+masterly! If the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world why not the
+hand that flips the batter-cake rock the ballot-box--cradle out of date?
+That's a little mixed but pertinent. I'm for letting them have the
+try. They're only crying because they think we don't want 'em to have
+it--maybe they'll go back to the cradle and rock all the better for being
+free citizens!"
+
+"And not a cussed one of those three old lady cats has ever shown a
+kitten!" exploded Cap from behind his pile of papers.
+
+"Anyway, the worst is over now--must be!" answered David as he began to
+read over some bulletins and telegrams. But he had troubles yet to come.
+In the next two hours he had a conference with the head of the chamber of
+commerce which heated his blood to the boiling-point and brought forth an
+ultimatum, delivered in no uncertain terms but with such perfect courtesy
+and clean-sightedness that the gentleman departed in haste to look into
+certain matters which he now suspected to have been cooked to lead him
+astray.
+
+This event had been followed by the advent of five of the old fellows who
+had obtained furloughs and ridden in from the Soldiers' Home for the
+express purpose of assuring him of their support, as the vindicator of
+their honor, wringing his hand and cheering on the fight. They retired
+with Cap into the back room and emerged shortly, beaming and refreshed.
+They had no votes to cast in the city, but what matter?
+
+On their heels, Mike O'Rourke rushed in with two budgets of false
+registrations which he had been able to ferret out by the aid of the
+drivers of his grocery wagons. He embraced David, exchanged shots with
+the major, and departed in high spirits. Then quiet came to the _Gray
+Picket_ for a time and Kildare plunged into his papers with desperation.
+
+"David," called the major after a very few minutes of peace, "here's a
+call for you on the desk. You'll recognize the number--remember, a firm
+hand, sir--a firm hand!" with which he collected his hat, coat, and the
+captain and took his departure, leaving David for the moment alone in the
+editorial rooms.
+
+He sat for a few moments before the receiver and twisted the call slip
+around one of his fingers. In a moment the affairs of state and the
+destiny of the city slipped from his shoulders and his mind took up the
+details of another problem.
+
+The contest for the judgeship was not the only one David Kildare had
+taken upon himself--the second was being waged in the secret chambers of
+two hearts, one proud, exacting and unconvinced, the other determined and
+at last thoroughly aroused. Phoebe had brought the crisis on herself and
+she was beginning to realize that the duel would be to the death or
+complete surrender.
+
+And in the preliminaries, which had been begun on the Saturday night hunt
+and carried on for the last three days, David Kildare had failed to make
+a single false move. His natural and inevitable absorption in his race
+for the judgeship had served to keep him from forcing a single issue; and
+Phoebe had had time to do a little lonely, unpursued thinking.
+
+He had been entirely too clever to arouse her pride against him by a
+suspicion of neglect in his attitude. His usual attentions were all
+offered and a new one or two contrived. He sent Eph to report to her with
+his electric every afternoon--she understood that he was unable by the
+exigencies of the case to come himself to take her to keep her
+appointments as was his custom. Her flowers were just as thoughtfully
+selected and sent with the gayest little notes, as like as possible to
+the ones that had been coming to her for years. He ordered in an
+unusually large basket of eggs from the farm and managed to find a
+complicated arrangement of rope and pulleys, the manipulation of which
+for an hour or more daily was warranted to add to or detract from the
+stature of man or woman, according to the desire of the dissatisfied
+individual. His note with the instrument was a scintillating skit and was
+answered in kind. But through it all Phoebe was undoubtedly lonely. This
+call, the second since Saturday and the second in the history of their
+joint existences, betrayed her to the now wily David more than she
+realized--perhaps!
+
+He took down the receiver and got the connection.
+
+"That you--dear?" David managed a casual voice with difficulty.
+
+"Yes, David," came in a voice that fairly radiated across the city. "I
+only wanted to ask how it goes."
+
+"Fine--with a rip! But you never can tell--about anything. I'm a
+Presbyterian and I'll die in doubt of my election. I'm learning not to
+count on--things." His voice carried a mournful note that utterly belied
+his radiant face. David was enjoying himself to almost the mortal limit!
+
+"David," there was a perceptible pause--"you--there is one thing you can
+always count on--isn't there--_me_?" The voice was very gallant but also
+slightly palpitating. David almost lost his head but hung on tight and
+came up right side.
+
+"Some," he answered, which reply, in the light of an extremely modern use
+of the word combined with the legitimate, was calculated to bring
+conclusion. Then he hurried another offering on to the wire.
+
+"How long are you going to be at home?" he asked--another dastardly
+tantalization.
+
+"I--I don't know exactly," she parried quickly. "Why?" and this from
+Phoebe who had always granted interviews like a queen gives jewels! David
+somewhere found the courage to lay a firm hand on himself. With just a
+few more blows the citadel was his! His own heart writhed and the
+uncertainty made him quake internally.
+
+"I wish I could come over, but there are two committees waiting in the
+other room for me. Do you--" a clash and buzz hummed over the wire into
+the receiver. There was a jangle and tangle and a rough man's voice cut
+in with, "Working on the wires, hang up, please," and David limply hung
+up the receiver and collapsed in solitude, for his committees had been
+evoked out of thin air.
+
+His state of mind was positively abject. His years-old tenderness welled
+up in his heart and flooded to his eyes--the dash and the pluck of her!
+He reached for his hat, then hesitated; it was election eve and in two
+hours he was due to address the congregation of griddle-cake discontents
+on how to make men vote like ladies.
+
+A call boy hurried in by way of a fortunate distraction and handed in a
+budget of papers. David spread them out before him. They were from Susie
+Carrie of the strong brush and the Civic Improvement League, containing
+Sketches and specifications for the drinking fountains already pledged,
+and a request for an early institution of legislation on the play-ground
+proposition. Such a small thing as an uncertain election failed to
+daunt the artistic fervor of Susie Carrie's fertile brain or to deter her
+from making demands, however premature, on David the sympathetic.
+
+And David Kildare dropped his head on the papers and groaned. The
+Vision of a life-work rose up and menaced him and the words "sweat of his
+brow" for the first time took on a concrete meaning. Such a good, old,
+care-free existence he was losing, and--he seized his hat and fled
+to the refreshment of bath, food and fresh raiment.
+
+And on his way home he stopped in for a word with the major, whom he
+found tired and on his way to take as much as he could of his usual nap.
+He was seated in his chair by the table and Caroline Darrah sat near him,
+listening eagerly to his story of some of the events in the day's
+campaign. She rose as David entered and held out her hand to him with a
+smile.
+
+Every time David had looked at Caroline Darrah for the few days past a
+sharp pain had cut into his heart and this afternoon she was so radiantly
+lovely with sympathy and interest that for a moment he stood looking at
+her with his eyes full of tenderness. Then he managed a bantering smile
+and backed away a step or two from her, his hands behind him.
+
+"No, you don't, beautiful," David sometimes ventured on Phoebe's name for
+the girl, "you are so sweet in that frock that I'm afraid if I touch you
+I'll stick. Somebody ought to label such a lollypop as you dangerous.
+Call her off, Major!"
+
+The major laughed at Caroline's blush and laid his fingers over her hand
+that rested on the corner of the table near him.
+
+"David," he said, "girls are confections to which it is good for a man to
+forsake all others and cling--but not to gobble. Matilda, recount to
+David Kildare your plans for the night of the election. I wish to witness
+his joy."
+
+"Oh, yes, I've been wanting to tell you about it for two days, David,
+dear," answered Mrs. Buchanan from her chair over by the window where she
+was busily engaged in checking names off a long list with a pencil. "We
+are going to have a reception at the University Club so everybody can
+come and congratulate you the night of the election. Mrs. Shelby and I
+thought it up and of course we had to speak to one of the house committee
+about the arrangements, and who do you think the member was--Billy Bob! I
+just talked on and didn't notice Mrs. Shelby and finally he was so nice
+and deferential to her that she talked some, too. She almost started to
+shake hands with him when we left. I was so glad. I feel that it is
+going to be a delightful success in every way. Please be thinking up a
+nice speech to make."
+
+"Oh, wait," groaned David Kildare, "if I begin now I will have to think
+double, one for election and one for defeat. Last night I dreamed about a
+black cat that was minus a left eye and limped in the right hind leg.
+Jeff almost cried when I told him about it. He hasn't smiled since."
+
+"I told Tempie to put less pepper in those chicken croquettes last
+night--I saw Phoebe's light burning until two o'clock and heard her and
+Caroline laughing and talking even after that. The major was so nervous
+that he was up and dressed at six o'clock. I must see that all of you get
+simpler food--your nerves will suffer. Major, suppose you don't eat
+much dinner--just have a little milk toast. I'll see Tempie about it
+now!" and Mrs. Buchanan departed after bestowing a glance, in which was a
+conviction of dyspepsia, upon all three of them.
+
+"Now, David Kildare, see what you've done with your black-cat crawlings!
+I'll have to eat that toast--see if I don't! I've consumed it with a
+smile during stated periods for thirty years. Yes, girl-love is a kind
+of cup-custard, but wife-love is bread and butter--milk toast, for
+instance--bless her! But I am hungry!" The major's expression was a
+tragedy.
+
+"I'm going to try and beg you off, Major, dear," said Caroline Darrah,
+and she hurried after Mrs. Matilda into Tempie's domain.
+
+"Major," said David as he gazed after the girl, "when I look at her I
+feel cold all over, then hot-mad! He's going to-morrow night on the
+midnight train--and she doesn't know! I can't even talk to him
+about it--he looks like a dead man and works like a demon. I don't know
+what to do!"
+
+"David," said the major slowly as he pressed the tips of his long lean
+fingers together and regarded them intently, "how love, tender wise love,
+love that is fed on heart's blood and lives by soul-breath, can go deaf,
+blind, dumb, halt, broken-winged, idiotic and mortally cruel is more than
+I can see. God Almighty comfort him when he finds what he has done!"
+
+"And if she does find it out she won't understand," exclaimed David.
+
+"No," answered the major, "she doesn't even suspect anything. She thinks
+it is the press of his work that keeps him away from her. The child
+carries about with her that aura of transport that only an acknowledgment
+from a lover can give a woman. I had hoped that he had seen some way--I
+couldn't ask! I wonder--"
+
+"Yes, Major," interrupted David quickly, and he winced as he spoke, "it
+happened on the hunt Saturday evening. They climbed the bluff and watched
+the hunt from a distance and I saw how it was the minute they came back
+to the campfire. I saw it and I was just jolly happy over it even to the
+tune of Phoebe's sulks--I thought it was all right, and I wish you could
+have seen him. His head was up and his eyes danced and he gave up almost
+the first real laugh I ever heard from him, when I teased her about
+getting lost. As I looked at him I thought about the other, your glad
+Andrew, Major, and I was happy all in a shot for you, because I thought
+you were going to get back something of what you'd lost. It all seemed
+so good!"
+
+"There's been joy in the boy's eyes, joy and sorrow waging a war for
+weeks, David, and I've had to sit by and watch, powerless to help him.
+Yes, his very father himself has looked out of his eyes at me for moments
+and I--well I had hoped. Are you sure he is going?" As the major asked
+the question his brows knotted themselves together as if to hide the pain
+in his eyes.
+
+"Yes, he's going and he catches the next tramp steamer for Panama from
+Savannah. I wish she would suspect something and force it from him. It's
+strange she doesn't," answered David despondently.
+
+"Caroline Darrah belongs to the order of humble women whose love feeds on
+a glance and can be sustained on a crumb--another class demands a banquet
+full spread and always ready. You'll be careful, boy, don't--don't diet
+Phoebe too long!" The major eyed David anxiously across the light.
+
+"Heavens, I'm your reconcentrado! Major, I feel as if I'd been shut up
+down cellar in the cold without the breath of life for a year. It's only
+three days and thirteen hours and a half; but I'm all in. I go dead
+without her--believe I'll telephone her now!" And David reached for
+the receiver that stood on the major's table.
+
+"Now, David," said the major, restraining his eager hand and smiling
+through his sadness, "don't try to gather your grapes over the phone! I
+judge they are ripe, but they still hang high--they always will! Look at
+the clock!"
+
+David took one look at the staid old mahogany timepiece, which the major
+had had brought in from Seven Oaks and placed in the corner opposite his
+table, and took his departure.
+
+And after he had gone the major retired to his room to lie down for as
+much of his allotted rest as he could obtain. Seeing him safely settled,
+Mrs. Buchanan went over for a short visit with Mrs. Shelby next door.
+Mrs. Matilda stuck to the irate grandmother through thick and thin and in
+her affectionate heart she had hopes of bringing about the much to be
+desired reconciliation. She was the only person in the city who dared
+mention Milly or the babies to the old lady and even in her
+unsophistication she suspected that the details she supplied with
+determined intrepidity fed a hunger in the lonely old heart. Her
+pilgrimage next door was a daily one and never neglected.
+
+Thus left alone Caroline Darrah was partaking of a solitary cup of tea,
+which was being served her by Tempie in all the gorgeousness of a new
+white lace-trimmed and beruffled apron which Caroline had made for her
+as near as possible like the dainty garments affected by the French
+shop-clad Annette, who was Temple's special ally and admirer, when Mrs.
+Cherry Lawrence, in full regalia, descended upon her. Tempie walled her
+black eyes and departed with dignity for an extra cup.
+
+The major was fast asleep, David Kildare in the processes of bath and
+toilet, Phoebe at her desk down-town and Mrs. Matilda away on her
+mission, and thus it happened that nobody was near to fend the blight
+from the flower of their anxious cherishing.
+
+"Yes, indeed, it is a time of anxiety," Mrs. Cherry agreed with Caroline
+as she crushed the lemon in her tea. "I shall be glad when it is over. I
+feel that we all are making the utmost sacrifices for this election
+of David Kildare's, and he's such a boy that he probably will make a
+perfectly impossible judge. He never takes anything seriously enough to
+accomplish much. It's well for him that no one expects anything from
+him."
+
+"Oh, but I'm sure he's taking this seriously," exclaimed Caroline Darrah
+with a little gleam of dismay in her eyes. "His race has been an
+exceptional one whether he wins or not. The major says so and the
+other day Mr. Sevier told me--" At the mention of Andrew Sevier's name
+Mrs. Cherry glanced around and an ugly little gleam came into her eyes.
+
+"Oh, of course Andrew Sevier is too loyal to admit any criticism of David
+to a _stranger_," she said with a slight emphasis on the word and a cold
+glance at Caroline Darrah.
+
+"But he wasn't talking to a stranger, he was talking just to me," said
+Caroline quickly, not even seeing the dart aimed.
+
+"You are so sweet, dear!" purred Mrs. Cherry. "Under the circumstances it
+is so gracious of you not to feel yourself a stranger with us all and
+especially with Andrew Sevier. Of course it would have been impossible
+for him always to have avoided you and it was just like his generosity--"
+
+"Miss Ca'line, honey," came in a decided voice from the doorway, "that
+custard you is a-making for the major's supper is actin' curisome around
+the aiges. Please, ma'am, come and see ter it a minute!"
+
+"Oh, excuse me just a second," exclaimed Caroline Darrah to Mrs. Cherry
+as she rose with alarm in her housewifely heart and hurried past Tempie
+down the hall.
+
+An instinct engendered by her love for Caroline Darrah had led Tempie to
+notice and resent something in Mrs. Lawrence's manner to the child on
+several previous occasions and to-day she had felt no scruples about
+remaining behind the curtains well within ear-shot of the conversations.
+Her knowledge of, and participation in, the Buchanan family affairs, past
+and present and future, was an inheritance of several generations and she
+never hesitated to assert her privileges.
+
+"Lady," she said in a cool soft voice as she squared herself in the
+doorway and looked Mrs. Lawrence directly in the face, "you is a rich
+white woman and I's a poor nigger, but ef you had er secceeded in
+a-putting that thare devil's tale into my young mistess's head they would
+er been that 'twixt you and me that we never would er forgot; and there
+wouldn't a-been more'n a rag left of that dead-husband-bought frock what
+you've got on. Now 'fore I fergits myself I axes you out the front
+door--and I'm a-fergittin' fast."
+
+And as she faced the domineering woman in her trappings of fashion all
+the humble blood in the negro's veins, which had come down to her from
+the forewomen who had cradled on their black breasts the mothers of such
+as Caroline Darrah, was turned into the jungle passion for defense of
+this slight white thing that was the child of her heart if not of her
+body. The danger of it made Mrs. Lawrence fairly quail, and, white with
+fright, she gathered her rich furs about her and fled just as Caroline
+Darrah's returning footsteps were heard in the hall.
+
+"Why, where did Mrs. Lawrence go, Tempie?" she demanded in astonishment.
+Tempie had just the moment in which to rally herself but she had
+accomplished the feat, though her eyes still rolled ominously.
+
+"She 'membered something what she forgot and had ter hurry. She lef'
+scuses fer you," and Tempie busied herself with the cups and tray.
+
+"She was beginning to say something queer to me, Tempie, when you came
+in. It was about Mr. Sevier and I didn't understand. I almost felt that
+she was being disagreeable to me and it frightened me--about him. I--"
+
+"Law, I spects you is mistook, chile, an' if it war anything she jest
+wants him herself and was a-laying out ter tell you some enflirtment she
+had been a-trying ter have with him. Don't pay no 'tention to it." By
+this time she had regained her composure and was able to reassure
+Caroline with her usual positiveness to which she added an amount of
+worldly tact in substituting a highly disturbing thought in place of the
+dangerous one.
+
+"Do you really think she can be in love with--with him, Tempie?" demanded
+Caroline Darrah, wide-eyed with astonishment. She was entirely diverted
+from any desire to follow out or weigh Mrs. Lawrence's remark to her by
+the wiliness of the experienced Tempie.
+
+"They ain't no telling what widder women out fer number twos _will_ do,"
+answered Tempie sagely. "Now, you run and let Miss Annette put that blue
+frock on you 'fore dinner. In times of disturbance like these here women
+oughter fix theyselves up so as ter 'tice the men ter eat a little at
+meal times. Ain't I done put on this white apron ter try and git that no
+'count Jefferson jest ter take notice a little uv his vittals. Now go on,
+honey--it's late."
+
+And thus the love of the old negro had taken away the only chance given
+Caroline Darrah to learn the facts of the grim story, from the knowledge
+of which she might have worked out salvation for her lover and herself.
+
+An hour later as they were being served the soup by the absorbed and
+inattentive Jeff, Mrs. Matilda laid down her spoon and said to Caroline
+anxiously:
+
+"I wish Phoebe had come out to-night. I asked her but she said she was
+too busy. She looked tired. Do you suppose she could be ill?"
+
+"Yes," answered the major dryly, "I feel sure that Phoebe is ill. She is
+at present, I should judge, suffering with a malady which she has had for
+some time but which is about to reach the acute stage. It needs judicious
+ignoring so let's not mention it to her for the present."
+
+"I understand what you mean, Major," answered his wife with delighted
+eyes, "and I won't say a word about it. It will be such a help to David
+to have a wife when he is the judge. How long will it be before he can be
+the governor, dear?"
+
+"That depends on the wife, Mrs. Buchanan, to a large extent," answered
+the major with a delighted smile.
+
+"Oh, Phoebe will want him to do things," said Mrs. Matilda positively.
+
+"No doubt of that," the major replied. "I see David Kildare slated for
+the full life from now on--eh, Caroline?"
+
+And the major had judged Phoebe's situation perhaps more rightly than he
+realized, for while David led the vote-directors' rally at the theater
+and later was closeted with Andrew for hours over the last editorial
+appeal in the morning _Journal_, Phoebe sat before her desk in her own
+little down-town home. Mammy Kitty was snoring away like a peaceful
+watch-dog on her cot in the dressing-room and the whole apartment was
+dark save for the shaded desk-light.
+
+The time and place were fitting and Phoebe was summoning her visions--and
+facing her realities. Down the years came sauntering the nonchalant
+figure of David Kildare. He had asked her to marry him that awful,
+lonely, sixteenth birthday and he had asked her the same thing every
+year of all the succeeding ten--and a number of times in between. Phoebe
+squared herself to her reviewing self and admitted that she had cared for
+him then and ever since--_cared_ for him, but had starved his tenderness
+and in the lover had left unsought the man. But she was clear-sighted
+enough to know that the handsome easy-going boy, who had wooed with a
+smile and taken rebuff with a laugh, was not the steady-eyed forceful man
+who now faced her. He stood at the door of a life that stretched away
+into long vistas, and now he would demand. Phoebe bowed her head on her
+hands--suppose he should not demand!
+
+And so in the watches of the night the siege was raised and Phoebe, the
+dauntless, brilliant, arrogant Phoebe had capitulated. No love-lorn woman
+of the ages ever palpitated more thoroughly at the thought of her lover
+than did she as she kept vigil with David across the city.
+
+But there were articles of capitulation yet to be signed and the ceremony
+of surrender to come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+ACROSS THE MANY WATERS
+
+
+And the day of the election arrived next morning and brought cold clouds
+shot through with occasional gleams of pale sunshine, only to be followed
+by light but threatening flurries of snow.
+
+All through the Sunday night David had sat over in the editorial rooms of
+the _Journal_ beside Andrew Sevier, talking, writing and sometimes silent
+with unexpressed sympathy, for as the last sheets of his editorial work
+slipped through his fingers Andrew grew white and austere. Once for a
+half-hour they talked about his business affairs and he turned over a
+bundle of papers to David and discussed the investment of the money that
+had come from his heavy royalties for the play now running, and the
+thousands paid in advance for the new drama.
+
+As David ran carefully through them to see that they were in order for
+him to handle, Andrew turned to his desk and wrote rapidly for some
+minutes, then sealed a letter and laid it aside. After he had read the
+last batch of proof from the composing-room he turned to David and
+with a quiet look handed him the letter which was directed to Caroline
+Darrah.
+
+"If she ever finds out give her this letter, please. It will make her
+understand why I go, I hope. I can't talk to you about it but I want
+to ask you, man to man, to look after her. Dave, I leave her to your
+care--and Phoebe's." And his rich voice was composed into an utter
+sadness.
+
+"The work here and the night are both over, let's go down to
+headquarters," he added, and like two boys, with hands tight gripped,
+they passed out into the winter street.
+
+Down at the _Gray Picket_ they found some of David's ardent supporters
+still fresh and enthusiastic though they had been making a night of it.
+Soon waves of excitement were rising and falling all over the city and
+the streets were thronged with men from out through the county.
+
+At an early hour heavy wagons moved with the measured tread of blind
+tigers and deposited blind tiger kittens, done up in innocent and
+deceptive looking crates, at numbers of discreet alley covers near
+the polls. At the machine headquarters rotund and blooming gentlemen
+grouped and dissolved and grouped again, during which process wads of
+greenbacks unrolled and flashed with insolent carelessness. The situation
+was and had been desperate and this last stand must be brought through
+for the whisky interest, come high as it would.
+
+And so through the morning, delegations kept dropping in to David's
+headquarters to keep up the spirits of the candidate and incidentally to
+have their own raised. There were ugly rumors coming from the polls. The
+police were machine instruments and the back door of every saloon in the
+city was wide open, while a repeating vote was plainly indicated by
+crowds of floaters who drifted from ward to ward. The faces of the bosses
+were discreetly radiant.
+
+"Lord, David," groaned Cap Cantrell, "they're turning loose kegs of
+boodle and barrels of booze--we'll never beat 'em in the world! They've
+got this city tied up and thrown to the dogs! What's the use of--"
+
+"David," exclaimed the major excitedly, "we're in for a rally, and look
+at them!"
+
+Down the street they came, the news kiddies, a hundred strong, led by
+Phoebe's freckle-faced red-headed devil whose mouth stretched from ear to
+ear with a grin. They carried huge poster banners and their inscriptions
+were in a language of their own, emblazoned in ink-pot script.
+
+"I LOVE MY DAVE--BUT JUMP!" meant much to them but failed to elucidate
+the fact that they were referring to the gift of a flatboat, canvased for
+a swimming booth which David had had moored at the foot of the bridge
+during the dog days of the previous summer so that they might have a
+joyous dip in the river between editions. He had gone down himself
+occasionally for a frolic with them and "Jump!" had been the signal
+for the push-off of any timid diver.
+
+He shouted with glee when he read the skit--he was taking his high dive
+in life.
+
+"RUN, DAVE, RUN--TIGER'S LOOSE--NIT!" was another witticism and a crooked
+pole bore aloft these words, "JUDGE DAVID KILDARE SOAKS OLD BOOZE THE
+FIRST ROUND!"
+
+They lined up in front of the headquarters and gave a shrill cheer that
+made up in enthusiasm for what it lacked in volume. They took a few words
+of banter from the candidate in lieu of a speech and paraded off around
+the city, spending much time in front of the camp of the opposition and
+indulging in as much of derisive vituperation as they dared.
+
+They were followed by another picturesque visitation. A dignified old
+colored man brought twenty pathetic little pickaninnies from the orphans'
+home, to which, the men at headquarters learned for the first time, David
+Kildare had given the modest building that sheltered the waifs.
+Decidedly, murder will out, and there come times when the left and right
+hands of a man are forced into confession to each other about their most
+secret actions. A political campaign is apt to bring such a situation
+into the lives of the aspiring candidates. The little coons set up a
+musical wail that passed for a cheer and marched away munching the
+contents of a huge box of candy that Polly had sent down to headquarters
+the night before, such being her idea of a flagon with which to stay the
+courage of the contestants.
+
+And through it all, the consultation of the leaders, the falling hopes of
+the poll scouts, the gradual depression that crept over the spirits of
+the major and Cap and the rest of his near supports, David was a solid
+tower of strength.
+
+Then during the day the tension became tight and tighter, for how the
+fight was going exactly no one could tell and it seemed well-nigh
+impossible to stop the vote steal that was going on all over the city,
+protected by the organized government. Defeat seemed inevitable.
+
+So at six o'clock the disgusted Cap picked up his hat and started home
+and to the astonishment of the whole headquarters David Kildare calmly
+rose and followed him without a word to the others, who failed to realize
+that he had deserted until he was entirely gone. Billy Bob looked dashed
+with amazement, Hobson sat down limply in the deserted chair, Tom
+whistled--but the major looked at them with a quizzical smile which was
+for a second reflected in Andrew Sevier's face.
+
+Phoebe sat in Milly's little nursery in the failing winter light which
+was augmented by the glow from the fire of coals.
+
+Little Billy Bob stood at her side within the circle of her arm, his head
+against her shoulder and his eyes wide with a delicious horror as he
+gazed upon a calico book whose pages were brilliant with the tragedy
+of the three bears, which she was reading very slowly and with many
+explanatory annotations. Crimie balanced himself against her knee and
+beat with a spoon against the back of the book and whooped up the
+situation in every bubbly way possible to his lack of classified
+vocabulary. Milly and Mammy Betty were absorbed in the domestic regions
+so Phoebe had them all to herself--all four, for the twins lay cuddled
+asleep in their crib near by.
+
+And though Phoebe had herself well in hand, her mind would wander
+occasionally from the history of the bruins to which Mistake patiently
+recalled her by a clamor for, "More, Phoebe, more."
+
+In a hurried response to one of his goads she failed to hear a step in
+the hall for which she had been telling herself that she had not been
+listening for two hours or more, and David Kildare stood in the doorway,
+the firelight full on his face.
+
+It was not a triumphant David with his judiciary honors full upon him and
+gubernational, senatorial, ambassadorial and presidential astral shapes
+manifesting themselves in dim perspective; it was just old whimsical
+David, tender of smile and loving though bantering of eye, albeit a
+somewhat pale and exhausted edition.
+
+"Phoebe," he said with a low laugh, "nobody wants Dave--for anything!"
+
+And it was then that the fire that had been lighted in the heart of
+Phoebe in her night watch blazed up into her face as she held out her
+arms to him! And in the twinkle of a fire-spark David found himself on
+his knees, with Phoebe, the low chintz-covered chair and the two kiddies
+clasped to his heart.
+
+For a glorious moment he held them all close and his head rested on
+Phoebe's shoulder just opposite that of Mistake, while Crimie squirmed
+between them. Then he discovered that he was gazing under her chin into
+the wide-open, slightly resentful orbs of Big Brother, who eyed him a
+moment askance, then, feeling it time to assert himself, reached up and
+landed a plainly proprietary and challenging kiss against the corner of
+his lady's mouth.
+
+David laughed delightedly and embraced the trio with greater force as he
+said propitiatingly, "Good snugglings, isn't it, old man?"
+
+But at this exact moment Crimie took the situation into his own hands,
+slipped his cable, grabbed the book as he went and rolled over a couple
+of yards with a delighted giggle. Billy Bob, seeing his treasure
+captured, instantly followed and there forthwith ensued a tussle that was
+the height of delight to the two good-natured youngsters.
+
+And Phoebe's arms closed around David more closely as she held him
+embraced against her shoulder, her soft cheek on his.
+
+"Dave," she whispered, "you know I really don't care at all, don't you?"
+
+"What?" demanded David with alarm in his voice as he raised his head and
+looked at her in consternation.
+
+"The election makes no--"
+
+"Oh, _that_--I'd forgotten all about it! Don't scare me like that any
+more, peach-bud, please," he besought and he took her chin in the hollow
+of his hand as she leant to him, her eyes looking into his, level and
+confident but glorious with bestowal. For a long minute he gazed straight
+into their dawn-gray depths then he said gently, the caress suspended:
+
+"Woman, if you are ever going to take any of this back, do it now!"
+
+"Never," she answered and clasped her hands against his breast.
+
+"It's still the loafer out of a job--just Dave-do-nothing," he insisted,
+a new dignity in his voice that stirred her pride.
+
+"Please!" she closed her eyes as she entreated.
+
+"It's for a long time--_always_." His voice was heaven-sweet with its
+note of warning and he laid his other strong warm hand on her throat
+where a controlled sob made it pulse.
+
+"I'm being very patient," she whispered and her lips quivered with a
+smile as two tears jeweled her black lashes.
+
+But David had made his last stand--he folded her in, locked his heart and
+threw away the key.
+
+"Love," he whispered after a long time, "I know this is just a
+dream--I've had 'em for ten years--but don't let anybody wake me!"
+
+To which plea Phoebe was making the tenderest of responses, when the door
+burst open and Billy Bob shot into the room.
+
+"Hip! hip!" he yelled at the top of his voice, "six hundred and ten
+plurality and all from the two coon wards--count all in and verified--no
+difference now how the others go and--" He paused and the situation
+dawned upon him all in a heap as Phoebe hid her head against David's
+collar. "Davie," he remarked in subdued tones, "you're 'lected, but I
+don't s'pose you care!"
+
+"Go away, Billy Bob, don't you see I'm busy?" answered David as he rose
+to his feet, keeping Phoebe still embraced as she stood beside him.
+
+"Jerusalem the Golden! Have you cornered heaven, David?" gasped Billy Bob
+again rising to the surface. "Help, somebody, help!" At which exact
+minute Mistake succeeded in dispossessing Crimie of the last tatters of
+the adventures of the bears and thus bringing down upon them all a tumult
+of distraction.
+
+Billy Bob caught up the roarer and threw him almost up to the ceiling.
+"Hurrah for Dave!" he said, and to the best of his ability Crimie
+"hurrahed" while Mistake joined in enthusiastically. The hubbub at last
+penetrated the slumbers of the twins, who added to the uproar to such an
+extent that Mammy Betty hurried to the scene of action and cleared the
+deck without further delay.
+
+"And," continued Billy Bob to Milly and the pair of serene and only
+slightly attentive young people, "you should have seen Jeff, dressed in
+Dave's last year frock coat and high hat, whizzing around the coon haunts
+in Caroline's gray car handing out invitations to the Chocolate Country
+Club jamboree! They put the bottle and the dimes completely out of
+business and he voted the whole gang straight. They tried hard to fix up
+the returns but Hob and I were at the count and we saw it clean. Holy
+smoke, what a sell for the machine! Slipped a cog on the nigger vote that
+they have handled for years!"
+
+"And not a dollar spent!" said David with pride. Which goes to show that
+at times women keep their own counsels, for Phoebe ducked her head to
+hide a smile.
+
+"And now it's up to you to hurry and get to the University Club by
+eight-thirty. You are to address the populace and two brass bands from
+the northeast window at nine sharp--two extras out announcing it.
+Everybody has been looking for you an hour, you old moon-spooner, you!"
+urged Billy Bob.
+
+"They can keep up the hunt--Phoebe and I are going--well, we are going
+where nobody can find us for this evening anyway," answered David with
+danger in his eyes.
+
+"No!" said Phoebe as she slipped her hand into his, "I've had you as long
+as is fair as it is. Won't you go and see them all? If you will I will
+dress in a hurry and you can come by for me. Please!"
+
+"Don't pull back on the leash, David," remarked Billy Bob. "It's just
+beginning. Trot to heel and be happy." He laid his arm round Milly's
+waist as he spoke and gave her a little squeeze.
+
+And it was into the midst of a glorious round-up of a whole joyous
+convention of friends that David Kildare stepped several hours later, a
+resplendent and magnificent David with Phoebe glowing beside him. And,
+too, it was not only his own high particulars that surged around him,
+for Phoebe had fixed it with the board of governors and made out a very
+careful list of every campaign friend he had made and had all the girls
+at the phones for hours inviting each and every one. If at any time in
+his political career David Kildare should lack the far vision Phoebe was
+fully capable of taking a long sight for him.
+
+So Mike O'Rourke was there, stuffed carefully into a rented dress suit
+and was being attentioned to the point of combustion by Polly, who was
+thus putting off a reckoning with young New England, promised for "after
+the election." Freckles, the devil, was having the lark of his life in
+removing hats and coats under the direction of an extremely dignified
+club official.
+
+There were men from the down-town district in plain business clothes who
+stood in excited groups discussing the issues of the day. The head of the
+cotton mills, who had voted every employee perfectly in line without
+coercion, was expatiating largely to four old fellows in gray, for whom
+Cap had succeeded in obtaining furloughs from the commandant out at the
+Home and was keeping over night as his guests. They also were having the
+lark of their young lives and were being overwhelmed by attentions from
+all the Confederate Dames present.
+
+Susie Carrie was wonderful in some dangerously contrived Greek draperies,
+and over by the window held court on the subject of a city beautiful
+under a council of artistic city fathers. She announced the beginning of
+sittings for a full life-sized portrait of Judge Kildare for the city
+hall, at which Billy Bob raised such a cheer as almost to drown out the
+orchestra.
+
+Mrs. Buchanan received everybody with the most beaming delight and Mrs.
+Shelby was so excited that she asked Billy Bob about the children, which
+concession brought the stars to Milly's gentle eyes.
+
+Mrs. Cherry, as usual, was in full and resplendent regalia with Tom in
+attendance, displaying a satisfied and masterful manner that told its own
+tale. Her amazing encounter with Tempie had remained a secret between her
+and the discreet old negro and her manner to Caroline Darrah was so
+impressively cordial that Phoebe actually unbent to the extent of an
+exchange of congratulations that had a semblance of friendliness. The
+widow's net having hauled up Tom, hopes for untroubled waters again could
+be indulged.
+
+In the midst of all the hilarity the delegations and the bands began to
+arrive outside. The cheering rose to a roar and from the brilliantly
+lighted ballroom David Kildare stepped out on the balcony and stood
+forty-five minutes laughing and bowing, not managing to get in more than
+a few words of what might have been a great speech if his constituency
+had not been entirely too excited to listen to it.
+
+It was almost midnight when they all marched away to _Dixie_ played to
+rag-time measure and sung by five hundred strong. With a sigh of relief
+David held out his arms to Phoebe and started to swing her into the whirl
+of the dancers. As his arms fell about her Phoebe pressed close to him
+with a quick breath and his eyes followed hers across the room.
+
+Under the lights that hung above the entrance to the fern room stood
+Caroline Darrah like a flower blown against the deep green of the tall
+palms behind her, and her eyes were lifted to Andrew's face which smiled
+down at her with suppressed tragedy. For an instant she laid her hand
+on his arm and they were about to catch step with the music when suddenly
+she swung around into the green tangle beyond her and reached out her
+hand to draw him after her.
+
+"Pray, David, pray," said Phoebe as they glided over the polished floor.
+
+"I am," David whispered back as his arms tightened. "I can't think of
+anything but 'Now I lay me'--but won't it help?"
+
+In the wide window at the end of the long room Caroline turned and waited
+for Andrew. The lights from the city beat up into her face and she was
+pale, while her jewel eyes shone black under their long lashes. Her white
+gloved hands wrung themselves against his breast as she held him from
+her.
+
+"Out there while we danced," she whispered, "I don't know what, but
+something told me that you are going to leave me and not tell me why. You
+were saying good-by to my heart--with yours. Tell me, what is it?"
+
+And with full knowledge of the strange, subtle, superconscious thing that
+had been between them from the first and which had manifested itself in
+devious mystic ways, Andrew Sevier had dared to think he could hold her
+in his arms in an atmosphere charged with the call of a half-barbarous
+music and take farewell of her--she all unknowing of what threatened!
+
+"What is it?" she demanded again and her hands separated to clasp his
+shoulder convulsively. Her words were a flutter between her teeth.
+
+Then the God of Women struck light across his blindness, and taking her
+in his arms, he looked her straight in the eyes and told her the whole
+gruesome bitter tale. Before he had finished she closed her eyes against
+his and swayed away from him to the cold window-pane.
+
+"I see," she whispered, "you don't want me--you
+couldn't--_you_--_never_--_did_!"
+
+And at that instant the blood bond in Andrew Sevier's breast snapped and
+with an awed comprehension of the vast and everlasting Source from which
+flows the love that constrains and the love that heals, the love that
+only comes to bind in honor, he reached out and took his own. In the
+seventh heaven which is the soul haunt of all in like case, there was no
+need of word mating.
+
+Hours later, one by one the lights in the houses along the avenue
+twinkled out and the street lay in the grasp of the after midnight
+silence. Only a bright light still burned at the major's table, which was
+piled high with books into which he was delving with the hunger of many
+long hours of deprivation strong upon him. He had scouted the idea of the
+ball, had donned dressing-gown and slippers and gone back to the company
+of his Immortals with alacrity. On their return Mrs. Buchanan and the
+girls had found him buried in his tomes ten deep and it was with
+difficulty that Phoebe, kneeling beside him on one side, and Caroline on
+the other, made him listen to their joint tale of modern romance, to
+which Mrs. Matilda played the part of a joyous commentator.
+
+To Phoebe he was merciless and a war of wits made the library echo with
+its give and take.
+
+"Of course, my dear Phoebe," he said, "it is an established fact that a
+man and his wife are one, and if you will just let that one be Judge
+Kildare semi-occasionally it will more than content him, I'm sure."
+
+"Why, Major, can't you trust me to be a good--wife to David? Don't be
+unkind to me! I'll promise to--to--"
+
+"Don't, Phoebe, don't! That 'love, honor and obey' clause is the direct
+cause of all the woman legislation ever undertaken--and it holds a
+remarkably short time after marriage as a general thing. Now there's
+Matilda--for over thirty-five years I've--But where is Andrew?" he
+demanded anxiously.
+
+"Andy," answered David with the greatest delight in his happy eyes and
+the red lock rampant over his brow, "is sitting on the end of a hard
+bench down at the telegraph office trying to get a cable through to his
+chief for permission to wait over for a steamer that sails for Panama
+two weeks from to-day."
+
+"What?" demanded the major in surprise, looking at Caroline.
+
+"Oh, _she's_ going with him--there are no frills to the affection of
+Caroline Darrah! She'll be bending over his camp-fire yanking out his hot
+tamales in less than a month--glad to do it. Won't you, beautiful?"
+answered David gleefully to Caroline's beautiful confusion.
+
+"David Kildare," observed the major with the utmost solemnity, "when a
+man and woman embark with love at the rudder it is well the Almighty
+controls the wind and the tides."
+
+"I know, Major, I know and I'm scared some, only I'm counting on Phoebe's
+chart and the stars. I'm just the jolly paddler," answered David with a
+laugh across at Phoebe.
+
+"Well," remarked the major judicially, "I think she will be able to
+accomplish the course if undisturbed. It will behoove you, however, to
+remember that husband love is a steady combustion, not a conflagration."
+
+"What do you call a love that has burned constantly for between ten and
+fifteen years, Major?" asked David as he smiled into the keen old eyes
+that held his.
+
+"That," answered the major, "is a fire fit to light an altar, sir."
+
+"And in my heart, ah, Major, can you trust me--to keep--it burning?" said
+Phoebe, thus making her avowal before them all with gallant voice and
+eyes of the dawn.
+
+Moments later after Phoebe and Mrs. Buchanan had retired down the hall,
+and up the stairway, Caroline Darrah still knelt by the major's chair.
+They were both silent and the major held her hand in his. They neither of
+them heard the latch key and in a moment Andrew Sevier stood across the
+firelight from them.
+
+"I wanted to hear it, Major," he entreated as he laid his hand on
+Caroline's shoulder when she came to his side and held out his other to
+the major. "Say it, if you will, sir!"
+
+"The Almighty bless you, boy, and make His sun to shine upon you. He
+is doing it in giving you Caroline to wife. Some women He holds as
+hostages until the greater men in us can rise to claim them and to-night
+His eyes have seen your fulfilment." The major looked straight into the
+pain-ravaged but radiant face before him and his keen old eyes glowed
+through the mist that spread across them.
+
+"Child," he said after a moment's silence as he laid his hand on
+Caroline's other shoulder, "across the many waters that can not drown
+love you have brought back to my old age young Andrew the Glad."
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Andrew the Glad, by Maria Thompson Daviess
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13679 ***
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #13679 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13679)
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Andrew the Glad, by Maria Thompson Daviess
+
+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: Andrew the Glad
+
+Author: Maria Thompson Daviess
+
+Release Date: October 9, 2004 [EBook #13679]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANDREW THE GLAD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Curtis Weyant, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            Andrew the Glad
+
+                       By MARIA THOMPSON DAVIESS
+
+Author of Miss Selina Lue, Rose of Old Harpeth The Melting of Molly, etc.
+
+                                 1913
+
+
+
+
+TO LIBBIE LUTTRELL MORROW
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+
+      I THE HEART TRAP
+
+     II THE RITUAL
+
+    III TWO LITTLE CRIMES
+
+     IV ACCORDING TO SOLOMON
+
+      V DAVID'S ROSE AND SOME THORNS
+
+     VI THE BRIDGE OF DREAMS
+
+    VII STRANGE WILD THINGS
+
+   VIII THE SPELL AND ITS WEAVING
+
+     IX PURSUING THE POSSUM
+
+      X LOVE'S HOME AND ANDREW SEVIER
+
+     XI ACROSS THE MANY WATERS
+
+
+
+
+ANDREW THE GLAD
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE HEART TRAP
+
+
+"There are some women who will brew mystery from the decoction of
+even a very simple life. Matilda is one of them," remarked the major to
+himself as he filled his pipe and settled himself before his high-piled,
+violet-flamed logs. "It was waxing strong in her this morning and an
+excitement will arrive shortly. Now I wonder--"
+
+"Howdy, Major," came in a mockingly lugubrious voice from the hall, and
+David Kildare blew into the room. He looked disappointedly around,
+dropped into a chair and lowered his voice another note.
+
+"Seen Phoebe?" he demanded.
+
+"No, haven't you?" answered the major as he lighted his pipe and regarded
+the man opposite him with a large smile of welcome.
+
+"Not for three days, hand-running. She's been over to see Andy with Mrs.
+Matilda twice, and I've missed her both times. Now, how's that for luck?"
+
+"Well," said the major reflectively, "in the terms of modern parlance,
+you certainly are up against it. And did it ever occur to you that a man
+with three ribs broken and a dislocated collar-bone, who has written a
+play and a sprinkle of poems, is likely to interest Phoebe Donelson
+enormously? There is nothing like poetry to implant a divine passion, and
+Andrew is undoubtedly of poetic stamp."
+
+"Oh, poetry--hang! It's more Andy's three ribs than anything else. He
+just looks pale and smiles at all of 'em. He always did have yellow dog
+eyes, the sad kind. I'd like to smash all two dozen of his ribs," and
+Kildare slashed at his own sturdy legs with his crop. He had dropped in
+with his usual morning's tale of woe to confide to Major Buchanan, and he
+had found him, as always, ready to hand out an incendiary brand of
+sympathy.
+
+"He ought not to have more than twenty-three; one on the right side
+should be missing. Some woman's got it--maybe Phoebe," said the major
+with deadly intent.
+
+"Nothing of the kind. I'm shy a rib myself and Phoebe is _it_. Don't I
+get a pain in my side every time I see her? It's the real psychic thing,
+only she doesn't seem to get hold of her end of the wire like she might."
+
+"Don't trust her, David, don't trust her! You see his being injured in
+Panama, building bridges for his country, while you sat here idly reading
+the newspapers about it, has had its appeal. I know it's dangerous, but
+you ought to want Phoebe to soothe his fevered brow. Nothing is too good
+for a hero this side of Mason and Dixon's, my son." The major eyed his
+victim with calculating coolness, gaging just how much more of the
+baiting he would stand. He was disappointed to see that the train of
+explosives he had laid failed to take fire.
+
+"Well, he's being handed out a choice bunch of Mason-Dixon attentions.
+They are giving him the cheer-up all day long. When I left, Mrs. Shelby
+was up there talking to him, and Mrs. Cherry Lawrence and Tom had just
+come in. Mrs. Cherry had brought him several fresh eggs. She had got them
+from Phoebe! I sent them to her from the farm this morning. Rode out and
+coaxed the hens for them myself. Now, isn't a brainstorm up to me?"
+
+"Well, I don't know," answered the major in a judicial tone of voice.
+"You wouldn't have them neglect him, would you?"
+
+"Well, what about me?" demanded David dolefully. "I haven't any green
+eyes, 'cause I'm trusting Andy, _not_ Phoebe; but neglect is just
+withering my leaves. I haven't seen her alone for two weeks. She is
+always over there with Mrs. Matilda and the rest 'soothing the fevered
+brow.' Say, Major, give Mrs. Matilda the hint. The chump isn't really
+sick any more. Hint that a little less--"
+
+"David, sir," interrupted the major, "it takes more than a hint to stop a
+woman when she takes a notion to nurse an attractive man, a sick lion one
+at that. And depend upon it, it is the poetry that makes them hover him,
+not the ribs."
+
+"Well, you just stop her and that'll stop them," said David wrathfully.
+
+"David Kildare," answered the major dryly, "I've been married to her
+nearly forty years and I've never stopped her doing anything yet.
+Stopping a wife is one of the bride-notions a man had better give up
+early in the matrimonial state--if he expects to hold the bride. And
+bride-holding ought to be the life-job of a man who is rash enough to
+undertake one."
+
+"Do you think Phoebe and bride will ever rhyme together, Major?" asked
+David in a tone of deepest depression. "I can't seem to hear them ever
+jingle."
+
+"Yes, Dave, the Almighty will meter it out to her some day, and I hope He
+will help you when He does. I can't manage my wife. She's a modern woman.
+Now, what are we going to do about them?" and the major smiled
+quizzically at the perturbed young man standing on the rug in front of
+the fire.
+
+"Well," answered Kildare with a spark in his eyes, as he flecked a bit of
+mud from his boots which were splashed from his morning ride, "when I get
+Phoebe Donelson, I'm going to whip her!" And very broad and tall and
+strong was young David but not in the least formidable as to expression.
+
+"Dave, my boy," answered the major in a tone of the deepest respect, "I
+hope you will do it, if you get the chance; but you won't! Thirty-eight
+years ago last summer I felt the same way, but I've had a long time to
+make up my mind to it; and I haven't done it yet."
+
+"Anyway," rejoined his victim, "there's just this to it; she has got to
+accept me kindly, affectionately and in a ladylike manner or I'm going to
+be the villain and make some sort of a rough house to frighten her into
+it."
+
+"David," said the major with emphasis, "don't count on frightening a
+woman into a compliance in an affair of the affections. Don't you know
+they will risk having their hearts suspended on a hair-line between
+heaven and hell and enjoy it? Now, my wife--"
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Matilda never could have been like that," interrupted David
+miserably.
+
+"Boy," answered the major solemnly, "if I were to give you a succinct
+account of the writhings of my soul one summer over a California man, the
+agony you are enduring would seem the extremity of insignificance."
+
+"Heavenly hope, Major, did you have to go up against the other man
+game, too? I seem to have been standing by with a basket picking up
+chips of Phoebe's lovers for a long lifetime; Tom, Hob, Payt, widowers
+and flocks of new fledges. But I had an idea that you must have been a
+first-and-only with Mrs. Matilda."
+
+"Well, it sometimes happens, David, that the individuality of all of a
+woman's first loves get so merged into that of the last that it would be
+difficult for her to differentiate them herself; and it is best
+to keep her happily employed so she doesn't try."
+
+"Well, all I can say for you, Major," interrupted Kildare with a laugh,
+"is that your forty years' work shows some. Your Mrs. Buchanan is what I
+call a finished product of a wife. I'll never do it in the world. I can
+get up and talk a jury into seeing things my way, but I get cross-brained
+when I go to put things to Phoebe. That reminds me, that case on old Jim
+Cross for getting tangled up with some fussy hens in Latimer's hen-house
+week before last is called for to-day at twelve sharp. I'm due to put the
+old body through and pay the fine and costs; only the third time this
+year. I'm thinking of buying him a hen farm to save myself trouble.
+Good-by, sir!"
+
+"David, David," laughed the major, "beware of your growing
+responsibilities! Cap Hobson reported that sensation of yours before
+the grand jury over that negro and policeman trouble. The darkies will
+put up your portrait beside that of Father Abe on Emancipation Day
+and you will be in danger of passing down to posterity by the
+public-spirit-fame chute. Your record will be in the annals of the
+city if you don't mind!"
+
+"Not much danger, Major," answered David with a smile. "I'm just a glad
+man with not balance enough to run the rail of any kind of heavy track
+affairs."
+
+"David," said the major with a sudden sadness coming into his voice and
+eyes, "one of the greatest men I ever knew we called the glad man--the
+boy's father, Andrew Sevier. We called him Andrew, the Glad. Something
+has brought it all back to me to-day and with your laugh you reminded me
+of him. The tragedy of it all!"
+
+"I've always known what a sorrow it was to you, Major, and it is the
+bitterness that is eating the heart out of Andy. What was it all about
+exactly, sir? I have always wanted to ask you." David looked into
+the major's stern old eyes with such a depth of sympathy in his young
+ones that a barrier suddenly melted and with the tone of bestowing an
+honor the old fire-eater told the tale of the sorrow of his youth.
+
+"Gaming was in his blood, David, and we all knew it and protected him
+from high play always. We were impoverished gentlemen, who were building
+fences and restoring war-devastated lands, and we played in our shabby
+club with a minimum stake and a maximum zest for the sport. But that
+night we had no control over him. He had been playing in secret with
+Peters Brown for weeks and had lost heavily. When we had closed up the
+game, he called for the dice and challenged Brown to square their
+account. They threw again and again with luck on the same grim side. I
+saw him stake first his horses, then his bank account, and lose.
+
+"Hayes Donelson and I started to remonstrate but he silenced us with a
+look. Then he drew a hurried transference of his Upper Cumberland
+property and put it on the table. They threw again and he lost! Then he
+smiled and with a steady hand wrote a conveyance of his home and
+plantation, the last things he had, as we knew, and laid that on the
+table."
+
+"No, Major," exclaimed David with positive horror in his voice.
+
+"Yes, it was madness, boy," answered the major. "Brown turned his ivories
+and we all held our breath as we read his four-three. A mad joy flamed in
+Andrew's face and he turned his cup with a steady wrist--and rolled
+threes. We none of us looked at Brown, a man who had led another man in
+whose veins ran a madness, where in his ran ice, on to his ruin. We
+followed Andrew to the street to see him ride away in a gray drizzle to a
+gambled home--and a wife and son.
+
+"That morning deeds were drawn, signed, witnessed and delivered to Brown
+in his office. Then--then"--the major's thin, powerful old hands grasped
+the arm of his chair--"we found him in the twilight under the clump of
+cedars that crowned the hill which overlooked Deep-mead Farm--broad acres
+of land that the Seviers had had granted them from Virginia--_dead_,
+his pistol under his shoulder and a smile on his face. Just so he had
+looked as he rode at the head of our crack gray regiment in that
+hell-reeking charge at Perryville, and it was such a smile we had
+followed into the trenches at Franklin. Stalwart, dashing, joyous Andrew,
+how we had all loved him, our man-of-smiles!"
+
+"Can anything ever make it up to you, Major?" asked David softly. As he
+spoke he refilled the major's pipe and handed it to him, not appearing to
+notice how the lean old hand shook.
+
+"You do, sir," answered the major with a spark coming back into his eyes,
+"you and your gladness and the boy and his--sadness--and Phoebe most of
+all. But don't let me keep you from your hen-roost defense--I agree with
+you that a hen farm will be the cheapest course for you to take with old
+Cross. Give him my respects, and good-by to you." The major's dismissal
+was gallant, and David went his way with sympathy and admiration in his
+gay heart for the old fire-eater whose ashes had been so stirred.
+
+The major resumed his contemplation of the fire. Hearty burning logs make
+good companions for a philosopher like the major, and such times when his
+depths were troubled he was wont to trust to them for companionship.
+
+But into any mood of absorption, no matter how deep, the major was always
+ready to welcome Mrs. Matilda, and his expectations on the subject of her
+adventures had been fully realized. As usual she had begun her tale in
+the exact center of the adventure with full liberty left herself to work
+back to the beginning or forward to the close.
+
+"And the mystery of it all, Matilda, is the mystery of love--warm,
+contradictory, cruel, human love that the Almighty puts in the heart of a
+man to draw the unreasoning heart of a woman; sometimes to bruise and
+crush it, seldom to kill it outright. Mary Caroline only followed her
+call," answered the major, responding to her random lead patiently.
+
+"I know, Major; yes, I know," answered his wife as she laid her hand on
+the arm of his chair. "Mary Caroline struggled against it but it was
+stronger than she was. It wasn't the loving and marrying a man who had
+been on the other side--so many girls did marry Union officers as soon as
+they could come back down to get them--but the _kind_ of enemy he was!"
+
+"Yes," said the major thoughtfully, "it would take a wider garment of
+love to cover a man with a carpetbag in his hand than a soldier in a
+Yankee uniform. A conqueror who looked around as he was fighting and then
+came back to trade on the necessities of the conquered cuts but a sorry
+figure, Matilda, but a sorry figure!"
+
+"And Mary Caroline felt it too, Major--but she couldn't help it,"
+said Mrs. Buchanan with a catch in her voice. "The night before she
+ran away to marry him she spent with me, for you were away across the
+river, and all night we talked. She told me--not that she was going--but
+how she cared. She said it bitterly over and over, 'Peters Brown, the
+carpetbagger--and I love him!' I tried to comfort her as best I could
+but it was useless. He was a thief to steal her--just a child!" There was
+a bitterness and contempt in Mrs. Matilda's usually tender voice. She
+sat up very straight and there was a sparkle in her bright eyes.
+
+"And the girl," continued the major thoughtfully, "was born as her mother
+died. He'd never let the mother come back and he never brought the child.
+Now he's dead. I wonder--I wonder. We've got a claim on that girl,
+Matilda. We--"
+
+"And, dear, that is just what I came back in such a hurry to tell you
+about--I felt it so--I haven't been able to say it right away. I began by
+talking about Mary Caroline and--I--I--"
+
+"Why, Matilda!" said the major in vague alarm at the tremble in his
+wife's voice. He laid his hand over hers on the arm of his chair with a
+warm clasp.
+
+"It's just this, Major. You know how happy I have been, we all have been,
+over the wonderful statue that has been given in memory of the women of
+the Confederacy who stayed at home and fed the children and slaves while
+the men fought. As you advised them, they have decided to put it in the
+park just to the left of the Temple of Arts, on the very spot where
+General Darrah had his last gun fired and spiked just before he fell and
+just as the surrender came. It's strange, isn't it, that nobody knows
+who's giving it? Perhaps it was because you and David and I were talking
+last night about what he should say about General Darrah when he made
+the presentation of the sketches of the statue out at the opening of the
+art exhibition in the Temple of Arts to-night, that made me dream about
+Mary Caroline all night. It is all so strange." Again Mrs. Buchanan
+paused with a half sob in her voice.
+
+"Why, what is it, Matilda?" the major asked as he turned and looked at
+her anxiously.
+
+"It's a wonderful thing that has happened, Major. Something, I don't know
+what, just made me go out to the Temple this morning to see the sketches
+of the statue which came yesterday. I felt I couldn't wait until to-night
+to see them. Oh, they are so lovely! Just a tall fearless woman with a
+baby on her breast and a slave woman clinging to her skirts with her own
+child in her arms!
+
+"As I stood before the case and looked at them the tragedy of all the
+long fight came back to me. I caught my breath and turned away--and there
+stood a girl! I knew her instantly, for I was looking straight into Mary
+Caroline's own purple eyes. Then I just opened my arms and held her
+close, calling Mary Caroline's name over and over. There was no one
+else in the great room and it was quiet and solemn and still. Then she
+put her hand against my face and looked at me and said in the loveliest
+tenderest voice:
+
+"'It's my mother's Matilda, isn't it? I have the old daguerreotype!' And
+I smiled back and we kissed each other and cried--and then cried some
+more."
+
+"I haven't a doubt of those tears," answered the major in a suspiciously
+gruff voice. "But where's the girl? Why didn't you bring her right back
+with you? She is ours, Matilda, that purple-eyed girl. When is she
+coming? Call Tempie and tell her to have Jane get those two south-wing
+rooms ready right away. I want Jeff to fill up the decanters with the
+fifty-six claret, too, and to put--"
+
+"But wait, Major, I couldn't get her to come home with me! We went out
+into the sunshine and for a long drive into the country. We talked and
+talked. It is the saddest thing in the world, but she is convinced that
+her mother's people are not going to like her. She has been taught that
+we are so prejudiced. I think she has found out about the carpetbagging.
+She is so sensitive! She came because she couldn't help it; she wanted
+just to see her mother's country. She's only been here two days. She
+intends to steal away back now, over to Europe, I think. I tried to
+make her see--"
+
+"Matilda," said the major sternly, "go right back and tell that
+child to pack her dimity and come straight here to me. Carpetbagging,
+indeed!--Mary Caroline's girl with purple eyes! Did old Brown have any
+purple eyes, I'd like to know?"
+
+"I made her promise not to go until tomorrow. I think she would feel
+differently if we could get her to stay a little while. I want her to
+stay. She is so lonely. My little boy loved Mary Caroline and grieved for
+her when she went away. I feel I must have this child to comfort for
+a time at least."
+
+"Of course she must stay. Did she promise she wouldn't slip away from
+you?"
+
+"Yes, but I'm uneasy. I think I will go down to her hotel right now. Do
+you mind about being alone for lunch? Does Tempie get your coffee right?"
+
+"She does pretty well considering that she hasn't been tasting it for
+thirty years. But you go get that child, Matilda. Bring her right back
+with you. Don't stop to argue with her, I'll attend to all that later;
+just bring her home!"
+
+And as Mrs. Buchanan departed the major rose and stood at the window
+until he saw her get into her carriage and be driven out of sight.
+Looking down the vista of the long street, his eyes had a faraway tender
+light, and as he turned and took up his pipe from the table his
+thoughts slipped back into the province of memory. He settled himself
+in his chair before his fire to muse a bit between the whiffs of his
+heart-leaf.
+
+And Mary Caroline Darrah's girl had come home--home to her own, he mused.
+There was mystery in it, the mystery that sometimes brands the unborn.
+Brown had never let Mary Caroline come back and the few letters she had
+written had told them little of the life she led. The constraint had
+wrung his wife's yearning heart. Only a letter had come when somehow
+the news had reached her of the death of Matilda's boy, and it had been
+wild and sweet and athrob with her love of them. And in its pages her own
+hopes for the spring were confessed in a passion of desire to give and
+claim sympathy. Her baby had been born and she was dead and buried before
+they had heard of it; twenty-three years ago! And Matilda's grief for her
+own child had been always mingled with love and longing for the
+motherless, unattainable young thing across the distance. Brown had kept
+the girl to himself and had never brought her back--because he _dared_
+not.
+
+The major's powerful old hands writhed around the arms of his chair and
+his eyes glowed into the embers like live sparks. It was years, nearly
+thirty years ago--but, God, how the tragedy of it came back! The hot
+blood beat into his veins and he could feel it and see it all. Would
+the picture always burn in his brain? Nearly thirty years ago--
+
+The logs crashed apart in the hearth and with a start the major rose to
+his feet, a tear dashed aside under his shaggy old eyebrows. He would go
+back to his Immortals--and forget. Perhaps Phoebe would come in for
+lunch. That would make forgetting easier.
+
+Where had the girl been for the last few days? He smiled as he found
+himself in something of David's dismay at not having seen the busy young
+woman for quite a time.
+
+And it was perhaps an hour later that, as he sat in the breakfast room
+partaking of his lunch in solitary comfort, lost to the world, his wish
+for her brought its materialization. He had the morning's paper propped
+up before him and an outspread book rested by his plate, while he
+held a large volume balanced on his knee, which he paused occasionally to
+consult.
+
+Mrs. Buchanan had telephoned that she would be home with her guest at
+five o'clock and his mind was filled with pleasant anticipation. But
+there was never a time with the major, no matter how filled the life was
+around him with the excitement of events, with the echo of joy or
+woe, the clash of social strife or the turmoil of vaster interests, when
+he failed to be able to plunge into his books and lose himself
+completely.
+
+He was in the act of consuming a remnant of a corn muffin and a draft
+from his paper at the same time, when he heard a merry voice in laughing
+greeting to Jeff, and the rose damask curtains that hung between the
+breakfast room and the hall parted, and Phoebe stood framed against
+their heavy folds. She was the freshest, most radiant, tailor-made vision
+imaginable and the major smiled a large joyful smile at the sight of her.
+
+"Come in, come in, my dear; you are just in time for a hot muffin and a
+fried chicken wing!" he exclaimed as he rose and drew her to the table.
+The old volume crashed to the floor unheeded.
+
+"Oh, no, Major, thank you, I couldn't think of it," exclaimed Phoebe.
+"I'm lunching on a glass of malted milk and a raw egg these days. I lost
+a pound and three-quarters last week and I feel so slim and graceful." As
+she spoke she ran her hands down the charming lines of her tall figure
+and turned slowly around for him to get the full effect of her loss. She
+was most beautifully set up and the long lines melted into curves where
+gracious curves ought to be.
+
+"Nonsense, nonsense, Phoebe Donelson!" exclaimed the major. "Every pound
+is an added charm. Sit here beside me." And he drew her into a chair at
+the corner of the table.
+
+In a twinkling of her black eyes Tempie had served her with the golden
+muffins and crisp chicken. With a long sigh of absolute rapture Phoebe
+resigned herself to the inevitable crash of her resolutions.
+
+"Ah, I never was so miserable and so happy in all my life before," she
+said. "I'm so hungry--and I'm so stout--and these muffins are wickedly
+delicious."
+
+"Phoebe," said the major sternly, "instead of starving yourself to death
+you need to lie awake at night with lovers' troubles. Why, the summer I
+courted Matilda I could have wrapped my belt around me twice. I have
+never been portly since. It's loving you need, good, hard, miserable
+loving. Didn't you ever hear of a 'lean and hungry lover'? Your conduct
+is positively--have another muffin and this little slice of upper
+joint--I say positively, unwomanly inhuman. Are there no depths of pity
+in your breast? Is your bosom of adamant? When did you see David Kildare?
+He is in a most pitiable condition. He left here not an hour ago and I
+felt--"
+
+"Don't worry over David, please, Major," said Phoebe as she paused with
+a bit of buttered muffin suspended on the way to her white teeth. "He
+is the most riotously--thank you, Tempie, just one more--happy individual
+I know. What he wants he has, and he sees to it that he has what he
+wants--to which add a most glorious leisure in which to want and have."
+
+"Phoebe, David Kildare has an aching void in his heart that weighs
+just one hundred and thirty-six pounds, lacking now I believe one and
+three-quarters pounds plus three muffins and a half chicken. How can you
+be so heartless?" The major bent a benignly stern glance upon her which
+she returned with the utmost unconcern.
+
+"He did not see you all of yesterday or the day before and only once on
+Monday, and then you--"
+
+"That sounds like one of those rhyming calendars, my dear Major.
+
+"Monday I am going far away,
+Tuesday I'll be busy all the day,
+Wednesday is the day I study French,
+Thursday is the--"
+
+and Phoebe hummed the little nonsense jingle to him in a most beguiling
+manner.
+
+The major laughed delightedly. "Phoebe, some day you will be held
+responsible for David Kildare's--"
+
+"But, my dear Major," interrupted Phoebe, "how could I be expected to
+work all day for raiment and food, with malted milk and eggs at the price
+they are now, and then be responsible for such a perfectly irresponsible
+person as David Kildare? Why, just yesterday, while I was writing up the
+Farrell débutante tea with the devil waiting at my elbows for copy and
+the composing room in a stew, he called me twice over the wire. He knew
+better, but didn't care."
+
+"Still, my dear, still it's love," said the major as he looked at her
+thoughtfully and dropped the banter that had been in his voice since she
+had come in. "A boy's? Perhaps, but I think not. You'll see! It's a call,
+a call that must be answered some time, child--and a mystery." For a
+moment the major sat and looked deep into the gray eyes raised to his in
+quick responsiveness to the change in his mood. "Don't trifle with love,
+girl, it's God Almighty's dower to a woman. It's hers; though she
+pays a bitter price for it. It's a wonder and a worker of wonders. It has
+all come home to me to-day and I think you will understand when I tell
+you about--"
+
+"Major," interrupted Tempie with a broad grin on her black face, "Mr.
+Dave, he done telephoned fer you ter keep Miss Phoebe till he gits here.
+He says he'll hold you and me 'sponsible, sir."
+
+A quick flush rose to Phoebe's cheeks and she laughed as she collected
+her notebook and pinned down her veil all at the same tune with a view to
+instant flight. She gave neither the major nor Tempie time for
+remonstrance.
+
+"Good-by!" she called from the hall. "I only came in to tell Mrs. Matilda
+that I would meet her at the Cantrell tea at five-fifteen and afterward
+we could make that visit together. The muffins were divine!"
+
+"Tempie," remarked the major as he looked up at her over the devastated
+table with an imperturbable smile, "I have decided positively that women
+are just half-breed angels with devil markings all over their
+dispositions."
+
+And having received which admonition with the deepest respect, Tempie
+immediately fell into a perfect whirlwind of guest preparations which
+involved the pompous Jefferson, her husband, and the meek Jane, her
+daughter. The major issued her numberless, perfectly impossible but
+solicitous orders and then retired to his library chair with his mind at
+ease and his books at hand.
+
+And it was in the violet flamed dusk as he sat with his immortal friends
+ranged around that Mrs. Matilda brought the treasure home to him. She was
+a very lovely thing, a fragrant flower of a woman with the tender shyness
+of a child in her manner as she laid her hands in his outheld to her with
+his courtly old-world grace.
+
+"My dear, my dear," he said as he drew her near to him, "here's a welcome
+that's been ready for you twenty years, you slip of a girl you, with your
+mother's eyes. Did you think you could get away from Matilda and me when
+we've been waiting for you all this time?"
+
+"I may have thought so, but when I saw her I knew I couldn't; didn't want
+to even," she answered him in a low voice that hinted of close-lying
+tears.
+
+"Child, Matilda has had a heart trap ready for you ever since you were
+born, in case she sighted you in the open. It's baited with a silver
+rattle, doll babies, sugar plums, the ashes of twenty years' roses, the
+fragrance of every violet she has seen, and lately an aggregation of
+every eligible masculine heart in this part of the country has been
+added. She caught you fair--walk in and help yourself; it's all yours!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE RITUAL
+
+
+"Well, it's a sensation all right, Major," said David as he stood in
+front of the major's fire early in the morning after the ceremonies of
+the presentation of sketches of the statue out at the Temple of Arts.
+"Mrs. Matilda told me the news and helped me sandwich it into my speech
+between that time and the open-up talk. People had asked so often who was
+giving the statue, laid it on so many different people, and wondered over
+it to such an extent all fall that they had got tired and forgot that
+they didn't know all about it. When I presented it in the name of
+Caroline Darrah Brown in memory of her mother and her grandfather,
+General Darrah, you could have heard a pin drop for a few seconds, then
+the applause was almost a sob. It was as dramatic a thing as has been
+handed this town in many a day. Still it was a bit sky-rockety, don't you
+think--keeping it like that and--"
+
+"David," interrupted the major quickly, "she never intended to tell it.
+She had done the business part of it through her solicitors. She _never_
+wanted us to know. I persuaded her to let it be presented in her name,
+myself, just before Matilda went out with you. She shrinks--"
+
+"Wait a minute, Major, don't get the two sides of my brain crossed. You
+persuaded her--she isn't in town is she?--don't tell me she's here
+herself!" And David ruffled his auburn forelock with a gesture of
+perplexity.
+
+"Yes," answered the major, "Caroline Darrah Brown is here and is, I hope,
+going to stay for a time at least. I wanted to tell you about it
+yesterday but I hadn't seen her and I--"
+
+"And, David dear," interrupted Mrs. Buchanan who had been standing by
+with shining eyes waiting for an opening to break in on Kildare's
+astonishment with some of the details of her happiness over her
+discovery. "I didn't tell you last night for the major didn't want me to,
+but she _is_ so lovely! She's your inherited friend, for your mother and
+hers were devoted to each other. I do want you to love her and everybody
+help me to make her feel at home. Don't mind about her father being
+a--you know a--a carpetbagger. Three of her Darrah grandfathers have
+been governors of this state; just think about them and don't talk about
+her father or any carpet--you know. Please be good to her!"
+
+"Be good to her," exclaimed David heartily, "just watch me! I am loving
+her already for making you so happy by this down-from-the-sky drop, Mrs.
+Matilda. And we'll all be careful about the carpetbags; won't even
+mention a rug; lots of talk can be got out of the dead governors I'm
+thinking. My welcome's getting more enthusiastic every moment. When can I
+hand it to her?"
+
+"She's resting now and I think she ought to be quiet for to-day, because
+she has been under a strain," answered Mrs. Buchanan as she glanced
+tenderly at a closed door across the hall. "Oh, I'm so glad you think you
+are going to love her in spite of--of--"
+
+"The Brown graft on the Darrah family tree?" finished David quizzically.
+His eyes danced with delighted amusement across her puffs at the major as
+he added, "Must have been silversmiths dangling on most of his ancestral
+branches, judging from his propensity for making dollars; a million or
+two, stocks, bonds, any kind of flimflam,--eh, Major?"
+
+"Yes," answered the major as he blew a ring of smoke into the air, "yes,
+just about that; any kind of flimflam. And I can not conceive of Peters
+Brown rejoicing at having thirty thousand of those dollars put into an In
+Memoriam to the women who sniffed at him and his carpetbags for a good
+twenty years after the war. But the child doesn't take any of that in.
+Those were twenty rich years he put in in reconstructing us, but when he
+took those same heavy carpetbags North he took Mary Caroline Darrah, the
+prettiest woman in the county with him. This girl--as I have said before,
+isn't love a strange thing? And you say the populace was astonished?"
+
+"Almost to the point of paralyzation," answered David as he filled a
+stray pipe with some of the major's most choice heart-leaf tobacco. "But
+we managed to open up the picture show all right. The entire hive of busy
+art-bees was there in a queer kind of clothes; but proud of it. They
+acted as if we were dirt under their feet. They smiled on the whole
+glad-crowd of us with pity and let us rave over the wrong pictures. The
+portrait of Mrs. Peyton Kendrick by the great Susie Carrie Snow
+is--er--well, a little more of it shows than seems natural about the left
+off arm, but it's a Susie Carrie all right. You ought to have gone,
+Major, you would take with the art-gang, but we didn't; we were too
+afraid of them. After we had been shooed in front of most of the pictures
+and told how to see things in them that weren't there at all, Hob Capers
+said:
+
+"'Let's all go down to the University Club and get drunk to forget 'em.'
+That's why Mrs. Matilda came home so late."
+
+"And I want Hobson to be nice to her too," continued Mrs. Buchanan as if
+she had not been interrupted in planning for her guest. "And Tom and
+Peyton Kendrick. I'll ask them to come and see her right away."
+
+"Don't! Wait a bit, Mrs. Matilda," exclaimed David. "Hob saw a mysterious
+girl in an orchid hat out in the park day before yesterday. He says his
+heart creaked with expansion at just the glimpse of a chin he got from
+under her veil. Suppose she's the girl. Let him have first innings."
+
+"David," remarked the major, "flag the sun, moon and stars in their
+courses and signal time to reverse a day or a year, but don't try to turn
+aside a maker of matches from her machinations."
+
+David laughed as the major's wife shook her head at him in gentle
+reproof, and he asked interestedly:
+
+"When may we come to call, madam? I judge the lady is under your roof?"
+
+"Soon, dear. She is very tired to-day, and I feel sure you will--"
+
+"Miss Matilda," called Tempie from the hall, "Miss Phoebe is holdin' the
+phone fer you. She's at Mis' Cantrell's and she wants ter speak with you
+right away."
+
+"Wait, wait, don't answer her right now--ring her off, Tempie! If she has
+trouble getting you, Mrs. Matilda, and you keep her talking I can catch
+her. Let me get a good start and then answer. Good-by! Keep talking to
+her!" And with determination in his eyes David took his hurried
+departure.
+
+"Good-by, good luck--and good hunting!" called the major after him.
+
+And with the greatest skilfulness Mrs. Buchanan held Phoebe in hand for
+enough minutes to insure David's capture before she returned to the
+library.
+
+"Major," she said as she rubbed her cheek against his velvet coat sleeve,
+"why do you suppose Phoebe doesn't love David? I can't understand it."
+
+"Matilda," answered the major as he blew a little curl over one of the
+soft puffs of her white hair, "you were born in a day when women were all
+run into a love-mold. They are poured into other assorted fancy shapes in
+these times, but heat from the right source melts them all the same. We
+can trust David's ardor, I think."
+
+"Yes, I believe you are right," she answered judicially, "and Phoebe
+inherits lovingness from her mother. I feel that she is more affectionate
+than she shows, and I just go on and love her anyway. She lets me do it
+very often."
+
+And from the depth of her unsophisticated heart Mrs. Buchanan had evolved
+a course of action that had gone far in comforting a number of the lonely
+years through which Phoebe Donelson had waded. She had been young, and
+high-spirited and intensely proud when she had begun to fight her own
+battles in her sixteenth year. Many loving hands of her mother's and
+father's old friends had been held out to her with a bounty of
+protection, but she had gone her course and carved her own fortune. Her
+social position had made things easy for her in a way and now her society
+editorship of the leading journal had become a position from which she
+wielded much power over the gay world that delighted in her wit and
+beauty, took her autocratic dictums in most cases, and followed her vogue
+almost absolutely.
+
+Her independence prompted her to live alone in a smart down-town
+apartment with her old negro mammy, but her affections demanded that she
+take refuge at all times under the sheltering wings of Mrs. Buchanan, who
+kept a dainty nest always in readiness for her.
+
+The tumultuous wooing of David Kildare had been going on since her early
+teens under the delighted eyes of the major, who in turn both furthered
+and hindered the suit by his extremely philosophical advice.
+
+Phoebe was the crystallization of an infusion of the blood of many
+cultured, high-bred, haughty women which had been melted in the retort of
+a stern necessity and had come out a rather brilliant specimen of the
+modern woman, if a bit hard. Viewed in some ways she became an alarming
+augury of the future, but there are always potent counter-forces at work
+in life's laboratory, and the kind of forces that David Kildare brought
+to bear in his wooing were never exactly to be calculated upon. And so
+the major spent much time in the contemplation of the problem presented.
+
+And when she had come in after a late lunch to call upon their guest, it
+had been intensely interesting to the major to regard the effect of the
+meeting of Phoebe's and Caroline Darrah's personalities. Caroline's
+lovely, shy child's eyes had melted with delight under Phoebe's straight,
+gray, friendly glances and her fascination for the tall, strong, radiant
+woman, who sat beside her, had been so obvious that the major had
+chuckled to himself under his breath as he watched them make friends,
+under Mrs. Matilda's poorly concealed anxiety that they should at once
+adopt cordial relations.
+
+"And so he consented to undertake the commission for you because he was
+interested?" Phoebe was asking as they talked about the sketches of the
+statue. A very great sculptor was doing the work for Caroline Darrah
+Brown, and it interested Phoebe to hear how he had consented to accept so
+unimportant a commission.
+
+"Yes," answered Caroline in her exquisite voice which showed only the
+faintest liquid trace of her southern inheritance. "I told him all about
+it and he became interested. He is very great, and simple, and kind. He
+made it easy to show him how I felt. I couldn't tell him much except
+how I felt; but I think it has something of--that--in--it. Don't you
+think so?" As she spoke she laid her white hand on the arm of Phoebe's
+chair and leaned forward with her dewy tender eyes looking straight into
+the gray ones opposite her.
+
+For a moment Phoebe returned the glance with a quiet seriousness, then
+her eyes lighted a second, were suffused with a quick moisture, and with
+a proud gesture she bent forward, laying both hands on Caroline's
+shoulders as she pressed a deep kiss on the girl's red lips.
+
+"I do think so," she answered with a low laugh as she arose to her feet,
+drew Caroline up into the bend of her arm and faced Mrs. Buchanan and the
+major. "I know the loveliness in the statue is what the great man got out
+of the loveliness in your heart, and the major and Mrs. Matilda think so,
+too. And I'm going quick because I must; and I'm coming back as soon as I
+can because I'm going to find you here--that is _partly_, Major," and
+before they could stop her she had gone on down the hall and they heard
+her answer Jeff's farewell as he let her out the door.
+
+"That, Caroline Darrah Brown, was your first and most important
+conquest," observed the major. "Phoebe has a white rock heart but a
+crystal cracked therefrom is apt to turn into a jewel of price. Hers
+is a blood-ruby friendship that pays for the wearing and cherishing. But
+it's time for the nap Mrs. Matilda decides for me to take and I must
+leave you ladies to your dimity talk." With which he betook himself to
+his room, still plainly pleased at the result of Phoebe's call on the
+stranger.
+
+The two women thus left to their own devices spent a delightful half-hour
+wandering over the house and discussing its furnishings and arrangements.
+Mrs. Buchanan never tired of the delights of her town home. The house was
+very stately and old-world, with its treasures of rare ancestral rosewood
+and mahogany that she had brought in from the Seven Oaks Plantation. The
+rooms in the country home had been so crowded with treasures of bygone
+generations that they were scarcely dismantled by the furnishing of
+the town house.
+
+She was in her glory of domesticity, and as she passed from one room to
+another she told Caroline bits of interesting history about this piece or
+that. In her naiveté she let the girl see into the long hard years that
+had been a hand-to-hand struggle for her and the major on their worn
+farm lands out in the beautiful Harpeth Valley.
+
+The cropping out of phosphate on the bare fields had brought a
+comfortable fortune in its train to the old soldier farmer and they had
+moved into this town house to spend the winter in greater accessibility
+to their friends. Her own particular little world had welcomed her with
+delight, and Caroline could see that she was taking a second bellehood as
+if it had been an uninterrupted reign.
+
+Most of the financiers of the city were the major's old friends and they
+managed enormously advantageous contracts with mining companies for him,
+and had taken him into the schemes of the mighty with the most manifest
+cordiality.
+
+His study became the scene of much important plot and counter-plot. They
+found in his mind the quality which had led them to outwit many an enemy
+when he scouted ahead of their tattered regiment, still available when
+the enemy appeared under commercial or civic front. Also it naturally
+happened that his library gradually became the hunting-grounds for Mrs.
+Matilda's young people, who were irresistibly drawn into the circle of
+his ever ready sympathy.
+
+The whole tale and its telling was absorbingly interesting to Caroline
+Darrah Brown and she listened with enraptured attention to it all. She
+repeated carefully the names of her mother's friends as they came up in
+the conversation; and she was pathetically eager to know all about this
+world she had come back into, from, what already seemed to her, her birth
+in a strange land. Two days in this country of her mother, and the
+enchantment of traditions that had been given to her unborn was already
+at work with its spell!
+
+And so they rambled around and talked, unheeding the time until the early
+twilight began to fall and Mrs. Buchanan was summoned by Jeff to a
+consultation in the domestic regions with the autocratic Tempie.
+
+Left to herself, Caroline Darrah wandered back again through the rooms
+from one object to another that inspired the stories. It was like
+fairy-land to her and she was in a long dream of pleasure. Out of the
+shadows she seemed to be drawing her wistful young mother, and hand in
+hand they were going over the past together.
+
+When it was quite deep into the twilight she sauntered back to the
+crackling comfort of the major's fragrant logs. A discussion with Jeff
+over his toilet had delayed the major in his bedroom and she found the
+library deserted, but hospitable with firelight.
+
+How long she had been musing and castle-building in the coals she
+scarcely knew, when a step on the polished floor made her look up, and
+with a little exclamation she rose to her full, slim, young height and
+turned to face a man who had come in with the unannounced surety of a
+member of the household. He was tall, broad and dark, and his
+knickerbockers were splashed with mud and covered with clinging burrs and
+pine-needles. One arm was lashed to his side with a silk sling and he
+held a huge bunch of glowing red berries in his free hand. They were
+branches of the red, coral-strung buck bushes and Caroline had never seen
+them before. Their gorgeousness fairly took her breath and she exclaimed
+with the ingenuous delight of a child.
+
+"How lovely, how lovely!" she cried as she stretched out her hands for
+them. "I never saw any before. Do they grow here?"
+
+"Yes," answered the man with a gleam of amusement in his dark eyes, "yes,
+they came from Seven Oaks. The fields are full of them now. Do you want
+them?" And as he spoke he laid the bunch in her arms.
+
+"And they smell woodsy and piny and delicious. Thank you! I--they are
+lovely. I--" She paused in wild confusion, looked around the room as if
+in search of some one, and ended by burying her face in the berries. "I
+don't know where Major Buchanan is," she murmured helplessly.
+
+"Well, it doesn't matter," he said with a comforting smile as he came up
+beside her on the rug. "They'll introduce us when they come. I'm Andrew
+Sevier and the berries are yours, so what matter?"
+
+"Oh," said Caroline Darrah in an awed voice, and as she spoke she raised
+her head from the wood flowers and her eyes to his face, "oh, are you
+really Andrew Sevier?"
+
+"Yes, _really_," he answered with another smile and a slightly puzzled
+expression in his own dark eyes.
+
+"But I read everything I can find about you, and the papers say you are
+ill in Panama. I've been so worried about you. I saw your play last week
+in New York and I couldn't enjoy it for wondering how you were. I
+wouldn't read your poem in this month's _Review_ because I was afraid you
+were dead--and I didn't know it. I'm so relieved." With which astonishing
+remark she drew a deep breath and laid her cheek against the field
+bouquet.
+
+"I am--that is I was smashed up in Panama until David came down and
+brought me home. It was awfully good of you to--to know that I--that
+I--" Andrew Sevier paused as mirth, wonder and gratitude spread in
+confusion over his suntanned face.
+
+"How did it happen? Was it very dreadful?" And again those distractingly
+solicitous eyes, full of sympathetic anxiety, were raised to his. Andrew
+shook himself mentally to see if it could possibly be a dream he was
+having, and a little thrill shot through him at the reality of it all.
+
+"Nothing interesting; end of a bridge collapsed and put a rib or two out
+of commission," he managed to answer.
+
+"I _knew_ it was something dreadful," said Caroline Darrah Brown as she
+moved a step nearer him. "I was really unhappy about it and I wondered if
+all the other people who read your poems and watch for them and--and love
+them like I do, were worried, too. But I concluded that they would know
+how to find out about you; only I didn't. I'm glad you are here safe and
+that I know it."
+
+The puzzled expression in Andrew Sevier's face deepened. Of course he had
+become more or less accustomed to the interest which his work had caused
+to be attached to his personality, and this was not the first time he had
+had a stranger read the poet into the man on first sight. They had even
+gone so far as to expect him to talk in blank verse he felt sure,
+especially when his admirer had been a member of the opposite and fair
+sex, but a thing like this had never happened to him before. It was, at
+the least, disturbing to have a lovely woman rise out of the major's very
+hearthstone and claim him as a familiar spirit with the exquisite
+frankness of a child. It smacked of the wine of wizardry. He glanced at
+her a moment and was on the point of making a tentative inquiry when the
+major came into the room.
+
+"Well, Andy boy, you're in from the fields, I see. How's the farm? Every
+thing shipshape?" As he spoke the major shot a keen glance from under his
+beetling old brows at the pair and wisely let the situation develop
+itself.
+
+Andrew answered his salutation promptly, then turned an amused glance
+on the girl at his side.
+
+"He isn't going to introduce us," she laughed with a friendly little look
+up into his face. "I ought to have done it myself when you did, but I was
+so astonished--and relieved to find you. I'm Caroline Darrah Brown."
+
+The words were low and laughing and warm with a sweet friendliness, but
+they crashed through the room like the breath of a swarm of furies.
+Andrew Sevier's face went white and drawn on the instant, and every
+muscle in his body stiffened to a tense rigidity. His dark eyes narrowed
+themselves to slits and glowed like the coals.
+
+The major's very blood stopped in his veins and his fine old face looked
+drawn and gray as he stretched out his hand and laid it on Caroline's
+young shoulder. Not a word came to his lips as he looked in Andrew's
+face and waited.
+
+And as he waited a wondrous thing and piercing sweet unfolded itself
+under his keen old eyes and sank like a balm into his wise old heart.
+From the two deep purple pools of womanhood that were raised to his, shy
+with homage of him and unconscious of their own tender reverencing,
+Andrew Sevier drew a deep draught into his very soul. Slowly the color
+mounted into his face, his eyes opened themselves and a wonderful smile
+curled his lips. He held out his hand and took her slender fingers into a
+strong clasp and held them for a long moment. Then with a smile at the
+major, which was a mixture of dignity tinged with an infinite sadness, he
+bent over and gently kissed the white hand as he let it go. The little
+ceremony had more chivalry than she understood.
+
+"Its part of our ritual of welcome I'm claiming," he said lightly as she
+blushed rose pink and the divine shyness deepened in her eyes. She again
+buried her face in the berries.
+
+Then with a proud look into Andrew's face the major laid his hand on the
+young man's bandaged arm and bent and raised Caroline's hand to his lips.
+
+"It's a ritual, my dear," he said, "that I'm honored in observing with
+him. Friendship these days has need of rituals of ratification and the
+pomp of ceremonials to give it color. There's danger of its becoming
+prosaic. Jefferson, turn on the lights."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+TWO LITTLE CRIMES
+
+
+And then in a few weeks winter had come down from over the hills across
+the fields and captured the city streets with a blare of northern winds,
+which had been met and tempered by the mellow autumn breezes that had
+been slow to retreat and abandon the gold and crimson banners still
+fluttering on the trees. The snap and crackle of the Thanksgiving frost
+had melted into a long lazy silence of a few more Indian summer days so
+that, with lungs filled with the intoxicating draught of this late wine
+of October, everybody had ridden, driven, hunted, golfed and lived
+afield.
+
+Then had come a second sweep of the northern winds and the city had
+wakened out of its haze of desertion, turned up its lights, built up its
+fires and put on the trappings of revelry and toil.
+
+The major's logs were piled the higher and crackled the louder, and his
+welcome was even more genial to the chosen spirits which gathered around
+his library table. He and Mrs. Buchanan had succeeded in prolonging the
+visit of Caroline Darrah Brown into weeks and were now holding her into
+the winter months with loving insistence.
+
+The open-armed hospitality with which their very delightful little world
+had welcomed her had been positively entrancing to the girl and she had
+entered into its gaieties with the joyous zest of the child that she was.
+Her own social experiences had been up to this time very limited, for
+she had come straight from the convent in France into the household of
+her semi-invalided father. He had had very few friends and in a vaguely
+uncomfortable way she had been made to realize that her millions made her
+position inaccessible; but by these delightful people to whom social
+position was a birthright, and wealth regarded only as a purchasing power
+for the necessities and gaieties of life, she had been adopted with much
+enthusiasm. Her delight in the round of entertainments in her honor and
+the innocent and slightly bewildered adventures she brought the major for
+consultation kept him in a constant state of interested amusement. Such
+advice as he offered went far in preserving her unsophistication.
+
+And so the late November days found him enjoying life with a decidedly
+added zest in things, though his Immortals claimed him the moment he was
+left to his own resources and at times he even became entirely oblivious
+to the eddies in the lives around him. One cold afternoon he sat in his
+chair, buried eyes-deep in one of his old books, while across from him
+sat Phoebe and Andrew Sevier, bending together over a large map spread
+out before them. There were stacks of blueprints at their elbows and
+their conference had evidently been an interesting one.
+
+"It's all wonderful, Andrew," Phoebe was saying, "and I'm proud indeed
+that they have accepted your solution of such an important construction
+problem; but why must you go back? Aren't the commissions offered you
+here, the plays and the demand for your writing enough? Why not stay at
+home for a year or two at least?"
+
+"It's the _call_ of it, Phoebe," he answered. "I get restless and there's
+nothing for it but the hard work of the camp. It's lonely but it has its
+compensations, for the visions come down there as they don't here. You
+know how I like to be with all of you; and it's home--but the depression
+gets more than I can stand at times and I must go. You understand better
+than the rest, I think, and I always count on you to help me off." As he
+spoke he rested his head on his hands and looked across the table into
+the fire. His eyes were somber and the strong lines in his face cut deep
+with a grim melancholy.
+
+Phoebe's frank eyes softened as they looked at him. They had grown up
+together, friends in something of a like fortune and she understood him
+with a frank comradeship that comforted them both and went far to the
+distraction of young David Kildare who, as he said, trusted Andrew but
+looked for every possible surprising maneuver in the conduct of Phoebe.
+And because she understood Andrew Phoebe was silent for a time, tracing
+the lines on his map with a pencil.
+
+"Then you'll have to go," she said softly at last, "but don't stay so
+long again." She glanced across at the top of the major's head which
+showed a rampant white lock over the edge of his book. "We miss you; and
+you owe it to some of us to come back oftener from now on."
+
+"I always will," answered Andrew, quickly catching her meaning and
+smiling with a responsive tenderness in a glance at the absorbed old
+gentleman around the corner of the table. "It is harder to go this time
+than ever, in a way; and yet the staying's worse. I'm giving myself until
+spring, though I don't know why. I--"
+
+Just then from the drawing-room beyond there came a crash of soft chords
+on the piano and David's voice rose high and sweet across the rooms. He
+had gone to the piano to sing for Caroline who never tired of his negro
+melodies and southern love songs. He also had a store of war ballads with
+which it delighted him to tease and regale her, but to-day his mood had
+been decidedly on the sentimental vein.
+
+"I want no stars in Heaven to guide me,
+I need no......................
+......but, oh, the kingdom of my heart, love,
+Lies within thy loving arms...."
+
+His voice dropped a note lower and the rest of the distinctly enunciated
+words failed to reach through the long rooms. Phoebe also failed to
+catch a quick breath that Andrew drew as he began stacking a pile of
+blue-prints into a leather case.
+
+"David Kildare," remarked the old major as he looked up over his book,
+"makes song the vehicle of expression of as many emotions in one
+half-hour as the ordinary man lives through in a lifetime. Had you not
+better attend to the safeguarding of Caroline Darrah's unsophistication,
+Phoebe?"
+
+"I wouldn't interrupt him for worlds, Major," laughed Phoebe as she arose
+from her chair. "I'm going to slip by the drawing-room and hurry down to
+that meeting of the Civic Improvement Association from which I hope to
+get at least a half column. Andrew'll go in and see to them."
+
+"Never!" answered Andrew promptly with a smile. "I'm going to beat a
+retreat and walk down with you. The major must assume that
+responsibility. Good-by!" And in a moment they had both made their
+escape, to the major's vast amusement.
+
+For the time being the music in the drawing-room had stopped and David
+and Caroline were deep in an animated conversation.
+
+"The trouble about it is that I am about to have my light put out," David
+was complaining as he sat on the piano-stool, glaring at a vase of
+unoffending roses on a table. "Being a ray of sunshine around the house
+for a sick poet is no job for a runabout child like me."
+
+"But he's so much better now, David, that I should think you would be
+perfectly happy. Though of course you are still a little uneasy about
+him." As Caroline Darrah spoke she swayed the long-stemmed rose she held
+in her hand and tipped it against one of its mates in the vase.
+
+"Uneasy, nothing! There's not a thing in the world the matter with him;
+ribs are all in commission and his collar-bone hitched on again. It's
+just a case of moonie sulks with him. He never was the real glad boy, but
+now he runs entirely to poetry and gloom. He won't go anywhere but over
+here to chew book-rags with the major or to read goo to Phoebe, which she
+passes on to you. Wish I'd let him die in the swamps; chasing away to
+Panama for him was my mistake, I see." And David ruffled a young rose
+that drooped confidingly over toward him.
+
+"Why did he ever go to Panama? Why does he build bridges and things?
+Other people like you and me can do that sort of thing; but he--," and
+Caroline Darrah raised her eyes full of naive questioning.
+
+"Heavens, woman, poetry never in the world would grub-stake six feet of
+husky man! But that's just like you and Phoebe and all the other women.
+You would like to feed me to the alligators, but the poet must sit in the
+shade and chew eggs and grape juice. You trample on my feelings, child,"
+and David sighed plaintively.
+
+Caroline eyed him a moment across the rose she held to her lips, then
+laughed delightedly.
+
+"Indeed, indeed, I couldn't stand losing you, David, nor could Phoebe.
+Don't imagine it!" And Caroline confessed her affection for him with the
+naïveté with which a child offers a flower.
+
+The absolute entente cordiale which had existed between her and Phoebe
+from the moment Mrs. Buchanan had presented them to each other in the
+dusk-shadowed library, had been extended to include David Kildare. He was
+duly appreciative of her almost appealing friendship, chaffed her about
+the three governors, depended upon her to further his tumultuous suit,
+admired her beauty, insisted upon it in season and out, and initiated her
+into the social intricacies of his gay set with the greatest glee.
+
+"I don't trust you one little bit, Caroline Darrah Brown," David broke in
+on her moment's silent appreciation of him and his friendliness. "You
+look at him kinder partial-like, too."
+
+"Oh, one _must_ admire him, his poems are so lovely! I have watched for
+them from the first one years ago. Do you remember the one where he--"
+
+"Don't remember a single line of a single one, and don't want to!
+Phoebe's always quoting them at me. She's got a book of 'em. See if I
+don't smash him up some day if I have to listen to much more of it."
+David's face was a study in the contradictions of a tormented grin.
+
+Caroline eyed him again for a moment across the rose and then they both
+laughed delightedly. But David was for the pressing of his point just the
+same.
+
+"Dear Daughter of the Three," he pleaded, "can't you help me out?
+Mollycoddle him a bit. Do, now, that's a good child! Keep him
+'interested', as _she_ calls it! You are quite as good to look at as
+Phoebe and are enough more--more,"--and David paused for a word that
+would compare Caroline's appeal and Phoebe's brisk challenge.
+
+"Yes, I understand. I really am _more_ so; but how can I help you out if
+he never even sees me when I'm there?" And Caroline raised eyes to him
+that held a hint of wistfulness in their banter.
+
+"The old mole-eyed grump never sees anybody nor anything. But let's plot
+a scheme. This three-handed game doesn't suit me; promise to be good and
+sit in. I haven't had Phoebe to myself for the long time. He needs a
+heart interest of his own--I'm tired of lending him mine. You're not
+busy--that's a sweet girl! Don't make me feel I inherited you for
+nothing," said David in a most beguiling voice as he moved a shade nearer
+to her.
+
+"I promise, I promise! If you take that tone with me, I'm afraid not to:
+but I feel you mistake my powers," and Caroline laid the rose across her
+knee and dropped her long lashes over her eyes. "I think I'll fail with
+your poet; something tells me it is a vain task. Let's put it in the
+hands of the gods. It may interest them."
+
+"No, I'm going to shoo him in here right now," answered David, bent upon
+the immediate accomplishment of his scheme for the relief of his very
+independent lady-love from her friendly durance. "You just wait and get a
+line of moon-talk ready for him. Keep that rose in your hand and handle
+your eyes carefully."
+
+"Oh, but it's impossible!" exclaimed Caroline with real alarm in her
+voice. She rose and the flower fell shattered at her feet. "I'm going to
+have a little business talk with the major before Captain Cantrell and
+the other gentlemen come. I have an appointment with him. Won't you leave
+it to the gods?"
+
+"No, for the gods might not know Phoebe. She'd hunt a hot brick for a
+sick kitten if I was freezing to death, and besides I need her in my
+business at this very moment."
+
+"Caroline, my dear," said the major from the door into the library, "from
+the strenuosity in the tones of David Kildare I judge he is discussing
+his usual topic. Phoebe and Andrew have just gone and left their good-bys
+for you both."
+
+"Now, Major," demanded David indignantly, "how could you let her get away
+when you had her here?"
+
+"Young man," answered the major, "the constraining of a woman of these
+times is well-nigh impossible, as you should have found out after your
+repeated efforts in that direction."
+
+"That's it, Major, you can't hang out any signal for them now; you have
+to grab them as they go past, swing out into space and pray for strength
+to hold on. I believe if you stood still they would come and feed out of
+your hand a heap quicker than they will be whistled down--if you can get
+the nerve to try 'em. Think I'll go and see." And David took his
+studiedly unhurried departure.
+
+"David Kildare translates courtship into strange modern terms," remarked
+the major as he led Caroline into the library and seated her in Mrs.
+Matilda's low chair near his own.
+
+"The roses are blooming this morning, my dear," he said, looking
+with delight at the soft color in her cheeks and the stars in her
+black-lashed, violet eyes. A shaft of sunlight glinted in the gold of her
+hair which was coiled low and from which little tendrils curled down on
+her white neck.
+
+She was very dainty and lovely, was Caroline Darrah Brown, with the
+loveliness of a windflower and young with the innocent youngness of an
+April day. She was slightly different from any girl the major had ever
+known and he observed her type with the greatest interest.
+
+She had been tutored and trained and French-convented and specialized by
+adepts in the inculcating of every air and grace with which the women of
+vaster wealth are expected to be equipped. Money and the girl had been
+the ruling passions of Peters Brown's life and the one had been all for
+the serving purposes of the other. It had been the one aim of his
+existence to bring to a perfect flowering the new-born bud his southern
+wife had left him, and he had succeeded. Yet she seemed so slight a
+woman-thing to be bearing the burden of a great wealth and a great
+loneliness that the major's eyes grew very tender as he asked:
+
+"What is it, clear, a crumpled rose-leaf?"
+
+"Major," she answered as her slender fingers opened and closed a book on
+the table near her, "did you realize that two months have passed since I
+came to--to--"
+
+"Came _home_, child," prompted the major as he touched lightly the
+restless hand near his own.
+
+"I am beginning to feel as if it might be that, and yet I don't know--not
+until I talk to you about it all. Everybody has been good to me. I feel
+that they really care and I love it--and them all! But, Major, did
+you--know--my father--well?"
+
+"Yes, my dear." He answered, looking her straight in the eyes, "I knew
+Peters Brown and had pleasantly hostile relations with him always."
+
+"This memorandum--I got it together before I came down here, while I was
+settling up his estate. It is the list of the investments he made while
+in the South for the twenty years after the war. I want to talk them over
+with you." She looked at the major squarely and determinedly.
+
+"Fire away," he answered with courage in his voice that belied the
+feeling beneath it.
+
+"I see that in eighteen seventy-nine he bought lumber lands from Hayes
+Donelson. The price seems to have been practically nominal in view of
+what he sold a part of them for three years later. Was Hayes Donelson
+Phoebe's father? I want to know all about him."
+
+"My dear, you are giving a large order for ancient history--Captain
+Donelson couldn't fill it himself if he were alive. Those lumber lands
+were just a stick or two that he threw on the grand bonfire. He sold
+everything he had and instituted and ran the most inflammatory newspaper
+in the South. He gloried in an attitude of non-reconstruction and died
+when Phoebe was a year old. Her mother raised Phoebe by keeping boarders,
+but failed to raise the mortgage on the family home. She died trying and
+Phoebe has kept her own sleek little head above water since her sixteenth
+year by reporting and editing Dimity Doings on the paper her father
+founded. I think she has learned a pretty good swimming stroke by this
+time. It is still a measure ahead of that of David Kildare and--"
+
+"Oh, you _must_ help me make her take what would have been a fair price
+for those lands, Major. I'm determined--I--I--" Caroline's voice faltered
+but her head was well up. "I'm determined; but we'll talk of that later.
+He bought the Cantrell land and divided it up into the first improved
+city addition. Was it, was it 'carpetbagging'?" She flushed as she said
+the word--"Was it pressure? Were the Cantrells in need?"
+
+"Not for long, my dear, not for long! Mrs. Tom took that money and bought
+cows for the east farm, ran a dairy in opposition to Matilda's and then
+got her into a combine to ship gilt-edge to Cincinnati. I expected them
+to skim the milky way any night and put a star brand of butter on the
+market. They made a great deal of money and were proportionately hard to
+manage. Young Tom inherits from his mother and makes paying combines in
+stocks. Old Tom hasn't a thing to do but sit in the sun and spin tales
+about battles he was and was not in. It wouldn't do to drag up that
+pinched period of his life; he is too expansive now to be made to recall
+it." The major smiled invitingly as if he had hopes of an interested
+question that would turn the trend of the conversation, but Caroline
+Darrah held herself sternly to the matter in hand.
+
+"And you, I see a sale of half of your land at--"
+
+"Caroline Darrah Brown, look me straight in the eyes," interrupted the
+major in a commanding voice. He sat up and bent his keen black eyes that
+sparkled under his heavy white brows with absolute luminosity upon the
+girl at his side. When aroused the major was a live wire and he was
+buckling on his sword to do battle with a woman-trouble, and a dire one.
+
+"Now," he continued, "I'm going to say things to you that you are to
+understand and remember, young woman. Your father did come down among us
+with what you have heard called a 'carpetbag' in his hands, but it wasn't
+an _empty_ one: and while the sums he handed out to each of us might be
+considered inadequate, still they were a purchasing power at a time
+when things were congested for the lack of any circulating medium
+whatever. True, I sold him half my thousand acres for a song; but the
+song fenced the other half, bought implements and stock, and made Matilda
+possible. She was eighteen and I was twenty-eight when we joined forces
+and it was decidedly to the tune of your father's 'song'. It was the same
+with the rest of his--friends. You must see that in the painful processes
+of reconstructing us the carpetbag had its uses. If it went away
+plethoric with coal and iron and lumber, it left a little gold in its
+wake. And Peters Brown--"
+
+"Major," said Caroline in a brave voice, "it killed him, the memory of it
+and not being able to bring me back to her people. He was changed and he
+realized that he left me very much alone in the world. If there had been
+any of her immediate family alive we might have felt differently--but
+her friends--I didn't know that I would be welcomed. Now--now--I begin
+to hope. I want to give some of it back! I have so much--"
+
+"Caroline, child," answered the major with a smile that was infinitely
+tender, "we don't need it! We've had a hand-to-hand fight to inherit the
+land of our fathers but we're building fortunes fast; we and the
+youngsters. The gray line has closed up its ranks and toed hard marks
+until it presents a solid front once more; some of it bent and shaky but
+supported on all sides by keen young blood. A solid front, I say, and a
+friendly one, flying no banners of bitterness--don't you like us?" and
+the smile broadened until it warmed the very blood in Caroline Darrah's
+heart.
+
+"Yes," she said as she lifted her eyes to his and laid both her hands in
+the lean strong one he held out for her then, "and all that awful feeling
+has gone completely. I feel--feel new born!"
+
+"And isn't it a great thing that we mortals are given a few extra natal
+days? If we were born all at one time we couldn't so well enjoy the
+processes. Now, I intend to assume that fate has laid you on my door-step
+and--"
+
+"Dearie me," said Mrs. Buchanan as she sailed into the room with colors
+flying in cheeks and eyes, "did Phoebe go on to that meeting after all?
+Did she promise to come back? Where's Andrew? Caroline, child, what have
+you and the major been doing all the afternoon? It's after four and you
+are both still indoors."
+
+"I have been adopting Caroline Darrah and she has been adopting me,"
+answered the major as he caught hold of the lace that trailed from one of
+his wife's wrists. "I think I am about to persuade her to stay with us. I
+find I need attention occasionally and you are otherwise engaged for the
+winter."
+
+"Isn't he awful, Caroline," smiled Mrs. Matilda as she sank for a moment
+on a chair near them, "when I haven't a thought in the day that is not
+for him? But I must hurry and tell Tempie that they will all be here from
+the philharmonic musicale for tea. Dear, please see that the flowers are
+arranged; I had to leave it to Jane this morning. I find I must run over
+and speak to Mrs. Shelby about something important, for a moment. Shall I
+have buttered biscuits or cake for tea? Caroline, love, just decide and
+tell Tempie. I'll be back in a minute," and depositing an airy kiss on
+the major's scalp lock and bestowing a smile on Caroline, she departed.
+
+The major listened until he heard the front door close then said with one
+of his slow little smiles, "If I couldn't shut my eye and get a mental
+picture of her in a white sunbonnet with her skirts tucked up trudging
+along behind me dropping corn in the furrows as I opened them with the
+plow, I might feel that I ought to--er--remonstrate with her. But there
+are bubbles in the nature of most women that will rise to the surface as
+soon as the cork is removed. Matilda is a good brand of extra dry and the
+cork was in a long time--rammed down tight--bless her!"
+
+"She is the very dearest thing I ever knew," answered Caroline with a
+curly smile around her tender mouth. "A letter she wrote while under the
+pressure of the cork is my chiefest treasure. It was written to welcome
+me when I was born and I found it last summer, old and yellow. It was
+what made me think I might come--_home_."
+
+"That was like Matilda," answered the major with a smile in his eyes.
+"She was putting in a claim for you then, though she didn't realize it.
+Women have always worked combinations by wireless at long time and long
+distance. Better make it buttered biscuits, and Phoebe likes them with
+plenty of butter."
+
+Tempie's adoption of Caroline Darrah had been as complete and as
+enthusiastic as the rest of them and she had proceeded forthwith to put
+her through a course of domestic instruction that delighted the hearts of
+them both. She never failed to bemoan the fate that had left the child
+ignorant of matters of such importance and she was stern in her endeavor
+to correct the pernicious neglect. She had to admit, however, that
+Caroline was an extraordinarily apt pupil and she laid it all to what she
+called "the Darrah strain of cooking blood," though she was as proud as
+possible over each triumph. Nothing pleased them both more than to have
+Mrs. Buchanan occasionally leave culinary arrangements to their
+co-administration.
+
+An hour later a gay party was gathered around the table in the
+drawing-room. The major sat near at hand enjoying it hugely, and his
+comments were dropped like philosophical crystals into the swell of the
+conversation.
+
+Mrs. Cherry Lawrence had come in with Mrs. Matilda in all the bravery of
+a most striking, becoming and expensive second mourning costume, and she
+was keenly alive to every situation that might be made to compass even
+the smallest amount of gaiety. Her lavender embroideries were the only
+reminders of the existence of the departed Cherry, and their lavishness
+was a direct defiance of his years of effort in the curtailing of the
+tastes of his expensive wife.
+
+Tom Cantrell's lean dark face of Indian cast lit up like a transparency
+when she arrived and he left Polly Farrell's side so quickly that Polly
+almost dropped the lemon fork with which she was maneuvering, in her
+surprise at his sudden desertion. In a moment he had divested the widow
+of a long cloth and sable coat that would have made Cherry sit up and
+groan if he had even had a grave-dream about it. She bestowed a smile on
+Polly, a still more impressive one on the major and sank into a chair
+near Phoebe.
+
+"Why, where is David Kildare?" she asked interestedly. "I thought he
+would be here before me. He promised to come. Phoebe, you are sweet in
+that dark gray. Has anybody anything interesting to tell?"
+
+"I have," answered Polly as she passed Phoebe a cup and a mischievous
+smile, for Mrs. Cherry's appointment with David tickled Polly's risibles
+to an alarming extent. "There's the most heavenly man down here from
+Boston to see Caroline Darrah Brown and she _neglects_ him. I'm so sorry
+for him that I don't know what will happen. I'm--"
+
+"Why, where is he?" interrupted Mrs. Cherry with the utmost cordiality.
+
+They all laughed as Polly parted her charming lips and passed the
+questioner the lemon slices with impressive obviousness.
+
+"He's gone to the station to see about his horses that he has had shipped
+down. We're going to hunt some more, no matter how cold; all of us,
+Caroline and David and the rest."
+
+"Andrew Sevier hasn't hunted at all this fall, as fond of it as he is.
+He'll never come now that you've annexed a foreign element, Polly. He's
+among strangers so much that he's rather absurd about wanting the close
+circle of just his old friends to be unbroken when he's home. Where is he
+to-day?" As she spoke Mrs. Cherry had looked at Caroline Darrah with a
+glance in which Phoebe detected a slight insolence and at which the major
+narrowed his observant eyes.
+
+"Why, he's gone down to the station with Caroline's friend to see about
+having the horses sent out to Seven Oaks," answered Phoebe in a smooth
+cool voice. "I think all of us have been disappointed that Andrew has had
+to be so careful since his accident; but now that he can come over here
+every day to book gloat with the major and have Mrs. Matilda and Tempie,
+to say nothing of Caroline Darrah, the new star cook-lady, to feed him
+up, I think we can go about our own affairs unworried over him." The
+sweet smile that Phoebe bent upon the widow was so delicious that the
+major rattled the sugar tongs on the tea-tray by way of relief from an
+unendurably suppressed chuckle.
+
+"But when I hunt next David has promised me possums and persimmons," said
+Caroline Darrah from her seat on the sofa beside Phoebe. She was totally
+oblivious of the small tongue-tilt just completed. "He says the first
+damp night on the last quarter of the moon when the wind is from the
+southeast and--"
+
+"Howdy, people!" came an interrupting call from the hall and at that
+moment David himself came into the room. "I'm late but I've been four
+places hunting for you, Phoebe, and had three cups of tea in the
+scramble. However, I would like a buttered biscuit if somebody feeds it
+to me. I've had a knock-out blow and I've got news to tell."
+
+"You can tell it before you get the biscuit," said Phoebe cold-heartedly,
+but she laid two crisp disks on the edge of his saucer. She apparently
+failed to see that Mrs. Cherry was endeavoring to pass him the plate.
+
+"It's only that Milly Overton has perpetrated two more crimes on the
+community, at three-thirty to-day--assorted boy and girl." And David
+grinned with sheer delight at having projected such a bomb in the circle.
+
+"What!" demanded Phoebe while Mrs. Cherry lay back in her chair and
+fanned herself, and Mrs. Buchanan paused with suspended teapot.
+
+"Yes," he answered jubilantly, "Of course little Mistake is only two and
+a quarter and Crimie can just toddle on his hocks at one and a fifth
+years; but the two little crimes are here, and are going to stay. Billy
+Bob is down at the club getting his back slapped off about it. He's
+accessory you understand. He says Milly is radiant and wants all of you
+to come and see them right away. But what I want to see is Grandma
+Shelby--won't she rage? I'm going to send her a message of
+congratulations and then stand away. Just watch for--"
+
+"Why--I don't quite understand," said Caroline Darrah as she leaned
+forward with puzzled eyes.
+
+"Neither do any of the rest of us," answered David gleefully. "We didn't
+understand how Billy Bob managed to pluck Mildred from the golden-dollar
+Shelby stem in the first place, at a salary of one twenty-five a month
+out at Hob's mills. But Billy Bob is the brave boy and he marched right
+up and told the old lady about the first kid as soon as he came. Then she
+glared at him and said in an awful tone, 'Mistake.' Billy Bob just oozed
+out of that door and Mistake the youngster has been ever since. I named
+the next Crimie before _she_ got to it. But watch her rage, poor old
+dame! It's up to somebody to remonstrate with Milly about this unbecoming
+conduct it seems to me," and David glanced around the little circle for
+his laugh which he promptly received.
+
+Only Phoebe sat with her head turned from him and Caroline Darrah
+exclaimed in distress:
+
+"How could her mother not care for them?"
+
+"Tempie," said Mrs. Buchanan, "pack up a basket of every kind of jelly.
+Get that little box I fixed day before yesterday; you know it; wasn't it
+fortunate that I embroidered two? And tell Jeff I want the carriage at
+six."
+
+"And, Tempie, tell Jeff to get you two bottles of that seventy-two
+brandy; no, maybe the sixty-eight will be better; it's apple, and apples
+and colic bear a synthetic relation which in this case may be reversed.
+Those children must be started off in life properly." And the major's
+eyes shone with the most amused interest.
+
+"What's that?" asked David in the general excitement that had arisen at a
+farther realization of his news. "Don't you want them to join the 'state
+wide' band, Major? Aren't you going to give them a chance to fly a white
+ribbon?"
+
+"Well, I don't know," answered the major with a judicial eye, "temperance
+is a quality of mind and not solely of throat. Let's depend somewhat on
+eradication by future education and not give the colic a start."
+
+"Don't you think it would be nice for you girls to drive down with me and
+take the babies some congratulations and flowers, Phoebe?" asked Mrs.
+Buchanan an hour later as they all lingered over the empty cups. "Will
+you come too, David?"
+
+"Yes," answered Phoebe, "I think it would be lovely, but you and Caroline
+drive down and I will walk in with David, I think. Ready, David?" And
+Phoebe gathered up her muff and gloves and gave her hand to the major.
+
+"David," she said after they had reached the street and were swinging
+along in the early twilight; and as she spoke she looked him full in the
+face with her gray level glance that counted whenever she chose to use
+it, "is it your idea--do you think it fair to ridicule Mildred about--the
+babies?"
+
+"Why," answered the completely floored Kildare, "I just haven't any idea
+on the subject. Everybody was laughing about it--and isn't it--er--a
+little funny?"
+
+"No," answered Phoebe emphatically, "it isn't _funny_ and if you begin to
+laugh everybody else will. It may hurt Milly, she is so gentle and dear,
+and you are their best friend. I won't have it! I won't! I'm tired,
+anyway, of having fun made of all the sacred things in life. All of us
+swing around in a silly whirl and when a woman like Mildred begins to
+live her life in a--er--natural way, we--ridicule! She is brave and
+strong and works hard; and she has the _real_ things of life and makes
+the sacrifices for them. While we--"
+
+"Oh, heavenly hope, Phoebe!" gasped David Kildare, "don't rub it in! I
+see it now--a lot of magazine stuff jogging the women up about the kids
+and all--and here Milly is a hero and we--the jolly fun-pokers. I've got
+to help 'em some way! Wish Billy Bob would sell me this last bunch; guess
+he would--one, anyway?" And the contrite David gazed down at Phoebe in
+whose upturned eyes there dawned a wealth of mirth.
+
+"David," she said, perhaps more softly than she had ever spoken to him in
+all the days of his pursuit, "I know--I felt sure that you felt all right
+about it. I couldn't bear to have you say or do--"
+
+"Now, I'll 'fess a thing to you that I didn't think wild horses could
+drag out of me, Phoebe. I was down there an hour ago in the back hall of
+that flat and Billy Bob let me hold the pair of 'em and squeeze 'em. I
+guess we both--just shed a few, you know, because he was so excited. Men
+are such slobs at times--when women don't know about it." And David
+winked fiercely at the early electric light that glowed warm against the
+winter sky.
+
+"And you are a very dear boy, David," said Phoebe softly as her hand
+slipped out of her muff and dropped into his and rested there for just
+one enchanting half-second. "Dearer than you know in some ways. No, don't
+think of coming up with me, you've paid your visit of welcome. Good
+night! Yes, I think so--in the afternoon about three o'clock and we can
+go on to Mrs. Pepton's reception. Good night again!"
+
+"Phoebe," he called after her, "the one with the yellow fuzz is the girl,
+buy her for me if you can flimflam Milly into it! Any old price, you
+know. Hurrah, America for the Anglo-Saxons! Hurrah for Milly and Dixie!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+ACCORDING TO SOLOMON
+
+
+"And it was by this very pattern, Caroline, I made the dozen I sent Mary
+Caroline for you. See the little slips fold over and hold up the
+petticoats," and Mrs. Buchanan held up a tiny garment for Caroline Darrah
+to admire. They sat by the sunny window in her living-room and both were
+sewing on dainty cambric and lace. Caroline Darrah's head bent over the
+piece of ruffling in her hand with flower-like grace and the long lines
+from her throat suggested decidedly a very lovely Preraphaelite angel.
+Her needle moved slowly and unaccustomedly but she had the air of doing
+the hemming bravely if fearfully.
+
+"Isn't it darling?" she said as she raised her head for a half-second,
+then immediately dropped her eyes and went on printing her stitches
+carefully. "What else was in that box, I feel I need to know?" she asked.
+
+"Let me see! The dozen little shirts, they were made out of some of
+my own trousseau things because of a scarcity of linen in those days,
+and two little embroidered caps and a blue cashmere sack and a set of
+crocheted socks and--and the major sent brandy, he always does. I
+have the letter she wrote me about it all. And to think she had to
+leave--" Mrs. Matilda's eyes misted as she paused to thread her needle.
+
+"She didn't realize--that, and think of what she felt when she opened the
+box," said Caroline as she raised her eyes that smiled through a
+threatened shower. "Oh, I mustn't let the tears fall on Little Sister's
+ruffle!" she added quickly as she took up her work.
+
+"That reminds me of an accident to the shirts I made for Phoebe. They
+were being bleached in the sun when a calf took a fancy to them and
+chewed two of them entirely up before we discovered him. I was so
+provoked, for I had no more linen as fine as I wanted."
+
+"Of course the calf ate up my shirts," came in Phoebe's laughing voice
+from the doorway where she had been standing unobserved for several
+minutes, watching Mrs. Buchanan and Caroline. "Something is always
+chewing at my affairs but Mrs. Matilda shoos them away for me sometimes
+still--even _calves_ when it is positively necessary. How very
+industrious you do look! At times even I sigh for a needle, though I
+wouldn't know what to do with it. There seems to be something in a
+woman's soul that nothing but a needle satisfies; morbid craving, that!"
+
+"Phoebe, I want to make something for you. I feel I must as soon as these
+petticoats for Little Sister are done. What shall it be?" and Caroline
+Darrah beamed upon Phoebe with the warmest of inter-woman glances. The
+affection for Phoebe which had possessed the heart of Caroline Darrah had
+deepened daily and to its demands, Phoebe, for her, had been most
+unusually responsive.
+
+"At your present rate of stitching I will have a year or two to decide,
+beautiful," she answered as she settled down on the broad window-seat
+near them. "David Kildare and I have come to lunch, Mrs. Matilda, and the
+major has sent him over for Andrew. I hope he brings him, but I doubt it.
+I have told Tempie and she says she is glad to have us," she added as
+Mrs. Buchanan turned and looked in the direction of the kitchen regions.
+They all smiled, for the understanding that existed between Phoebe and
+Tempie was the subject of continual jest.
+
+"Have you seen the babies to-day?" asked Caroline as she drew a long new
+thread through the needle. "Isn't it lovely the way people are making
+them presents? Mr. Capers says the men at the mills are going to give
+them each a thousand dollar mill bond."
+
+"Well, I doubt seriously if they will live to use the bonds if some one
+does not stop David from trying experiments with them," answered Phoebe
+with a laugh. "After dinner last night he came in with two little
+sleeping hammock machines which he insisted in putting up on the wall for
+them. If the pulley catches you have to stand on a chair to extract them;
+and if it slips, down they come. Milly was so grateful and let him play
+with them for an hour; she's a sweet soul."
+
+"Has he sent any more food?" asked Mrs. Matilda as they all laughed.
+
+"Two more cases of a new kind he saw advertised in a magazine. Somebody
+must tell him that--Milly is equal to the situation. Billy Bob _won't_;
+and so the cases continue to arrive. The pantry is crowded with them and
+they have sent a lot to the Day Nursery," and Phoebe slipped from the
+window-seat down on to the rug at Caroline's feet in a perfect ecstasy
+of mirth.
+
+"But he is just the dearest boy, Phoebe," said Caroline Darrah as she
+paused in her sewing to caress the sleek, black, braided head tipped back
+against her knee. There was the shadow of reproach in her voice as she
+smiled down into the gray eyes upturned to hers.
+
+"Yes," answered Phoebe, instantly on the defensive, "he is just exactly
+that, Caroline Darrah Brown--and he doesn't seem to be able to get over
+it. I'm afraid it's chronic with him."
+
+"He's young yet," Mrs. Buchanan remarked as she clipped a thread with her
+bright scissors.
+
+"No," said Phoebe slowly, "he is six years older than I am and that makes
+him thirty-two. I have earned my living for ten years and a man five
+years younger who sits at a desk next to mine at the office is taking
+care of his mother and educating two younger brothers on a salary that is
+less than mine--but _David_ is a dear! Did you see the little coats Polly
+sent the babies?" she asked quickly to close the subject and to cover a
+note of pain she had discovered in her own voice.
+
+"They were lovely," answered Mrs. Buchanan. "Now let me show you how to
+roll and whip your ruffle, Caroline dear," she added as she bent over
+Caroline's completed hem. In a moment they were both immersed in a
+scientific discussion of under-and-over stitch.
+
+Phoebe clasped her knees in her arms and gazed into the fire. Her own
+involuntary summing up of David Kildare had struck into her inner
+consciousness like a blow. And Phoebe could not have explained to even
+herself what it was in her that demanded the hewer of wood and drawer of
+water in a man--in David. Decidedly Phoebe's demands were for elementals
+and she questioned Kildare's right to his leisurely life based on the
+Jeffersonian ideals of his forefathers.
+
+And while they sewed and chatted the hour away, over in the library the
+major and David were in interested conclave.
+
+"Now, I leave it to you, Major, if he isn't just the limit," said David
+on his return from his mission for the purpose of drawing Andrew from his
+lair. "I couldn't budge him. He is writing away like all possessed with a
+two-apple-and-a-cracker lunch on the table beside him. He seems to enjoy
+a death-starve."
+
+"David," said the major as he laid aside the book he had been buried in
+and began to polish his glasses, "you make no allowances whatever for the
+artistic temperament. When a man is making connection with his solar
+plexus he doesn't consider the consumption of food of paramount
+importance. Now in this treatise of Aristotle--"
+
+"Well, anyway, I've made up my mind to fix up something between him and
+Caroline Darrah. He's got to get a heart interest of his own and let
+mine alone. The child is daffy about his poetry and moons at him all the
+time out of the corners of her eyes, dandy eyes at that; but the old
+ink-swiller acts as if she wasn't there at all. What'll I do to make him
+just see her? Just see her--_see her_--that'll be enough!"
+
+"David," said the major quietly as he looked into the fire with his
+shaggy brows bent over his keen eyes, "the combination of a man heart and
+a woman heart makes a dangerous explosive at the best, but here are
+things that make it fatal. The one you are planning would be deadly."
+
+"Why, why in the world shouldn't I touch them off? Perfectly nice girl,
+all right man and--"
+
+"Boy, have you forgotten that I told you of the night Andrew Sevier's
+father killed himself; yes, that he had sat the night through at the
+poker table with Peters Brown? Brown offered some restoration compromise
+to the widow but she refused--you know the struggle that she made and
+that it killed her. We both know the grit it took for Andrew to chisel
+himself into what he is. The first afternoon he met the girl in here,
+right by this table, for an instant I was frightened--only _she_ didn't
+know, thank God! The Almighty gardens His women-things well and fends off
+influences that shrivel; it behooves men to do the same."
+
+"So that's it," exclaimed Kildare, serious in his dismay. "Of course I
+remember it, but I had forgotten to connect up the circumstances. It's a
+mine all right, Major--and the poor little girl! She reads his poetry
+with Phoebe and to me and she admires him and is deferential and--that
+girl--the sweetest thing that ever happened! I don't know whether to go
+over and smash him or to cry on his collar."
+
+"Dave," answered the major as he folded his hands and looked off across
+the housetops glowing in the winter sun, "some snarls in our life-lines
+only the Almighty can unravel; He just depends on us to keep hands off.
+Andrew is a fine product of disastrous circumstances. A man who can build
+a bridge, tunnel a mountain and then sit down by a construction camp-fire
+at night and write a poem and a play, must cut deep lines in life and
+he'll not cut them in a woman's heart--if he can help it."
+
+"And she must never know, Major, _never_," said David with distress in
+his happy eyes; "we must see to that. It ought to be easy to keep. It was
+so long ago that nobody remembers it. But wait--that is what Mrs. Cherry
+Lawrence meant when she said to Phoebe in Caroline's presence that it was
+just as well under the circumstances that the committee had not asked
+Andrew to write the poem for the unveiling of the statue. I wondered at
+the time why Phoebe dealt her such a knock-out glance that even I
+staggered. And she's given her cold-storage attentions ever since. Mrs.
+Cherry rather fancies Andy, I gather. Would she dare, do you think?"
+
+"Women," remarked the major dryly, "when man-stalking make very cruel
+enemies for the weaker of their kind. Let's be thankful that pursuit is a
+perverted instinct in them that happens seldom. We can trust much to
+Phoebe. The Almighty puts the instinct for mother guarding all younger or
+lesser women into the heart of superbly sexed women like Phoebe Donelson,
+and with her aroused we may be able to keep it from the child."
+
+"Ah, but it is sad, Major," said David in a low voice deeply moved with
+emotion. "Sad for her who does not know--and for him who does."
+
+"And it was farther reaching than that, Dave," answered the major slowly,
+and the hand that held the dying pipe trembled against the table. "Andrew
+Sevier was a loss to us all at the time and to you for whom we builded.
+The youngest and strongest and best of us had been mowed down before a
+four-years' rain of bullets and there were few enough of us left to build
+again. And of us all he had the most constructive power. With the same
+buoyant courage that he had led our regiment in battle did he lead the
+remnant of us in reconstructing our lives. He was gay and optimistic,
+laughed at bitterness and worked with infectious spirits and superb
+force. We all depended on him and followed him keenly. We loved him and
+let ourselves be laughed into his schemes. It was his high spirits and
+temperament that led to his gaming and tragedy. Nearly thirty years he's
+been dead, the happy Andrew. This boy's like him, very like him."
+
+"I see it--I see it," answered David slowly, "and all of that glad heart
+was bred in Andy, Major, and it's there under his sadness. Heavens,
+haven't I seen it in the hunting field as he landed over six stiff bars
+on a fast horse? It's in some of his writing and sometimes it flashes in
+his eyes when he is excited. I've seen it there lately more often than
+ever before. God, Major, last night his eyes fairly danced when I plagued
+Caroline into asking him to whom he wrote that serenade which I have set
+to music and sing for her so often. It hurts me all over--it makes
+me weak--"
+
+"It's hunger, David, lunch is almost ready," said Phoebe who had come
+into the room in time to catch his last words. "Why, where is Andrew?
+Wouldn't he come?"
+
+"No," answered Kildare quickly, covering his emotion with a laugh as he
+refused to meet Caroline Darrah's eyes which wistfully asked the same
+question that Phoebe had voiced, "he is writing a poem--about---about,"
+his eyes roamed the room wildly for he had got into it, and his stock of
+original poem-subjects was very short. Finally his music lore yielded
+a point, "It's about a girl drinking--only with her eyes you
+understand--and--"
+
+"He could save himself that trouble," laughed Phoebe, "for somebody has
+already written that; did it some time ago. Run stop him, David."
+
+"No," answered David with recovered spirit, "I'd flag a train for you,
+Phoebe, but I don't intend to side-track a poem for anybody. Besides, I'm
+hungry and I see Jeff with a tray. Mrs. Matilda, please put Caroline
+Darrah by me. She's attentive and Phoebe just diets--me."
+
+And while they laughed and chatted and feasted the hour away, across the
+street Andrew sat with his eyes looking over on to the major's red roof
+which was shrouded in a mist of yesterdays through which he was watching
+a slender boy toil his way. When he was eight he had carried a long route
+of the daily paper and he could feel now the chill dark air out into
+which he had slipped as his mother stood at the door and watched him down
+the street with sad and hungry eyes, the gaunt mother who had never
+smiled. He had fought and punched and scuffled in the dawn for his bundle
+of papers; and he had fought and scuffled for all he had got of life for
+many years. But a result had come--and it was rich. How he had managed an
+education he could hardly see himself; only the major had helped. Not
+much, but just enough to make it possible. And David had always stood by.
+
+Kildare's fortune had come from some almost forgotten lumber lands that
+his father had failed to heave into the Confederate maelstrom. Perhaps it
+had come a little soon for the very best upbuilding of the character of
+David Kildare, but he had stood shoulder to shoulder with them all in the
+fight for the establishment of the new order of things and his generosity
+with himself and his wealth had been superb. The delight with which he
+made a gift of himself to any cause whatsoever, rather tended to blight
+the prospects of what might have been a brilliant career at law. With his
+backing Hobson Capers had opened the cotton mills on a margin of no
+capital and much grit. Then Tom Cantrell had begun stock manipulations
+on a few blocks of gas and water, which his mother and Andrew had put up
+the money to buy--and nerve.
+
+It was good to think of them all now in the perspective of the then. Were
+there any people on earth who could swing the pendulum like those scions
+of the wilderness cavaliers and do it with such dignity? He was tasting
+an aftermath and he found it sweet--only the bitterness that had killed
+his mother before he was ten. And across the street sat the daughter of
+the man who had pressed the cup to her lips--with her father's millions
+and her mother's purple eyes.
+
+He dropped his hand on his manuscript and began to write feverishly. Then
+in a moment he paused. The Panama campfire, beside which he had written
+his first play, that was running in New York now, rose in a vision. Was
+it any wonder that the managers had jumped at the chance to produce the
+first drama from the country's newly acquired jungle? The lines had been
+rife with the struggle and intrigue of the great canal cutting. It really
+was a ripping play he told himself with a smile--and this other? He
+looked at it a moment in a detached way. This other throbbed.
+
+He gathered the papers together in his hand and walked to the window. The
+sun was now aslant through the trees. It was late and they must have all
+gone their ways from across the street; only the major would be alone and
+appreciative. Andrew smiled quizzically as he regarded the pages in his
+hand--but it was all so to the good to read the stuff to the old fellow
+with his Immortals ranged round!
+
+"Great company that," he mused to himself as he let himself out of the
+apartment. And as he walked slowly across the street and into the
+Buchanan house, Fate took up the hand of Andrew Sevier and ranged his
+trumps for a new game.
+
+In the moment he parted the curtains and stepped into the library the old
+dame played a small signal, for there, in the major's wide chair, sat
+Caroline Darrah Brown with her head bent over a large volume spread open
+upon the table.
+
+"Oh," she said with a quick smile and a rose signal in her cheeks,
+"the major isn't here! They came for him to go out to the farm to see
+about--about grinding something up to feed to--to--something or
+sheep--or--," she paused in distress as if it were of the utmost
+importance that she should inform him of the major's absence.
+
+"Silo for the cows," he prompted in a practical voice. It was well a
+practical remark fitted the occasion for the line from old Ben Jonson,
+which David had only a few hours ago accused him of plagiarizing, rose to
+the surface of his mind. Such deep wells of eyes he had never looked into
+in all his life before, and they were as ever, filled to the brim with
+reverence, even awe of him. It was a heady draught he quaffed before she
+looked down and answered his laconic remark.
+
+"Yes," she said, "that was it. And Mrs. Matilda and Phoebe motored out
+with him and David went on his horse. I am making calls, only I didn't. I
+stopped to--" and she glanced down with wild confusion, for the book
+spread out before her was the major's old family Bible, and the type was
+too bold to fail to declare its identity to his quick glance.
+
+"Don't worry," he hastened to say, "I don't mind. I read it myself
+sometimes, when I'm in a certain mood."
+
+"It was for David--he wanted to read something to Phoebe," she answered
+in ravishing confusion, and pointed to the open page.
+
+Thus Andrew Sevier was forced by old Fate to come near her and bend with
+her over the book. The tip of her exquisite finger ran along the lines
+that have figured in the woman question for many an age.
+
+"'For her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely
+trust in her'"--and so on down the page she led him.
+
+"And that was what the trouble was about," she said when they had read
+the last word in the last line. She raised her eyes to his with laughter
+in their depths. "It was a very dreadful battle and Phoebe won. The major
+found this for him to read to her and she said she did not intend to go
+into the real estate business for her husband or to rise while it was yet
+night to give him his breakfast. Aren't they funny, _funny_?" and she
+fairly rippled with delight at her recollection of the vanquishing of the
+intrepid David.
+
+"The standards for a wife were a bit strenuous in those days," he
+answered, smiling down on her. "I'm afraid Dave will have trouble finding
+one on those terms. And yet--" he paused and there was a touch of mockery
+in his tone.
+
+"I think that a woman could be very, very happy fulfilling every one of
+those conditions if she were woman enough," answered Caroline Darrah
+Brown, looking straight into his eyes with her beautiful, disconcerting,
+dangerous young seriousness.
+
+Andrew picked up his manuscript with the mental attitude of catching at a
+straw.
+
+"Oh," she said quickly, "you were going to read to the major, weren't
+you?" And the entreaty in her eyes was as young as her seriousness; as
+young as that of a very little girl begging for a wonder tale. The heart
+of a man may be of stone but even flint flies a spark.
+
+Andrew Sevier flushed under his pallor and ruffled his pages back to a
+serenade he had written, with which the star for whom the play was being
+made expected to exploit a deep-timbred voice in a recitative
+vocalization. And while he read it to her slowly, Fate finessed on the
+third round.
+
+And so the major found them an hour or more later, he standing in the
+failing light turning the pages and she looking up at him, listening,
+with her cheek upon her interlaced fingers and her elbows resting on the
+old book. The old gentleman stood at the door a long time before he
+interrupted them and after Andrew had gone down to put Caroline into her
+motorcar, which had been waiting for hours, he lingered at the window
+looking out into the dusk.
+
+"'For love is as strong as death,'" he quoted to himself as he turned to
+the table and slowly closed the book and returned it to its place. "'And
+many waters can not quench love, neither can the floods drown it.'"
+"Solomon was very great--and human," he further observed.
+
+Then after absorbing an hour or two of communion with some musty old
+papers and a tattered volume of uncertain age, the major was interrupted
+by Mrs. Matilda as she came in from her drive. She was a vision in her
+soft gray reception gown, and her gray hat, with its white velvet rose,
+was tipped over her face at an angle that denoted the spirit of
+adventure.
+
+"I'm so glad to get back, Major," she said as she stood and regarded him
+with affection beaming in her bright eyes. "Sometimes I hurry home to be
+sure you are safe here. I don't see you as much as I do out at Seven Oaks
+and I'm lonely going places away from you."
+
+"Don't you know it isn't the style any longer for a woman to carry her
+husband in her pocket, Matilda," he answered. "What would Mrs. Cherry
+Lawrence think of you?"
+
+Mrs. Buchanan laughed as she seated herself by him for the moment.
+"I've just come from Milly's," she said. "I left Caroline there. And
+Hobson was with her; they had been out motoring on the River Road. Do
+you suppose--it looks as if perhaps--?"
+
+"My dear Matilda," answered the major, "I never give or take a tip on a
+love race. The Almighty endows women with inscrutable eyes and the smile
+of the Sphynx for purposes of self-preservation, I take it, so a man
+wastes time trying to solve a woman-riddle. However, Hobson Capers is
+running a risk of losing much valuable time is the guess I chance on the
+issue in question."
+
+"And Peyton Kendrick and that nice Yankee boy and--"
+
+"All bunched, all bunched at the second post! There's a dark horse
+running and he doesn't know it himself. God help him!" he added under his
+breath as she turned to speak to Tempie.
+
+"If you don't want her to marry Hobson whom do you choose?" she said
+returning to the subject. "I wish--I wish--but of course it is
+impossible, and I'm glad, as it is, that Andrew is indifferent."
+
+"Yes," answered the major, "and you'll find that indifference is a hall
+mark stamped on most modern emotions."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+DAVID'S ROSE AND SOME THORNS
+
+
+"Now," said David, "if you'll just put away a few of those ancient pipes
+and puddle your papers a bit in your own cozy corner we can call these
+quarters ready to receive the ladies, God bless 'em! Does it look kinder
+bare to you? We might borrow a few drapes from the madam, or would you
+trust to the flowers? I'll send them up for you to fix around tasty.
+A blasted poet ought to know how to bunch spinach to look well."
+
+As he spoke David Kildare stood in the middle of the living-room in his
+bachelor quarters, which were in the Colonial, a tall pillared, wide
+windowed, white brick apartment-house that stood across the street from
+the home of Major Buchanan, and surveyed the long rooms upon which he and
+his man Eph had been expending their energies for more than an hour.
+
+Andrew Sevier sank down upon the arm of a chair and lighted a long and
+villainous pipe. "Trust to the flowers," he answered. "I think Phoebe
+doesn't care for the drapes of this life so much as some women do and as
+this is for her birthday let's have the flowers, sturdy ones with stiff
+stems and good head pieces."
+
+"That's right, Phoebe's nobody's clinging vine," answered David moodily.
+"She doesn't want any trellis either--wish something would wilt her! Look
+here, Andrew, on the square, what's the matter that I can't get Phoebe?
+You're a regular love pilot on paper, point me another course; this one
+is no good; I've run into a sand bank." The dark red forelock on David's
+brow was ruffled and his keen eyes were troubled, while his large sweet
+mouth was set in a straight firm line. He looked very strong, forceful
+and determined as he stopped in front of his friend and squared himself
+as if for a blow.
+
+Andrew Sevier looked at him thoughtfully for a few seconds straight
+between the eyes, then his mouth widened into an affectionate smile as he
+laid his hand on the sturdy shoulder and said:
+
+"Not a thing on God's green earth the matter with you, Davie; it's the
+modernism of the situation that you seem unable to handle. May I use your
+flower simile? Once they grew in gardens and were drooping and sweet and
+overran trellises, to say nothing of clinging to oak trees, but we've
+developed the American Beauty, old man! It stands stiff and glossy and
+holds its head up on its own stem, the pride of the nation! We can get
+them, though they come high. Ah, but they are sweet! Phoebe is one of the
+most gorgeous to be found--it will be a price to pay, but you'll pay it,
+David, you'll pay."
+
+"God knows I'm paying it all day long every day and have been paying it
+for ten years. Never at peace about her for an instant. Protection at
+long distance is no joke. I can't sleep at night until she telephones me
+she is at home from the office on her duty nights and then I have to beg
+like a dog for the wire, just the word or two. She _will_ overwork and
+undereat and--"
+
+"David," interrupted Sevier thoughtfully, "what do you really think is
+the matter? Let's get down to facts while we are about it."
+
+"Do you know, Andy, lately it has dawned upon me that Phoebe would like
+to dictate a life policy to me; hand me out a good, stiff life job. I
+believe she would marry me to-morrow if she could see me permanently
+installed on the front seat of a grocery wagon--_permanently_. And I'll
+come to it yet."
+
+"I believe you are right," laughed Andrew. "She really glories in her
+wage earning; it's a phase of them these days. She would actually hate
+living on your income."
+
+"Don't I know it? I suppose she would be content if she sewed on buttons
+and did the family wash to conserve the delivery wagon income. I wish
+she'd marry me for love and then I'd hire her at hundreds per week to
+dust around the house and cook pies for me, gladly, gladly."
+
+"We've developed thorns with our new rose, Dave," chuckled Andrew as he
+relighted his pipe.
+
+"Sweet hope of heaven, yes," groaned David. "My gore drips all the time
+from the gashes. I suppose it is a killing grief to her that I haven't a
+star corporation practise instead of fooling around the criminal court
+fighting old Taylor to get a square deal for the darky rag-tag most of my
+time. But, Andy, it makes me blaze house-high to see the way he hands the
+law out to 'em. They can cut and fight as long as it is in a whisky dive
+and no indictment returned; but let one of 'em sidestep an inch in any
+other ignorant pitiful way and it's the workhouse and the county road for
+theirs.
+
+"And the number of ways that the coons can get up to call on me to square
+the deal, is amazing. Just look at the week I've had! All Monday and
+Tuesday I spent on the Darky Country Club affair; the poor nigs just
+hungering for some place to go off and act white in for a few hours.
+Nobody would sell them an acre of ground near a car line and the dusky
+smart set was about to get its light put out. Jeff and Tempie told me
+about it. What did little Dave do but run around to persuade old man
+Elton to sell them that little point that juts out into the river two
+miles from town and just across from the rock quarry. No neighbors to
+kick and the interurban runs through the field. It really is a choice
+spot and I started their subscription with a hundred or two and got
+Williams to draw them some plans to fix up an old house that stands on
+the bank for a club-house. They are wide-mouthed with joy; but it sliced
+two days to do it, which I might have spent on the grocery wagon."
+
+"You always did have the making of a philanthropist in you, Dave," said
+Andrew thoughtfully. "You're a near-one at present speaking."
+
+"Philanthropist go hang--the rest of the week I have spent getting the
+old Confeds together and having everything in shape for the unveiling of
+the statue out at the Temple of Arts. I tell you we are going to have a
+turn-out. General Clopton is coming all the way to make the dedication
+speech. Caroline is about to bolt and I have to steady her at off times.
+I've promised to hold her hand through it all. Major is getting up the
+notes for General Clopton and he's touching on Peters Brown only in high
+places. It'll be mostly a show-down of old General Darrah and the three
+governors I'm thinking.
+
+"The Dames of the Confederacy and the Art League are going to have
+entries on the program without number. I have been interviewed and
+interviewed. Why, even the august Susie Carrie Snow sent for me and
+talked high art and city beautiful to me until I could taste it.
+
+"And all that sopped up the rest of the week when I ought to have been
+delivering pork steaks and string-beans at people's back doors to please
+Phoebe. Money grubbing doesn't appeal to me and I don't need it, but from
+now on I'm the busy grub--until after the 'no man put asunder'
+proclamation."
+
+"How you can manage to do one really public-spirited job after another,
+'things that count,' and then elude all the credit for them is more than
+I can understand, Dave," said Andrew as he smiled through a blue ring of
+smoke. "Some day, if you don't look out, you'll be a leading citizen.
+In the meantime hustle about those flowers. Time flies."
+
+"I'll send them right up," said David as he donned his coat and hat and
+took up his crop. The hours David spent out of the saddle were those of
+his indoors occupations. "I'll be back soon. Just fix the flowers; Eph
+and the cook will do all the rest. And put the cards on the table any
+old way. I want to sit between Phoebe and Caroline Darrah Brown--well,
+whose party is it? You can sit next on either side."
+
+"Wait a minute, are--"
+
+"No, I must hurry and go brace up Milly for a pair of minutes. She
+wouldn't promise to come until I insisted on sending a trained nurse to
+sit with old Mammy Betty and the babies until she got back to 'em. Billy
+Bob is as wild as a kid about coming, he hasn't been anywhere for so
+long. I talked a week before I could persuade Milly, but she's got her
+glad rags and is as excited as Billy Bob. I tried to buy that boy twin
+for Phoebe's present but Milly said I had better get an old silver and
+amethyst bracelet. It's on my table in the white box. Bye!" and Kildare
+departed as far as the front door, but returned to stick his head in the
+door and say:
+
+"You'd better put Hob by Caroline Darrah on the other side; he's savage
+when he's crossed. And tack in Payt opposite her. I invited Polly the
+Fluff for you--she is a débutante and such a coo-child that she'll just
+suit a poet."
+
+He dodged just in time to escape the lighted pipe that was hurled upon
+him, and he couldn't have suspected that a hastily-formed plan to place
+himself opposite Caroline Darrah had gone up in the smoke that followed
+the death of life in Andrew's pipe.
+
+Then following the urgent instructions of David, Andrew began to right up
+the papers in his den which opened off the living-room. His desk was
+littered with manuscript, for the three days past had been golden ones
+and he had written under a strong impetus. The thought suddenly shot
+through him that he had been writing as he had once read, to eyes whose
+"depths on depths of luster" had misted and glowed and answered as he
+turned his pages in the twilight. Can ice in a man's breast burn like
+fire? Andrew crushed the sheets and thrust them into a drawer.
+
+Then came Eph and the cook to lay the cloth in the dining-room, and a man
+brought up the flowers. For a time he worked away with a strange
+excitement in his veins.
+
+When they had finished and he was alone in the apartment he walked slowly
+through the rooms. Where David happened to keep his household gods had
+been home to Andrew for many years. His books were in the dark Flemish
+oak cases and some of the prints on the walls were his. Most of the rugs
+he had picked up in his travels upon which his commissions led him, and
+some interesting skins had been added since his jungle experiences. It
+was all dark and rich and right-toned--the home of a gentleman. And David
+was like the rooms, right-toned and clean.
+
+Andrew found himself wondering if there would be men like David in the
+next generation, happy David with his cavalier nature and modern wit. The
+steady stream of wealth that was pouring into the South, down her
+mountain sides and welling up under her pasture lands, would it bring in
+its train death to the purity and sanity of her social institutions?
+Would swollen fortunes bring congestion of standards and grossness of
+morals? Suddenly he smiled for Billy Bob and Milly and a lot of the
+industrious young folks seemed to answer him. He had found eleven little
+new cousins on the scene of action when he had returned after five
+years--clear-eyed young Anglo-Americans, ready to take charge of the
+future.
+
+And he, what was his place in the building of his native city? His
+trained intelligence, his wide experience, his genius were being given to
+cutting a canal thousands of miles away while the streets of his own home
+were being cut up and undermined by half-trained bunglers. The beautiful
+forest suburbs were being planned and plotted by money-mad schemers who
+neither pre-visioned, nor cared to, the city of the future which was to
+be a great gateway of the nation to its Panama world-artery. He knew how
+to value the force of a man of his kind, with his reputation and
+influence, and he would gage just what he would be able to do for the
+city with the municipal backing he could command if he set his shoulder
+to the wheel.
+
+A talk he had had with the major a day or two ago came back to him. The
+old fellow's eyes had glowed as he told him the plan they had been
+obliged to abandon in the early seventies for a boulevard from the
+capitol to the river because of the lack of city construction funds.
+Andrew's own father had formulated the plan and gone before the city
+fathers with it, and for a time there had been hope of its
+accomplishment. And the major had declared emphatically that a time was
+coming when the city would want and ask for it again. That other Andrew
+Sevier of the major's youth had conceived the scheme; the major had
+repeated the fact slowly. Did he mean it as a call to him?
+
+Andrew's eyes glowed. He could see it all, with its difficulties and its
+possibilities. He rested his clenched hand on the table and the artist in
+him had the run of his pulses. He could see it all and he knew in all
+humbleness that he could construct the town as no other man of his
+generation would be able to do; the beautiful hill-rimmed city!
+
+And just as potent he felt the call of the half-awakened spirit of art
+and letters that had lain among them poverty-bound for forty
+reconstructive years. For what had he been so richly dowered? To sing
+his songs from the camp of a wanderer and write his plays with a foreign
+flavor, when he might voice his own people in the world of letters, his
+own with their background of traditions and tragedy and their foreground
+of rough-hewn possibilities? Was not the meed of his fame, small or
+large, theirs?
+
+Suddenly the tension snapped and sadness chilled through his veins. Here
+there would always be that memory which brought its influences of
+bitterness and depression to kill the creative in him. The old mad desire
+to be gone and away from it beat up into his blood, then stilled on the
+instant. What was it that caught his breath in his breast at the thought
+of exile? Could he go now, _could_--
+
+Just at this moment he was interrupted by Mrs. Matilda who came hurrying
+into the room with ribbons and veil aflutter. She evidently had only the
+moment to stay and she took in his decorative schemes with the utmost
+delight.
+
+"Andrew," she said with enthusiasm in every tone, "it is all lovely,
+lovely. You boys are wonders! These bachelor establishments are
+threatening to make women wonder what they were born for. And what do you
+think? The major is coming! The first place he has gone this winter--and
+he wants to sit between Phoebe and Caroline Darrah. I just ran over to
+tell you. Good-by! We must both dress."
+
+And Andrew smiled as he rearranged the place-cards.
+
+And it happened that in more ways than one David Kildare found himself
+the perturbed host. He rushed home and dressed with lightning-like
+rapidity and whirled away in the limousine for Milly and Billy Bob.
+He went for them early, for he had bargained to come for Phoebe as late
+as possible so as to give her time to reckon with her six-thirty
+freckled-faced devil at the office. But at the Overtons he found
+confusion confounded.
+
+"I'm so sorry, David," Milly almost sobbed, "but Mammy Betty's daughter
+has run away and got married and she has gone to see about it, and the
+trained nurse can't come. There has been an awful wreck up the road and
+all the doctors in town have gone and taken all the nurses with them. She
+didn't consider the babies serious, so she just had some one telephone at
+the last minute that she had gone. I can't go; but please make Billy go
+with you! There is no use--" and she turned to Billy Bob who stood by in
+pathetically gorgeous array, but firm in his intention not to desert the
+home craft.
+
+"We just can't make it, Dave, old man," he said manfully, as he caught
+his tearful wife's outstretched hand in his. "Go on before we both cry!"
+
+"Go on, nothing--with Milly looking like a lovely pink apple-blossom!
+You've got to come. I wouldn't dare face Phoebe without you. It's the
+whole thing to her to have you there. It's been so long since you've
+gladded with the crowd once and it's her birthday and--" David's voice
+trailed off into a perfect wail.
+
+"But what can we do?" faltered Milly, dissolved at the mention of the new
+frock. "We certainly can't leave them and we can't take them and--"
+
+"Glory, that's the idea, let's _take_ the whole bunch!" exclaimed David
+with radiant countenance. "I ought to have invited them in the first
+place. Come on and let's begin to bundle!" and he made a dive in the
+direction of the door of the nursery.
+
+"Oh, no, indeed we can't!" gasped Milly while Billy Bob stood stricken,
+unable to utter a word.
+
+"I'll show you whether we will or not," answered David. "Catch me losing
+a chance like this to ring one on Phoebe for several reasons. Hurry up!"
+and as he spoke he had lifted little Mistake from his cot and was
+dextrously winding him in his blanket. The youngster opened his big dewy
+eyes and chuckled at the sight of his side partner, David Kildare.
+
+"That's all right, he's all for his Uncle Davie. Here, you take him Billy
+Bob and I'll help Milly roll up the twins. She can bring down Crimie
+while I bring them," and as he spoke he began a rapid swathing of the two
+limp little bodies from the white crib.
+
+"But, David," gasped Milly, "it is _impossible_! They are not
+dressed--they will take cold--"
+
+"The limousine is as hot as smoke--can't hurt 'em--plenty of blankets,"
+with which he thrust the nodding young Crimie into her arms and lifted
+carefully the large bundle which contained both twins in his own. "Go
+on!" he commanded the paralyzed pair. "I will pull the door to with my
+free foot." And he actually forced the helpless parents of the four to
+embark with him on this most unusual of adventures.
+
+When they were all seated in the car Milly looked at Billy Bob and burst
+into a gale of hysterical laughter. But Billy Bob's spunk was up by this
+time and he was all on the side of the resourceful David.
+
+"Why not?" he asked brazenly. "Nine-tenths of the people in the world
+take the kids with them on all the frolics they get, why not we? _They_
+know it's all right, _they_ haven't objected." And indeed there had not
+been a single chirp from any of the swathings. Big Brother was the only
+one awake and he was, as usual, entranced at the very sight of his Uncle
+David, who held the twins with practised skill on his knees.
+
+"Now," he said jubilantly, "don't anybody warn Phoebe and I'm going to
+put them on the big divan with her presents. You'll see something crash,
+I'm thinking."
+
+And it was worth it all when Phoebe did see her unexpected guests. Big
+Brother, divested of his blanket and clad in a pink Teddy Bear garment,
+sat bolt upright in the center of the divan, and Crimie lay snuggled
+against him with his thumb in his mouth and entranced eyes on the
+brilliant chandelier. The twins were nestled contentedly down in the
+corner together like two little kittens in a basket. Before them knelt
+Polly with one finger clasped by the one whose golden fuzz declared her
+to be Little Sister, while Caroline Darrah leaned over Big Brother who
+was fingering a string of sapphires that fell from her neck, with obvious
+delight. The rest of the party stood in an admiring and uproarious
+circle.
+
+"Why," exclaimed Phoebe in blank astonishment, "why David Kildare!"
+
+"You said you wanted your most intimate friends to-night, Phoebe, and
+here they are," he answered with pride in every tone of his voice.
+
+"Oh, dearie," said Milly as she clasped Phoebe's hand, "we couldn't come
+without them--everything happened wrong. I know it's awful and I ought to
+take them right back now and--"
+
+"David Kildare," said Phoebe as she divined in an instant the whole
+situation, "I love--I love you for doing it," and she sank on her knees
+by Caroline. Mistake let go the chain and bobbed forward to bestow a
+moist kiss on this, his friend of long standing; and as he chuckled and
+snuggled his little nose under her white chin Phoebe's echo was a sigh of
+such absolute rapture that the whole circle shouted with glee.
+
+And late as it was dinner was announced three times before the host or
+the guests could be persuaded to think of food. And not until David's bed
+was made ready for the little guests did they begin to make their way
+into the dining-room. It was Andrew who finally insisted on carrying the
+babes away and tucking them in--only Caroline went with him with Little
+Sister in her arms and laid her gently on the pillow. She refused to lift
+her eyes to him for so much as a half-second until he drew her chair from
+the table for her; but then her shy glance was deep with innocent
+tenderness.
+
+"Now," said the major as they settled laughingly into their places,
+"everybody's glass high to the silent guests!" And they drank his toast
+with enthusiasm.
+
+"And," added David Kildare as he set down his glass, "they needn't be
+'silent guests' unless it suits them. When they want to rough-house they
+know Uncle David's is the place to come to do it in."
+
+"But let's hope they won't want to, David," laughed Milly, radiant with
+excitement.
+
+"I tell you what let's do," said the enlivened Hobson from the coveted
+seat next Caroline Darrah Brown, "let's all give them hard sleeping
+suggestions, all at the same time.... Maybe they won't wake up for a
+week."
+
+"Andrew," said Mrs. Buchanan as she looked with delight in his direction,
+"these are delicious things you and David have to eat. I am so glad you
+are well again and can enjoy them."
+
+"Better go slow, Andy," called David from down the table. "Sure you don't
+need a raw egg? Phoebe has a couple up her sleeve here she can lend you.
+The major has persuaded her to take a bit of duck and some asparagus and
+a brandied peach and--"
+
+"David Kildare," said Phoebe in a coolly dangerous voice, "I will get
+even with you for that if it takes me a week. This is the first thing I
+have had to eat since meal before last and I lost two and a half pounds
+last week. So I'll see that you--"
+
+"Please, please, Phoebe, I'll be good! Just let me off this time. I'm
+giddy from looking at you!" And before a delighted audience David Kildare
+abased himself.
+
+"Anyway, I've got news to relate," he hastened to offer by way of
+propitiation. "What do you think has happened to Andrew? I didn't promise
+not to tell," he drawled, prolonging the agony to its limit.
+
+"Hurry, David, do!" exclaimed Phoebe with suspended fork. Caroline leaned
+forward eagerly, while Andrew began a laughing protest.
+
+"It's only that Hetherton is going to put the great Mainwright on in
+Andy's new play in the fall--letter came to-day. Now, doesn't he shove
+his pen to some form--some?" he demanded as he beamed upon his friend
+with the greatest pride.
+
+"Oh," said Caroline Darrah, "Mainwright is great enough to do
+it--almost!"
+
+A pulse of joy shot through Andrew as her excited eyes gleamed into his.
+Of them all she and the major only had read his play and could
+congratulate him really. He had turned to her instantly when David had
+made his announcement, and she had answered him as instantly with her
+delight.
+
+"And Cousin Andy," asked Polly who sat next to him, "will I have to cry
+at the third act? Please don't make me, it's so unbecoming. Why can't
+people do all the wonderful things they do in plays without being so
+mussy?"
+
+"Child," jeered David Kildare as they all laughed, "don't you know a
+heart-throb when you're up against it--er--beg pardon--I mean to say that
+plays are sold at so much a sob. Seems to me you get wise very slowly."
+Polly pouted and young Boston who sat next her went red up to his hair.
+
+"Better let me look over the contracts for you, Andrew," said Tom
+Cantrell with friendly interest in his shrewd eyes. If the material was
+all Tom had to offer his friends he did that with generosity and
+sincerity.
+
+So until the roses fell into softly wilting heaps and the champagne broke
+in the glasses they sat and talked and laughed. Pitched battles raged up
+and down the table and there were perfect whirlpools of argument and
+protestation. Phoebe was her most brilliant self and her laughter rang
+out rich and joyous at the slightest provocation. The major delighted in
+a give and take encounter with her and their wit drew sparks from every
+direction.
+
+"No, Major," she said as the girls rose with Mrs. Buchanan after the last
+toast had been drunk, "toast my wit, toast my courage, toast my loyalty,
+but my beauty--ah, aren't women learning not to use it as an asset?"
+
+As she spoke she stretched out one white hand and bare rounded arm to him
+in entreaty. Phoebe was more lovely than she knew as she flung her
+challenge into the camp of her friends and they all felt the call in her
+dauntless dawn-gray eyes. Her unconsciousness amounted to a positive
+audacity.
+
+"Phoebe," answered the major as he rose and stood beside her chair, "all
+those things stir at times our cosmic consciousness, but beauty is the
+bouquet to the woman-wine--and _you_ can't help it!"
+
+"How do you old fellows down at the bivouac really feel about this
+conduit business, Major," said Tom Cantrell as he moved his chair close
+around by the major's after the last swish and rustle had left the men
+alone in the dining-room for a few moments. "Just a question starts
+father fire-eating, so I thought I would ask you to put me next. It's up
+in the city council."
+
+"Tom," answered the major as he blew a ring of smoke between himself and
+the shrewd eyes, "what on earth have a lot of broken-down old Confederate
+soldiers got to do with the management of the affairs of the city? You
+young men are to attend to that--give us a seat in the sun and our
+pipes--of peace."
+
+"Oh, hang, Major! Look at the way you old fellows swung that gas contract
+in the council. You 'sit in the sun' all right but they all know that the
+bivouac pulls the plurality vote in this city when it chooses--and they
+jump when you speak. What are you going to do about this conduit?"
+
+"Is it pressing? Not much being said about it."
+
+"That's it--they want to make it a sneak in. Mayor Potts is pushing
+hard and we know he's just the judge's catspaw. Judge Taylor owns the
+city council since that last election and I believe he has bought the
+board of public works outright. The conduit is just a whisky ring scheme
+to hand out jobs before the judge's election. They have got to keep the
+criminal court fixed, Major, for this town is running wide open day and
+night--with prohibition voted six months ago. They've got to keep Taylor
+on the bench. What do you say?"
+
+"Well," answered the major, beetling his brows over his keen eyes, "I
+suppose there is no doubt that Taylor is machine-made. He's the real
+blind tiger, and Potts is his striped kitten. I understand he 'lost'
+four-fifths of the 'open' indictments that the grand jury 'found' on
+their last sitting. The whisky men are going to sell as long as the
+criminal court protects them, of course. Let's let them cut that conduit
+deeper into the public mind before they begin on the streets."
+
+"I'm looking for a nasty show-down for this town before long, Major, if
+there are men enough in it to call the machine."
+
+"Tom," answered the major as he blew a last ring from his cigar, "a town
+is in a rotten fix when the criminal court is a mockery. Let's go
+interrupt the women's dimity talk."
+
+And it was quite an hour later that Milly decided in an alarmed hurry
+that she and the babies must take their immediate departure. David
+maneuvered manfully to send them home in his car and to have Phoebe wait
+and let him take her home later--alone. But Phoebe insisted upon going
+with Milly and Billy Bob and the youngsters, and the reflection that the
+distance from the unfashionable quarter inhabited by the little family,
+back to Phoebe's down-town apartment was very short, depressed him to the
+point of defiance--almost.
+
+However, he packed them all in and then as skilfully unpacked them at the
+door of their little home. He carried up the twins and even remained a
+moment to help in their unswathing before he descended to the waiting car
+and Phoebe. As he gave the word and swung in beside her, David Kildare
+heaved a deep and rapturous sigh. It was so much to the good to have her
+to himself for the short whirl through the desolated winter streets. It
+was a situation to be made the most of for it came very seldom.
+
+He turned to speak to her in the half light and found her curled up in
+the corner with her soft cheek resting against the cushions. Her attitude
+was one of utter weariness, but she smiled without opening her eyes as
+she nestled closer against the rough leather.
+
+"Tired, peach-bud?" he asked softly. One of the gifts of the high gods to
+David Kildare was a voice with a timbre suitable to the utmost
+tenderness, when the occasion required.
+
+"Yes," answered Phoebe drowsily, "but so happy! It was all lovely,
+David." Her pink-palmed hand lay relaxed on her knee. David lifted it
+cautiously in both his strong warm ones and bent over it, his heart
+ahammer with trepidation. For as a general thing neither the environment
+nor his mood had much influence in the softening way on Phoebe's cool
+aloofness, but this once some sympathetic chord must have vibrated in her
+heart for she clasped her fingers around his and received the caress on
+their pink tips with opening eyes that smiled with a hint of tenderness.
+
+"David," she said with a low laugh, "I'm too tired to be stern with you
+tonight, but I'll hold you responsible to-morrow--for everything. Here we
+are; do see if that red-headed devil is sitting on the door-step and tell
+him that there is--no--more copy--if I _am_ a half-column short. And,
+David," she drew their clasped hands nearer and laid her free one over
+both his as the car drew up to the curb, "you--are--a--dear! Here's my
+key in my muff. To-morrow at five? I don't know--you will have to phone
+me. Good night, and thank you--dear. Yes--good night again!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE BRIDGE OF DREAMS
+
+
+"And then, Major, hell broke loose! Dave stood up and--" Tom Cantrell's
+eyes snapped and he slashed with his crop at the bright andirons that
+held the flamed logs.
+
+"No, Major, it wasn't hell that broke up, it was something inside me. I
+felt it smash. For a moment I didn't grasp what Taylor was saying. It
+sounded so like the ravings of an insane phonograph that I was for being
+amused, but when I found that he was actually advising the mayor to
+refuse our committee the use of the hay market for a bivouac during the
+Confederate reunion, I just got up and took his speech and fed it to him
+raw. I saw red with a touch of purple and I didn't know I was on my feet
+and--"
+
+"Major," interrupted Andrew Sevier, his eyes bright as those of Kildare
+and his quiet voice under perfect control, "Judge Taylor's exact words
+were that it seemed inadvisable to turn over property belonging to the
+city for the use of parties that could in no way be held responsible. He
+elucidated his excuse by saying that the Confederate soldiers were so old
+now that they were better off at home than parading the streets and
+inciting rebellious feelings in the children, throwing the city into
+confusion by their disorderly conduct and--"
+
+"That's all he said, Major, that's all. I was on my feet then and all
+that needs to be said and done to him was said and done right there. I
+said it and Phoebe and Mrs. Peyton Kendrick did it as they walked right
+past him and out of the chamber of commerce hall of committees while he
+was trying to answer me. That broke up the meeting and he can't be found
+this morning. Cap has had Tom looking for him. I think when we find him
+we will have a few more words of remonstrance with him!" said Dave
+quietly. And he stood straight and tall before the major, and as he threw
+back his head he was most commanding. There was an expression of power in
+the face of David Kildare that the major had never seen there before.
+
+He balanced his glasses in his hands a moment and looked keenly at the
+four young men lined up before him. They made a very forceful
+typification of the new order of things and were rather magnificent
+in their defense of the old. The major's voice tightened in his throat
+before he could say what they were waiting to hear.
+
+"Boys," he said, and his old face lit with one of its rare smiles,
+"there were live sparks in these gray ashes--or we could not have bred
+you. I'm thinking you, yourselves, justify the existence of us old
+Johnnies and give us a clear title to live a little while longer,
+reunite once a year, sing the old songs, speechify, parade, bivouac a few
+more times together--and be as disorderly as we damn please, in this or
+any other city's hay market. Tom, telephone Cap to go straight to the
+bivouac headquarters and have them get ready to get out a special edition
+of the _Gray Picket_. If reports of this matter are sent out over the
+South without immediate and drastic refutations there will be a
+conflagration of thousands of old fire-eaters. They will never live
+through the strain. Andrew, take David up to your rooms, send for a
+stenographer and get together as much of that David Kildare speech as
+you can. Hobson, get hold of the stenographer of the city council and get
+his report of both Taylor's and Potts' speeches. Choke it out of him for
+I suspect they have both attempted to have them destroyed."
+
+"Don't you see, Major, don't you see, he tried to make a play to the
+masses of protecting the city's property and the city's law and order,
+but he jumped into a hornet's nest? We managed to keep it all out of the
+morning paper but something is sure to creep in. Hadn't we better have a
+conference with the editors?" Tom was a solid quantity to be reckoned
+with in a stress that called for keenness of judgment rather than
+emotion.
+
+"Ask them for a conference in the editorial rooms of the _Gray Picket_ at
+two-thirty, Tom," answered the major. "In the meantime I'll draft an
+editorial for the special edition. We must come out with it in the
+morning at all odds."
+
+In a few moments the echo of their steps over the polished floors and the
+ring of their voices had died away and the major was once more alone in
+his quiet library. He laid aside his books and drew his chair up to the
+table and began to make preparations for his editorial utterances. His
+rampant grizzled forelock stood straight up and his jaws were squared and
+grim. He paused and was in the act of calling Jeff to summon Phoebe over
+the wire when the curtains parted and she stood on the threshold. The
+major never failed to experience a glow of pride when Phoebe appeared
+before him suddenly. She was a very clear-eyed, alert, poised
+individuality, with the freshness of the early morning breezes about her.
+
+"My dear," he said without any kind of preliminary greeting, "what do you
+make of the encounter between David Kildare and Julge Taylor? The boys
+have been here, but I want your account of it before I begin to take
+action in the matter."
+
+"It was the most dastardly thing I ever heard, Major," said Phoebe
+quietly with a deep note in her voice. "For one moment I sat stunned. The
+long line of veterans as I saw them last year at the reunion, old and
+gray, limping some of them, but glory in their bright faces, some of them
+singing and laughing, came back to me. I thought my heart would burst at
+the insult to them and to--us, their children. But when David rose from
+his chair beside me I drew a long breath. I wish you could have heard him
+and seen him. He was stately and courteous--and he said it _all_. He
+voiced the love and the reverence that is in all our hearts for them.
+It was a very dignified forceful speech--and _David_ made it!" Phoebe
+stood close against the table and for a moment veiled her tear-starred
+eyes from the major's keen glance.
+
+"Phoebe," he said after a moment's silence, "I sometimes think the world
+lacks a standard by which to measure some of her vaster products. Perhaps
+you and I have just explored the heart of David Kildare so far. But a
+heart as fine as his isn't going to pump fool blood into any man's
+brain--eh?"
+
+"Sometimes and about some things, you do me a great injustice, Major,"
+answered Phoebe slowly, with a serious look into the keen eyes bent upon
+hers. "Of all the 'glad crowd', as David calls us, I am the only woman
+who comes directly in contact with the struggling, working, hand-to-hand
+fight of life, and I can't help letting it affect me in my judgment
+of--of us. I can't forget it when--when I amuse myself or let David amuse
+me. I seem to belong with them and not in the life he would make for me;
+yet you know I care--but if you are going to get out that extra edition
+you must get to work. I will sit here and get up my one o'clock notes for
+the imp, and if you need me, tell me so."
+
+The major bestowed a slow quizzical smile upon her and took up his pen.
+For an hour they both wrote rapidly with now a quick question from the
+major and a concise answer from Phoebe, or a short debate over the
+wording of one of his sentences or paragraphs. The editorial minds of the
+graybeard and the girl were of much the same quality and they had written
+together for many years. The major had gone far in the molding of
+Phoebe's keen wit.
+
+"Why, here you are, Phoebe," exclaimed Mrs. Buchanan as she hurried into
+the room just as Phoebe was finishing some of her last paragraphs,
+"Caroline and I have been telephoning everywhere for you. Do come and
+motor out to the Country Club with us for lunch. David and Andrew left
+some partridges there yesterday as they came from hunting on Old Harpeth,
+to be grilled for us to-day. You are going out there to play bridge with
+Mrs. Shelby's guest from Charleston at three, so please come with us
+now!"
+
+She was all eagerness and she rested one plump, persuasive little hand on
+Phoebe's arm. To Mrs. Matilda, any time that Phoebe could be persuaded to
+frolic was one of undimmed joy.
+
+"Now, Mrs. Matilda," said the major, as he smiled at her with the
+expression of delight that her presence always called forth even in times
+of extreme strenuosity, "do leave Phoebe with me--I'm really a very lorn
+old man."
+
+"Why, are you really lonely dear? Then Caroline and I won't think of
+going. We'll stay right here to lunch with you. I will go tell her and
+you put up your books and papers and we will bring our sewing and chat
+with you and Phoebe. It will be lovely."
+
+"Matilda," answered the major hastily with real alarm in his eyes, "I
+insist that you unroll my strings to your apron as far as the Country
+Club this once. I capitulate--no man in the world ever had more attention
+than I have. Why, Phoebe knows that--"
+
+"Indeed, indeed, he really doesn't want us, Mrs. Matilda. Let's leave him
+to his Immortals. I will be ready in a half-hour if I can write fast
+here. Tell Caroline Darrah to hunt me up a fresh veil and phone Mammy
+Kitty not to expect me home until--until midnight. Now while you dress I
+will write."
+
+"Very well," answered Mrs. Buchanan, "if you are sure you don't need us,
+Major," and with a caress on his rampant lock she hurried away.
+
+"You took an awful risk then, Major," said Phoebe with a twinkle in her
+eyes.
+
+"I know it," answered the major. "I've been taking them for nearly forty
+years. It's added much to this affair between Mrs. Buchanan and me. Small
+excitements are all that are necessary to fan the true connubial flame. I
+didn't tell her about all this because I really hadn't the time. Tell her
+on the way out, for I expect there will be a rattle of musketry as soon
+as the dimity brigade hears the circumstances."
+
+Then for a half-hour Phoebe and the major wrote rapidly until she
+gathered her sheets together and left them under his paper-weight to be
+delivered to the devil from the office.
+
+She departed quietly, taking Mrs. Matilda and Caroline with her.
+
+And for still another hour the major continued to push his pen rapidly
+across the paper, then he settled down to the business of reading and
+annotating his work.
+
+For years Major Buchanan had been the editor of the _Gray Picket_, which
+went its way weekly into almost every home in the South. It was a quaint,
+bright little folio full of articles of interest to the old Johnnie Rebs
+scattered south of Mason and Dixon. As a general thing it radiated good
+cheer and a most patriotic spirit, but at times something would occur to
+stir the gray ashes from which would fly a crash of sparks. Then again
+the spirit of peace unutterable would reign in its columns. It was
+published for the most part to keep up the desire for the yearly
+Confederate reunions--those bivouacs of chosen spirits, the like of which
+could never have been before and can never be after. The major's pen was
+a trenchant one but reconstructed--in the main.
+
+But the scene at the Country Club in the early afternoon was, according
+to the major's prediction, far from peaceful in tone; it was confusion
+confounded. Mrs. Peyton Kendrick was there and the card-tables were
+deserted as the players, matrons and maids, gathered around her and
+discussed excitedly the result of her "ways and means for the reunion"
+mission to the city council, the judge's insult and David Kildare's
+reply. They were every mother's daughter of them Dames of the Confederacy
+and their very lovely gowns were none the less their fighting clothes.
+
+"And then," said Mrs. Payt, her cheeks pink with indignation, and the
+essence of belligerency in her excited eyes, "for a moment I sat
+petrified, _petrified_ with cold rage, until David Kildare's speech
+began--there had never been a greater one delivered in the United States
+of America! He said--he said--oh, I don't know what he did say, but it
+was--"
+
+"I just feel--" gasped Polly Farrell with a sob, "that I ought to get
+down on my knees to him. He's a hero--he's a--"
+
+"Of course for a second I was surprised. I had never heard David Kildare
+speak about a--a serious matter before, but I could have expected it,
+for his father was a most brilliant lawyer, and his mother's father was
+our senator for twenty years and his uncle our ambassador to the court
+of--" and Mrs. Peyton's voice trailed off in the clamor.
+
+"Well, I've always known that Cousin Dave was a great man. He ought
+to be the president or governor--or _something_. I would vote for him
+to-morrow--or that is, I would make some man--I don't know just who--do
+it!" And Polly's treble voice again took up the theme of David's praises.
+
+"And think of the old soldiers," said Mrs. Buchanan with a catch in her
+breath. "It will hurt them so when they read it. They will think people
+are tired of them and that we don't want them to come here in the spring
+for the reunion. They are old and feeble and they have had so much to
+bear. It was cruel, _cruel_."
+
+"And to think of not wanting the children to see them and know them and
+love them--and understand!" Milly's soft voice both broke and blazed.
+
+"I'm going to cry--I'm doing it," sobbed Polly with her head on Phoebe's
+shoulder. "I wasn't but twelve when they met here last time and I
+followed all the parades and cried for three solid days. It was
+delicious. I'm not mad at any Yankee--I'm in love with a man from Boston
+and I'm--oh, please, don't anybody tell I said that! I may not be, I just
+think so because he is so good-looking and--"
+
+"We must all go out to the Soldier's Home to-morrow, a large committee,
+and take every good thing we can think up and make. We must pay them so
+much attention that they will let us make a joke of it," said Mrs.
+Matilda thinking immediately of the old fellows who "sat in the
+sun"--waiting.
+
+"Yes," answered Mrs. Peyton, "and we must go oftener. We want some more
+committees. It won't be many years--two were buried last week from the
+Home." There was a moment's silence and the sun streamed in across the
+deserted tables.
+
+"Oh," murmured Caroline Darrah Brown with her eyes in a blaze, "I can't
+stand it, Phoebe. I never felt so before--I who have no right."
+
+"Dear," said Phoebe with a quiet though intensely sad smile, "this is
+just an afterglow of what they must have felt in those awful times. Let's
+get them started at the game."
+
+For just a moment longer Phoebe watched them in their heated discussion,
+then chose her time and her strong quiet voice commanded immediate
+attention.
+
+"Girls," she said, and as she spoke she held out her hand to Mrs. Peyton
+Kendrick with an audacious little smile. Any woman from two to sixty
+likes to be called girl--audaciously as Phoebe did it. "Let's leave it
+all to the men. I think we can trust them to compel the judge to dine off
+his yesterday's remarks in tomorrow's papers. And then if we don't like
+the way they have settled with him we can have a gorgeous time telling
+them how much better they might have done it. Let's all play--everybody
+for the game!"
+
+"And Phoebe!" called Mrs. Payt as she sat down at the table farthest in
+the corner. She spoke in a clear high-pitched voice that carried well
+over the rustle of settling gowns and shuffling cards: "We all intend
+after this to _see_ that David Kildare gets what he wants--you
+understand?" A laugh rippled from every table but Phoebe was equal to the
+occasion.
+
+"Why not, Mrs. Payt," she answered with the utmost cordiality. "And let's
+be sure and find something he really wants to present to him as a
+testimony of our esteem."
+
+"Oh, Phoebe," trilled Polly, her emotions getting the better of her as
+she stood with score-card in hand waiting for the game to begin, "_I_
+can't keep from loving him myself and _you_ treat him so mean!"
+
+But a gale of merriment interrupted her outburst and a flutter of cards
+on the felts marked the first rounds of the hands. In a few minutes they
+were as absorbed as if nothing had happened to ruffle the depths; but in
+the pool of every woman's nature the deepest spot shelters the lost
+causes of life, and from it wells a tidal wave if stirred.
+
+After a little while Caroline Darrah rose from a dummy and spoke in a low
+pleading tone to Polly, who had been watching her game, standing ready to
+score. Polly demurred, then consented and sat down while Caroline Darrah
+took her departure, quietly but fleetly, down the side steps.
+
+She was muffled in her long furs and she swung her sable toque with
+its one drooping plume in her hand as she walked rapidly across the
+tennis-courts, cut through the beeches and came out on the bank of the
+brawling little Silver Fork Creek, that wound itself from over the ridge
+down through the club lands to the river. She stood by the sycamore for a
+moment listening delightedly to its chatter over the rocks, then climbed
+out on the huge old rock that jutted out from the bank and was entwined
+by the bleached roots of the tall tree. The strong winter sun had warmed
+the flat slab on the south side and, sinking down with a sigh of delight,
+she embraced her knees and bent over to gaze into the sparkling little
+waterfall that gushed across the foot of the boulder.
+
+Then for a mystic half-hour she sat and let her eyes roam the blue
+Harpeth hills in the distance, that were naked and stark save for the
+lace traceries of their winter-robbed trees. As the sun sank a soft rose
+purple shot through the blue and the mists of the valley rose higher
+about the bared breasts of the old ridge.
+
+And because of the stillness and beauty of the place and hour, Caroline
+Darrah began, as women will if the opportunity only so slightly invites
+them, to dream--until a crackle in a thicket opposite her perch
+distracted her attention and sent her head up with a little start. In a
+second she found herself looking across the chatty little stream straight
+into the eyes of Andrew Sevier, in which she found an expression of
+having come upon a treasure with distracting suddenness.
+
+"Oh," she said to break the silence which seemed to be settling itself
+between them permanently, "I think I must have been dreaming and you
+crashed right in. I--I--"
+
+"Are you sure you are not the dream itself--just come true?" demanded the
+poet in a matter-of-fact tone, as if he were asking the time of day or
+the trail home.
+
+"I don't think I am, in fact I'm sure," she answered with a break in her
+curled lips. "The dream is a bridge, a beautiful bridge, and I've been
+seeing it grow for minutes and minutes. One end of it rests down there
+by that broken log--see where the little knoll swells up from the
+field?--and it stretches in a beautiful strong arch until it seems to cut
+across that broken-backed old hill in the distance. And then it falls
+across--but I don't know where to put the other end of it--the ground
+sinks so--it might wobble. I don't want my bridge to wobble."
+
+Her tone was expressive of a real distress as she looked at him in
+appealing confusion. And in his eyes she found the dawn of an amused
+wonder, almost consternation. Slowly over his face there spread a deep
+flush and his lips were indrawn with a quick breath.
+
+"Wait a minute, I'll show you," he said in almost an undertone. He swung
+himself across the creek on a couple of stones, climbed up the boulder
+and seated himself at her side. Then he drew a sketch-book from his
+pocket and spread it open on the slab before them.
+
+There it was--the dream bridge! It rose in a fine strong curve from the
+little knoll, spanned across the distant ridge and fell to the opposite
+bank on to a broad support that braced itself against a rock ledge. It
+was as fine a perspective sketch as ever came from the pencil of an
+enthusiastic young Beaux Arts.
+
+"Yes," she said with a delighted sigh that was like the slide of the
+water over smooth pebbles, "yes, that is what I want it to be, only I
+couldn't seem to see how it would rest right away. It is just as I
+dreamed it and,"--then she looked at him with startled jeweled eyes.
+"Where did I see it--where did you--what does it mean?" she demanded, and
+the flush that rose up to the waves of her hair was the reflection of the
+one that had stained his face before he came across the stream. "I think
+I'm frightened," she added with a little nervous laugh.
+
+"Please don't be--because I am, too," he answered. And instinctively,
+like two children, they drew close together. They both gazed at the
+specter sketch spread before them and drew still nearer to each other.
+
+"I have been planning it for days," he said in almost a whisper. Her
+small pink ear was very near his lips and his breath agitated two little
+gold tendrils that blew across it. "I want to build it before I go away,
+it is needed here for the hunting. I came out and made the sketch from
+right here an hour ago. I came back--I must have come back to have
+it--verified." He laughed softly, and for just a second his fingers
+rested against hers on the edge of the sketch.
+
+"I'm still frightened," she said, but a tippy little smile coaxed at the
+corners of her mouth. She turned her face away from his eyes that had
+grown--disturbing.
+
+"I'm not," he announced boldly. "Beautiful wild things are flying loose
+all over the world and why shouldn't we capture one for ourselves. Do you
+mind--please don't!"
+
+"I don't think I do," she answered, and her lashes swept her cheeks
+as she lifted the sketch-book to her knees. "Only suppose I was to
+dream--some of your--other work--some day? I don't want to build your
+bridges--but I might want to--write some of your poems. Hadn't you better
+do something to stop me right now?" The smile had come to stay and
+peeped roguishly out at him from beneath her lashes.
+
+"No," he answered calmly, "if you want my dreams--they are yours."
+
+"Oh," she said as she rose to her feet and looked down at him wistfully,
+"your beautiful, beautiful dreams! Ever since that afternoon I have gone
+over and over the lines you read me. The one about the 'brotherhood of
+our heart's desires' keeps me from being lonely. I think--I think I went
+to sleep saying it to myself last night and--"
+
+It couldn't go on any longer--as Andrew rose to his feet he gathered
+together any stray wreckage of wits that was within his reach and
+managed, by not looking directly at her, to say in a rational, elderly,
+friendly tone, slightly tinged with the scientific:
+
+"My dear child, and that's why you built my bridge for me to-day. You
+put yourself into mental accord with me by the use of my jingle last
+night and fell asleep having hypnotized yourself with it. Things wilder
+than fancies are facts these days, written in large volumes by extremely
+erudite old gentlemen and we believe them because we must. This is a
+simple case, with a well-known scientific name and--"
+
+"But," interrupted Caroline Darrah, and as she stood away from him
+against the dim hills, her slender figure seemed poised as if for flight,
+and a hurt young seriousness was in her lifted purple eyes: "I don't want
+it to be a 'simple case' with any scientific--" and just here a merry
+call interrupted her from up-stream.
+
+Phoebe and Polly had come to summon her back to the club; tea was on the
+brew. With the intensest hospitality they invited Andrew to come, too.
+But he declined with what grace he could and made his way through the
+tangle down-stream as they walked back under the beeches.
+
+Thus a very bitter thing had come to Andrew Sevier--and sweet as the
+pulse of heaven. In his hand he had seen a sensitive flower unfold to its
+very heart of flame.
+
+"Never let her know," he prayed, "never let her know."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+STRANGE WILD THINGS
+
+
+"Phoebe," said David Kildare as he seated himself on the corner of the
+table just across from where Phoebe sat in Major Buchanan's chair writing
+up her one o'clock notes, "what is there about me that makes people think
+they must make me judge of the criminal court of this county? Do I look
+job-hungry so as to notice it?"
+
+"No," answered Phoebe as she folded her last sheet and laid down her
+pencil, "that is one thing no one can accuse you of, David. But your work
+down there has brought its results. They need you and are calling to you
+rather decisively I think. Any more delegations to-day?"
+
+"Several. Susie Carrie Snow came with more Civic Improvements, rather
+short as to skirts and skimpy as to hats. They have fully decided that I
+am going to feed Mayor Potts out of my hand as Taylor does, and they want
+my influence to put up two more drinking fountains and three brass plates
+to mark the homes of the founders of the city, in return for their
+precious support. I promised; and they fell on my neck. That is, if _you_
+don't mind?" David edged a tentative inch or two nearer Phoebe who had
+rested her elbows on the table and her head on her hands as she looked up
+at him.
+
+"I don't," she answered with a cruel smile. Then she asked, with an
+unconcerned glance over the top of his head, "Did you hear from the
+United Charities?"
+
+"Well, yes, some," returned David with an open countenance, no suspicion
+of a trap in even the flicker of an eyelash. "They sent Mrs. Cherry.
+Blooming more every day isn't she, don't you think? She didn't fall on my
+neck worth a cent though I had braced myself for the shock. She managed
+to convey the fact that the whole organization is for me just the same.
+It's some pumpkins to be a candidate. I'm for all there is in it--if at
+all."
+
+"You aren't hesitating, David?" asked Phoebe as she rose and stood
+straight and tall beside him, her eyes on a level with his as he sat on
+the table. "Ah, David, you can if you will--will you? I know what
+it means to you," and Phoebe laid one hand on his shoulder as she looked
+him straight in the eyes, "for it will be work, _work_ and fight like mad
+to put out the fire. You will have to fight honest--and they won't.
+But, David"--a little catch in her voice betrayed her as she entreated.
+
+"Yes, dear," answered David as he laid his hand over the one on his
+shoulder and pressed it closer, "I sent in the announcement of my
+candidacy to the afternoon papers just as I came around here to see
+the major--and you. The fight is on and it is going to be harder than you
+realize, for there is so little time. Are you for me, girl?"
+
+"If _I_ fall on your neck it will make seven this morning. Aren't you
+satisfied?" And Phoebe drew her hand away from his, allowing, however, a
+regretful squeeze as he let it go.
+
+"No, six if you would do it," answered David disconsolately, "I told you
+that Mrs. Cherry failed me."
+
+"Yes," answered Phoebe as she lowered her eyes, "I know you told me."
+David Kildare was keen of wit but it takes a most extraordinary wisdom to
+fathom such a woman as Phoebe chose to be--out of business hours.
+
+"Isn't it time for you to go to dress for the parade?" she asked quickly
+with apparent anxiety.
+
+"No," answered David as he filled his tooled leather case from the
+major's jar of choice Seven Oaks heart-leaf--he had seen Phoebe's white
+fingers roll it to the proper fineness just the night before, "I'm
+all ready! Did you think I was going to wear a lace collar and a sash?
+Everything is in order and I only have to be there at two to start them
+off. Everybody is placed on the platform and everybody is satisfied. The
+unveiling will be at three-thirty. You are going out with Mrs. Matilda
+early, aren't you? I want you to see me come prancing up at the
+head of the mounted police. Won't you be proud of me?"
+
+"Sometimes, really, I think you are the missing twin to little Billy
+Bob," answered Phoebe with a laugh, but in an instant her face became
+grave again. "I'm worried about Caroline Darrah," she said softly. "I
+found her crying last night after I had finished work. I was staying here
+with Mrs. Matilda for the night and I went into her room for a moment on
+the chance that she would be awake. She said she had wakened from an ugly
+dream--but I know she dreads this presentation, and I don't blame her. It
+was lovely of her to want to give the statue and plucky of her to come
+and do it--but it's in every way trying for her."
+
+"And isn't she the darling child?" answered David Kildare, a tender smile
+coming into his eyes. "Plucky! Well I should say so! To come dragging old
+Peters Brown's money-bags down here just as soon as he croaked, with the
+express intention of opening up and passing us all our wads back. Could
+anything as--as pathetic ever have happened before?"
+
+"No," answered Phoebe. Then she said slowly, tentatively, as she looked
+into David's eyes that were warm with friendliness for the inherited
+friend who had preempted a place in both their hearts: "And the one awful
+thing for which she can offer no reparation she knows nothing of. I pray
+she never knows!"
+
+"Yes, but it is about to do him to the death. I sometimes wake and find
+him sitting over his papers at daybreak with burned-out eyes and as pale
+as a white horse in a fog."
+
+"But why does it _have_ to be that way? Andrew isn't bitter and it isn't
+her fault--she wasn't even born then. She doesn't even know."
+
+"I think it's mostly the money," said David slowly. "If she were poor it
+would be all right to forgive her and take her, but a man couldn't very
+well marry his father's blood money. And he's suffering God knows. Here
+I've been counting for years on his getting love-tied at home, and to
+think it should be like this! Sometimes I wish she _did_ know--she offers
+herself to him like a little child; and thinks she is only doing
+reverence to the poet. It's driving him mad, but he won't cut and run."
+
+"And yet," said Phoebe, "it would kill her to know. She is so sensitive
+and she has just begun to be herself with us. She has had so few friends
+and she isn't like we are. Why, Polly Farrell could manage such a
+situation better than Caroline Darrah. She is so elemental that she is
+positively--primitive. I am frightened about it sometimes--I can only
+trust Andrew." As Phoebe spoke her eyes grew sad and her lips quivered.
+
+"Dear heart," said David as he took both her hands in his, "it's just one
+of those fatal things that no man can see through; he can just be
+thankful that there's a God to handle 'em." There were times when David
+Kildare's voice held more of tenderness than Phoebe was calculated to
+withstand without heroic effort. It behooved her to exert the utmost at
+this moment in order that she might hold her own.
+
+"It's making me thin," she ventured as she shook a little shower of tears
+off her black lashes and again smilingly regained control of her own
+hands, but displaying a slender blue-veined wrist for his sympathetic
+inspection.
+
+"Help!" exclaimed David, taking possession of the wrist and circling it
+with his thumb and forefinger. "Let me send for a crate of eggs and a
+case of the malt-milk! You poor starved peach-bud you, _why won't_ you
+marry me and let me feed you? I'm going--"
+
+"But you and the major both recommended 'lovers' troubles' to me, David,"
+Phoebe hazarded.
+
+"I only recommended _my_ own special brand, remember," retorted David. "I
+won't have you ill! I'm going to see that you do as I say about your--"
+
+"David Kildare," remarked the major from the door into the hall, "if you
+use that tone to the grand jury they will shut up every saloon in Hell's
+Half Acre. Hail the judge! My boy, my boy, I knew you'd line up when the
+time came--and the line!"
+
+"Can I count on the full artillery of the _Gray Picket_ brigade, Major?"
+demanded David with delight in his eyes as he returned the major's
+vigorous hand-shake.
+
+"Hot shot, grape, canister and shrapnel, sir! Horses in lather, guns on
+the wheel and bayonets set. We'll bivouac in the camp of the enemy on the
+night of the election! We'll--"
+
+"I don't believe you will want to lie down in the lair of the blind tiger
+as soon as that, Major," laugher Phoebe.
+
+"Phoebe," answered the major, "politics makes strange bed-fellows. Mike
+O'Rourke, the boss of the democratic Irish, was around this morning
+hunting for David Kildare with the entire green grocer's vote in his
+pocket. He spoke of the boy as his own son."
+
+"Good for old Mike!" laughed David. "It's not every boy who can boast an
+intimate friendship with his corner grocer from childhood up. It means a
+certain kind of---self-denial in the matter of apples and other
+temptations. I used to go to the point of an occasional errand for him.
+Those were the days, Phoebe, when you sat on the front steps and played
+hollyhock dolls. Wish I'd kidnapped you then--when I could!"
+
+"It would have saved us both lots of time--and trouble," answered Phoebe
+daringly from the protection of the major's presence.
+
+"David, sir," said the major who had been busy settling himself in his
+chair and lighting his pipe during this exchange of pleasantries between
+David and Phoebe, to the like of which he was thoroughly accustomed,
+"this is going to be a fight to the ditches. I believe the whisky
+ring that controls this city to be the worst machine south of Mason and
+Dixon's. State-wide prohibition voted six months ago and every saloon in
+the town going full tilt night and day! They own the city council, the
+board of public works and the mayor, but none of that compares in
+seriousness to the debauching of our criminal courts. The grand jury is
+helpless if the judge dismisses every true bill they return--and Taylor
+does it every time if it is a whisky law indictment or pertaining
+thereto, and most of the bills are at least distantly pertaining. So
+there you have us bound and helpless--a disgrace to the nation, sir, and
+a reproach to good government!"
+
+"Yes, Major, they've got us tied up some--but they forgot to gag us,"
+answered David with a smile. "Your editorial in the _Gray Picket_,
+calling on me to run for criminal court judge, has been copied in every
+paper in the state and some of the large northern sheets. I am willing to
+make the try, Major. I've practised down there more than you'd think and
+it's rotten from the cellar steps to the lightning-rod. Big black buck is
+sent up for rioting down at Hein's Bucket of Blood dive--stand aside and
+forget about it--while some poor old kink is sent out to the pen for
+running into a flock of sleepy hens in the dark, 'unbenkownst' entirely.
+I defended six poor pick-ups last week myself, and I guess Taylor saw
+my blood was on the boil at the way he's running things. I'm ready to
+take a hand with him, but it will take some pretty busy doing around to
+beat the booze gang. Am I the man--do you feel sure?"
+
+As David questioned the major his jaw squared itself determinedly. There
+was a rather forceful sort of man appearing under the nonchalant David
+whom his friends had known for years. A wild pride stirred in Phoebe to
+such an extent that she caught her breath while she waited for the
+major's reply.
+
+"Yes, David," answered the major as he looked up at him with his keen old
+eagle eyes, "I think you are. You've had everything this nation can give
+you in the way of fighting blood from Cowpens to Bull Run, and when you
+speak in a body legislative your voice can be but an echo of the men who
+sired you, statesmen, most of them; so it is to you and your class we
+must look for clean government. It is your arraignment of the mayor and
+the judge on the hay-market question that has made every decent
+organization in the city look to you to begin the fight for a clean-up
+reorganization. They have all rallied to your support. Show your colors,
+boy, and, God willing, we will smash this machine to the last cog and get
+on a basis of honest government."
+
+"Then here goes the hottest fight Davie knows how to put to them! And
+it's going to be an honest one. I'll go before the people of this city
+and promise them to enforce law and order, but I'll not _buy_ a vote of a
+man of them. That I mean, and I hereby hand it out to you two
+representatives of the press. From now on 'not a dollar spent' is the
+word and I'm back of it to make it go." As he spoke, Kildare turned to
+Phoebe and looked at her as man to man with nothing in his voice but the
+cool note of determination. It was a cold dash for Phoebe but the
+reaction brought hot pride to her eyes.
+
+"Yes, David," she answered, "you can and you will."
+
+The determination in her voice matched that in his, and her eyes met his
+with a glance in which lay a new expression--not the old tolerant
+affection nor the guarded defense, but one with a quality of comradeship
+that steadied every nerve in his body. Some men get the like from some
+women--but not often.
+
+"They will empty their pockets to fight you," the major continued
+thoughtfully. "But there is a deal of latent honesty in human nature,
+after all, that will answer the right appeal by the right man. A man
+calls a man; and ask a crook to come in on the straight proposition, two
+to one he'll step over the line before he stops himself. This is an
+independent candidacy--let's ask them all in, without reference to age,
+color or 'previous condition of servitude'--in the broadest sense."
+
+"Yes, and with the other construction, too, perhaps. We'll ask in the
+darks--but they won't come. They'll vote with the jug crowd every time.
+No nig votes for Dave without the dollar and the small bottle. How many
+do they poll, anyway, do you suppose?"
+
+"Less than a thousand I think. Not overwhelming! But in an independent
+race it might hold the balance of power. We'll devise means to appeal to
+them; we must keep up all the fences, you see. A man who doesn't see to
+his fences is a mighty poor proposition as a farmer and--"
+
+"Hicks was here this morning, Major dear, to talk about that very thing,"
+said Mrs. Matilda as she came in just in time to catch the last of the
+major's remark. "He says that ten hogs got through into the north pasture
+and rooted up acres of grass and if you don't get the new posts to repair
+the fence he can't answer for the damage done. He told you about it more
+than a month ago and--"
+
+"David Kildare," said the major with an enigmatical smile, "what you need
+to see you through life is a wife. When a man mounts a high-horse
+aeroplane and goes sailing off, dimity is the best possible ballast.
+Consider the matter I beg of you--don't be obdurate."
+
+"Why, of course David is going to marry some day," answered Mrs. Matilda
+as she beamed upon them. "A woman gets along nicely unmarried but it is
+cruel to a man. Major, Jeff is waiting to help you into your uniform. Do
+be careful, for it is mended to the last stitch now and I don't see how
+it is going to hold together many more times."
+
+"Gray uniforms have held together a long time, Matilda," answered the
+major softly as he took his departure.
+
+"And we must all hurry and have lunch," said Mrs. Buchanan. "Phoebe
+and I want to be there in plenty of time to see the parade arrive. It
+always gives me a thrill to see the major ride up at the head of his
+company. I've never got over it all these years."
+
+"How 'bout that, Phoebe?" asked David, once more his daring insistent
+self. "Seems it wasn't so young in me after all to think you might thrill
+a few glads to see me come prancing up. Now, will you be good?"
+
+And it was only a little over two hours later that the parade moved on
+its way from the public square to the park. A goodly show they made and
+an interesting one, the grizzled old war-dogs in their faded uniforms
+with faces aglow under their tattered caps. They trudged along under
+their ragged banners in hearty good will, with now a limp and now a halt
+and all of them entirely out of step with the enthusiastic young band in
+its natty uniform. They called to one another, chaffed the mounted
+officers, sang when the spirit moved them and acted in every way like
+boys who were off on the great lark of their lives.
+
+All along the line of march there were crowds to see them and cheer them,
+with here and there a white-haired woman who waved her handkerchief and
+smiled at them through a rain of tears.
+
+The major rode at the head of a small and straggling division of cavalry
+whose men ambled along and guyed one another about the management of
+their green livery horses who were inclined to bunch and go wild with the
+music.
+
+A few pieces of heavy artillery lumbered by next, and just behind them
+came three huge motor-cars packed and jammed with the old fellows who
+were too feeble to keep up with the procession. They were most of them
+from the Soldiers' Home and in spite of empty coat sleeves and crutches
+they bobbed up and down and waved their caps with enthusiasm as cheer
+after cheer rose whenever they came into sight.
+
+Andrew Sevier stood at his study window and watched them go past,
+marching to the conflicting tunes of _The Bonnie Blue Flag_, played by
+the head band, and _Dixie_ by the following one. It was great to see them
+again after five years; and in such spirits! He felt a cheer rise to his
+lips and he wanted to open the window and give lusty vent to it--but a
+keen pain caught it in his throat.
+
+Always before he had ridden with David at the head of the division of the
+Confederacy's Sons, but to-day he stood behind the window and watched
+them go past him! There were men in those ranks who had slept in the
+ditches with his father, and to whom he had felt that his presence would
+be a reminder of an exceeding bitterness. The had quietly fought the
+acceptance of the statue offered by the daughter of Peters Brown from the
+beginning, but the granddaughter of General Darrah, who had led them at
+Chickamauga, must needs command their acceptance of a memorial to him and
+her mother.
+
+And they would all do her honor after the unveiling. Andrew could almost
+see old General Clopton stand with bared head and feel the thrill with
+which the audience would listen to what would be a tender tribute to the
+war women. A wave of passionate joy swelled up in his heart--he _wanted_
+them to cheer her and love her and adopt her! It was her baptism into her
+heritage! And he gloried in it.
+
+Then across his joy came a curious stifling depression--he found himself
+listening as if some one had called him, called for help. The music was
+dying away in the distance and the cheers became fainter and fainter
+until their echo seemed almost a sob. Before he had time to realize what
+he did he descended the stair, crossed the street and let himself into
+the Buchanan house.
+
+He stood just within the library door and listened again. A profound
+stillness seemed to beat through the deserted rooms--then he saw her! She
+sat with her arms outspread across the table and her head bent upon a
+pile of papers. She was tensely still as if waiting for something to
+sound around her.
+
+"Caroline!" It was the first time he had called her by her name and
+though the others had done it from the first, she had never seemed to
+notice his more formal address. It was beyond him to keep the tenderness
+that swept through every nerve out of his voice entirely.
+
+"Yes," she answered as she raised her head and looked at him, her eyes
+shining dark in her white face, "I know I'm a coward--did you come back
+to make me go? I thought they might not miss me until it was too late to
+come for me. I didn't think--I--could stand it--please--please!"
+
+"You needn't go at all, dear," he said as he took the cold hands in his
+and unclasped the wrung fingers. "Why didn't you tell them? They wouldn't
+have insisted on your going."
+
+"I--I couldn't! I just could not say what I felt to--to--_them_. I wanted
+to come--the statue suggested itself--for her. I ought to have given it
+and gone back--back to my own life. I don't belong--there is something
+between them all and me. They love me and try to make me forget it and--"
+
+"But, don't you see, child, that's just it? They love you so they hold
+you against all the other life you have had before. We're a strong love
+people down here--we claim our own!" A note in his voice brought Andrew
+to his senses. He let her hands slip from his and went around the
+table and sat down opposite to her. "And so you ran away and hid?" He
+smiled at her reassuringly.
+
+"Yes. I knew I ought not to--then I heard the music and I couldn't look
+or listen. I--why, where did you come from? I thought you were in the
+parade with David. I felt--if you knew you would understand. I wished
+that I had asked you--had told you that I couldn't go. Did you come back
+for me?"
+
+"No," answered Andrew with a prayer in his heart for words to cover facts
+from the clear eyes fixed on his--clear, comforted young eyes that looked
+right down to the rock bed of his soul. "You see the old boys rather
+upset me, too. I have been away so long--and so many of them are missing.
+I'm just a coward, too--'birds of a feather'--take me under your wing,
+will you?"
+
+"I believe one of those 'strange wild things' has been flying around in
+the atmosphere and has taken possession of us again," said Caroline
+Darrah slowly, never taking her eyes from his. "I don't know why I know,
+but I do, that you came to comfort me. I was thinking about you and
+wishing I could tell you. Now in just this minute you've made me see that
+I have a right to all of you. I'm never going to be unhappy about it any
+more. After this I'm going to belong as hard as ever I can."
+
+Something crashed in every vein in Andrew Sevier's body, lilted in his
+heart, beat in his throat and sparkled in his eyes. He sprang to his feet
+and held out his hand to her.
+
+"Then come on and be adopted," he said. "I shall order the electric, and
+you get into your hat and coat. We can skirt the park and come in at the
+side of the Temple back of the platform so that you can slip into place
+before one-half of the sky-rockets of oratory have been exploded. Will
+you come?"
+
+"Will you stay with me--right by me?" she asked, timidity and courage at
+war in her voice.
+
+"Yes," he answered slowly, "I'll stay by you as long as you want me--if I
+can."
+
+"And that," said Caroline Darrah Brown as she turned at the door and
+looked straight at him with a heavenly blush mounting in her cheeks, the
+tenderness of the ages curling her lips and the innocence of all of six
+years in her eyes, "will be always!" With which she disappeared
+instantly beyond the rose damask hangings.
+
+And so when the ceremonies in the park were over and Caroline stood to
+clasp hands with each of the clamorous gray squad, Andrew Sevier waited
+just behind her and he met one after another of the sharp glances shot at
+him from under grizzled brows with a dignity that quieted even the
+grimmest old fire-eater.
+
+And there are strange wild things that take hold on the lives of
+men--vital forces against which one can but beat helpless wings of mortal
+spirit.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE SPELL AND ITS WEAVING
+
+
+And after the confusion, the distress and the joy of the afternoon out in
+the park when she and her gift had been accepted and acclaimed, there
+came days full of deep and perfect peace to Caroline Darrah Brown.
+
+Long, strenuously delightful mornings she spent with Tempie in the
+excitements of completing her most comprehensive culinary education and
+the amount of badinage she exchanged upon the subject with David Kildare
+occupied many of his unemployed minutes. His demands for the most
+intricate and soul-trying concoctions she took a perfect joy in meeting
+and his enthusiasm stimulated her to the attempting of the most difficult
+feats.
+
+His campaign was on with full force and his days were busy ones, but he
+managed to drop into the kitchen at any time when he deemed it at all
+certain that he would find her there and was always fully rewarded.
+
+He often found Andrew Sevier in the library in consultation with the
+major over the management of the delicate points in the campaign and
+occasionally brought him into Tempie's kingdom with him. And Caroline
+laughed and blushed and explained it all to them with the most beautiful
+solicitude, Tempie looking on positively bridling with pride.
+
+And there were other mornings when she took her sewing and crept in the
+library to work, while the major and Andrew held consultation over the
+affairs of the present or absent David.
+
+The whisky ring had purchased one of the morning papers, which had
+hitherto borne a reputation for extreme conservatism, and had it appear
+each morning with brilliant, carefully modulated arguments for the
+machine; doctored statistics and brought allegations impossible to be
+investigated in so short a time.
+
+And all of every afternoon and evening Andrew Sevier sat at an
+editorial desk down at the office of the reform journal and pumped hot
+shot through their flimsy though plausible arguments. His blood was up
+and his pen more than a match for any in the state, so he often sat most
+of the night writing, reviewing and meeting issue after issue. The
+editor-in-chief, whose heart was in making a success of the campaign
+by which his paper would easily become the leading morning paper, gave
+him full rein, aided and abetted him by his wide knowledge of all the
+conditions and pointed out with unerring judgment the sore spots on the
+hide of the enemy at which to send the gadfly of investigation.
+
+So each day while Andrew and the major went carefully over possibilities
+to be developed by and against the enemy, Caroline listened with absorbed
+interest. Now and then she would ask a question which delighted them both
+with its ingenuousness, but for the most part she was busily silent.
+
+And in the exquisiteness of her innocence she was weaving the spell of
+the centuries with the stitches in her long seams. There are yet left in
+the world a few of the elemental women whose natures are what they were
+originally instituted and Caroline Darrah was unfolding her predestinated
+self as naturally as a flower unfolds in the warmth of the spring
+sunshine. The cooking for David and Andrew, the sewing for busy Phoebe,
+the tactfully daughterly attentions to the major and Mrs. Matilda were
+all avenues for the outpouring of the maturing woman within, and
+powerless in his enchantment, Andrew Sevier was swept along on the tide
+of her tenderness.
+
+One day she had picked up his heavy gray gloves from the table and
+tightened the buttons, listening all the while to an absorbing account of
+a counter-move he was planning for the next day's editorial, and then had
+been delightfully confused and distressed by his gratitude. The little
+scene had sent him to the bare fields to fight for hours.
+
+The major fairly gloried in her knowledge of the arrangement of his
+library and delighted her with quick requests for his books during the
+most absorbing moments of their discussions.
+
+And again the observation that the spell was not being woven for him
+alone went far to the undoing of Andrew Sevier. Her interest in the
+affairs of David Kildare disturbed him not at all, but her sympathetic
+and absorbed attention to a bad-luck tale with which Hobson Capers
+reported to the major one morning when she sat with them, had sent him
+home in a most depressed state of mind, and the picture of her troubled
+eyes raised to Hobson's as he recounted the details of the wrenched
+shoulder of his favorite horse, followed him through the day with
+tormenting displeasure, though the offer of a cut-glass bottle full of a
+delightfully scented lotion for the amelioration of the suffering animal
+brought the semblance of a grin. And Hob, the brute, had gone away with
+it in his pocket, accompanied by explicit directions as to its
+application by means of a soft bit of flannel the size of a pocket
+handkerchief, also provided. Andrew Sevier had a vision of the bottle
+and the rag being installed in the most holy of holies in the apartments
+of Hobson Capers and experienced a sweeping smashing rage thereat.
+
+A day or two later a scene he had witnessed in the kitchen, in which
+Caroline and Tempie hung anxiously over a simmering pan of lemon juice,
+sugar, rye whisky and peppermint which, when it arrived at the proper
+sirupy condition, was to be administered as a soothing potion to the
+hoarse throat of Peyton Kendrick, who perched croaking on a chair close
+by, drove him to seeking comfort from Phoebe much to her apparent
+amusement but secret perturbation, for Phoebe both comprehended and
+feared the situation.
+
+And thus there is also much of the primitive left in the heart of the
+modern man on which the elemental forces work.
+
+Then the day for the election came nearer and nearer by what seemed
+fleeting hours. The whole city was thoroughly aroused and fighting hard
+under one banner or the other. As the last week drew to a close and left
+only the few days of the following week for a round-up of the forces
+before the Wednesday election, the men all became absorbed to the point
+of oblivion to everything save the speculation as to how the race would
+go. But it was not in the nature of David Kildare to be held against the
+grindstone of serious endeavor too long at a time, and in the midst of
+the turmoil he proceeded to plot for a brief and exciting relaxation for
+himself and his strenuous friends, and he chose Saturday for the
+accomplishment thereof.
+
+The morning dawned in a fluff of gray fog that hung low down over the
+avenue, though the sun showed signs of soon piercing the gloom. The clash
+and clatter of the city was fast approaching a noonday roar but still
+Phoebe slept in the room which adjoined that of Caroline Darrah Brown.
+
+Caroline cautiously opened the door and stole in gently to the side of
+the bed, then paused and looked down with delight. Phoebe, asleep, was a
+thing calculated to bring delight to any beholder. The brilliant, casual,
+insouciant, worldly Phoebe had gone out on a dream-hunt and a delicious
+curled-up flower lay in her place, with turned lashes dipping against
+soft tinted cheeks. Her head rested on one bare white arm and one hand
+curled under her daintily molded chin. Caroline caught her breath--this
+was a pathetic Phoebe when one thought of the most times Phoebe, cool,
+self-reliant--perforce!
+
+"The darling," she whispered to herself as she slipped to her knees by
+the low bed, "I can't bear to wake her, but I'm afraid not to; it's an
+hour late already. Dear!" She slipped her arm under the glossy head
+and pressed a little kiss on the dimple over the northeast corner of the
+warm lips.
+
+Phoebe's gray eyes smiled themselves open for a fraction of a second,
+then she nestled to Caroline's shoulder and calmly drifted off again in
+pursuit of the dream.
+
+"Dearie," Caroline begged, "it's after ten!"
+
+Phoebe sighed, nestled closer and drifted again. Caroline settled herself
+against the pillows and pressed her cheek against the thick black braid
+that curled across the sleeper's bare shoulder. She was incapable of
+another combat with the sleep-god and decided to wait. Besides, the awake
+Phoebe was busy--and elusive--not given to bestowing or receiving aught
+save the most fleeting caresses. So for a few moments Caroline Darrah's
+arms held her hungrily.
+
+"Be-autiful," came in a sleepy voice from against her arm, "is the water
+cold?"
+
+"Awful this morning," answered Caroline tightening her arms. "Just a
+little hot, Phoebe, please! I'll tell Annette."
+
+"No," answered Phoebe, as with a whirl of the covers she sat up and
+took her knees into her embrace. "No, sweetie, in I go! The colder the
+better after I'm in. How grand and Burne-Jonesy you look in that linen
+pinafore--indulging in the life domestic? I think I catch a whiff of your
+culinary atmosphere--and, oh, I--am so--hungry."
+
+"Tempie has a dear little plump bird for you and some waffles and an
+omelet. Let me have Annette bring them to you here! Please, Phoebe,
+please!"
+
+"Caroline Darrah Brown," said Phoebe in a tragic voice, "do you know I
+gained a pound and a quarter last week and that makes me three and a half
+pounds past the danger-mark? Two raw eggs and an orange is all I can have
+this morning. I'm going to cry, I think!"
+
+"No," answered Caroline Darrah positively, "you are going to eat that
+bird and the omelet. You may substitute dry toast for the waffle if
+Tempie will let you. She's angry, and I'm in trouble. She won't use
+that recipe I got from your Mammy Kitty to make the cake I promised David
+Kildare for tea. She says she and her family have been making Buchanan
+cake ever since there was any cake and she is not going to begin now
+making Donelson mixtures. I think I hurt her feelings. What must I do?"
+
+"Let her alone, she has the right of it and the cake is sure to be just
+as good," laughed Phoebe.
+
+"But I promised him it should be just like the one you gave us the other
+afternoon, only with the icing and nuts thicker than the cake," answered
+Caroline in real distress. "He says that Mr. Sevier likes it that way,
+too," she added ingenuously.
+
+"Caroline Darrah, you spoil those men to the most outrageous extent. It's
+like David to want his icing and nuts thicker than the cake; he always
+does--and gets it, but it isn't good for him." As Phoebe spoke she smiled
+at Caroline Darrah indulgently.
+
+"I can't help it, Phoebe," she answered with the rose wave mounting under
+her eyes. "I'm stupid--I don't know how to manage them. I'm just--fond of
+them."
+
+For a second Phoebe regarded her from under veiled eyes, then said
+guardedly, "Doesn't that give them rather the advantage to start with--if
+you let them find it out?"
+
+"Yes," answered Caroline as she pressed her cheek against Phoebe's arm,
+"I know it does but I can't help it. I have to trust to them to
+understand."
+
+For a moment Phoebe was silent and across her mind there flashed David's
+description of a man who sat into the gray dawn fighting his battle--his
+own and hers--a man who wouldn't run!
+
+"Perhaps that's the best way after all, dearie," she said as she prepared
+to slip out of bed. "Only it takes the exceptional woman to get results
+from your method. It ought to work with David; others don't seem to!"
+
+"Phoebe, Phoebe--why--why?" and Caroline caught and held Phoebe for a few
+seconds. "Don't you care at all?"
+
+"Yes, child--a lot! Having admitted which I will betake myself to the
+plunge--leaving you to finish the cake for the precious thing." In a
+second Phoebe smiled back from the door:
+
+"Just one little waffle, tell Tempie," she said. "And I'm due to make a
+lightning toilet if I get to that Woman's Guild meeting at eleven-thirty.
+Call the office for me and tell them not to send Freckles until
+one-thirty to-day. And, dearie, please call Polly and tell her to be sure
+and go to that meeting of the Daughters of the Colonies so she can tell
+me what happens. Tell her to get it all straight--names and all and I
+will phone her. And not to let them office or committee me just because
+I'm not there! You are a dear!"
+
+Caroline smiled happily as she went back to the mixing of the confection
+of affection to be administered to David with his tea as by request, and
+she laughed as she heard Phoebe's mighty splash.
+
+And a half-hour later, during the discussion of the plump bird and the
+one crisp waffle, David Kildare whirled in, beaming with joy over his
+plans. In fact he failed to manage anything in the way of a formal
+greeting.
+
+"Girls!" he exclaimed from the doorway, "the hunt is on for to-night!
+Everybody hurry up! Caroline, Mrs. Matilda wants you to motor out with
+her to the Forks to see about having Jeff and Tempie get ready for the
+supper cooking--barbecue, birdies and the hot potato! Milly and Billy Bob
+are going and Polly and that Boston lad of yours, Caroline--yours if you
+can hold him, which I don't think you can. And Mrs. Matilda says--"
+
+"Stop," demanded Phoebe, "and tell us what you are talking about, David."
+
+"I'm surprised at you, Phoebe, for being so dense," answered David with a
+delighted grin at having created a flurry. "Didn't you hear me tell
+Caroline Darrah Brown at least a week ago that possums and persimmons are
+ripe and that the first night after a rain and a fog we would all
+turn out and show her how to shake down a few? The whole glad push is
+going. Mrs. Matilda and I decided it an hour ago while you were still
+asleep. I've telephoned everybody--possums and persimmons wait for no
+man."
+
+"How perfectly delightful," said Caroline with eyes agleam with
+enthusiasm. "Can everybody go?" David had failed to mention Andrew Sevier
+in his enumeration, an omission that she had instantly caught.
+
+"Yes," answered David, "everybody that had engagements we asked the
+engagement to go, too. Even Andy is going to cut the poems for the lark!
+Thuse up a little, Phoebe, please--give us the smile! I'm backing you to
+shake down ten possums against anybody's possible five."
+
+"I don't think that I can go," answered Phoebe quietly. "Mrs. Cherry has
+the president of the Federation of Women's Clubs staying with her and I'm
+going to dine there to-night to discuss the suffrage platform." There was
+a cool note in Phoebe's voice and a sudden seriousness had come into her
+expression.
+
+"Now, Phoebe," answered David, looking down at her with the quickly
+concealed tenderness that always flashed up in his eyes when he spoke
+directly to her, "do you suppose for one minute that I hadn't fixed all
+that the first thing? Mrs. Cherry held back a bit but I rabbit-footed the
+old lady into being wild to go and then wheedled the correct hostess
+some; and there you are! Caroline is to send them out in her motor and
+I'm going to make Hob and Tom chase the possum in company of the merry
+widow and Mrs. Big Bug. Now give me a glad word!"
+
+"I'll see," answered Phoebe. "I can let you know by two o'clock whether I
+can go," and as she spoke she gathered up her gloves and bag and settled
+her trim hat by a glance at the long mirror across the room.
+
+"What--what did you say?" demanded David aghast in a second. "If you
+think for one minute that I'm going to stand for--"
+
+"But you must remember that my business engagements must always be
+settled before I can make social ones--at two o'clock then! Good-by,
+Caroline, dear, such a comfy night under your care! I'm going to stop in
+the library to speak to the major and then on to the guild if any one
+calls. Here's to you both!" and she coolly tipped them a kiss from the
+ends of her fingers.
+
+"Caroline," remarked David, "I reckon I must have giggled too loud in my
+cradle, and the Lord turned around and made Phoebe to settle my glee,
+don't you think?"
+
+And as Caroline saw him depart with his usual smile and jest she little
+realized that a jagged wound ran across his blithe heart.
+
+The David within was awakening and developing a highly sensitized nature,
+which caught Phoebe's note of disapproval, divined its reason and winced
+under the humiliation of its distrust. The old David would have laughed,
+chaffed her and gone his way rejoicing--the new David suffered, for a
+deeply-loved woman can inflict a wound on the inner man that throbs to
+the depths.
+
+Across the hall Phoebe found the major at his table and, as usual, buried
+in his books. He was reading one and holding another open in his hand
+while his pen balanced itself over a page for a note. Phoebe hesitated on
+the threshold, loath to disturb his feast. But before she could retreat
+he glanced up and his smile flashed a welcome and an invitation to her,
+while his books fell together as he rose and held out his hands.
+
+"My dear," he said, "I was just reading what Bob Browning says about a
+'pearl and a girl'--and thinking of you when up I look to behold you."
+
+"Thank you, and good morning, Major," returned Phoebe as a slow smile
+spread over her grave face. "I won't disturb you, for I've only a moment!
+This hunt to-night--it--it troubles me. Has David forgotten that he is to
+make a speech on the cutting of the conduit over in the sixteenth ward at
+half-past seven o'clock? It is one of his most important appointments
+and--"
+
+"Phoebe," answered the major as he balanced his pen on one long lean
+finger, "do you suppose that women will ever learn that men could
+dispense with them entirely after their second year--if it wasn't for the
+loneliness? I see David Kildare failed to make a sufficiently full
+apron-string report to you this morning of his intentions for the day."
+
+"Sometimes, Major, you are completely horrid," answered Phoebe with both
+a smile and a spark in her eyes, "but I do care--that is, I'm interested,
+and--"
+
+"It seems to me," the major filled in the pause, "that you are a trifle
+short on a woman's long suit--patience. Now in the case of David Kildare,
+you don't want to give him one moment of tortoise speed but must keep him
+pacing with the hare entirely. Remember the result of that race?"
+
+"But I want him to win--he must! I think--"
+
+"Did you hear that speech he made to the motley and their friends last
+Monday night? That was as fine an interpretation of the ethics involved
+in the enforcement of law as I have ever heard or read--delivered to
+simple minds unversed in the science ethical. He landed hot shot into the
+very stronghold of the enemy and his audience saw his points. I find the
+mind of David Kildare rather well provisioned with the diverse ammunition
+needed in political warfare. The whisky ring is making a stand and
+fighting the inches of retreat. I believe it to be retreat!"
+
+"But can it be, Major? Andrew says that money is pouring into the city,
+even from other states. They intend to buy the election, come what will.
+How can a gentleman fight such a thing with 'not a dollar spent'
+announcement?"
+
+"Phoebe," said the major with the quick illumination of one of his
+challenging smiles, "you can generally depend on the Almighty to back the
+right man when he's fighting the right fight. Suppose you put up a little
+faith on the event--be something of a sporting character and back David
+to win. Backing thoughts help in the winnings they tell us these days."
+
+"I have, Major--I am--I do, but this hunt to-night positively--positively
+frightens me. It seemed so--so regardless of consequences--so trivial
+and--and inconsequent that--" Phoebe paused and the major was astonished
+to see that she was veiling tears with her thick black lashes.
+
+"Phoebe, child," he said as he bent over quickly and laid his hand on
+hers, "I ought to have answered you sooner. He is prepared to make the
+speech of his life tonight at seven-thirty, but at ten he joins his
+friends to hunt. Didn't you draw your conclusions hurriedly--and against
+David?"
+
+In a second the tightness in Phoebe's throat relaxed and the tears flowed
+back to their source, only one little splash jeweled her cheek that had
+flamed into a blush of joy and contrition.
+
+"Ah," she said softly as she drew a deep breath, "I am so
+glad--glad!... I must hurry, for I'm an hour late already. Good-by!"
+
+"Good-by, and remember that faith is one of the by-products of affection.
+And I might add that the right kind of faith finds tactful ways of--of
+admission. Do you see?" And the major held her hand long enough to make
+Phoebe look into his kind eyes.
+
+And from the ten minutes in the library of Major Buchanan the
+disciplining of the heart of Phoebe Donelson began and was carried on
+with utter relentlessness. The first castigation occurred when David
+failed to phone her at two o'clock, and a half-hour later Caroline Darrah
+called anxiously to know her decision and impart the information that
+David had arranged that she and Phoebe go out to the fork in her car with
+Mrs. Buchanan. Phoebe, to her own surprise, found that she intensely
+desired another arrangement that involved David and his small electric,
+but she received the blow with astonishing meekness and delighted
+Caroline with her enthusiastic acquiescence in the plans for the evening.
+
+And so through the busy afternoon while David Kildare met committees,
+sent in reports and talked over plans, he also managed to sandwich in the
+settling of numerous little details that went to make good the night's
+sport. And it was all done in apparent high spirits but with an indignant
+pain in his usually glad heart.
+
+Meanwhile Caroline Darrah, in a whirl of domestic excitement incident to
+the preparing of a hamper for the midnight lunch out on the ridge, which
+she had entreated Mrs. Matilda to leave entirely to her newly-acquired
+housewifery, stepped into the middle of the pool political and never knew
+it, in the innocence of her old-fashioned woman's heart.
+
+"Miss Ca'line," ventured Jeff as he assisted her in packing the huge
+hamper that occupied the center of the dining-room table, "is Mister Dave
+sure 'pinted to be jedge of the criminal court--he ain't a-joking is he?"
+
+"Why, no, indeed, Jeff," answered Caroline Darrah as she rolled
+sandwiches in oiled paper before putting them into a box. "What made you
+think that?"
+
+"Well, it's a kinder poor white folksy job fer him, fooling with
+crap-shooting niggers and whisky soaks, but if he wants it he's got ter
+have it, hear me! And Miss Ca'line, some of us colored set has made up
+our minds that it's time fer us ter git out and dust ter help him. You
+see this here is a independent race and it's who gits the votes, no
+'Publican er Dimocrat to it. That jest naterally turns the colored vote
+loose at the polls. And fer the most of the black fools it's who bids the
+mostes, I'm sorry ter say, as is the fact."
+
+"But you know Mr. David has said from the first that he will not buy a
+vote. Will he have to lose--how many of the colored people are there--oh,
+Jeff, will he have to be beaten?" Caroline Darrah clasped a sandwich to
+the death in her hands and questioned the negro with the same faith that
+she would have used in questioning Major Buchanan.
+
+"No, ma'am, he ain't going ter git nigger-beat if we can help it--us
+society colored set, you understand, Miss Ca'line." Jeff's manner was an
+interesting mixture of pomposity and deference.
+
+"I don't quite understand, Jeff; you explain to me," answered Caroline
+Darrah in the kind and respectful voice that she always used to these
+family servants, which they understood perfectly and in which they took a
+huge delight.
+
+"Well, it's jest this way, Miss Ca'line, they is sets in the colored
+folks jest like they is in the white folks. We is the _it_ set, me and
+Tempie and Eph and all the fust family people. We's got our lawyers and
+dentists and a university and a ice-cream parlor with the swellest kinder
+soda fount in front. You heard how Mister David got that Country Club
+for us, didn't you? Well, he backed the rent notes of the soda fount,
+too--and he's jest naterly the fust set candidate fer anything he wants
+ter be."
+
+"Isn't he just the kindest best man, Jeff?" asked Caroline Darrah, in her
+enthusiasm sacrificing a frosted muffin cake between her clasped hands.
+
+"Yes'm, he am that fer a fact, and they can't no low-down whisky bum beat
+him fer jedge, neither--'specially ef they count on using niggers to do
+it with. You see the race am so mighty close, that all the booze bosses
+is a telling the niggers that they is got the 'ballunce uf power' as they
+calls it and it's up ter them ter elect a jedge fer whisky, the friend
+'at'll let 'em drink it down. Why, they's got out a bottle of whisky as
+has on the label 'Your Colored Friend', and it's put up in clear glass
+and at the bottom you can see five new dimes a-shining. A nigger gits the
+bottle and the fifty cents ef he votes with them. Old Booze is flinging
+money right and left, fer if Mister David gits in he'll shore have ter
+git out."
+
+"That is perfectly awful, Jeff!" exclaimed Caroline with horror-stricken
+eyes. "The poor people made to sell themselves that way--and the whole
+city to lose David, a good judge, because they can't know what they do.
+It is horrible and nobody can help it!"
+
+"I ain't so sure about that, Miss Ca'line! Me and Tempie and Doctor Pike
+Johnson and the dentist and Bud Simms, the man what runs the Palms, have
+thought up a scheme ef we kin work it. You see they ain't a nigger from
+Black Bottom to Mount Nebo as wouldn't sell his soul ter git ter the
+Country Club and say he's been invited there. Now, we thought as how it
+would be a good plan ter give it out that we was going to have er
+David Kildare jedge celebration out there and have invertation tickets
+printed. Then we could go ter the polls and fight down any dollar bottle
+of whisky ever put up with one of them invites--every man ter bring a
+lady, and dancing down in a corner of the card. We'd scotch them by
+saying no 'lection, no dance, so they'll vote straight. Ain't that the
+swell scheme? It'll work if we can make it go."
+
+"Jeff," she exclaimed, "that is a perfectly splendid idea! You must do
+it, for offering them fun will be no bribery like whisky and money--it
+will do them _good_." Sometimes it is just as well that a woman be not
+too well versed in the science logical.
+
+"Yes'm, and I believe it will work--ef we jest had a barbecue to put down
+in the other corner opposite the dancing I know it would draw 'em, but
+ice-cream will be about all we can git fer the subscription money, and
+cold as it is ice-cream won't be no drawing card."
+
+And there was no doubt that Jeff unfolded his plan to Caroline Darrah
+from pure love of sympathy and excitement and for no ulterior purpose,
+although it served to further his schemes as well as if he had been of a
+most wily turn of mind.
+
+"Jeff," exclaimed Caroline Darrah excitedly, "how much would it take to
+have a barbecue and ice-cream and everything good to go with it and a big
+band of music and fireworks and--"
+
+"Golly, Miss Ca'line, they will be most five hundred of 'em and the
+'scription ain't but a little over fifty dollars. I'm counting on the
+dancing and the gitting-there ter draw 'em."
+
+"We can't risk it," said Caroline. "I will give you two hundred and fifty
+dollars and you can let it be known that no such celebration ever was as
+the one his colored friends are going to give in honor of the election of
+Judge David Kildare--his united colored friends, Jeff, high and low."
+
+"Miss Ca'line, I'm a-skeered to take it! Mister David, he's jest
+naterly--"
+
+"Mr. David need never know about it. It is a subscription and you have
+collected it--advertise that fact. I'm one of his friends and I can
+subscribe even if I am white. You must take it, and get to work about it.
+Only four more days, remember, and we all must work for Mr. David; and
+too, Jeff, for those poor ignorant people who would commit the crime of
+letting themselves sell their votes." There was real concern for the
+endangered souls of the coons in Caroline's voice, and Jeff was duly
+impressed.
+
+They both fell to work on the packing of the basket as Temple's voice was
+heard in the distance, for they knew she would express herself in no
+uncertain terms if she found the amount of work done unsatisfactory.
+
+But when he departed, Jeff carried in his pocket a slip of paper about
+which it nearly scared him to death to think, and one of the money-bags
+of the late Peters Brown was eased by the extraction of a quarter
+thousand. Caroline was happy from a clear conscience and a virtuous
+feeling of having saved a crisis for a dependent and ignorant people.
+Which goes to show that a woman can put her finger into a political pie
+and draw it out without even a stain, while to touch that same confection
+ever so lightly would dye a man's hand blood red.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+PURSUING THE POSSUM
+
+
+And as if in sympathy with the heart of the pursued possum, the
+thermometer began to fall in the afternoon and by night had established a
+clear, cold, windless condition of weather. The start for the Cliffs was
+to be made from the fork of the River Road, where cars, horses, traps and
+hampers were to be left with the servants, who by half past nine were
+already in an excited group around a blazing, dry oak fire, over which
+two score plump birds were ready to be roasted, attended by the
+autocratic Tempie. Jeff piled high with brush a huge log whose
+heart was being burned out for the baking of sundry potatoes, while the
+aroma from the barbecue pit was maddening to even a ten o'clock appetite,
+and no estimate could be made of what damage would be done after the
+midnight return from the trail of the wily tree fruit.
+
+David Kildare as usual was M.F.H. and his voice rang out as clearly
+against the tall pines, while he welcomed the cars and traps full of
+excited hunters, as if he had not been speaking in a crowded hall for an
+hour or two.
+
+Mrs. Cherry Lawrence arrived early, accompanied by the distinguished
+suffragist, who was as alert for sensations new as if she had been one of
+an exploration party into the heart of darkest Africa. They were attended
+by Tom and also the suave Hobson, who was all attentions but whose
+maneuvers in the direction of Caroline Darrah were pitiably fruitless.
+He was seconded in his attentions to the stranger by David with his most
+fascinating manner, and Mrs. Cherry sparkled and glowed at him with
+subdued witchery, while Tom sulked close at her side.
+
+Polly and young Boston had trailed Mrs. Buchanan's car on horses and
+Phoebe was intent on pinning up the débutante's habit skirt to a
+comfortable scramble length. Billy Bob fairly bubbled over with glee and
+Milly, who had come to assist Mrs. Matilda in overlooking the
+preparations for the feast for the returned hunters, was already busy
+assembling hampers and cases on a flat rock over behind the largest fire.
+Her anxious heart was at rest about her nestlings, for Caroline's maid,
+Annette, had gone French mad over the babies and had begged the privilege
+of keeping Mammy Betty company in her watch beside the cots.
+
+"Come here, Caroline, child," called David from behind the farthest fire,
+"let me look at you! Seems to me you are in for a good freezing." And he
+drew her into the light of the blaze.
+
+She was kilted and booted and coated and belted in the most beautiful and
+wholly correct attire for the hunt that could possibly have been
+contrived; that is, for a sedate cross-country bird stalk or a decorous
+trap shooting, but for a long night scramble over the frozen ground she
+was insufficiently clad. The other girls all wore heavy golf skirts and
+coats and were muffled to their eyes; even the big-bug lady wore a
+knitted comforter high round her throat. Without doubt Caroline would
+have been in for a cold deal, if David had not been more than equal to
+any occasion.
+
+"Here, Andy, skin out of that sweater and get into that extra buckskin in
+my electric," he said, and forthwith began without ceremony to assist
+Andrew Sevier in peeling off a soft, white, high-collared sweater he
+wore, and in less time than it took to think it he had slipped it over
+Caroline's protesting head, pulled it down around her slim hips almost to
+where her kilts met her boots and rolled the collar up under her eyes.
+Then he immediately turned his attention to the arrival of the mongrel
+sleuths, each accompanied by a white-toothed negro of renowned
+coon-fighting, possum-catching proclivities, whom he had assembled from
+the Old Harpeth to lead the hunt, thus leaving Caroline and Andrew alone
+for the moment on the far side of the fire.
+
+"Indeed, I'm not going to have your sweater!" she protested, beginning to
+divest herself of the borrowed garment, but not knowing exactly how to
+crawl out of its soft embrace.
+
+"Please, oh, please do!" he exclaimed quickly, and as he spoke he caught
+her hand away, that had begun to tug at the collar.
+
+"I wouldn't keep it for the world--and have you cold, but--I can't get
+out," she answered with a laugh. "Please show me or call for help."
+
+And as she pleaded Andrew Sevier towered beside her, tall and slender,
+while the cold breeze with its pine-laden breath ruffled his white
+shirt-sleeves across his arms. Caroline Darrah in the embrace of his
+clinging apparel was a sight that sent the blood through his veins at a
+rate that warred with the winds, and his eyes drank deeply. The color
+mounted under her eyes and with the unconsciousness of a child she
+nestled her chin in the woolly folds about the neck as she turned her
+face from the firelight.
+
+"Well, then, get David's coat from the car," she pleaded.
+
+"Will you stand back in the shadow of that tree until I do?" he asked.
+
+He had caught across the fire a glimpse of the restive Hobson and a
+sudden mad desire prompted him to snatch this one joy from Fate, come
+what would--just a few hours with her under the winter stars, when life
+seemed to offer so little in the count of the years.
+
+"Why, yes, of course! Did you think I'd dare go out in the dark alone,
+without you?" and her joyous ingenuous casting of herself upon his
+protection was positively poignant. "Hurry, please, because I--don't want
+anybody to find me before you come!" After which request it took him very
+little time to run across the lot and vault the fence into the road where
+the electric stood.
+
+"It's so uncertain how things arrange themselves sometimes, some places,"
+she remarked to herself as she caught sight of the movements of the
+foiled Hobson, whose search had now become an open maneuver.
+
+Suddenly she laid her cheek against the arm of the sweater and sniffed it
+with her delicate nose--yes, there was the undeniable fragrance of the
+major's Seven Oaks heart-leaf. "He steals the tobacco, too," she again
+remarked to herself as she caught sight of him skirting the fires as
+he returned.
+
+Just at this moment a pandemonium of yelps, barks, bays and yells broke
+forth up the ravine and declared the hunt on.
+
+"Everybody follow the dogs and keep within hearing distance! We'll wait
+for the trailers to come up when we tree before we shake down!" shouted
+David as with one accord the whole company plunged into the woods.
+
+Away from the fire, the starlight, which was beginning to be reinforced
+by the glow from a late old moon, was bright enough to keep the rush up
+the ravine, over log and boulder, through tangle and across open, a not
+too dangerous foray.
+
+The first hurdle was a six-rail fence that snaked its way between a
+frozen meadow and a woods lot. David stationed himself on the far side of
+the lowest and strongest panel and proceeded to swing down the girls whom
+Hob and Tom persuaded to the top rail.
+
+The champion for the rights of women took long and much assistance for
+the mount and entrusted her somewhat bulky self to the strong arms of
+David Kildare with a feminine dependence that almost succeeded in
+cracking those stalwart supports.
+
+Polly climbed two rails, put her hand on the top and vaulted like a boy
+almost into the embrace of young Massachusetts and together they raced
+after the dogs, who were adding tumult to the hitherto pandemonium of the
+hot trail.
+
+Tom Cantrell managed Mrs. Cherry most deftly and seemed anxious to direct
+David in the landing though she was most willing to trust it entirely to
+him. After hurrying Phoebe to the top rail he vaulted lightly to the side
+of David and departed in haste, taking the reluctant widow with him by
+main force.
+
+Phoebe perched herself on the top of the fence, which brought her head
+somewhat above the level of David's, and seemed in no hurry to descend in
+order to be at the shake-down, which from the shouts and yelps seemed
+imminent.
+
+"Ready, or want to rest a minute?" asked David gently; but his eyes
+looked past hers and there was the shadow of reserve in his voice.
+
+"No," answered Phoebe, "but you must be tired so I'll just slip down,"
+and she essayed to cheat him with the utmost treachery. David neither
+spoke nor looked at her directly but took her quietly in his arms and
+swung her to the ground beside him.
+
+Now this was not the first pursuit of the possum that had been attended
+by Phoebe in the company of David Kildare, and she was prepared for the
+audacious hint of a squeeze, with which he usually took his toll and
+which she always ignored utterly with reproving intent; the more
+reproving on the one or two occasions when she had been tempted into
+yielding to the caress for the remotest fraction of a second. But for
+every snub in the fence events that had been pulled off between them in
+the past years, David was fully revenged by the impassive landing of
+Phoebe on the dry and frozen grass at his side. Revenged--and there was
+something over that was cutting into her adamant heart like a two-edge
+marble saw.
+
+But Phoebe had been born a thoroughbred and it was head up and run as she
+saw in a second, so she smiled up at him and said in a perfectly friendly
+tone:
+
+"I really don't think we'd better wait for Caroline and Andrew. Do let's
+hurry, for they've treed, and I think those dogs will go mad in a
+moment!" And together they disappeared in the woodland.
+
+Around a tall tree that stood on the slope of the hill they found a scene
+that was uproar rampant. Five maddened dogs gazed aloft into the gnarled
+branches of the persimmon king and danced and jumped to the accompaniment
+of one another's insane yelps. A half-dozen negro boys were in the same
+attitude and state of mind, and the tension was immense.
+
+Polly gasped and giggled and the suffrage lady almost became entangled
+with the waltzing dogs in her endeavor to sight the quarry.
+
+"Dar he am!" exclaimed the blackest satyr, and he pointed to one of the
+lower limbs from which there hung by the tail the most pathetic little
+bunch of bristles imaginable. "Le'me shake him down, Mister David, I
+foun' him!"
+
+"All right, shin up, but mind the limbs," answered David. "And you, Jake,
+get the dogs in hand! We want to take home possums, not full dogs!"
+
+And like an agile ape the darky swung himself up and out on the low limb.
+"Here he come!" he shouted, and ducked to give a jerk that shook the
+whole limb.
+
+The dogs danced and Polly squealed, while the rotund lady managed to step
+on young Back Bay's toes and almost forgot to "beg pardon," but Mr.
+Possum hung on by his long rat-tail with the greatest serenity.
+
+"Buck up thar, nigger, shake dat whole tree; dis here ain't no
+cake-walk," one of his confrères yelled, and the sally was caught with a
+loud guffaw.
+
+Thus urged the darky braced himself and succeeded in putting the whole
+tree into a commotion, at the height of which there was a crash and a
+scramble from the top limb and in a second a ball of gray fur descended
+on his woolly head, knocked him off his perch and crashed with him to
+the ground. Then there ensued a raging battle in which were involved five
+dogs, a long darky and a ring-tailed streak of coon lightning, which
+whirled and bit and scratched itself free and plunged into the darkness
+before the astonished hunters could get more than a glimpse of the mêlée.
+
+"Coon, coon!" yelled the negroes, and scattered into the woods at the
+heels of the discountenanced dogs. Mr. Possum, saved by the stiff fight
+put up by his ring-tailed woods-brother, had taken this opportunity of
+unhanging himself and departing into parts unknown, perhaps a still more
+wily citizen after his threatened extinction.
+
+In a few minutes from up the hill came another tumult, and Jake raised a
+long shout of "two possums," which served to hasten the scramble of the
+rest of the party through the underbrush to a breathless pace.
+
+Another gray ball hung to another limb and this time the derisive Jake
+succeeded in the shake-down and the bagging amid the most breathless
+excitement. It was a sight to see the sophisticated little animal lie
+like dead and be picked up and handled in a state of seeming lifeless
+rigidity--a display of self-control that seemed to argue a superiority of
+instinct over reason.
+
+After this opening event the hunt swept on with a rapidly mounting count
+and a heavier and heavier bag.
+
+And, too, it was just as well that no one in particular, save the
+defrauded Hobson, who was obliged to conceal his chagrin, was especially
+mindful of the whereabouts of Caroline and the poet. In fact, it would
+have been difficult for them to have located themselves in answer to a
+wireless inquiry.
+
+Andrew had started out from the hiding tree with the intention of cutting
+across the trail of the hunters at right angles a little up the ravine,
+and he had trusted to a six-year-old remembrance of the lay of the land
+as he led the way across the frosty meadow and up the ridge at a brisk
+pace. Caroline swung lithely along beside him and in the matter of fences
+took Polly's policy of a hand up and then a high vault, which made for
+practically no delay. They skirted the tangle of buck bushes and came out
+on the edge of the cliff just as the hunt swept by at their feet and on
+up the creek bed. They were both breathless and tingling with the
+exertion of their climb.
+
+"There they go--left behind--no catching them!" exclaimed Andrew. "No
+possum for you, and this is your hunt! I'm most awfully sorry!"
+
+"Don't you suppose they will save me one?" asked Caroline composedly, and
+as she spoke she walked to the edge of the bluff and looked down into the
+dark ravine interestedly.
+
+"You don't want the possum, child, you want to see it caught. The negroes
+get the little beasts; it's the bagging that's the excitement!" Andrew
+regarded her with amused interest.
+
+"I don't seem to care to see things caught," she answered. "I'm always
+sorry for them. I would let them all go if I got the chance--all caught
+things." A little crackle in the bushes at her side made her move nearer
+to him.
+
+"I believe you would--release any 'caught thing'--if you could," he said
+with a note of bitterness in his voice that she failed to detect. A cold
+wind swept across the meadow and he swung around so his broad shoulders
+screened her from its tingle. Her eyes gazed out over the valley at their
+feet.
+
+"This is the edge of the world," she said softly. "Do you remember your
+little verses about the death of the stars?" She turned and raised her
+eyes to his. "We are holding a death-watch beside them now as the moon
+comes up over the ridge there. When I read the poem I felt breathless to
+get out somewhere high up and away from things--and watch."
+
+"I was 'high up' when I wrote them," answered Andrew with a laugh. "Look
+over there on the hill--see those two old locusts? They are fern palms
+and those scrub oaks are palmettos. The white frost makes the meadow a
+lagoon and this rock is the pier of my bridge where I came out to watch
+one night to test the force of a freshet. Over there the light from Mrs.
+Matilda's fires is the construction camp and beyond that hill is my
+bungalow. That's the same old moon that's rising relentlessly to murder
+the stars again. Do you want to stay and watch the tragedy--or hunt?"
+
+Without a word Caroline sank down on the dried leaves that lay in a drift
+on the edge of the bluff. Andrew crouched close beside her to the
+windward. And the ruthless old moon that was putting the stars out of
+business by the second was not in the least abashed to find them gazing
+at her as she blustered up over the ridge, round and red with exertion.
+
+"Were you alone on that pier?" asked Caroline with the utmost naïveté, as
+she snuggled down deeper into the collar of the sweater.
+
+"I'm generally alone--in most ways," answered Andrew, the suspicion of a
+laugh covering the sadness in his tone. "I seem to see myself going
+through life alone unless something happens--quick!" The bitter note
+sounded plainly this time and cut with an ache into her consciousness.
+
+"I've been a little lonely, too--always, until just lately and now I
+don't feel that way at all;" she looked at him thoughtfully with moonlit
+eyes that were deep like sapphires. "I wonder why?"
+
+Andrew Sevier's heart stopped dead still for a second and then began to
+pound in his breast as if entrapped. For the moment his voice was utterly
+useless and he prayed helplessly for a meed of self-control that might
+aid him to gain a sane footing.
+
+Then just at that moment the old genie of the forests, who gloats through
+the seasons over myriads of wooings that are carried on in the fastnesses
+of his green woods, sounded a long, low, guttural groan that rose to a
+blood-curdling shriek, from the branches just above the head of the
+moon-mad man and girl. For an instrument he used the throat of an enraged
+old hoot-owl, perturbed by the intrusion of the noise of the distant hunt
+and the low-voiced conversation on his wonted privacy.
+
+And the experienced ancient succeeded in precipitating the crisis of the
+situation with magical promptness, for Caroline sprang to her feet,
+turned with a shudder and buried her head in Andrew's hunting coat
+somewhere near the left string for cartridge loops. She clung to him in
+abject terror.
+
+"Sweetheart!" he exclaimed, giving her a little shake, "it's only a cross
+old owl--don't be frightened," and he raised her cheek against his own
+and drew her nearer. But Caroline trembled and clung and seemed unable to
+face the situation. Andrew essayed further reassurance by turning his
+head until his lips pressed a tentative kiss against the curve of her
+chin.
+
+"He can't get you," he entreated and managed a still closer embrace.
+
+"Is he still there?" came in a muffled voice from against his neck where
+Caroline had again buried her head at a slight crackling from the dark
+branches overhead.
+
+"I think he is, bless him!" answered Andrew, and this time the kiss
+managed a landing on the warm lips under the eyes raised to his.
+
+And then ensued several breathless moments while the world reeled around
+and the vital elemental force that is sometimes cruel, sometimes kind,
+turned the wheel of their universe.
+
+"I'm not frightened any more," Caroline at last managed to say as she
+prepared to withdraw, not too decisively, from her strong-armed refuge.
+
+"He's still there," warned Andrew Sevier with a happy laugh, and Caroline
+yielded again for a second, then drew his arms aside.
+
+"Thank you--I'm not afraid any more--of anything," she said, laughing
+into his eyes, "and I really think we had better try to get back to camp
+and supper, for I don't hear the dogs any longer. We don't want to be
+lost like the 'babes in the woods' and left to die out here, do we?"
+
+"Are you sure we haven't gone and stumbled into heaven, anyway?" demanded
+Andrew.
+
+He then proceeded to roll the collar of her sweater higher about her ears
+and to pull the long sleeves down over her hands. He even bent to stretch
+the garment an inch or two nearer the tops of her boots.
+
+"Are you cold?" he demanded anxiously, for a stiff wind had risen and
+blew upon them with icy breath.
+
+"Not a single bit," she answered, submitting herself to his anxious
+ministrations with her most engaging six-going-on-seven manner. Then she
+caught one of his fumbling hands in hers and pressed it to her cheek for
+a moment.
+
+"Now," she said, "we can never be lonely any more, can we? I'm going to
+race you down the hill, across the meadow and over three fences to
+supper!" And before he could stay her she had flitted through the bushes
+and was running on before him, slim and fleet.
+
+He caught her in time to swing her over the first fence and capture an
+elusive caress. The second barrier she vaulted and eluded him entirely,
+but from the top of the last she bent and gave him his kiss as he lifted
+her down. In another moment they had joined the circle around the
+crackling fire, where they were greeted with the wildest hilarity and
+overwhelmed with food and banter.
+
+"Did you people ever hear of the man who bought a fifty-dollar coon dog,
+took him out to hunt the first night, almost cried because he thought he
+had lost him down a sink hole, hunted all night for him, came home in the
+daylight and found pup asleep under the kitchen stove?" demanded David as
+he filled two long glasses with a simmering decoction, from which arose
+the aroma of baked apples, spices, and some of the major's eighty-six
+corn heart. "Caroline is my point to my little story. Have you two been
+sitting in Mrs. Matilda's car or mine, or did you roost for a time on the
+fence over there in the dark?"
+
+"Please, David, please hush and give me a bird and a biscuit--I'm
+hungry," answered Caroline as she sank on a cushion beside Mrs. Buchanan.
+
+"According to the ink slingers of all times you ought not to be; but Andy
+has already got outside of two sandwiches, so I suppose you are due one
+small bird. That cake is grand, beautiful. I've put it away to eat all by
+myself to-morrow. Andrew Sevier doesn't need any. He wouldn't know cake
+from corn-pone--he's moonstruck."
+
+Just at this point a well-aimed pine-cone glanced off David's collar and
+he settled down to the business in hand, which was the disposal of a
+bursting and perfectly hot potato, handed fresh from the coals by the
+attentive Jeff.
+
+And it was more than an hour later that the tired hunters wended their
+way back to the city. Polly was so sleepy that she could hardly sit her
+horse and was in a subdued and utterly fascinating mood, with which she
+did an irreparable amount of damage to the stranger within her gates
+as she rode along the moonlit pike, and for which she had later to make
+answer. The woman's champion dozed in the tonneau and only David had the
+spirit to sing as they whirled along.
+
+Hadn't Phoebe stirred the sugar into his cup of coffee and then in an
+absolutely absent-minded manner tasted it before she had come around the
+fire to hand it to him? It had been a standing argument between them for
+years as to a man's right to this small attention, which they both teased
+Mrs. Matilda for bestowing upon the major. It was an insignificant,
+inconsequent little ceremony in itself but it fired a train in David's
+mind, made for healing the wound in his heart and brought its
+consequences. Another reconstruction campaign began to shape its policy
+in the mind of David Kildare which had to do with the molding of the
+destiny of the high-headed young woman of his affections, rather than
+with the amelioration of conditions in his native city. So, high and
+clear he sang the call of the mocking-bird with its ecstasies and its
+minors.
+
+But late as it was, after he had landed his guests at their doors, he had
+a long talk over the phone with the clerk of his headquarters and sent a
+half-dozen telegrams before he turned into his room. When he switched on
+his lights he saw that Andrew stood by the window looking out into the
+night. His face was so drawn and white as he turned that David started
+and reached out to lay a hand on his shoulder.
+
+"Dave," he said, "I'm a blackguard and a coward--don't touch me!"
+
+"What is it, Andrew?" asked David as he laid his arm across the tense
+shoulders.
+
+"I thought I was strong and dared to stay--now I know I'm a coward and
+couldn't go. I'll have to sneak away and leave her--hurt!" His voice was
+low and toned with an unspeakable scorn of himself.
+
+"Andy," asked David, as he swung him around to face him, "was Caroline
+Darrah too much for you--and the moon?"
+
+"There's nothing to say about it, David, nothing! I have only made it
+hard for her: and killed myself for myself forever. She's a child and
+she'll forget. You'll see to her, won't you?"
+
+"What are you going to do now?" asked David sternly.
+
+"Cut and run--cowards always do," answered Andrew bitterly. "I am going
+to stay and see you through this election, for it's too late to turn the
+press matters over to any one else--and I'm going to pray to find some
+way to make it easier for her before I leave her. I'm afraid some day
+she'll find out--and not understand why I went."
+
+"Why do you go, Andrew?" asked David as he faced this friend with
+compelling eyes. "If it's pride that takes you, better give it up! It's
+deadly for you both, for she's more of a woman than you think--she'll
+suffer."
+
+"David, do you think she would have me if she knew what I put aside
+to take her--_and his millions_? Could Peters Brown's heiress ever
+have anything but contempt for me? When it comes to her she must
+understand--and not think I held it against her!"
+
+"Tell her, Andrew; let her decide! It's her right now!"
+
+"Never," answered Andrew passionately. "She is just beginning to lose
+some of her sensitiveness among us and this is the worst of all the
+things she has felt were between her and her people. It is the only thing
+he covered and hid from her. I'll _never_ tell her--I'll go--and she
+will forget!" In his voice there was the note of finality that is
+unmistakable from man to man. He turned toward his room as he finished
+speaking.
+
+"Then, boy," said David as he held him back for a second in the bend of
+his arm, a tenderness in voice and clasp, "go if you must; but we've
+three days yet. The gods can get mighty busy in that many hours if they
+pull on a woman's side--which they always do. Good night!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+LOVE'S HOME AND ANDREW SEVIER
+
+
+And the Sabbath quiet which had descended on the frost-jeweled city
+the morning after the hunt found the Buchanan household still deep in
+close-shuttered sleep. Their fatigue demanded and was having its way in
+the processes of recuperation and they all slept on serenely.
+
+Only Caroline Darrah was astir with the first deep notes of the early
+morning bells. Her awaking had come with a rush of pure, bubbling,
+unalloyed joy which turned her cheeks the hue of the rose, starred her
+eyes and melted her lips into heavenly curves. In her exquisite innocence
+it never dawned upon her that the moments spent in Andrew's arms under
+the winter moon were any but those of rapturous betrothal and her love
+had flowered in confident happiness. It was well that she caught across
+the distance no hint of the battle that was being waged in the heart of
+Andrew Sevier, for the man in him fought (for her) with what he deemed
+his honor, almost to the death--but not quite, for some men hold as honor
+that which is strong sinewed with self-control, red blooded with courage,
+infiltrated with pride and ruthlessly cruel.
+
+And so Caroline hummed David's little serenade to herself as she dressed
+without Annette's assistance and smiled at her own radiance reflected at
+her from her mirrors. She had just completed a most ravishing church
+toilet when she heard the major's door close softly and she knew that now
+she would find him before his logs awaiting breakfast.
+
+She blushed another tone more rosy and her eyes grew shy at the very
+thought of meeting his keen eyes that always quizzed her with such
+delight after one of her initiations into the sports or gaieties of this
+new country. But assuming her courage with her prayer-book, she softly
+descended the stairs, crossed the hall and stood beside his chair with a
+laugh of greeting.
+
+"Well," he demanded delightedly though in a guarded tone with a glance
+up as if at Mrs. Matilda's and Phoebe's closed doors, "did you catch your
+possum?"
+
+"Yes--that is--no! I didn't, but somebody did I think," she answered with
+delicious confusion in both tone and appearance.
+
+"Caroline Darrah," demanded the major, "do you mean to tell me that there
+is no certainty of anybody's having got a result from a foray of the
+magnitude of that last night? Didn't you even see a possum?"
+
+"No, I didn't; but I know they caught some--David said so," answered
+Caroline in a reassuring voice.
+
+"Caroline," again demanded the major relentlessly, having already had his
+suspicions aroused by her confusion and blushes, "where were you when
+David Kildare caught those beasts that you didn't see one?"
+
+"I was--was lost," she answered, and it surprised him that she didn't put
+one rosy finger-tip into her mouth, so very young was her further
+confusion.
+
+"Alone?" The major made his demand without mercy.
+
+"No, sir, with Mr. Sevier--why, aren't you going to have breakfast,
+Major, it is almost church time?" and Caroline rallied her domestic
+dignity to her support as she escaped toward Temple's domain.
+
+And the flush of joy that had flamed in her cheeks had lighted a glow in
+the major's weather-tanned old face and his eyes fairly snapped with
+light. Could it be that the boy had reached out for his atonement? Could
+it be--he heard the front door close as the first church bell struck a
+deep note and at that moment Jeff announced his breakfast as ready in a
+voice of the deepest exhaustion.
+
+And when Caroline emerged from the still darkened house into the crisp
+air she found Andrew Sevier standing on the front steps waiting to walk
+into church with her.
+
+Her smile of shy joy as she held out her hand to him warmed his somber
+eyes for the moment.
+
+"They are all asleep," she whispered as if even from the street there was
+danger of awakening the tired hunting party. "The major is keeping it
+quiet for them."
+
+"And you ought to be asleep, too," he answered as they started off at a
+brisk pace down the avenue.
+
+"_You_ weren't," she laughed up at him, and then dropped her eyes shyly.
+"I always go to church," she added demurely.
+
+"And I suppose I counted on your habit," he said, utterly unable to
+control the tenderness in voice or glance.
+
+"I wanted you to go with me to-day--I hoped you would though you never
+have," she answered him with a divine seriousness in her lifted eyes.
+"They are all coming to dinner and then you'll go to the office, so I
+hoped about this morning." She was utterly lovely in her gentleness
+and a strange peace fell into the troubled heart of the man at her side.
+
+And it followed him into the dim church and made the hour he sat at her
+side one of holy healing. Once as they knelt together during the service
+she slipped her gloved hand into his for an instant and from its warmth
+there flowed a strength of which he stood in dire need and from which he
+drew courage to go on for the few days remaining before his exile. Just
+to protect her, he prayed, and leave her unhurt, and he failed to see
+that the humility and blindness of a great love were leading him into the
+perpetration of a great cruelty, to the undoing of them both.
+
+Then in the long days that followed so hunted was he by his love of her
+that that one hour of peace in the Sunday morning was all he dared give
+himself with her. And in her gentle trustfulness it was not hard to make
+his excuses, for the Monday morning brought the strenuosity in
+the career of David Kildare to a state of absolute acuteness.
+
+To the candidate the three days were as ten years crowded into as many
+hours. Down at his headquarters in the _Gray Picket_ rooms he stood firm
+and met wave after wave of fluctuating excitement that surged around him
+with his head up, a ring in his laugh and an almost superhuman tact.
+
+As late as Wednesday noon there appeared before him three excited
+Anti-Saloon League matrons with plans to put committees of ladies at all
+the polls to hand out lemonade and entreaties--perhaps threats--to the
+voters as they exercised their civic function. They had planned banners
+with "Shall The Saloon Have My Boy?" in large letters thereon inscribed
+and they were morally certain that without the carrying out of their plan
+the day would be lost. It took David Kildare one hour and a quarter to
+persuade them that it would be better to have a temperance rally at the
+theater on Wednesday night at which each of the three should make most
+convincing speeches to the assembled women of the city, thereby
+furnishing arguments to their sisters with which to start the men to the
+polls next day.
+
+He promised to come and make a short opening speech and they left him
+with their plans changed but their enthusiasm augmented. David sank into
+a chair and mopped his shining brow. The major had been witness to the
+encounter from the editorial desk and Cap Cantrell was bent double with
+laughter behind a pile of papers he was searching for data for Andrew.
+
+"I'm all in, Major," said David faintly. "Just pick up the pieces in a
+basket."
+
+"David, sir," said the major, "your conduct of that onslaught was
+masterly! If the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world why not the
+hand that flips the batter-cake rock the ballot-box--cradle out of date?
+That's a little mixed but pertinent. I'm for letting them have the
+try. They're only crying because they think we don't want 'em to have
+it--maybe they'll go back to the cradle and rock all the better for being
+free citizens!"
+
+"And not a cussed one of those three old lady cats has ever shown a
+kitten!" exploded Cap from behind his pile of papers.
+
+"Anyway, the worst is over now--must be!" answered David as he began to
+read over some bulletins and telegrams. But he had troubles yet to come.
+In the next two hours he had a conference with the head of the chamber of
+commerce which heated his blood to the boiling-point and brought forth an
+ultimatum, delivered in no uncertain terms but with such perfect courtesy
+and clean-sightedness that the gentleman departed in haste to look into
+certain matters which he now suspected to have been cooked to lead him
+astray.
+
+This event had been followed by the advent of five of the old fellows who
+had obtained furloughs and ridden in from the Soldiers' Home for the
+express purpose of assuring him of their support, as the vindicator of
+their honor, wringing his hand and cheering on the fight. They retired
+with Cap into the back room and emerged shortly, beaming and refreshed.
+They had no votes to cast in the city, but what matter?
+
+On their heels, Mike O'Rourke rushed in with two budgets of false
+registrations which he had been able to ferret out by the aid of the
+drivers of his grocery wagons. He embraced David, exchanged shots with
+the major, and departed in high spirits. Then quiet came to the _Gray
+Picket_ for a time and Kildare plunged into his papers with desperation.
+
+"David," called the major after a very few minutes of peace, "here's a
+call for you on the desk. You'll recognize the number--remember, a firm
+hand, sir--a firm hand!" with which he collected his hat, coat, and the
+captain and took his departure, leaving David for the moment alone in the
+editorial rooms.
+
+He sat for a few moments before the receiver and twisted the call slip
+around one of his fingers. In a moment the affairs of state and the
+destiny of the city slipped from his shoulders and his mind took up the
+details of another problem.
+
+The contest for the judgeship was not the only one David Kildare had
+taken upon himself--the second was being waged in the secret chambers of
+two hearts, one proud, exacting and unconvinced, the other determined and
+at last thoroughly aroused. Phoebe had brought the crisis on herself and
+she was beginning to realize that the duel would be to the death or
+complete surrender.
+
+And in the preliminaries, which had been begun on the Saturday night hunt
+and carried on for the last three days, David Kildare had failed to make
+a single false move. His natural and inevitable absorption in his race
+for the judgeship had served to keep him from forcing a single issue; and
+Phoebe had had time to do a little lonely, unpursued thinking.
+
+He had been entirely too clever to arouse her pride against him by a
+suspicion of neglect in his attitude. His usual attentions were all
+offered and a new one or two contrived. He sent Eph to report to her with
+his electric every afternoon--she understood that he was unable by the
+exigencies of the case to come himself to take her to keep her
+appointments as was his custom. Her flowers were just as thoughtfully
+selected and sent with the gayest little notes, as like as possible to
+the ones that had been coming to her for years. He ordered in an
+unusually large basket of eggs from the farm and managed to find a
+complicated arrangement of rope and pulleys, the manipulation of which
+for an hour or more daily was warranted to add to or detract from the
+stature of man or woman, according to the desire of the dissatisfied
+individual. His note with the instrument was a scintillating skit and was
+answered in kind. But through it all Phoebe was undoubtedly lonely. This
+call, the second since Saturday and the second in the history of their
+joint existences, betrayed her to the now wily David more than she
+realized--perhaps!
+
+He took down the receiver and got the connection.
+
+"That you--dear?" David managed a casual voice with difficulty.
+
+"Yes, David," came in a voice that fairly radiated across the city. "I
+only wanted to ask how it goes."
+
+"Fine--with a rip! But you never can tell--about anything. I'm a
+Presbyterian and I'll die in doubt of my election. I'm learning not to
+count on--things." His voice carried a mournful note that utterly belied
+his radiant face. David was enjoying himself to almost the mortal limit!
+
+"David," there was a perceptible pause--"you--there is one thing you can
+always count on--isn't there--_me_?" The voice was very gallant but also
+slightly palpitating. David almost lost his head but hung on tight and
+came up right side.
+
+"Some," he answered, which reply, in the light of an extremely modern use
+of the word combined with the legitimate, was calculated to bring
+conclusion. Then he hurried another offering on to the wire.
+
+"How long are you going to be at home?" he asked--another dastardly
+tantalization.
+
+"I--I don't know exactly," she parried quickly. "Why?" and this from
+Phoebe who had always granted interviews like a queen gives jewels! David
+somewhere found the courage to lay a firm hand on himself. With just a
+few more blows the citadel was his! His own heart writhed and the
+uncertainty made him quake internally.
+
+"I wish I could come over, but there are two committees waiting in the
+other room for me. Do you--" a clash and buzz hummed over the wire into
+the receiver. There was a jangle and tangle and a rough man's voice cut
+in with, "Working on the wires, hang up, please," and David limply hung
+up the receiver and collapsed in solitude, for his committees had been
+evoked out of thin air.
+
+His state of mind was positively abject. His years-old tenderness welled
+up in his heart and flooded to his eyes--the dash and the pluck of her!
+He reached for his hat, then hesitated; it was election eve and in two
+hours he was due to address the congregation of griddle-cake discontents
+on how to make men vote like ladies.
+
+A call boy hurried in by way of a fortunate distraction and handed in a
+budget of papers. David spread them out before him. They were from Susie
+Carrie of the strong brush and the Civic Improvement League, containing
+Sketches and specifications for the drinking fountains already pledged,
+and a request for an early institution of legislation on the play-ground
+proposition. Such a small thing as an uncertain election failed to
+daunt the artistic fervor of Susie Carrie's fertile brain or to deter her
+from making demands, however premature, on David the sympathetic.
+
+And David Kildare dropped his head on the papers and groaned. The
+Vision of a life-work rose up and menaced him and the words "sweat of his
+brow" for the first time took on a concrete meaning. Such a good, old,
+care-free existence he was losing, and--he seized his hat and fled
+to the refreshment of bath, food and fresh raiment.
+
+And on his way home he stopped in for a word with the major, whom he
+found tired and on his way to take as much as he could of his usual nap.
+He was seated in his chair by the table and Caroline Darrah sat near him,
+listening eagerly to his story of some of the events in the day's
+campaign. She rose as David entered and held out her hand to him with a
+smile.
+
+Every time David had looked at Caroline Darrah for the few days past a
+sharp pain had cut into his heart and this afternoon she was so radiantly
+lovely with sympathy and interest that for a moment he stood looking at
+her with his eyes full of tenderness. Then he managed a bantering smile
+and backed away a step or two from her, his hands behind him.
+
+"No, you don't, beautiful," David sometimes ventured on Phoebe's name for
+the girl, "you are so sweet in that frock that I'm afraid if I touch you
+I'll stick. Somebody ought to label such a lollypop as you dangerous.
+Call her off, Major!"
+
+The major laughed at Caroline's blush and laid his fingers over her hand
+that rested on the corner of the table near him.
+
+"David," he said, "girls are confections to which it is good for a man to
+forsake all others and cling--but not to gobble. Matilda, recount to
+David Kildare your plans for the night of the election. I wish to witness
+his joy."
+
+"Oh, yes, I've been wanting to tell you about it for two days, David,
+dear," answered Mrs. Buchanan from her chair over by the window where she
+was busily engaged in checking names off a long list with a pencil. "We
+are going to have a reception at the University Club so everybody can
+come and congratulate you the night of the election. Mrs. Shelby and I
+thought it up and of course we had to speak to one of the house committee
+about the arrangements, and who do you think the member was--Billy Bob! I
+just talked on and didn't notice Mrs. Shelby and finally he was so nice
+and deferential to her that she talked some, too. She almost started to
+shake hands with him when we left. I was so glad. I feel that it is
+going to be a delightful success in every way. Please be thinking up a
+nice speech to make."
+
+"Oh, wait," groaned David Kildare, "if I begin now I will have to think
+double, one for election and one for defeat. Last night I dreamed about a
+black cat that was minus a left eye and limped in the right hind leg.
+Jeff almost cried when I told him about it. He hasn't smiled since."
+
+"I told Tempie to put less pepper in those chicken croquettes last
+night--I saw Phoebe's light burning until two o'clock and heard her and
+Caroline laughing and talking even after that. The major was so nervous
+that he was up and dressed at six o'clock. I must see that all of you get
+simpler food--your nerves will suffer. Major, suppose you don't eat
+much dinner--just have a little milk toast. I'll see Tempie about it
+now!" and Mrs. Buchanan departed after bestowing a glance, in which was a
+conviction of dyspepsia, upon all three of them.
+
+"Now, David Kildare, see what you've done with your black-cat crawlings!
+I'll have to eat that toast--see if I don't! I've consumed it with a
+smile during stated periods for thirty years. Yes, girl-love is a kind
+of cup-custard, but wife-love is bread and butter--milk toast, for
+instance--bless her! But I am hungry!" The major's expression was a
+tragedy.
+
+"I'm going to try and beg you off, Major, dear," said Caroline Darrah,
+and she hurried after Mrs. Matilda into Tempie's domain.
+
+"Major," said David as he gazed after the girl, "when I look at her I
+feel cold all over, then hot-mad! He's going to-morrow night on the
+midnight train--and she doesn't know! I can't even talk to him
+about it--he looks like a dead man and works like a demon. I don't know
+what to do!"
+
+"David," said the major slowly as he pressed the tips of his long lean
+fingers together and regarded them intently, "how love, tender wise love,
+love that is fed on heart's blood and lives by soul-breath, can go deaf,
+blind, dumb, halt, broken-winged, idiotic and mortally cruel is more than
+I can see. God Almighty comfort him when he finds what he has done!"
+
+"And if she does find it out she won't understand," exclaimed David.
+
+"No," answered the major, "she doesn't even suspect anything. She thinks
+it is the press of his work that keeps him away from her. The child
+carries about with her that aura of transport that only an acknowledgment
+from a lover can give a woman. I had hoped that he had seen some way--I
+couldn't ask! I wonder--"
+
+"Yes, Major," interrupted David quickly, and he winced as he spoke, "it
+happened on the hunt Saturday evening. They climbed the bluff and watched
+the hunt from a distance and I saw how it was the minute they came back
+to the campfire. I saw it and I was just jolly happy over it even to the
+tune of Phoebe's sulks--I thought it was all right, and I wish you could
+have seen him. His head was up and his eyes danced and he gave up almost
+the first real laugh I ever heard from him, when I teased her about
+getting lost. As I looked at him I thought about the other, your glad
+Andrew, Major, and I was happy all in a shot for you, because I thought
+you were going to get back something of what you'd lost. It all seemed
+so good!"
+
+"There's been joy in the boy's eyes, joy and sorrow waging a war for
+weeks, David, and I've had to sit by and watch, powerless to help him.
+Yes, his very father himself has looked out of his eyes at me for moments
+and I--well I had hoped. Are you sure he is going?" As the major asked
+the question his brows knotted themselves together as if to hide the pain
+in his eyes.
+
+"Yes, he's going and he catches the next tramp steamer for Panama from
+Savannah. I wish she would suspect something and force it from him. It's
+strange she doesn't," answered David despondently.
+
+"Caroline Darrah belongs to the order of humble women whose love feeds on
+a glance and can be sustained on a crumb--another class demands a banquet
+full spread and always ready. You'll be careful, boy, don't--don't diet
+Phoebe too long!" The major eyed David anxiously across the light.
+
+"Heavens, I'm your reconcentrado! Major, I feel as if I'd been shut up
+down cellar in the cold without the breath of life for a year. It's only
+three days and thirteen hours and a half; but I'm all in. I go dead
+without her--believe I'll telephone her now!" And David reached for
+the receiver that stood on the major's table.
+
+"Now, David," said the major, restraining his eager hand and smiling
+through his sadness, "don't try to gather your grapes over the phone! I
+judge they are ripe, but they still hang high--they always will! Look at
+the clock!"
+
+David took one look at the staid old mahogany timepiece, which the major
+had had brought in from Seven Oaks and placed in the corner opposite his
+table, and took his departure.
+
+And after he had gone the major retired to his room to lie down for as
+much of his allotted rest as he could obtain. Seeing him safely settled,
+Mrs. Buchanan went over for a short visit with Mrs. Shelby next door.
+Mrs. Matilda stuck to the irate grandmother through thick and thin and in
+her affectionate heart she had hopes of bringing about the much to be
+desired reconciliation. She was the only person in the city who dared
+mention Milly or the babies to the old lady and even in her
+unsophistication she suspected that the details she supplied with
+determined intrepidity fed a hunger in the lonely old heart. Her
+pilgrimage next door was a daily one and never neglected.
+
+Thus left alone Caroline Darrah was partaking of a solitary cup of tea,
+which was being served her by Tempie in all the gorgeousness of a new
+white lace-trimmed and beruffled apron which Caroline had made for her
+as near as possible like the dainty garments affected by the French
+shop-clad Annette, who was Temple's special ally and admirer, when Mrs.
+Cherry Lawrence, in full regalia, descended upon her. Tempie walled her
+black eyes and departed with dignity for an extra cup.
+
+The major was fast asleep, David Kildare in the processes of bath and
+toilet, Phoebe at her desk down-town and Mrs. Matilda away on her
+mission, and thus it happened that nobody was near to fend the blight
+from the flower of their anxious cherishing.
+
+"Yes, indeed, it is a time of anxiety," Mrs. Cherry agreed with Caroline
+as she crushed the lemon in her tea. "I shall be glad when it is over. I
+feel that we all are making the utmost sacrifices for this election
+of David Kildare's, and he's such a boy that he probably will make a
+perfectly impossible judge. He never takes anything seriously enough to
+accomplish much. It's well for him that no one expects anything from
+him."
+
+"Oh, but I'm sure he's taking this seriously," exclaimed Caroline Darrah
+with a little gleam of dismay in her eyes. "His race has been an
+exceptional one whether he wins or not. The major says so and the
+other day Mr. Sevier told me--" At the mention of Andrew Sevier's name
+Mrs. Cherry glanced around and an ugly little gleam came into her eyes.
+
+"Oh, of course Andrew Sevier is too loyal to admit any criticism of David
+to a _stranger_," she said with a slight emphasis on the word and a cold
+glance at Caroline Darrah.
+
+"But he wasn't talking to a stranger, he was talking just to me," said
+Caroline quickly, not even seeing the dart aimed.
+
+"You are so sweet, dear!" purred Mrs. Cherry. "Under the circumstances it
+is so gracious of you not to feel yourself a stranger with us all and
+especially with Andrew Sevier. Of course it would have been impossible
+for him always to have avoided you and it was just like his generosity--"
+
+"Miss Ca'line, honey," came in a decided voice from the doorway, "that
+custard you is a-making for the major's supper is actin' curisome around
+the aiges. Please, ma'am, come and see ter it a minute!"
+
+"Oh, excuse me just a second," exclaimed Caroline Darrah to Mrs. Cherry
+as she rose with alarm in her housewifely heart and hurried past Tempie
+down the hall.
+
+An instinct engendered by her love for Caroline Darrah had led Tempie to
+notice and resent something in Mrs. Lawrence's manner to the child on
+several previous occasions and to-day she had felt no scruples about
+remaining behind the curtains well within ear-shot of the conversations.
+Her knowledge of, and participation in, the Buchanan family affairs, past
+and present and future, was an inheritance of several generations and she
+never hesitated to assert her privileges.
+
+"Lady," she said in a cool soft voice as she squared herself in the
+doorway and looked Mrs. Lawrence directly in the face, "you is a rich
+white woman and I's a poor nigger, but ef you had er secceeded in
+a-putting that thare devil's tale into my young mistess's head they would
+er been that 'twixt you and me that we never would er forgot; and there
+wouldn't a-been more'n a rag left of that dead-husband-bought frock what
+you've got on. Now 'fore I fergits myself I axes you out the front
+door--and I'm a-fergittin' fast."
+
+And as she faced the domineering woman in her trappings of fashion all
+the humble blood in the negro's veins, which had come down to her from
+the forewomen who had cradled on their black breasts the mothers of such
+as Caroline Darrah, was turned into the jungle passion for defense of
+this slight white thing that was the child of her heart if not of her
+body. The danger of it made Mrs. Lawrence fairly quail, and, white with
+fright, she gathered her rich furs about her and fled just as Caroline
+Darrah's returning footsteps were heard in the hall.
+
+"Why, where did Mrs. Lawrence go, Tempie?" she demanded in astonishment.
+Tempie had just the moment in which to rally herself but she had
+accomplished the feat, though her eyes still rolled ominously.
+
+"She 'membered something what she forgot and had ter hurry. She lef'
+scuses fer you," and Tempie busied herself with the cups and tray.
+
+"She was beginning to say something queer to me, Tempie, when you came
+in. It was about Mr. Sevier and I didn't understand. I almost felt that
+she was being disagreeable to me and it frightened me--about him. I--"
+
+"Law, I spects you is mistook, chile, an' if it war anything she jest
+wants him herself and was a-laying out ter tell you some enflirtment she
+had been a-trying ter have with him. Don't pay no 'tention to it." By
+this time she had regained her composure and was able to reassure
+Caroline with her usual positiveness to which she added an amount of
+worldly tact in substituting a highly disturbing thought in place of the
+dangerous one.
+
+"Do you really think she can be in love with--with him, Tempie?" demanded
+Caroline Darrah, wide-eyed with astonishment. She was entirely diverted
+from any desire to follow out or weigh Mrs. Lawrence's remark to her by
+the wiliness of the experienced Tempie.
+
+"They ain't no telling what widder women out fer number twos _will_ do,"
+answered Tempie sagely. "Now, you run and let Miss Annette put that blue
+frock on you 'fore dinner. In times of disturbance like these here women
+oughter fix theyselves up so as ter 'tice the men ter eat a little at
+meal times. Ain't I done put on this white apron ter try and git that no
+'count Jefferson jest ter take notice a little uv his vittals. Now go on,
+honey--it's late."
+
+And thus the love of the old negro had taken away the only chance given
+Caroline Darrah to learn the facts of the grim story, from the knowledge
+of which she might have worked out salvation for her lover and herself.
+
+An hour later as they were being served the soup by the absorbed and
+inattentive Jeff, Mrs. Matilda laid down her spoon and said to Caroline
+anxiously:
+
+"I wish Phoebe had come out to-night. I asked her but she said she was
+too busy. She looked tired. Do you suppose she could be ill?"
+
+"Yes," answered the major dryly, "I feel sure that Phoebe is ill. She is
+at present, I should judge, suffering with a malady which she has had for
+some time but which is about to reach the acute stage. It needs judicious
+ignoring so let's not mention it to her for the present."
+
+"I understand what you mean, Major," answered his wife with delighted
+eyes, "and I won't say a word about it. It will be such a help to David
+to have a wife when he is the judge. How long will it be before he can be
+the governor, dear?"
+
+"That depends on the wife, Mrs. Buchanan, to a large extent," answered
+the major with a delighted smile.
+
+"Oh, Phoebe will want him to do things," said Mrs. Matilda positively.
+
+"No doubt of that," the major replied. "I see David Kildare slated for
+the full life from now on--eh, Caroline?"
+
+And the major had judged Phoebe's situation perhaps more rightly than he
+realized, for while David led the vote-directors' rally at the theater
+and later was closeted with Andrew for hours over the last editorial
+appeal in the morning _Journal_, Phoebe sat before her desk in her own
+little down-town home. Mammy Kitty was snoring away like a peaceful
+watch-dog on her cot in the dressing-room and the whole apartment was
+dark save for the shaded desk-light.
+
+The time and place were fitting and Phoebe was summoning her visions--and
+facing her realities. Down the years came sauntering the nonchalant
+figure of David Kildare. He had asked her to marry him that awful,
+lonely, sixteenth birthday and he had asked her the same thing every
+year of all the succeeding ten--and a number of times in between. Phoebe
+squared herself to her reviewing self and admitted that she had cared for
+him then and ever since--_cared_ for him, but had starved his tenderness
+and in the lover had left unsought the man. But she was clear-sighted
+enough to know that the handsome easy-going boy, who had wooed with a
+smile and taken rebuff with a laugh, was not the steady-eyed forceful man
+who now faced her. He stood at the door of a life that stretched away
+into long vistas, and now he would demand. Phoebe bowed her head on her
+hands--suppose he should not demand!
+
+And so in the watches of the night the siege was raised and Phoebe, the
+dauntless, brilliant, arrogant Phoebe had capitulated. No love-lorn woman
+of the ages ever palpitated more thoroughly at the thought of her lover
+than did she as she kept vigil with David across the city.
+
+But there were articles of capitulation yet to be signed and the ceremony
+of surrender to come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+ACROSS THE MANY WATERS
+
+
+And the day of the election arrived next morning and brought cold clouds
+shot through with occasional gleams of pale sunshine, only to be followed
+by light but threatening flurries of snow.
+
+All through the Sunday night David had sat over in the editorial rooms of
+the _Journal_ beside Andrew Sevier, talking, writing and sometimes silent
+with unexpressed sympathy, for as the last sheets of his editorial work
+slipped through his fingers Andrew grew white and austere. Once for a
+half-hour they talked about his business affairs and he turned over a
+bundle of papers to David and discussed the investment of the money that
+had come from his heavy royalties for the play now running, and the
+thousands paid in advance for the new drama.
+
+As David ran carefully through them to see that they were in order for
+him to handle, Andrew turned to his desk and wrote rapidly for some
+minutes, then sealed a letter and laid it aside. After he had read the
+last batch of proof from the composing-room he turned to David and
+with a quiet look handed him the letter which was directed to Caroline
+Darrah.
+
+"If she ever finds out give her this letter, please. It will make her
+understand why I go, I hope. I can't talk to you about it but I want
+to ask you, man to man, to look after her. Dave, I leave her to your
+care--and Phoebe's." And his rich voice was composed into an utter
+sadness.
+
+"The work here and the night are both over, let's go down to
+headquarters," he added, and like two boys, with hands tight gripped,
+they passed out into the winter street.
+
+Down at the _Gray Picket_ they found some of David's ardent supporters
+still fresh and enthusiastic though they had been making a night of it.
+Soon waves of excitement were rising and falling all over the city and
+the streets were thronged with men from out through the county.
+
+At an early hour heavy wagons moved with the measured tread of blind
+tigers and deposited blind tiger kittens, done up in innocent and
+deceptive looking crates, at numbers of discreet alley covers near
+the polls. At the machine headquarters rotund and blooming gentlemen
+grouped and dissolved and grouped again, during which process wads of
+greenbacks unrolled and flashed with insolent carelessness. The situation
+was and had been desperate and this last stand must be brought through
+for the whisky interest, come high as it would.
+
+And so through the morning, delegations kept dropping in to David's
+headquarters to keep up the spirits of the candidate and incidentally to
+have their own raised. There were ugly rumors coming from the polls. The
+police were machine instruments and the back door of every saloon in the
+city was wide open, while a repeating vote was plainly indicated by
+crowds of floaters who drifted from ward to ward. The faces of the bosses
+were discreetly radiant.
+
+"Lord, David," groaned Cap Cantrell, "they're turning loose kegs of
+boodle and barrels of booze--we'll never beat 'em in the world! They've
+got this city tied up and thrown to the dogs! What's the use of--"
+
+"David," exclaimed the major excitedly, "we're in for a rally, and look
+at them!"
+
+Down the street they came, the news kiddies, a hundred strong, led by
+Phoebe's freckle-faced red-headed devil whose mouth stretched from ear to
+ear with a grin. They carried huge poster banners and their inscriptions
+were in a language of their own, emblazoned in ink-pot script.
+
+"I LOVE MY DAVE--BUT JUMP!" meant much to them but failed to elucidate
+the fact that they were referring to the gift of a flatboat, canvased for
+a swimming booth which David had had moored at the foot of the bridge
+during the dog days of the previous summer so that they might have a
+joyous dip in the river between editions. He had gone down himself
+occasionally for a frolic with them and "Jump!" had been the signal
+for the push-off of any timid diver.
+
+He shouted with glee when he read the skit--he was taking his high dive
+in life.
+
+"RUN, DAVE, RUN--TIGER'S LOOSE--NIT!" was another witticism and a crooked
+pole bore aloft these words, "JUDGE DAVID KILDARE SOAKS OLD BOOZE THE
+FIRST ROUND!"
+
+They lined up in front of the headquarters and gave a shrill cheer that
+made up in enthusiasm for what it lacked in volume. They took a few words
+of banter from the candidate in lieu of a speech and paraded off around
+the city, spending much time in front of the camp of the opposition and
+indulging in as much of derisive vituperation as they dared.
+
+They were followed by another picturesque visitation. A dignified old
+colored man brought twenty pathetic little pickaninnies from the orphans'
+home, to which, the men at headquarters learned for the first time, David
+Kildare had given the modest building that sheltered the waifs.
+Decidedly, murder will out, and there come times when the left and right
+hands of a man are forced into confession to each other about their most
+secret actions. A political campaign is apt to bring such a situation
+into the lives of the aspiring candidates. The little coons set up a
+musical wail that passed for a cheer and marched away munching the
+contents of a huge box of candy that Polly had sent down to headquarters
+the night before, such being her idea of a flagon with which to stay the
+courage of the contestants.
+
+And through it all, the consultation of the leaders, the falling hopes of
+the poll scouts, the gradual depression that crept over the spirits of
+the major and Cap and the rest of his near supports, David was a solid
+tower of strength.
+
+Then during the day the tension became tight and tighter, for how the
+fight was going exactly no one could tell and it seemed well-nigh
+impossible to stop the vote steal that was going on all over the city,
+protected by the organized government. Defeat seemed inevitable.
+
+So at six o'clock the disgusted Cap picked up his hat and started home
+and to the astonishment of the whole headquarters David Kildare calmly
+rose and followed him without a word to the others, who failed to realize
+that he had deserted until he was entirely gone. Billy Bob looked dashed
+with amazement, Hobson sat down limply in the deserted chair, Tom
+whistled--but the major looked at them with a quizzical smile which was
+for a second reflected in Andrew Sevier's face.
+
+Phoebe sat in Milly's little nursery in the failing winter light which
+was augmented by the glow from the fire of coals.
+
+Little Billy Bob stood at her side within the circle of her arm, his head
+against her shoulder and his eyes wide with a delicious horror as he
+gazed upon a calico book whose pages were brilliant with the tragedy
+of the three bears, which she was reading very slowly and with many
+explanatory annotations. Crimie balanced himself against her knee and
+beat with a spoon against the back of the book and whooped up the
+situation in every bubbly way possible to his lack of classified
+vocabulary. Milly and Mammy Betty were absorbed in the domestic regions
+so Phoebe had them all to herself--all four, for the twins lay cuddled
+asleep in their crib near by.
+
+And though Phoebe had herself well in hand, her mind would wander
+occasionally from the history of the bruins to which Mistake patiently
+recalled her by a clamor for, "More, Phoebe, more."
+
+In a hurried response to one of his goads she failed to hear a step in
+the hall for which she had been telling herself that she had not been
+listening for two hours or more, and David Kildare stood in the doorway,
+the firelight full on his face.
+
+It was not a triumphant David with his judiciary honors full upon him and
+gubernational, senatorial, ambassadorial and presidential astral shapes
+manifesting themselves in dim perspective; it was just old whimsical
+David, tender of smile and loving though bantering of eye, albeit a
+somewhat pale and exhausted edition.
+
+"Phoebe," he said with a low laugh, "nobody wants Dave--for anything!"
+
+And it was then that the fire that had been lighted in the heart of
+Phoebe in her night watch blazed up into her face as she held out her
+arms to him! And in the twinkle of a fire-spark David found himself on
+his knees, with Phoebe, the low chintz-covered chair and the two kiddies
+clasped to his heart.
+
+For a glorious moment he held them all close and his head rested on
+Phoebe's shoulder just opposite that of Mistake, while Crimie squirmed
+between them. Then he discovered that he was gazing under her chin into
+the wide-open, slightly resentful orbs of Big Brother, who eyed him a
+moment askance, then, feeling it time to assert himself, reached up and
+landed a plainly proprietary and challenging kiss against the corner of
+his lady's mouth.
+
+David laughed delightedly and embraced the trio with greater force as he
+said propitiatingly, "Good snugglings, isn't it, old man?"
+
+But at this exact moment Crimie took the situation into his own hands,
+slipped his cable, grabbed the book as he went and rolled over a couple
+of yards with a delighted giggle. Billy Bob, seeing his treasure
+captured, instantly followed and there forthwith ensued a tussle that was
+the height of delight to the two good-natured youngsters.
+
+And Phoebe's arms closed around David more closely as she held him
+embraced against her shoulder, her soft cheek on his.
+
+"Dave," she whispered, "you know I really don't care at all, don't you?"
+
+"What?" demanded David with alarm in his voice as he raised his head and
+looked at her in consternation.
+
+"The election makes no--"
+
+"Oh, _that_--I'd forgotten all about it! Don't scare me like that any
+more, peach-bud, please," he besought and he took her chin in the hollow
+of his hand as she leant to him, her eyes looking into his, level and
+confident but glorious with bestowal. For a long minute he gazed straight
+into their dawn-gray depths then he said gently, the caress suspended:
+
+"Woman, if you are ever going to take any of this back, do it now!"
+
+"Never," she answered and clasped her hands against his breast.
+
+"It's still the loafer out of a job--just Dave-do-nothing," he insisted,
+a new dignity in his voice that stirred her pride.
+
+"Please!" she closed her eyes as she entreated.
+
+"It's for a long time--_always_." His voice was heaven-sweet with its
+note of warning and he laid his other strong warm hand on her throat
+where a controlled sob made it pulse.
+
+"I'm being very patient," she whispered and her lips quivered with a
+smile as two tears jeweled her black lashes.
+
+But David had made his last stand--he folded her in, locked his heart and
+threw away the key.
+
+"Love," he whispered after a long time, "I know this is just a
+dream--I've had 'em for ten years--but don't let anybody wake me!"
+
+To which plea Phoebe was making the tenderest of responses, when the door
+burst open and Billy Bob shot into the room.
+
+"Hip! hip!" he yelled at the top of his voice, "six hundred and ten
+plurality and all from the two coon wards--count all in and verified--no
+difference now how the others go and--" He paused and the situation
+dawned upon him all in a heap as Phoebe hid her head against David's
+collar. "Davie," he remarked in subdued tones, "you're 'lected, but I
+don't s'pose you care!"
+
+"Go away, Billy Bob, don't you see I'm busy?" answered David as he rose
+to his feet, keeping Phoebe still embraced as she stood beside him.
+
+"Jerusalem the Golden! Have you cornered heaven, David?" gasped Billy Bob
+again rising to the surface. "Help, somebody, help!" At which exact
+minute Mistake succeeded in dispossessing Crimie of the last tatters of
+the adventures of the bears and thus bringing down upon them all a tumult
+of distraction.
+
+Billy Bob caught up the roarer and threw him almost up to the ceiling.
+"Hurrah for Dave!" he said, and to the best of his ability Crimie
+"hurrahed" while Mistake joined in enthusiastically. The hubbub at last
+penetrated the slumbers of the twins, who added to the uproar to such an
+extent that Mammy Betty hurried to the scene of action and cleared the
+deck without further delay.
+
+"And," continued Billy Bob to Milly and the pair of serene and only
+slightly attentive young people, "you should have seen Jeff, dressed in
+Dave's last year frock coat and high hat, whizzing around the coon haunts
+in Caroline's gray car handing out invitations to the Chocolate Country
+Club jamboree! They put the bottle and the dimes completely out of
+business and he voted the whole gang straight. They tried hard to fix up
+the returns but Hob and I were at the count and we saw it clean. Holy
+smoke, what a sell for the machine! Slipped a cog on the nigger vote that
+they have handled for years!"
+
+"And not a dollar spent!" said David with pride. Which goes to show that
+at times women keep their own counsels, for Phoebe ducked her head to
+hide a smile.
+
+"And now it's up to you to hurry and get to the University Club by
+eight-thirty. You are to address the populace and two brass bands from
+the northeast window at nine sharp--two extras out announcing it.
+Everybody has been looking for you an hour, you old moon-spooner, you!"
+urged Billy Bob.
+
+"They can keep up the hunt--Phoebe and I are going--well, we are going
+where nobody can find us for this evening anyway," answered David with
+danger in his eyes.
+
+"No!" said Phoebe as she slipped her hand into his, "I've had you as long
+as is fair as it is. Won't you go and see them all? If you will I will
+dress in a hurry and you can come by for me. Please!"
+
+"Don't pull back on the leash, David," remarked Billy Bob. "It's just
+beginning. Trot to heel and be happy." He laid his arm round Milly's
+waist as he spoke and gave her a little squeeze.
+
+And it was into the midst of a glorious round-up of a whole joyous
+convention of friends that David Kildare stepped several hours later, a
+resplendent and magnificent David with Phoebe glowing beside him. And,
+too, it was not only his own high particulars that surged around him,
+for Phoebe had fixed it with the board of governors and made out a very
+careful list of every campaign friend he had made and had all the girls
+at the phones for hours inviting each and every one. If at any time in
+his political career David Kildare should lack the far vision Phoebe was
+fully capable of taking a long sight for him.
+
+So Mike O'Rourke was there, stuffed carefully into a rented dress suit
+and was being attentioned to the point of combustion by Polly, who was
+thus putting off a reckoning with young New England, promised for "after
+the election." Freckles, the devil, was having the lark of his life in
+removing hats and coats under the direction of an extremely dignified
+club official.
+
+There were men from the down-town district in plain business clothes who
+stood in excited groups discussing the issues of the day. The head of the
+cotton mills, who had voted every employee perfectly in line without
+coercion, was expatiating largely to four old fellows in gray, for whom
+Cap had succeeded in obtaining furloughs from the commandant out at the
+Home and was keeping over night as his guests. They also were having the
+lark of their young lives and were being overwhelmed by attentions from
+all the Confederate Dames present.
+
+Susie Carrie was wonderful in some dangerously contrived Greek draperies,
+and over by the window held court on the subject of a city beautiful
+under a council of artistic city fathers. She announced the beginning of
+sittings for a full life-sized portrait of Judge Kildare for the city
+hall, at which Billy Bob raised such a cheer as almost to drown out the
+orchestra.
+
+Mrs. Buchanan received everybody with the most beaming delight and Mrs.
+Shelby was so excited that she asked Billy Bob about the children, which
+concession brought the stars to Milly's gentle eyes.
+
+Mrs. Cherry, as usual, was in full and resplendent regalia with Tom in
+attendance, displaying a satisfied and masterful manner that told its own
+tale. Her amazing encounter with Tempie had remained a secret between her
+and the discreet old negro and her manner to Caroline Darrah was so
+impressively cordial that Phoebe actually unbent to the extent of an
+exchange of congratulations that had a semblance of friendliness. The
+widow's net having hauled up Tom, hopes for untroubled waters again could
+be indulged.
+
+In the midst of all the hilarity the delegations and the bands began to
+arrive outside. The cheering rose to a roar and from the brilliantly
+lighted ballroom David Kildare stepped out on the balcony and stood
+forty-five minutes laughing and bowing, not managing to get in more than
+a few words of what might have been a great speech if his constituency
+had not been entirely too excited to listen to it.
+
+It was almost midnight when they all marched away to _Dixie_ played to
+rag-time measure and sung by five hundred strong. With a sigh of relief
+David held out his arms to Phoebe and started to swing her into the whirl
+of the dancers. As his arms fell about her Phoebe pressed close to him
+with a quick breath and his eyes followed hers across the room.
+
+Under the lights that hung above the entrance to the fern room stood
+Caroline Darrah like a flower blown against the deep green of the tall
+palms behind her, and her eyes were lifted to Andrew's face which smiled
+down at her with suppressed tragedy. For an instant she laid her hand
+on his arm and they were about to catch step with the music when suddenly
+she swung around into the green tangle beyond her and reached out her
+hand to draw him after her.
+
+"Pray, David, pray," said Phoebe as they glided over the polished floor.
+
+"I am," David whispered back as his arms tightened. "I can't think of
+anything but 'Now I lay me'--but won't it help?"
+
+In the wide window at the end of the long room Caroline turned and waited
+for Andrew. The lights from the city beat up into her face and she was
+pale, while her jewel eyes shone black under their long lashes. Her white
+gloved hands wrung themselves against his breast as she held him from
+her.
+
+"Out there while we danced," she whispered, "I don't know what, but
+something told me that you are going to leave me and not tell me why. You
+were saying good-by to my heart--with yours. Tell me, what is it?"
+
+And with full knowledge of the strange, subtle, superconscious thing that
+had been between them from the first and which had manifested itself in
+devious mystic ways, Andrew Sevier had dared to think he could hold her
+in his arms in an atmosphere charged with the call of a half-barbarous
+music and take farewell of her--she all unknowing of what threatened!
+
+"What is it?" she demanded again and her hands separated to clasp his
+shoulder convulsively. Her words were a flutter between her teeth.
+
+Then the God of Women struck light across his blindness, and taking her
+in his arms, he looked her straight in the eyes and told her the whole
+gruesome bitter tale. Before he had finished she closed her eyes against
+his and swayed away from him to the cold window-pane.
+
+"I see," she whispered, "you don't want me--you
+couldn't--_you_--_never_--_did_!"
+
+And at that instant the blood bond in Andrew Sevier's breast snapped and
+with an awed comprehension of the vast and everlasting Source from which
+flows the love that constrains and the love that heals, the love that
+only comes to bind in honor, he reached out and took his own. In the
+seventh heaven which is the soul haunt of all in like case, there was no
+need of word mating.
+
+Hours later, one by one the lights in the houses along the avenue
+twinkled out and the street lay in the grasp of the after midnight
+silence. Only a bright light still burned at the major's table, which was
+piled high with books into which he was delving with the hunger of many
+long hours of deprivation strong upon him. He had scouted the idea of the
+ball, had donned dressing-gown and slippers and gone back to the company
+of his Immortals with alacrity. On their return Mrs. Buchanan and the
+girls had found him buried in his tomes ten deep and it was with
+difficulty that Phoebe, kneeling beside him on one side, and Caroline on
+the other, made him listen to their joint tale of modern romance, to
+which Mrs. Matilda played the part of a joyous commentator.
+
+To Phoebe he was merciless and a war of wits made the library echo with
+its give and take.
+
+"Of course, my dear Phoebe," he said, "it is an established fact that a
+man and his wife are one, and if you will just let that one be Judge
+Kildare semi-occasionally it will more than content him, I'm sure."
+
+"Why, Major, can't you trust me to be a good--wife to David? Don't be
+unkind to me! I'll promise to--to--"
+
+"Don't, Phoebe, don't! That 'love, honor and obey' clause is the direct
+cause of all the woman legislation ever undertaken--and it holds a
+remarkably short time after marriage as a general thing. Now there's
+Matilda--for over thirty-five years I've--But where is Andrew?" he
+demanded anxiously.
+
+"Andy," answered David with the greatest delight in his happy eyes and
+the red lock rampant over his brow, "is sitting on the end of a hard
+bench down at the telegraph office trying to get a cable through to his
+chief for permission to wait over for a steamer that sails for Panama
+two weeks from to-day."
+
+"What?" demanded the major in surprise, looking at Caroline.
+
+"Oh, _she's_ going with him--there are no frills to the affection of
+Caroline Darrah! She'll be bending over his camp-fire yanking out his hot
+tamales in less than a month--glad to do it. Won't you, beautiful?"
+answered David gleefully to Caroline's beautiful confusion.
+
+"David Kildare," observed the major with the utmost solemnity, "when a
+man and woman embark with love at the rudder it is well the Almighty
+controls the wind and the tides."
+
+"I know, Major, I know and I'm scared some, only I'm counting on Phoebe's
+chart and the stars. I'm just the jolly paddler," answered David with a
+laugh across at Phoebe.
+
+"Well," remarked the major judicially, "I think she will be able to
+accomplish the course if undisturbed. It will behoove you, however, to
+remember that husband love is a steady combustion, not a conflagration."
+
+"What do you call a love that has burned constantly for between ten and
+fifteen years, Major?" asked David as he smiled into the keen old eyes
+that held his.
+
+"That," answered the major, "is a fire fit to light an altar, sir."
+
+"And in my heart, ah, Major, can you trust me--to keep--it burning?" said
+Phoebe, thus making her avowal before them all with gallant voice and
+eyes of the dawn.
+
+Moments later after Phoebe and Mrs. Buchanan had retired down the hall,
+and up the stairway, Caroline Darrah still knelt by the major's chair.
+They were both silent and the major held her hand in his. They neither of
+them heard the latch key and in a moment Andrew Sevier stood across the
+firelight from them.
+
+"I wanted to hear it, Major," he entreated as he laid his hand on
+Caroline's shoulder when she came to his side and held out his other to
+the major. "Say it, if you will, sir!"
+
+"The Almighty bless you, boy, and make His sun to shine upon you. He
+is doing it in giving you Caroline to wife. Some women He holds as
+hostages until the greater men in us can rise to claim them and to-night
+His eyes have seen your fulfilment." The major looked straight into the
+pain-ravaged but radiant face before him and his keen old eyes glowed
+through the mist that spread across them.
+
+"Child," he said after a moment's silence as he laid his hand on
+Caroline's other shoulder, "across the many waters that can not drown
+love you have brought back to my old age young Andrew the Glad."
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Andrew the Glad, by Maria Thompson Daviess
+
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